The Marion daily mirror. (Marion, Ohio) 1892-1912, 1909-01-13
American Authors Use Few
Foreign Words.
SWIFT ALMOST PERFECT
Irish Writer II ad 80 Per cent
English Words.
Most Grammatical English is Spok.
en- Though on the Atlantic Othe
Side A Word Talk.

According to q writler in the
London Chronicle, American authors
are the most Anglo-Saxon of all
the English speaking races. They
usejhe declares, fewer words Of Inn
mediately foreign origin than any
other race which traces It's maternity
TO Great Britain, this fact being due
TO its plrity of the English spoken
bp the pilgrim founders, who used
dhe language of Milton.
Tue great poet used 81 per cent
Of Anglo-SaXon words ami only 10
per cent of words Of fOreigm origin.
Milton was not, however, the most
English of English authors. That
honor belongs to Swift an Irishman,
who used 80 per cent of Anglo-S Saxon
words, or 4 per cent more than
Shakespeare. Abraham Cowley Is
said to dispute this honor with the
Irish dean. After these writers come
in the order Of their preference Gor
| pure AuglO-SlNOn Addison with SO
per cent, Spensar with ST. Pope with
| 7G and Johnson with 75 per cent
all Of which writer's may be said to
have affected American styists vcry
nsidd ably
! lr is doubtful ir he American
could be said to speak the most
grammatical English however. When
Mr.. Roosevelt highly educated
man, heard that Mr.. Taft had swept
New York State he declared 10 a
circle of ntimates THAT he "rel.
good about it Even educated
New Workers are accustomed to
answer "Pretty good" no the ques.
tiOn GLOW do you feel?'-a custom
derived from the ordinary ''sehr
gut" usol by the Germans, or the
"goed" Of the Dutch, from whom the
IGabi obviously came. An English
man would answer the salutation by
saying every well" and on all
grounds, except custom the New
York's style Is indefengib'e.
In the same way Americans have
borrowed from the Germans I'm their
reading of the time Thus a quarter
of three Is the German drei "auf'
drei--the Germans being responsi-
BILE presumably for bastardizing the
language. The average New Yorker
again, is weak i'm his future lenses.
The solaoism TShall you be there
tonight?"? Is too common to need
mention, the correct English being
undoubtedly "Will YOU be there to
nirht?" Among the Irish ther7
would appear to be no sense Of the
rrcper use of the future, "WNl 7 do
&c now?" Is more often than not
used for "Sha'l I do lt now?" A
policeman says "You will move on
now" when he means you shall
move on now."-an nuequivoca'
command to move out of his neigh
borhood
II is estimated that the American
and English agricultural laborers
have fewer words at their command
than the peasants OF the other ma
tionalites. The estimate for the
American and English peasants Is q
vocabulary of 1900 words, for the
Irish, 1900 words and for the Scot
tish, 1850 words. A mechanic-one
who Is educated up 10 the ''three
r's" standards said to be In com
mand of a vocabulary of 1000 words
Persons Of the higher education arr
familiar with about 5000 words onl!
50 per cent Of which are commonly
used by them. The most Ang.o-SaX
on of all users of the EUlglish langu
age are said to be the EpiscopG
Protestant clergymen, Their languag
Is that of the Bible and as every
school-boy knows there are only
per cent words in the Bible that are
; not Anglo-SaXon,