SIR,-1 have waited in vain for someone to expose the
fallacies in Sir Compton 'Macken- zie's article on English pronunciation in the Spectator of January 22nd. The main point is that in words derived from Latin and Greek, the quantity of the vowel in the original has as little to do with the case as, in a different context, had the flowers that bloom in the Spring. English has its own rules of pro- nunciation, one of which is that in dissyllables the first vowel tends to he pronounced long. (Sir Compton inadvertently admits this prin- ciple when he prefers 'zebra ' to • zebra '.) Thus the Greek statesman Solon ' becomes in English Solon,' the Greek ' Thetis,' ' Thetis,' ros," ilros,' and so on. Many similar instances could be quoted of Anglicised Latin words, e.g., 'Mfigi," nisi.'
Lydney, Glos.
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