The producers news. [volume] (Plentywood, Mont.) 1918-1937, 1928-01-13
Concerning Languages
John Arthur Stahlberg

You have tried the sandwiches. a,o1ay
try a Stalberger Steak
Once upon a quite recent time there
was a very young, very well-meanino
extremely charming and altogether
admirable woman.
SO far, so good.
1t was my privilege to meet this
woman and have speech with her ''7
Better ana better! You perceive
the plot thiekens.
At this point, with your permission
l will dig1ess Il am a good hand at
digressing). You may already have
noticed that, in speaking OF the Gentle
Variety. say woman, and NOT
lady. That is one of my habits
Sundfy worthy people have, at sun
dry times, seen fit to take me to task
because of this habit. | contend that
they are wrong. The truest name for
woman is Woman, just as the most
pleasing title for man is Man. I
have never cared to have anyone re
| fer to me as chat gentleman or
''this gent, but l confess it makes me
feel all warm and comfortable when
people call me man; particularly if
they say it as though it were spelled
with a capital m-Which they never
do. Likewise, if some "gent" should
ever insist on designating as a 'ladv''
any sister, mother, sweetheart, wife.
daughter or woman friend of mine. /
might possible place large and reas-
onably knObby fist in his better eve.
You never can tell. A woman is wo-
man, and no other word can ever sum
her up as well. LADY, like its mas
culine companion in common use.
smacks OF The Higher Vulgarity. and
IS used as a title of superior respect
only by those who have lost sight OF
the true dignity and nobility of the
word woman" Except of course. in
England, where lady is female rel
ative of lord.
Now, then, what | was saying be-
fore | depressed ?-oh, yes!-"the plot
thickens' A remarkable remark.
surely.
While speaking to this young wo-
man | happened to use three words of
a language which was not English.
She objected, chamingly enough. re-
minding me that was now in Ameri-
ca-no news to me, considering that
was born in Minnesota, and, except
Tor brief visits to Canada, have never
travelled beyond the borders of the
United States-and ought to use the
LANGUAGE of the country She added.
with pretty petulance, that 1--WE Yam
KEGS can't quite dope out the stuff
you Swedes sling around"
whatever that may mean.
Being a trifle taken aback. | made
no Immediate reply, but the incident
started a train of thot, resulting in
, this dissertation.
We Americans are self-suufficient
people. Possibly we are the most
sel1-sufficient people now on the
planet--which may be proper enough
But our self-sufficiency has a tenden-
cy to make us selfish and discourte-
Gus and cOnceited and vulgar-which
IS not nearly so proper. We pose
we posture. We strike attitudes. We
take the artistically supreme Italian
and we call him "dago". We point
out the courteous, cultured French.
man, and we denominate him frog"
we speak of the brilliant Jew, anC
we say "kike". We consider the noble
Greek and the lion-hearted Moor, anC
we think "wop' and we think ''nig-
GER. We look at the serious, intel.
lectual German and, if we have moi
forgotten the insanity of ten wear:
ago, we label him "Hun"; if we have
forgotten-which, bless our hearts
most of us have-we laugh, or smile
or at least grin, and tell a stale Joke
about what Herr Wurst said to- Herr
hraut, believing ourselves very hui
morous the while. In short, we ac-
and talk like huge and badly man
aged kindergarten.
We boast of being one hundred pei
cent American, and one of our fav
orlte ways of proving this contention
is to refuse to recognize any language
but American" There's the rub. Fol
we DO not speak Sioux or Seminole
or Arapahoe, but a variation of Ian.
guage which we have imported from
Europe and made our own. Then
with rare consistency, we adopt a pat.
ronizing attitude toward all "foreiOn'
tongues.
There is no logical reason whv one
should limit oneself to a single Ian.
guage, any more than there is a reas.
on why one should learn botany anC
neglect biology. Indeed, this latter
may be well enough if you mean to be-
a specialist in botany. But relatively
few people are specialists in English
and, curiously enough, those who are
find that they can reinforce their com.
mand of it by knowing all the other
western European languages.
l read Swedish and Norwegian ra-
Their well, and speak them rather
poorly. l read German rather poorly