The sun., 1919-09-28
ME FODDER SEZ,"
A STUDY IN ENGLISH
IN rs fodder SEE he amt got
u - Co. ooid AEJnboai m.

the person to whom he made his COM
munication was the principal.
Now the principal was Irish, too,
and therefore diplomat. He cooked
his head Oh one side and looked at
Mickey quizzically.
"what?"
\ Me fodder SEE he amt got none"
| "Oh. Just write that on the black
board, Michael"
Tho class was on the qui vive, the
teacher suppressing smile, but the
principal was grave and polite.
ziich lel approached the blackboard.
tN<'iS ~ the chalk and wrote,
Ny father says that he has none"
! IhS class roared, the teacher
laughed Michael grew very red in
the face. but the principal said gently,
MY ears must be failing. l thought
heard you say, Me fodder seq he
amt got none Evidently / was mis-
taken. You may go to your seat,
Michael"
The War Wages Daily.
This was a little comedy in a great
war that RACES everywhere every day
In America-the war for good Eng
lish. Wherever there is a teacher and
school this war goes on. The pupils
, spend five hours five days a week I'M
der the influence of the school, the
rest of their time is spent in home and
street, and usually what they hear in
home and street is not good English.
In Maine is one series of atrocities
committed against the language; in
the mountains of Tennessee another;
In South Carolina another; in Okla
homa fourth; in San Francisco a
fifth, and so on. Every part OF the
country has its own faults, defects,
errors, perversities, argot, slang. Opu-
lent New York has them all, with i'm
portations from London to make good
measure.
These importations from London are
not often new words. Usually they
are scraps of slang that London has
outworn after centuries of use. Take
the word guy" for instance. New
York stole that from London. It has
been a part or London's slang for GEN.
turtles. and in London It was apt and
picturesque because London knew all
about guys. November there is
Guy Fawkes day, the anniversary
Of the occasion when Guy Fawkes at
tempted to blow up the British Parlia-
ment. Every district In London had
its Guy, huge, ugly, stuffed effigy
borne about by. professions of shouting
ragamuffins filed with patriotism and
even more exciting beverages, who
after day of hullabaloo burned the
Guy amid fireworks and defamation:
please to remember the Fifth Of No
vember,
OF gunpowder treason and plot
see no reason why gunpowder treason
Should ever be forgot.
Guy Fawkes. Guy! Stick i'm up Ugh!
'Ang I'm to lamp post,
An there let i'm diei"
with cheering ad libitum.
So the word ''guy" was all very well
! in London. but why bring it to
America? We have trouble enough
here. And guy is only a sample of
many slang words that were in their
second childhood in London but have
been brought over and introduced in
America as something new and pre-
| cious. 1t is probable that ten years
from now some one will import
/ "bloke" and "cove" as choice additions
TO our street English.
Heart Breaking Odds.
Teachers who really care for good
| English have their hearts nearly
broken by conditions. The odds
! against them are great. There is only
/ one correct form but hundreds of in
correct forms. There are many diff
ferent kinds OF foreigners each with
different dialect, making confusion
Also there Is:
/. Ignorance. The person who
| knows how to speak correctly Is ex-
ceptional
2. Laziness. Many seem to find 1t
easier to clip or slur their words.
3. Perversity. Pupils who know bet
ter use the argot OF tho street IN pref
erence to the language Of the school.
The battle RACES every hour Of every
school day in every school district and
yet the forces of corruption, perver-
sion and lip laziness are not routed.
| They cheerfully go right on generat-
| ing and disseminating their verbal
denominations with amazing persist
ence and industry. Local dialects are
| formed or in process OF formation.
| Said one New York principal:
"If each district OF the city was
| walled around and the Inhabitants
were isolated, in twenty years dialects
would be so strongly developed that
the inhabitants of one district would
have difficulty in understanding the
| inhabitants OF another"
In a district such as Brownsville,
| the great settlement Of Russian Jew
1 ish tailors, where 90 per cent. Of the
children's parents are foreign born,
there is good excuse for bad English,
but teachers difficulties are not great
est in Brownsville. New corners in
the schools there are put in foreigners
classes and taught by the theme
method, the teacher pointing to an
article and giving its name, as:
Water" pitcher" glass;" "I pour
water" door," IT shut door"
"Ain't" Il Irrepressible.
In Brownsville the only English the
] children get is the English OF the
schools; they are not deluged by bad
English in their own homes as are
some OF the American children. It
seems better to have parents who
know no English at all than parents
who speak II incorrectly. Teachers
find 1t almost impossible to extirpate