OUR MOTHER TONGUE

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXIV, Issue 22628, 16 January 1937, Page 4 (Supplement)

OUR MOTHER TONGUE

By PROFESSOR ARNOLD WALL

CC A TE." Sonic months ago I dealt with the tendency to pronounce this word as "eight," according to the spelling, instead of the correct "et." I now hear of an elderly gentleman being taken to task by a graduate of our University for saying "et." This is one of many examples of pronunciations according to spelling which are gaining ground in this country. To be consistent these purists must pronounce "could" like "mould," "are" like "hare," "cupboard" as "cup", plus "board," and "thistle" like "pistol." And even then they will only be at the beginning of their job. "Laundry" and its group. I have already dealt with this class of words at some length, the question arising out of the late King George's pronunciation of "launch" as "lanch." 1 then described "lanch," "lahndry," etc., as perfectly good and traditional, but now a trifle old-fashioned. More than one correspondent has written to say that the pronunciation in England is regularly "lanch" still. If this is so, and it would be hard to decide whether it is or not, people are returning to the older mode after a period of ohberration and J, for one, shall be pleased though I have always heard the "lawnch" myself. "Oral" and "Verbal" "Decadent.'' This has been heard from the pulpit as "dcckadent," stressed on the "deck," and 1 am asked if this is correct. The best authorities are agreed that it is, and in this case we cannot appeal to tradition for the word is comparatively new. ".Miraculous." From the same pulpit has been collected "niye-raculous," thus my correspondent spells it, with long i. This is certainly quite wrong; the i is short as in " miracle" ; upon this the old and the modern authorities are agreed, though, by the way, the older dictionaries did not agree about "miracle." The mispronunciation is probably due to the more or less conscious influence of "admire."

1 have been asked to explain the usage of "oral," "orally," "verbal," "verbally," as employed to distinguish an order, direction, or message, delivered by word of mouth from one which is written. Strictly, "oral" and "orally" denote "by word of mouth," "the spoken word," while "verbal" and "verbally" denote "in words" which of course all such messages, etc., must be, whether written or spoken. Little Problems But the habit of using "verbal" and "verbally" for the spoken as distinguished from the written message, described by the dictionaries as "loose," is now pretty universal and will probably hold its own, however, it may be condemned. It is "loose" in one sense, but only too firm in another. "Alternatives." The question, as put to me, concerns the phrases, "various alternatives" and "two or more alternatives." Are these correct? The answer is that both fall well within the

Random Notes —No. lxi.

definition of "alternatives" as "set, or pair, of possibilities from which one only can be selected," which is often practically equivalent to "choice," so they must be considered correct. While on this subject I may add that I have received from an observant friend quite a number of examples of "alternate"' used in the sense of "alternative," some from .New Zealand, some from English prints, and it is evident that the error, which is really very stupid, is extremely common. Not so very long ago "alternative" could be used in the sense of "alternate," but they are now perfectly differentiated and it is a pity that careless writers cannot keep them apart. "The true facts." This phrase and "the tacts are true" are challenged by a correspondent who is very observant and particular in such matters, if we take the dictionary definition of "fact" as "thing certainly known to have occurred or be true, datum of experience," we must agree that the "true facts" is a pleonasm, if an innocent one; but if we apply the further definition, "thing assumed as basis for infcrence-' as in "his facts are indisputable," we see that the phrase is easily defensible and justified by usage. English Formation o 1 Russian

".Bolshevik." I am asked what is the original and exact meaning of "Bolshevik" and of "Bolshevist." The answer is that "Bolsheviki" is a Russian plural noun, meaning "majority party"; "Bolshevist" is an English formation from that.

"Uusy" and "business."' An explanation of the very curious spelling of these words is asked for by a puzzled correspondent. We may explain it succinctly by saying that the spelling is "French. In Anglo Saxon the form of "busy" was "bysig." This v stood for "thin" or "French" sound of 11, which has long disappeared from English. When, after the Conquest, French scribes, 'or rather Normans whose language was French, changed the spelling of F.nglish according to the French system, this old v was spelt u, and as the sound of e represented it in certain dialects the u replaced the y in seme words. The Middle Ages During the Middle Ages such words as "busy," "did," and "sin''were spelt both ways by different writers; "dude" or "dide," "bisi" or "busi," "sinne" or "simile." The u remained longest in the south-western dialects, and it was from that source that it entered into the standard spelling in "busy." Another word which still has it is "bury," where it stands for the old Kentish sound of e for the West Saxon y. This applies both to the verb "bury" and to tlie "bury" of Canterbury., etc., where it stands for the old noun, meaning a town or "borough." The Anglo Saxon y was sometimes represented by ui, being a kind of combination of n and i, and this remains in our spelling of "build" for the older "byldan." Of course there was no reason why the standard spelling of "busy" should not have been "bisy" and, as I have stated before in these notes, it seems to bo impossible to explain why men adopted a deliberately unphonetic spelling when they had an alternative phonetic one also in use. This is what our fathers did in the case of "gaol" and "gauge," which stand, as lon<: as we allow them, as monuments, to their want of good sense.