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We have not driven the short Italian à into obscurity, nor have we seen our way clear to merge the pleasing sound of waved ĕ and ĩ into the sound of caret û. We are content to allow the long u and short ŏ a continuance of their honorable existence, and, though strenuous for the nicest distinctions in phonation, we have not thought it wise to disturb the relationship of the long and the short 00. Although aware that the positions taken are in agreement with the majority of the ablest authorities, yet we are on the anxious seat of improvement, and will welcome any innovation that promises reform, or any change that will insure progress.

It may be of service, in this connection, to offer a few words of advice in the management of Pronunciation Matches. A large proportion of the words that we have seen submitted for tests in pronunciation, have been those seldom or never used. The exercise, to be of the highest educational value, should include only words in current use. We must seek to lift pronunciation from the low level of the puzzle to the higher ground of useful knowledge. It is worse than a waste of time to ask any one to learn the pronunciation of words he never uses himself, and never saw before they were presented for pronunciation. Again, great care should be taken not to condemn a pronunciation because it is not the pronunciation in your dictionary. Perhaps on investigation. you will find just as weighty authority approving it as you found condemning it. The only safe and useful thing that can be done in this matter is to prepare a list of common words usually mispronounced, and in the correct pronunciation of which the authorities are substantially agreed.

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HOW CAN I BECOME A DISTINCT

SPEAKER?

A satisfactory answer to this question must be of great practical value to every lover of good reading and good speaking.

As indistinctness is the prominent fault of public address, so the discovery of a remedy for indistinctness must be to the majority of speakers the most desirable and most useful knowledge. It is a very general belief that indistinctness is a personal disability which can be only partially removed, and that it will ever continue as a hindrance to the public success of the unfortunate individual. The truth is, however, that any person of even feeble and imperfect articulation may become a distinct speaker. A notable case came under my observation and care a few years since. A minister who had been relieved from work because of indistinctness, applied to me for instruction. I found that he had been tormented by his brethren with some such general advice as this: "Speak distinctly." "Do not run your words together," etc. The poor man was not able to profit by such indefinite criticism. He had never been trained to use his articulative organs, and, as is sometimes the case, had become more indistinct in his enunciation during the four years of his ministry. He was helpless, discouraged, brokenhearted; but at the end of two months' practice in the correct and vigorous use of his tongue, teeth, and lips, he went back to work a moderately distinct speaker. He continued to improve, and is now one of the most distinct speakers and one of the most successful ministers in his denomination. I cite this case for the encouragement of all who may be similarly afflicted, and to add emphasis to what follows.

It is not personal endowment that enables one man to speak more distinctly than another, but simply industry.

Genius plays a very small part in the acquisition of a distinct utterance. It is work, intelligently directed and persistently pursued, that masters the difficulties and secures the desired results.

The distinct pronunciation of words depends entirely on a nimble use of the tongue, teeth, lips, and palate. Sound is made in the glottis, and when it reaches the mouth, the tongue, teeth, and lips form it into syllables and words. Now, any exercise which will give the pupil an energetic and rapid use of these organs of articulation will certainly insure distinctness.

Great care, time, and expense are lavished on the rudimentary training of the tyro in piano playing. Weeks, months, and years are given up to exercises to develop strength and dexterity in the use of the fingers, hands, and wrists of the young performer; and yet in ordinary articulation we use our tongue, teeth, and lips as rapidly as the pianist uses his fingers, and expect distinctness in speaking without any preliminary practice. Careful and continued practice in articulation by all public speakers is as necessary as the constant and laborious practice of the piano player to secure perfect technique in playing.

No one knows so well as the painstaking public speaker the truth of the above statement. The fear of indistinctness haunts him in every public effort, and keeps him keyed up to the most exacting demands of his audience. Since indistinctness may be overcome by industry, he can never forgive himself if he falls a victim to his own easy indifference. And it is well that this burden should be laid on all public speakers, for surely nothing is more irritating to an audience than a slipshod, mumbling utterance. Not only is the time of the hearers wasted while listening to such a speaker, but they are, through sympathy for the unfortunate man, subjected to a gratuitous persecution.

I wish to indicate a system of practice which, if diligently pursued, will give the pupil such strength and dexterity in the use of the articulative organs that indistinctness will be impossible.

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