The Sunday herald and weekly national intelligencer., 1890-06-08
AS SHE IS SPOKE IN ENGLAND.
Grammatical Errors Quite the Thing
Among the Bettah Clawsses.

Cockaigne in the Argonaut.
The use of ungrammatical English would
seem to be very important item for the study
and adoption of the eAmerican-would-b English
man. There are no people who speak their
own language so ungrammatically as do the
English. l do not refer to the uneducated or
those Of the lower classes-who, by the by,
thanks to national schools and compulsory ed
ucation, are taught as much grammar as any
one else-but to the upper classes. l have been
thrown good deal with the latter and know
whereof speak. can hardly put my finger on
one person who does not kindly furnish every
verb ''to be' with an objective case. Not in
writing, mind, but in talking. Please note the
distinction. | often wonder how they are able
to wrtecOrrectly after so much incorrect speech.
Then the propositions, as by sort Of inverted
law of recompense, | suppose, govern the nomi-
native case in pronouns. If you hear sit is me"
and SIT was him." your ear is also gladdened
by "Between you and u and ''He came with
George and L. know one young man who is
the grandson of an earl-the peerage dating
from Charles I-who, when coupling himself
with another invariably puts himself first.
The desire to bring ones self forward is a par
donable otfense, il not exactly praiseworthy
action, but when it exhibits itself in such Ian
.SO"5C 40 anu llCH4D aiC SOluS' ~ bCCOiliCS
not what you would call subject for admira-
,tion.
The calling of the young ladies of family
''the Miss Smiths" or the "Miss Joneses," is
not so uncommon as people might suppose.
Indeed know Of two instances where the
daughters names are printed on their mothers
visiting cards in this fashion
The fact is that grammatical speech is re-
garded as pedantic and saVoring Of the school
room. 1 heard lady of title not long ago COM
planning of a certain lady of her acquaintance
for saying is it not ?n 81 daresay the poor
thing was a goVerness before she married, - is
what she brought on herself for being so partc
ular If she had said "Isn't it ?n she might
have been the daughter of a duke.
But if you hear these slips and lapses, be sure
they never get to the double negative, not so
uncommon in America as it ought to be, with
the splendid public school system there, An
erroneous past participle is also unknown
among the people of whom | write.
1t is curious that one kind of error should be
not only permissible, but almost compulsory,
while another of no greater magnitude should
be considered mira dig. Among the best peo-
pie the past partciple of the verb ''to get'' is
never heightened into ''gotten;'' nor is the pre-
tert of seat ever pronounced ''ate''-but sim
ply set Indeed, no termination of either ate
or tie gets other pronunciation than et or It.
Thus prerarlcatc IS clipped like GVect'oaate and
,delicate.
A book might be written with advantage and
profit, explaining ali these things, and dealing
with the subject IN a plain, matter Offact way,
not strictly as q tribute to the increasing de-
mauds of yearning anglomania, but as a curious
exhibit of the Yagaries and inconsistencies Of
the most Irregular hotchpot language Of the
civilized world as it is spoken in the land OF its
birth. Perhaps no part would be so difficult as
the proper allowance Of breadth TO the as, as
they come in different words, with no earthly
difference but the final consonant. For eN-