The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1905-07-04
UNTIDY SPEECH.
A Brief Exhibit OF winters Conspicuous
Onenses with "R."

| To THE ED1ToR OF THE SuN-Sr: The
communications that have appeared from
| time to time in The Sun on our untldl-
| ness of speech were sometimes ediiying'
occasionally interesting. frequently amusing.
| OF all literary personages it was most appro-
pirate that Mr.. Henry james. being himself
| a distin guishcd example of that WHEREOF ne
| spoke, should have been spiritually moved
| to lecture us.
| True, there in n good deal Of It,; and not
! little Of it imported from the mother country.
| duty free.--whence MIR. Henry James. Much
| OF IT, however. is OF native growth proVin-
| cial with ourselves. Southerners have been
reviled because of their Africanized untidi-
ness Of speech. Westcrners have been ridi-
culcd because Of their preposterous. untldy
| metaphoric exaggerations OF our common
tongue. Fasteners and Northerners have
been persistently lndicting each other on
numerous counts for criminal violations OF
the laws OF our language. amounting TO until
diness in its superlatve degree,
! New York. plumng itself in this. as In all
| else. as sans rep,oche. clumsily adopts the
Chinese syllable system, in which the phonetic
| function Of our letter r" IL not to be found.
She has. accordingly. eliminated that tip
tonguing cultural from her Manhattanese al
| phabet. She consequently calls herself moo
lawk" and speaks OF all outsiders as "coun-
| twy bwed customehs with thcih fathahs and
| mothas wecently awived in Moo Yawk to do
some shoppin and slghtseein heah in Bwoad-
way an up in Fourteenth sweet an awound
Union Suuah." This. and such as this. is Man
hattanese English. pure and undefled. and
for this untidness Boston holds her in derlsion
and scorn
| Now. untidiness Ia the antonym OF neat
ness. and Is therefore the synonym OF SLOW
And It is th. latter Of
eny charges saa ss AGAINST bastsn an The
common mouthpiece OF all New Enelanders.
ana ana as to them as long ago a. the ear OF
very @ pc eorc eS 81 PfFs the e@ps
* He"ee L came % pass 'af hs
II Boston and all its principal dependencies
the nasal sound Of ing" final could be con
Of speech without the Use Of that fnal ,.Ins..::
and snd thereupon the rg.. final Eas : demitted
hs1ss ssd sss9tn 'Hd and arns 4eada
and @writin'" and "cpherin'
\, Now, it Is well known to all the world and
q II. Athens ' q Hmsrsa. 81 course, t$oss
Great athes o sp4s RSs
TO this they had to make sundry modfca-
d tons Of our Ame1can yernac s9 And In
ated thu. phonetic functions Of our tlp-tongued
letter r." Boston chivslrously corrected
pudiated letter back into our language; but
put it just where it was not wanted. and
where u had never belonged, Thereby. In
became sawr; law. lawr; draw. drawn and
so on:
psgIaSrs this "n Ra.sn not sne sny
but actually infected some Of their choicest
Our eminent American
and every body loves. educated in and writing
IN the shade Of Boston,s Cambridge. unguard-
! eDhpl'i,I at ikOp for noefic euphOnv Henra
it happened that this form OF. untidiness is
unfortunately found repeatedly, in some Of
beauty OF versiHoation. Thus in his "Iaus
! Dec" la found this.
| When the cruel rod OF war
Blossoms white with righteous law-0avr.
Again. in his Brussels Convention" this
| occurs:
Skirting with green the hcry face OF War.
| so, too in his "Miscelanies" it Is written:
| For Eneand's Charter, Alfred's law-dawp
Wage In your name their ancient war
| And in his Panorama" this appears
and held a brute in prsotise. as, as in law-oawr'
| Other instances OF this untidiness of speech.
Athens" is to blame. are found in similar
| Merrimack":
| And autumn's rainbow tinted banner
Hangs lightly DER the susauehnnna- thanner.
Again. in his "Miscellane3. this is found;
| nry, thy tears for holy Eva--tEver)
| With the blessed angels leave her.
| And this Is continued through the refrain
| Of all tho seven stanZas Of that poem, where
Eva is SO pronounced az to be made to
rime with leave her." give her, river.
! receive her.. never. grieve her. be-
! lieve her"
| submit that this is not English; 1t is Bos-
tonian Greek and British Cockney. it is to
be regretted that Whittier fell into this lin
quail heresy. In all else OF his 235 poems there
| Is no word we would change, not line to
erase. ], j. ALLEN.
| MORRIsTowN July l.