The Worthington advance. [volume] (Worthington, Minn.) 1874-1908, 1896-01-16
The English Language.

A writer in The Atlantic Monthly
fieroely attacks the English language
as being the freakiest and most un-
reliable of any in existence. He
says: The words of our language
might indeed be compared to the
countless leaves on the millions of
trees in the world, each one of
which is to certain extent law
unto itself and develops individual
peouliarities. believe it never hap
pens with any other tongue spoken
ON this globe that people Of culture
and even learning sarein doubt as to
the proper pronunciation Of any
word and go to the dictionary to
settle the matter, finding often
enough that doctors disagree. u I
have given some time in my life to
the study of foreign languages and
know that in all of them certain in
flexible rules govern certain COM
binations of oonsonants and vowels,
90 rarely, if ever, departed from
that it Is possible at least to ap-
proaoh from books alone correct
pronunciation. But in English who
ever knows from its spelling how q
word will "get ITSELF pronounced?
Woe to tho misguided foreigner
who should attempt to learn to
speak our idiom from the printed
page only! know Of one such case,
attended, as might be supposed, with
most disastrous consequences. 1t
was that of a German who came
here during the war, and having no
means enlisted in q German regi-
ment In the leisure of camp life
he undertook to learn English by
himself by reading Dickens.
But, ye gods and little fishesl To
this day this man, who, it must be
admitted, has exceptionally little
ear and equally little ambition,
speaks of the "wonly thing" he can
do and of the 'pewblic good" and
uses a jargon in general which it is
simply wonderful any American
mind should grasp the meaning of.
But, then, for the matter of that,
why, really, should it not be
"wonly" and "pewblio?" Can we
give the slightest reason why VOW
els sometimes have one sound and
sometimes another?
: A little composition such as this
shows the m ystery of our pronunci-
alton: "That day, having some
chores to do and no choice about it,
I went into the garden, but stopped
to listen to the chorus or choir of
birds, although I had an ache in my
stomach from eating too much spin
ach and a pain in my head from the
heat. My ear was not affected, how
ever, and it being still early I cut
down a pear and found in it pearl
Otherwise it proved disappoint-
ment, which I loved not. 1t was
somewhat tough and gave me a
i cough, and as I had not bought the
fruit I let the bough slip back.
There was no use, though, in hav-
ing q sour soul, SO set off on lit
Tie tourney, making tour of the
garden. Ny wife had not been able
70 sew, yet l. had intended to.sow
some corn, but a SOW with her litter
had eaten 1t, while the owl came
forth to drink from her bowl. 1t
being near noon, I took out my book
4 70 read, and having read some time
marked with q bit Of lead such pas
sages as had the lead" 49,.
Anaxagoras, an Athenian philoso-
.pher who lived in the fifth century
befo1e Christ, taught. that wind was
the result of rarefaotion; that the
I rainbow was the result Of reflection
and refraction; that the moons
light was ali borrowed from the
( sun, and that the fixed stars were of
;,nrnana lice I'll far beyond the