POLITE GEOGRAPHY [To the Editor of the SPECTATOR.] SIR, —Your correspondent
would have all European place- names pronounced and written as in the country of their origin (though he excepts two countries on the ground of special difficulty). But why should politeness have geographical limits and exclude three-quarters of the globe ? And is it really being polite to foreigners to murder their language ? Comparatively few English people can pronounce even such common expressions as comme it faut or a la mode, with- out making French hearers smile or wince. There is not a single vowel sound and hardly a consonant that is identical in French and English, and the same may be said of most of the sounds of most other languages.
Besides, why should we further corrupt our already sufficiently heterogeneous English tongue ? To Latin and Anglo-Saxon elements, imperfectly fused, we are adding every day new words of foreign origin. Fortunately to the process of deformation corresponds a natural process of assimilation. If this is artificially checked, English may lose its character. Your correspondent calls retrograde those who anglicize place names. Then most other nations are more retrograde than we. Compare the French " Allemagne " with " Germany," " Londres " with " London," the Italian " Inghilterra " with " England," " Parigi " with " Paris " the German " Themse " with " Thames," " Frankreich " with " France," " Mailand " with " Milano," &c., &c. This process of assimilation is always going on, and is a legitimate measure of self-defence. Every language has its own character and qualities, its own particular form of beauty, and to mix these different forms is to destroy them. We may show our politeness by learning foreign languages, but let us take good care not to sacrifice our own.—I am, Sir, &c.,
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