Page:Transactions NZ Institute Volume 18.djvu/85

Rh queer grammar; but sometimes this is diversified by "I sawr 'im." As expletives, "My word" and "No fear" are favourites, both drawn out as long as possible. The letter h is frequently treated in Cockney fashion, i.e., omitted where it should be pronounced, and put in where not wanted.

I have often observed in London Colonial newspapers complaints of the use of Maori names, as being unpronounceable, &c. Considering that the Maori language is softer than Italian, this shows how much the writers know of what they are writing about. I should strongly object to displace the soft, easily pronounced, and generally descriptive Maori names, by the Bellevues, Mounts Brown, or Smith, or Jones, or other names showiug the poverty of the English language for nomenclature. Compare the Spanish language for this purpose. Masafuero, the name of a small island outside Juan, Fernandez, means literally more far, or farther off. Expressed in English the name would never do, whereas in Spanish it is sonorous and euphonious. Similarly Cape Cow's Tongue will not answer, whereas Cabo Lengua de Vaca is euphonious and appropriate. Even in Great Britain the old Celtic names are generally the best, and have more poetic meanings than the more homely names of the Sassenach, such as Pitmuis, "the field of blood," Kilkiaran or Kilkerran, "the cell of Kiaran," &c.

The sound of the letter s has been very often changed in English to that of z, as in is, iz; was, waz. The spelling reformers would change all these into z. Cannot the original sound be reverted to? In phonetic printing the frequent occurrence of z looks hideous, almost as bad as shun.

Some persons may say, Why should we object to the French sounds in the language and prefer the Teutonic? The reply is easy: English is a Teutonic language, and although it has borrowed many words from French, it can under no circumstances be converted into a Romance language; besides the French sounds are non-phonetic—as such they do not do the same mischief in French as in English, because in the former language the sound is nearly constant, whereas in the latter it is arbitrary and variable.

Certainly the pronunciation of French words is peculiar. We find eau, eaux, au, aux, all = o; beau = bo, peau, pôt = po, maux = mo, faux = fo, chateau, chato. We adopt some of these words into English and call beau, bo; but beauté we call biuty. Beauly (firth), we call Biuly. Then the French call comment, commong; vraiment, vraimong; appartient, appartieng; proportion, proporshiong; maison, maesong; bon, bong; mauvais, movae; suis, sui; es and est, ae; sommes, som; étes, aet; sont, song. This is not the language on which English orthography should be reformed. It is essentially a Latin patois, the rule being to cut off the final syllable of Latin, thus: Rome for Roma; bon for bonus,