The Portland daily press., 1892-11-11

Al Rlgnt said the teacher. sJlsH
This is one in aBuffalo school ;t:li
When all was quiet. one of the pupils eaiieo
out. ~
Il amt got no ruler" .
In answer to this the teacher, without correct
ing the chlld'S language, said: . ~,
! You don't need a ruler. Do II inc way you
done 1t yesterdays t.iiH 4
\ We presume these illustrations could
be multiplied dd infnitatm in most OF the
schools in the country. Great attention
is given in all of them to the spelllng OF
words; little to the proper use OF words
themselves in composition, and none
whatever to the most important use OF
all, their use in speech. Nor is this true
of the schools only. 1t is true OF the
family. We presume there is no
country in the world in which the
classes which get a fair educatlon IN
schools and colleges pa SO Ht1le atIen-
ton to the manner in which their chill
dren speak their mother tongue-that is,
to correctness f accent, distinctness OF
accent, distinetness of enunciation, and
grammatical collocation. The result is
seen in very remarkable degeneration
of the spoken English, especially in New
England, where the English OF the last
generation was, on the whole, taking the
whole population together, probapiy the
best in the world, while the English OF
this generation is to a sad degree SLOW
emily, slangy and indistinct; that is, the
syllables are slurred over, and the open
vowels closed as if through sheer lazl-
ness. We have seen illustrations OF this
in the difference between the English OF
father and his son or grandson, which
would be painful to anyone who looked
on pure and carefully guarded speech
as one of the most precious OF national
inheritances. In every part OF the West
this process of degeneration has gone so
far that "Chatham's language" has Pc
come mere dialect, into which each IN
dividual introduces such varieties as ne
pleases.
ssIndeed, it may be said that as rule
the only class who now pay attention TO
pronunciation and grammar and the
choice of words in speaking are the MN
listers, and, except from them, since the
lyceum lecturers of the Phillips, Chapln,
and Curtis sort have died out, the people
in many parts of the country never hear
what may be called pure spoken English.
The bar has long given up any attempt
to take care of the language. Some
lawyers in this city talk slang and bad
grammar purposely in court in order to
get "solid" with the jury, who never
talk anything else. We have been told
recently by gentleman brought up in
the West, who was graduated from Yale
College, that until he went to New Hav-
en-, q lad of seventeen, he had never
heard pure English, and, on hearing it
| from the Yale professors, it seemed to
him new and beautiful language, which
he was delighted to think he understood
Parents seldom take any more pains to
correct the solecisms and blunders OF
their children's speech than DIR. Rice S
teachers. We heard of a case lately
where teacher, having undertaken to
give some drill in enunciation and into
nation to girl in whom she was inter-
ested, was promptly stopped by mes
sage from the child's mother, that
.sMamie spoke well enough and she
desired her to talk whatever way she
wanted to-
One reason, and perhaps the most po-
tent, why Europeans take better care OF
their language than we do is that in all
the leading European countries correct
speech and good accent are, If not
marks of good social position, power
full aids in climbing into one. The pains
which Irish and Scotch barristers, seek
ing their fortunes at the English bar,
take to get rid of their brogue would by
most Americans be considered very ridi-
culous. So great man as Lord Mans
field made it subject of unwearied vigi-
lance, and Lord Campbell says his
Scotch origin was finally only discover
able through two or three words, which
he never could master, one of them being
solicitor, which he always made "solee-
citor.'' A man who "drops his his" in
England, or sticks them on improperly,
has to be very able, or witty, or wise to
escape social damnation. A man to be
well received in what is considered good
society has not onlygto dress and use
his knife ard fork like a gentleman, but
has to speak like a gentleman. His ac,
cent and grammar must Indicate, Wheth-
| erStruly or t., careful bringing up in a
circle in which these things were con-
sidered of consequence. An English
| child's speech is watched as carefully as
his morals or manners. The same thing
| is true of France, Germany and Italy.
| The educated and well-to-do classes in
| these countries are expected to look after
| their native tongue. 1t is one OF thel1
charges, for neglect of which they are
| punished by loss of social consideration.
Here we have no such stimulus to
orthoepy or good grammar. One hears
| every day men who pride themselves on
all sorts of social advantages, birth,
education. clothes and money, and what
not, talking like Southern crackers
| and girls, who think themselves the pink
of fashion, Cabling in the tongue Of
| cooks and housemaids. Liberty to talk
in any way he pleases is in fact the birth;
| right of the modern American child, and
he uses it to produce jargon, halt
made up of slovenly pronunciation and
half of street slang uttered with loud
harsh, bar-room intonation Now that
the country is beginning to pay some
attention to the aesthetic side of life, this
evil of bad language ought to be taken
in hand by parents and teachers, and
dealt with promptly before we get into
the linguistic condition which they say
existed in Rome even in Cicero's day AND
exists today in Turkey, inlwhich the lit
erary language differs wholly from spok'
en- language, and the unlearned man has
to work over book as he would over a
| foreign tongue.