Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1909-02-24
VOICES OF THE PRESS.
Plea for Outcast Words.
(WaShingtOn POSt.)

There is 3 wealth of unconscious
humor in the labored deliverances OF
the conservative purstS, who lift their
hands in horror at the logical plans of
simplificd and sensible spelling, in har-
mony with the normal evolution of the
mother tongue. They pose as the SELL
chosen companion of pure and UNI
defiled English the Bayards sans peur
ct sans reproche of Lindley Murray,
the defenders Of the rock-ribbed citi-
del of grammar. To them the split in
finitive is less majestic, the double
negative little less than treason. They
are the guardians of the well, precisi-
ans OF purity, who would put the Ian
guage III a straight Jacket, ignoring it's
wonderful evolution and blind to the
glorious possibilities of it's growth.
These precisians pride themselves
upon being the conservators of proper
English; but, as matter Of fact, the
true conservative is the illiterate pro-
vinciaI who cheerfully splits his inf
nitive, doubles his negatives at the
least provocation, learns" his chill
dren 10 shoot straight. revels in
''have went" and takes a historic
pride in "his'n," our'n.' and "her'n."
Besides these sturdy conservatives,
whose words and the authority for
their use come direct from Chaucc~
and Shakespeare, the pottering pur-
lists of today are simply iconoclastic
radicals. Viewed in the light of MIS-
torc usage by the great masters of
English, it is we, who like to keep our
infintves intact and shudder at had
went" who are the corrupters and the
vulgarians, while the untutored noun
tainee1 of Tennessee and Kentucky
conserves the ancient law of the mo-
ther tongue.
An almost invaluable service has
been rendered by Prof. Thomas r.
Lounstury. who, in his recent stand
ard of Usage in English" traces the
| history of 4 host of words and phrases,
| once the evidence of the best breeding,
but now unhappily fallen upon dark
and evil days. His painstaking inves-
legations show that practically all Of
| the words which now are under the
rurists' ban as corruptions of good
English, all the "don'ts' now drilled
| into pupils ears to be avoided as one
| would the plague, under penalty of
social ostracism, have been in the past.
at one time or another, undefled crys-
tai drops from the language we'll
Today, the use of learn" in the
sense OF teach, would lead to blackball-
ing at exclusive clubs; yet Shakespeare
uses it in that sense at least a dozen
| times, and Lady Mary Montagu, 1.-The
most brilliantly intellectual woman of
her age" gave 1t her sanction.
Referring to the use of the dou-
BILE negative, Prof. Lounsbury says:
There is in our tongue no more
deeply rooted and widely extended il
lustration of these survivals of past
of good usage than the employment of
the double negative to strengthen the
negation. All the eftrts of education
for centuries seem to have exerted
hardly perceptible influence in dimin-
ishing its prevalence with a great body
of speakers"
And SO it is with a great host of
condemned words and grammatical
forms. The evolution of the mother
tongue has. in not a few instances,
made the language poorer by putting
the ban upon certain radiant forms of
expressions; but in many other cases
the language has been vastly enriched
by the development Of the centuries.