Smyrna times., 1866-08-15
Oddities of La nguags.
What can be done ,cah the Tcenty-sir Letters
GtMe 1IDhuJet.

Oddities of Language.
What can be done ,cih the Tcentl-sic Letter,
Gfhe 1lphdJct
! The Galaxy has a curious article entitled
1orturlng the Alphabet, from which we ex-
| tract:
The puzzle of all English literature is, in ef
feet, to give twenty-siX letters to an arrange
ment by which they will present some new i'm
preston to the mind 1t has been stated that
we are approaching the time when original
forms OF expression will be exhausted and no
new mblnation of words possible. All our
! rhymes have been used dozen times over.
The confusion of English sounds and letters
was well illustrated by him who spelled coffee
without one correct letter in it, viz ''kauphy. .
And, moreover, it is to be observed that his
spelling Is nearer the original thar the one in
use TOR pamphlet was printed in Oxford, in
1872 ON The nature of the drink kduhi, or
| coffee: The name Of Shakespeare has been
spet IN no less than thirty-six different ways.
yet Frenchman has denied that any of these
forms are correct, for he claims that the origi-
nal must have been Jacques Pierre, corrupted
into Shakespeare by the poets ignorant an
ceStOrS.
As an example of the vagueness of our pro-
nunciation, imagine the perplexity of French
man just learning English, and wishing to
speak OF Cough, the lecturer. Is the man Go
as in though, or Gupp as in hiccOugh, or Goo
as III through, or Cox as in hOugh, or Gau as
in sought, or Cuff as in tough, or Cow as in
bough, or Gof as in cough or, rather, is the
y soft and the name either 10, or Jupp, or
Joe, or JOk, or jaw, or Juff, or Jow, or Joff?
Some instances Of unintentional bad spelling
Will illustrate the Oddness of our Eaglish or
biography. Here is a letter that was sent to
an undertaken by AN afflicted widower:
Sur-My waif is ded and Wants to be ber-
to dig the HOle-bi the side of mi too Uther
walts-Let it be deep"
Here is one sent to a doctor
Ger 1Ole Oblige me Uf yOle kun un ce me
| have a Bad knoEd am Hill in Bow Hills an
hev lost my Happy Tghr."
The following letter, received by school
master, was liable to be misunderstood:
Sur-As you are a man of noedge intend
to enter my son into your skull
The following bill was sent to a gentleman ::
aosafada 80
atacinonimomagin 50
Pade Josef Jaxn, 200
The items of that bill are not apothecaries'
articles, as might be supposed, but merely "A
horse half a day, and taking of him home
again"
A jewel almost as bright in this coronet of
pad English was the German grOcers weighty
announcement, which my readers may translate
torsthemselves:
BosIDEvELE
NO
DROSCHT.
The PallndrOme, which was a line that reads
alike backwards or forwards, is difficult to con-
struct in English, but is common in Greek and
I4atI of tha bac iC Al,
vation to Eve: Madam IN Adam" The
following Latin sentence is not only palm
drOme, but extraordinary in other respects
SdtOr GrepO tenet opera rdtGS." This spells
the same backward and forward ali the first
letters of the words spell the second word, and
so on through the third, fourth and fifth
The Anagram has occupied a pretentious
place in literature. The wits and wiseacres of
the olden times looked into the names of men
and places for satires and for Omens Several
astronomers have used anagrams to secure the
credit of discoveries which they did not wish
to reveal.
The fascinating Marie Touchet procused a
liberal pc nsion for the writer who deduced
from her name -" Je ,6hGrme tout" Il charm
ALL Queen Elizabeth once received an anony-
nous letter containing the following anagram
-" Elizabeth, Regina Anglorum - GLoria
regnunt s0tvi D,GneJit'' CThe glory of the
kingdom shall remain intact DR.. Burney
found the happy anagram, Honor est q Mo
His Honor is from the Nile,) in "HOratio
Nelson" Napoleon BOnaparte' was trans
posed to read, Bonaparte, Leno, pnoc"
Rascal, yield up your stolen possessions. J.
"Arthur Wellesley, Duke Of Wellington,
came from the epigrammatic crucible, :" Let
the well. .foiled Gaul secure thy renown; - from
"Louis Napoleon Bonaparte" has been drawn
the warning, " An open plot Arouse, Al
bion p and" Florence Nightingale furnish
ed the pretty words, =" Fit on, cheering angel !"
One Of the Oldest and ablest of the New. York
editors, Rev. Joshua Leavitt, D.. d., finds in
his name the good Christian sentiment, Il
have a just lot,
: A number Of ingenious Latin anagrams have
been made from . United States"
In tc deus stat--God stands in thee.
Iaoe tute stas--Hence thou standest safely,
| etc.
Dumhered letteFs by elevating them in the
midst Of sentanecs. The following was the
motto motto on medal struck by Gustavus Adol.
phus, in 1882 1u,,Lv