With Obtuse Spelling Rules, Pronunciation Becomes Reliant on Oral Tradition

Since our current orthografy bears no real relation to the present pronunciation, but is at best an imperfect attempt to represent that of the Elizabethan period, English pronunciation has become almost entirely a matter of oral tradition as unsafe a gide in regard to correctness in speech as it is in regard to correctness in history. We learn to talk, and continue to talk, entirely "by ear," and with the same tendency to uncertainty and variation as do those who play music by ear. The musician who wishes to play accurately, however, can correct his faulty memory or wrong impressions by reference to the printed score, which exactly represents to him the sounds recorded by the composer. No such convenient and infallible gide exists for those who wish to speak English accurately.

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This dependence on oral tradition is responsible for the slovenly and slipshod pronunciation so prevalent and so deplorable, and against which those who revere the language, and who desire to preserv its purity and precision, vainly contend. It is responsible for that failure to indicate the respectiv values of the vowel sounds, especially in unstrest sillables, and of certain consonants, that now mar the speech of even the most highly educated. It is responsible for the tendency to slur over many sounds, to run words together, to adopt passing fads, and to create wide divergences in the English spoken not only in separate parts of the world, but in different sections of each country.

If all who speak English could always hav had be- fore their eyes in every book, magazine, and news- paper, the pronunciation of every word indicated by its spelling, it is difficult to believ that so wide de- partures from the accepted standards of English speech as ar prevalent today could hav occurd.