OUR QUEER LANGUAGE.

King Country Chronicle, Volume VIII, Issue 643, 14 February 1914, Page 7

OUR QUEER LANGUAGE.

A WORD WITH THIRTY-TWO MEANINGS.

In spite of certain undeniable disadvantages, the English languagemakes headway. There are few tongues so hard to master. A fantastic Turkish legend aptly ilustrates the actual facts concerning the origin and formation of modern English.

After creating the first parents of each of the races, the story runs, Allah took a large piece of meat, and cuttiing it into slices' distributed them among all the people to serve them as tongues. For some reason the Englishman was absent when the others received their share. At last he came into the presence of his Maker,and in mute humility begged him to put a tongue into his mouth. But nothing was left of the meat. So Allah was obliged to cut a little piece from the tongues, of all the others, and. joining these pieces, hu fashioned a tongue for the Englishman.

One of the most perplexing characteristics of the English tongue is the fact that, as a rule, the same word has different meanings. A dictionary close at hand gives to the verbs, see. han, hold and straw, 14, 18, 19, and 32' meanings respectively. Now, for a foreigner to be able to distinguish all these various meanings is a tremendous task. Just as an illustration, the "Bookman" invites us to consider the-per-plexity of a persevering Frenchman over the meaning of the word "fast." "Zis horse, sair, he go queek ; what you say ?" "Yes, he is a fast horse." "Ah, pardon, monsieur, but your friend say he make fast Ms horse, and he tie hi.m to a post so he no go at all." "Very true,; he is made fast by being tied." "• Ah, zat cannot be; he. cannot go fast, but what you call a man that keeps fast?"

"Oh, he is a good man that does not eat on fast days." -'But I have seen one bon vivant, who eat and drink and ride, and do everyzing. Ze people say he is a bad man—he is very fast." ."True, that is called living a fast life." "Ah : certainement. Zen all ze days of his life must be fast days." "-No, of course .•> "Eh toien. Does he eat every day ?" "Certainly he does." "Zen how can he keep fast?" "Why, he keeps going, to be sure." " Vy, you tell me to stand fast when you want me to keep still, and go when you want me to run. How can I understand ?"