THE CHANGE IN PRONUNCIATION.
[To THE EDITOR or THE " STECTATOR.".1 SIR,—Allow me to supplement "W. H. B.'s " letter on "The Change in Pronunciation," in the Spectator of February 11th. In 1851, being in the company of the late Mr. Maltby, who succeeded Person as Librarian of the London Institution, I vas told by that gentleman, then in his eighty-eighth year, that in his young days London was pronounced " Lunnon " even by such men as C. J. Fox and Richard Cumberland, and that our present pronunciation of it would then have been regarded as the affectation of a boarding-school miss. Also, that " balcony " retained its Italian accent, and that the " x " in " Bordeaux " was sounded, with the same disregard to its native pronunciation as that with which we now treat " Paris " and "Calais."
I am inclined to believe that the word " oblige " was pro- nounced "obleege " till the end of last century, for many old ladies, in my youth, in the place of "thank you," or of the still more modern "thanks," would say "much obleeged "
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