New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1854-09-20
WORK DAILY TRIBUNE WEDNESDAY SEPTEMBER 90 1854

., surpose learner tolerably conversant with
English photography were to stumble ior inc
first time on the word bopgh how shall be guess
whether it is properly pronounced bsg' or co. vi
bor, or boo or bob, as in bought, thought Sc
Nsy: the youth learning to read cannot 'eu
without consulting the context whether Tue 'e'!
word rad in a sentence before him 10 10 De pro-
nouuced reed or red. Analogy lie OF no use aud
the logical faculty only Leads to bewilder and
=. dszzles to blind in such maze as Eagnsn
photography. Leaf and deaf griy and sure tone
CON. and done, sheath and death with thousands
of similar contrarieties, continually admonish the
learner that he must not depend on the spelllns
of word. even in connection with competent
knowledge of all the laws recognized by the Ian
guaee to teach him how to speak correctly; but
that he must learn how words are pronounced
separately and in essa! ing to speak, rely far more
on his memory than his understanding.
If our language, instead of blindly adopting
the characters devised 20 satisfy wants essentially
different from ours in the rude infancy OF civil
izaton BY the Etruscans or some earlier pre-
cursor of the Latin tribes which Rome found
located ia lower Italy. had been from the first
written phonetically there eau be no doubt that
saving Of at least half the time hitherto devoted
to learning to read it would have been made
while it would have been read far more, aecu-
rately and understood far more universally than
il now can be. The saving Of time thus effected
would have been Of incalculabe value. Then 1t
il clear that il las cost at least onetenth more TO
print our books, periodicals, &c, badly-that
is, obscurely-than it would to have printed them
in perfect characters, so that no word could have
been differently pronounced by any two fair
readers. In other wOrds-every thousand pages
now deformed by spelling words so vicodsly
that no one can say, except traditioniIy, how
they are to be pronounced, would have been re-
character for each distinct sound and rejecting
all silent letters. We estimate that the current
saving to the ADgo Saxon Race by this reform
alone would not fall short of Five Millions of
Dollars per annum.
Such are few Of the considerations now in
fuencng some of the philOlogsts of England and
this country to press upon reluctant or heed
less public the niece ssites and advantages of the
Language Reform known az PhonOtypy, or writ
ing and printing according to sound in all cases
The English Phonetic Society, established in
March, l543, now numbers 400 members, with
the eminent George Dawson of Birmingham as
its President, and the veteran phOnOtypist, Isaac
Ptman of Bath. as its Secretary About fifty
publications have been printed Theoretically in
EDgland-among them an edition Of the entire
Bible, with three various sizes Of the New
Testament. The COsmOtype,' cheap monthly,
devoted to PhOnOtypy, is now printed in this city
by Andrew J. Graham, (boI No 80 p. o. and to
him, not to US, We commend such as desire further
information on the subject.
knowing Phonotypy to be ri ybt, We have faith
in its ultimate success; but the prejudices, inter
ests habits to be overcome BY it, are so powerful
and pervadiDg as TO make this the work of gener
ations. We, who have learned to read satisfacto
rily and easily in the good old way, would all be
put to temporary inconvenience by the adoption
of reformed or phonetic alphabet; and we don't
generally like to be bothered for the benefit of
pOsterity. Then the thousands who have their
&c, Of the old sort, would mt like to see them
all supplanted by new alphabet, no matter how
great an improvement on the old one. Then the
difficulty of settling Oh new alphabet has been
formidable, and even yet re mains so. PhOnotyp-
lists differ as to the number Of sounds in our Ian
gusge requiring separate characters to represent
them Mr.. Pitman and his disciples now using
thirty.four only, while some phonOtypsts have
separate character for the sound of in fair as
distinguished from its sound in hate, and an
other for o in cost as distinguished from the same
letter in not, got, &c. ALI using, of course, the
letters we have to express their most natural and
utual sound, rejecting only those which have no
sound distinct from the sounds represented by
others. There is perceptible progress making
toward agreement on phonetic alphabet and,
whenever that point shall have been gained, the
ultimate triumph of PhOnOtypy will be assured