Society for Pure English Tract 1 (Oct 1919) | Page 2

contributors; they desire full
discussion of all questions.
5. MEMBERSHIP.
The Committee invite the membership of all those who are genuinely
interested in the objects of the Society and willing to assist in its work.
They should send application for membership to the Honorary
Secretary, Mr. L. Pearsall Smith, 11 St. Leonards Terrace, London,
S.W.3.

6. ORIGINAL PROSPECTUS.
The following is a reprint of the original prospectus as issued Oct.
1913:--
Literary education in England would seem in one grave respect to lack
efficiency, for it does not inspire writers with a due sense of
responsibility towards their native speech. In most European countries
men of letters, and the better class of journalists, are trained to observe
the changes of the language, and to assist consciously in its
development, being guided by acknowledged principles of tradition and
taste. But the English language, which is now rapidly spreading over
the world, is subject to no such guidance, and to very little intelligent
criticism. There is indeed occasional discussion, both in the journals
and in table-talk, concerning the choice and use of special words and
the standards of style; but this is mostly conducted by irresponsible
persons, who have no knowledge of the history of English, and are
even without any definite ideal or right conception of what the
essentials of a good language must be.
It is therefore proposed that a few men of letters, supported by the
scientific alliance of the best linguistic authorities, should form a group
or free association, and agree upon a modest and practical scheme for
informing popular taste on sound principles, for guiding educational
authorities, and for introducing into practice certain slight
modifications and advantageous changes.
The promoters of this association (which calls itself the 'Society for
Pure English') are of course well aware of the danger of affectation,
which constitutes the chief objection to any conscious reform of
language. They are fully on their guard against this; and they think that
the scheme of activity which they propose must prevent their being
suspected of foolish interference with living developments.
The ideal of their proposed association is both conservative and
democratic. It would aim at preserving all the richness of differentiation
in our vocabulary, its nice grammatical usages, its traditional idioms,
and the music of its inherited pronunciation: it would oppose whatever
is slipshod and careless, and all blurring of hard-won distinctions, but it
would no less oppose the tyranny of schoolmasters and grammarians,
both in their pedantic conservatism, and in their ignorant enforcing of
newfangled 'rules', based not on principle, but merely on what has

come to be considered 'correct' usage. The ideal of the Society is that
our language in its future development should be controlled by the
forces and processes which have formed it in the past; that it should
keep its English character, and that the new elements added to it should
be in harmony with the old; for by this means our growing knowledge
would be more widely spread, and the whole nation brought into closer
touch with the national medium of expression.
The Society, therefore, will place itself in opposition to certain
tendencies of modern taste; which taste it hopes gradually to modify
and improve. Its object will be best exhibited by stating a few definite
proposals which may be regarded as typical.
I. Literary taste at the present time, with regard to foreign words
recently borrowed from abroad, is on wrong lines, the notions which
govern it being scientifically incorrect, tending to impair the national
character of our standard speech, and to adapt it to the habits of
classical scholars. On account of these alien associations our borrowed
terms are now spelt and pronounced, not as English, but as foreign
words, instead of being assimilated, as they were in the past, and
brought into conformity with the main structure of our speech. And as
we more and more rarely assimilate our borrowings, so even words that
were once naturalized are being now one by one made un-English, and
driven out of the language back into their foreign forms; whence it
comes that a paragraph of serious English prose may be sometimes
seen as freely sprinkled with italicized French words as a passage of
Cicero is often interlarded with Greek. The mere printing of such words
in italics is an active force towards degeneration. The Society hopes to
discredit this tendency, and it will endeavour to restore to English its
old reactive energy; when a choice is possible we should wish to give
an English pronunciation and spelling to useful foreign words, and we
would attempt to restore to a good many words the old English forms
which they once had, but which are now supplanted by the original
foreign forms.
Other foreign denizens which are claiming naturalization we would
encourage