thought, then a slight differential pronunciation would be readily
adopted. Both that and its defined meaning might be true to its
history.]


2. _THAT ENGLISH IS EXCEPTIONALLY BURDENED WITH HOMOPHONES._

This is a reckless assertion; it may be that among the languages
unknown to me there are some that are as much hampered with homophones
as we are. I readily grant that with all our embarrassment of riches,
we cannot compete with the Chinese nor pretend to have outbuilt their
Babel; but I doubt whether the statement can be questioned if confined
to European languages. I must rely on the evidence of my list, and
I would here apologize for its incompleteness. After I had patiently
extracted it from the dictionary a good many common words that were
missing occurred to me now and again, and though I have added these,
there must be still many omissions. Nor must it be forgotten that, had
obsolete words been included, the total would have been far higher.
That must plainly be the case if, as I contend, homophony causes
obsolescence, and reference to the list from Shakespeare in my next
section will provide examples of such words.

Otto Jespersen[12] seems to think that the inconvenience of homophones
is so great that a language will naturally evolve some phonetic habit
to guard itself against them, although it would otherwise neglect such
distinction. I wish that this admirable instinct were more evident in
English. He writes thus of the lists of words which he gives 'to show
what pairs of homonyms [homophones] would be created if distinctions
were abolished that are now maintained: they [the lists] thus
demonstrate the force of resistance opposed to some of the