THE CHANGE IN PRONUNCIATION.
ITO THE EDITOR OF THE 44 SPECTATOIL."] 5111,—In the criticism in the Spectator of January 28th last, on Mr. Drury's "reprint of Waller's poems," it is remarked that one of the couplets, which makes " obey " rhyme with "sea," shows a change in our pronunciation as clearly as a couplet of Pope's, which shows " obey " rhyming with "tea," May I ask if, similarly, "last," where made (as in lines quoted further down the page) to rhyme with "haste," does not show the same change P And also "lost," where made to rhyme with boast" (still further down the page) And may we not specify the "change" as being that of the "name-sound" of the vowels of our English alphabet into something much more like the sounds of the vowels of the Continental alpha- bets ? Do not the Cockney cocher's 44 keb " (cab) ; the Yankee's " hez " (has) ; and the Irishman's " heft " (half), for example, also serve to show how matters were, in this respect, before the " change " occurred, and are they not, in this respect, as valuable as the lines of the poets quoted P—I am, Sir, &e,, W. R. B.
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