Mr. G. B. Shaw on the Speaking His Dislike of ages Mr. George Bern part, on Bay 21, in the campaign sociation at Bedford College, Regent's Park.
Mr. Shaw began bj audience if they had family with "a celebrated talking parrot." 'The family, he said, asked nds to come and hear Polly'
pretty things as "Pret Jump of sugar, and "Fetch a cab." But when they got there they heard Polly produce nothing but what were to them inarticulate noises, yet were to the family intelligible phrases. The parrot, as a matter of fuet, had fcriginally spoken those words quite distinctly; then gradually there had set in a decay of language. The phrases had become modified tittle by little, until finally the parrot had arrived at sounds which were not in the least like the original thing. The family had not noticed the change which had been going on.
That was an instance of the decay of language which occurred very extensively among human beings. If they went into Covent Garden they would hear a great deal of that parrot talk. There was more of that parrot talk than they imagined, because, in regard to a great deal of it they were in the rol ive position of the family to the parrot.
Sup. posing, however, that a for who had learned English well were put into Covent Grrden, he would hot understand the language there because it had gone through a process of decay, and the people there Were not speaking Englis "What you ought to at" said Mr. Shaw, "is to speak English that will be intelligible to a foreigner, Tt iz not sufficient for us to be intelligibie to one another, because we are in the relation of the family to the parrot."
"Mumble, Mumble, Mumble.
Mentioning some of the difficulties met with in spoken language, Mr. Shaw said:
"Qceasionally someone asks me out, and, very exceptionally, I accept the invitation. Then I always find that, as T am the celebrated Bernard Shaw, people want to be introduced to me. Many of them out it short by coming up boldly and claiming that they have known me for years. Eventually my hostess comes up and says, 'Oh, Mr. Bernard Shaw, may Thave the pleasure of introducing 't" you—mumble, mumble, mumble.' I sometimes feel like saying to. my costes, If you had only been late when you came to Miss Smith or the Countess of So-and-so, you would have been of some use to use of a word or the act of jumping at its meaning. "When Iam invited cut to lunch," he said, "my hostess, who has heard Tam vegetarian, unfortunately buys an extremely pleasant vegetable, called asparagus, which I cannot eat. I am pre: sented with an enormous' dish of it, and there is nothing for me to do but to refuse it. She says, 'Won't you take asparagus!' I say 'No, 1 don't like asparagus,' and she rer plies, Oh, you are a pessimist Tracing the deterioration in pronunciation as shown in the use of the word "modern," which had now og become ""modern," and would soon become "mod'n," he said that a great deal of that was due to pure sloven-Yiness, which should not be encouraged, as it destroyed some of the variety and musie of the language, No Correct Language.
People should be taught to cultivate and be proud of a certain athleticism in their speech. There was athleticism in articulation as in other things, and he did not know why it was that so many young peo lo who were quite properly proud of athleticism in lawn tennis and other sports should yet be intolerably slovenly when they came to speech. "I think they ought to be ade a little ashamed of it," he said, and be taught to understand that the most intelligent and cultured people are generally rather particular about their particul am, for example—(laughter)—but, generally speaking in public, one has to be. of trying to got a correct language said Mr, Sha, "There is no sul thing. You will not get any two people who agree as to what correct language is." There was, however, a genuine public demand for something else. People knew very well that certain sort of speech out oft person for ever from getting more than three or four pounds a week all h made them entirely impossible professions. People were saying: "I don't want (o be taught correct English or anything of the Kind, but will you tench me an Enge Tish which will pass, which will be enough if Tam made King, of Chief Justice, or Prime Minis "Correct English devs not matter mivch now," added Mr. Shaw, amidst I though fort: unately we havea Prime Minister who speaks extremely good English. But your next Labour Minister may hot be so good as Mi say Mac-Donald. So you will have to get dard nero Sir Johnston Forbes-Rohertvon, whose English solutely unchallengeable, to ket before people a standard and say ch. Tf you come intanee of that you
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.