The mirror. (Stillwater, Minn.) 1894-1925, 1907-09-12

anu S0VcTdl years IdG0r i cnaQceQ CO
read in German book this sentence:
die dentsche Sprache ist die Mutter !
der Englischen." (The German Ian
guage is the mother of the English
/ began to think and get interested,
and since then I have devoted hun
dreds of hours and thousands of odd
moments, Sundays, nights. mornings
and moons to the study of German and
other tongues, including my own
American language, and have derived
much pleasure and profit therefrom.
No, have not mastered any of them
and do not expect to. Have you mas
tered the English or the American
If you think you have advise you to
secure copy of Correct English"
monthly magazine published by the
Correct English Publishing Co., Evans
ton, ILL.,, and see what Mrs. Josephine
Turck Baker has in store for you. She
has among her students, doctors, law
yers, congressman, senators, preachers,
priests, professors aud professoresses,
from California to Yale or New Haven,
and thousands of miles beyond, across
the ocean. English, Spanish, German
and French are the four most impor-
tant languages and it is source of
much pleasure and convenience to be
able to speak, read and write two or
more of these languages.
1t is said that Miss Helen Keller, the
blind and deaf young woman, never
forgets the spelling of word in Eng
Iish or French. l do not like to be
outdone by Miss Keller, and my men,
ory machine strives hard to keep tuned
up for correct spelling in English,
Spanish and German, but when it
comes to French, except in the more
common everyday words l often have
to think twice, and even then am not
always certain whether this or that
spells something else, OF whether some
thing else spells this or that. But
French is hard language, especially
for an American or other foreigner; it
has more silent letters than the Eng.
lish (which is saying great deaD and
not half of the French words are pro-
nounced as they are spelled. Let us
take a few common words at random
and see the misfit. OF course the al
phabet differs somewhat from the
English, but half the letters are prac-
tically the same. Take the word
"bread," Spelled spain" and pronounced
.pamg"-"ears," spelled "oreilles," pro-
nounced "ohrail"- -"chin," spelled
"menton," pronounced "ma0ustong"-
"shoes," spelled "souliers,' pronounced
ssoolyai," or "soozyoy"-"house." spelled
"maisoaa," pronounced "maysong"-
swarm" spelled "chaud," pronounced
"sso"-"cold," spelled .troid," pro.
nounced .frouah"-"wood," spelled
"bois," pronounced "boatoh."
Aud just think of the mouthful OF
letters and words to express the name
of our little fruit, the "currant," which
is 'gadelle on gr0seitle q grape" This
probably means that the currant is 6
cross between gooseberry and a grape
for "groseille" pronounced "grozale'
is "gooseberry" and "grape," pro
nounced "grohp" is grape" Even tn
Germans give this little berry the lonl
name 81 .Johannisbeere.
One especially unpleasant feature O
I French is the dividing of the voice in
: to three halves, swallowing one half
! dropping the second half in the throa
! and elevating the third half up int
, the nose. But French, like the Span
] ish, is polite language, and, as sucl
! a very large percentage of our Englisl
], Is derived from the French l hav
: found that to be an interesting and in
b structive study, but 1 like Spanish bel
: ter.
There are scores and scores of word
8 in both the Spanish and German ths
are spelled exactly the same as in Eng
y Iish, but are pronounced with littl
: different twist Of the tongue. / d
i not mean to say, however, that thes
), are the same words in both the Spar
n ish and the German. It is a compar,
% lively easy matter to acquire sssma
n tering" of few hundred simple wore
; in any Of these languages; but bear
10 mind that there are about eight tho,
81 sand regular verbs alone ID the Spenil