ar is not trained to exactness,
this habit of slurring introduces many inaccuracies. Even in careful
speaking, many obscure sounds are so nearly alike that only a finely
trained ear can detect any difference. Who of us notices any
difference between _er_ in _pardoner_ and _or_ in _honor_? Careful
speakers do not pass over the latter syllable quite so hastily as over
the former, but only the most finely trained ear will detect any
difference even in the pronunciation of the most finely trained voice.

In the lower grades in the schools the ear may be trained by giving
separate utterance to each sound in a given word, as f-r-e-n-d, _friend,_
allowing each letter only its true value in the word. Still it may also be
obtained by requiring careful and distinct pronunciation in reading, not,
however, to the extent of exaggerating the value of obscure syllables,
or painfully accentuating syllables naturally obscure.

Adults (but seldom children) may train the ear by reading poetry aloud,
always guarding against the sing-song style, but trying to harmonize
nicely the sense and the rhythm. A trained ear is absolutely necessary
to reading poetry well, and the constant reading aloud of poetry cannot
but afford an admirable exercise.

For children, the use of diacritical marks has little or no value, until
the necessity arises for consulting the dictionary for pronunciation.
They are but a mechanical system, and the system we commonly use is so
devoid of permanence in its character that every dictionary has a different
system. The one most common in the schools is that introduced by Webster;
but if we would consult the Standard or the Century or the Oxford, we must
learn our system all over again. To the child, any system is a clog and a
hindrance, and quite useless in teaching him phonetic values, wherein the
voice of the teacher is the true medium.

For older students, however, especially students at home, where no teacher
is available, phonetic writing by means of diacritical marks has great
value.* It is the only practicable way of representing the sounds of the
voice on paper. When the student writes phonetically he is obliged to
observe closely his own voice and the voices of others in ordinary speech,
and so his ear is trained. It also takes the place of the voice for
dictation in spelling tests by mail or through the medium of books.

*There should be no more marks than there are sounds. When two vowels
have