The St. Mary banner. (Franklin, Parish of St. Mary, La.) 1889-1931, 1906-06-02
MOTHER TONGUE,
Comparison of English Spoken il
England and in America,

| .'S'o''o anu III FArItCIiCd.
The shafts launched at Henry
James during meeting of the Mod
! ern Language association of America,
| at Haverford college, were barbed
with wit and not little justice. They
do not, nevertheless. destroy the I'M
fortunate vitality Of the contention
mat the speech of Americans is in
1erlor to that Of Englishmen.
IL is not matter of the compare
1--WE merits OF the different English
and American standards In the par
tlcularltle. of usuage our own rule is
as frequently as not to be preferred.
Different from" is as good as differ
ent TO; lin accord with" as "in ac-
cord to; under the circumstances
as in the circumstances; las soon
as he came" as directly he came"
The EnSlishman's failure to distin-
2uish in pronunciation between the
verb and the noun prophecy" is la
mentable. his hard genesis" and his
soft schedule are, to our ear, an in
version OF propriety, and his enmity
national horror. We may say "vanil-
Ter but We couldn't possibly be gull
ty Of "fgger."
But the speech Of England is i'm
measurably superior to that Of Amer
lean gentlemen OF the Modern Lam
guage association will not deny tin
this-namely, that whereas Ameri-
cans, even educated Americans, are
careless in both grammar and pro-
nunciation, slip-sLod, easy going. and
prone to every colloquial short cut,
the vast majority of Englishmen
speak with precision, according to a
Well-established national standard.
The meat of the matter is in the |
fact that we OF America have no |
PRIDE In or care for correctness of |
speech. We never dream OF judging
a mans education Or culture from the
in which he speaks. We are
not surprised to find the same verbal
faults upon the lips of college presi- /
dents, men Of letters or OF affairs,
that We have heard from the I'M
taught. There even fingers among us
suspicion of too great elegance OF
speech. as if heartiness and yigor
should not compOrt with refinement.
And SO we go ON torturing all for
eign cars and wronging our own souls
With the drawl. the slur, the clipped
syllable, the f1attened vowel. the stri-
lent voice and slOyenly enunciation
We snub our labials, we torture our
and we massacre our
'owels, until in our homes. streets
md even lecture halls, churches and
heatres. the stately tongue OF !
and Milton is become in
,lorious, shabby, wel-nigh infamous.
In England how different is the
ase. There his manner of speech is
n index of mans education. OF
he unlettered little may be expected,
ut in the graduate or in the man or
ioman OF respectable breeding a YER
al fault is social crime. Careless ,
ess is not excused. Vigor is not held
be thing opposed to accuracy, or
over to be necessarily uncouth; on
ne contrary. clear head is expected
express itself in correct sentences,
:eanly enunioated. 1t is expected to
SO. and it does SOTO the pleasure
the listening ear. the delight of the
nsWering mind and the promotion of
,cial understanding, amiability and
fciency.
To establish the same happy condi-
ons in America, it would be neces- ;,
Try only for the educated to persuade :.
lemselves of the desirability of cor =,
sct utterance. and in particular for -
! such organizations as the Modern =
language association to rebuke at =,
'ery opportunity such pointless pet ~
Jogging pleas as that which formed =,
lie climax of one delegates address ;.
esterday. Power is more (sic) to =,
, preferred than (sic) more breed. '
g."-Philadelphia Ledger =