New-York tribune., 1902-03-23
4 TROUBLESOME LETTER.

The Rev. Godfrey Hill OF England, IS q cour-
ageous man. Not only does he defend the drop
ping of the letter "h," so common among unedu-
Gated English people, but he has written a book
in which he predicts the permanent shelving of
this aspirate from the English alphabet At
the present time in England as every one
knows, this letter is the password to good soci-
ETY., and no one who mispronounces ii can enter
therein unless, possibly, he is very wealthy, and
even then the man who has not made his peace
with the letter is the subject of much covert
rdcule. The result Is that a multitude Of
otherwise excellent people in England are
either shut out Of the inner circle of good
ciety, or else they gain adnittance by a long
and severe course of mental training in the
proper use of the letter. 1t is said, however
that even when such persons have finally
schOoled themselves in its correct use they are
liable in moments Of excitement TO revert to
their old habit, TO their own modification and
that of their friends.
1t is obvious to Mr.. Hill, who Is not at all
disturbed at the prospect of having bis own
name turned into III, that there must be some
deep seated reason for this widespread ten.
dency to misuse the letter. And he finds it in
the fact that it occupies a more prominent place
IN English than in any other tongue The aspi
rate, he says, has always been a source Of
trouble among the Greeks and Romans; it was
always misused, and, as in England this mis-
use Of the letter was declared to be n mark of
illiteracy by the higher classes Thus Catullus
ridiculed a certain Arrius-a name curiousy
reminiscent of the English "'Arry"-not, how
ever, for dropping his "h's" but for using the
aspirate whenever it was possible. Everybody
IN Rome, he says, got so tired Of Arrlus and his
his that there was general rejoicing when he
received an appointment to Syria, but even then
he sent home report about the roughness of
! the "HiOnian waves" Later, however, unedu-
Gated Romans took to dropping their his
| which. in turn was just as much reprobated by
cultivated people as ST. Augustine testified in
! the remark freely translated: "If a man mur-
"ders the word human by calling it ''uman,' he
! will more offend his hearers than if he had
! Committed a real murder"
| Evidently, according to Mr. Hill, the expert
! ence of the Greeks and Romans with the aspl-
| rate had an effect on the Romance languages.
/ Taking into consideration the fact that the
/ dropping of his" in late classical Latin was
| prevalent, and remembering the general ten
dency Of all languages TO become easier in pro-
nunciaton (fOr nature abhors a meaningless
difficulty, we are not surprised to find that the
Romance languages, or those originating from
the Latin, generally or always discard the 'h';
thus the French take their "avolr" from cha
bere," the Italians their 'istora' from "his-
toria,' the Rumanians their "omu-T from
homo lille"
The English language, however. not only re-
tanned the aspirate but at the present time the
scrupulously correct use of it is made the shib-
poleth OF education and culture. Against this
arbitrary rule Mr.. Hill enters protest. A few
/ hundred years ago, he says educated English
men dropped the n" and suffered no ostracisro
therefor. Why should a man otherwise ire