"CIVIS"

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XXIV, Issue 113, 14 May 1890, Page 2

"CIVIS"

Writes in tho Otago Witness :— " Through a misohano?, whioh I regret, the following important communication has esoaped notioe for several weeks ;—

Nelson, 14th Maroh 1890. Dear Mr Civis, -Many Nelson people are continually arguing as to the correct way to pronounce " Oivis. " Some contend that you are Siv'is, and others insist upon Si'vis. Would you kindly oblige your many admirers in this part of New Zealand by puitiny us right ?

And further, would you state which is the more general way of pronouncing the word in Dunedin, whether Siv'iaor Si'vis. If ifc would uot be troubling you too much would you kindly reply through the columns of the Nelson Evening Mail. By so doing you would very greatly oblige.— "Enqnirer." On discovering that I had held this letter over for nearly two months, keeping the population of Nelsoa duriug that period in a ferment of fruitless debate, my firsfc impulse was to telegraph the required information to the Evening Mail, and all other papers, through the Press Association, in some such form as the following :— How to sound my letters five 1 English fashion : firsfc three— Civ But if English speech you leave

For modern Latin, then say — Keev. But the telegraph people most carfcainly would have made a hash of ifc, wifch conse« quences fco the public tranquillity painful to contemplate. The uncsrfcainty as to the name by whioh it pleases ma to be invoked might have become greater than before. I employ, therefore. . the slower but surer medium of the Witness. Patient investi« gafcioa of the quatrain given above will put fcho question beyond the aced of further debate. As to the alternative between 0 soft and C hard, why, you pay your money and you take your choice ; but ifc should be remembered fchafc when " Civis" is " Keevis " "Cajsar" must b.* " Is. y*er," and "Cicero" " Kikero." In Dunedia at present we talk English,