and soli for solos.[1] The last two are common in England. Both English and American labor under the lack of native plurals for the two everyday titles, Mister and Missus. In the written speech, and in the more exact forms of the spoken speech, the French plurals, Messieurs and Mesdames, are used, but in the ordinary spoken speech, at least in America, they are avoided by circumlocution. When Messieurs has to be spoken it is almost invariably pronounced messers, and in the same way Mesdames becomes mez-dames, with the first syllable rhyming with sez and the second, which bears the accent, with games. In place of Mesdames a more natural form, Madames, seems to be gaining ground in America. Thus, I lately found Dames du Sacre Coeur translated as Madames of the Sacred Heart in a Catholic paper of wide circulation,[2] and the form is apparently used by American members of the community.
In capitalization the English are a good deal more conserva- tive than we are. They invariably capitalize such terms as Gov- ernment, Prime Minister and Society, when used as proper nouns; they capitalize Press, Pulpit, Bar, etc., almost as often. In America a movement against this use of capitals appeared during the latter part of the eighteenth century. In Jefferson's first draft of the Declaration of Independence nature and creator, and even god are in lower case.[3] During the 20 's and 30 's of the succeeding century, probably as a result of French influence, the disdain of capitals went so far that the days of the week were often spelled with small initial letters, and even Mr. be- came mr. Curiously enough, the most striking exhibition of this tendency of late years is offered by an English work of the highest scholarship, the Cambridge History of English Lit- erature. It uses the lower case for all titles, even baron and colonel before proper names, and also avoids capitals in such
- ↑ Now and then, of course, a contrary tendency asserts itself. For example, the plural of medium, in the sense of advertising medium, is sometimes made media, by advertising men. Vide the Editor and Publisher, May 11, 1918.
- ↑ Irish World, June 26, 1918.
- ↑ Vide The Declaration of Independence, by Herbert Friedenwald, New York, 1904, p. 262 et seq.
