, 1873-02-03

To tho Editor ~ 1he Chicago Tribune:
6ln: I WAS much pleased to see d commune
cation in The Tribune Of friday, eth ult.,
touching upon the important subject OF
phonottcs. heartfly concur in tho ideaa the
writer advanced, and wish to add few thoughts
which have suggested thelnaolvos to- me.
Whether the Japanese edopt the English Ian
guage or not, ia @ question that time alone will
aettle; for 1t would bo hozculenn undertaking
to discard national Language, md force upon
tho people language 80 entirely foreign to
them as ours would be. But tho question
OF modifying onr alphabet aud our
tain ). characters 50 that they would
cxaotly what they represent, would be g com
popular educat ors) would study up" and place
The arguments in favor Of the change nro
Without end and unanswerablo. As has been
suggested by D1r. Bonnott, there are many words
In our language that, phonetical1y, would DO
spoiled tho Same because OF similarity in
sound, ,--as reia rain; thee, Tic; great, giate;;
read, reed etc.; but it 1nuRt be remembered that,
under our present system, no Lavo words
spelled precisely tho sanlc md pronounced en-
tirely d}neront, such, for example, as 'asnuto
(n,i-nute). nainute {min-it); present (pro-Bont),
present (pres-enD, and numerous other jlluatra-
ttons that might bo given wore it necessary.
Nov, take eithor Of tho above Words and iaolato
them from all connection, and who could tell by
the way In which they arc spelled as to which
was tho proper pronunciation. Either will an-
aver for both, or both for ofther. phonotics
would make each word definite ut slEht, md
their meaning obvloNa.
But tho great advantages to be- derived from
the phonetic system arc these: child, when
ho Las learned the phonetic characters thorough
u, can, with little practice, read almost any
thing and pronounce tho words correctly. 1n-
stead OF being required to study five yearH in
der to bs ab!e to road In tho Fourth Render untor
| the present system, ho can accomplish tic taslt
In less than one-third OF tho timo by phonetlcs,
and much moro thoroughly. Secondly, aporson
syatem, Mill bo able to read and pronounce cor
roctly any foreign language printed or written
In tho same characters. Thus, a st,ldont in
French, Latin, German, or any other Language
living Or dead, will experience no difficulty in
loarnlng without . master, nor will he incur the
risk Of boing laughed at for ridiculous mispro-
nunciations. Thirdly, tho various dialects Of
different 1ooaltios would eventually fade out.
and words would have uniformity Of sound
wherever the same language ig apolon.
This ia . progressive ago. Everything is nov
done on tho railroad or telegraph scalo, with
lightning speed, and tho wonders Of Q former
decade arc now accomplished IN single yoar.
THO only science that ia dormant and be-
Il takes too largo . alice out Of briof nfo.
time (ayerage 50 years) to bocomo m Intelligent
porson, az tho world now measures Intelligence
Almost two-thirds Of our average existence is rc-
Qnred to 1t us for tho other ono~thlrt. Place
phonetic books md papers in tho Aanda OF OIL,
students, and they will accomplish more in three
! years than they do now in ten. Two-thirds o.
the entire schooling 3 student gets ii devoted te
the spelling md pronunciation Of words, aftol
he knows tho lettars forming thcm. Tho student
In geography would never lnow. tho pronuncia
ton OF geographical namea on tho map, waro i
not that they ere placed thoro t.oiec,-onco Al
spelled and once aB pronounced.
But have now encroacaed too much upon
your space, porhape, though have by no moant
exhausted tho subject. 1hope to live to SEQ th.
day when mon will not look upon this acIenco NJ
m innovation, "a peoplo In former timos wer.
wont to regard every now invention. Let n
turn On tho Light, TINT tho nations may Boo tt
walk without stumbling. GEonoE WISE,
! CHICAGO, Jan, II, 1879.