The Rutland County herald. [volume] (Rutland, Vt.) 1852-1855, 1854-09-15

ENGLISH oRTHoGRAPHy-ITs DEFECTS
Another, and no small objection to
The present orihography is that so much
time must necessarily be spent in learn
ing it, and yet it is never completely
learned.
Youth, the springiime Of life, is the
most valuable portion of mans exist
ence, as it is then that the energies of
the mind can be moulded into almost
any shape desirable f this season is
misimproyed the bad effects Of such
misimprovernent will continue through
out life and make it miserable, if prop
erly spent, man has treasure which no
money could value, no wealth purchase.
But 10 consume three or four years Of
this period, to teach child the incon-
sistencies and irregularities of our or
biography, is absolutely worse than
wasting as much time. II is DESTROY
ing many notions of propriety in the
young and tender mind, and forming
habits which inevitably tend to make
the study Of all other subjects extreme
ly tedious.
What governs our spelling? Any
Just and precise rulesf II so, then the
exceptions are more numerous than the
rules, and exceptions to the exceptions
more numerous still. Hence il is one
complete science oil confusion, and what
n noble study 10 expand the tender
minds Of the young.
The child who is told that hiccough
spells hiekup," will naturally suppose
that t,riough would in like manner be
"fariup," and has 10 receive the pleas
ant appellaiion Of "bIockhead, "''dunce"
or something of the kind, when he en-
deavors TO spell or pronounce by analo-
gy.
From these considerations il is not a
matter Of surprise that so many make
dull scholars, but the great wonder is,
thai so much progress is ever made
If the same irregulariiy existed in the
figures, it is exceedingly doubtful whelh-
er there would be so many skillful math-
emalicians produced as there now are.
But there is another difficulty. Mis-
sionaries to foreign lands find il almost
impossible TO represent, ia The English
language. some Of The most common
sounds they hear. They also find that
such is the irregularily Of orihography,
that it Is a long, tedious, and difficult
task TO teach the language to Natives
Many, also, iranslating one language in
to another, have been obliged 10 con
stract an alphabet OF their own--on a
Phonetic basis.
Rev. Mr.. Thompson. former missiQn-
AIRY TO Africa, says in his journal
And ! am fully persuaded that this,
(meaning the Phonetic Alphabei) or
something similar. must be introduced,
and applied 10 the numerous languages
Of Africa, before any great movement
can be made towards the TRANSLATION Of
the Bible, or the general diffusion Of
knowledge. There are many sounds
which eanno, be expressed by any sin-
gle letter or combination Of letters, in
the common Alphabet"
We have aiso CHER testimony TO the
same effect,
We cannot, therefore. remain insen-
sible To those orilosraphie defeeis--we
nasl see ibr ernor--bgt where Is the
remedy That is the question, which
many literary men have attempted TO
AnsseT, And which l. exciting no hiilr
attention Al The prcseng day Ia The sci
eniiGs World. We proPoss, IN lhe seat
commentaries. 10 eKaIsins ~,sfne n the
d.desug schemes psSposed 10 remedy
tl..s deircs and iesa fheir merits