The Decadence of Language.

Mr E. Tregear writes as follows to the Post: In Java, Samoa, and other places, the natives use a « chief's language, » which is not understood (or not allowed to be used) by the common people. I am greatly afraid that in these colonies there is something of the kind coming into life. Unfortunately, too, this is not by the despotic will of a tyrant, nor through the haughty pride of a dominant nobility, but in a voluntary degradation of their speech by the masses of the people themselves. The language used by Shakspeare and Addison, Macaulay and Tennyson, is not good enough for us. Listen to the conversation in a colonial street. Stripped of profanity we get sentences like these:—« The bloke was humping his bluey on the wallaby » ( « The man was carrying his blankets in search of work » ); « His missus and kids was togged like bloomin toffs » ( « His wife and children were dressed like wealthy people » ), &c. Of course, it may be answered that this is only coarse slang, and that slang is common everywhere; but what I complain of is that slang is superseding English in the mouths of all classes, and that there are few who use a cultivated vernacular. A wife is « the missus »; a child is a « kid »; money is « cash, » or « sugar, » or « oof »; a cock is a « rooster » (vilest of low Americanisms); a man is a « chap, » or a « cove »; a servant is a « slavey »; work is « graft, » &c. It may be asked, ؟What is the use of grumbling over things which cannot be mended? I answer that this is a thing that can in a measure be mended. If each one of those who love the noble tongue of our forefathers refused to answer questions or to notice sentences containing those hateful expressions, we could do much to make others recognize their vulgarity. Now, many of us encourage slang by laughing at and repeating it. It would be a small matter if this increase of slang merely meant the abuse of a few words, or their use by the lowest classes; but this growth from the dunghill threatens to sully and strangle the English language on our own lips. We are getting a « chief's » language and a « slave's » language with a vengeance.