if it gets itself accepted, we must acquiesce; and unless the change is
not only useless but harmful, we should do so without regret, because the
influence of the written on the spoken form of language is in itself no
more condemnable than any other of the natural processes that affect the
development of speech. There are, however, some 'spelling-pronunciations'
that are positively mischievous. Many people, though hardly among those
who are commonly reckoned good speakers, pronounce _forehead_ as it is
written. To do so is irrelevantly to call attention to the etymology of a
word that has no longer precisely its etymological sense. When the thing
to be denoted is familiar, we require an _identifying_, not a
_descriptive_ word for it; and we obey a sound instinct in disguising by a
contracted pronunciation the disturbing fact that _forehead_ is a
compound.

On the other hand, a 'spelling-pronunciation' may conduce to clearness,
and then it ought to be encouraged. I have elsewhere advocated the
sounding of the initial _p_ in learned (not in popular) words beginning
with _ps_; and many other similar reforms might with advantage be adopted.
There are also other reasons besides clearness which sometimes justify the
assimilation of sound to spelling. Thus the modern pronunciation of
_cucumber_ (instead of 'cowcumber') gets rid of the ridiculous association
with the word _cow_; and only a fanatical adherent of the principle
'Whatever was is right' would desire to revive the obsolete form.

H.B.