“PARROT TALK”

Evening Star, Issue 18690, 19 July 1924, Page 7

“PARROT TALK”

m G. B. SHAW OH THE SPEAKING OF ENGLISH. HIS DISLIKE OF ASPARAGUS. Mr George Bernard filial took part recently in the campnun 'gainst slipshod English, speaking at the assembly of the English Associaltion at Bedford College, Regents lark. Mr Shaw began by asking tus> audience if they had j 6 '' 0 , 1 ® family with “a celebrated talking parrot.” The family, he said, asked their friends to come and hear loU> say such pretty things as I retty Polly,” “Give me a lump of sugar, and Fetch a cab.” j 10J ’ got there they hoard 1 oily produce nothing but what were to them inarticulate noises, vet w-i-e to the fam 1) , , -ilirases. The parrot, as a matter of fact, had originally spoken those words quite distinctly; then gradually there had set in a decay of Wuage. The phrases had become modified little by, little, ui the parrot had arrived at sounds wind were not in the least like the original thinrr. The family had not, noticed the change which had been going on That was an instance of the decay or language which occurred very extensively among human beings, it they went into Cpvent Garden they would hoar a great deal of that parrot talk. There was more of that parrot talk than they imagined, because, in regard to a great deal if it they were m the relative position _ of the family to the uarrot. Supposing, however, that a foreigner who had learned Knghsh well wore put into Covent Garden, he would not understand the language there because it had gone through a process of decay, and the people there wore not speaking English. ,' “ What you ought to aim at,” said Shaw, “is to speak English that will bo intelligible to a foreigner. It is not sufficient for us to be intelligible to ono another, because we arc in the relation of the family to the parrot.” “MUMBLE, MUMBLE, MUMBLE.”

Mentioning some of the difficulties met with in spoken language, Mr Shaw said:—

“Occasionally someone asks me out, and, very exceptionally, I accept the invitation. Then I always End that, as I am the celebrated Bernard Shaw, people want to be introduced to me, Many of thorn cut it short by coming up boldly and claiming that they have known mo for years. Eventually my hostess comes up and says; ‘ Oh, Mr Bernard Shaw, may I have the pleasure of introducing to you—mumble, mumble, mumble.’ I sometimes feel like saying to my hostess: “If you had only been articulate when you came to Miss Smith or the Countess of So-and-so, you would have been of some use to mo.' ”

Another difficulty fatal to good con\ersation was tho indiscriminate use ■>f a word or the act of jumping at it s moaning. “ When lam invited out to lunch,”'ho said, “my hostess, who Ims hoard I am a vegetarian, unfortunately bo vs an extremely unpleasant vegetable ■ailed asparagus, winch I cannot oat. i am presented with an enormous dish of it, and there is nothing for mo to no but to refuse it. She says: “ Won’t you take asparagus?’ I say 'No, I don’t like asparagus,^and she replies: • Ob, you are a pessimist.’ ” Tracing the deterioration in pronunciation as shown in the use of the word “modern,” which has now become “ motio’n,” and would soon become “rnod’n,” ho said that a g'.'at deed of that was due to pure slovenliness, which should not be encouraged, is it destroyed some of the variety and music of tho language. NO CORRECT LANGUAGE.

People should be taught to cultivate and bo proud of a certain athleticism in their speech. There was athleticism in articulation as in other things, and ho did not know why it was that so .mny young people who wore quite properly proud of athleticism in lawn tennis and other sports should yet bo intolerably slovenly when they came to .speech, “ I think they ought to he made a little ashamed of it,” he said, “ and be taught to understand that the most intelligent and cultured people are generally rather particular about their articulation. I am, for example —(laughter)—but, generally speaking in public, one has to be,” “ You must not make tho mistake of trying to get a correct language,” said Mr Shaw. “ There is no such thing. You will not got any two people who agree as to what correct language is.” There was, however, a genuine public demand for something else. People knew very well that certain sort s of speech cut off a person for ever from getting more than £3 or £4 a week all their life, long—sorts of speech which made them entirely impossible in certain professions. People were saying: “I don’t want to be taught correct English or anything of tho kind, but will you teach mo an English which will pass, which will be good enough if I am made King ; or Lord Clnof ■Justice, or Prime Minister.” “ Correct English does not matter so much now,” added Mr Shaw, amidst laughter, “although fortunately we have a Prime Minister who speaks extremely good English. But your next Labor Minister may not be so good ns Mr Ramsay MacDoumu. Bo yon will have to got a standard actor, say Sir Johnston Forbes-Robertson, whoso English is . absolutely unchallengeable, to set before "people a standard and say ‘ That is good enough If you come within a certain distance of that you will be all right.’ ”