The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1906-11-23
ENTHUSIASM FOR ORTHOEpY.
cO uPLIMENTSTO BISHOP POTTER
ON THE PURITY OF HIS SPEECH ,
Nv Forbes Robertson, who Says He Could
Easily Fancy That lie Was Listening to
DISTINGUISHED EngllshnIan or Scot
Society TO Look After Our VOweIs.

Easily Fancy Inat use was hdhetcthhnb "
a Distinguished Engllshman or Scot
Society TO Look After Our VoweIs
The Society for the Prevention OF Cruelty
IN Vow els, which has set out TO purify
the Kings English AZ it is spoken in this
country, held its first meeting yesterday
afternoon at the Academy OF Fine Arts,
2i5 West ~Fifty-seventh street. The formal
name Of the club is the Society for the
Study of Spoken English.
Bishop Potter and Forbes Robertson,
the English actor who is playing julius
Cesar in Shaw's Cesar and Cleopatra
talked before the new society. giving their
ideas Of the best way to bring about correct
English speech. Mrs. Robert Erskine Ely,
who was a Dutch actress before she mar
RED. and others Of the club made sug-
g~estions.
Bishop Potter said that public speakers
of all kinds, actors, teachers, lecturers
and others must be relied upon to lead the
reform; that their influence was most direct
and far reaching upon the public in general.
He suggested that fathers and mothers
keep an eye on the sort of servants that
have care OF their children, not permitting
the children to be under the influence OF
loose, ignorant, careless speech on the
part Of housemsids, governesses and nurses.
The Bishop didn't like the way English il
taught in the schools in his country.
Forbes Robertson criticised the pronun-
cation Of his countrymen OF the upper
classes. In the upper classes in England
ne said, 1T is decidedly indiff erent. IL Is
extraordinary what carelessness, ignorance
and afectation obtain among supposedly
cultivated and refined English men and
women. They will drop the final & and say
'huntin, 'ridin', 'Hyin' n so On.
The language OF this great country is
English II is the object of this society
10 bring about as correct Inc as pure pro-
nunciation as possible. In listening to
you sir" he said, turning to the Bishop,
Il might easily fancy myself listening to
a distinguished Scot or Englishman. We
can't depend pom the ~pronouncing die
tionaries. We have to go to people that
speak properly and train our ears. Usage
Is constantly changing the sound of a vowel
in a particular word, and we must bow to
that change and avoid the pedantry n
afectation that hold on to the old time
pronunciation.
THE great point, as the Bishop has sug-
Cested, il to look after the nursery maids
and governesses that drop their his and
final g's. Don be too busy with social
affairs to watch your children. II is really
quite remarkable how individuals here and
there in this country speak with absolute
purity OF accent"
In connection with the stage" put in
Bishop Potter, why il il that people or the
stage for the first time often speak so in
distinctly"
1t is the fault Of their enunciation, "
said Mr.. Robertson. They do not know
how 10 breathe properly and they do not
speak clearly. I only wish we in Great
Britain were about to form an equivalent
Gppipfv 1haro ia nraaf nAad for il fhara "
Miss Spence, the head of a girls school
here, said that Americans seem to be proud
Of their provincialism, so proud OF their
own particular section of the country, that
they refuse to deviate from its speech.
Teachers and other educated persons
that have A. b. q and A.. NJ q and even Phi. DIS
are constantly saying indooce, prodooce.
endooce and the like. Why should people
think it is affected to give novels their
proper sound N continue to say ant
when they mean "aunt?"
Il believe" said Bishop Potter, that the
great majority Of people in New York who
think they speak good English would think
IL is affected if one said duty for dooty,
endure for endoore, and 80 on. ! have
heard them say they would not talk like
that because it would he artificial.
BY what standard do you speak, |
have said To them. Your housemaid's?'
we are bound TO take such sophisms
bv the throat and choke them, just a. |
0lu one tn1e WHEN "A IMAM came lntO OTdCe
Church when | was rector there, sat down
in a pew. to- off his coat, vest, collar and
cravat and thr w them across the back
Of the pew. He was asked TO leave, and
sfterward, when he a~polosized 70 me-, he
said Bishop Potter, l once had a sun
stroke, and so when summer comes l always
do the natural thing
NO said, you did the indecent thing. ,"
Mrs. Robert Erskine Ely said she thought
the reform ought to begin on the stage
and most OF the women present clapped
their hands ~approvinglv.
A mall woman in black who wore eye
ga les said she thought the pronunciation
in I Us city was appalling. 1T il certainly
Is muc,. worse than in Massachusetts,, where
live. bishop Potter nodded energetically
and all the women nodded too.
Letters congratulating the new society
we're read from Richard Mansfield, who
said he was too busy with Peer Gynt" to
: attend; Agnes Repplier and David Bispham,
Mrs. Laura j. Post presided.