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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 02 December 2020
To people interested in the history of English pronunciation, the names of John Walker and Thomas Sheridan are not unfamiliar. Of these two men, the more important from the point of view of modern pronunciation, in particular American pronunciation, is unquestionably Walker; for almost invariably, where these two men disagreed, it has been Walker's decisions which have prevailed—especially in America, until today many of our pronunciations of individual words, as well as our ideas about proper pronunciation are traceable to Walker, not Sheridan. Walker's influence was made possible by the constant republication of his works in the nineteenth century and—more indirectly, but perhaps more pervasively—by his tremendous effect on succeeding dictionary writers.
1 Arthur G. Kennedy records the 34th edition of Walker's Dictionary by 1847. Abridgements and selections were numerous.
2 Some of the late eighteenth- and nineteenth-century dictionaries and dictionary-makers admitting indebtedness to Walker are: Anon., A Dictionary of the English Language, 1794; Samuel Johnson, edited with John Walker's standard of pronunciation, Phila., 1805, Boston, 1828; Thomas Browne, 1806; Christopher Earnshaw, Leeds, 1816; Lemuel White, Phila., 1823; R. S. Jameson's dictionary of the English language by Johnson and Walker, 1827, 7th ed. 1850; Joseph Worcester's Johnson's English dictionary with Walker's pronunciation, Boston, 1828. There were undoubtedly many others who, in the fashion of dictionary editors, borrowed heavily from Walker without acknowledgment. Lindley Murray, for instance, in his English Grammar, quotes, without crediting, whole paragraphs almost verbatim from Walker (see p. 14, York edition 1795, on the pronunciation of unaccented vowels, for example).
3 The Monthly Review, Oct. 1780, Vol. lxiii, p. 241, is high in praise of Sheridan's standard, and of his pronunciations, except for sh in the super-words. In reviewing Sheridan's second edition, this same periodical, July 1789, Vol. lxxxi, p. 57, remarks: “… we are more disposed to admire his accuracy on the whole, than to object, even where we cannot altogether agree with him.” Its tone is generally laudatory. The European Magazine and London Review, Nov. 1789, Vol. xvi, p. 334, recommends this cheap and improved edition of a most useful and valuable work, the first edition of which met with a reception suitable to its worth. The Critical Review, May 1780, Vol. xlix, p. 337, and A Caution to Gentlemen who use Sheridan's Dictionary, 1789, are less favorable (see fn. 20).
4 In making a comparison between Sheridan and Walker, I have used Sheridan's later, and more authoritative, 1789 edition.
5 Here Walker is talking about pronouncing dictionaries and does not intend to indicate that Sheridan is better than Johnson, whom he admired intensely.
6 Here Walker means that Sheridan respelled the word when entering its pronunciation. He does not mean that Sheridan favored a simplified spelling. Walker himself was violently opposed to any change in the orthography of the language.
7 Most of these were published earlier, but where editions were issued in the 1790's, I have preferred these later editions as closer to the time of Sheridan and Walker. Not all of these dictionaries are useful for every word: in some not every word is pronounced; in some the pronunciation of stressed syllables only is indicated; often the marking is ambiguous or unclear. A list of the works consulted follows:
8 Here I must express my deep gratitude to Professor Miles L. Hanley, of the University of Wisconsin, to Mrs. Louise Hanley, and to their assistants. Some time ago, I sent them a list of over 1,000 words. Shortly after, I received from them all the rimes for these words neatly collected on cards from their large store, the Wisconsin Collection. Their work took much time and effort. I am sincerely grateful to them for their interested cooperation, and especially to Professor Hanley for his encouragement and help in connection with this whole study.
8a All further references to Webster are to this edition. Perhaps it should be mentioned that, in the Webster Dictionary, the standard taken is that of “formal platform speech” (p. xii, col. 1), although occasionally colloquial pronunciations are added. But Sheridan and Walker likewise presumably record formal pronunciation. Of colloquial and formal speech, Walker says: “… that colloquial pronunciation which is perfect, is so much the language of solemn speaking, that perhaps there is no more difference between them than between the same picture painted to be viewed near and at a distance.” (Preface, v.) Sheridan was at one time an actor and during much of his life taught public speaking.
9 Sheridan has this to say about the value of i in the -iate ending: “When the vowel i precedes ate, whatever consonant may precede it, except c and t, it unites with the last syllable in a diphthong sound; as, to irradiate, collegiate, calumniate, &c. which are not pronounced as four syllables, according to the French mode, ir-ra-di-ate, ca-lum-ni-ate, but irra-dyate, calum-nyate; but when the i before ate is preceded by a c, or t, those letters change their sound to that of sh, and the simple vowel, not diphthong, is pronounced; as associate (assoshate); negotiate (negoshate).” A Prosodial Grammar, prefacing the Dictionary, xxxi.
10 Of the -ial ending Sheridan says: “This termination is always sounded as one syllable, uniting itself with the preceding consonant in a diphthong: as la-bial, cor-dial, conge-nial, ministe-rial, with the sound yal. But when preceded by c or t, it is no longer a diphthong, but has the sound of shal. …” A Prosodial Grammar, xxxi.
11 Except Stephen Jones. The reason for this will be explained later.
12 After creature, Walker refers to his Intro. ¶461, where he says that Sheridan is guilty of a fault in depicting the sound of the u in nature (and, it must be assumed, in other words of this type) as short, “as every correct ear must perceive an elegance in lengthening the sound of the u, and a vulgarity in shortening it. The true pronunciation seems to lie between both.” In spite of this last statement, Walker, in the dictionary entries, gives only the long u.
13 M. Kenrick, who, except for these few isolated words, follows Sheridan by generally indicating the u of but. Scott agrees with Sheridan, and the Pronouncing Dictionary usually follows Sheridan but sometimes gives the sound of bush.
14 These rimes and many others not included for reasons of space would have been impossible with Walker's pronunciation: censure: cleanser (Whittier); creature: sweeter (Freneau); failure: valour; moisture: oyster (Trumbull); censure:answer (Burns); torture:shorter (Browning); venture: enter (H. Walpole); volume:solemn (Halleck, Freneau, Whittier, Byron).
15 The obscure vowel here may be the descendant of a reduced form of OE -mest, rather than a reduction of the folk-etymological -most.
16 The rimes “goes merry”: Rosemary (Hood), cherry: statuary (Trumbull) seem to show a short e pronunciation for the -ary ending, just as Sheridan does.
17 Kenrick and Scott generally agree with Walker; the anonymous Pronouncing Dictionary and Perry with Sheridan—although the distribution is not always the same. Kenrick follows Sheridan in combine, command, companion, comparison (but not compare), compassion, complexion. The anonymous Pronouncing Dictionary follows Walker in combine. The majority of pronunciations, therefore, agree with Sheridan's.
19 For example, Sheridan gives al'o-ez, Walker al'loze, for aloes; Sheridan, mon'as-ter-ry, Walker mon'na-stry or mon'as-ter-ry for monastery.
18 For example, Sheridan pronounces the er in answer, alterant, with the e of bet, Walker with the u of but. On the other hand, Walker pronounces enter with short e, Sheridan with the u of but. (All dictionaries agree with Sheridan here.) Walker has the u of but in resonant (pronounced with short a by Sheridan), dromedary (with o of not in Sheridan), actionable, additional, auctioneer, patroness (with o of note in Sheridan).
20 The Monthly Review, Oct. 1780, p. 241 wishes that Sheridan would reconsider the super- words. No one above the lower ranks, according to the reviewer, speaks these words with the sound sh. The Critical Review, July 1780, p. 1 objects to sh in suicide, to tsh in tune, tube, tumult, tumour, tumid, tulip, beauteous, covetous, furniture, virtuous, statue, statute, to j in grandeur, verdure, produce. The pronunciation in these words, the reviewer adds, seems to be fantastical and affected. Not lower class, note. A Caution to Gentlemen who use Sheridan's Dictionary is most vigorous in its attack on these pronunciations, referring to them as “guttural deformities.” The author of this anonymous work ridicules not only initial assimilation, but also all -tshur, -tshous, and -shun endings, which he calls Irishisms. These latter had existed in educated English speech for over a century; they are recorded in almost all grammarians from Cooper, 1685, on. Walker attacks Sheridan's assimilations on the grounds of inconsistency and failure to regard the analogies of the language. Why Sheridan should pronounce the words assume and consume without the h, and presume and resume as if written pre-zhoom and re-zhoom, Walker can not easily conceive; the s ought to be aspirated in all or none. Walker points out that these consonants should assimilate only directly after the accent (nature, creature), never before it (suicide, presume, tune). Sure and sugar are anomalies which have betrayed Mr. Sheridan into a series of mistakes (Intro. ¶454, 462).
21 Occasional spellings which show shu for initial su become frequent in the middle of the seventeenth century among the upper classes (H. C. Wyld, History of Modern Colloquial English, p. 293). John Jones, Practical Phonography, 1701, records sh as the only pronunciation, not only in sure and sugar, but in assume, assure, censure, consume, ensue, insure, sue, and suet. Many eighteenth-century grammarians equate suit and shoot, sue and shoe, etc.
22 In other types of words, Walker frequently gives the u of tube where Sheridan enters the oo of noose: in abjure, adjudication, adjure, conjure, embrasure, injurious, jubilant, judicial, juice, July, junior, jury, sure, pseudo (pshoo'do in Sheridan, syoo'do in Walker), etc. Although in these words this is perhaps more of an eye-difference than anything else, Walker's yoo- spelling may have produced more emphasis on the glide and a more finical pronunciation. Walker also requires the glide between r and u in some words; Sheridan has roo.
23 Although other dictionaries agree with Walker in these words the anonymous Pronouncing Dictionary gives zh in presume, usurious; tsh in futurity.
24 Intro. ¶¶263, 293, 294, 357, 376, 450-453, 461-464.
25 It is possible that Sheridan's pronunciation is the normally assimilated form of a traditional by-form, represented in the OED by thirteenth-century French spellings (covoiteus) and by sixteenth century English spellings (covetuous, coveteous).
26 About 14 in all. These include anxious, casual, crucial, impetuous, incestuous, ineffectual, messieurs, tempestuous.
27 The rime breathe: wreath appears in W. Browne, Herrick, Halleck, J. Hall, F. Hemans, W. Collins, Keats, Southey, Moore.
28 Many spellings in the OED, cowfer, cophor, coafer, indicate a long vowel.
29 Although Walker gives bō' sn as the dictionary entry, his advice is that those not of the naval profession pronounce this word, when they read it, “distinctly as it is written.”
30 Anyone who has access to an early edition of Walker might consult his comments under patroness, bracelet, hale, lest, male-administration, quadrant, satiety, vertebre, cheerful, fault, errand, merchant, suggest, yellow.
31 The probabilities are that Walker is mistaken about Shakespeare's pronunciation of raisin. Shakespeare presumably pronounced both reason and raisin with ā, not ee, as Walker thinks. Although the OED states that raisin was at one time pronounced with ee, none of their spellings, as Professor John S. Kenyon has pointed out to me, prove it.
32 See the Introduction to Webster's 1828 edition.
33 This statement by Webster proves, I think, that A. G. Kennedy's ab quo date for Jones (ca. 1790-96) is too early. Besides, evidence in Jones's introduction and in his entries proves that he knew Walker's dictionary when he was revising Sheridan.
34 Here Jones has borrowed verbatim and without acknowledgment from Walker's Preface, p. iii. See the quotation on p. 3 above.
35 In the 1841 edition, the first to indicate the pronunciation with sufficient clarity to permit comparison.
