Words and Phrases.

Star (Christchurch), Volume LXVI, Issue 20452, 2 November 1934, Page 6

Words and Phrases.

TT MAY SEEM a small matter that b&th A Latvia and Estonia have recently adopted English as the principal foreign language to be taught in their schools, but as Bishop Welldon has pointed out, it is a stage in the ever-widening diffusion of the English language, says a writer in London “ Truth.” One hundred and fifty years ago, at a time when French was the “ lingua franca” of the civilised world, David Hume, in a letter to Edward Gibbon, predicted a superior stability and duration for the English language as a result of “ our solid and increasing establishments in America.” This bold prophecy has since been borne out, for whatever we may think about the English of Chicago-atta-Boy, it is still English of a sort and, via Hollyw-ood, it reaches a far wider public than ever Hume or Gibbon dared to dream of. The danger is, however, that the simplification in spelling, which Bishop Welldon desires to see, may be brought about not by linguistic reform, but by the pressure of illiteracy; so that by the time the English tongue becomes the universal speech of men, it may be changed beyond recognition. Perhaps it would be better to have the w-orld talking Esperanto or Yolapuk than a debased English. TOUCHSTONE.