WORLD LANGUAGE

Evening Star, Issue 20543, 23 July 1930, Page 11

WORLD LANGUAGE

AN ADVOCATE OF ENGLISH

Support is given to recent advocacy of, English as the coming world language by a proposal which comes from an eminent professor of English in Sweden (writes Sir Robert Donald in ‘ John o’ London’s Weekly ’). Granted the premise that a secondary world language must be one which has traditions, a literature, which is alive and expanding, English stands unrivalled and cuts out Esperanto and all other artificial creations It is already the language spoken by the greatest number of people in the world; it is recognised as the language of the sea, and of commerce; it is on equality with French as the language of diplomacy. In the smaller countries of the Continent, where knowledge of a secondary language in schools and colleges_ is obligatory, English is chosen invariably. It is because of the supreme claims of English that Professor R. E. Zachnsson, of Upsala University, has produced a scheme to ease the adoption of English as a world language. Professor Zachrisson has made a historical and scientific study of English. He is the author of works on ‘ Pronunciation of English Vowels. 1400-1700,’ ‘ The English Pronunciation at Shakespeare’s Time,’ ‘ Northern English or London English as the Standard Pronunciation,’ etc . . The professor is, of course, a Swede, and it is interesting to note that English was not the mother tongue of some of the leading authorities on the language. One of the best known in the United States -is Dr Otto Jespersen. who is Danish. He is regarded to-day as a scholarly exponent of English whose text books aro used in American colleges. Another brilliant man ol foreign origin who has a wonderful command of the language, and is the author of books on it, is the delectable Mr H. L. Mencken. Professor Zachrisson attempts in his system to remove one of the chief obstacles to foreigners acquiring the language: that is the many confusing anomalies of spelling—a real bugbear which terrifies foreign students accustomed to more orderly and phonetic systems. Spelling reformers ax - e not so active and aggressive in England us they were a get .‘ration ago. There was quite a school of them. The late Professor Skqat headed one system, and other distinguished philologists, such as the late Dr Henry Bradley, Dr Furnival, Dr Sweet, Professor Sayce, and Professor Gilbert Murray, have been advocates for the reform of the language in one shape or other. Tho late Poet Laureate fDr Robert Bridges) was an ardent reformer, and in his poem, ‘ The Testament of Beauty,’ introduced a few examples of his new spelling. It ha> been left, however, to a Swedish professor to produce a system of English easy spelling on scientific lines, adapted not so much for those whose mother tongue is English as for foreigners win find difficulty in acquiring the language Professor Zachrisson attacks the spelling bugbear by introducing a system which he calls ‘Easy Spelling,’ with as little disturbance of existing forms as possible. ‘ Easy Spoiling ’ is based on old English orthography in an ago when the language was more phonetic than it is to-day. The author points out, for instance, that Queen Elizabeth used such spelling as “ stauke foi “ stalk,” and “ dark ’ and “ hart ” for “clerk ” and “ heart.” In the folio edition of Shakespeare’s work we note bee, mee, sheo. etc., for he. me, she, tnch for touch. _ vane, hare, sale for vain, hair, and sail, and in contemporary letters and manuscripts we often hit upon such spellings as grp, bio, for grow *<nd blow. One principle -which has guided Professor Zachrisson in the evolution <u ‘ Easy Spelling ’ has been the wellknown fact that _ every English vowel has two pronunciations: one in dose.

another in open, syllables (raan» mane; lick like; not, note: nun, pure); and that certain so-called digraphs—i.e., ee, 00, au, ew, ou, oi, etc., are nearly always pronounced in the same way. Consequently “e 11 after a long sound is kept, and sometimes added in the spelling, but it only serves to indicate that the vowel in tho preceding syllable should be pronounced long. The present spelling is kept in a-few-common words, such as 1, to, was, who, what, which, why, there, where, their etc. Due regard is also had to present-day orthography in the spelling of endings : able ation, lire, etc. The author’s treatment of the vowels will indicate the the chief principles upon which he has gone to work. The letters a, i, o, u, for instance, have the long pronunciation in open syllables —i.e., at the end of a word or when followed by one or more than one consonant. The same letters in the middle of a word are also pronounced long, such as in hasty, miser, notis, duty, but are given a short pronunciation in close syllables, such as man, in, not, nut. # The final “ o ” at the end of a word is never pronounced, but only serves to indicate, vowel length, such as made, taste, pane (pain), pante (paint), line, cq-ite (bright), tune. _ Professor Zachnsson treats the yowels with great respect. With regard to consonants the same procedure is followed, but most Consonants are pronounced in the same way as in French, German, and Swedish. No consonant is doubled, so that sickly becomes sikly, and we get sbal, wil, and cot’on (cotton). The late Poet Laureate in his ‘Testament of Beauty ’ eliminated certain superfluous letters and wrote hav, creatin', ther, and wil, but his adventures on this occasion were only tentative; he did not wish to mar the poetic beauty of the poem by allowing novelties iii spelling to arrest the attention of the reader. Professor Zachrisson claims that the adoption of his 1 Easy Spelling ’ will help to maintain the purity of standard English and check the invasion of Cockney and othei degraded forms of speech which at the present tiipe are threatening to establish themselves among all classes of the community. He says; “During repeated visits to London I have had ample opportunities to study the progress of this evil. It is true that habits of vulgar speech which originally were, dialectal, such as the dropping of h’s or the pronunciation of like as loik, are, as a rule, avoided by educated speakers. But the main features of Cockney, especially the broad dipthonic pronunciation of such words as name, go, be, and do, are rapidly finding their way into educated speech, hi a public lecture an eminent scientist repeatedly used such forms of pronunciation as nime for name, and gow for go.” ‘ Easy Spelling ’ is intended tp be a guide to the pronunciation. Professor Zachrisson has certainly succeeded in evolving a form of English which will appeal to foreigners, as it gets rid of many of the perplexities of spelling and pronunciation which have been serious drawbacks to the. acquisition of the language. It also looks like English, differing in this respect from other systems, based on phonetics, which have had distinguished advocates. t ' ■ The following are examples of .Professor Zachrisson’s “ Easy Spelling which will enable the reader to see how it looks: — “ The furst production ov Bernard Shaw’s 4 Arms and tho Man ’ was a grate succ’es. Wen the curten fel there wer loud calls for the author. The audiens wer stil cheering wen Mr Shaw ap’eerd, but there was wun man in the »alorv who was booing all the time. Mr Shaw lookt up at the galery, and sed very seeriusly: ‘Yes sur, I quite agr’ee with you but what can wee too doo ag’anste the hole hous? ’ ” “ Rudyai'd Kipling has told the foloing storv aglanste himself. During his stav in Wiltshire wun sumer bee met litl" Dorothy Drew, Mr Gladstone’s, grand-dauter, and as bee was very fond ov children took her for a long wauk in the park, and told her storys. After a time Mrs Drew, who feerd that Air Kipling must bee tired ov the childe, oalld her and sed: ‘ Now, Dorothy., I hope you hav not been wearying Mr Kipling.’ ‘O, not a bit, mother.’ replyd the litl gurl ‘ But hee has been' weerying mee ’ ” . The use oi accents and the displacement of a lettei for a comma are necessary in orde to indicate pronunciation. It is the intention of Professor Zachrisson to issue a series of primers and text books for educating the public in the language tf establish newspapers, and, in fact, to start a new school for spreading th<- English language in Continental countries. His scheme will win sympathy among English-speaking people and will assist in checking the growth of freakish and artificial candidates for an international medium of speech.