Pronunciation
Sta,—In reply to Mr. Gardner-Smith, surely it is tile counsel of per- feCtion if not of purism to demand a respect for the French " eau " in the word bureaucracy ? It seems already indeed to have become assimilated to plutocracy and the rest of that category: Chambers gives it in fact as " ock." What is far more disconcerting, because more frequent, is the throwing of the accent forward in such words, for instance, as controversy, formidable, explicable, exquisite, construe, comment, combat, decor, &c. All these one hears continually from the B.B.C. When we speak of the content of a volume do we mean the satisfaction ? if we do not, why give up a useful distinction, of which heaven knows there do not exist too many in our language ?- 63 Orston Drive, Wollaton, Park, Nottingham.
L. HEWITT.
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