At one time Great Britain rightly set the standard of usage for English speaking people the world over, but now that most of the English speaking people live in the United States, and now that the literature which is being written in the United States is in no wise inferior to the literature being written in Great Britain and in her English speaking colonies, it seems likely that hereafter American, rather than British, usage will be recognized as national usage. At any rate, Americans should use only such English words as are in good standing in America. The words that are in good standing in America, as was suggested at the beginning of this section, are the words used by the best writers and speakers throughout the whole country, and not the words used only in some one section of the country or by some one class of people. Thus, words used only in Maine, or only in Mississippi, or only in the West, or only in the South, are mere localisms. Such words are without national standing, and are not universally intelligible. Though travel all the while lessens the number of these localisms, there are still many differences in speech between the different parts of the country. In some parts of the country, for example, " "gums" is used for "india-rubber overshoes," "tote and "pack" for "carry," "quite some" and "a sight' for "a good deal," "right smart" for "very," "kind of " for "rather," "disremember" for "do not remember,' "unbeknown to" for "unknown to," "I want in " for “I want to come in," etc., etc.1 Technical words, which are words used almost exclusively by some one class of people, - by lawyers, or by chemists, or by milliners, or by football enthusiasts, are, with some exceptions,2 quite as unintelligible to the general public as are localisms, and are therefore either to be carefully defined or to be avoided outright. If a lawyer is addressing a judge or an audience of lawyers, he may speak of "adverse possession," "easements," "the law of estoppel," "torts," and the like, but if he is addressing an audience not likely to be familiar with the technical language of his profession, he uses such language under pain of not being understood. Huxley, who spoke and wrote on the most abstruse scientific subjects, was at great pains, when addressing a popular audience, to translate such scientific terms as he found it necessary to employ, and thus to make his language 1 1 Anything like a complete list of localisms is out of the question here. You will find it a profitable exercise, however, to make a list of your own localisms, and to avoid their use in your future speech and writing. 2 The exceptions are such words as have been so constantly before the general public as now to be in some sense familiar to all Americans. Such words are, to illustrate from the language of law, "arrest," "attorney," "bail," "bankrupt," "capital punishment," "client," "contract," damages," "deed," "divorce," "evidence," 66 fee," "fine," "foreclosure," "injunction," "jury," "lease," " mortgage," etc. Though such words as these mean to most outsiders nothing like what they mean to those who use them in their rigidly technical senses, they still convey fairly precise ideas, and may therefore be used with freedom and without definition. intelligible to people of very ordinary powers of understanding. Exercise 51 1. Point out the words in the following passages which violate national usage: The kettle was on the fire, tea-things set, everything prepared for her guest by the hospitable hostess, who, thinking the gentleman would take tea to his breakfast, had sent off a gossoon by the first light to Clonbrony, for an ounce of tea, a quarter of sugar, and a loaf of white bread; and there was on the little table good cream, milk, butter, eggs - all the promise of an excellent breakfast. It was a fresh morning, and there was a pleasant fire on the hearth, neatly swept up.- MARIA EDGEWORTH, The Absentee, chap. xi. Although opening higher on foreign buying, wheat developed subsequent weakness on reports that a leading Chicago bull house had unloaded $4,000,000 of May wheat. The limited offerings of desirable quality wool find a quick sale at sustained prices, but ordinary clips move slowly at easy rates. Hides show no quotable change, sound dried stock selling well at full figures, while wet-salted offerings are neglected. Modish jackets are characterized by the slot-seam effect, and one of the newest designs may be developed in cloth, velvet, corduroy, or any of the heavy, rough goods, and is in blouse Eton style, with bishop or coat sleeves and with or without the peplum. A great majority of the spectators were of the impression that Legal Maxim was the winner of the second race, and there was a big outcry when Lucien Appleby's number went up. To the people in the saddling paddock and that part of the grand stand commanding the best view of the wire, Legal Maxim certainly looked like the winner, but there is every reason to believe that Lucien Appleby did really nose out Legal Maxim. 2. Point out the localisms in the following sentences. Rewrite the sentences, substituting for the localisms the words you think should have been used: 1. It is right smart cold this morning! 2. He allowed he would go to town to-morrow. 3. The soil over there is poor, I calculate. 4. He keeps a truck-patch over in Smith's medder. 5. I expect it was Harry himself. 6. He hails from Arkansas. 3. Bring to the class a newspaper report of a football match. Point out the technical terms, and rewrite the report, defining such terms as you think are unintelligible to persons not intimately acquainted with the language of football. 4. Examine the article entitled "Fashions of To-day," in the last number of The Delineator, and make a list of the technical terms in the first column. 5. Witness a baseball game, and report it in newspaper style. Rewrite your report, omitting or defining the terms likely to be unintelligible to persons knowing little about the game. 6. Under the twelve heads below, in the Standard Dictionary, you will find lists of technical words. Select the list you know most about, and briefly define ten or more of the words in it. Select one of the more important words in your list, and with the help of a drawing, if necessary, describe it so fully and clearly that a person not acquainted with the word will understand it thoroughly: SECTION 43 Good Usage 3. REPUTABLE USAGE It is not enough that words be merely in present and in national use; they must be in reputable use as well. Words cannot be made reputable by a host of newspaper reporters or by one or two or three even good writers and speakers; they must be used by so many writers and speakers of good repute that their standing is above criticism. Words must be used by the body of the best writers and speakers of our language before they may be said to be in reputable use. Slang, for example, is not reputable, because it is not countenanced by the body of the best writers and speakers of our language. Slang is disreputable. Originally the secret jargon of tramps, of vagabonds, and of thieves,1 slang is now the unmistakable sign of low breeding, of vulgarity, and of intellectual poverty. "I have known several very genteel idiots," writes Holmes,2" whose whole vocabulary had deliquesced into some half-dozen expres 1 "Much of the older slang was largely due to the need felt by thieves, tramps, and vagabonds for a secret language; to them it was obviously a practical need. The slang of the costermongers of London is a case in point. These tradesmen have had for many years a secret and extensive vocabulary of words pronounced backwards, as 'yannep,' for penny; 'edgabac,' for cabbage. The rhyming slang of London vagabonds is another illustration; in this, 'Abraham's willing' means shilling, and 'Isle of France,' dance. Also the centre slang of London thieves, as, 'itchper,' for pitch."— W. C. GORE, Student Slang, in Contributions to Rhetorical Theory (University of Michigan). See also G. W. Matsell, Vocabulum; or, the Rogue's Lexicon; J. Flynt, Tramping with Tramps, 381-398. 2 The Autocrat of the Breakfast Table, 256. N |