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+*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 12390 ***
+
+[Transcriber's notes: Ligature 'oe' is represented by [oe], and the
+diacritic breve is represented by [)x]]
+
+
+
+
+S. P. E
+
+_Tract No. III_
+
+
+
+
+A FEW PRACTICAL SUGGESTIONS
+
+By
+
+Logan Pearsall Smith
+
+
+
+
+MDCCCCXX
+
+
+
+
+EDITORIAL
+
+CO-OPERATION OF MEMBERS, ETC.
+
+REPORT TO EASTER, 1920
+
+
+
+
+A FEW PRACTICAL SUGGESTIONS
+
+
+The principles of the Society for Pure English were stated in general
+terms in its preliminary pamphlet; since, however, many questions have
+been asked about the application of these principles, a few suggestions
+about special points may be found useful. The Society does not attempt to
+dictate to its members; it does, however, put forward its suggestions as
+worthy of serious consideration; and, since they have received the
+approval of the best scientific judgement, it is hoped that they will be
+generally acceptable.
+
+Some of them, when blankly stated, may seem trivial and unimportant; but
+we neither expect nor desire to make any sudden and revolutionary changes.
+A language is an established means of communication, sanctioned by the
+general consent, and cannot be transformed at will. Language is, however,
+of itself always changing, and if there is hesitation between current
+usages, then choice becomes possible, and individuals may intervene with
+good effect; for only by their preferences can the points in dispute be
+finally settled. It is important, therefore, that these preferences should
+be guided by right knowledge, and it is this right knowledge which the
+Society makes it its aim to provide. While, therefore, any particular
+ruling may seem unimportant, the principle on which that ruling is based
+is not so; and its application in any special case will help to give it
+authority and force. The effect of even a small number of successful
+interventions will be to confirm right habits of choice, which may then,
+as new opportunities arise, be applied to further cases. Among the cases
+of linguistic usage which are varying and unfixed at the present time, and
+in which therefore a deliberate choice is possible, the following may be
+mentioned:
+
+
+I. _The Naturalization of Foreign Words_.
+
+There is no point on which usage is more uncertain and fluctuating than in
+regard to the words which we are always borrowing from foreign languages.
+Expression generally lags behind thought, and we are now more than ever
+handicapped by the lack of convenient terms to describe the new
+discoveries, and new ways of thinking and feeling by which our lives are
+enriched and made interesting. It has been our national custom in the past
+to eke out our native resources by borrowing from other languages,
+especially from French, any words which we found ready to our needs; and
+until recent times, these words were soon made current and convenient by
+being assimilated and given English shapes and sounds. We still borrow as
+freely as ever; but half the benefit of this borrowing is lost to us,
+owing to our modern and pedantic attempts to preserve the foreign sounds
+and shapes of imported words, which make their current use unnecessarily
+difficult. Owing to our false taste in this matter many words which have
+been long naturalized in the language are being now put back into their
+foreign forms, and our speech is being thus gradually impoverished. This
+process of de-assimilation generally begins with the restoration of
+foreign accents to such words as have them in French; thus 'role' is now
+written 'rôle'*[A]; 'debris', 'débris'; 'detour', 'détour'; 'depot',
+'dépôt'; and the old words long established in our language, 'levee',
+'naivety', now appear as 'levée', and 'naïveté'. The next step is to
+italicize these words, thus treating them as complete aliens, and thus we
+often see _rôle_, _dépôt_, &c. The very old English word 'rendezvous' is
+now printed _rendezvous_, and 'dilettante' and 'vogue' sometimes are
+printed in italics. Among other words which have been borrowed at various
+times and more or less naturalized, but which are now being driven out of
+the language, are the following: confrere, congee, cortege, dishabille,
+distrait, ensemble, fête, flair, mellay (now _mêlée_), nonchalance,
+provenance, renconter, &c. On the other hand, it is satisfactory to note
+that 'employee' appears to be taking the place of 'employé'.
+
+[Footnote A: For the words marked with an asterisk see notes on page 10.]
+
+The printing in italics and the restoration of foreign accents is
+accompanied by awkward attempts to revert to the foreign pronunciation of
+these words, which of course much lessens their usefulness in
+conversation. Sometimes this, as in _nuance_, or _timbre_* practically
+deprives us of a word which most of us are unable to pronounce correctly;
+sometimes it is merely absurd, as in 'envelope', where most people try to
+give a foreign sound to a word which no one regards as an alien, and which
+has been anglicized in spelling for nearly two hundred years.
+
+Members of our Society will, we hope, do what is in their power to stop
+this process of impoverishment, by writing and pronouncing as English such
+words as have already been naturalized, and when a new borrowing appears
+in two forms they will give their preference to the one which is most
+English. There are some who may even help to enrich the language by a
+bolder conquest of useful terms, and although they may suffer ridicule,
+they will suffer it in a good cause, and will only be sharing the
+short-lived denunciation which former innovators incurred when they
+borrowed so many concise and useful terms from France and Italy to enlarge
+and adorn our English speech. If we are to use foreign words (and, if we
+have no equivalents, we must use them) it is certainly much better that
+they should be incorporated in our language, and made available for common
+use. Words like 'garage' and 'nuance' and 'naivety' had much better be
+pronounced and written as English words, and there are others, like
+'bouleverse' and 'bouleversement', whose partial borrowing might well be
+made complete; and a useful word like _malaise_ could with advantage
+reassume the old form 'malease' which it once possessed.
+
+
+II. _Alien Plurals_.
+
+The useless and pedantic process of de-assimilation takes other forms, one
+of the most common of which is the restoring their foreign plural forms to
+words borrowed from Greek, Latin, and Italian. No common noun is genuinely
+assimilated into our language and made available for the use of the whole
+community until it has an English plural, and thousands of indispensable
+words have been thus incorporated. We no longer write of _ideæ_, _chori_,
+_asyla_, _musea_, _sphinges_, _specimina_ for _ideas_, _choruses_,
+_asylums_, _museums_, _sphinxes_, _specimens_, and the notion of returning
+to such plurals would seem barbarous and absurd. And yet this very process
+is now going on, and threatens us with deplorable results. _Sanatoria_,
+_memoranda_, _gymnasia_ are now replacing _sanatorium_, _memorandums_, and
+_gymnasiums_; _automata_, _formulae_, and _lacunae_ are taking the place
+of _automatons_, _formulas_, and _lacunas_; _indices_ and _apices_ of
+_indexes_ and _apexes_, _miasmata_ of _miasmas_ or _miasms_; and even
+forms like _lexica_, _rhododendra_, and _chimeræ_ have been recently noted
+in the writings of authors of repute.
+
+Some of these words are no doubt exceptions. _Memoranda_ is preferable
+when used collectively, but the English plural is better in such a phrase
+as 'two different memorandums'. _Automata_, too, is sometimes collective;
+and _lacuna_ always carries the suggestion of its classical meaning, which
+makes half the meaning of the word. So again, when the classical form is a
+scientific term, it is convenient and well to preserve its differentiation,
+e.g. _formulae_ in science, or _foci_ and _indices_ in mathematics; but
+such uses create exceptions, and these should be recognized as exceptions,
+to a general rule that wherever there is choice then the English form is
+to be preferred: we should, for instance, say _bandits_ and not _banditti_.
+
+
+III. _ae_ and _oe_.
+
+The use of _ae_ and _oe_ in English words of classical origin was a
+pedantic innovation of the sixteenth century: in most words of common use
+_ae_ and _oe_ have been replaced by the simple _e_, and we no longer write
+_prævious_, _æternal_, _æra_, _æmulate_, _c[oe]lestial_, _[oe]conomy_, &c.
+Since, however, those forms have a learned appearance, they are being now
+restored in many words which had been freed from them; _medieval_ is
+commonly written _mediæval_; _primæval_ and _co-æval_ are beginning to
+make their appearance; _peony_ is commonly written _pæony_, and the forms
+_sæcular_, _chimæra_, _hyæna_[1] and _præternatural_ have recently been
+noted. As this is more than a mere change in orthography, being in fact a
+part of the process of de-assimilation, members of our Society would do
+well to avoid the use of the archaic forms in all words which have become
+thoroughly English, and which are used without thought of their etymology.
+The matter is not so simple with regard to words of Latin or Greek
+derivation which are only understood by most people through their
+etymology; and for these it may be well to keep their etymologically
+transparent spelling, as _ætiology_, _[oe]strus_, &c. Whether learned
+words of this kind, and classical names such as _Cæsar_, _Æschylus_, &c.,
+should be spelt with vowels ligatured or divided (_Caesar_, _Aeschylus_),
+is a point about which present usage varies; and that usage does not
+always represent the taste of the writers who employ it. Mr. Horace Hart,
+in his _Rules for Compositors and Readers at the University Press,
+Oxford_, ruled that the combinations _ae_ and _oe_ should each be printed
+as two letters in Latin and Greek words and in English words of classical
+derivation, but this last injunction is plainly deduced from the practice
+of editors of Latin texts, and is an arbitrary rule in the interest of
+uniformity: it has the sanction and influence of the Clarendon Press, but
+is not universally accepted. Thus Dr. Henry Bradley writes, 'This question
+does not seem to me to be settled by the mere fact that all recent
+classical editors reject the ligatures, just as most of them reject other
+aids to pronunciation which the ancients had not, such as j, v, for
+consonantal _i_, _u_. Many printers have conformed the spelling of
+_English_ words in this respect to the practice of editors of Latin texts.
+I confess my own preference is for adhering to the English tradition of
+the ligature, not only in English words, but even in Latin or Greek names
+quoted in an English context. If we write ae, oe in Philae, Adelphoe, we
+need the diæresis in Aglaë, Pholoë, and a name like Aeaea looks very funny
+in an English context. The editors of Latin texts are perfectly right in
+discarding the ligatures; but so they are also in writing Iuuenalis; Latin
+is one thing and English is another.'
+
+[Footnote 1: Shakespeare would have assisted the Hyena in her attempt to
+naturalize herself in England:
+
+'I will laugh like a Hyen, and that when thou art inclined to sleep.'
+_A.Y.L._, IV. i. 156. [ED.]]
+
+
+IV. _Dying Words_.
+
+Our language is always suffering another kind of impoverishment which is
+somewhat mysterious in its causes and perhaps impossible to prevent. This
+is the kind of blight which attacks many of our most ancient, beautiful,
+and expressive words, rendering them first of all unsuitable for
+colloquial use, though they may be still used in prose. Next they are
+driven out of the prose vocabulary into that of poetry, and at last
+removed into that limbo of archaisms and affectations to which so many
+beautiful but dead words of our language have been unhappily banished. It
+is not that these words lose their lustre, as many words lose it, by
+hackneyed use and common handling; the process is exactly opposite; by not
+being used enough, the phosphorescence of decay seems to attack them, and
+give them a kind of shimmer which makes them seem too fine for common
+occasions. But once a word falls out of colloquial speech its life is
+threatened; it may linger on in literature, but its radiance, at first
+perhaps brighter, will gradually diminish, and it must sooner or later
+fade away, or live only as a conscious archaism. The fate of many
+beautiful old words like _teen_ and _dole_ and _meed_ has thus been
+decided; they are now practically lost to the language, and can probably
+never be restored to common use.[2] It is, however, an interesting
+question, and one worthy of the consideration of our members, whether it
+may be possible, at its beginning, to stop this process of decay; whether
+a word at the moment when it begins to seem too poetical, might not
+perhaps be reclaimed for common speech by timely and not inappropriate
+usage, and thus saved, before it is too late, from the blight of
+over-expressiveness which will otherwise kill it in the end.
+
+[Footnote 2: But concerning the words _dole_ and _meed_ see Tract II _On
+English Homophones_. Both these words have suffered through homophony.
+_Dole_ is a terrible example. 1, a portion = deal; 2, grief = Fr. deuil,
+Lat. _dolor_; 3, deceit, from the Latin _dolus_, Gk. [Greek: dolos]. All
+three have been in wide use and have good authority; but neither 2 (which
+is presumably that which the writer intends) nor 3 can be restored, nor is
+it desirable that they should be, the sound having been specially isolated
+to a substantive and verb in the sense of No. 1.
+
+_Meed_ is likewise lost by homophony with 1 mead = meadow and 2 mead =
+metheglin: and it is a very serious loss. No. 1 is almost extinct except
+among farmers and hay merchants, but the absurd ambiguity of No. 2 is
+effective.
+
+_Teen_, the writer's third example, has shown recent signs of renewed
+vitality in literature. [Ed.]]
+
+The usage in regard to these tainted words varies a good deal, though
+probably not so much as people generally think: some of them, like _delve_
+and _dwell_, still linger on in metaphors; and people will still speak of
+_delving_ into their minds, and _dwelling_ in thought, who would never
+think of _delving_ in the garden, or _dwelling_ in England; and we will
+call people _swine_* or _hounds_, although we cannot use these words for
+the animals they more properly designate. We can speak of a _swift_*
+punishment, but not a _swift_ bird, or airplane, or steamer, and we _shun_
+a thought, but not a bore; and many similar instances could be given.
+Perhaps words of this kind cannot be saved from the unhappy doom which
+threatens them. It is not impossible, on the other hand, that, by a slight
+conscious effort, some of these words might still be saved; and there may
+be, among our members, persons of sufficient courage to suffer, in a pious
+cause, the imputation of preciosity and affectation which such attempts
+involve. To the consideration of such persons we could recommend words
+like _maid_, _maiden_, _damsel_, _weep_, _bide_, _sojourn_, _seek_,
+_heinous_, _swift_, _chide_*, and the many other excellent and expressive
+old words which are now falling into colloquial disuse.
+
+There is one curious means by which the life of these words may be
+lengthened and by which, possibly, they may regain a current and
+colloquial use. They can be still used humorously and as it were in
+quotation marks; words like _pelf_, _maiden_, _lad_, _damsel_, and many
+others are sometimes used in this way, which at any rate keeps them from
+falling into the limbo of silence. Whether any of them have by this means
+renewed their life would be an interesting subject of inquiry; it is said
+that at Eton the good old word _usher_, used first only for humorous
+effect, has now found its way back into the common and colloquial speech
+of the school.
+
+
+V. _Dialectal and Popular Words_.
+
+Whether words may, by conscious effort, be preserved in colloquial usage
+is an unsolved question, though perhaps our Society may help to solve it;
+there is, however, another and more certain benefit which its members, or
+at any rate such of them as are writers, may confer upon the language.
+There are many excellent words spoken in uneducated speech and dialect all
+about us, which would be valuable additions to our standard vocabulary if
+they could be given currency in it. Many of these are dying words like
+_bide_, _dight_, _blithe_, _malison_, _vengeance_, and since these are
+still spoken in other classes, it might be less difficult to restore them
+to educated speech. Others are old words like _thole_ and _nesh_ and _lew_
+and _mense_ and _foison_ and _fash_ and _douce_, which have never been
+accepted into the standard English, or have long since vanished from it,
+in spite of their excellence and ancient history, and in spite of the fact
+that they have long been in current use in various districts. Others are
+new formations, coined in the ever-active mint of uneducated speech, and
+many of these, coming as they do full of freshness and vigour out of the
+vivid popular imagination--words like _harum-scarum_, _gallivant_,
+_cantankerous_, and _pernickety_--or useful monosyllables and penny pieces
+of popular speech like _blight_ and _nag_ and _fun_--have already found
+their way into standard English. But there are many others which might
+with advantage be given a larger currency. This process of dialectal
+regeneration, as it is called, has been greatly aided in the past by men
+of letters, who have given a literary standing to the useful and
+picturesque vocabulary of their unlettered neighbours, and thus helped to
+reinforce with vivid terms our somewhat abstract and faded standard
+speech. We owe, for instance, words like _lilt_ and _outcome_ to Carlyle;
+_croon_, _eerie_, _gloaming_ have become familiar to us from Burns's
+poems, and Sir Walter Scott added a large number of vivid local terms both
+to our written and our spoken language. In the great enrichment of the
+vocabulary of the romantic movement by means of words like _murk_,
+_gloaming_, _glamour_, _gruesome_, _eerie_, _eldritch_, _uncanny_,
+_warlock_, _wraith_--all of which were dialect or local words, we find a
+good example of the expressive power of dialect speech, and see how a
+standard language can be enriched by the use of popular sources. All
+members of our Society can help this process by collecting words from
+popular speech which are in their opinion worthy of a larger currency;
+they can use them themselves and call the attention of their friends to
+them, and if they are writers, they may be able, like the writers of the
+past, to give them a literary standing. If their suggestions are not
+accepted, no harm is done; while, if they make a happy hit and bring to
+public notice a popular term or idiom which the language needs and
+accepts, they have performed a service to our speech of no small
+importance.
+
+L.P.S.
+
+
+NOTES TO THE ABOVE
+
+_Rôle_. The italics and accent may be due to consciousness of _roll_. The
+French word will never make itself comfortable in English if it is
+homophonous with _roll_.
+
+_Timbre_. This word is in a peculiar condition. In the French it has very
+various significations, but has come to be adopted in music and acoustics
+to connote the quality of a musical sound independent of its pitch and
+loudness, a quality derived from the harmonics which the fundamental note
+intensifies, and that depends on the special form of the instrument. The
+article _Clang_ in the Oxford Dictionary quotes Professor Tyndall
+regretting that we have no word for this meaning, and suggesting that we
+should imitate the awkward German _klang-farbe_. We have no word unless we
+forcibly deprive _clangour_ of its noisy associations. We generally use
+_timbre_ in italics and pronounce it as French; and since the word is used
+only by musicians this does not cause much inconvenience to them, but it
+is because of its being an unenglish word that it is confined to
+specialists: and truly if it were an English word the quality which it
+denotes would be spoken of more frequently, and perhaps be even more
+differentiated and recognized, though it is well known to every child. Now
+how should this word be Englished? Is the spelling or the pronunciation to
+stand? The English pronunciation of the letters of _timbre_ is forbidden
+by its homophone--a French girl collecting postage-stamps in England
+explained that she collected _timberposts_--, whereas our English form of
+the French sound of the word would be approximately _tamber_; and this
+would be not only a good English-sounding word like _amber_ and _clamber_,
+but would be like our _tambour_, which is _tympanum_, which again IS
+_timbre_. So that if our professors and doctors of music were brave, they
+would speak and write _tamber_, which would be not only English but
+perfectly correct etymologically.
+
+But this is just where what is called 'the rub' comes in. It would, for a
+month or two, look so peculiar a word that it might require something like
+a _coup d'état_ to introduce it. And yet the schools of music in London
+could work the miracle without difficulty or delay.
+
+_Swine_. Americans still use the word _pig_ in its original sense of the
+young of the hog and sow; though they will say _chickens_ for _poultry_.
+In England we talk of pigs and chickens when we mean swine and poultry.
+Chaucer has
+
+
+    His swyn his hors his stoor and his pultreye.
+
+
+The verb _to pig_ has kept to its meaning, though it has developed
+another: the substantive probably got loose through its generic employment
+in composite words, e.g. guinea-pig, sea-pig, &c.; and having acquired a
+generic use cannot lose it again. But it might perhaps be worth while to
+distinguish strictly between the generic and the special use of the word
+_pig_, and not call a sow a pig, nor a hen a chicken. So _hog_ and _sow_
+might still have their _pigs_ and be all of them _swine_.
+
+_Swift_. Perhaps it is going too far to say that 'swift' is colloquial
+only in metaphorical applications, we might speak of 'a swift bowler'
+without exciting surprise; but it is expedient to restore this word to
+general use, and avoid the use of _fast_ for denotation of speed. 'To
+stand fast' is very well, but 'to run fast' is thoroughly objectionable.
+Such a use destroys the sense of firmness which the word is needed and
+well qualified to denote.
+
+_Chide_. This word probably needs its past tense and participle to be
+securely fixed before it will be used. It is perhaps wholly the
+uncertainty of these that has made the word to be avoided. _Chid_ and
+_chidden_ should be taught, and _chode_ and _chided_ condemned as
+illiterate.
+
+
+NOTE ON 'DYING WORDS'
+
+Diderot in his _Lettre sur les Sourds et Muets_ deplores the loss of good
+old terms in the French of his day; he writes:
+
+'Je blâme cette noblesse prétendue qui nous a fait exclure de notre langue
+un grand nombre d'expressions énergiques. Les Grecs, les Latins qui ne
+connoissoient gueres cette fausse délicatesse, disoient en leur langue ce
+qu'ils vouloient, et comme ils le vouloient. Pour nous, à force de
+rafiner, nous avons appauvri la nôtre, & n'ayant souvent qu'un terme
+propre à rendre une idée, nous aimons mieux affoiblir l'idée que de ne pas
+employer un terme noble.[3] Quelle perte pour ceux d'entre nos Écrivains
+qui ont l'imagination forte, que celle de tant de mots que nous revoyons
+avec plaisir dans Amyot & dans Montagne. Ils ont commencé par être
+rejettés du beau style, parce qu'ils avoient passé dans le peuple; &
+ensuite rebutés par le peuple même, qui à la longue est toujours le singe
+des Grands, ils sont devenus tout-à-fait inusités.'... [ED.]
+
+[Footnote 3: _Noble_. _Genteel_ would not be a fair translation, but it
+gives the meaning. Littré quotes: 'Il ne nommera pas le boulanger de
+Crésus, le palefrenier de Cyrus, le chaudronnier Macistos; il dit grand
+panetier, écuyer, armurier, avertissant en note que cela est plus
+_noble_.']
+
+*       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+
+CO-OPERATION OF MEMBERS
+
+
+The method by which this Society proposes to work is to collect expert
+opinion on matters wherein our present use is indeterminate or
+unsatisfactory, and thus to arrive at a general understanding and
+consensus of opinion which might be relied on to influence practice.
+
+This method implies the active co-operation of the members of the Society,
+who, it is presumed, are all interested in our aims; and the purpose of
+our secretary's paper (printed above) is to suggest topics on which
+members might usefully contribute facts and opinions.
+
+The committee, who have added a few notes to the paper, offer some remarks
+on the topics suggested.
+
+1. Whether it is advisable to Anglicize the spelling of certain French
+words, like _timbre_, in order to promote their assimilation. A paper
+dealing with this question, giving as full a list as possible of the
+_words that are at present in a precarious condition_, and proposing in
+each case the curative spelling, is invited; and any single practical
+contribution to the subject will be welcome.
+
+2. A full list of foreign nouns that are uncertain of their Englished
+plurals is required. The unreadiness to come to a decided opinion in
+doubtful cases is due to the absence of any overruling principle; and the
+lack of a general principle is due to ignorance of all the particulars
+which it would affect. Inconsistent practice is no doubt in many cases
+established irrevocably, and yet if all the words about which there is at
+present any uncomfortable feeling were collected and exhibited, it would
+then probably appear that the majority of instances indicated a general
+rule of propriety and convenience, and this would immediately decide all
+doubtful cases, and these, when once recognized and established in
+educated practice, would win over many other words that are refractory in
+the absence of rule. What exceptions remained would be tabulated as
+definitely recognized exceptions.
+
+3. Besides the class of words indicated in Mr. Pearsall Smith's paper,
+there is another set of plural forms needing attention, and that is the
+Greek words that denote the various sciences and arts; there is in these
+an uncertainty and inconsistency in the use of singular and plural forms.
+We say Music and Physics, but should we say Ethic or Ethics, Esthetic or
+Esthetics? Here again agreement on a general rule to govern doubtful cases
+would be a boon. The experience of writers and teachers who are in daily
+contact with such words should make their opinions of value, and we invite
+them to deal with the subject. The corresponding use of Latin plurals
+taking singular verbs, as _Morals_, should be brought under rule.
+
+4. The question of the use of _ae_ (_æ_) and _oe_ (_[oe]_). Our Society
+from the first abjured the whole controversy about reforms of spelling,
+but questions of literary propriety and convenience must sometimes involve
+the spellings; and this is an instance of it. On the main question of
+phonetic spelling the Society would urge its members to distinguish the
+use of phonetic script in _teaching_, from its introduction into English
+_literature_. The first is absolutely desirable and inevitable: the second
+is not only undesirable but impracticable, though this would not preclude
+a good deal of reasonable reform in our literary spelling in a phonetic
+direction. Those who fear that if phonetics is taught in the schools it
+will then follow that our books will be commonly printed in phonetic
+symbols, should read Dr. Henry Bradley's lecture to the British Academy
+'On the relations between spoken and written language' (1913), and they
+will see that the Society's Tract II, on 'English Homophones', illustrates
+the unpractical nature of any scheme either of pure phonetics in the
+printing of English books, or even of such a scheme as is offered by 'the
+Simplified Spelling Society'; because the great number of homophones which
+are now distinguished by their different spellings would make such a
+phonetic writing as unutilitarian as our present system is: moreover, if
+it were adopted it would inevitably lead to the elimination of far more of
+these homophones than we can afford to lose; since it would enforce by its
+spelling the law which now operates only by speech, that homophones are
+self-destructive.
+
+5. Mr. Pearsall Smith has returned to the question of dialectal
+regeneration mentioned in Tract I, in which we invited contributions on
+the subject. In response we had a paper sent to us, which we do not print
+because, though full of learning and interesting detail, it was a curious
+and general disquisition calculated to divert attention from the practical
+points. What the Society asks for is not a list of lost words that are
+interesting in themselves: we need rather definite instances of good
+dialect words which are not homophones and which would conveniently supply
+wants. That is, any word proposed for rehabilitation in our practical
+vocabulary should be not only a good word in itself, but should fall into
+some definite place and relieve and enrich our speech by its usefulness.
+It is evident that no one person can be expected to supply a full list of
+such words, but on the other hand there must be very many of our members
+who could contribute one or two; and such contributions are invited.
+
+Exempli gratia. Here are two words with very different titles and claims,
+_nesh_ and _hyppish_.
+
+_Nesh_, which has two columns in the Oxford Dictionary, begins in A.D.
+888, and is still heartily alive in Yorks. and North Derbyshire, where it
+is used in the sense of being _oversensitive to pain and especially to
+cold_. In this special signification, to which it has locally settled down
+after a thousand years of experience, it has no rival; and its restoration
+to our domestic vocabulary would probably have a wholesome moral and
+physical effect on our children.
+
+_Hyppish_ is the Englished form of hypochondriacal, its suffix carrying
+its usual diminutive value, so that its meaning is 'somewhat
+hypochondriacal'. Berkeley, Gray, and Swift used _hyps_ or _the hyp_ for
+hypochondriasis, and the adjective was apparently common. It would seem
+that _hypochondria_ was then spoken, as _hypocrisy_ still is, with the
+correct and pleasant short vowels of the Greek prefix, not as now with a
+long alien diphthong _haipo-_. It was presumably this short y that
+accidentally killed _hyppish_; for the word _hipped_ was used of a horse
+lamed in the hip, and alongside of this _hipped_, and maybe attracted by
+it, an adjective _hypt_ arose. When once _hyp_ and _hypt_ were confounded
+with _hip_ and _hipped_, _hyppish_ would suffer and lose definition. But
+_hypt_ and _hipped_ combined forces, and were probably even from the first
+in their present uncertain condition, for when nowadays a man says that he
+is _hipped_, he has no definite notion of what he means except that he is
+in some way, either in his loins or mind incapacitated and out of sorts.
+Whether _hypt_ and _hipped_ have mortally wounded each other or are still
+fighting in the dark may be open to discussion: _hyppish_ has now a fair
+field, and if people would know what the word means, it might be restored,
+like _nesh_, to useful domestic activity.
+
+6. The example given of the word _fast_ on p. 12 suggests another matter
+to which attention might be paid. If one looks up any word in the Oxford
+Dictionary, one will be almost distressed to see how various the
+significations are to which it is authoritatively susceptible. A word
+seems to behave like an animal that goes skirting about discontentedly, in
+search of a more congenial habitation. It is sometimes successful, and
+meets with surprising welcome in some strange corner where it establishes
+itself, forgetful of its old home: sometimes, like the bad spirit in the
+gospel, it will return to the house whence it came forth. It is, of
+course, natural and essential to a living language that such shades and
+varieties of meaning should evolve themselves, although they are
+incidentally a source of ambiguity and subtle traps for careless logic;
+but when these varieties so diverge as to arrive ultimately at absurdities
+and contradictions, then it is advisable to get rid of them. In such
+extreme cases the surgeon's knife may sometimes save life; it is the only
+cure; and _to use a word in a deforming or deformed sense should be
+condemned as a solecism_. Contributions, stating examples of this with the
+proposed taboo, are invited.
+
+7. This last fault, of damaging a word by wrong use, might come under the
+general head of 'Abuse of words'. This is a wide and popular topic, as may
+be seen by the constant small rain of private protests in the
+correspondence columns of the newspapers. The committee of the S.P.E.
+would be glad to meet the public taste by expert treatment of offending
+words if members would supply their pet abominations. There was a good
+letter on the use of _morale_ in the _Times Literary Supplement_ on
+February 19. The writer, a member of our Society, permits us to reprint it
+here as a sample of sound treatment.
+
+"MORAL(E)
+
+'Tis the sport to have the engineer hoist with his own petard, and the
+purizing (so to speak) of the purist has been a tempting game since Lucian
+baited Lexiphanes; may I yield to the temptation? During the war our
+amateur and other strategists have suppressed the English word _morale_
+and combined to force upon us in its stead the French (or Franco-German?)
+_moral_. We have submitted, as to Dora, but with the secret hope, as about
+Dora, that when the war's tyranny was overpast we might be allowed our
+liberty again. Here are two specimens, from your own columns, of the
+disciplinary measures to which we have been subject: 'He persistently
+spells _moral_ (state of mind of the troops, not their morality) with a
+final _e_, a sign of ignorance of French which is unfortunately so often
+the mark of the classical scholar'; and again, 'The purist in language
+might quarrel with Mr. ----'s title for this book on the psychology of
+war, for he means by _morale_ not "ethics" or "moral philosophy", but "the
+temper of a people expressing itself in action". But no doubt there is
+authority for the perversion of the French word.'
+
+To such discipline we have all been laudably amenable, and _morale_ has
+seldom been seen in the London papers since 1914; but it, and not _moral_,
+is the English word; we once all wrote it without thinking twice about the
+matter; even in war-time one met it in the local newspapers that had not
+time to keep up with London's latest tricks, and in those parts of the
+London Press itself that had to use a tongue understanded of the people.
+It is very refreshing to see that _morale_ is now beginning to show itself
+again, timidly and occasionally, even in select quarters. The fact is,
+these literary drill-sergeants have made a mistake; the English _morale_
+is not a 'perversion of _the_ French word'; it is a phonetic respelling,
+and a most useful one, of _a_ French word. We have never had anything to
+do with the French word _morale_ (ethics, morality, a moral, &c.); but we
+found the French word _moral_ (state of discipline and spirit in armies,
+&c.) suited to our needs, and put an _e_ on to it to keep its sound
+distinct from that of our own word _moral_, just as we have done with the
+French _local_ (English _locale_) and the German _Choral_ (English
+_chorale_), and as, using contrary means for the same end of fixing a
+sound, we have turned French _diplomate_ into English _diplomat_. Our
+English _forte_ ('Geniality is not his _forte_,' &c.) is altered from the
+French _fort_ without even the advantage of either keeping the French
+sound or distinguishing the spoken word from our _fort_; but who proposes
+to sacrifice the reader's convenience by correcting the 'ignorant'
+spelling? In the light of these parallels is it not the patrons of _moral_
+who deserve the imputation of ignorance rather than we common folk? We do
+not indeed profess to know what _moral_ and _morale_ mean in French, but
+then that knowledge is irrelevant. They do not know the true English
+method of dealing with borrowings from French; and that knowledge is
+highly relevant.
+
+A fair summary of the matter is perhaps this. The case for the spelling
+_moral_ is that (1) the French use the word _moral_ for what we used to
+call _morale_, and therefore we ought to do the same; and (2) the French
+use _morale_ to mean something different from what we mean by it. The case
+against _moral_ is (1) that it is a new word, less comprehensible to
+ordinary people, even now, after its war-time currency, than the old
+_morale_; (2) that it badly needs to be dressed in italics owing to the
+occasional danger of confusion with the English word _moral_, and that
+such artificial precautions are never kept up; (3) that half of us do not
+know whether to call it m[)o]´ral, mor[)a]´l, or morah´l, and that it is a
+recognized English custom to resolve such doubts by the addition of _-e_
+or other change of spelling. And the right choice is surely to make the
+English word _morale_, use ordinary type, call it morah´l, and ignore or
+abstain from the French word _morale_, of which we have no need.
+
+The risk of confusion, merely mentioned above, perhaps deserves a
+paragraph to itself. If we reinstate the once almost universal _morale_,
+we need no italics, and there is no fear of confusion; if we adopt
+_moral_, we need italics, and there is no hope of getting them; it is at
+present printed oftener without than with them. The following five
+extracts, in some of which the English adjective _moral_, and in some the
+French noun _moral_, is meant, are printed here exactly as they originally
+appeared, that is, with _moral_ in the same type as the rest, and they are
+enough to suggest how easy it is for real doubts to arise about which word
+is being used--'An astounding increase in the moral discipline and
+patriotism of German soldiers.' Has, or has not, a comma dropped out after
+_moral_? 'It is, indeed, a new proof of the failing moral and internal
+troubles of the German people.' Moral and internal? or moral and troubles?
+'A true arbitrator, a man really impartial between two contendants and
+even indifferent to their opposing morals.' 'The Russian army will recover
+its moral and fighting power.' 'The need of Poland, not only for moral,
+but for the material support of the Allies.'
+
+H. W. FOWLER."
+
+*       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+
+'SPELLING PRONUNCIATIONS'
+
+Many writers on English pronunciation are accustomed to pour
+undiscriminating censure on the growing practice of substituting for the
+traditional mode of pronouncing certain words an 'artificial'
+pronunciation which is an interpretation of the written form of the words
+in accordance with the general rules relating to the 'powers' of the
+letters. This practice is especially common among imperfectly educated
+people who are ambitious of speaking correctly, and have unfortunately no
+better standard of 'correctness' than that of conformity with the
+spelling. I remember hearing a highly-intelligent working-class orator
+repeatedly pronounce the word _suggest_ as 'sug jest'. Such vagaries as
+this are not likely ever to be generally adopted. But a good many
+'spelling-pronunciations' have found their way into general educated use,
+and others which are now condemned as vulgar or affected will probably at
+some future time be universally adopted. I do not share the sentimental
+regret with which some philologists regard this tendency of the language.
+It seems to me that each case ought to be judged on its own merits, and by
+a strictly utilitarian standard. When a 'spelling-pronunciation' is a mere
+useless pedantry, it is well that we should resist it as long as we can;
+if it gets itself accepted, we must acquiesce; and unless the change is
+not only useless but harmful, we should do so without regret, because the
+influence of the written on the spoken form of language is in itself no
+more condemnable than any other of the natural processes that affect the
+development of speech. There are, however, some 'spelling-pronunciations'
+that are positively mischievous. Many people, though hardly among those
+who are commonly reckoned good speakers, pronounce _forehead_ as it is
+written. To do so is irrelevantly to call attention to the etymology of a
+word that has no longer precisely its etymological sense. When the thing
+to be denoted is familiar, we require an _identifying_, not a
+_descriptive_ word for it; and we obey a sound instinct in disguising by a
+contracted pronunciation the disturbing fact that _forehead_ is a
+compound.
+
+On the other hand, a 'spelling-pronunciation' may conduce to clearness,
+and then it ought to be encouraged. I have elsewhere advocated the
+sounding of the initial _p_ in learned (not in popular) words beginning
+with _ps_; and many other similar reforms might with advantage be adopted.
+There are also other reasons besides clearness which sometimes justify the
+assimilation of sound to spelling. Thus the modern pronunciation of
+_cucumber_ (instead of 'cowcumber') gets rid of the ridiculous association
+with the word _cow_; and only a fanatical adherent of the principle
+'Whatever was is right' would desire to revive the obsolete form.
+
+H.B.
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Society for Pure English, Tract 3
+(1920), by Society for Pure English
+
+*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 12390 ***