certain great men are infallible, or that their practice constitutes
custom and the rule of propriety. But on the contrary, any man, however
learned, is liable to mistake; the most learned, as Michaelis observes,
often teem with errors, and not unfrequently become attached to
particular systems, and imperious in forcing them upon the world.[79]
It is not the particular whim of such men, that constitutes _custom_;
but the common practice of a nation, which is conformed to their
_general_ ideas of propriety. The pronunciation of _keow_, _keind_,
_drap_, _juty_, _natshur_, &c. are neither right nor wrong, because
they are approved or censured by particular men; nor because one is
local in New England, another in the middle states, and the others are
supported by the court and stage in London. They are wrong, because
they are opposed to national practice; they are wrong, because they
are arbitrary or careless changes of the true sounds of our letters;
they are wrong, because they break in upon the regular construction of
the language; they are wrong, because they render the pronunciation
difficult both for natives and foreigners; they are wrong, because
they make an invidious distinction between the polite and common
pronunciation, or else oblige a _nation_ to change their general
customs, without presenting to their view one _national_ advantage.
These are important, they are permanent considerations; they are
superior to the caprices of courts and theaters; they are reasons that
are interwoven in the very structure of the language, or founded on
the common law of the nation; and they are a living satire upon the
licentiousness of modern speakers, who dare to slight their authority.
But let us examin whether the practice I am censuring is general or
not; for if not, it cannot come within Horace's rule. If we may believe
well informed gentlemen, it is not general even in Great Britain.
I have been personally informed, and by gentlemen of education and
abilities, one of whom was particular in his observation, that it is
not general, even among the most eminent literary characters in London.
It is less frequent in the interior counties, where the inhabitants
still speak as the common people do in this country. And Kenrick
speaks of it as an affectation in the metropolis which ought to be
discountenanced.
But whatever may be the practice in England or Ireland, there are few
in America who have embraced it, as it is explained in Sheridan's
Dictionary. In the middle and southern states, there are a few, and
those well bred people, who have gone far in attempting to imitate
the fashion of the day.[80] Yet the body of the people, even in
these states, remain as unfashionable as ever; and the eastern states
generally adhere to their ancient custom of speaking, however vulgar it
may be thought by their neighbors.[81] Suppose custom therefore to be
the _jus et norma_, the rule of correct speaking, and in this country,
it is directly opposed to the plan now under consideration.
As a nation, we have a very great interest in opposing the introduction
of any plan of uniformity with the British language, even were the
plan proposed perfectly unexceptionable. This point will be afterwards
discussed more particularly; but I would observe here, that the
author who has the most admirers and imitators in this country, has
been censured in London, where his character is highly esteemed, and
that too by men who are confessedly partial to his general plan. In
the critical review of Sheridan's Dictionary, 1781, there are the
following exceptions to his standard.
"Nevertheless our author must not be surprized if, in a matter, in its
nature so delicate and difficult, as that concerning which he treats,
a doubt should here and there arise, in the minds of the most candid
critics, with regard to the propriety of his determinations. For
instance, we would wish him to reconsider, whether, in the words which
begin with _super_, such as _superstition_, _supersede_, he is right in
directing them to be pronounced _shooper_. Whatever might be the case
in Queen Anne's time, it doth not occur to us, that any one at present,
above the lower ranks, speaks these words with the sound of _sh_; or
that a good reason can be given, for their being thus sounded. Nay
their being thus spoken is contrary to Mr. Sheridan's own rule; for he
says that the letter _s_ always preserves its own proper sound at the
beginning of words."
Here we are informed by this gentleman's admirers, that, in some
instances, he has imposed upon the world, as the standard of purity,
a pronunciation which is not heard, except among the _lower ranks of
people_, and directly opposed to his own rule. The reviewers might
have extended their remarks to many other instances, in which he has
deviated from general practice and from every rule of the language.
Yet at the voice of this gentleman, many of the Americans are quitting
their former practice, and running into errors with an eagerness
bordering on infatuation.
Customs of the court and stage, it is confessed, rule without
resistance in monarchies. But what have we to do with the customs of
a foreign nation? Detached as we are from all the world, is it not
possible to circumscribe the power of _custom_, and lay it, in some
degree, under the influence of propriety? We are sensible that in
foreign courts, a man's reputation may depend on a genteel bow, and
his fortune may be lost by wearing an unfashionable coat. But have we
advanced to that stage of corruption, that our highest ambition is
to be as particular in fashions as other nations? In matters merely
indifferent, like modes of dress, some degree of conformity to local
custom is necessary;[82] but when this conformity requires a sacrifice
of any principle of propriety or moral rectitude, singularity becomes
an honorable testimony of an independent mind. A man of a great soul
would sooner imitate the virtues of a cottage, than the vices of
a court; and would deem it more honorable to gain one useful idea
from the humble laborer, than to copy the vicious pronunciation of a
splendid court, or become an adept in the licentious principles of a
Rochester and a Littleton.
It will not be disputed that Sheridan and Scott have very faithfully
published the present pronunciation of the English court and theater.
But if we may consult the rules of our language and consider them as
of any authority; if we may rely on the opinions of Kenrick and the
reviewers; if we may credit the best informed people who have travelled
in Great Britain, this practice is modern and local, and considered,
by the judicious and impartial, even of the English nation, as a gross
corruption of the pure pronunciation.
Such errors and innovations should not be imitated, because they are
found in authors of reputation. The works of such authors should
rather be considered as lights to prevent our falling upon the rocks of
error. There is no more propriety in our imitating the practice of the
English theater, because it is described by the celebrated Sheridan,
than there is in introducing the manners of Rochester or the principles
of Bolingbroke, because these were eminent characters; or than there
is in copying the vices of a Shylock, a Lovelace, or a Richard III.
because they are well described by the masterly pens of Shakespear
and Richardson. So far as the correctness and propriety of speech are
considered as important, it is of as much consequence to oppose the
introduction of that practice in this country, as it is to resist the
corruption of morals, which ever attends the wealthy and luxurious
stage of national refinements.
Had Sheridan adhered to his own rules and to the principle of analogy;
had he given the world a consistent scheme of pronunciation, which
would not have had, for its unstable basis, the fickle practice of a
changeable court, he would have done infinite service to the language:
Men of science, who wish to preserve the regular construction of the
language, would have rejoiced to find such a respectable authority on
the side of propriety; and the illiterate copiers of fashion must have
rejected faults in speaking, which they could not defend.[83]
The corruption however has taken such deep root in England, that
there is little probability it will ever be eradicated. The practice
must there prevail, and gradually change the whole structure of the
Latin derivatives. Such is the force of custom, in a nation where all
fashionable people are drawn to a point, that the current of opinion is
irresistible; individuals must fall into the stream and be borne away
by its violence; except perhaps a few philosophers, whose fortitude may
enable them to hold their station, and whose sense of propriety may
remain, when their power of opposition has ceased.
But our detached situation, local and political, gives us the _power_,
while pride, policy, and a regard for propriety and uniformity
among ourselves, should inspire us with a _disposition_, to oppose
innovations, which have not utility for their object.
We shall find it difficult to convince Englishmen that a corrupt taste
prevails in the British nation. Foreigners view the Americans with a
degree of contempt; they laugh at our manners, pity our ignorance, and
as far as example and derision can go, obtrude upon us the customs
of their native countries. But in borrowing from other nations, we
should be exceedingly cautious to separate their virtues from their
vices; their useful improvements from their false refinements. Stile
and taste, in all nations, undergo the same revolutions, the same
progress from purity to corruption, as manners and government; and in
England the pronunciation of the language has shared the same fate. The
Augustan era is past, and whether the nation perceive and acknowlege
the truth or not, the world, as impartial spectators, observe and
lament the declension of taste and science.
The nation can do little more than read the works and admire the
beauties of the original authors, who have adorned the preceding ages.
A few, ambitious of fame, or driven by necessity, croud their names
into the catalogue of writers, by imitating some celebrated model,
or by compiling from the productions of genius. Nothing marks more
strongly the declension of genius in England, than the multitude of
plays, farces, novels and other catchpenny pieces, which swell the
list of modern publications; and that host of compilers, who, in
the rage for selecting beauties and abridging the labor of reading,
disfigure the works of the purest writers in the nation. Cicero did
not waste his talents in barely reading and selecting the beauties
of Demosthenes; and in the days of Addison, the beauties of Milton,
Locke and Shakespear were to be found only in _their works_. But taste
is corrupted by luxury; utility is forgotten in pleasure; genius is
buried in dissipation, or prostituted to exalt and to damn contending
factions, and to amuse the idle debauchees that surround a licentious
stage.[84]
These are the reasons why we should not adopt promiscuously their
taste, their opinions, their manners. Customs, habits, and _language_,
as well as government should be national. America should have her _own_
distinct from all the world. Such is the policy of other nations, and
such must be _our_ policy, before the states can be either independent
or respectable. To copy foreign manners implicitly, is to reverse the
order of things, and begin our political existence with the corruptions
and vices which have marked the declining glories of other republics.
FOOTNOTES:
[61] Misused.
[62] Kenrick, who was not guided solely by the fashion of the day, but
paid some regard to the regular construction of the language.
[63] Sheridan has repeated with approbation, a celebrated saying of
Dean Swift, who was a stickler for analogy, in pronouncing _wind_
like _mind_, _bind_, with the first sound of _i_. The Dean's argument
was, "I have a great m[2i]nd to f[2i]nd why you pronounce that word
_w[2i]nd_." I would beg leave to ask this gentleman, who directs us
to say _woond_, if any good reason can be _foond_ why he _soonds_
that word _woond_; and whether he expects a rational people, will be
_boond_ to follow the _roond_ of court improprieties? We acknowlege
that _w[2i]nd_ is a deviation from analogy and a corruption; but who
pronounces it otherwise? Practice was almost wholly against Swift,
and in America at least, it is as generally in favor of the analogy
of _wound_. A partial or local practice, may be brought to support
analogy, but should be no authority in destroying it.
[64] _Government_, _management_, retain also the accent of their
primitives; and the nouns _testament_, _compliment_, &c. form another
analogy.
[65] It is regretted that the adjectives, _indissoluble_, _irreparable_
were derived immediately from the Latin, _indissolubilis_,
_irreparabilis_, and not from the English verbs, _dissolve_, _repair_.
Yet _dissolvable_, _indissolvable_, _repairable_ and _irrepairable_,
are better words than _indissoluble_, _reparable_, _irreparable_.
They not only preserve the analogy, but they are more purely English
words; and I have been witness to a circumstance which alone ought to
determine their excellence and give them currency: People of ordinary
education have found difficulty in understanding such derivatives as
_irreparable_, _indissoluble_; but the moment the words _irrepairable_,
_indissolveable_ are pronounced, they are led to the meaning by
a previous acquaintance with the words _repair_ and _dissolve_.
Numberless examples of this will occur to a person of observation,
sufficient to make him abhor and reject the pedantry of authors, who
have labored to strip their native tongue of its primitive English
dress, and load it with fantastic ornaments.
[66] _Flexion_ resolved into its proper letters would be _fleksion_,
that is _flekshun_; and _fleks-yun_ would give the same sound.
[67] To an ignorance of the laws of versification, we must ascribe the
unwarrantable contraction of _watery_, _wonderous_, &c. into _watry_,
_wondrous_.
[68] Rhetorical Grammar, prefixed to his Dictionary, page 32. London,
1773.
[69] Rhet. Gram. 33.
[70] His grammar was written in Latin, in the reign of Charles IId. The
work is so scarce, that I have never been able to find but a single
copy. The author was one of the founders of the Royal Society.
[71] This sound of _u_, foreigners will nearly obtain, by attempting
to pronounce the dipthong _iu_; that is, the narrow _i_ before _u_ or
_w_; (as in the Spanish word _ciudad_, a city.) Yet the sound (of _u_)
is not exactly the same, altho it approaches very near to it; for the
sound of _iu_ is compound; whereas the _u_ of the English and French is
a simple sound.
[72] Lowth condemns such a phrase as, "the introducing an _e_" and says
it should be, "the introducing _of_ an _e_." This is but one instance
of a great number, in which he has rejected _good_ English. In this
situation, _introducing_ is a participial noun; it may take an article
before it, like any other noun, and yet govern an objective, like any
transitive verb. This is the idiom of the language: but in most cases,
the writer may use or omit _of_, at pleasure.
[73] I must except that reason, which is always an invincible argument
with weak people, viz. "It is the practice of some great men." This
common argument, which is unanswerable, will also prove the propriety
of imitating all the polite and detestable vices of the great, which
are now unknown to the _little vulgar_ of this country.
[74] Ash observes, that "in unaccented, short and insignificant
syllables, the sounds of the five vowels are nearly coincident. It
must be a nice ear that can distinguish the difference of sound in
the concluding syllable of the following words, altar, alter, manor,
murmur, satyr."----Gram. Diff. pref. to Dic. p. 1.
[75] For my part I cannot discover the euphony; and tho the contrary
mode be reprobated, as vulgar, by certain mighty fine speakers, I think
it more conformable to the general scheme of English pronunciation;
for tho in order to make the word but two syllables, _ti_ and _te_
may be required to be converted into _ch_, or the _i_ and _e_ into
_y_, when the preceding syllable is marked with the accute accent as
in _question_, _minion_, _courteous_, and the like; there seems to be
little reason, when the grave accent precedes the _t_, as in _nature_,
_creature_, for converting the _t_ into _ch_; and not much more for
joining the _t_ to the first syllable and introducing the _y_ before
the second, as _nat-yure_. Why the _t_ when followed by neither _i_
nor _e_, is to take the form of _ch_, I cannot conceive: It is, in my
opinion, a species of affectation that should be discountenanced.----
Kenrick Rhet. Gram. page 32. Dic.
[76] Well might Mr. Sheridan assert, that "Such indeed is the state of
our written language, that the darkest hieroglyphics, or most difficult
cyphers which the art of man has hitherto invented, were not better
calculated to conceal the sentiments of those who used them, from all
who had not the key, than the state of our spelling is to conceal the
true pronunciation of our words, from all, except a few well educated
natives." Rhet. Gram. p. 22. Dic. But if these well educated natives
would pronounce words as they ought, one half the language at least
would be regular. The Latin derivatives are mostly regular to the
educated and uneducated of America; and it is to be hoped that the
modern hieroglyphical obscurity will forever be confined to _a few well
educated natives_ in Great Britain.
[77] "Quem penes arbitrium est, et jus et norma loquendi."
Horace.----"Nothing," says Kenrick, "has contributed more to the
adulteration of living languages, than the too extensive acceptation
of Horace's rule in favor of custom. Custom is undoubtedly the rule of
present practice; but there would be no end in following the variations
daily introduced by caprice. Alterations may sometimes be useful--may
be necessary; but they should be made in a manner conformable to the
genius and construction of the language. Modus est in rebus. Extremes
in this, as in all other cases, are hurtful. We ought by no means to
shut the door against the improvements of our language; but it were
well that some criterion were established to distinguish between
improvement and innovation."----Rhet. Gram. page 6, Dict.
[78] See a learned "Dissertation on the influence of opinions on
language and of language on opinions, which gained the prize of the
Prussian Royal Academy in 1759. By Mr. Michaelis, court councellor to
his Britannic Majesty, and director of the Royal Society of Gottingen."
[79]
The vulgar thus by imitation err,
As oft the learn'd by being singular.
So much they scorn the croud, that if the throng,
By chance go right, they purposely go wrong.
POPE.
[80] There are many people, and perhaps the most of them in the capital
towns, that have learnt a few common place words, such as _forchin_,
_nachur_, _virchue_ and half a dozen others, which they repeat on all
occasions; but being ignorant of the extent of the practice, they are,
in pronouncing most words, as vulgar as ever.
[81] It should be remarked that the late President of Pennsylvania, the
Governor of New Jersey, and the President of New York college, who are
distinguished for erudition and accuracy, have not adopted the English
pronunciation.
[82] Not between different nations, but in the same nation. The manners
and fashions of each nation should arise out of their circumstances,
their age, their improvements in commerce and agriculture.
[83] Sheridan, as an improver of the language, stands among the
first writers of the British nation, and deservedly. His Lectures on
Elocution and on Reading, his Treatises on Education, and for the most
part his Rhetorical Grammar, are excellent and almost unexceptionable
performances. In these, he encountered practice and prejudices,
when they were found repugnant to obvious rules of propriety. But
in his Dictionary he seems to have left his only defensible ground,
_propriety_, in pursuit of that phantom, _fashion_. He deserted his own
principles, as the Reviewers observe: and where he has done this, every
rational man should desert his _standard_.
[84] From this description must be excepted some arts which have for
their object, the pleasures of sense and imagination; as music and
painting; and sciences which depend on fixed principles, and not on
opinion, as mathematics and philosophy. The former flourish in the last
stages of national refinement, and the latter are always proceeding
towards perfection, by discoveries and experiment. Criticism also
flourishes in Great Britain: Men read and judge accurately, when
original writers cease to adorn the sciences. Correct writers precede
just criticism.
[Illustration]
DISSERTATION IV.
_Of the Formation of Language.--Horne Tooke's theory of the
Particles.--Examination of particular Phrases._
[Illustration]
FORMATION _of_ LANGUAGE.
[Illustration]
Having discussed the subject of pronunciation very largely in the two
preceding Dissertations, I shall now examin the _use of words in the
construction of sentences_.
Several writers of eminence have attempted to explain the origin,
progress and structure of languages, and have handled the subject with
great ingenuity and profound learning; as Harris, Smith, Beatie, Blair,
Condillac, and others. But the discovery of the true theory of the
construction of language, seems to have been reserved for Mr. Horne
Tooke, author of the "Diversions of Purley." In this treatise, however
exceptionable may be particular instances of the writer's spirit and
manner, the principles on which the formation of languages depends,
are unfolded and demonstrated by an etymological analysis of the Saxon
or Gothic origin of the English particles. From the proofs which this
writer produces, and from various other circumstances, it appears
probable, that the _noun_ or substantive is the principal part of
speech, and from which most words are originally derived.
The invention and progress of articulate sounds must have been
extremely slow. Rude savages have originally no method of conveying
ideas, but by looks, signs, and those inarticulate sounds, called by
grammarians, _Interjections_. These are probably the first beginnings
of language. They are produced by the passions, and are perhaps very
little superior, in point of articulation or significancy, to the
sounds which express the wants of the brutes.[85]
But the first sounds, which, by being often repeated, would become
articulate, would be those which savages use to convey their ideas of
certain visible objects, which first employ their attention. These
sounds, by constant application to the same things, would gradually
become the _names_ of those objects, and thus acquire a permanent
signification. In this manner, rivers, mountains, trees, and such
animals as afford food for savages, would first acquire names; and
next to them, such other objects as can be noticed or perceived by
the senses. Those names which are given to ideas called _abstract_
and _complex_, or, to speak more correctly, those names which express
a combination of ideas, are invented much later in the progress of
language. Such are the words, faith, hope, virtue, genius, &c.
It is unnecessary, and perhaps impossible, to describe the whole
process of the formation of languages; but we may reason from the
nature of things that the _necessary_ parts of speech would be the
first formed; and it is very evident from etymology that all the others
are derived from these, either by abbreviation or combination. The
necessary parts of speech are the _noun_ and _verb_; and perhaps we may
add the _article_. Pronouns are not necessary, but from their utility,
must be a very early invention.