XII

On the Corruption of Speech

BAD English is an offense when it emanates from the uneducated; it is little short of a crime when it comes from those who have had opportunities for education. It is due to the care which we exercise in teaching the language that the level of English speech is higher in America than it is in England. A recent visitor to our shores gave expression to the following:

"The American has a way of writing, figuratively, with a dictionary at his elbow and a grammar within reach. There are few educated Englishmen who do not consider their own authority-the authority drawn from their school and university training-superior to that of any dictionary, or grammar, especially of any American one. So it has come about that, while the tendency of the American people is constantly to become more exact and more accurate in its written and spoken speech, the English tendency is no less constantly toward a growing laxity; and while the American has been sternly and conscientiously at work pruning the inelegancies out of his language, the Briton has been light-heartedly taking these same inelegancies to himself.""

He is not alone in his view. Professor Walter W. Skeat, writing on "The Problem of Spelling Reform, "" said: "I lately met the President of an American University, who said to me (I have no doubt with perfect truth): ‘In our universities English takes first place.' This is one of those

1 H. P. Robinson, "The Twentieth Century American."

2 "Proceedings of the British Academy," Vol. II.

facts of which the ordinary Englishman is entirely ignorant; indeed, it is almost impossible for him to imagine how such a state of things can be possible. I recommend the contemplation of this astounding fact to your serious consideration.”

Compare the foregoing with what Rudyard Kipling has written about the Americans, and note the difference: "They delude themselves into the belief that they talk English-the English-the American has no language. He is dialect, slang, provincialism, accent, and so forth.'2a It is as well known in England to-day as it is in America, even if it be not known to Mr. Kipling, that professors in American universities, and other American scholars, have done more than any other English-speaking people to preserve in all its purity that "Well of English undefiled" which we share in common.

The American has dialect, so have the British Isles, and they have it almost to the number of all their counties and shires. Professor Emerson in his "History of the English Language" says: "Spoken English throughout America is more uniform among all classes, there being no such strongly marked dialects as in England. America differs from England also in having no one locality, the speech of which is acknowledged by all as standard usage. The only standard recognized in America is that of dictionaries, which attempt to follow, not one locality, but the best usage of the country as a whole."

The American has slang. Much slang, American or English, is slovenly, incorrect, vicious, and worthless; but this lives its little day and is soon crowded out of use by the lesser part which is virile, expressive, and picturesque.

2a "American Notes," II.

American slang breathes the atmosphere of thought untrammeled by conventionalities; it is free, forcible, and vigorous, and to use the best of it is no longer considered an offense to good taste. To-day Richard Grant White's principle that "in language everything distinctively American is bad,'' is erroneous.

Mr. Kipling says that the American has “provincialism,” whatever that may mean. If Mr. Kipling means that the American uses provincialisms, and will study Dr. Joseph Wright's "English Dialect Dictionary," he will find that there are others to whom the distinction of "provincialism" applies much more appropriately than it does to the people of the United States.

The American has accent. For this he has reason to be thankful because he knows what to do with it. Mr. Robinson says the American people are to be envied for the homogeneity of their language. He thinks Stevenson understates matters when he says: "You may go all over the States, and setting aside the actual intrusion and influence of foreigners-negro, French, or Chinese-you will scarce meet with so marked a difference of accent as in forty miles between Edinburgh and Glasgow, or of dialect as in the hundred miles between Edinburgh and Aberdeen." Mr. Robinson believes this universal tongue"this universal comprehensibility"-is of the greatest importance to the nation, and thinks there is no way of reckoning how much England has lost owing to the fact that communication of thought is practically impossible between people who are neighbors.

With all his faults as enumerated by Mr. Kipling, the

3 "The Atlantic Monthly," XLI, 495.

4 H. P. Robinson, "The Twentieth Century American."

American, even in the haste of affairs which is a characteristic of his race, has not yet reached the state of his English "cousins," which was recently described by a writer in "The Bystander" as follows:

Long ago society unanimously decided to drop its g's. We went huntin', ridin', shootin'. Now it is my duty to reveal, we are threatened with the mutilation of the adverb. "I should be awful glad to come if it wasn't so frightful far," writes the gilded youth. "I'm absolute sick of this utter boring play," says Lady Hortense in the stalls. We are "fearful pleased" and "terrible disgusted." Last week we spoke of a certain young lady as "huntin' regular" with the Quorn.

In treating the subject of a Pure Speech League established in London, "The Sun" (New York) said editorially:

No one knows who the founders are, but they must be superior people, for in a circular newly published they allege that not more than one person in 104 speaks real English. It is alleged, for instance, that the Londoners say oi for i, whereas others aver that they have never heard anything resembling oi. "Many say aw," writes one critic; "many say ah, but in all the various shades and gradations of Cockney we do not remember having heard oi." A common Cockneyism of our time is the substitution of i for a, as "pile" for pail, "line" for lane, and so on; but Professor Skeat says he can well remember the shock of surprize when first he heard this singular perversion. On that occasion it was a railway porter who cried "Myden Lyne," but now, according to Professor Skeat, "you can already trace a tendency toward the Cockney 'line' for lane in the speech of many educated persons." Dr. Wright in his Dictionary of Dialect gives sixteen different pronunciations of the word "down" as used in various parts of England, and these differences are all in the vowel sound.

A German who spent some time in the United States and then returned home was greatly impressed with the passion

for the study of English which he found here: "The bulwark of the American republic is the dictionary,” he said. "I never saw so many dictionaries in my life in any language, as I have seen in New York. In homes the dictionary occupies a prominent place on the library or sitting-room table, and in offices it is frequently the only literature in sight. When I first began to make my acquaintance with the business life of the metropolis I considered it a reflection on my ability as a linguist when the office-boy handed me a dictionary with which to while away the time while waiting for his employer. Later I found that Americans born and bred improved the fleeting moments in the same manner." It is different in England-there dictionaries are the luxury of a few. But, notwithstanding the fact that the habit of consulting the dictionary frequently is cultivated among the masses in America far more than among them in England, there is a strong tendency to misuse words on both sides of the Atlantic. In America the endeavor is to obtain an accurate knowledge of the meanings of words, yet despite this endeavor, erroneous and illiterate forms of speech abound. Perhaps, these may be attributed to an abnormal passion for novelty which seems to dominate the English-speaking races. There are very few persons, even among those who would be shocked at being told that they were not well educated, who are not given to cultivating, perhaps unconsciously, the vernacular of the street. "The English Slanguage,' as one purist fittingly termed it, pervades our daily life. Children display persistent aptitude in acquiring expressive but uncultured phrases, and their parents in chiding them sometimes make matters worse by the way they set about it. "The Philadelphia Telegraph" recently printed a good