B933 <=> B935 [BTG XLII Beelzebub in America, p. 934]

“When I told him, among other things, that I had been the day before to Mister Chatterlitz about the local language and had told him a little about the system, he replied:

“’Do you know what, my dear doctor? As you are a subscriber to our paper over there, I cannot help revealing to you a certain secret of the language here.’

“And he said further:

“’Knowing several of our European languages, you can by employing this secret of mine, be master of the language here to perfection, and indeed converse about anything you wish, and not simply make others think that you know the English language – for which purpose, I do not deny, the system of this Chatterlitz is indeed excellent.’

“He explained further that if when pronouncing any word taken from any European language, you imagine that you have a hot potato in your mouth, then some word of the English language is in general bound to result.

“And if you imagine that this same hot potato is furthermore well sprinkled with ground ‘red pepper,’ then you will already have the pronunciation of the local American English language to a tee.

“He advised me moreover not to be timid in choosing words from the European languages, since the English language in general consisted of a fortuitous concourse of almost all the European languages, and hence that the language contained several words for every ordinary idea, with the consequence that ‘you almost always hit on the right word.’

“’And suppose that, without knowing it, you use a word entirely absent from this language, no great harm is done; at worst your hearer will only think that he himself is ignorant of it.