THE Wairarapa Age MORNING DAILY. MONDAY, JULY 15, 1912. THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXII, Issue 10688, 15 July 1912, Page 4

THE Wairarapa Age MORNING DAILY. MONDAY, JULY 15, 1912. THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE.

If competitions such as those held in Masterton hst week tc-rve no other nseful purpose, they will assist in preservi.ig the ivngiioh ianguage-from the wholesale slaughter with which it has been threatened in ire cent years:'. In spite cf the efforts of educationists, there is developing in the Dominion ia distinct dtaleot, which is foreign to the .Emgteh language as it has been ■known in the past. Fo'r instance, it iy the 'rule ratlfer than .the exception to fi'.Kt the children in our primary schools' pronouncing the word "time" as "toime," "fine" -as "foine," "crime" as "oroime," and so on. The letter "i" appears! to have suffered more-than any other in; the alpha-bet. At the competitions Hast week, the judge give liiy decisions against several of the younger competitors for no other 'reason .than that they persisted in Idtedlarinig that they were having a "foine toime." It is net alone in the primary schools, however, that the pronunciation of the letter "i" is being distorted. In .rrnany of the secondary tecMbolia, and more purti-cularliy in those devoted exclusively to girls, the distortion is deliberately and absurdfly practised, presumably for no other reason than to create a class distinction:. The parent who -sends his- child to a. girls'' school will be astounded in the -course of a few months to discover that his offs-JprJn'g lias lost all ■respect for the pure English language, -and has culitvated the habit of

drawling, and of corrupting the most Interesting and expressive letter in the whole of the alphabet. "Bai dtod hai" he -will (find that his daughter requires him ,to "thai" her a Baible," or, maybe, atii excursion ticket to the "Bai," and he will wonder whether it is not "advaisa.blc" to "tiny" and ddfer the -suggestion that he s-liould "hai" until isomo future "dai." The daughter anay tlicri heave a "say," dnd have 'sometiding pertinent to "sai" at her parent's refusal to immediately "desade" dn her "faivcur." But, after all, it f .& not the daughter's fault that s'he has cultivated this allocking haibit of cofrupting the lan:- . guage. She lias been sent to 'school to he "finished off," and .she has been finished with a vengeance. There would appear to be a conspiracy on the paiit of some p'eople to violate the English language for no other (purpose thaw to create a clays distinction. The conspiracy had not' its origin ■in! New Zealand. It was'framed -in the vory heart of the Empire, where .snobbery perinea tee society, and where vulgarity ,js couintenanced chiefly .because it is fashionable. That the

habit of destroying all that is beautiful and poetic ini owr national tongue should have (been introduced to this couritry is very much to bo deplored. It is the duty of the State to iVis-ist Itfoat in ail institutions under its control' the corruption cf the language 'ahttlll !be rigorotis'liy suppressed. A teacher who practises the mutilation of the. letter "i,* r or any other letter ifor that matter, should be politely but firmly ihfomned that such vulgar -anb'bbery may be countenanced "dahn tahh," hut cannot Ibe tolerated in our primary and .secondary schools.