The Little Londoner [antikvár]

PREFACE. This little book is a parallel volume to my Petit Pa-risien. I have called it The Little Londoner for two reasons; firstly, because it treats of almost every aspect of London daily life, London being generally recognised as the leading English city to which the foreigner usually goes first, and where he makes his longest stay; secondly because the book is written in such English as the educated Londoner of the present day uses in his ordinary unconstrained conversation; London speech is spreading among the educated classes throughout the country, and many authorities do not hesitate to regard it as the standard. In composing The Little Londoner, I have mainly drawn upon my personal experience gained during a continuous stay in England extending over two years and a half, and on numerous later occasions when my holidays were spent there. I have, of course, also made occasional use of the recognised standard works on England and the English, and of valuable information furnished by English friends. The words and phrases given in brackets serve to explain the text or to extend the vocabulary by the suggestion of synonyms; in some cases, these brackets supplement the text by a word or phrase which may just as well be left out. Besides this, foot-notes tend to interpret in plain English all words that are likely to be unfamiliar to the average reader or not perfectly clear from the context. As regards pronunciation, helps are given by indicating the sylla-bic stress in such polysylla bic words and groups as are li-able to be acce-nted wrongly: the stressed syllable is marked by an e-levated dot placed close behi-nd its vowel. Thus in the word "sylla-bic" the stress is on the a. In shortenings, such as a.m., p.m., e.g., only these letters are, as a rule, pronounced, and then have their usual English value. The Little Londoner will be found suitable as a reader and as the starting-point for conversational practice in the upper forms of secondary schools and similiar places of education, including military colleges. In all such institutions attention is now paid to the acquisition of a good