A NEEDED REFORM by H. P. Holser

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Apr 4, 1900

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 26, No. 14.

A NEEDED REFORM.

By H. P. Holser

BY PASTOR H. P. HOLSER.

WHILE crossing the Mediterranean on an Italian steamer, I one day listened to the officer on the bridge giving orders to the engineer. As he called out, "Piano," the engine slowed down, indicating that the word "piano," as used in current Italian, means "slow" or "soft." This, of course, at once suggested to me that the instrument which we call piano is so named because it has soft tones; and this fact at once suggested why the instrument is called piano-forte. Forte means loud, strong; hence a piano-forte is an instrument on which can be produced not only soft and delicate but loud and strong tones.

How long I had used this word without thinking of its meaning! And of how many other words can the same be said! This fact reveals an important defect in our educational system,—a failure to teach people to think, to investigate. This defect is partly due to the character of our language. With all its good features, the English language is defective in originality; it contains too many foreign words; hence, we seldom know the origin of a name, or the reason why a thing is called what it is, without looking it up in the language from which it was taken. This is unfortunate, for it leaves us in ignorance of very common things; or, if we learn them, we must do so in a roundabout way,—obtain by a long process what a child would know if the names were from every-day words of our own tongue, instead of foreign terms. For illustration, an Italian without education knows the meaning of musical terms used in English books which an American knows only after special study. An Italian youth knows what dolce means as naturally as an American child knows what sweet means. He knows that before he learns to read the primer.

The use of foreign names is but a relic of the old pagan system which flourished in Egypt, and which was continued in the Roman Church. The Egyptian priests endeavored to keep knowledge locked away from the common people; the Romish priests did the same by translating the Scriptures and performing church ceremonies in Latin only, a language which the masses could not understand. But the Reformation broke up this system and gave the Bible to the people in their own tongue. Would that the same reformation had taken place in every branch of learning and in the English language.

Such a reformation has for some time been taking place in the German language, partly due to the initiative of the present emperor. The effort is to replace all foreign words by pure German words. In former days, when the courts and elite of Europe used the French, many foreign words were introduced. In Germany the common word for "ticket" was the French billet. This has been replaced by the German word fahrkarte (literally, riding card); "bicycle," by fahrrad (riding wheel); "telephone," by fernsprecher (distance speaker); "phonograph," by sprechmaschine (talking machine), etc. But it seems to be difficult to settle on a substitute for the word "cigar;" of the

many suggested, sargnagel (coffin nail), seems the most appropriate.

In the same manner all foreign names might be eliminated from the English. As we are not accustomed to this, it would to many seem too common-place and homely; and this reveals an existing evil,—a lack of the simplicity which we find in the German and other languages. Lack of simplicity is simply pride; and pride always imposes needless burdens; it here lays on us the burden of learning by hard study of a dead language what we might know without further knowledge than a common use of our mother tongue. We take two or three steps to the fountain instead of one.

We call the flesh of sheep mutton. The word "mutton" is French, meaning sheep. When a child for the first time hears this flesh called mutton, he has no idea from what animal it came; he must be told that mutton is sheep; while a French child knows this without special instruction. Again, take the word "cotton," another French word. This name does not in itself suggest the origin of the cloth; but in the German the name conveys to the child an idea of its origin,—baumwolle (tree-wool). By this any German child would know on first hearing that cotton is cloth, made from a substance like wool which grows on a tree.

Another evil of this system of foreign names is that it does not cultivate the habit of thinking or inquiring for the reason or origin of a name. People fall into the habit of using terms all their lives without knowing their true meaning, or why a name is what it is. Few people know why the first day of the week is called Sunday. Were the present system of education such as to train the mind to think, and inquire into the reason for things, many would soon be led to discover the heathen origin of Sunday, and would thus be led to the Bible truth concerning the Sabbath.

It is a very common thing in America to think that Sunday is the Sabbath. But in Europe you will find that people are much more intelligent on this point. Nearly everybody admits without argument that Sunday is not the Sabbath, and that according to the Bible, the Sabbath is the seventh day of the week, or Saturday. May not this be due in part to the fact that these people use fewer foreign words, and hence better understand the meaning of the terms they use?

Tho we can not hope at this late day to reform our language, we can make a reform in education, both in the home and school, and constantly strengthen the habit of thinking, investigating. This habit once formed will lead us to avoid many commonly-accepted errors, and to find many precious gems in God’s Word that we would otherwise never discover.