Correct enunciation is the complete utterance of all the sounds of a syllable or

a word. Wrong articulation gives the wrong sound to the vowel or vowels of a

word or a syllable, as _doo_ for _dew_; or unites two sounds improperly, as

_hully_ for _wholly_. Wrong enunciation is the _incomplete_ utterance of a

syllable or a word, the sound omitted or added being usually consonantal. To say

_needcessity_ instead of _necessity_ is a wrong articulation; to say _doin_ for

_doing_ is improper enunciation. The one articulates--that is, joints--two

sounds that should not be joined, and thus gives the word a positively wrong

sound; the other fails to touch all the sounds in the word, and _in that

particular way_ also sounds the word incorrectly.

 

"My tex' may be foun' in the fif' and six' verses of the secon' chapter of

Titus; and the subjec' of my discourse is 'The Gover'ment of ar Homes.'"[6]

 

What did this preacher do with his final consonants? This slovenly dropping of

essential sounds is as offensive as the common habit of running words together

so that they lose their individuality and distinctness. _Lighten dark_, _uppen

down_, _doncher know_, _partic'lar_, _zamination_, are all too common to need

comment.

 

Imperfect enunciation is due to lack of attention and to lazy lips. It can be

corrected by resolutely attending to the formation of syllables as they are

uttered. Flexible lips will enunciate difficult combinations of sounds without

slighting any of them, but such flexibility cannot be attained except by

habitually uttering words with distinctness and accuracy. A daily exercise in