, 1865-12-03
EXPERIMENTATION,
-,
what Adcss4ea ors1osraphy x4a.a
..s;S:ao for oFshoepy. Il

DO for 0Fthoepy. n
Rdttaez chseago Tribune:
Some thoughtlees people zai.e the otte{t1sda !
that the Substitution of phono.Ypy fpro.
nouneed fouotipy) for the romsuic systsm
would destroy tho proper psonunciasion Of
!ne English laagaaee.- But no greater error
could possibly enter the mind. 50 far tom
" ionotipy" tnjqanE pfunnnc4atton 1t wbuld
secure uniformity and eI1stne4a, do away
VAN Tu}garttnsesndc proviinefAnd1s, and
teaca erybody 10 Rak .,tAeareveraacp1ss
~ according to the stAndkTd' established
os Inc best osthoeptsta.: oztho6krssphy means
correct spelling, or 7gha writing; md ozthoe-
py means the art of prunounc1ue wnn9t mn1,.
etty. y Is not the pgEposs cf the, edyofstes
~ e!tno2!aphic reform. ia dsvate from the
stanaard Pronunciation established by Web
sser Of Worcester 10 solitary instance. But,
on the contrary, ope = d. / their: chief
,a'1ns u, 10 enable The masses TO
iearn the correct pronunciation Of the
English tongue There are not 100 words ofthe
'l0hoo IN our language, thxt 8,scholar dare
pronounce as spelled. The: Litter 1 employed
to spell Wordsi In = majority of Inn tancss, DO
not even approximate to the true sound of
the word, a every person knows who his re-
hected on the subject, And 1t is because of
this false mode Of spelling, Of using wrong
Letters, or the Insertion Of too MN :, letters
that wo' have such variety of pron,mcia-
uons-so many psovtnclalisms- Il. our Ian
gusge were spelled ''fonsticaly," and the
newspapers and books were printed ii the re-
formed orthog1aphy-Webster's pronouncis-
ton being followed by the proof readers, the
result would be, that the whole reading pnb-
lie would soon learn to pronounce alike and
correctly !: because the printed word would
always Indicate p1ec1seIy how it ought to be
sounded. The wide and laughable Differences
Of pronunciation now. heard the same words
from the month Of an Engllshman, IN Irish
nun, eeotchman, \ Yankee or southerncr
would rapidly disappear. and be replaced by
the standard sound. The printed page would
then be teacher Of correct pronunciation TO
every reader, instead Of constantly misleading
and confusing them, as Is now the case. The
rtshman would be irresistihly forced to aban-
don his "rieh brogue,n the German his
"swcct' accent" shc Scotchmau his broad
gutte1als, the Yankee his nasal twaus, the
soushesner his EthIoplc ennnciation, and the
Eng1ishman would be instructed where to In
sert md when to omit his his and Is, and
the American common people would be eor.
rectcd Ia thousands ot words which they are
now apt TO mispronounea when read
Ing. By tho present mode Of In
strrctlou our tcachers cndcay0f to, I'm.
part to their pupils the right enuuciatlon,
and to correct aud eradicate. the {aults and
Rtorincialtsns Of ntterance learned at home.
because every word the child reads tends 70
put 1t astray- The teacher appeals to the,
sense Of hearing and insists that ITO" must
be pronounced too, and do doo; but the sense
Of sight tells the child that to and do, sbouid
not be called too and doc. .tbut plain to, do.
Ake 50 and no. How then Is the child to
learn the correct pronunciation of such words
as bow, bass, dove, eiil, lower, LIVE, NOV,
read, slough, tears, wind, and many others
He Is told that how in one sepseis Is pronounced
bo, In another bou /; that bass Is either bus, or
base that dove Ia either duv, or dove that
gill may be jfl o. gil; that lower may be loer
or lo1er;i that urc tnay be uv or lire that
mow may be mo or mon; that read nav
be red or rcde that slough mny ia S1ou> sloo
or sluH, and thxt tears may be teers or. tnre..
Learning to read W taught in school, seems;
to the child to be an untruthful, illogical, un-
reasonable, contradictory confriranee, and !
hence Is the most difficult Of human attain
mcnts. And the cause of this difficulty Is,
that tho letters have NO fixed or uniform
power or sound. Thus the letter a has 4 dif-
ferent sound In each OF the following words,
hating, father, water, many, hal, want; and
TIE sound which is represented By the letter
a In hate is also represented by ai In pain, ae
In ae,lel % in Raof, as In gauge, av h play.
"a fn great, q In veil, ey IL they, &c. The
result OF this 1awfess manner Of spelling is,
that no one can tell the spelling of word
from hearing It pronounced, or The ptoaoun-
eiat!on Of = word from seeing the spelling Of
It. He must depend wholly md entirely unon
1T I'm In