Evening star., 1945-03-05
This and That
By Charles Z. Tracewell.

A correspondent sends an example
OF play with words, by showing how the
line, THE swallow dares fly north
again." may be turned into 1.-THE swal-
lowdares fly north again"
Even the verb fits
Often in reading one will come across
such bits, sometimes unseen by the
writer's, sometimes achieved merely by
running the words together
A favorite amusement of many per-
sons. including some very famous ones
of the past. and present, is to find
phrases which, when said rapidly, seem
to have a life and a meaning of their
own
1t is here, as with many things, when
one wishes to think of them, they utterly
fee away. The writer here, at this
present time, cannot think Of single
example although no week goes by that
he does not coin one.
Charles Dickens was one of the
mighty men who loved to play with
words. AS child he coined sort of
hog Latin, and used 1t with his friends
Later, as the successful novelist, he
loved to go back, for few words, to
those old days. No doubt when he
wished to say something which he did
not wish the children to understand he
used his old word play
Fastening elaborate Latin endings to
ordinary English words is an amusement
loved by many persons whose knowl-
edge of Latin may be rudimentary.
Even slight acquaintance with Latin
roots. prefixes and sufdxes suffices for a
lifetime amusement. We have always
thought that no language study is ever
wasted. no matter how poor a student
one may have been.
Often it seems a waste OF time, to
spend eight years or so studying Latin,
or French, to end up by seeming to
know little more than when one started
Real Americans are notoriously poor
on languages. Perhaps we have even
prided ourself on our inability to learn
another tongue. It is true that life
time of study and use will not make
any one perfect even in his own tongue.
International relations coming more
to the fore, the time has come, evi-
IDENTIFY, for Americans to buckle down
and learn other languages.
Even at the worst, however, no study
OF other tongues can be anything but
helpful. 1t not only helps one appre-
ciate another language and those who
use it, but also provides glimpses into
other literatures which otherwise would
not be possible.
Even If one cannot read q French
novel with any enjoyment-in French
the tran. -ation means great deal more,
provided it is well done, than If one
had never taken French"
In thousand ways, the knowledge of
prefixes and sufixes, alone, will give
enjoyment to the student, in later years
as well as at the time of taking
The phrase, ito take French" for in
stance. is not good one, because it is,
with many persons, great deal like
taking" a medicine.
Often the dose is administered by one
who temperamentally is not fitted to be
teacher
This is too bad, both for her-in most
cases-and for the student. 1t sets the
young against the very language they
are studying. Human nature plays a
large part, in study as well as elsewhere.
Idioms are, in q sense, playing with
language.
That is why they are often at the
very core OF language. Without them,
there can be no real understanding of it.
Slang, in sense, is basic, too, in any
tongue, because from the slang phrases
of today ultimately come the idioms
of tomorrow.
All play with words. no matter how
absurd it may sound to those not in the
game. IS useful to those in the know,
because 1t helps keep alive their sense
OF wonder, their childlike delight in
handling - and sometimes deliberately
nlishandling their own language. It is
their own, after all, to, do with as they
please, within the bounds Of common
sense and good tasts.