You—or anyone you know—pronounced height like it has a lame pants about last? It’s okay, we won’t judge.
Benjamin Franklin probably did too:
On the Lord’s Day this past 24th we were amazed with the extraordinary Elevation of the Tides, which filled most of the Streets as well as the Cellars near the Water…. — The New-England CourantMarch 4, 1772/3
The spellings ‘heighth’ and ‘highth’ competed in popularity with ‘height’ in the 18th century.
And likewise George Washington:
Please send me a set of Light Jackets…; Therefore, I would like you to measure a Gentleman wearing the following well-tailored Gowns — ie — 6 feet tall & tailored to scale; if anything is rather slim than thick for such a tall Person with rather long arms and thighs…. —letter, April 26, 1763
But it seems none of them use it all the time:
Instead of pinching the point between the thumb and the finger, as in the last experiment, keep the thumb and finger about an inch away from it, but at the same height, the point between them. —Benjamin Franklin, Experiments supporting the use of pointed lightning rods, [18?] August 1772
But cruelty of this kind has reached such a high level that I fear nothing, except Your intervention in ordering those judges to be brought to Justice, and appointing others whom they could hope for more, could avert the worst consequences for a (seemingly) infatuation! — George Washington, letter, October 9, 1757
A century later, Charles Dickens probably didn’t use it himself:
She started at me, and ran along a jagged log that jutted out from where we were, and jutted out into the deep water at some height…. —David Copperfield1850
But he has characters that did:
Mr. Peggotty said. ‘To look at these flowers! Why, Mas’r Davy, when I first met you, you were only the tallest of the smallest of these! When Em’ly warned not to grow older, and our poor boy BUT a boy!’ —David Copperfield1850
This suggests that something has changed in the century between the Founders and Dickens. Franklin and Washington were clearly fluent in English, but in less than a century, Dickens was using height to show the dialect (and one that doesn’t look good there). We might think this has something to do with the ocean between them, except that American humorist Marietta Holley did the same a few years later:
I said, “Did you tell me that, and you’re a man of prayer and a Christian?” “Yes,” she said, “I paid $300 for this dress, and I’ll probably miss the chance to show it off to other wives who will envy me for owning it. sure,” she said, “it’s a little lower than what Americans usually wear. But in fashion, like anything else, someone has to go first. This is the pinnacle of fashion, ” she speaks. Says I in Witherin’ and burnin’ skorn, “It was the pinnacle of rudeness.” —Samantha at Saratoga1887
The narrator’s own speech, when there is no skorn, uses height:
And I wonder if in the future we should use the great pages of the night sky to write messages from city to city, or from sea to land, about danger and warning. or not; and then I thought to myself, if earth-bound souls can do so many things, who knows but liberated souls go out and go from peak to peak of wisdom may still be able to signal Safe Land messages to help and warn the souls it holds dear below. —Samantha at Saratoga1887
But perhaps the question we should ask is: why not? height ends in lame pants? Other measure words do: width, width, length.
As we have seen, in fact there was a time height follow the same model. spelling height And High popular competition in standard English with height in the 18th century.
Turns out the finals t form that arose in northern dialects of Middle English at a time when Horror sound in height still pronounced and pronounced with a sound no longer found in typical English dialects: it has the sound \ḵ\, found at the end of German names White and in the word Scots lake.
But because some other English words end with the consonant cluster \ḵth\, the second sound loses its frictional property and becomes a simple \t\, which remains the same even when the \ḵ\ sound has changed. disappear. In the dialects of southern England, the phrase was preserved until the \ḵ\ sound was lost, but by the 19th century heightalthough corresponds to other nouns in size, has been largely dropped by heightat least in non-dialect published works.
What does this mean for you, o speaker height as if it was spelled height? You’re merely a little behind your time, and perhaps a stickler for consistency. We still won’t judge you. But since your 21st century English speakers probably will, we recommend pronouncing height instead with \t\ at the end.
Categories: Usage Notes
Source: vothisaucamau.edu.vn
