VULGAR PRONUNCIATION
[To the Editor of Tim SPECTATOR.] Sin,—After reading the letter of your correspondent, Sir Claud Russell, I am forced to the conclusion that, however excellent his pronunciation of English may be, his ear is ill- trained. He says that the conventional spellings harf, larf, gal, langiridge, nite, cum, gorn, orph, represent his own pronunciation of half, what, laugh, girl, language, night, come, gone, off. If so, he speaks unlike any other educated English- man I ever listened to. Perhaps it may be the very defective attempts at writing the vulgar foifits of these words which have misled him ; the difficulty of making clear to English readers what sounds one means is one of the many cogent arguments in favour of dropping our present hideous " orthography " and replacing it by something as nearly rational as, say, that used in Germany, or Wales. But does he really mean that when he says half, laugh, gone, or off, the diphthongs and vowels in these words are indistinguishable from the aw in bawl ? Would he, indeed, like Captain Reece's sailor, rime girl with pal ? Does he draw night so that it sounds like met, and does what contain a pure, somewhat rounded vowel when he uses it ? (Whether its h should be silent or not is a point on which various parts of the Empire are likely to continue at variance.) As to the spelling cum, it is meant., I take it, to indicate that sound of come which is heard in Yorkshire ; while for language, if he finds its last syllable a satisfactory rime for ridge or midge, I doubt if the poets, major or minor, on either side of the Border or the Atlantic support him.— I am, Sir, &e., IL J. RosE. - The University, St. Andrews, Fife.
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