New-York tribune., 1901-04-23
IMPOVERISHING THE L4NGr4GE
POPULAR WRITER'S PROTEST AGAINST
sLIPSHOD HABITS OF SPEECH AMONG
EVEN EDUCATED AMERICANS.

| To the Editor of The Tribune.
Sir: 1t is a pleasure-and not every day one
| to find an American newspaper coming to the de-
| fence of good English, The Tribune recently did
| in explaining to puzzled correspondent why IAN
| historian" is preferable form to "a historian
| That reader capable of observing such niceties
| should yet be unacquainted with of the most
familiar rules of English euphony speaks volumes
! for the way in which English is taught in this
country. but VIII surprise one familiar with the
| grammatical standards of the average American
| writer on syntax and composition.
Such shades of speech are. however mainly liter
airy, and much the language must suffer In los
ing them 1t is in far greater danger from the i'm
| poverishment of our spoken vocabulary The Amer
tcan language is, in fact. rapidly derentiating it
self from the English and always to the profit
| OF the younger branch. Thus have practically
lost the subjunctive. may and can" regard
| ed as synonymous the interchangeable use Of
'shalr' and will has passed from Irish English
| speech to own. and is finding its way into
| newspapers and books. and past participes manu-
factured out of nouns weakening the few in
fected verbs have left.
Is inevitable that time and altered surro,ndiros
| should modify the language, and such changes as
| enrich 1t are welcome, whatever their source In
| fortunately, however, tho tendency OF American
| speech (and not only that of the uneducatedD Is
to mpoverish rather than enrich the mother
tongue. We continually replacing some good
| word with definite and familiar meaning by an
other OF quite different significance, and in no way
letter adapted the service into which II ie sud
denly impressed In this way hundreds Of useful
distinctions have been ost-not the pedantic shades
of meaning with which speech has no time IN
reckon. but the kind of distinction that helps the
average man to express his meaning more quickly
| and precisely.
Such losses, 1t Is true, originate among the unedu-
| Gated, but owing TO our lax habits Of speech and
| initiative tendencies they spread rapidly from the
| street to the newspaper and from the newspaper
10 the book. 1t is not only in the street that one
| hears back Of used for behind Cunning for
pretty or engaging. fix for to .'set right
or to arrange" The two latter words have in
fact. been so successfully wrenched from their true
meaning that those who would not think of using
| them In speaking so that 1t has become almost
pedanuc to talk OF mans cunning or of fixing
In other cases the word may studied in vari
| Gus degrees OF deterioration. Thus team has
come to mean one horse to the man in the street
M miie appaFeIrs par STANDS In newspaper parance
and In the vocabulary of the sport (here the need
Of definiteness Is fell, its specific of four
curious instance or the perversion of this word is
| TO be seen on several roads Ienox where the
etc. Loaded for laden" is a good eXampie Of
the o.s OF fne IN infection and it is distressing to
politan Museum are loaned instead Of being
Oddly enough. IT is in the domestic branches that
our spoken language has suffered some OF its most
needless perversions- Is this because women are
| less sensitive than men to shades of meaning and
t aes necessity % Of expressing
why such distinctive words mercer and
in the general term rygoods or ravs whv peen lost
should have been sacrificed to store" which wears
on Its very face its inappropriat teness 10 such a
purpose, Why. again, should so good a word as
bodice be in danger OF determination through
the senseless and vulgar waist which In its most
Tiaculous form, shirt waist has already passed
| INTO the language? ''Petticoat' (perhaps throueh
some prudish euphuSn,) being rapidly discarded
| for skirt" another instance of one word beine
Locea 70 serve two distinct purposes since no sub
stitute mas yet been provided for skirt" The usa
OF me word laundry to signify washing or the
WASH, mas not vet reached polite speech but is on
IT'S way thther via the advertisement and the
| .e"spaPer, ana such euphuism sure to appeaI
10 the order of mind which prefers ..eeya tor. n
| NIT and 'rnucilaSe" to gum -
| Such changes as / have ed are RI he da,lo-e5
since they weaken and blur the language ana they
| are TAXING place among with such ranidifv tb.t
the vocabulary Of the average Amerisan Is NV NV
| distinctly poorer than 1t was a generation ago "
' New-York. April 20. 1901 - " Ao->- Ao->-