New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1859-01-21
MR. MARSH on THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE.


mr.. MARSH on THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE.
Professor MARSH gave his lecture on Wednes-
day TO consideration Of some Of the effects oil
printing upon the language. So late as Io5', tue
printsrsio England principally Dnten, VINO could
neither speak nor write English wei, aud VINO cohSe
.quently made many mistakes these soo trehch
printers compounded the two sounds oil me, thtnerto
EXPIRE ssed by different sgns, and the similarity o. 70
one Of them led the spelling ye for ne They often
COMPOUNDED such words as eminent aud 'mmiSent m
geniOus and ingensOas, fres'dent anu precedent.
So great were these blusders that, added to the
changes in spelling which they made in Justification,
the printed English Of the Bible Of 1911 Iess Ike
thst Of the present day in its ohography than was
the best MS. Of Chaucer. The changes 10 the IAN
gusee effected by printing and the Reformation be-
tween 1900 and 1000 were greater thao those which
had been produced in go years before. The printing
Of the classics induced the adoption Of many words
directly from Latin and Latinzstion Of the of,hogra
ply Of macy more which had previously been adopted
from the Norman. The influence Of the press had
been greater upon English than upon any other so-
guaee The nations who spoke Eoglsl were the freest
in the world they had censorship of the press the
utmost freedom Of Discussion allowed even 10 70.
lgion-so the popular mind was cultivated to degree
had no such complete religious dialect pOticsl vo-
cabuary IS we had. Tee excessively Latin tendency
which was produced by preaching, and which culmi-
mated in johnson, was to great extent corrected Dy
Junius and Goblet The necessity Of writing for the
many led to the use of most extensive vocabulary
English was the vernacular not only Of greater
number but of greater variety Of persons than aoy
other The popular writer in the Epgish language
was sure of an audience in al clmes and zones Oars
was the language Of the most intense energetic life Of
the world Besides it vas the language Of liberty and
Of commerce The thuuders Of the great London
journal reverberated throughout the world, and the
opinions Of the NewYork papers were quoted in every
commercial port and political circle. For such use,
q Multiplicity Of words, simplicity Of structure, and
freedom from arbitrary dioms was demanded greater
than YVES needed in any other language. The success
full author gained more renosn than the soldier, and
more dollars than the merchant Numbers, then, and
not character 10 the audience became desirable. The
popular author aimed to reproduce the tone of
light and easy conversation, to make books aod
journals speak the language Of the saloon.
Sly ausion, insinuatiug inOuendo, the rhetoric of
malice, the art of damning with faint praiee-these
were enough to make the fortune OF any sharp shat
low, unprncped Journalist, and these, consequently,
had been largely cultivated in journssm 1t was not
until nearly $50 years after the establishment Of news
papers that they began to be impcrtsnt-no uotl the
appearance Of the letters Of Janius 10 The Morning.
Adrerfser. The influence of thought had now reached
its acme in the daily newspaper. The influence OF
the press as whole had he thought, been deererou'
to the language. 1t had given it greater texbyo OF
structure and and then preserved apopusrphras
for the permanent 4bulay of speech but this poorly
paid for the soyenly style which was engendered by
the necessity OF rapid writing. The style, too, was often
strained to make up for the tack of ideas cant phrases
were extensively used, aud hyperbocs tone Of COM
men atoD of patrons and candidates OF late years,
there had been much improvement. The London
Times had long employed writer's of SURPRISING abll-
ity and the character Of negsp aper articles III tbs
country was much be ter They had given up the PET
phrases of euphemsm, and now only the lowest class
Of dailies would say, instead OF "well dressed and
handsome women" elegantly stred females and
beautiful ladies "