Weekly national intelligencer. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1841-1869, 1854-09-23

tuition which bears his name? As Dr. Kraitsr says OF
that flying Frenchman," Chavez, venture to say
of himself that he has furnished ga glossoogic
fata. morgana mirage produced by refracted rays OF
truth Sahara of scholarship"
We have placed the work of Monsieur Adrien Feline by
the side of Dr. Kraitsrs not because they teach the
same for the corruption of human Speech" but
because they alike acknowledge and depre the kakopy
of English and French orography As the learned Hun
garian complains that by the present miscaed spelling
of English single word only be correctly spelt-
the intersection and this only when it is not written
oh so our ingenious Frenchman deplsres the compca
tons and anomalies Of his mother tongue in which,
for example, the letter be pronounced in ten differ
ent ways, while there thirty-seyen combinations
which produce the sound Of But whatever may be
the difficulties thus presented, to the young pupil espe
ciay, NJ. Feline believes they be surmounted by
means of phonetic alphabet such he has applied to
the French language His method consists in first teach
ing the learner to read by alphabet in which there
one sign and one only, for each sound; that he
promptly read words and phrases without being constantly
arrested by the anomalies of irregular and incons
tent orthography Then when the pupil has acquired
facility in reading and correctly pronouucing French
words as written by the phonetic alphabet he is gradu
ally taught to drop the phonetic spelling and to slide i'm
perceptbly into what is called ortography according
student is made pass through three successive stages
in learning read He first reads French in the phone
tic characters he next reads it in modification of the
phonetic spelling, which approaches more and more
nearly the established photography until lastly, he reads
French as spelled by the dictionaries.
This system of Monsieur Feline, confess
to as more ingenious than useful in far it is sought
to apply it in teaching the young mind the art of read
ing The method is too cumbrous, and greatly ques
ton if it would not prove in the end embarrassing
to the yro thus to learn phonetic alphabet which he
must also learn to unearn he passes from the phonetic
to the established spelling than to grapple OF the start
with all the difficulties of the established French ortho-
graphy. Nothing we know, is more arbitrary and un-
reasonable than the pronunciation Of both the French and
English tongues they currently spelled but such
anomalies cannot fear be reoti6ed by any invention
like that proposed by NJ. Feline; though we are glad
to observe that he does not supersede the French
orhography in order to make it conform the French
orthoGpy, counselled to do with respect to
English, by NJ Pitman and the photographers of his k
The remedy proposed by DR.. Kraitsir is different of
course from that OF M Feline and of every body else.
His prescription is that shall the correct
pronunciation of Latin and make it the for the
right analysis of the English and Of other languages
,pihoat destroying their pecuarites" Or, he elsewhere
expresses himself the Latin, when correctly pronounced
can be made to the flying Wheel to say the
balance, the escapement of the Ian
guages, by which they can be guarded on one side,
against DISQUALIFICATION, and, the cther against run
ming themselves down and thus endangering the whole
of their limbs and the soundnsss of their genius by
empiric would-be improvements. Without, therefore,
adopting the "lifeendangerng recommendations of the
photographers for such Languages the English and
French he advises to avail ourselves of all that good
in tha.r boz
to keep the present graphy Tor mode of writng of Eng
sh and French but to abandon altogether and as soon
as possible what accustomed call and believe to
be spelling" Spelling, in its true sense and Specification
consists according to author, "in the analysis of
words in two ways, viz into the sounds they consist
Of as now pronounced and into the letters with which
the words written"
IL now, any given word be spelled in the proper way
these two analysis Of its sounds aud letters should coin
eide The word hat for instance, is spelled when we
say of" its letters thus ach-atea for the letters
pronounced aatea do not when combined produce the
sound represented by the word hat whereas spord in
its trus senne should be nothing than compound
of the sounds which perfectly represented by its
ponent parts-that is, its letters and syllablss.
And the Importance Of return to the correct pronun
citation of Latin in connection with this proposed reform
in English spelling, is argued by DR.. Krasir on the fol-
because tWothirdS
of the English tongue and because it is not true that we
mspronounce the Latin only by pronouncng it like SO
much English We have right, therefore, to pervert
the original pronunciation of the Latin element in our
language, and the for doing THAT we apply to
Latin words an English sound) is tenabe because
were we to pronounce Latin do the bone aud mar
and nerve Of our vernacuar, would do justice
the Latin itself while following the genius of our own
tongue, and at the time would be laying bare tie
roots of the Italian, Spanish Portuguese Provenca Va
lacchic and even the French, German Dutch Russian
Iceandic Danish, Swedish, and other affiliated lam
guages for such is the similarity among the etyo or
roots Of oil these tongues that by rightly Analysing and
pronouncipg those Of more readily mas.
ter those Of all cognate languages.
reform in English spelling like that advocated by
DR.. Kraitsr must of be preceded by reform in
the pronunciation of the English alphabet and the ex
tent of the change required is stated In the following
paragraphs:
Pronounce the novels a, e. / o. a. and u as they
respectively sound in the words Ala5ama, Bethlehem
Mississippi, Ontario fl, Ypsilanty; and all the conso-
nants by exploding them from the mouth with a vowel
sound just sufficient to arcalae Them as is done in the
case of b, j, KIP, Ok, and is now done
with h, m, rs, which last artculated by
prerng al sound to the consonant whereas they
should be sounded with this vowel szcd in the case
Of the other consensnts; and pronounce as X as
sounded in all genuine Ango-Saxon words for instance
in get, give, grde, bigger, &C.. as in yes Please to
shake the tongue in making the sound marked by that
is rattle it thus, Pronounce as If it were
written Nv. both and if they were marked i j
with single quick emission Of the voice as if il
were written have slightly altered for the sake