1936-07-02 — Page 18

THE HONGKONG TELEGRAFII, THURSDAY, JULY 2, 1936.

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place, and otherwise insulted with blasphemies picked up from · American movies,

"O-yeahs," he said, "are fre- quent in answer to charges, and we are promised shoots-up in the

THE first Englishman to A writer recently said "I loathe burg and threatened to. be

notice an Americanism

sneered at it aloofly, thus American slang"

setting a fashion that many

of

his countrymen have

been following ever since.

He was one Francis Moore, a

MENCKEN,

historian

bumped off." Half the amateur publicists who took a hand in the

H. L. discussion which followed ad-

of

ruffian who came out to Genest American language, claims

with Oglethorpe in 1785, and the word that upset him was bluff, in

the sense of a cliff or headland the language of the future,

with a broad precipitous face."

He did tot deign to argue

voented; using the cat on the offenders, and the other half

the demanded that American movies

be barred from' England as in- tolerable public menaces, like

that cattle infected with foot-and-

mouth disease. ·

Even before the chief cons-

and table of Wallasey sounded his

against it; he simply dismissed indeed of the present, is American,

ns

"barbarous."

apparently

assuring that all Englishmen of decent instincts would agrée with him.

English is of which

a

For nearly a century they dialect. Here are some of his reasons. Testimony went, he had de

seem to have done so, and bluff Jingered sadly below the salt.

When it was printed at all in colonial times, and for more than lation than all the English Great Britain it was set. off by a century past in constantly in- writers since Carlyle, and they sanitary quotation marks, or accompanied by other hints of depreciation, as rubber-neck, hot spot, and nerts are accompanied

cry of "Wolf!" a right reverend father in God had been charged before the Farnham. (Surrey) magistrates with applying speed-. cop on a public road to a inem-.. mere ber of the mobile police.

Overhauled in his car, so the

manded, "Are you a speed-cop?" His lordship denied with some heat that he had used the term. or anything else so unseemly, were much better ones. The but the magistrates apparently ideal in England to-day is not concluded that he must have let and exhilarating it slip, for they took a serious picturesque utterance, but correct and re- view of his very modest advon- upon the frantic,

assuring utterince and one of its ture in speeding, fined him £10, Even the most serious writers inevitable fruits is that bow-bow and suspended his driving licence

Jefferson's jargon which Sir Arthur Quiller for three months, their share. Rut

I give his name and dignities crime was that he had invented Couch described in "On the Art the verb to belittle. It was,.one of Writing" as "the medium

as a warning to lesser evildoers. which boards of He was the Right Reverend may argue plausibly, a very through logical, useful, and perhaps even government, county councils, Cyril Henry Golding-Bird, D.D.

to-day.

But then, in 1830, the eminent Sir Charles Lyell used it shame- lessly in the first volume of his monumental "Principles of Geology," and from that day to this it has been a perfectly re-

creasing volume, but I can't re- call one that didn't have to run gauntlet of opposition in the motherland, at times verging

Hongkong Telegraph. peetable if somewhat unfamiliar years wear the prisse entire cial firms, committes, commer. (Oxon). Assistant Bishop of

THURSDAY, JULY 2, 1936.

THE PALESTINE DISORDERS

word in England, with a place in every dictionary.

****

Its history is the history of almost countless other American isma.

NOTES OF THE DAY

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inter Anthony firms, express the processes Guildford and Archdeacon of Trollope was employing it with as well as the conclusions of their Dorking, and a man previously out apology.

thought, and so voice the reason

unknown to the police. of their being."

But when Jefferson ventured to use it in his "Notes on Virginia" (1787) the London Review tossed and raged in a manner befitting the discovery of a brace of dueling pistols be neath the cope of the Archbishop of Canterbury.

It is, at its worst, at least in accord with what are taken to be the principles of English gram- mar, and at its best it shows excellent manners, and even a kind of mellifluous elegance; in deed, the English, taking one with another, may be said to write much better than we do at all events by the standards of the schoolmaster. For

But what they write is seklom animated by anything properly describable as bounce. It lacks novelty, variety, autlacity. There is little juice in it. The reader confronted by it is treated politely and lulled pleasantly, but he seldom enjoys the enchant ment of surprise.

when

*

Whatever is strange and up- setting is put down, in England, the hellish ingenuity of Americans--save, to

of course, genuine Americanisms are claimed as really English.

This lust happens often be enough to give what may called a cock-eyed aspect to the perennial pother. In 1934 even the learned Dr. C. T. Oniona, one of the editors of the great Ox- ford Dictionary, succumbed to the madness by offering to find in the dictionary any alleged reporter Americanisms that a could name.

The reporter began discreetly with fresh (in the sense of saucy), to figure (in the sense of to believe or conclude), and to grill (in the sense of to ques tion), and Dr. Onions duly found them all.

They have been edging their Tho factors behind the con-way into English since early tinued unrest in Palestine are becoming so obscured by the

"What an expression!" roared the London. "It may be an actual disorders that it will be

elegant one in Virginia, but for informative to state, briefly, the

Owing to the short distances our part, all we can do is to three main objectives of the Arabs. They are (1) the stop-between the centres of industryuess at its meaning.

shame, Mr. Jefferson!" page of Jewish inimigration; (2) and commerce, inland air traffic

* * + the stoppage of land sales to has developed slowly in Great

The under-scoring of guess Jews; and (3) the establishment Britain. But now business men

was a fling in passing at another of a national constitutional Gov▷ have become more "air-minded" foul Americanism. It was the ernment. On the first of these and new lines are developing belief of most Englishmen then, points, it is contended that the Further, private flying has become as it is to-day, that the use of country cannot stand any more more popular, and with this the the verb in the sense of to sup

"When we want to freshen our Immigrants and that Jewish number of people who are pre-pose, or assume originated in speech." Mrs. Virginia Woolf penetration threatens the Arabs pared to fly even short distances America.

was lately saying, "we borrow It is actually to be found, in from American poppycock, of Palestine with annihilation when going on holiday has In-

creased. Various companies have that menning precisely, in rambunctious, flip-flop, booster, In support of this view, it is

consequently been formed to cater "Measure for Measure" and good mixer. All the expressive, pointed out that in 1918 the for this public, and air travel in "Henry VI."; nay, in Chaucer, ugly, vigorous slang, which Araba constituted 93 per cent. of the British Isles is rapidly becom- Wycliffe, and Gower. But such creeps into use among us, first in historical considerations have talk, later in writing, comes they are hardly 70 per cent., the According to new tables of ser- never daunted the more ardent from across the Atlantic"

of the King's remainder being Jows. In 1922, vices recently published, the preservers the Jews numbered 83,000; in Railway Air Services" will be English. When a word-acquires- an American flavour it becomes. the total had grown

American to flying more than one million miles anathema to them, even though 175,000; and now there are some on inland air routes this summer it may go back to Boadicea. 400,000 Jews in the country. On whereas only two years ago the the question of land tenure, it is number of miles flown was appro- argued that large areas of the ximately 600,000. Extended and most fertile land have passed into accelerated services are to be pro- vided, covering practically the Jewish hands, and that the pro-whole country. Now fast cess is still continuing, to the de-linera will be employed, and sixty- triment of the Arabs.. Regard-two regular services will be oper- ing the constitutional reform de-ated, the aircraft on the various mand, the Arabs ask that a routes dying a total of 12,000 miles Government be established which a day. Visitors from abroad, will- shall represent all sections of the certainly appreciate the improved population in equal proportion to facilities offered. Meanwhile Bri- their numbers. But first and lish aircraft continue to develop. the first foremost, the Arabs want a Seventeen years ago cessation of further Jewish immachine carrying an official air- migration, and they contend that mall load on the Paris route was driven by a single 300 horse-power if this demand were granted im- motor, and flow at about eighty mediately, it would facilitate the miles an hour. Now Empire fly- lask of the Royal Commissioning-boats which are being built for (which is being appointed to study Imperial Airways will be driven by the whole problem. The trouble, four motora developing 3,000 unitappily, is not confined to horse-power and expable of dying Palestine, for the Arabs are also 200 miles an hour. up in arms' in 'Syria, Iran, Egypt and

1931

air-

Trans - Jordan, in most ment demands a cessation of the centres accompanied by boycotts disorders before it undertakes to of Jewish goods, and in others by investigate the grievances. It strikes. The danger, of course, has, however, not yet been estab is that the trouble may spread to lished that the Jewish settlers the whole Moslem world, in which dispossess the Arabs; indeed, it is connection It is pertinent to re-stated that not only has the Arab member that in the British Em-population!swarmed and expand- pire there. are altogether some ed around all the Jewish colonies, one hundred million Araba and but Palestine has been free from Moslems. For these people, who unemployment during the long are anxious to preserve their yours of depression, whilst Arab friendship with Britain, the wages have risen to three times Palestine dispute is proving their level in neighbouring coun- barrier to mutual concord. It is tries. Actually, the dispute is not, of course, to be argued that the old story of conflict between the Arabs have no case; they a progressive people and a people obviously have genuine griev-fettered to tradition. The pro- ances, which need adjusting. posed Royal Commission may not But there are constitutional wholly settle a question such as this, but it may let light in on the means of attaining the desired situation and pave the way to an ends, and resort to violence is not agreement which the disputants, a method which can be tolerated. left to themselves, could not hope. That is why the British Govern- to reach,

was

an

But when the reporter pro- ceeded to bunkum, the learned editor had to forget conveniently the that its progenitor thoroughly American buncombe,. when rake-off followed he had to admit that the earliest example But whether slang or some in the dictionary was from thing better, it always en-

work, and when counters opposition-sometimes boloney and nerts were hurled at merely sullen, but at other times him he blew up with a bang. extremely violent.

Here, of course, Dr. Onions. One such sharpening of and his interlocutor ended on the modern Englishman, very little activity was loosed early in level of slang, but there is of that ecstasy in word-making 1933, when the chief constable telling where they would be if which so prodigiously engrossed of Wallasey, a suburb of Liver they could be translated to the Boloney, like to his Elizabethan forebears. pool, reported in alarm that his year 2036.

Shakespeare alone probably policemen were being called cops belittle, has the imprimatur of put more new words into circu- by the tougher youngsters of the an eminent

There seems to be, in the.

SIDE

GLANCES

By George Clark

"The neighbors have been too snooly to call on us, but

"their children are over here consinutly."

..

1

по

tribune of the American people, and is quite as Frespectable, philologically speak- jing, as buncombe, gerrymander,

or on the fence.

As for herts, it seems to be but one

more member of an endless dynasty of euphemisms, beginning with zounds and com- ing down to "son-of-a-gun, gee, and darn.

Darn, like nerts, is an Ameri- canism, and Dr. Louise Pound has demonstrated that it de- scends from eternal, which first turned into tarnal and then lost its tail and borrowed the head [of dumn..

Down to 1820, according to Sir William Craigie, the Trans- atlantic trade in neologisme ran mainly westward, but then it. began to shift, and to-day it is very heavily eastward..

It would be difficult to recall a dozen British inventions that have entered the common American vocabulary since the world war, but the number of Americanisms taken into Eng- lish must run to hundreds, and perhaps even to thousands.

The American movie and talkie, of course, have been res- ponsible for the introduction of many of them, but there is something beyond that, and something more fundamental.

They are adopted in England simply because England has nothing to offer in competition with them that is, nothing so aptor pungent, nothing so good."

HL Mencken.