Page images
PDF
EPUB

AUTHORITIES.

To the following gentlemen we are chiefly indebted for our information respecting the pronunciation of the names of places in foreign countries, as well as for the general principles of pronunciation of the different foreign languages noticed in our Introduction. Justice, however, requires us to state distinctly, that these gentlemen are in nowise responsible for any errors that may occur in our gazetteer; it being impossible in a work like the present (in which the names of each country are scattered through the entire volume), to avail ourselves of the benefit which might result from their revision.

[blocks in formation]

L. S. DE BIBORY.

JOHN MCINTYRE, ESQ.

PIERO MARONCELLI,

Professor of Italian in New York.

G. C. L. ABATE MINICHINI,

Professor of modern languages in Philadelphia.

ARABIA AND EGYPT.

DENMARK.

FRANCE.

GERMANY.

GREECE.

HINDOSTAN

HUNGARY.

IRELAND.

ITALY.

JOHN C. DELPrat, Esq.

JOHN C. ZIMMERMAN, ESQ.,
Consul of the Netherlands at New York.

A. B. ENGSTRÖM, ESQ.,

JOSIAH HARLAN, Esq.,

Nearly twenty years a resident of that country.
HENRY KALUSSOWSKI,

Formerly professor in St. Paul's College, Long I.

HORATIO HALE, Esq.,

Philologist to the U. States Exploring Expedition.
W. S. W. RUSCHENBERGER, M. D.
Of the United States Navy.

Chevalier J. C. DE FIGANIÈRE E MORÃO,
Minister Resident of Portugal.

The late MARMADUKE BURROUGH, M. D.
Dr. WILLIAM COLESBERRY,

Many years a resident in different parts of that
continent.

FELIX MERINO, ESQ.,

Formerly professor of Spanish in the University of

Pennsylvania.

RICHARD SELDENER, ESQ.,
Consul of Sweden at Philadelphia.

WILLIAM B. HODGSON, Esq.,

Formerly acting consul at Algiers and lately drago. man or oriental interpreter at Constantinople.

[blocks in formation]

For the pronunciation of names of Great Britain and of the various colonies of the British empire, as well as of the anglicized forms of well-known foreign names, and for other important information of a more general character, we cannot forbear to express our great obligations to

WILLIAM A. DOBBYN, ESQ.,

Formerly an officer in the British service

The Rev. WILLIAM P. HINDS.

WILLIAM PETER, ESQ.,

Her Britannic Majesty's consul for the State of Pennsylvania.

We should do injustice to our feelings, did we not express our warmest thanks to JOHN K. TOWNSEND, Esq., for his valuable inform ation respecting the names of Oregon and of the Indian tribes west of the Mississippi, and other subjects noticed in the Appendix.

INTRODUCTION.

It is proposed, in this portion of our work, to set forth more fully some of the arguments alluded to in the preface, by which the propriety of our system of pronunciation is supported, as well as to explain the particular method in which this system has been carried out, in the dictionary before us.

I. It has already been intimated, that not only the present practice of the best speakers, but the usage of our more distinguished poets, is clearly in favour of the system which we have chosen. If any might be allowed to pronounce foreign names without regard to the peculiar sounds of the letters, or to the accents, which prevail in other countries, this privilege might surely be claimed by the poets, who, in the use even of English words, are considered to enjoy a special license. It is very evident, however,-as every one who will take the trouble to examine the works of the better class of them, must admit-that, as a body, they have neither claimed nor used this privilege. On the contrary, our more distinguished poets have usually exhibited a classical-we might almost say a punctilious-accuracy, in the employment of foreign names, whether of places or persons. To illustrate by examples,-GRANADA,* and GENOA,† are pronounced by all the great poets

"In Lithuania had he served and Russe;
No Christian man so oft of his degree.
At Algezi'ras, in GRANADA, he
Had joined the siege;- —"-CHAUCER.

"The Moorish king rides up and down
Through GRANADA's royal town'

"And GRANADA must be won

And thyself with her undone."-BYRON.

"GRANADA caught it in her Moorish hall,

Galicia bade her children fight or fall."-SCOTT.

"There was crying in GRANADA when the sun was going down,"-
"Farewell, farewell, GRANADA, thou city without peer."-LOCKHART

+"Signior Baptista may remember me
Near twenty years ago, in GENOA, where
We were lodgers at the Pegasus.”—SHAKSPEARE.

who use these names, from CHAUCER and SHAKSPEARE down to the present time, with the native accentuation; that is, GRANADA has the accent on the penultima, and GENOA on the antepenultima, though the generality of English-or at least of American-speakers, who have not heard these names pronounced, but merely follow analogy, or their own notions of propriety, reverse the accentuation, making GRANADA rhyme with Canada, and GENOA with boa.

No poet, perhaps, employs foreign names so frequently as BYRON, and yet-though he often writes very carelessly—it would be difficult, in all the poetry he has written, to point out half a dozen instances where he has not conformed to the foreign accentuation, excepting always, those few well known names which have acquired an estab lished English pronunciation, and in these cases he appears invariably to adopt the pronunciation of the best English speakers. The same may be said of SCOTT; though he writes with great freedom, he rarely, if ever, violates the strictest rules of geographical pronunciation. In the poetry of ROGERS, SOUTHEY, MOORE, CAMPBELL, and MONTGOMERY, We have met with scarcely a solitary example of departure from the native accentuation of names, which does not properly come within the exception above stated. WORDSWORTH takes the liberty of changing the accent in a single instanceCHAMOUNY-but acknowledges the authority of the law by apologizing in a note for its violation, (see Descriptive Sketches of a Tour among the Alps.) What has already been said respecting the usage of the poets, refers principally to accentuation, which, for the most part, can be readily determined by the metre of the poetry. Their manner of pronouncing the letters of a foreign name, is far less easily ascertained, since it can only be known when the name ends a line in rhyme, and even then it is often extremely uncertain, as they appear to consider themselves entitled, in such cases, to much greater license than in the accentuation of words. Thus we often see associated in rhyme, words which correspond but very imperfectly in sound, as

[ocr errors]

- BYRON.

"Were GENOA's galleys riding in the port,-
"How quick they carved their victims and how well,
Let Saxony, let injured GENOA tell."-MOORE,

"That noble haven, where, when GENOA reigned,
A hundred galleys sheltered-"-ROGERS.

"My native GENOA, if with tearless eye

Prone in the dust thy beauteous form I see,"-MONTGOMERY

enemy and lie, mourn and burn, &c. Nevertheless, by comparing a number of examples, and especially by observing the usage of those poets who are most remarkable for the correctness of their rhymes, we shall frequently be enabled to ascertain the true pronunciation of a word or name.

Now it will be found that the system which we have adopted, is supported by the practice of the poets in this respect also. In other words it will be found, that while foreign names that are in familiar use in our own language, have an English pronunciation, those not very well known are generally pronounced with the native sound of the letters, as will be seen from the following passages:

"Not now to while an hour away,
Gone to the falls in Valombre',".

""Tis Jacqueline! 'tis Jacqueline,"
Her little brother laughing cried,
"I know her by her kirtle green,

She comes along the mountain side."

"De Courcy, lord of Argentiere!

Thy thirst for vengeance sought the snare."-ROGERS

"Winding between Alpine trees; Spiry and dark around their house of prayer,

Below the icy bed of bright Argentiere."-WORDSWORTH.

"Sure there never was hero so civil-he
Saw us safe home to our door in Rue Rivoli."-MOORE.

"And though to-morrow's tempest lower,
"Tis calmer than thy heart, young Giaour."

"This circumstance may serve to give a notion
Of the high talents of this new Vauban,*
But the town ditch below was deep as ocean,

The rampart higher than you'd wish to hang."-BYRON

"For many an age remembered long
Shall live the towers of Hougomont,*

And fields of Waterloo."-SCOTT.

It would be easy to cite a multitude of such examples: but these will perhaps be sufficient to illustrate our position.

In these names the letter n is similar in sound to ng. The t at the end of Hougomont is silent. The rhymes, however, are not quite perfect; the o in the last syllable of Hougomont should be sounded like o in won't. The latter syllable of Vauban sounds like bong-Vauban was a noted French military engincer, who flourished in the reign of Louis XIV.

B

« ՆախորդըՇարունակել »