Gold Hill daily news. [volume] (Gold Hill, N.T. [Nev.]) 1863-1882, 1867-04-11
PHoNoGRApHY

Senator Conness was in the right direc-
tion-an earnest that the seed here
tofore sown had not fallen entirely
on stony ground, it may not be improper
or uninteresting to our readers, to say a
few words in regard to uses and the fu-
ture destiny Of the comparatively new
science.
The term photography is compounded
nom two Greek words-phone, sound,
and graphic, to write-and is employed
to designate the new system Of writing
BY sound. This system was somewhat
matured and set forth by a Mr.. Pitman,
OF England, some thirty years since.
When FIRST set forth it commanded a
large share Of public attention. In ls4l
and 1912 the Anglo Saxon, a newspaper
printed in phonetic characters in New
York, and under the editorial manage
ment Of Messrs. Andrews & Boyle, had
an extensive circulation and was con-
Quoted with mastery ability. The sys-
tenn was taught in a large number of
Public Schools in Massachusetts, and
many teachers associations, and the
Legislatures Of Massachusetts,, New
York, Pennsylvania and Ohio, earnestly
commended this system Of spelling by
sound, to the favorable consideration Of
the public. In England and Scotland
it gained very rapidly, during the frst
decade and a half, in popular favor.
Phonetic textbooks found ready sale,
but this system, rapidly rising in popu-
lar favor, suddenly met with a deter
mined opposition from a quarter least
expected by its founder, early friends
and advocates. Men of letters, philolo-
gists, skilled in the science Of etymolo-
gy, in the originand derivation of words,
with their various infections and mod
iications, saw in photography the seeds
Of literary vandalism-a masked battery
for the destruction OF the genealogical
foundation Of our language. These re-
garded Photographic teachers as Ety.
biological ~Iconoclasts. Mr.. Pitman re-
marked twenty-five years since, that
his greatest apprehension at that time,
to the rapid spread of photography, was
from this class, who looked more at the
she'll than at the substance Of the Lam
guage. These literary fossils do not
comprehend that our conversation-our
public speaking-is all on the phonetic.
system, and no moro difficulty is expe-
rieuced in understanding the language
employed by the orator than the writer
of books, unless p~erchance the per cent.
of understanding would be in favor Of
the public speaker.
Every one at all conversant with our
language cannot but be painfully ssnsi-
BILE of the imperfection Of u present
system of photography, if our rickety
modes of spelling con b~eproperly digni-
fed as a system. Who does not daily
experience the difficulty of acquiring
anything like a correct method Of spell
ing? Men who have industriously devot-
ed q long life to the study of philology,
etymology and their intricate laws, find
it absolutely impossible to combine any
set Of rules that can possibly lead to any
thing like an uniformity in spelling.
Even the great photographers, Walker,
Sheridan, Perry, Johnson, Webster and
Worcester, differ widely in their orthog-
raphy. Those of US whose %vernacular
is English, and who had spelling feruled
and birched into US from our earliest
boyhood till we out-grew the iron reign
of District Pedagogues, are less sensible
of the defects of English orthography
than foreigners, who stumble at almost
every step in their efforts to master our
language. 1t may be affirmed without
fear Of successful contradiction, that
our spelling offers greater difficulties to
the representatives Of other nations in
learning the English language than does
its construction.
When our best scholars stumble upon
q new word they have no method Of
as~certaining its correct pronunciation,
and ten good English scholars might
pronounce it ten different ways, and be
able to give authority for each pronun-
citation. If this difficulty is experienced
by US what must be the perpleIity ofa
foreigner when he stumbles upon words
ending in o~ugh-cough, for instance
q word with FIVE characters and but
three sounds, kcf; fixing in his mind
that ough has the sound of auf, the
foreigner in his readings comes across
dough and pronounces it dauf, and is
amazed to learn that the ough in this
instance has the sound Of o, as in go.
With this acquisition in English orthog-
raphy Of the double value Of ough, he
considers himself qualified to advance
and finds the word boGgh, and is very
much puzzled as to whether he should
pronounce il bsuf or DO, and is wonder
fully perpleIed when he is informed
that it is properly pronounced bou.
Bewildered, he at once applies to a
professor to be instructed in the pho
netic values Of every word that ends in
ough and is informed that hough il
neither hsuf, hor or hou, but hok, and
that rough is neither rauf, 70, rou nor
rok, but ruff, and so on through all the
oughs in the language. Neigh is .
word with five characters and but two
sounds-the eigh is the representative
for the sound Of a, as in fate. In
straight the four letters aigA represent
the letter a. We might extend our
illustrations ofour heterogeneous orthog-
raphy to an indefinite extent. Pitman,
Ellis, ct al, who have devoted years to
the study of this promising science,
. .-