M PREFACE

widely different, that Dr. Watts and Dr. Jones lay it down as a maxim in their Treatiseson Spelling, that all words which can be sounded different ways must be written accord-ing to that sound which is most distant from the true pronunciation ; and consequently,in such a Language , a Pronouncing Dictionary must be of essential use.

But still it may be objected to such an undertaking, that the fluctuation of pronunciationis so great as to render all attempts to settle it useless. What will it avail us, it maybe said, to know the pronunciation of the present day, if in a few years it will be al-tered ? And how are we to know even what the present pronunciation is, when the samewords are often differently pronounced by different speakers, and those, perhaps, of equalnumbers and reputation ? To this it may be answered, that the fluctuation of our Lan-guage, with respect to its pronunciation, seems to have been greatly exaggerated.* Ex-cept a very few single words, which are generally noticed in the following Dictionary,and the words where e comes before r, followed by another consonant, as merchant y service ,&c. the pronunciation of the Language is probably in the same state in which it was a cen-tury ago ; and, had the same attention been then paid to it as now, it is not likely even thatchange would have happened. The same may be observed of those words which are dif-ferently pronounced by different speakers: if the analogies of the Language had beenbetter understood, it is scarcely conceivable that so many words in polite usage wouldhave a diversity of pronunciation, which is at once so ridiculous and embarrassing; nay,perhaps it may bp with confidence asserted, that if the analogies of the Language weresufficiently known, and so near at hand as to be applicable on inspection to every word,that not only many words which are wavering between contrary usages would be setiledin their true sound, but that many words, which are fixed by custom to an improperpronunciation, would by degrees grow regular and analogical; and those which are soalready would be secured in their purity, by a knowledge of their regularity andanalogy.

* The old and new 'AtS*;, with all'the various dialects, must have occasioned infinite irregularityIn the pronunciation of the Greek tongue ; and if we may judge of the Latin pronunciation by theancient inscriptions, it was little less various and irregular than the Greek. Aulus Gellius tells usthat Nigidius, a grammarian who lived a little more than a century before him, acuted the first syl-lable of Valeri; but, says he, “ si quis nunc Valerium appelJans in casu vocandi secundum id prae-ceptum Nigidii acuerit primam, non aberit quin rideatur.” Whoever now should place the accenton the first syllable of Valerius, when a vocative case, according to the precept of Nigidius, wouldset every body a laughing. Even that highly polished language, the French , if we may believe awriter in the Encyclopedic , is little less irregular in this respect than our own.

« II est arrive,” says he, ** par le3 alterations qui se succedent rapidement dans la manure de pro-noncer, et les corrections qui s’introduisent lentement dans la manttre d’ecrire, que laprononciationet Pecriture ne marchent point ensemble, et que quoiqu'il y ait chess les peoples les plus polices del’Europe , des societes d'hommes de lettres charges des les modercr, des les accorder, et de les rap-procher de la m6me ligne, elles se trouvent enfin a une distance inconcevable; ensorte que de deuxchoses dont Pune n'a ete imaginee dans son origine, que pour r^pr^senter fidellement Pautrc, celle-cine difl&re guAre moins de celle-li, que lc portrait de la m6me personne peinte dans deux ages tr£s-lloignls. Enfin l'inconvenient s’est accru a un tel exc£s qu'on n’ose plus y reni^dier. On prononceune langue, on <*crit une autre : et l'on s’accoutume tellement pendant le reste de la vie & cette bisar-rerie qui a fait verser tant de larmes dans Penfance, que si Pon rcnongoH k sa mauvaise ortho-graphe pour une plus voisine de la prononciation, on ne reconnoUroit plus la langue pailee sous cettenouvelle coinbinaison de caracUres. S’il y en a qui ne pourroient se succeder sans une grande fa-tigue pour l’organe, ou ils ne se rencontrent point, ou ils ne durent pas. Us sont echappfcs de lalangue par Peuphonie, cette loi puissante, qui agit continuellenient et univer6ellement sans egardpour l^tymologie et ses defenseurs, et qui tend sans intermission k amener des fitres qui ont lesm£m6s organes, le ni6me ididme, les monies mouvemens presents, i-peu-pris k la tnfirne prononcia-tion. Les causes dont Paction n'est point interrompue, deviennent toujours les plus fortes avec lesterns, quelque foibles qiPelles soient en elles-m6mes, et il n*y a presque pas une seule voyall?,’uneseule diphthongue, une seule consonue, dont la valeur soit tellement constante, que Peuphonie npuisse disposer, soit en alterant le son, soit en le supprimant."

I shall not decide upon the justness of these complaints, but must observe that a worsepicture could scarcely be drawn of the English, or the most barbarous language of Europe .Indeed a degree of versatility seems involved in the very nature of language, and is one of thoseevils left by Providence for man to correct: a love of order, and the utility of regularity, will al-ways incline him to confine this versatility within as narrow bounds as possible.