COCKNEYITIS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLV, Issue 13745, 9 May 1908, Page 1 (Supplement)

COCKNEYITIS.

♦ - . A PAGE IN THE PATHOLOGY ' OF SPEECH. ' , •! BY 0.C.8. ; : Speech is ours for two diverse purposes. ' Employed to convcv clearly and exactly | one mail's thought- to another,' it is also , ! used as legitimately to obscure thought, ; ;to disguise a meaning, to perplex and con- : fuse. Whichever object- is pursued, preci-. sion in the use, clear appreciation of meaning, are equally necessary. Our English , tongue, though it lacks the brilliancy of French, the stat-eliness of Latin, the perfect symmetry of Greek, ranks next to these three: while it may, perhaps, fairly claim as against them a more thoroughly all-round excellence. Less brilliant th;m French, it compensates by a more convincing solidity; less stately than Latin, it allows ' more' subtlety ; wanting the sheer beauty which Greek commanded, it may at times exceed that greatest of all languages in tenderness and a restrained virility. And these are the four languages of the world— ancient and two modern. Why .is it, then, that we so dishonour our inheritance, disown our birthright, disgrace our one national patent of nobility'.' For he were indeed a bold man — or a* fool—who should attempt to maintain that this our age retains full command of the greatest of all weapons—language. Aud this in two ways. We have, for a time, ceased to care sufficiently for nicety, discrimination, exactitudes in the use of words. Equally we have, in many lands, attuned our car to discord in place of euphony, robbing our tongue of its native music, distorting its rhythm, making hideous caricature of its vocalism. Herein lies real danger. Ugliness of .speech soon brings in its train plainness of feature; the lips that wrest awry our vocables will in straitest justice quickly find and feel retribution. Ugly enunciation develops an ugly mouth. Poor delivery creates a "fish-like' eye. Monotony of utterance makes our face monotonous, and a bad accent soon tells upon the marriage rate. Only the fool shuts his eyes to plain truth. Though sporadic in distribution as yet,.and of varying virulence, the disease of faulty specch and dissonant- enunciation is already endemic in New Zealand. It. is just as prevalent in Australia, reaching its maximum in Sydney, its minimum in lasmania. Now, in combating disease, no inquiry is so readily made, none, when answered, yields so fruitful a return, as the oldest of all questions: " Whence come ye?" Frankly, then, the linguistic disease of Australasia germinated in the mosquito, haunted, marshy lands of Essex. the mosquito is a known earner of disease forms. Wherever mosquitoes flourish Flourishes also this endemic disease ot ugly speech and vile accent —a disease "which 1 propose now to show is directly caused by laziness, i.e., bv brain torpor, which again is a. triturate form of " sleeping sickness. ; In men, and more particularly m women, there is a. force called inertia. In plain English, we will not work unless we are compelled. Now this inertia,- indolcncc, laziness, is, m effect, an. ovum of disease. We may sterilise it by power of will so Nature has taught and still teaches. Let it, however, be maintained receptive, like a soil in good heart, then the external infection, to which it is at all times exposed, soon or later impregnates, and the issue is disease, alike mental, moral, and physical. .Now, while inertia is one, yet, as the same soil is capable of nourishing many and very cline--rcnt kinds of -produce.; according to the seed with which it is sown, so upon the innate laziness of human kind may be engendered mariv and various diseases which weaken or destroy our natural and healthy functions. Impregnate native inertia with the sperm of "sleeping sickness, and there results brain torpor, or, in acuter form, that fever which decimates equatorial Africa. , . , A<*ain, it 'we restrict our horizon and investigate only milder forms, we shall find it of interest to observe the effects of this morbid -condition upon our common language. There is—as has been, saidone 0 particular type of this sickness which may well be isolated under a name of its own—Cockneyitis. This type first declared : iself in and about Romford, Essex. main"- there a soil most congenial, it spread , with remarkable rapidity, and prepared itself for greater and more distant conquests. Like all marauders —from Viking to Kaiser —it fastened greedy eyes on London. London conquered, the world lay at its ; feet. And because its hopes were in great part realised and more than half the ; metropolis fell in due course under its ! sway, its distinctive name has come trom ' conquered territory rather than from its ; now forgotten birthplace. So has it often ■ been in history, and almost every country s draws its name, not from an autochthonous, , but from an invading race. _As Greece, as France, as England proclaim their conquerors in their national appellatives, so Cockneyit-is retains the memory of its first, . and greatest invasion. .... 1 Securely throned in London, this disease - of speech extended its sway over the neigh- [ homing "Home counties;" but most, it i lusted ——after a foreign Empire. Active missionaries were sent, from about 1800 A.D. onwards, to that new ' Southern world, whose inhabitants, twas I rumoured, stood 011 their heads. Hete it I was likely would be found conditions fa- > vourable. * Nor was the forecast mistaken. 1 Transplanted to a climate as favourable 111 many regards as its native Essex, though ' from different causes favourable, Cockinj--3 it-is took root and throve amazingly beneath ; kindly skies in Australasia. And here - too, 'its fertility was something increased by occasional cross-breeding from a. similar ' strain which had been independently de- ' veloped in the eastward States of America. 5 This admixture of new blood was, however, > sporadic, and though it heightened the I vigour, did not otherwise modify the > parent stock. Thus the speech of Australasia perpetuated, and still perpetuates. ' the 1000-year-old disease first engendered in the Essex marshes, and tho tremendous 1 power alike of a. tiny insect and the sex - she adorns is once again vindicated. E Having now traced the history of the disease, "it is well, before discussing its proper treatment, to give a somewhat more S detailed diagnosis. Appearing, often in its most'virulent form, at tho earliest ago 3 of child life—say, from 18 months to three 1 years—it is strengthened and confirmed by . the natural instinct of a child, sub-consci-ous imitation. Very much as deaf mutes ' are taught the oral method by close study e of lip-movement in those who have unimt paired powers, children striving to acquire v language (whose utility thev_ very readily e appreciate) are always watching the mane ners of adults, but study still mere closely as necessarily also more oftenthose of S older children. Now, it is a familiar principle—the recognition of which has - created the finest page of history ever £ written there is unconscious sympathy of muscular action. Take only a trivial example. Watch a bov "working up" on a swing. Automatically, as his e knees bend, your own will crouch. Thus • it- is that children, while they deliberately 1 produce sounds in the tone of those from rr whom they learn, unconsciously reproduce 1 that configuration of the mouth and other organs of speech which imparts to those " sounds their peculiar—and in the disease II under study their most disagreeable— • timbre. Now the said configuration is itiv self morbid—it is a symptom of the disease r, of bra.iu-torpor. Broad and easy is the path to destruction. It is so palpably " simple to fall into evil ways; so much less e ■ fntiauiug to allow" the first approaches of h disease than to rally our powers to resist, t In children of the" age directly affected by this disease, wil'-power, volition, though strong, is as yet hardly conscious, for it has as yet not. placed itself in aliis a nee with reason. Thus the disease atif tacks when the citadel is unguarded, and. victory is assured from the first gunfire.

In this early stage tho disease can, hewever, be combated with great ease. Nature, if we would but try to understand her, never offers sickness in her left but. with her right hand extends to us the ; remedy. That same power—so highly de- , veloped in children—of sub-conscious imitation may produce equally good as bad results. Obviously, all depends upon the 1 example. Children imitate; parents must supply a correct, not a debased model. ] Again and again has the writer heard the coward cry, " What's the use ; it's in the t air, wo can't fight against it." Sheer nonsense —or worse. Take pains with your-, selves; especially take .pains: with your < first-born, and the battle is won. And, remember, in every army there are far more j cowards than brave men. "A little leaven 'eaveneth the lump." , While with children wo can follow the method of prevention, with adults we must cure an already established disease. Nor i is there here wanting a strong ally. . As children have not. consciously yoked their , will to Reason's car, but are easily led by affection,' so the adult, having greater control over the turbulent trace-horse, Passion, 1 can force it to aid. not. fight- against, the steady shatter Volition, well handled by coachman Reason. And let us remember to-day with Kant, "There is nothing good , but a good will." Yet it may be granted, because of weakness inherent in human nature, that it is well to supply, wherever possible, incentives. These incentives fall in the main into two classes. The one is knowledge of the evil to be combated, the other is pride or self-respect. The former incentive is more difficult of supply. For length .of years has bred insensibility; and those who suffer most from tho sickness are commonly least alive to their par'mis condition. Nor without reason. All Nature's functions fall through disease into decay. Faulty enunciation, harsh voice, indolent delivery —products themselves of diseasehave in their turn caused a related disease of the ear. Auditory nerves, so sensitive at first, more and more released from service by indolence of will, lose their power of vibration. The mouth emits an unmusical sound, and the- ear, atrophied, fails to recognise its dissonance. There are, strange as it may seem, thousands who cannot detect any tonal difference between "town" —a monosyllable—and tc-a-ow-n, a favourite New Zealand enunciatioi). There are thousands more who positively prefer an ugly drawl to an incisive utterance. But 110 greater error exists than that of supposing, where most are wrong, it is affectation to be right. The second incentive is more easily applied. For here on the side of right are ranged two potent —vanity and sex. Indeed, it were hardly too much to say that could our girls be. induced to use their mirrors, a death-blow- would bo struck at this disease. Every girl would give all.to own a kissablo mouth. Let her then study before her glass the facial effects of Cockney it-is; let her see the month shape itself to long, straight lines, us hostile to Cupid's -bow as a pair of steel rails; let her observe how the lack of effort- in enunciation as it leaves her thin-lipped, straight and hard of mouth, robs also her eyes of that seductive sparkle;, in a.word, let her realise how, as morbid tissue is tense, hard, inflexible, so this disease of speech robs Iter expression of mobility, replacing a lively and engaging play of feature by a set, dead dulncss, which would kill the glamour of Helen or Cleopatra. How often do we not hear the comment: " Yes, a really pretty face, but lacking animation, and if only you were to hear her speak—" A kindly silence, like diaphanous drapery, hides but suggests tho rest. Let us "eradicate Cockney it is,'- waging war, upon it •with as much rcaeort as we would against tuberculosis, for disease of the mind is surely as much our enemy a 6 disease of tho body. The proper organ of speech is the mouth, not the nose; right use of throat, larynx, tonsils, tongue, and lips would j keep these parts healthy. Correct speech will decrease the death-rate, from cancer; it will enhance physical attractions; it will'mill; oiir'm'en manly, our worn ion bean-' tiful. To it no one can object except- the cynic who fears the evils that will come from increased power in womankind.