A Scourge on Them!

Good morning, and I trust that all of your essays have been emailed as required. I will begin reading them today.

[faint voice from somewhere in Nebraska]

How sad for you that your computer crashed again. Ten points off for late work.

Today we are going to discuss the pronunciation of certain words, rather than their usage or etymology. You know, of course, that pronunciations change over time. A recent example is the word harass which was, in my youth, pronounced with the stress on the first syllable. Since the word is connected etymologically with the verbs harry and harrow, this makes sense. Today, however, possibly owing to protests from people named Harris, the preferred pronunciation stresses the second syllable. I find this somewhat interesting, but not terribly significant, since harass today has a fairly limited legal and political meaning.

[faint voice from somewhere in the nation's capital]

No, I am not using that statement as a means to harass you.

Of more concern is a group of words that seem to have become the victims of what I call "ignorant snob over-correction syndrome." This syndrome leads those with inadequate understanding of language to pronounce words in an artificially "correct" manner: sounding the t in often is an example.

[faint voice from somewhere in New Hampshire]

No, the t in often is silent.
[repeated voice from New Hampshire]

Yes, my congressman also pronounces it that way. He is incorrect.

[repeated voice from New Hampshire, with some insistence]

There are many silent letters in English. I do not pretend that English is a phonetically spelled language. That does not, however, give one free rein to pronounce words as illogically as they are spelled.

[repeated voice from New Hampshire]

That is quite enough from you in New Hampshire.

In any event, our lesson today is on neither harass nor often but on the words nourish, flourish, scourge, and courage. In each of these words, the our is pronounced the same way, more or less the same as the er in merge. While this would be impossible in say, French or Spanish, I remind you again that English is not written phonetically; hence, the words purge, merge, dirge, and scourge rhyme.

[faint voice from somewhere in Indiana]

Yes, I am quite serious.

[voice from Indiana again]

I assure you that we will eventually discuss the reasons for the illogical spelling of English, but if you protest that your language is "unfair," you are not yet ready to study it with any hope of comprehension.

To return to the pronunciation shift that concerns me, I have recently, and often (please note that I did not pronounce the t in that word) heard scourge pronounced with the our to rhyme with four. I have no explanation for this except the previously mentioned "ignorant snob over-correction syndrome." This errant pronunciation, I'm sorry to say, has been heard on local television news programs. My inference is that many newscasters are hired more for their physical than their intellectual characteristics. It is true that scourge is an infrequently used word in English and perhaps someone like Boopsie Ballard of Channel 9 has not previously encountered it. If that is the case, she should study her copy more carefully before the broadcast and, when necessary, make inquiries about unfamiliar vocabulary. The word flourish has also undergone this pronunciation shift, resulting in a word that sounds as if it should mean "having the characteristics of a floor." The shift is creeping into the much more familiar word nourish and, although I have yet to hear it applied to courage, I fear that it is only a matter of time.
Since we have already learned that language is in a constant state of flux, why should this change of pronunciation be of any concern? At what point does a particular pronunciation stop being designated "incorrect" and become acceptable, as it did with harass? Finally, whose pronunciation is to be emulated; that is, am I a more reliable authority than Boopsie Ballard?

[faint voice from somewhere in Iowa]

No, I am not going to answer those questions. That is your next essay assignment which will be due next Wednesday.

No Longer Suffering in Silence

Good morning, children. Today's word is suffer.

[faint voice from somewhere in Oregon]

No, that is not a threat regarding today's activities, although I must say that the work I received on the distinction between uninterested and disinterested was rather poor.

By the thirteenth century, the word suffer was used to mean both endure and allow. You can, then, suffer pain or humiliation, but buried somewhere deep in the history of the word is the connotation that you are allowing the pain to hurt you. The permission connotation is more familiar to us in the word suffrage — universal suffrage, women's suffrage, etc. — a term which, I hope, brings little pain in a democracy.

[faint voice from somewhere in Arizona]

No, I am not familiar with the proposal regarding "illegal-alien suffrage."

Not too long ago, I heard a pastor unfamiliar with 17th century usage (i.e., the King James version of the Bible) say that Jesus told us that we should bring our children to him, even if we had to suffer to do so. A worthy sentiment, and certainly a sincere one, but unfortunately not an accurate rendering of "Suffer the little children to come unto me" (Matthew 19:14, Mark 10:14, Luke 18:16 ). The pastor's linguistic error is unlikely to do any harm to his congregation, but I use it here as an example of the need to understand the language you speak. If you remember the hue and cry over a public official's use of the word niggardly (a word completely unrelated to the ethnic slur with a similar sound) ten years ago, you know where a lack of understanding can lead.

[faint voice from somewhere in New Jersey]

No, I am not trying to insult you [heavy sigh]. You do not seem to be paying attention this morning.

Tonight's homework: five original and reasonably literate sentences using the words suffer and suffrage (each word at least twice) correctly. For you in New Jersey, five additional sentences using the word niggardly.

Your writing topic for the essay due next Wednesday will in part test your understanding of the words disinterested, uninterested, suffer, and suffrage. Your essay question is "Do citizens of a democracy have a moral or a civil obligation to alleviate the suffering of fellow citizens?"

The Band of Brothers Is Reunited

"This story shall the good man teach his son ...

From this day to the ending of the world.

But we in it shall be rememberèd —

We few, we happy few, we band of brothers ..."

Shakespeare, Henry V

Edward Moore Kennedy, requiescat in pacem

I Have an Interest

Okay, boys and girls, here's today's word: disinterested. And what does it mean? Anyone? Anyone?
[faint voice from somewhere in Massachusetts]
No, no, NO!! it is not a synonym of uninterested! Why would there be two synonymous words with the same root and different negative prefixes? The words have different meanings because the word interest has different meanings.
Are you paying attention?
[faint voice from somewhere in South Carolina]
Uninterested means simply having no interest in the most usual way we use the word. Eg., I am uninterested in advanced mathematics. I am uninterested in fashion. I am uninterested in your hurt feelings when I reprimand you for misusing a word in your own language.
Disinterested means impartial, unprejudiced. We hope that Sonia Sotomayor will be a disinterested justice.
[faint voice from somewhere in west Texas]
[loud noise of book being thrown]
No, you idiot, we don't mean that she will be bored by Supreme Court proceedings. We mean that she should have no financial or personal advantage to be gained by taking one side or another.
Do we all understand now?
[chorus of faint voices]
Fine. Let's practice. Homework for tonight: five original and reasonably literate sentences using uninterested and five using disinterested.
Class dismissed -- oh, and you out there in west Texas -- you're shrouded until next Monday.