New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1867-09-09
THE NEW ORTHOGR4PHY.

The discrepancy between written and spoken
words has always been source of discomfort
to accurate grammarians, and, as we are sorry
to say, probably always will be. The explana-
ton of this difference is 10 be found in the
fact that there is literary standard of SPELL
ing which applies To printed matter, and a vocal
standard which applies to pronunciation. There
il written English, and there is spoken English,
just as there was written Greek, which we
still have, and spoken Greek, which is un-
fortunately lost Pronunciation is a matter Of
fashion, but literal spelling is matter of fact.
In PopS.s time, for instance, the word "tea
was written as il noweS' hut it was pronounced
"tay,r and the poet uses it in famous coupet
rs a rhyme TO obey.
90 tlou great monarch whom three realms obey,
Who sometimes counsel takst and sometimes fea."
1t is good study to run down a column of
Pope's or of Drydcn's rhymes, and to mark the
changes which fashion has made in pronuncia-
ton, while photography has been altered very
little comparatively We remember when all
wcll-brcd people said "muCh obleegcdn Now
it il "much obliged What particular pronun-
citation the gratitude of the next age will adopt
we do not pretend to determine, but however
it may be altered the word will still he printed
and written Obliged" This will he simply
right. Spelled in any other way it would not
be the same word but another, better OF IA
worse, but at any rate different one, and not
a literal descendant from its fine old Latin
ancestor "obligOr.'
These are our views, but they are not those
of Mr.. Joseph Medill. who has printed pamph-
let in Chicago which contains among other
things "a wmd with editors" Mr.. Medill is
kind enough to demonstrate with us upon our
photographic iniquities, as follows:
Without c0operashun the advocacy ov orthogranc
reform IL Disturbing labor, but with AL the graf -
pediment In the pathwa educashon be rem1vd in
les time than vii tax III pay Of the nashona Diet aud
that IL accomplish, Will not compar magnitude with
the blessing which rdans the heterc sstem spell
ing wud confer on the American pep aud thar children.
The wun wnd en our taxes the luther w1d render the
dfushon OF educahop among the masses universal for 81
futur tim"
Apart from the fact that we should be obliged
to give orders to our founders for an entirely
new set of accented types, we are not valiant
enough to brave the CONSERVATION which would
he Occasioned by the appearance of THE
TRIBUNE printed after this fashion. Neither
the American people nor their children have
yet made any complaint to us of their inability
to understand our meaning, although we have
thus far adhered to /" heteric sstem of spell
ing" But" seriously demonstrates Mr.. Me-
dill, cooperation is pronounced "c0opera-
shon," and how can you reconcile it to your
conscience to keep it in its Latin shape We
do so, Mr.. NJ, merely because the written
and the spoken words are different en-
titles, related to each other. but very
far from being identical. We spell it accord
ing to its etymology. We pronounce it accord
ing to the prevalent mode. There may be
languages with literature of their own, pro-
nounced as they are written; but if 10, we
have never heard OF them, any more than OF
languages written as they are pronounced. In