s[)o]ap for s[=o]ap; Her edict exiles from her fair abode The clownish voice

that utters r[)o]ad for r[=o]ad; Less stern to him who calls his c[=o]at, a

c[)o]at And steers his b[=o]at believing it a b[)o]at. She pardoned one, our

classic city's boast. Who said at Cambridge, m[)o]st instead of m[=o]st, But

knit her brows and stamped her angry foot To hear a Teacher call a r[=oo]t a

r[)oo]t.

 

The foregoing examples are all monosyllables, but bad articulation is frequently

the result of joining sounds that do not belong together. For example, no one

finds it difficult to say _beauty_, but many persist in pronouncing _duty_ as

though it were spelled either _dooty_ or _juty_. It is not only from untaught

speakers that we hear such slovenly articulations as _colyum_ for _column_, and

_pritty_ for _pretty_, but even great orators occasionally offend quite as

unblushingly as less noted mortals.

 

Nearly all such are errors of carelessness, not of pure ignorance--of

carelessness because the ear never tries to hear what the lips articulate. It

must be exasperating to a foreigner to find that the elemental sound _ou_ gives

him no hint for the pronunciation of _bough_, _cough_, _rough_, _thorough_, and

_through_, and we can well forgive even a man of culture who occasionally loses

his way amidst the intricacies of English articulation, but there can be no

excuse for the slovenly utterance of the simple vowel sounds which form at once

the life and the beauty of our language. He who is too lazy to speak distinctly

should hold his tongue.