Outbreak
John Galsworthy shared his unease at the rise of two competing forms of national speech.
1924
King George V 1910-1936
John Galsworthy shared his unease at the rise of two competing forms of national speech.
1924
King George V 1910-1936
In his Presidential Address for 1924, entitled ‘Expression’, John Galsworthy reminded the English Association that London’s inner-city English was washing away all rivals, and becoming our national speech. Was this desirable? And would the talk of ‘cultured’ people be any better? It was a rather serious point, he said, though we must hope his solution was not meant seriously.
Abridged.
Which of these two forms of English, cockney twang* or the drawl of culchah,* is the more desirable as a national form of speech? The spirit of the age seems to favour cockney; and, certainly, it is glibber on the tongue. Place the offspring of culchad* ducks under a cockney-speaking hen, and the ducklings will take to cockney as steel flies to a magnet. Cockney is infectious because it follows the line of least resistance, requiring far less effort of lips and tongue. [...]
At the present rate of cockney progress it will, however, not be long before your presidential address opens like this:* “A meriner navigytin’ the endless waters of the gry Etlentic in a Canydian canoe could feel no more lorst than the speaker venturin’ on a stunt laike this.* An’ yet aow pleasant to know that it daon’t metter aow yer steer, for in no kyse can yer arrive.”
* Cockney is a form of English associated with working-class London, especially the East End. The word began as a term of abuse, applied by the rural gentry to urban classes who in their eyes were as much use as an egg with no yolk, or a cockney. Modern linguists prefer to speak of Multicultural London English, or MLE, which has absorbed the Cockney of Galsworthy’s day. A twang is the sound of a roughly plucked string, and hence a way of speaking that is harsh on the ear.
* That is, ‘culture’, the speech of the self-consciously educated classes. A drawl is a way of speaking marked by long, lingering vowel sounds, which tends to make it sound slow and lazy.
* That is, ‘cultured’.
* Galsworthy now simulates a Cockney reading the start of his speech, which ran as follows: “Expression is my subject; and no mariner embarking on the endless waters of the Atlantic in a Canadian canoe could feel more lost than the speaker who ventures on a theme so wide and inexhaustible. And yet — how pleasant to know that it doesn’t matter how one steers; for in no case can one arrive!”
* Galsworthy has substituted ‘stunt like this’ for ‘a theme so wide and inexhaustible’. This is a rhetorical trick known as bathos, a sudden dip into the mundane or ridiculous, from the Greek word for ‘depth’.
Suggest answers to this question. See if you can limit one answer to exactly seven words.
Why does Galsworthy write the word navigating as navigytin’?
To simulate the sound of Cockney speech.
Express the ideas below in a single sentence, using different words as much as possible. Do not be satisfied with the first answer you think of; think of several, and choose the best.
Regional accents are dying out. London speech is taking over.
See if you can include one or more of these words in your answer.
IDisplace. IIKill. IIISpread.