THE CHINA MAIL, JANUARY 19, 1988.
HOW LONG WILL AMERICANS
Να
ENGLISH traveller in Ameri- ca or American journeying
SPEAK ENGLISH?
you
years John Bull and Uncle Sam will no longer use a corom
a common speech. From Indians. to Orientals, each non-English- group in America is responsible fonges of
r certain easily re- expression,
occupa- simple
in England need be a student of language to be aware of the ex❤. An interchange overheard in Lon- man said wonderingly, "Why, you traordinary divergence in speech don this summer expresses the com- don't speak at all like an American! cognisable
just as after the Norman which has taken place during
the":
mon feeling. An American woman I can understand every word
tion of England it was three hundred odd years since there stopped an Englishman on the say." have been any American Anglo- street to ask some directions. After And she answered with equal enough for any smatterer in langu- Saxons.
a few questions back and forth, the surprise, “And you don't sound like age to recognise the Norman French an Englishman! I can understand derivations when the Saxon swine- herd's pig became pork on the table you."
THE
KING
WORLD GOES BY By “ULYSSES ”
"ING Anthony, of Stamford Hill, who, you may recollect, challenges the credentials of our present Ruling House, has issued an interesting docu- ment called Anthony's Manifesto Money Reform, price one penny..
His Majesty. (I think I may be charg- ed with treason any day now) has a financial policy that bears distinct sim ilarity to the Douglas Credit System.
Anthony, with terrifying precision, points out:-
"Since, the introduction of the ille- gal Gold Standard in 1819 there has been a series of crises, and panics, viz.: 1825 panic, 1839 crisis, 1845 panic, 1847 crisis, 1857 crisis, 1866 crisis, 1870....crisis, 1890-crisis, 1914 panic, 1931 crisis." Nineteen fourteen dismissed as 箔 mere panic is interesting.
Sometimes King A., in his
manifes- to, becomes a little abstruse, stance, he says airily:-
for in-
King Anthony has a new rival- King Henry.
Genealogist,
Burwash, Sussex |
writes:-
from "I happen to be descended Penelope, the daughter and heir of Sir John Perrott's son, Sir Thomas Perrott. (Note: Sir John Perrott, K.B., was the son of King Henry VIII and Mary Berkeley).
his
Watch an average American at of his overlord; and the farmer's an English theatre and you will cow, beef; his sheep, mutton; catch on his face almost the same calf, veal. strained, listening look that it would But in America, while it is carry if he were hearing an only equally. easy to
that [ half familiar foreign language.
elegance of Erench men,
the
'see
At the two cultural ends of the was probably responsible for re- scale, the situation is even more placing the English sweet with acute. In the House of Commons the American dessert, the British. when one of the Honorable Mem- joint with the American roast bers is holding forth in socailed (roti), and so on through an im-
By Adelaide Stedman
Oxford English, an American cat- posing list, on the whole the changes Why "Perhaps, were I to follow Shake-ches hardly more than the general are not so simple to trace. speare's advice, Examine well thy drift, while an English settlement does an Englishman demand under- blood,' I might find that I could cut
to an done roast beef while the American
one, describing myself (as did the At its present stage this diver wife's fruit cup? Why is an Eng-
а
out King Anthony, Prince Rupert house audience, listening and the rest and exchange my pre- American speaker, often seems to asks for it rare? Why is Mrs. sent modest title for a more angust lose the thread entirely.
John Bull's fruit salad Uncle Sam's
Cardinal York) as
the "Henry, by
or : lish" biscuit an American cracker? grace of God, but not by the will of gence seems merely humorous, man, of England, Scotland, France at the worst annoying. It is not How strange such sweets as and Ireland, King, Defender of the
in the least humorous, however, but strawberry fool or a banana trifle Faith."" My standard of loyalty, which had rather startlingly bewildering, to or a cold shape sound to American "Money does not circulate on a bori- been transferred to Stamford Hill, realise that if the divergence con- ears. Just what edibles are suggest-
now speeds to "Genealogist," of Bur-
tinues unchecked, in another 300 ed to a Britisher by the words wash.
johnny cake, molasses, cereals?
The English lift is the American. elevator, the American movie is.
American
zontal plane."..
That's got me beat anyway.
WHY SUFFER FROM
HEADACHES SLEEPLESSNESS IRRITABILITY
when ASPRO'
WILL
PROTECT YOU
HESE are nervous complaints that quickly yield to the soothing influence of "ASPRO
• many thousands of people have proved it—if you have not proved it for yourself. you will generally find that your friends can tell you that "ASPRO definitely does banish headaches in a few minutes brings sweet sleep to the sleepless and soothes away your irrita- bility quickly and effectively. So why suffer? 'ASPRO' does its work without harmingą the heart or the stomach. The time has passed when it was necessary to take dangerous „drugs and narcotics for these irritating complaints. 'ASPRO' is safe, sure and effective in The fact that after ingestion in the action—you can take it anywhere—at any time. system "ASPRO' is an anti-pyretic or fever-reducer - an anti-periodic -
— a germicide internal antiseptic and a solvent of Uric Acid, makes it one of the most useful medicines ever given to mankind. Its purity and efficiency is vouched for by doctors and nurses all over the world.
an
Try ASPRO today
and BANISH PAIN and NERVINESS
Bola Agents DODWELL & CO.,-LTI
of all Chemists and Drug: Stores. Three Packingan K'a. 11a, 276.
H7
the British cinema, the less. The
radio, the English - United States has subways,
Eng-
land has her underground. The British telephone operator "puts you through,” her American cousin "connects you.” When an American speaks of a line as “busy," the Eng- lishman says it is "engaged.” In England you "book" a reservation, in American you "make" it. The list of divergencies is almost end- less.
But many as these differences of word and usage are, the vital dif- ference which is dividing English and American speech far more rapidly than any change of vocabu- lary, is the divergence in enuncia- tion, pronunciation, and quality of volce. The same words sound
different on English and America
tongues.
Why these things should be so is: really less important than the fact that they
taken exist. A And
in connection with the similar act that Canadian and Australian and South African voices already distinctly different, they provide an Anglo-Saxon problem, commented on freely enough by philologists but as yet little gener- ally discussed.
are
A few centuries ago Latin was the written language of
all
the the old Ro- European inheritors man world, while spoken Latin merged into the Romance tongues, Italian, Spanish, French and Roumanian.
Three hundred years from now will English, while remaining - the written language of Anglo-Saxon communication and literature, be giving place over great sections the earth to spoken languages call- ed American, Canadian, Australian, South African? Similar, but not the same?
of
Or will the modern more con- scious desire for unity and icom-
tion cheek the trend " Is this Job for the radio?