“The Best English is Ours”

By L.K. Cramb First Published June 27, 1957An editorial in The Omaha Word Herald recently mentioned that a three-million-dollar British musical had to be withdrawn in this country because nobody could understand a word the star said. The editorial then went on to say that the explanation is simple, American English is purer than English English, and thus more widely understood, and then says that the purest English is spoken in the Middle West—in Nebraska and Iowa, particularly.I can testify to the fact that English spoken by many English people is very difficult to understand, and this is especially true of Australian English, and, of course, American English is easy to understand, not only by us but by the English.I am somewhat at a loss to understand what the esteemed World-Herald means by “pure” English. The editorial evidently meant easily understood English. The English and the Australians both speak more nearly correct English than do Americans as a whole, and especially the Middle Westerners.On a tour of the European continent recently I had extreme difficulty in understanding Australian tourists, yet they spoke correctly, and what I would call pure English, and I could easily understand what our Swiss guide said and meant, yet his English was terrible. Of course, in the final analysis the purpose of speech is to be understood, and on that basis the Swiss guide, although he murdered the English language, did a better job than those from Australia, although speaking correctly, were not easily understood.The World-Herald editor suggests the British film makers might send their actor to live for a time in Omaha, or Grand Island or Des Moines or Red Oak. It might prove disastrous to their good English as they might return saying “I seen” or “I done” and might use a plural verb with a singular subject. Perhaps the English could learn from us how to pronounce words and we could learn from them to speak correct English.

Audrey Searcey

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