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In saying, however, that the name of the city meant "Hidden," the writer has been misled by the Egyptian mispronunciation of it. It became Kapuna in the mouths of his countrymen, and since kapu in Egyptian signified "hidden mystery," he jumped to the conclusion that such was also the etymology of the Phoenician word.
Sometimes these appellatives were derived from some distinctiveness of dress, as in the case of "Dungaree Jack"; or from some peculiarity of habit, as shown in "Saleratus Bill," so called from an undue proportion of that chemical in his daily bread; or for some unlucky slip, as exhibited in "The Iron Pirate," a mild, inoffensive man, who earned that baleful title by his unfortunate mispronunciation of the term "iron pyrites."
"Yes," I answered, "and no doubt because of this we often make mistakes which are more serious than mispronunciation of your modern names."
"Even singly, as you saw, their power is terrific," he went on, ignoring the pathetic interruption, "but united as we shall unite them while each of us utters his letter and summons forth the entire syllable by means of the chord they will constitute a Word of Power which shall make us as Gods if uttered correctly; if incorrectly, shall pour from this house to consume and alter the surface of the entire world with the destructive tempest due to mispronunciation and a lie."
"De'pistles is safe in de honorable hands for which dey was originally intended." "I'm glad they went off at the right moment," said Elsie, laughing. Dolf rather missed her play upon his mispronunciation of the word, but he gave another magnificent flourish. "Jes so, Miss Elsie; you've 'spressed it beautiful." "How do you do, Dolf?" asked Mrs.
Horatius obtained this name from the loss of one of his eyes in the wars, or, as others write, from the depressure of his nose, which, leaving nothing in the middle to separate them, made both eyes appear but as one; and hence, intending to say Cyclops, by a mispronunciation they called him Cocles.
To mimic the mincing pronunciation of the "Litvok" affords the "Pullack" a sense of superiority almost equalling that possessed by the English Jew, whose mispronunciation of the Holy Tongue is his title to rank far above all foreign varieties.
I asked for the doctor's address; for I had heard that they had called in some one, at their landlady's recommendation: but I could hardly understand Clement's broken English, and mispronunciation of our proper names, and was obliged to apply to the woman herself.
It had not occurred to him ever before in his meditations to separate his blood and race from the common English; and he was not of a character to dwell on fantastical and purposeless distinctions, but the mispronunciation of his name and his nephew's at an instant when he was thinking of Nevil's laying down his life for such men as these gross excessive breeders, of ill shape and wooden countenance, pushed him to reflections on the madness of Nevil in endeavouring to lift them up and brush them up; and a curious tenderness for Nevil's madness worked in his breast as he contrasted this much-abused nephew of his with our general English the so-called nobles, who were sunk in the mud of the traders: the traders, who were sinking in the mud of the workmen: the workmen, who were like harbour-flats at ebb tide round a stuck-fast fleet of vessels big and little.
Kindly and helpful neighbors can live together without the correctness and elegancies of either. To me it is hateful to see them caricatured and made literary merchandise. Not so were the classic idyls and pastorals of Theocritus, Virgil, Spenser and Saint Pierre composed. Is there nothing but bad grammar, mispronunciation and provincialisms in the heart of the rustic?
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