A Critical Pronouncing Dictionary, and Expositor of the English Language ...: To which are Prefixed Principles of English Pronunciation ... Likewise, Rules to be Observed by the Natives of Scotland, Ireland and London, for Avoiding Their Respective Peculiarities ... To which is Annexed A Key to the Classical Pronunciation of Greek, Latin, and Scripture Proper Names, &c

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Collins and Hannay, 1828 - English language - 783 pages
 

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Page 4 - The cursory pronunciation is always vague and uncertain, being made different in different mouths by negligence, unskilfulness, or affectation. The solemn pronunciation, though by no means immutable and permanent, is yet always less remote from the orthography, and less liable to capricious innovation.
Page 242 - London, much inhabited by writers of small histories, dictionaries, and temporary poems; whence any mean production is called Grub-street" — , " lexicographer, a writer of dictionaries, a harmless drudge.
Page 91 - A space upon the surface of the earth, measured from the equator to the polar circles ; in each of which spaces the longest day is half an hour longer than in that nearer to the equator.
Page 30 - When vowels are under the accent, the prince, and the lowest of the people in the metropolis, with very few exceptions, pronounce them in the same manner ; but the unaccented vowels in the mouth of the former have a distinct, open, and specific sound, while the latter often totally sink them, or change them into some other sound.
Page 39 - Some speakers, who had the regularity of their language at. heart, were grieved to see the compound depart so far from the sound of the simple, and with heroic fortitude have opposed the multitude by pronouncing the first syllable of this word as it is heard in the verb to know. The Pulpit and the Bar have for some years given a sanction to this pronunciation ; but the Senate and the Stage hold out inflexibly against it -, and the Nation at large seem insensible of the improvement.
Page 11 - London are generally free from the vices of the vulgar; but the best educated people in the provinces, if constantly resident there, are sure to be strongly tinctured with the dialect of the country in which they live. Hence it is, that the vulgar pronunciation of London, though not half so erroneous as that of Scotland, Ireland, or any of the provinces, is, to a person of correct taste, a thousand times more offensive and disgusting.
Page 164 - Most of the writers of English grammar have given long tables of words pronounced otherwise than they are written; and seem not sufficiently to have considered, that, of English, as of all living tongues, there is a double pronunciation; one cursory and colloquial; the other, regular and solemn.
Page 24 - Damn with faint praise, assent with civil leer, And without sneering, teach the rest to sneer ; Willing to wound, and yet afraid to strike, Just hint a fault, and hesitate dislike; Alike reserv'd to blame, or to commend, A...
Page 339 - Sleeping within mine orchard, My custom always in the afternoon, Upon my secure hour thy uncle stole, With juice of cursed hebona in a vial, And in the porches of mine ears did pour The leperous distilment...
Page 5 - Is it the usage of the multitude of speakers, whether good or bad ? This has never been asserted by the most sanguine abettors of its PREFACE. ïi • authority. Is it the usage of the studious in schools and colleges, with those of the learned professions...

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