The morning Astorian. [volume] (Astoria, Oregon) 1899-1930, 1904-02-12
LATIN AS AN AID TO ENGLISH.

| i4sAIiN 40 AN AlD IL
The English as a rule employ words with finer
feeling for the nicties of meaning than do the Amer
leans, as people, and the explanation of this lie,
probably in the fact that all English schools and uni
versties until very recent years, insisted ON tho
Isctudy of Latin and Greek Whether the institution
| Of modern sides" in most of the English public
schools will effect precision of speech in England Is
a problem that must wait for an answer American
schools have never made SO much of the classics
as have the English schools and this policy may be
defended by many sound, strong arguments But
it is indisputable that man who possesses fair
knowledge of Latin and Greek especially Latin
will use English more accurately other things be-
ing equal than man who lacks that knowledge,
totally ignorant of those dead tongues, use English
with exquisite precision The rule is subject to many
exceptions And there are many who have been put
through course of Latin and Greek with no per-
ceptable gain in the art Of using English words Some
people are born without sense for percelving lin
guistic nicties just as others are born without a
sense for gpod music. tf@
Some writer's affect the good old Saxon smplic
ity' in words, but in this, If extremists, they are
quite far in as any mtator of the Johnsonese
dialect, the San Francisco Bulletin believes. Eng
lish is neither pure Saxon pure Latin and Greek
1t is thorough blend and mixture of the two The
Norman word has become as English as the Norman
baron. 1t has as much right in our English tongue
without the Latin and Greek, derivatives English
would be bare poor speech, inadequate for the
converse of civilized people.
And yet, since there are two sides to every argu
ment it is also the fact that knowledge of other
tongues sometimes impares the domatc raciness of
a mans own native speech. William Matthews
quotes Schiller as saying that he read no more than
was necessary in foreign languages because it was
his business to write German, and he thought that
by reading other languages he should lose his nicer
perceptions of what belonged to his own. But Ger
man is not so compost language as English. Many
writer's from the time of Cicero have remarked that
women speak their native tongue most purely because
they know no other "A man who thinks knowl-
edge of Latin essential to the purity of English die
ton " said Macaulay, "either has never conversed
with an accomplished woman or does not deserve 10
have conversed with her" Bunyan wrote racer
finer prose that the pedantic Milton. "Gulliver's
Travels is better book than 'Rasselas.
Scientists are the worst offenders against Saxon
simplicity They persist upon falling back upon the
dead languages for scientific terms for the reason
that these terms will thus be identical in all languages
an Ineligible to all learned men, Many words once
confined exclusively to scientific jargon, are now in
ordinary circulation. Anent the adoption Of scien-
tifc expressions into the common speech Punch once
established clever bit of verse whose merit, more
than its pertinency here, is all excuse for reprnng
it:
Il love thee, Mary, and thou lowest me-
Our mutual fame is like the affinity
That doth exist between two simple bodies.
I am Potassium to thine Oxygen
Sweet thy name is Briggs,
And mine is johnson. Wherefore should not we
Agree to form Johnsonate Of Briggs?
We will The day. the happy day is nigh,
When johnson shall with beautious Bgiggs COM
bine"
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