Evening star., 1931-12-10
THIS AND THAT
BY CHARLES Z. TRACEWELE.

that the invisible person had miaun-
derstood him.
IT heard you-a cup Of kafee!" bal
lowed the unseen.
While We hlushed for our fellow
statesman, We could not help but enjoy
the joke secretly with them.
We. too, had been brought up On
"cawfee," and on "warter" for water,
on "hawg" for hog, and "iaws" for
log, on "crick" for creek and "sut" for
SCOT.
Yet we always said "root" for root
although many people, even OF the high
est culture, pronounce the latter "rut."
No doubt it Is all . matter Of ones
early childhood and environment, modi-
ned by ones schooling and ones taste
in such matters.
As we have stated, We have never
heard any person talk for any particular
length Of time without catching him or
her In some pronunciation or other
which sounded strange to our ears.
Similarly, our way of saying those
words necessarily would impress him
as wrong. A recourse to the dictionary
would not settle the matter, after all,
for either one OF us.
II cne Is an oldster and was brought
up ON the old-time pronunciations, one
says bum" for bomb and "Roosians"
for Russians, ana ordinary bomb and
Russians do not sound right at all.
Even If one is corrected by one OF
those rude Doors who does it nastily
and openly, or even more hastily and
covertly, one will not give UP the pro-
nunciation Of years.
&* ~
Univ xhn,lJd one2
There Is nothing uueerer than Eng
lish pronunciations, unless 1t Is Eng
lish spellings.
1t is impossible to explain to for
eigner that II say" Is pronounced as
written, but that che says" is pro-
ncunced che sez."
The man whom the man educated In
books Is likely to regard as "an ignorant
man" invariably says And he says to
me-" pronouncing the says" as spelled,
not as spoken In English.
The educated man says "He sez" In
stinctively without once thinking about
the matter. There are hundreds OF
such cases In English. The explana-
ticns would be recondite or entirely un-
necessary, for English Is "as she is
spoken" rather than as she is written.
In other words English Is great,
living language, living in the mouths
and ears of human beings the world
over. We do ourself an injustice and
our beloved tongue = greater when we
stop to criticize another for mistake,
either In grammar or in spelling or in
pronunciation.
Often we would be very amazed in
deed to know that the fellow is right,
that his way of talking goes back 800
years perhaps, or even back to the
great days Of imperial Rome, and that
he might bolster his word or words with
linguistic lore far in advance of our
few petty rules.
There are mountaineers In our coun-
try who speak language remarkably
similar to that spoke In England in
the days Of spacious iIizabeth. The
speech Of these people, as reported In
a book published last year, is remark
ably attractive.
In fact, colloquial speech In times be-
comes the speech of the cultivated.
The word the cultured man shrinks
frcm today may be the word his chill
dren accept without remark.
Speech Is for the speaker and for the
nearer, not for the grammarian or for
the student. English is 4 language Of
the tongue and ear, rather than of pen
and paper. A few INSTRUMENTATION
will hurt no one, and let him who Is
without fault be first to shout "Wrong!"
II he dare.