The disorders of speech.

  • Wyllie, John, 1914-
Date:
1894
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The disorders of speech. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by UCL Library Services. The original may be consulted at UCL (University College London)

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    in it. A standard of good taste is thus established, and any marked departure from it, if the articulative powers are normal, comes to be branded as either an affectation or a vulgarism. It would be easy to give abundant examples of Affectations, but it may suffice to remind the reader of the affectations practised in the substitution of th for s (lisping) and in the substitution of w for r ;—which, however, are affectations only when they are practised voluntarily. A new affectation, which seems to be gaining ground at present, is the substitution of n for the terminal ng in words ending with ing. The most striking Vulgarism in English is the omission of h where it ought to be pronounced, and the insertion of it where it ought not. Omitted in one place, it takes its revenge by cropping up where it has no right to be. It is much the same with the letter r. Even in polite English, the r sound has, when occurring after a vowel, been so softened as to be effaced. It takes its revenge by appearing where it has no. right to be. In southern English we hear it in such expressions as Isabellar of Spain. This obtrusive r, Dr Hullah regards as unpardonable; but it is so common even among highly educated people that it is beginning to acquire a respectable position in society. The unpardonable errors are those connected with the letter H. These are the Shibboleths of modern English society. The reader will remember the passage about this word Shibboleth, the sh sound of which was in one of the dialects of the Hebrews given as S:— And it was so, that when those Ephraimites which were escaped said, Let me go over; that the men of Gilead said unto him, Art thou an Ephraimite? If he said, Nay; then said they unto him, Say now Shibboleth : and he said Sibboleth : for he could not frame to pronounce it right. Then they took him, and slew him. The English Language.—When a language of the Inflectional type has dropped its useless. terminations, and thereby greatly simplified its structure and grammar, it is said, by some authorities, to have passed into the Analytical stage. As already indicated, the English language has more than any other language passed into this condition. It is, in fact, the chief representative of what has been called the analytical modification of the Inflectional type. It is well known that Grimm, one of the illustrious founders of Modern Philology, has paid a remarkable compliment to the English lan-