FIRST OF TONGUES

Evening Post, Volume CXI, Issue 138, 13 June 1931, Page 22

FIRST OF TONGUES

Eeplying to his own question, "Which of living European tongues can we consider the most closely adapted to the exigencies of modern times?" tho Spanish Ambassador, tho Marquis do Merry del Val, cast his vote for English, at the same time giving very adequate reasons for his choice. The Marquis was speaking as president of the Modern Languages Association at the Old Hall Lincoln's Inn recently and Wickham Steed was in tho chair. "Humanity proceeding, as always, by a process of natural selection," said tho Ambassador, "has already solved tho problem, in my opinion, by the choice of the English tongue, the most widely spoken of all European languages" in the world to-day. I, a . foreigner to your nation, not only_ recognise this fact—who can deny its evidence f —but hasten to add that on the whole no preference could be happier. "To my mind, the universality of English is not exclusively due to the extent of your Empire, the world-wide scope of your political influence, the yet farther reach of your trade. I frankly, from a sense of justice, attribute its omnipresence to certain inherent qualities of its own. "Devoid of grammatical complies-

ENGLISH STILL IN THE LEAD

lions to such a degree that its simplicity in no small measure warrants the exaggerated assertion that it has no grammar, this very feature allows its use with almost unsurpassable concision, ' whence comes a quintessential cloquenco replete with picturesqueness. "Its heterogeneous vocabulary is nothing less than vast. Your vague and utterly conventional pronunciation is easy to imitate, particularly for some races among whom as a friend of England and the English I am glad to number my own. : "The weak spot in English," the speaker declared, "lies in its orthography. It will always be superior in its spoken to its written form. The labyrinth of its spelling, a real maze, renders its correct writing unattainable for many of alien origin." The Ambassador referred also to his own tongue, which he claimed ran English close and enjoyed an equally unassailable if not so broadly seated a position. It was spoken, he said,, by some 80,000,000 of human.boings spread over part of Europe, half of America, ninl part of Oceania; so thai;" Spanish ciimc immediately after English in this rospect.