ENGLISH UNDEFILED
[To the Editor of the SPECTATOR.]
Sin,—When I first read -the letter under the above heading in your issue of March 2nd, I thought that an old friend of mine, who (barring one initial) is a namesake of Mr. 3. C. Graham, was allowing himself to pull our legs.
Indeed, regarded as a leg-pull, Mr. Graham's letter seems to me to be quite admirable. How charming is his phrase ! " The slight trill that we symbolize by the letter r between the vowel a and a following vowel." Could anything sound more attractive ? Was sin ever more coyly cloaked, since Queen Dido cloaked hers in the pretext or an honourable name ? " The slight trill "—we think of nightingales and happy, girlish voices. Let us take an example : " Ada(r) and her mama(r) are sitting on the sofa(r) in the parlour." How sweetly do the slight trills lend grace to the simple words)
But I fancy that Mr. Graham wishes to be taken seriously, and I would ask him seriously whether on reflection he really thinks that " educated " people, who shy at saying " India(r) and China " are in any danger of saying " Indi-and China " ? It is true, of course, that such a form as " Indi-and China " is sometimes heard, but it is an example of slip-shod clipping quite unconnected with the presence or absence of an " euphonic " letter, and much more nearly akin to such cock- neyisms as " tempry " and " Febuary." Again, does Mr. Graham on reflection seriously maintain his theory of R-phobia ? Does he really suspect that because so many of us object to an r in the wrong place we must therefore also object to it in its right places ? This is surely an unworthy suspicion. One might as well suspect that a man who objects to a joke in the wrong place will object to
it equally in, its right place. - - •
No one will deny the • ultimate force of users loquendi, and, once it has been fairly established, only pedants will endeavour - to withstand it ; but that is flu -Trion for capitulating out of hand to every vulgarism that comes lurching across our path.— I am, Sir, &c., Bristol.
GEORGE A. FALL
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