LATIN PRONUNCIATION.
[To THE EDITOR Or THE SPECTETOR.”f Sin,—There is a story told of the late Dean Stanley to the effect that one day when travelling in Roumania, he addressed a small peasant lad, whom he met on board a river steamboat, in Latin. What his words were I know not ; probably, in English pronunciation, he remarked on the weather. Anyway, the lad turned to him after a brief pause of meditation, and three addressed him,—" Primnm discs, tum loquere I" This shows (if it were needed) that different nations speak Latin, when they can, so differently, that each seems to the other barbarous. But what then ? "If so, why not ?" as Captain Bunsby would put it. The upholders of "the modern pronun- ciation" seem entirely ignorant or oblivious of the fact that we in England have formerly taken just the same liberty that all others of different nationalities have done with a. dead language, —i.e., we have pronounced it as our own living language.
If a Spaniard talks of Hoolioolk and a German of Yoolioosy why may we not speak without shame of Julius (or any other man), untroubled by unprofitable searchings of heart in regard to the tone prevailing in the Augustan era.—I am, Sir, dm.,
ERNEST GELOART.
Little Brasted Rectory, Eases, November 2nd.
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