George Washington's Pronunciation

Abstract

HE next best thing to having a phonograph record of the voice of Washington, is to know, from authoritative sources, how he pronounced his words, and, fortunately for us, this information is preserved in the Library of Congress in a pronouncing dictionary, popular in Washington's day, (compiled from the works of Dr. Johnson, Elphinston, Dr. Kenrick, Sheridan, Nares and Walker, authors of the most approved reputation) and entitled, A New Critical Pronouncing Dictionary by An American Gentleman, [Richard S. Coxe], published by D. Allinson & Co., Burlington, N. J., 1813. The author tells us in his preface that he was personally acquainted with Dr. Johnson (whose friendship and advice I was honoured with) and Sheridan, so it seems reasonable to assume that the author was an authority on the pronunciation employed by the educated people of his times. The dictionary is bulky and as evidence of the care with which it was watched in the printing a list of errors is called at the end of the book to the attention of the reader. The words traitor, enemy, cannon, prisoner, Congress, Constitution, patriot, American, courage, President, lieutenant, subaltern, frontier; words that must, of necessity, have been on Washington's lips daily, were pronounced by him, tra'-tur, en'ee-mee, kan'nun, priz'zn-ur, Kong'-gres, Kon-stee-tu'-shun, pa'tree-ut, A-mer'-ee-kan, kur'-ridge, Pr'z'zee dent, liv-tin'-nant, suib-ail'-tern, fr6n'-tcheer. The long (broad) sound of a was used before -lf and -lve, as in calf, calve; and before the short aspirated -th as in bath, lath; and before the nasal liquid n as in dance, chance, plant. The hissing consonant s was likewise a sign of this broad sound of a, whether doubled as in glass, grass, lass; or accompanied by t as in last, fast, vast; but pronouncing the a in this manner in after, answer, basket was thought vulgar. The broad a sound was given to can't (cannot); han't (have not); shan't (shall not); but the flat a was used in quality and quantity. When the letter a was preceded by the gutturals, hard g or c, it was softened by the intervention of a sound like e so that card, guard, regard, were pronounced ke-ard, ghe-ard, re-ghe-ard. This same rule held when the letter i was similarly situated so that sky, kind, guise, disguise, catechise, guile, beguile, mankind, became ske-y, ke-ind, 438