4 JANUARY 1952, Page 20

Punctuation and Thought

SIR,—The Spectator has justly castigated those of us who cannot spell and those to whom punctuation is a mystery. But what about pro- nunciation ? Perhaps some of your learned readers can explain why students of the science of life persist in telling us that their subject is zoo-ology, with four o's at least. And why is the pronunciation of " bureaucracy " as " burocracy " with a short " o " becoming almost universal ? Nearly anything is possible in English, but " cane" cannot spell " ock." Of course we have " aristocracy " and " democracy," but even in these Greek-less days we do not spell them " aristeaucracy "