"Pronunciation" Quotes from Famous Books
 ... new- fangled Yankee contraptions. Besides, Sir John had a prejudice against Americans, and I felt sure this man would exasperate him, as he was a most cadaverous specimen of the race, with high nasal tones, and a most deplorable pronunciation, much given to phrases savoring of slang; and he exhibited also a certain nervous familiarity of demeanor towards people to whom he was all but a complete stranger. It was impossible for me to allow such a man to enter the presence of Sir John Brixton, and when he returned some days later I explained ...
— The Face And The Mask • Robert Barr
... a single syllable of the text, they, as well as the public, had become so indifferent to the words and their poetic meaning, that this habit could not at once be altered when the cantabile style came more into vogue. The singers continued to be careless in regard to pronunciation of the words, and the opera libretti were so very silly that the public really did not care whether the singers spoke their words correctly and distinctly or not. Hence even the cantabile style of Italian song continued to be more or less instrumental in character—telling ...
— Chopin and Other Musical Essays • Henry T. Finck
... it only in somebody they think knows the rules. With those who don't know them it is different. I say this with all the more certainty because of a fairly recent afternoon spent in an English garden with English friends. The question of pronunciation came up. Now you will readily see that with them and their compactness, their great public schools, their two great Universities, and their great London, the one eternal focus of them all, both the chance of diversity in social customs and the tolerance of it must be far less than in our ...
— A Straight Deal - or The Ancient Grudge • Owen Wister
... necessary to mention a Cambridge Bible of 1831, where Psalm cxix. 93 appears as "I will never forgive thy precepts.'' A Bible printed at Edinburgh in 1823 contains a curious misprint caused by a likeness in pronunciation of two words, Esther being printed for Easter, "Intending after Esther to bring him forth to the people'' (Acts xii. 4). A misprint of the old hundredth Psalm (do well for do dwell) in the Prayer Book might perhaps be considered ...
— Literary Blunders • Henry B. Wheatley
... Greece which they have lately imported, would turn their minds to the language of the country. So strikingly similar to the ancient Greek is the modern Romaic as a written language, and so dissimilar in sound, that even a few general rules concerning pronunciation would be of most ...
— Life of Lord Byron, Vol. 6 (of 6) - With his Letters and Journals • Thomas Moore
... inconsequential intelligence upon the Bass? For the writer, I could hit upon none possible except Miss Grant. Her family, I remembered, had remarked on Catriona's eyes, and even named her for their colour; and she herself had been much in the habit to address me with a broad pronunciation, by way of a sniff, I supposed, at my rusticity. No doubt, besides, but she lived in the same house as this letter came from. So there remained but one step to be accounted for; and that was how Prestongrange should have permitted her at all in an affair so secret, ...
— The Works of Robert Louis Stevenson - Swanston Edition Vol. 11 (of 25) • Robert Louis Stevenson
... at the end of this volume. In the same place will also be found a pronouncing-index of proper names. I have endeavoured, in the text, to avoid or to modify any names which in their original form would baffle the English reader, but there remain some on the pronunciation of which he may be glad to have ...
— The High Deeds of Finn and other Bardic Romances of Ancient Ireland • T. W. Rolleston
... adhered to their orthography, and have rendered antient terms as they were expressed by them. Indeed I do not see, why we should not render all names of Grecian original, as they were exhibited by that people, instead of taking our mode of pronunciation from the Romans. I scarce know any thing, which has been of greater detriment to antient history than the capriciousness of writers in never expressing foreign terms as they were rendered by the natives. I shall be found, however, to have not acted up uniformly ...
— A New System; or, an Analysis of Antient Mythology. Volume I. • Jacob Bryant
... perhaps without any change whatever in their vocal value, compose the modern alphabet of the Russian language; an examination of which would go far, in our opinion, to settle the long agitated question respecting the ancient pronunciation of the classic languages, particularly as Cyril and his brother adapted the Greek alphabet to a language totally foreign from, and unconnected with, any dialect ...
— Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, No. CCCXXIX. - March, 1843, Vol. LIII. • Various
... were dismissed back to their homes.' But one of the defeated soldiers, who succeeded in escaping home, gave the following account: 'The imperial armies in the 6th moon put to sea. In the 7th moon they reached Hirado Island, and then moved to Five Dragon Mountains [the Japanese pronunciation would be Go-riu Shima, or Yama, and perhaps it means the Goto Islands]. On the 1st of the 8th moon the wind smashed the ships. On the 5th day Fan Wen-hu and the other generals each made selection of the ...
— The Great Events by Famous Historians, Volume VI. • Various
... mee entertaine the least thought of the signification of Dulcarnon to be Pythagorus his sacrifice after his geometricall theorem in finding the square of an orthogonall triangle's sides, or that it is a word of Latine deduction: but, indeed, by easier pronunciation it was made of D'hulkarnyan[5], i.e. two-horned which the Mahometan Arabians {109} vie for a root in calculation, meaning Alexander, as that great dictator of knowledge, Joseph Scaliger (with some ancients) wills, ...
— Notes & Queries, No. 37. Saturday, July 13, 1850 • Various
... phrases acquired so great a prestige that they were looked upon as a form of irresistible invocation for conquering the divine will, and a certain ridiculous sect came to be known as the Colorum, which term originated from the wrong pronunciation of secula seculorum with which many Latin prayers ended, prayers which were incomprehensible but used due to the ...
— The Legacy of Ignorantism • T.H. Pardo de Tavera
... expedition at sea: he seems at this time to have designed him for a Sailor. Peter had an inclination to learn Arabic under the learned Golius at Leyden: but his Father would only suffer him to visit this eminent professor, and consult him about the pronunciation of that language, which he thought his son might learn without a master at his ...
— The Life of the Truly Eminent and Learned Hugo Grotius • Jean Levesque de Burigny
... two former, she might have prevented the pronunciation of them when she saw the effect they ...
— Conscience, Complete • Hector Malot
... one which is not (as I believe) either native or imported with the early settlers, nor one which I have not, with my own ears, heard in familiar use. In the metrical portion of the book, I have endeavored to adapt the spelling as nearly as possible to the ordinary mode of pronunciation. Let the reader who deems me over-particular remember this caution ...
— The Complete Poetical Works of James Russell Lowell • James Lowell
... three countries are of the same blood and their languages are somewhat similar. Norwegian and Danish written are practically the same. But there is quite a difference in pronunciation. Swedish is more like German and the pronunciation is not as difficult to learn as that of Norwegian and Danish. In Norway, there are older dialects, differing from Danish, and there has lately been a great movement in favour of a more national ...
— Face to Face with Kaiserism • James W. Gerard
... Summer months I had plenty of leisure time and devoted about an hour each day to helping the Emperor with his English. He was a most intelligent man with a wonderful memory and learned very quickly. His pronunciation, however, was not good. In a very short time he was able to read short stories out of an ordinary school reader and could write from dictation fairly well. His handwriting was exceptionally fine, while in copying old ...
— Two Years in the Forbidden City • The Princess Der Ling
... hereditary name of a long and illustrious line of Dakota chiefs. Wabashaw is a corrupt pronunciation. The name is a contraction of Wa-pa-ha-sa, which is from Wa-ha-pa, the standard or pole used in the Dakota dances and upon which feathers of various colors are tied, and not from Wa-pa—leaf, as has been ...
— The Feast of the Virgins and Other Poems • H. L. Gordon
... or adopts the old-fashioned pronunciation of the word "Rome" metri gratia. Compare The Island, Canto II. ...
— The Works of Lord Byron - Poetry, Volume V. • Lord Byron
... very fine eye for colour. He will mark down "one anna in the rupee" with unerring certainty; he will suspect smaller coin. He will tell you how he can detect an adulterated European by his knuckles, his nails, his eyebrows, his pronunciation of the vowels, and his conception of propriety in dress, ...
— Twenty-One Days in India; and, the Teapot Series • George Robert Aberigh-Mackay
... —'The original forms of Gael should be mentioned—Gaedil, Goidil: in modern Gaelic orthography Gaoidheal where the dh is not realised in pronunciation. There is nothing impossible in the connection of the root of this with that of Scot, IF the s of the latter be merely prosthetic. But the whole thing is in nubibus, and given as ...
— Celtic Literature • Matthew Arnold
... to be very well pleased with each other. Mons. S—— displays many comical qualities, and manages to insure us several hearty laughs every morning and evening,—those being the seasons when we meet. I am going to take lessons from him in the pronunciation of French. Of female society I see nothing. The only petticoat that comes within our premises appertains to Nancy, the pretty, dark-eyed maid-servant of the man who lives in the other ...
— The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 17, No. 100, February, 1866 • Various
... half-full of brandy, which she gulped down at a single swallow. Joe Manton presently retired to make room for Erasmus, who spoke for some time in Latin, or what appeared to be Latin. None of us could make much of it; but Mr. Stilton declared that the Latin pronunciation of Erasmus was probably different from ours, or that he might have learned the true Roman accent from Cicero and Seneca, with whom, doubtless, he was now on intimate terms. As Erasmus generally concluded by throwing his arms, or rather the arms of ...
— Atlantic Monthly, Volume 6, No. 38, December, 1860 • Various
... Mark Twain, in the selections given in this volume, having amusing trouble with the pronunciation of Michael Angelo and Leonardo da Vinci, expressing surprise that Michael Angelo was dead, picking flaws in the old master's execution and complaining of the use of foreign words which have their equivalent ...
— Love Conquers All • Robert C. Benchley
... with a little unnecessary stress upon the name to mark his pronunciation of it. "You play Beethoven? This is extremely interesting." He spoke to the earl, who rubbed his hands and nodded. The young first-violin tossed his chestnut-colored mane on one side with a gesture of irritation. Ruth reappeared with a chair in each hand. ...
— Aunt Rachel • David Christie Murray
... English pretty well, though Welsh was the language of those about me. From easy books I went to those more difficult. I was helped in my pronunciation of English by comparing the words with the phonetic alphabet, as published by Thomas Gee of Denbigh, in 1853. With my spare earnings I bought books, especially when my wages began to rise. Mr. Wyatt, the steward, was very kind, and raised my pay from time to time at his pleasure. I suppose I ...
— Men of Invention and Industry • Samuel Smiles
... again, he appeared with a wound on his mouth, which had divided the upper lip and broke two of the teeth of that jaw. His features, never very pleasing, now seemed out of all proportion, and his pronunciation was much altered. Finding himself badly received among the females (although improved by his travels in the little attentions that are supposed to have their weight with the sex) and not being able to endure a life of celibacy, which had ...
— An Account of the English Colony in New South Wales, Vol. 1 • David Collins
... a pupil of Graham's, and comes every Friday evening to read English. He finds the pronunciation rather a difficulty. He has quite a library, from which he has selected as a suitable book to lend to Graham, William Penn's Fruits of Solitude in Reflections and Maxims. He is making a cover for the harmonium ...
— Three Years in Tristan da Cunha • K. M. Barrow
... which only a few columns are filled out, consists of a list of simple English words and phrases, written in ordinary English script, followed by Cherokee characters intended to give the approximate pronunciation, together with the corresponding word in the Cherokee language and characters. As the language lacks a number of sounds which are of frequent occurrence in English, the attempts to indicate the pronunciation sometimes ...
— The Sacred Formulas of the Cherokees • James Mooney
... at her wistfully. His name, as she uttered it, always stirred him vaguely. He was fond of finding out the reasons of things, and had long ago decided that this inward stir was due to her fine pronunciation. His other intimates called ...
— Cashel Byron's Profession • George Bernard Shaw
... opinion as to the invariability of the rule concerning singular nouns in s. DeVinne advises following the pronunciation. Where the second s is not pronounced, as often happens, to avoid the prolonged hissing sound of another s, he recommends omitting ...
— Punctuation - A Primer of Information about the Marks of Punctuation and - their Use Both Grammatically and Typographically • Frederick W. Hamilton
... I read it to my teacher, and I recall now vividly the pleasure I felt in the more beautiful passages, and my annoyance at being interrupted to have the pronunciation of a word corrected. At dinner it was read to the assembled family, who were surprised that I could write so well. Some one asked me if I had read it ...
— Story of My Life • Helen Keller
... be beyond doubt, would, as therein translated, be, "Oh the jewel in the Lotus, Amen!" Almost every traveller who has mentioned the inscription in question appears to have followed M. Klaproth's pronunciation as above; but this, although the one actually given by the value of the Thibetian letters, is certainly not that in use by the people among whom it is chiefly, if not alone, to be found. This I can vouch for, as ...
— Diary of a Pedestrian in Cashmere and Thibet • by William Henry Knight
... uninteresting-looking Gipsies, while they one and all were thanking me for taking steps to get the children educated. There was one among them who with a smile upon his face, was cursing me in Romany from his heart. Many writers differ in the spelling and pronunciation of Gipsy words, and what strikes me as remarkable is, the Gipsies themselves are equally confused upon these points. No doubt the confusion in the minds of writers arises principally from the fact that they have had their information from ignorant, lying, deceiving Gipsies. ...
— Gipsy Life - being an account of our Gipsies and their children • George Smith
... in almost every county, and most of the English people speak the language as if was not their native tongue. I think it will be admitted that the English write a good deal better than they speak, and that their pronunciation is ...
— The Works of Robert G. Ingersoll, Volume VIII. - Interviews • Robert Green Ingersoll
... transliteration of my own; and for the famous Assyrian king, to whom we owe so much of the material for the study of the Babylonian and Assyrian religion, Ashurbanabal, I have retained the older usage of writing it with a b, following in this respect Lehman, whose arguments[3] in favor of this pronunciation for the last element in the name I regard as on ...
— The Religion of Babylonia and Assyria • Morris Jastrow
... sayings in which the Bibliotaph indulged himself at the expense of his closest friend this was the most comforting. A gentleman present was complaining that Henry took liberties in correcting his pronunciation. 'I have no doubt of the occasional need of such correction, but it isn't often required, and not half so often as he seems to think. I, on the other hand, observe frequent minor slips in his use of language, but I do not feel at ...
— The Bibliotaph - and Other People • Leon H. Vincent
... magpie. As soon as my son Jacky who was the youngest of the company, and remarkably fond of birds, had saluted her by the well known appellation of mag, poor mag; she wagged her tail with surprising agility, and began to chatter in such an elevated tone, and with such a rapid pronunciation, that I was heartily glad when the kind Bramin commanded silence. "The body of this party coloured, loquacious bird, said he, is the involuntary residence of the late Miss Dorothy Chatterfast; who was a most notorious little gossip, ...
— Vice in its Proper Shape • Anonymous
... the colony off her feet, she wished to pay them a flying visit before sailing, "POUR FAIRE MES ADIEUX." She signed herself "Your affectionate sister Zara," and on her arrival explained that, tired of continually instructing people in the pronunciation of her name, she had decided to alter the spelling and be done with it. Moreover, a little bird had whispered in her ear that, under its new form, it fitted her rather "FRENCH" air and looks a thousand ...
— Australia Felix • Henry Handel Richardson
... marriage-maker between vowels and consonants, on the Gretna-green of caprice: thou cobler, botching the flimsy socks of bombast oratory: thou blacksmith, hammering the rivets of absurdity: thou butcher, imbruing thy hands in the bowels of orthography: thou arch-heretic in pronunciation: thou pitch-pipe of affected emphasis: thou carpenter, mortising the awkward joints of jarring sentences: thou squeaking dissonance of cadence: thou pimp of gender: thou Lion Herald to silly etymology: thou antipode of grammar: thou executioner of construction: ...
— The Complete Works of Robert Burns: Containing his Poems, Songs, and Correspondence. • Robert Burns and Allan Cunningham
... of energy through my head and I heard words, sentences, a rapid expounding of alien grammar and pronunciation which sank deep into my brain. My memory was being ineradicably written upon with all the power needed to make of me whatever they wanted. But apparently their only purpose now was to give me a complete understanding ...
— Valley of the Croen • Lee Tarbell
... had been notorious in the square that Sam'l Dickie was thinking of courting T'nowhead's Bell, and that if little Sanders Elshioner (which is the Thrums pronunciation of Alexander Alexander) went in for her, he might prove a formidable rival. Sam'l was a weaver in the Tenements, and Sanders a coal-carter, whose trade-mark was a bell on his horse's neck that told when coal was coming. Being something of ...
— Auld Licht Idyls • J.M. Barrie
... should be understood or felt by others. In order to acquire a forcible manner of pronouncing words, let the pupils inure themselves, while reading, to draw in as much air as their lungs can contain with ease, and to expel it with vehemence in uttering those sounds which require an emphatical pronunciation, and read aloud with all the exertion they can command; let all the consonant sounds be expressed with a full impulse of the breath, and a forcible action of the organs employed in forming them; and all the vowel sounds have a full ...
— The Young Gentleman and Lady's Monitor, and English Teacher's Assistant • John Hamilton Moore
... qualification. Many, however, entertain very erroneous views of the nature of politeness. It does not consist in putting on an air, a simper, a strut, or a bow. Neither is it to be manifested in high-flown words, or a fashionable pronunciation. Many young persons who can make very accomplished bows, and go through all the postures and attitudes of the schools, are still ignorant of the first principles of genuine politeness, and violate them every day. Politeness is ...
— Golden Steps to Respectability, Usefulness and Happiness • John Mather Austin
... and obedience were most remarkable in all things. One day while he read at table, the corrector, by mistake, bid him read a word with a false quantity, and he readily obeyed, though he knew the error. When others told him he ought notwithstanding to have given it the right pronunciation, his answer was, "It matters not how a word is pronounced, but to practise on all occasions humility and obedience is of the greatest importance." He was so perfectly mortified, and dead to his senses, that he ...
— The Lives of the Fathers, Martyrs, and Principal Saints - January, February, March • Alban Butler
... In grammaticis, etc.: in the study of literature, the perusal of the poets, the knowledge of history, the interpretation of words, the peculiar tone of pronunciation. ...
— Social life at Rome in the Age of Cicero • W. Warde Fowler
... for me, although I learned that "Eeps" and "Yipps" are sanctioned by some trench authorities. I made no further mistakes of this nature, and by keeping silent about the names of the towns and villages along our front, I soon learned the accepted pronunciation of all of them. Armentieres is called "Armenteers"; Balleul, "Bally-all"; Hazebrouck, "Hazy-Brook"; and what more natural than ...
— Kitchener's Mob - Adventures of an American in the British Army • James Norman Hall
... (Pon'thay day La-on') or, in English, Pons de Lee'on. Many persons now prefer the English pronunciation of ...
— The Beginner's American History • D. H. Montgomery
... reasons for not wishing Captain Hawkesford to discover who he was—naturally fearing that his pronunciation might betray him, answered with due caution, and kept his eyes fixed on the captain's countenance. The result of his scrutiny convinced him that his guest was still under the impression that he was in the presence of ...
— The Young Rajah • W.H.G. Kingston
... this country nearly eight hundred years ago from the Crusades. Previously it had been in vogue among the nomadic tribes of the Arabian desert for more than a thousand years. Its very name, "backgammon," so English in sound, is but a corruption from the two Arabic words bacca, and gamma (my pronunciation of which stands subject to correction), meaning—if I remember rightly—"the board game." There, away East, lies its origin; its first recorded appearance in Europe was at the Sicilian Court of the Emperor Frederick II; and when the excommunication of Rome fell on him in the year ...
— Angels & Ministers • Laurence Housman
... in the drawing-room when Miss Verner entered, and was soon engaged in an animated conversation with her. She thought him somewhat old-fashioned in his phraseology, perhaps, and mode of pronunciation, but she had so frequently heard officers of high rank speak in the same way, that she was not surprised, and as he had seen a great deal of the world, and described well what he had seen, she was much interested. As she listened, she felt her ...
— The Grateful Indian - And other Stories • W.H.G. Kingston
... tremblings, the tears, those breakings and shakings of heart that attend the people of God, when in an eminent manner they receive the pronunciation of the forgiveness of sins at his mouth, but that the dread of the majesty of God is in their sight mixed therewith? God must appear like himself, speak to the soul like himself; nor can the sinner, when under these glorious discoveries of his Lord and Saviour, keep out the beams of his majesty ...
— The Works of John Bunyan • John Bunyan
... sang I can give no account. The words seemed to me here and there to be Greek, but I do not know Greek well, and in such words as I thought I recognized, his pronunciation was so different from what I had been taught that I may ...
— The Best Short Stories of 1921 and the Yearbook of the American Short Story • Various
... modern latitudinarianism. The discovery of such fantastic liberality in a man whom he could not but dislike and contemn gave him no pleasure, but at least it disposed him to amusement rather than antagonism. Chilvers' pronunciation and phraseology were distinguished by such original affectation that it was impossible not to find entertainment in listening to him. Though his voice was naturally thin and piping, he managed to speak in head notes which had a ring of robust utterance. The sound of his words was intended ...
— Born in Exile • George Gissing
... they came unto us we caused our musicians to play, ourselves dancing and making many signs of friendship. At length there came ten canoes from the other islands, and two of them came so near the shore where we were that they talked with us, the other being in their boats a pretty way off. Their pronunciation was very hollow through the throat, and their speech such as we could not understand, only we allured them by friendly embracings and signs of courtesy. At length one of them, pointing up to the sun with his ...
— Voyages in Search of the North-West Passage • Richard Hakluyt
... of the British parliament derives his name from Evreux; though, owing to a slight alteration in spelling and to our peculiar pronunciation, it has now become so completely anglicised, that few persons, without reflection, would recognize a descendant of the Comtes d'Evreux, in Henry Devereux, Viscount of Hereford. The Norman origin of this family ...
— Account of a Tour in Normandy, Vol. II. (of 2) • Dawson Turner
... years I had the opportunity of direct participation in this new missionary movement, often taking my place as teacher of the new alphabet and guide to the pronunciation of many unphonetic words. At first there was novelty about it and it was comparatively easy to obtain even the numerous teachers which this work requires. But as the novelty wore off it became more difficult to find and keep volunteers in sufficient numbers. Besides, a demand ...
— The American Missionary — Volume 38, No. 06, June, 1884 • Various
... to trace the Scottish names of these people, handed down as they have been from generation to generation, though their pronunciation is much altered, and in most instances given a French turn, as, for example, Gourdon for Gordon, Noel for Nowell, and many others. However, in a few cases the names are such as even the most ingenious French tongue finds impossible to alter, and they remain in their original form, for example, Burns, ...
— Marie Gourdon - A Romance of the Lower St. Lawrence • Maud Ogilvy
... of the town; and this [takes the head] a hood in high taste at the lower end of the town. Not more different are these two heads in their dresses than they are in their manner of conversation: this makes use of a delicate dialect, it being thought polite pronunciation to say instead of cannot, ca'ant; must not ma'ant; shall not, sha'ant, This clipping of letters would be extremely detrimental to the current coin of conversation, did not these good dames make ample amends by adding supernumerary syllables when they talk of break-fastes, ...
— A Lecture On Heads • Geo. Alex. Stevens
... is the Kuni pronunciation of Mambule, which is the name, as used by themselves, of the people who live in a group of villages within and near the north-westerly corner of the area of the Fuyuge-speaking people, whose Papuan language, so far as ascertained, appears, subject to local dialectal differences, to be ...
— The Mafulu - Mountain People of British New Guinea • Robert W. Williamson
... from it! Where did ye get your finishing, my dear? I had moin, and no expince spared, at Madame Flanahan's, at Ilyssus Grove, Booterstown, near Dublin, wid a Marchioness to teach us the true Parisian pronunciation, and a retired Mejor-General of the French service to ...
— Vanity Fair • William Makepeace Thackeray
... do is something like what Synge did for the Irish; he needs to find a form that will express the racial spirit by symbols from within rather than by symbols from without, such as the mere mutilation of English spelling and pronunciation. He needs a form that is freer and larger than dialect, but which will still hold the racial flavor; a form expressing the imagery, the idioms, the peculiar turns of thought, and the distinctive ...
— The Book of American Negro Poetry • Edited by James Weldon Johnson
... his jargin, "take a glas of Madere viz me, mi ladi?" And he looked round, as if he'd igsackly hit the English manner and pronunciation. ...
— Memoirs of Mr. Charles J. Yellowplush - The Yellowplush Papers • William Makepeace Thackeray
... 351.).—I am not aware of any rhyme which fixes the pronunciation of aches in the time of Shakspeare, but I think the following quite ...
— Notes and Queries, Number 235, April 29, 1854 • Various
... follow, chiefly because of the change in the fall of the accent. Ayesha, of course, talked with the accent of her contemporaries, whereas we have only tradition and the modern accent to guide us as to the exact pronunciation. "My Holly, it cannot be. Were I to show mercy to those wolves, your lives would not be safe among this people for a day. Thou knowest them not. They are tigers to lap blood, and even now they hunger for your lives. How thinkest thou that I rule this people? ...
— She • H. Rider Haggard
... uncouth visage, of great length, having the mouth, as the organ by use of which he was to rise to eminence, placed in the very centre of the countenance, and exhibiting to the astonished spectator as much chin below as there was nose and brow above the aperture. His pronunciation, too, was after a conceited fashion of his own, in which he accented the vowels in a manner altogether ...
— Peveril of the Peak • Sir Walter Scott
... labouring friend of mine the other day, and asked him to try to teach it to me. He is a great exponent of the language of the country, and, like a good many others of his type, he is as well satisfied with his pronunciation as he is with his other accomplishments. The ...
— A Cotswold Village • J. Arthur Gibbs
... give as thorough a course in the pronunciation of French at the Oxford Female College as they do here at Williams. At least this deplorable fact is indicated by the first stanza of "La ...
— A Williams Anthology - A Collection of the Verse and Prose of Williams College, 1798-1910 • Compiled by Edwin Partridge Lehman and Julian Park
... is the Pali Sasana. In Burmese pronunciation the s of Indian words regularly appears as th ( [Greek: th]), r as y and j as z. Thus Thagya for Sakra, Yazawin ...
— Hinduism and Buddhism, An Historical Sketch, Vol. 3 (of 3) • Charles Eliot
... The absolute necessity there was to express himself in that language caused him to make a progress which surprised himself, and at the end of three months he was able to converse with little difficulty, and having learned it entirely by ear he spoke with a fair accent and pronunciation. M. du Tillet, who was the principal instructor of the boys in their outdoor exercises, took much pains to assist him in his French, and helped him on in ...
— In the Reign of Terror - The Adventures of a Westminster Boy • G. A. Henty
... therefore, that the intelligence from which the writing proceeded (if such existed) could write in English, and was familiar with the colloquial Gaelic pronunciation of the name, but was unacquainted with the Gaelic orthography. On this occasion also the name "Margaret" was given in its Gaelic form of Marghearad (somewhat similarly misspelt as Marget), without any special connection either with the questions asked, or, so far as could be ...
— The Alleged Haunting of B—— House • Various
... cloister of Dominican monks at Florence. There, where he was appointed by his superiors to give lessons in philosophy, the young novice had from the first to battle against the defects of a voice that was both harsh and weak, a defective pronunciation, and above all, the depression of his physical powers, exhausted as they were by ...
— Celebrated Crimes, Complete • Alexandre Dumas, Pere
... place of its customary pallor; her eyes were bloodshot and widely dilated. In approaching Henry, she showed a strange incapability of calculating her distances—she struck against the table near which he happened to be sitting. When she spoke, her articulation was confused, and her pronunciation of some of the longer words was hardly intelligible. Most men would have suspected her of being under the influence of some intoxicating liquor. Henry took a truer view—he said, as he placed a chair for her, 'Countess, I am afraid you have been working too hard: you look ...
— The Haunted Hotel - A Mystery of Modern Venice • Wilkie Collins
... history of the country. It is supposed by some to be an Indian name with a French accent. I am disposed, however, to think that it came from the early French voyageurs, from the fact that not only the bay, but an island, are mentioned by the name of Quinte. The usual pronunciation until a few ...
— Life in Canada Fifty Years Ago • Canniff Haight
... the matter of pronunciation the man informed her that the party consisted of Monsieur Logotheti, Herr Schreiermeyer, Signor Stromboli, the Signorina Baci-Roventi, and Fraeulein Ottilie Braun. The four professionals had come at the very moment when Logotheti had gained admittance on the ground ...
— The Primadonna • F. Marion Crawford
... Lamphere, Des Moines; "Hospital Life," by Mrs. Sarah Young, Des Moines; "Wee Folks of No Man's Land," by Mrs. Wetmore, Dubuque; "Two of Us," by Calista Patchin, Des Moines; "For Girls," by Mrs. E. R. Shepherd, Marshalltown; "Autumn Leaves," by Mrs. Scott, Greencastle; "Phonetic Pronunciation," by Mrs. Henderson, Salem; "Her Lovers," by Miss Claggett, Keokuk; "Practical Ethics," by Matilda Fletcher. There are several writers of cook-books, of medical and sanitary papers, of poems, of legal papers and of musical compositions. Miss Adeline M. Payne of Nevada has compiled ...
— History of Woman Suffrage, Volume III (of III) • Various
... the English language; and perhaps they are in the right; for how often do we meet with Englishmen who speak French perfectly? how seldom do we hear a Frenchman speak English without betraying his country by his pronunciation? It is not so with the Spaniards; I conversed with two Spaniards who were never twenty miles from Barcelona, that spoke English perfectly well.—How, for instance, shall a Frenchman who cannot pronounce the English, be able to understand, (great as the difference is) what I mean when ...
— A Year's Journey through France and Part of Spain, Volume II (of 2) • Philip Thicknesse
... that two of the telltales have been badly beaten by their mates. He shakes his head dubiously over the outlook for the man Johnson, who is boat-puller in the same boat with him. Johnson has been guilty of speaking his mind too freely, and has collided two or three times with Wolf Larsen over the pronunciation of his name. Johansen he thrashed on the amidships deck the other night, since which time the mate has called him by his proper name. But of course it is out of the question that Johnson should ...
— The Sea-Wolf • Jack London
... The art or science of managing revenues and resources for the best advantage of the manager. The pronunciation of this word with the i long and the accent on the first syllable is one of America's ...
— The Devil's Dictionary • Ambrose Bierce
... next spring, when the Stanburys go over, just to see what strides medicine is making across the waters, and to rest myself a little, improve my Gallic pronunciation, and get the fashions, and I will take you as my interpreter, if you promise to be very good and obedient ...
— Miriam Monfort - A Novel • Catherine A. Warfield
... smile. "And you have the true nautical pronunciation also, I perceive. Mr Johnson,"—to a master's mate who happened to be passing at the moment—"this is Mr Hawkesley. Kindly take him under your wing and induct him into his quarters in the midshipmen's ...
— The Congo Rovers - A Story of the Slave Squadron • Harry Collingwood
... giving out the verses of a hymn, one by one, which the congregation sang after him." So says my diary. Him I remember well, though Stephens not at all. I remember, too, the pleasure with which I listened to his really fine delivery of the lines; his pronunciation of the words was not incorrect, and when he spoke, as I heard him on sundry subsequent occasions, his language, though emphasised rather, as it seemed, than marred by a certain roughness of Lancashire accent, was ...
— What I Remember, Volume 2 • Thomas Adolphus Trollope
... from carelessness. She is very much so if left to herself, but is very much improved, as I perceive. But Mrs. Webb can be of no use in this, and so I have the task when Labort is not here. I hope that Caroline has somebody to read French with her who has a real good pronunciation, otherwise it will take un mauvais pli, which will not be so easy to recover, and it is better not to speak a language at all than without some ...
— George Selwyn: His Letters and His Life • E. S. Roscoe and Helen Clergue
... overbearing. When the lads used to assemble in their greges in hall, Harry found himself alone in the midst of that little flock of boys; they raised a great laugh at him when he was set on to read Latin, which he did with the foreign pronunciation taught to him by his old master, the Jesuit, than which he knew no other. Mr. Bridge, the tutor, made him the object of clumsy jokes, in which he was fond of indulging. The young man's spirit was ...
— The History of Henry Esmond, Esq. • W. M. Thackeray
... when the obstinacy of the mean man looks very like the obstinacy of the great one; but if you look closely into the matter, you will always see that the obstinacy of the first is in the pronunciation of "I;" and of the second, in the pronunciation ...
— A Joy For Ever - (And Its Price in the Market) • John Ruskin
... such extremely easy ideas. The sound of one's own voice is generally very sweet in one's own ears; let every lady try to cultivate a pleasant voice for those of other people, and also an agreeable and accurate pronunciation. The veriest nothings sound well when thus spoken. The best way to learn how to talk is, of course, to learn how to think: from full wells one brings up buckets full of clear water, but there can be small-talk without much thought. The fact remains that brilliant thinkers and scholars are not always ...
— Manners and Social Usages • Mrs. John M. E. W. Sherwood
... knitting. They could not inform him here. But he conjectured probably, that where people lived so remote from each other, it was likely to be a domestick art; as we see it was among the ancients, from Penelope. I was sensible to-day, to an extraordinary degree, of Dr. Johnson's excellent English pronunciation. I cannot account for its striking me more now than any other day: but it was as if new to me; and I listened to every sentence which he spoke, as to a musical composition. Professor Gordon gave him an account of the plan of education in his college. Dr. Johnson said, it was ...
— Life Of Johnson, Volume 5 • Boswell
... distinguished by its melody, as it has no broad or hissing consonants. The pronunciation is rendered difficult ...
— A New Voyage Round the World in the Years 1823, 24, 25, and 26. Vol. 1 • Otto von Kotzebue
... fleets of boats of various sizes and descriptions. The boatmen and pilots addressed him in a language which he afterwards found to prevail extensively at Canton, and which was called English; it is, in truth, a bad dialect of that language, the composition and pronunciation of which are so curious and difficult, that a residence of a year or two is necessary for its acquisition. None of the Chinese, rich or poor, understand those who speak plain English. The first intercourse of a foreigner with the natives, displays that imposition and venality which are ...
— The American Quarterly Review, No. 17, March 1831 • Various
... Horner[452] came to consult me about the propriety and possibility of retaining the northern pronunciation of the Latin in the new Edinburgh Academy.[453] I will think of it until to-morrow, being no great judge. We had our solitary dinner; indeed, it is only remarkable nowadays ...
— The Journal of Sir Walter Scott - From the Original Manuscript at Abbotsford • Walter Scott
... thought and feeling, from which, after this time, all that he wrote was derived. He had, when he passed the Alps, only a moderate acquaintance with the Italian language; but during his residence in the country he came to speak it with perfect fluency, and with a pure Sienese pronunciation. In its study he was much assisted by his friend and instructor, the Abbate Pifferi, who encouraged him to his first attempts at versification. The few sonnets, which are now printed, were, it is to be remembered, written ...
— Spare Hours • John Brown
... purism to almost extravagant lengths. He objected to the customary pronunciation of "jew's-harp," insisting that the word should be "juice-harp," and instructing the actor who mentioned this innocent instrument of melody to write it down so in his script. When the dress rehearsal came round, he was surveying the "set" for the first act with considerable complacence. This ...
— Pipefuls • Christopher Morley
... thing seem queer!" he said. "In fact, there is nothing to give a clue to their origin. Some look like Greek, some like Dutch; some have an English twist, and some look like nothing at all! To say nothing of these series of consonants which are not wanted in any human pronunciation. Most assuredly it will not be very easy to find the key ...
— Eight Hundred Leagues on the Amazon • Jules Verne
... Zealanders celebrate with the highest pleasure, and spend much of their time in diversions of this sort, and in playing upon a musical instrument, which partakes of the nature of a flute. With respect to their language, it is far from being harsh or disagreeable, though the pronunciation of it is frequently guttural; nor, if we may judge from the melody of some kinds of their songs, is it destitute of those qualities, which fit it to be associated with music. Of its identity with the languages of the other islands throughout the South Sea, fresh proofs ...
— Narrative of the Voyages Round The World, • A. Kippis
... will divert you with a story that made me laugh this morning till I cried. You know my Swiss David, and his incomprehensible pronunciation. He came to me, and said, "Auh! dar is Meses Ellis wants some of your large flags to put in her great O." With much ado, I found out that Mrs. Ellis had sent for leave to take up some flags out of my meadow for ...
— Letters of Horace Walpole, V4 • Horace Walpole
... said Esther to herself, as she looked to see the title of the book she was carrying. It included a curious Russian name, the correct pronunciation of which she foresaw she must ask Myrtilla on their next meeting. It was "The ...
— Young Lives • Richard Le Gallienne
... be most interesting to have a descendant of Rousseau in the same house with one of his masterpieces, and under the conditions we face, don't you think, Mr. Rouquin?" Mrs. Bingle had never been quite secure in her pronunciation of monsieur, ...
— Mr. Bingle • George Barr McCutcheon
... was a mystery; it went near to being a scandal. For a final touch, Crump assured me that these precious gentry were all but nameless; no one had ever heard the woman called anything, and the man's name defied pronunciation. ...
— McClure's Magazine, Vol 31, No 2, June 1908 • Various
... seems to have followed the pronunciation of the name of this robber usual to the Theatre, Barrabas being sounded Barabas ...
— The Merchant of Venice [liberally edited by Charles Kean] • William Shakespeare
... held in great veneration by the lower orders of the Bruxellois and is by them regarded as a sort of Palladium to the city. It is the figure of a little boy who is at peace, according to the late Lord Melville's[6] pronunciation of the words, and who spouts out his water incessantly, reckless of decorum and putting modesty to the blush. What would our vice-hunters say to this? He is a Sabbath breaker in the bargain and continues his occupation on Sundays ...
— After Waterloo: Reminiscences of European Travel 1815-1819 • Major W. E Frye
... Dick took it eagerly. Neither of them observed the priest, who, at the pronunciation of that solemn and false oath, had half arisen from his seat in an agony of ...
— The Works of Robert Louis Stevenson - Swanston Edition Vol. 8 (of 25) • Robert Louis Stevenson
... of course, the usual pronunciation of this letter in England and Canada, but, as it may be unfamiliar to some readers, ...
— The Emma Gees • Herbert Wes McBride
... many long and lonely hours of which I seemed to make so much, he could only say that the routine of his life had shaped itself into that form, and he had grown used to it. He had taught himself a language down here,—if only to know it by sight, and to have formed his own crude ideas of its pronunciation, could be called learning it. He had also worked at fractions and decimals, and tried a little algebra; but he was, and had been as a boy, a poor hand at figures. Was it necessary for him when on duty always to remain in that channel ...
— The Signal-Man #33 • Charles Dickens
... cannot but here observe an Eastern way of speaking, frequent among them, but not usual among us, where the word "only" or "alone" is not set down, but perhaps some way supplied in the pronunciation. Thus Josephus here says, that those of Jotapata slew seven of the Romans as they were marching off, because the Romans' retreat was regular, their bodies were covered over with their armor, and the Jews ...
— The Wars of the Jews or History of the Destruction of Jerusalem • Flavius Josephus
... records the street is almost invariably called Annesgate, and indeed was probably named after the hospital. The form 'Agnesgate' is, however, not modern, for it occurs in 1462. It may have arisen from a trisyllabic pronunciation ...
— Bell's Cathedrals: The Cathedral Church of Ripon - A Short History of the Church and a Description of Its Fabric • Cecil Walter Charles Hallett
... his native pronunciation so as to be no longer distinguished as a Scot, he seems inclined to disencumber himself from all adherences of his original, and took upon him to change his name from Scotch Malloch to English Mallet, without any imaginable ...
— The Works of Samuel Johnson, LL.D. in Nine Volumes - Volume the Eighth: The Lives of the Poets, Volume II • Samuel Johnson
... The same prosodial fault affects this name as that of Alexandria. In each name the Latin i represents a Greek ei, and in that situation (viz., as a penultimate syllable) should receive the emphasis in pronunciation as well as the sound of a long i (that sound which is heard in Longinus). So again Academia, not Academia. The Greek accentuation may be doubted, but ...
— The Posthumous Works of Thomas De Quincey, Vol. 1 (2 vols) • Thomas De Quincey
... earnings were spent upon his poor. In a fortnight Paul and he were thick as thieves. Le Chinois had travelled extensively, and appeared to be on terms of intimacy with the literature of every European people. He had not the faintest idea of the pronunciation of the English language, but he wrote it currently and with some approach to elegance, and his knowledge of English letters put Paul to shame. With all his learning and his philosophic agnosticism, he was as simple-hearted as a child. Annette took the greatest fancy ...
— Despair's Last Journey • David Christie Murray
... Later on it may be possible to construct a grammar, and to append to this a few easy exercises. It must be remembered, however, that there are great difficulties to be overcome in such a task. Every home, for instance, has its own rules for pronunciation. Of these I do not for my immediate ...
— Punch, or the London Charivari, Vol. 156, April 23, 1919 • Various
... this, and no resisting it. A man might blur ten sides of paper in attempting a defence of it against a critic who should be laughter-proof. The quibble in itself is not considerable. It is only a new turn given, by a little false pronunciation, to a very common, though not very courteous inquiry. Put by one gentleman to another at a dinner-party, it would have been vapid; to the mistress of the house, it would have shown much less wit than rudeness. We must take in the totality of time, place, ...
— The Works of Charles and Mary Lamb, Volume 2 • Charles Lamb
... impossible to give here a complete key to the pronunciation of Chinese words. For those who wish to pronounce with approximate correctness the proper names in this volume, the following may be a ...
— China and the Manchus • Herbert A. Giles
... abject and vile as they have ever been, have nevertheless found admirers in Spain, individuals who have taken pleasure in their phraseology, pronunciation, and way of life; but above all, in the songs and dances of the females. This desire for cultivating their acquaintance is chiefly prevalent in Andalusia, where, indeed, they most abound; and more especially in the town of Seville, the capital of the province, where, in the barrio ...
— The Zincali - An Account of the Gypsies of Spain • George Borrow |
