“ZUMMERZET"

Evening Star, Issue 19186, 1 March 1926, Page 1

“ZUMMERZET"

Where is the purest English spoken? According to Sir Richard Paget, in his ; examination into the nature of human |. speech, published in the latest tract of the Society for Pure English, it is in that country from .which Squire Western hailed, Somerset. The peculiarities of, broad Somerset, the z for s. the v lor F, and the rest, are exactly those which give it .superiority over other brands of English ; but the standard by which Sir Richard Paget decides on the. merits of competing dialects is not every one’s (says ‘The Times’). His [is an acoustic criterion: that is to say, 'he cstianftes a hnuniago by its ability ito be beard at a distance', and there I are certain consonantal .sounds, he finds, j which the larynx, whose function is not to produce, but to carry speech, is powerless to transmit. “F” and “s,” which Somerset circumvents, are the most notorious instances, and could they be given up in favor of their West Country equivalents purer English would bo the consequence, because more audible. “ All languages,” Fir Richard Paget, goes so far as to declare, “ except ‘be 1 Znmincrzct,’ presents a mixture of voiced and unvoiced sounds, in which the former are utterly inferior to the latter. While all sounds can bo I whispered, it takes the larynx to convey ' them over distances, and it is not treating the larynx fairly as an instrument if it is asked to enlarge, sounds on which if has no control. Soecch. if it is to be uniformly efficient, should, there! ore. rid itself of those sounds which cannot be adapted to the larynx; j renllv pure language would then be file | result', and English, by turning towards j its admirable (somerset variety, would be fitter than ever to become the lan- ! gunge of the world. One of the points of S<r Richard Paget's • nnper is that mankind has only just discovered the acoustic principles of speech : it now remains to put (hose principles into practice. as they do. or did. until education interfered, in Somerset Tf public speaker-, teler'linm.' users, i and broadcast, talkers could enunciate j their words without ambiguity it would ibe a .gain. “ Five ” has already proved ii+s awkwardness on the telephone; lint Dr Bridges, vho writes a note on Sir Richard Paget's work, cannot agree that “ vive ” would be any betUr: and he points out. moreover, that the .substitution of “v” for “f” in a good many words would lend to philological confusions as undesjrahle as t-be acoustic failures which it might remove. He argues, in short, that speech cannot he governed entirely by considerations of audibility through a gale of wind—though that was why '‘larboard” was formally abolished by the Admiralty in favor of “ port ” —or at n monster mass meeting. Ravage men may have developed speech cnrelesslv. as'Sir Richard Paget’s interesting theory of its origin implies; hut nowadays we do not always wish to shout to the tribe, but often find the greatest pleasure in .moving speech, like Milton’.- Adam, in private conversation. Consequently the more, am] not the fewer, sounds at command the hotter. . 3 bo Somerset shooters may be at an advantage, but not the Somerset conversationalists. The value, however, of. Sir Richard Paget’s really learned researches is not wholly theoretic. Soeech, he. proves.. can be made an affair, of science, and untutored •nature may be wasteful and haphazard.

Mother: “ How was it you-didn’t win iim spelliiiff prize. Tommy. Small Son: “ Oh, I put too many ‘ z's ’ in scissors,"