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diff --git a/old/12390.txt b/old/12390.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..ec7d79b --- /dev/null +++ b/old/12390.txt @@ -0,0 +1,1150 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Society for Pure English, Tract 3 (1920) +by Society for Pure English + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Society for Pure English, Tract 3 (1920) + A Few Practical Suggestions + +Author: Society for Pure English + +Release Date: May 20, 2004 [EBook #12390] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK SOCIETY FOR PURE ENGLISH *** + + + + +Produced by David Starner, Barbara Tozier and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team + + + + + +[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 'role'*[A]; 'debris', 'debris'; 'detour', 'detour'; 'depot', +'depot'; and the old words long established in our language, 'levee', +'naivety', now appear as 'levee', and 'naivete'. The next step is to +italicize these words, thus treating them as complete aliens, and thus we +often see _role_, _depot_, &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, fete, flair, mellay (now _melee_), nonchalance, +provenance, renconter, &c. On the other hand, it is satisfactory to note +that 'employee' appears to be taking the place of 'employe'. + +[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 _ideae_, _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 _chimerae_ 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 +_praevious_, _aeternal_, _aera_, _aemulate_, _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 _mediaeval_; _primaeval_ and _co-aeval_ are beginning to +make their appearance; _peony_ is commonly written _paeony_, and the forms +_saecular_, _chimaera_, _hyaena_[1] and _praeternatural_ 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 _aetiology_, _[oe]strus_, &c. Whether learned +words of this kind, and classical names such as _Caesar_, _AEschylus_, &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 diaeresis in Aglae, Pholoe, 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 + +_Role_. 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'etat_ 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 blame cette noblesse pretendue qui nous a fait exclure de notre langue +un grand nombre d'expressions energiques. Les Grecs, les Latins qui ne +connoissoient gueres cette fausse delicatesse, disoient en leur langue ce +qu'ils vouloient, et comme ils le vouloient. Pour nous, a force de +rafiner, nous avons appauvri la notre, & n'ayant souvent qu'un terme +propre a rendre une idee, nous aimons mieux affoiblir l'idee que de ne pas +employer un terme noble.[3] Quelle perte pour ceux d'entre nos Ecrivains +qui ont l'imagination forte, que celle de tant de mots que nous revoyons +avec plaisir dans Amyot & dans Montagne. Ils ont commence par etre +rejettes du beau style, parce qu'ils avoient passe dans le peuple; & +ensuite rebutes par le peuple meme, qui a la longue est toujours le singe +des Grands, ils sont devenus tout-a-fait inusites.'... [ED.] + +[Footnote 3: _Noble_. _Genteel_ would not be a fair translation, but it +gives the meaning. Littre quotes: 'Il ne nommera pas le boulanger de +Cresus, le palefrenier de Cyrus, le chaudronnier Macistos; il dit grand +panetier, ecuyer, 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_ (_ae_) 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 THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK SOCIETY FOR PURE ENGLISH *** + +***** This file should be named 12390.txt or 12390.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/1/2/3/9/12390/ + +Produced by David Starner, Barbara Tozier and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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