Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1889-08-20
ONE GREAT LANGUAGE.
The English Proud Of Their Tongue and
no Other Wanted.

From the London Sunday Timea
It is significant that of all the nations Of
Europe, except the spaniards, Englishmen are
the worst at continental languages. There are
good reasons for this, Of course, but none the
less it is re proach to us. Even some Of our
most brilliant statesmen Of modern times have
been unable in conferences abroad to discuss
the matter under consideration in any living
language but their own. Foreigners say that We
are too proud to learn, and that, like the Greeks,
we consider every tongue We do not understand
''barbarous." Others sneer at Us and declare
that our own language is 80 uncouth that we
are unable to master either the softer or the
more refined dialects Of our neighbors. Be
this as it may, it is beyond all dispute that az
nation we are not polyglots.. 1t is only small
proportion Of Englishmen who can hold a con-
versation with weli-educated foreigners in
language as polished and exact as they them.
selves use. Yet how different it is abroad! The
Latin" nations, such as the French, Italians
and Spaniards are not, as rule, good linguists
The Russians, however-Russian gentlemen
speak anything; and their English is often ire
proachable. II is the same with Belgians,
Dutchmep, Germans, Austrians, Norwegians
and Swiss. Even in Alexandria or Cairo. in
Bombay, Shanghai, or Yokohama the native
speaks Anglo-Saxon so naturally, so easily, and
with such admirable command of idiom that
the traveller is astonished.
If the reason for our inferiority in languages
Is really pride. "insular PRIDE" as our neigh
bors always call it, the sooner we get rid Of il
the better. Every year continental travel IL
becoming more popular among us than ever,
and though it is possible to ''set along some
how" without the slightest knowledge Of the
language OF the country, 1t is certain that the
merest smattering Of French and German goes
a. great way in making the journey more agree
aDie and less expensive than it would otherwise
be. Where we find English spoken" we
usually have to pay heavily for the luxury of
hearing our native tongue tortured. There is,
however, more important consideration than
a little extra imposition by foreign guides and
shopkeepers We are actually being told that
we must speak the language of our neighbors,
unless we wish our neighbors to come over
here and take our business from us. As it is,
the transfer OF commercial work from English
to German and Greek clerks is very note
worthy, and London is, in consequence, fast
attracting to it colonies OF these uationalities as
large as those of New York. IT, on the other
hand, We as nation find it difficult to acquire
other languages, there is all the more reason,
some people say, for redoubling effort. We
have got to do 1t, we are told, and the sooner
we set about it the better.
But we cannot help thinking that there are
possibilities in the situation which these au-
thorltes do not recognize. For, after an
French Is not SO overwhelming necessity, nor
German, nor Italian, nor anything else-except
HindostanL Good men, and wise and brilliant
have lived ana gone down to their graves inno-
cent of any speech but their own native Anglo
Saxon, Britain has been proud OF them Europe
afraid OF them. They thought-and there was
patriotism in it-that English was good enough
for anybody. If others could not understand
1t 30 much the worse for them. They must
learn it or go to the wall. Nor can there be
much donbt on this point-that if Americans,
Australians, Anglo-Indians-in fact all the
Engllsh-speaking communities of the earth
refused obstinately to talk any other Ian
guage than their own, everybody else would
have to learn English. The commerce
OF the world cannot go on without
English. Let the traveller stop where he
chooses he will find the Greek. the Jew and
the Scotchman carrying on business. They
transact 1t, however. in English and through
an English firm or an American one. Smaller
branches OF trade fall to the Frenchman, the
German and the Italian-the Portuguese, as a
rule. occupies himself with the leavings Of the
rest but each and all have acquired for prac-
tlcal mercantile reasons a suffciency Of Eng
llsh to make himself understood. So why
should We not strike? There is nowadays such
a beHllderlng quantity of knowledge necessary
that we might refuse on principle to go in
for" languages at all, and insist upon our own
being recognized as the lingua franca Of the
universe. Such a proceeding would, of course,
be odiously insular; but what Of that? We
cannot help being insular. and if our neigh
bors, who find they are unable to make q living
unless they learn our language. choose to sneer
at us for not knowing theirs, let us humbly
confess we cannot-and not try to do SO.