OCR Text |
Show "AS SHE IS SPOKE." In the paet spasmodic attempts have been made to wage war on ' English as she is spoke " in America. In isolated instances the campaign for purer speech made progress, but, on the whole, the lingual butchery continued and continues con-tinues today. Now, however, a real need has arisen for improvement in spoken language. Experts have come to the conclusion that one of the most potent agencies for the Americanization of the foreign-born foreign-born is correct pronunciation. The elimination elimi-nation of foreign accents is being undertaken under-taken in Xew York with serious determination. deter-mination. In that city, it is estimated, there are 200,000 school children who speak "broken English" or no English at all. Dr. Frederick Martin, director of speech improvement under tho Xew York board of education and president of the National Round Table for Speech improvement, calls attention to the widespread habit of incorrectly pounding pound-ing the vowels. Ho says that 14 per cent of the men who sought to become officers in our army were refused commissions com-missions because of "poor articulation, lack of voice and imperfect "'unria-tion. "'unria-tion. The faults are so gen1;, as to be practically universal. Dr. Martin has spent many years in the study of careless speech. Himself once a stammerer, ho established a course designed primarily to cure or prevent that affliction. In tho course of his work he encountered so serious a condition of disregard for the rules of proper articulation that he undertook under-took to apply a remedy. Dr. Martin as,-serts as,-serts that it is possible entirely to rid a foreign-horn child of the accent of , its native tongue. It does not, rts n, rule, require much time to a-'eomplish this; just how long depends upon tho child. In suggesting a method for the teaehnr to adopt, Dr. Martin says that she should lay emphasis, in correcting the n.'ct'iit. not so much upon a polished form of speech as upon the correction of the commonplace mistakos met with every day niitahes in tlm fundamentals funda-mentals of pronunciation. For example, "pore" for "poor," "Too-day'1 for "Tnesdiy,'' 'Mnkiisch" for "lb.g-11 "lb.g-11 h. " ' ' hor.-pital' ' for "hospital, ' J ' ' k e iVpnn " fur "coupon , M "wnz" f r "was,'-' " Amurriker ' ' for "Ainorb'a," and so on through a bng list. "The t earlier must rein einbiT, too, ' ' says Dr. Martin, "that, all spoken Inn-irua Inn-irua is the rf-ult of imitation. She must not only carrfrt mi prou u neiat ions, tint nnnt al.-o l.-akr hrr .df u model of corre"t c nu n'ia 1 ion, he.-uuso that is the on ! v w;y in v, I, iWi a pupil ran be ex-P-ted to master the thing." I ,v : r r n n g to na t i v born A me i ie;in hi!d:-.-n and adult as w r Dr. Martin -a;. t h ;i t " we imi-dvis a i e i i- 1 v t i I b.- slov.-'dy in our o-.v-l .-..ni-.l ..' If J every child in our schools is taught to bring out his vowels in a full, rotund delivery, we shall be able to get rid of ' wuz ' and ' goil. ' ? Among the errors listed in Dr. Martin's Mar-tin's syllabus, to be corrected in the courses in speech improvement in the pubiie schools, are the following common com-mon carelessnesses in vowel sounds: "Multuply, " "motuve," "victum, " ' 1 buhcome, : ' " buhgin, ' 3 ' ' duhbate, ' ' ' uhbout, M " ullo w, M " urf raid, 1 y '' p 'lice, " " curt 'n. M. " charicter,' ' "hesatate," "uv" for "of," "usuil" for ' usual'' "pasafist ' ' for "pacifist" and various perversions of ' ' and. y ' Then, too, there are such positive mispronunciations mis-pronunciations as "idear" for "idea," 4 i goil ' ' for " girl, " " tot J ' for "taught,'' "gnawed" for "nod," and the burring or complete elimination of the sound of "r." |