Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1905-01-18
MISTER AND EQUIVALENTS.
Use Monsieur, Signor, Senior
and Herr.

From the Boston Herald.
Our English use of the title Mister In
application to men Of foreign nationality Is
occasionally marked by inconsistencies.
We have no hard and fast rule, but in COM
mon usage the practice, as applied TO TOUR
of the leading nationalities, Is to employ
the equivalent title in their respective Ian
guages, and in the case of all other Ian
guages to use the corresponding French
title. For instance, we call the president
of France M. Loubet; we call the Italian
composer .Sr. Mascagni; we call the Span
ish dramatist ST. Echegaray; we call the
German dramatist Herr Sudermann. In
the three Latin tongues We use the re-
spective authorizations for Monsieur,
"signor" and "senyor." Gin the absence
lsh font of type it has to be expressed by
it's phonetic equivalents 'ny') But in the
German Herr is not abbreviated, SO we
spell it out. To be consistent We should
designate Russian as "Gospod:' Gospod
de Witte, for instance. we ought to say,
and we should seek out the equivalents in
Hungarian, Dutch, Danish, Norwegian,
Swedish, Portuguese (Senhor), Turkish and
the like. and apply them with correspond
ing accuracy But knowledge fails us In
most of these tongues, SO we compromise
on French. 1t would seem little ridicu-
lous. and possibly it might be offensive. to
give the French handle to a German name
IN. Liebkrecht," for instance-though
when a German name gets into France by
by way Of Alsace-as those of SO many
(Marcel Schwob, with the "a changed to
10Y the IN" makes proper handle. But
we insist upon the Herr for the German,
at the risk Of speaking it like her" as
most Of us do. In German, however. 1t
would be safe to call almost anybody doc
tor" Doctors are thicker in Germany than
colonies are in Kentucky. Nearly every
educated German is doctor OF some sort
-l~> ho
anybody as Herr Doctor who was not
one 1t would merely give pleasure as
harmless compliment, just as any non
military Kentuckian is pleased to be taken
TO use "Gospod" in addressing or des-
ignating a Russian might inconvenfently
add to the very full verbal mouthfuls that
the average Russian names make for U.S.
There are so many German names among
those high in authority in Russia that the
German title might not seem out OF place.
Herr Won Witte would appear perfectly
natural, but NJ. de White is almost invari-
ably used. Probably one reason why we
have adopted French in such cases Is that
French having so long been the worlds
polite language, we have copied Its usages.
geographical names. like The Hague.
PRAGUE and in "Saxe" for Saxon" as in
Saxe-Weimar. French seems strikingly in
gian or Swedish names-"M. Bjoernson."
IN. Ibsen," for instance. Curiously we do
not think of giving a Japanese a
French handle to his name-rather
significantly we make him one of our
selves; Mr.. Asakawa, Mr.. Kakuzo. we say.
English-speaking people are alone in at
tempting to use the titles OF other Ian
guages rather than their own in designating
foreigners. It would be simpler and more
consistent to use our own. just as In other
languages they do. Fortunately there is a
growing tendency in that direction among
/ us: 1t Is recognized as quite proper to say
Mr.. Sardou. Mr.. Hauptmann, Mr.. Galdos,
| just as we would say Mr.. Meredith.