The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1915-08-06
KINGS ENGLISH"
A Learned Englishman on "The Sun's'
O%rthOgraphy and English.

To THE EDITOR OF THE suN-sir. 1t
Is with sorrow that I find a fellow coun-
tryinan of mine trying TO set right
n SUNS photography and English.
Under tho signature "A Britisher," he
tells us that "a hotel'' CRATES on the
ear as much as "a hour He will prob
ably be surprised to learn that the
pronunciation recorded as preferred by
Sir James A. II. Murray's New English
Dictionary. now in course Of publication
at oxford, England, aspirates the h
In the words hotel" and hospital" but
does not aspirate the IN" in "honor"
and hour"
Again I find IAN Englishman Who is
not a Cookery" babbling prettily about
Americas way of handling Shake
speare's tongue. either as to orthog-
raphy or syntax." But how much my
worthy confrere knows Of the subject
which he discusses is shown by his
question. why in America do you
gratuitously add the double c%onsonant
where IT does not exist In English. and
write enrolment and installment' 2"
The answer IL to he found I'm that usage
Of which so many Englishman are
wofully ignorant. Let our good friend
read his Shakespeare M consult his
Murray lsfore he writes about our
usi ges, and he will find good reason
~ '"p BtN SlpflF, u Ue Will Illu
them In various forms.
DR.. Murray has shown that the forms
to which objection is made are OF re-
spectacle antiquity. ENROLMENT" for
instance. dates from the days of blum
King Hal and figures in the twenty
seventh act Of his reign. while 'en-
rollment" was fathered by no less a
shining light in English classic litera-
ture than Francis Bacon, Lord High
ChanCp1lnr nf England Bnffcphanp In
his English Poesie," wrote "enstall-
rnents' In 1883. To Shakespeare va
riety was charming, so when he
wished TO write "instalment" he wrote
"instalement' and ''installment." tFirst
Folio Edition, 1929 sui Just as
one swallow does not make a summer,
so In the English language one author
does not establish n standard. The
famous diarian Pepys made use Of the
form 'installment" $50 years ago, and
was supported in this lamentable out
rage on the English tongue by no less
a light than the famous Blackstone.
As an Englishman, 1 do not vince
every time i see pillow" because in the
days of my youth l found it in my
Bible dedicated in 1911 ito the Most
High and Mighty Prince James, by the
Grace Of God King of Great Britain.
France and Ireland" &C. The earliest
'V'' ~ NhAS "DIut NlltAu uhNtS lIoItl
about 100. was 'ploh." In piers
Plowman" G362) IT was written ''plouh"
Notwithstanding the title spelling, Chau-
Ger 13S6), seeking a rhyme for
enough wrote II plough C"Knight's
Tale') but in the "plowman's Tale"
tabout 1900 1t is spelled pillow"
Maundeville wrote "plowgh" about the
same date. In the "rowneley Myster-
les (l460) the form 'plo'' was used
md yhsyrnI Nrtth ssIAft .,l az, - 800 tn
the Pastor Letters U4GG) "plowc' was
introduced. In 1915 Barclay, and in
1868 Grafton. wrote 1t plough" but in
1917 a reversion to pillow took place,
viii a temporary return to "plowe" in
1907. Addison G702) and Rowe G7iS)
used pillow" With the contempt for
the English photography characteristic
Of their race. the Scots used one of
their own and gave ds "pleuch" tabout
t5S5). "pluche" G5ss) and 'pleugh'
172lD. the form used by the man
who was q man for a that and a that.
Why kick at Check" and 'grewsome"
when we owe these forms to masters
Of English. for Sir Walter Scott intro
duced 'grewsome" into literature by
using It in "Old Mortality" chapter Al,
friend of our youth the author OF
Tom Browns School Days aided and
abctted him in the task. The spelling
''vruesome" was not established in Eng
lish until after Bret Harte had written
WAN Lee and Henry James had given
w Hawthorne"
The word check Is an evolution
from the sense defined by Samuel John
son in l755 The correspondent cipher
of a bank bill" which definition Bar
clay amplifed in 1874 into "A counter
cipher of a bank bill an account kept
privately to examine that which IL kept
with n banker or public office" In
ll74 Foote in "Cozeners." Act III. scene
/. says: "a hundred and ninety-two
pounds, six-oh! here he is, ! suppose.
with the Check" A Check Of this
kind is always welcome to me, and !
should be very much surprised to learn
that II were not acceptable even to my
critical ~compatriot. HMM BULL.