ENGLISH AS SHE IS SPOKE

Waimate Daily Advertiser, Volume XXIV, 25 March 1924, Page 3

ENGLISH AS SHE IS SPOKE

HOW TO CHECK THE DISEASE. Everyone interested in education must, welcome (the statements made by Sir Henry Hadow in his presidential address at University College on * The Claims of Scholarship,’ writes Sir Israel Gollancz (University Professor of English Language and Literature, King’s College, London), in the "Sunday Times.’ The address raised so many questions of importance affecting the teaching of English that it is difficult to deal with more than one or two of its main aspects. All must be in agreement with him in his protests against slipshod English, although, so far as one can judge from the newspaper reports of the address, some of the instances adduced by Sir Henry are perhaps open to discussion.

Would it, for example, be desirable, (jven if it were possible, to correct the widespread pronunciation of “iften” as “of’n”? Is it right to instan :-) we popular form of the word as a mere vulgarism due to slipshod habits of speech ? “ Of’n ” may claim to be phonologically correct; it might be argued by the phone t'lians that it is the spelling that should be made to conform to the common pronunciation. The etymological “ often,” as the traditional scribal form of the word, has certainly helped to modify

‘ of’n,” and to reinstate the lost consonant; but this is far from general, even among the educated. I must not, however, go into minute points of English phonology. MALAPROPISMS. This species of alleged error must, of course, be differentiated from such pseudo learned malapropisms as are rightly castigated by Sir Henry. But 'Mrs Malaprop, and for the matter of that Mr and Master and Miss Malaprop, are not peculiar to our own time —not even to Sheridan’s. Did not Bottoms and Dogberrys flourish in the spacious days of good Queen Bess ? .

Sir Henry Hadow is severe on “ advertisement English.” with its proneness to superlative; but the essence of the whole art of advertisement is surely to emphasise the superlative character of the wares in question. No doubt the time will come when those responsible will follow the excellent example about to be set in respect of the artistic side of advertising. We are given to understand that the creative genius ol the Royal Academy is soon to display itself in providing adequate posters, so that the artistic sense of the masses may lie raised to the highest level of academic aspiration, as they rush from John o’ Groat’s House to Tintagel. The day is perhaps drawing near when the British Academy may be called upon to under, take the equally important task of safeguarding that the English of the advertisements accompanying the posters is “ pure and undefiled.” SEVERE DISCIPLINE.

Sir Henry has, indeed, done excellent service in claiming a more severe discipline in English education, more particularly through tile scholarly teaching of English ; though 1 would wish to bear testimony to the great advance in this direction which has been made during the last ten or twenty years.

We must bear in mind that while we have been gradually giving up the discipline derived from the compulsory study of Latin and Greek we have not yet generally secured for the teaching lof English well-recognised methods of training equal to the old-world classical tradition with its sense of grammatical acaraev and veibal correctness.

The adecratc study pf English—language and liter, tine —must assert its due place in national education, and those whom we entrust with this teaching must e equipped with the necessary knowledge, qualifying them for their most :m portant task.

Whatever may be asked from the pupils, the teacher should be required to hive ■■ sound knowledge of the language through all its phases; and a strong stand, should .he taken against slipshod forms of collegiate curricula. The scorn of English philology, characteristic Of some who count as authorities on English, is fraught w ; th danger; and I feel sure that we have Sir Henry Hadow with us in our insistence that linguistic scholarship is necessary for those who would check and cure the disease which he has so ably attempted to diagnose. SLANG. With regard to the question of slang, I think that on the whole it is surprising how quickly the sjang of the war has disappeared. Sir Henry seems to take too much to heart “ good-bye-ee ”; but it will probably not last very long, and after all •• good-bye ” itself must have been regarded as a ieit of slang before it was raised to the dignity now accorded it, being merely a popular contraction of “ God be with you.” It is not found in literary English much before the time of Shakespeare.

I should be sorry to see the word “ wangle ” and the phrase “to go west ” disappear again from English speech. They are not only expressive, but they are most interesting old English terms which in some happy way were rediscovered in the trenches during the war.

There is ope point I wish Sir Henry Hadow had emphasised; it is possible he did so, and that it was not mentioned in the reports of his address. I refer to the place of drama as a branch of recreative education, and more particularly to its influence in correcting slipshod English. Municipal theatres throughout the country should work hand in hand with educational authorities, so that the young may grow up with a due sense of their noble heritage in the language and thought of Shakespeare and the best of English dramatic literature. TSE MOTHER TONGUE. Then, perhaps, at some future time the citizens of the Empire, in their consciousness of the glories of their mother tongue, may bring about the foundation of a great national theatre as the overdue tribute of homage to the abiding fame of the Master of English speech. But this is another story, and may well claim a hearing before long.