The Cecil Whig. [volume] (Elkton, Md.) 1841-current, 1854-05-06
educational.
For The Cecil Wing.
POPULAR EDUCATION.
No. Nv.

tory of the various attempts which have been
made to bring our photography to phonetic
standard. Phonetic spelling is no new idea.
1t is supposed that the Greek and Latin as
spoken by the nations who used them, were
nearly phonetic, and several hundred years
have elapsed since, attempts were first made
to apply the same principle to English or
biography.
The first ofthcsc spelling reformcrs who
appears in history, was John Hart of England.
In the year 1860 he published small book
entitled can photographic contcyning the
due order and reason howe to write or painte
thimage of names voice, mostc like to the
life or nature"
This appears to be an elaborate little book.
1t exposes the Inconsistencies Of the old or
biography and closes by proposing a change
surprising if we consider the age in which he
lived. He proposes new letters for the sounds
of "ch," "sh," eth, "(in) and th"(cn.)
lie introduccdno new vowcls, but he system
atzed the use Of the old ones so that his spell
ling was quite pcrsricuous. But the English
people were not ready for such an improve
mcnt. His scheme was forgotten and tie
subject remained dormant for one hu Il d
years. The next who appears to have given
the subject his attention was John wilkins,
D. d., Bishop of Ripan. In lGGS he pub
| Evh1 ~, ,l L.
proposed universal alphabet. Ellis great
defect was that he proposed entirely now
signs for his alphabet, and they to be used
both for writing and printing purposes"
Another century now rolled away, thccum
brous old photography remaining still in use.
No one appears to have thought on the sub
jcct until the penetrating genius of our own
Dr. Franklin arose upon the stage oflile. In
themultiplcity of things that engaged the at
tention of this statesman and philosopher re-
formed spelling does not appear to havca very
conspicuous place. Yet in The latter part of
his time, his attention was turned to it. He
commenced agtatng the matter in lIGS,
treating of it in some of his private letters.
From one of these, history has HANDED down
the following extract
"You ned not be at all concerned about
your bad spelling, for in my opinion what is
called bad spelling is commonly the best, as
conforming to the sound of the letters. To
give you an instance: a gentleman received
letter in which were these words, Not find
ing Brown at HON delivered your mcsscg to
his pf The gentleman called his wife to help
him read it; between them they picked out all
but the Yf, which they could not understand.
The lady proposed calling her chamber maid
because Betty says she, 'has the best knack
ofreading bad spelling ofany one | know.
Betty came, and was surprised that neither Of
them could cllwhat ''gt" was. "Why says
she, yf spells wife, what else can it spell
| And indeed, much better as well as short.
or method than doubleyou-i,fc, which in re.
atty spells doulleyou Jce."
do not quote this to encourage careless
spelling. 1t shows the light estimation in
which Dr. +. held our common photography.
lie drafted an improved alphabet but left the
subject unfinished.
The war of the Revolution was comm on
and his attention was called to matters of
more pressing importance Had leisure per-
nitted, he might have recommended to his
countrymcn an alphabet which his exalted
reputation would have induced them TO put
in practice, and which would have been as
worthy of his character as his developments
in electricity, or his achievements as a States
man.
After that period, spelling reformcrs follow
each other in more rapid succession. About
a dozen attempts, independent Of each Other,
have since been made to improve our spelling
with the view of rendering it more or less
phonetic. Most of these have been by Amer
leans but among the list of those who have
labored for this improvement, appears the
name of Sir Wm Jones. His position as an
official in the British Empire in India, gave
him good opportunity to witness the great
disadvantages under which his mother tongue
was laboring, in fulfilling its apparent dest-
ny as a ciyilizcr of the human race. lie says
all things abound in error as the old search
ers after truth remarked in dependency; but
it is really deplorablc that our first step from
total ignorance should be into such gross in
accuracy-that VIC should begin our English
education with learning an alphabet so total
ly at variance with its use. He proposeda
phonetic modification of the Roman ALPHABET
and applied it to the spelling of Asiatic words.
Another great name upon our list is that If
Sir John lIcrschcl. lie says: This may
be the place to remark the extreme imperfe,-
ton of our written language i'll its rcprcse,-
taton of vowels and consonants.
We have here a scale of thirteen sin
pie vowcls and twenty simple consonans,
thirty three in all, uhich are The forest lettes
nth ut'ch ii is possible to mriie English. BIT
on the other hand with the addition of two d
three more vowels and as many consonans
making about 40 characters in all, evey
known language might probably he reduced
tO WRITING