Evening star., 1945-04-09
This and That
By Charles E. TraceueU
''REDDING RIDGE conn

Dear Sir:
/ liked your piece about languages.
a while back. You and I are probably
contemporaries from the age that is
past, when it was possible to study
Latin and Greek without being regarded
as queer. old fossil hunters, poking
among the bones of dead languages. To
many of us. the memories OF what we
picked up of the classical as well as
the modern languages, even when
lnadequately taught, remain among the
richest and most lasting fruits of our
formal schooling.
There Is only one thing would add
to your friendly sermon for the young
generation. I would tell them, young
or old, not to play with foreign words
and phrases until they know the mean
ing OF the expressions and can make a
reasonably good stab at their correct
pronunciation. Let them stick to Eng
llsh If they can't speak French, and
not say they have been given cart
blank to 90 this. that or the other
Too many businessmen in and out of
Government seem to enjoy that phrase.
1T has been said that businessmen
ano legislators hate the professors be-
cause they are better educated and
make others feel inferior. Businessmen
say the professors know nothing about
the tools and processes of industry.
They define an expert as q person not
hampered by previous knowledge Of the
subject. But businessmen in Govern
ment have to use words and perhaps
the professors have corresponding
right to suggest that they learn to use
them correctly
Good workmen love and respect their
tools. Those whose work is with the
tools of language should do no less In
this respect radio announcers carry a
special responsibility it seems to me.
Probably speak with a dozen persons
day: you write for thousands. radio
announcers speak to millions. Yet too
many of them seem to be too indifferent
or too lazy to learn the simplest ele-
ments of French German or Italian
pronunciation. In these days. place
names in these languages must be used
in every news broadcast.
Perhaps the difficulty lies rather in
that spirit of sturdy American inde-
pendence, freedom from entangling al
iIances, and scorn of everything foreign
which so endears us to the rest of hu-
man society. People governed by that
psychology no doubt find it demeaning
and unpatriotic to pronounce another
language in any but the American way.
Yours Sincerely, c. E. L.
DEFENSE SUPPLIES
CORPORATION.
Dear Sir:
Further to your column recently
regarding language difficulties, mispro-
nupciaJlOns and such.
q. The Englishman, who asked,
What are Yonkers, anyway
%. A Spanish lady, married to an
American. who asked her grocer, Have
you any nice spinaches today?'
"3. The schoolboy who pronounced
Egypt-'Egg- wiped
Il don't recall having seen any OF
the above in print before.
Best regards. G. c. H."
1t is interesting to note that at least
two big books of pronunciations of
proper names around the world have
been issued by the broadcasting COM
panies.
They will be of interest to any one
who has had difficulty in following the
place names which the war has brought
into every ones home.
We think that the members of the
broadcasting fraternity do a very good
job of it, when one considers the thou
sands upon thousands of new names,
in many languages, which they are
forced to use, often on only a minutes
notice.
They do not even have time to con-
suit their large books
Too, there is individual popularity Of
pronunciation, such as giving two syl-
tables to one syllable words, such as
know-un, for known.
All in all, We felicitate the broad
casters on q difncult job well done.