THE AMERICAN TONGUE

Greymouth Evening Star, 15 April 1932, Page 10

THE AMERICAN TONGUE

IS IT ENGLISH? When, recently, the annual medal of. the-American Academy of Arts arid Letters for excellence in diction- was awarded, Hamlin Garland, in presenting the token, raised the questidn whether there - was an American language,**as! distinguished from the English which is British. In an article in the “New York" Times,” Otis Skinner,a previous winner of the medal, sets forth some observations and conclusions ak’ to spdken English in America and’ discusses the likelihood of tlie arrival of an American English language.' It is highly improbable that a-native Airiericah’ speech l flowing 1 frorfi’ a pure radiaV origin like' that’ of the Latiris and Teutons' Will- ever beebine’ a reality, says Mr Skinner- Iri' our conglomerate' nation’ tbo riiUch lingual wash’ from Eurdpe; Asih, Africa; and Polynesia has polluted 1 the stream 1 of our English piibe ahd undefiled to al-

low us a ve/bal harihOny. We do not agree oil a method- of saying l thirigS.A’ charming' Virginia acquaintance of riiine oil a visit, tb a New England town Was iri a’ quandary 1 abOrit a' certain address. The name slib' sought seeiried uhfamiliar tb everyorie- Finally she Said: “I ! don’t knew how yoii-all 1 call it, but I want to find sdmeorie named C-a-r-t-e-r.” It was this delightful lady who corrected the protiunciatioh of my infant daughter when she wanted to pay a‘ game of : cards. “Cornelia,” she said, “you can’t have theiri unless- ybu’ ask' fbr r kyards.” , At this same tender age my child was the' guest iri’ the libirib of a Philadelphia friend; At tlifi'breakfast table she said she would 1 like soriie' porridge. . “My darting,” said' her hostess

in reproof, “you must speak correctly —pqtirridge!” My daughter - still thought she would like some porridge. “PoUrridge!” irisistbd the lady. ‘Now, how* db' you say it?” “Oatmeal!” replied Cornelia defiantly. The naitie of Tremont is l well known in Boston. There is a' great diversity of usage in its'appellation. Tre'e-mont, Tre-niorit*, and 1 Tremmunf. There ’ used'to be a" lio't’el' of 1 that name, and 1 once directed a cabman to drive me tb it. He did 1 not understand at first. Finally it daWned on'him. “Oh!” he’ saidi “you mdan Trerii-munt.” Tii.bre is a'Goethe Street ifl Chicago. Formerly the - Clark street' par conductors announced it as “Gooth Street.’’ Now they rhyme it with’ “dirty.” What is the Standard - of American speech? Is if New England; Middle Atlantic, Pennsylvanian; Southern, niidcohtiriCntal; or Pacific? Each of these'sections hah its own tradition’ of verbal and' tbnaf inflection, and when an' inhabithfif of one' of- them - is overheard'ordering his cocktail in- the bar of Paris' 1 Ritz, his gloves at the Averi'Ue' de I’Opera; of inquiring the rate of American’ exchange at the Guaranty' Trust Company’s office in Pall Mall, it is riot too 1 difficult tb* detect Whether lie comes; froth New Hampshire, New York City, Lancaster, Pennsylvania, RiClimoridL LodisVille, Detroit, Topeka, of Sari Francisco. The; 1 task is much'less difficult with 1 the' female than with the males speaker - , the’vbice - of- the forthCF Being far deadlier tliari that’ of the‘male; far more’aggressive in its local pride and satisfaction’. Nothirig- is more expressive’ of the independence of our mother tongue than thfe letter R. It is' the liattlb cry of our native land; the glory that' is Umurrica. It pipes through New Eng- i

land nostrils', r surges from the larynx of Peririsylvahia, assault's lis. in Michigan and Indiana, and roams at largeon our boundless prairies. So proud are we of this birthright of ours that we accord it the honour of an extra syllable whenever iiossible, as in de-Our, cle-ur, fi-ur, sh-ur- “Law” becomes “lor” arid “saw” is changed to “sbr--” NATIVE ; VITALITY. It is hurtled’ at ihfaht 'ears front the*' teacher s platfbrrii of Otir' public schbblh; crawls'- irito our Itbriies tiirbgH'ithe ; radio, us from bb-liirid-thA counter of'the department stor'd;-prebift^s’ovef shrilled debates in wohibri’s'' clUb’k; subdues us' frOiri the 1 ptilgit; eciibdS iri court robins' arid 1 legiklative'halls, and prevents out gdingl cbiiifbrtabljr t'd' sleejf at bad plays itfthb theatre where actofs transpose Hamlet’S' meanings and speak' the speech 1 ribpihgly. on the; tongue. There ik a nUtiVe vitality arid deterriiirihtioii 1 about it not to b'A withstood. It resembles; that knuckle clfitcri of the fork 1 displayed at the

dinirig- tablfeS of' thb Waldorf-Astoria by pilgrims' from mid-Western town's 1 —a manoeuvre tllht always fascinates me, especially when by a difficult* turn of the yTrist food iS dbftly deposited oh expectant tongues;. . . ; AhO 1 we as' a ; riation' stone deaf. Or have odr erirdruffis become ossified' by' tlie 1 Vocal mirisnih riSifag from the American 1 ' meltihk' pdt? Tlib' origin of much Of our polyblione inflection is rt'adiiy fbundl The Pilgrim Fathers who' started 1 tHe” New England collection 1 of cradles', spiri’nirig wheels, and high'bOys, also brbhght from, non-cort-fbfffiist 1 English' pulpits’ the heritage of' Puritan naSdlity, intensified as time' went on’ by the rigours of the NeW-’ England cliffihtA . ; ~ TliO'- fbllbwOrs'Of William Penn, to-

getlier' with certain'. Swedish anti' Welsh' citikririty, fcteqiie'atiled' to the Philadelphians of to-day a flatness of tone still' observable in Quaker families. As one proceeds south-westerly, ftbiii' Philadelphia* lie finds- himself iri th'A country. di the so-called .Pennsylvania Dutcri/ wliere the early immigrant, who was really not Dutch but Gcrffiari, lias left 1 a lasting burr oh' the speech of his adopted country. Iri’ the coal districts the spoken' woYd is' infected' by Bohemia- and Polish 1 accents, "while .in Pittsburg’ theid' is. a peculiar lift, a possible ffioitntaifieer influence, as expressed iff tlife familiar “Alle-ghe-ny,” Mbiryiarid'’ rias passed more- un;scatlied’ through the years since her fouridatibh' by' Lord Baltimore than,* soriie' of her sister States.; It is the dividing line between North and* South, tlib barrier*against which 1 have brokeri the rude surges of- Puritan and' Perihsylvanin' and thfe' lazy softness of the cotton fields. What manner of speech- wns pos-

sessed by’ the company-/ of Captain John Smith arid' the later Virginia colonists it is;, difficult to determine. It is’evident; hoWever, that Virginian accent, like that of all the States- below the Mason and Dixon line, has, beeri under riegrqid iripiighce for mdre thaii 1 two' centuries. It was inevitable that the negro mammy should flavour’ the speech' of the white children- slid brought up and the house; slave that of his youitig riiaster< More arid 1 more ?. ld . eabH’ generation: take on the:Negrb ■ v* A*? : sang in their' Quarter. A - pleasant voice,? thht of v , utterly ■ wrong.-in diction; its caiTss stops qur ears’ 5 to ; its sihs of riii&pEdriuri'ciation.--^st 'why the Virginia voice- sh'Oulil be gentle, while that of Kentucky ana Tennessee is raucous and grating I do not know. Something poisoned it at

its -source. I never .hear its-feminine shrillness, without a rasp pf my nerves and.-an ‘/edge” to. my teeth. . v LOOSE! AND SLOPPY. s The further South' we,. travel the more 1 loose 1 and sloppy becomes- the spoken’ word; until 1 finally, it merges into the uncertain creole of-. New Orleans: The” atmosphere.; of- Texas would* seem to have a beneficial- inlltife'fice- ohivocal’ effort. I j have known mahy exariipies of fine voices and unaffected, speech from 1 the Lone Star State. It renews its vigour as it crossdAtbwiadb-swepf Kririsas, its unshackled R’s reverberating in the gyeat- open- spaces/ and again subsides into the' J-less Scandinavian of Wis■consiri. . .-■. Our American- speech -softens- vastly as it nears the Pacific Ocean- Whatever the ; cause,. trie gentle- rains of Oregon; or the' foge that .roll, through the 1 Golden Gate of Sari-Francisco, or contact with, the; sensuous language of Spain, .or that the early pioneers cast aside from- their prairiA scllooners-irito the alkali desert , something- of the rasping- vocalisation of-the East' — there’is a perceptible absence'of. provincialism- beyond the Sierra Nevada range.

But' woe 1 is me- What can'one say of our New YOrkese, that incredible melange l born of every accent under the sun? There the tonal idiosyncrasies of Seadinavia' and Australian, the Czech, the Slovak, the Pole, the Greek, and the Filipijio, the sons of Erin,'of 1 Spain, and the Japanese, the Jew of Germany and"the Balkans hrive compounded the mixture that is the Manhattan' equivalent, of Cockayrife. Gnat long. ago. the" American Academy- 1 of Arts and Letters gave a medal to Mr Holbrook of one of the broad casting-studios,' in recognition of the excellent' quality of his’diction. In

presenting the medal, Hamlin Garland took- occasion to launch a few welldirected shots at’ the speech of- our country. In l rebuttal, however, of his own arraignttient he attacked the polyglot utterance of England, laying special stress ori the almost unintelligible language of the Cockney. • Those of us who have wandered , about l Covent. Garden Market atiiid-the" shouting of huckster's in 1 trie biisy . morning hour, who have att'erii'ifted to follow the words of • British cufates reverberating though "Idng-drawn •aisles and fretted valuta” at cathedral services, and who have’been l riiyhtifled , by the throaty emanations of Oxford , and Cambridge dons can l appreciate Mr Garland’s point-' of view. It is not the purpose of these reflections to assault the - orthobpic siiis of Great Britain: She hab biiVderis enough to bear without that: It proves nothing to say' that her little' inland some sixty of severity different dialects. O’Farrell informs you that only in- Dublin l i# English sjioken in its - purity; while MacPherttori sriys that you- hear the' verfa- best 1 English iri the whole wurrld' in' Edihb'6i»o! . Whm then; shall 1 deCiilA tfli&f’ doctors - disagree? What' bbdts it' fßFthe got to call the kettle black ? Tlie'tridth is that: our riiothef toifgue 1 - at’ itA best is neither Insular ribr provißbiai: English' is English; Wfifettibr Utierdd in Liverpool' or l Chicago: