The Tiffin tribune. (Tiffin, Ohio) 1868-1887, 1875-11-11
How shall We Spell.

Spelling matches" which, last
winter, became epidemic, have haG
an Influence for reform. IN these
contests the anomalies and wbims.-
cAlitieS of the current orthoRraphy
were brought more cleSrly to popular
apprehension. Judges, divines, learn
ed professors, authors, and editors,
and great numbers of Hell-1ducatej
ladies snd gentlemen, took part in
thess "OrtbnEraphie tournaments. +"
and As one after another missed some
not very uncommon word, and was
compelled TO Retire frOm the lists,
they became disposed to admit, with
Mr.. n. J. Ellis, that "to spell English
is the most difficult of human attain
meuts ;" and, with FrankIiu. that
those people spell best who do not
know how to spell" Men are asking
whether there is not after all, as
much absurdity in representing a
half-doAen different Anh dissimil4r
words by one and the same combina-
tiOn OF letters-the terminGtion ouch.
for instance-as in the widest eceen-
trieities of phOnotypy.
Legislators are beginning to look at
the subject from the economic point
OF view, as related to popular edues-
ton. Bad spelling, We are told, costs
the country not less than SIS, ,OOO, 900 a
year. Half the time and money an
nually spent In the United States In
teaching 1000, 900 children to read and
spell might be saved by introducing
8 consistent phonetic OrthOgrsphy.
s'pbe cost OF printing the silent letters
Of the EnglIsh language" rs Prof.
March observes, 'is TO be counted by
millions in each generation Such
facts are not without interest for tax
payers.
Mr.. Skest, an English scholar Of
high repute, says "The pace of the
present day Is tremendous, and We are
coming to this, that there will be
thousands whose interest it is to learn
70 read, but who can not fairly spare
the time to master that peculiar sys-
tenn of graphy which Is useless Pho
netiOally, but may, by the etymOlo-
gist, be rightly termed 'OrtbOgraphy.' ,
Prof. Max Muller might be trusted,
one would think, to look out for the
interests OF stymOlOgy speaking Of
the objections made t. phonetic re-
form, he says: Zone argument which
might be supposed to weigh with the
student Of language, VIA the obsours-
ton Of the genealogical structure OF
words, can not consider very fOrmid-
able. II our spelling followed the
pronunciation Of words, iT would in
reality be OF greater help to the criti-
cal student OF language bhan the pres
ent uncertain and unscientific mode
Of writing ;" and be has expressed q
hope "tbst q beginning will be made
before long in II sformIng-not, indeed,
everything, but at least something, in
the SG1hist0ricdl, lglsysteH1dtio, tiain-
teLLigdke, GIIlt6aOIldLLe, but by no means
lH1G1genddbe spelling the Is careful
not to say 'orthOgraphy') now current
in England"
There are always not a few old
.ogies who are welded to old notions
and old fashions, simply because they
have become accustomed to them for
so long that they have acquired what
is termed "historie interest" Thus
such words as 'soeptre,n "musiek,"
"theatre," 4" "hOnour," eto., are vener-
ated despite the Inconsistency OF the
spelling and pronunciation. 1t Is
such people aud such notions that
stand in the way OF 3 reform, how
ever desirable it may be. 1t would
seem patent to the slightest thinker
that many amendments might be
made u our tongue for the better, and
g movement in such direction ought
to be hailed with spirit. Most schOl-
ars who have given attention to the
subject concur in the opinion that no
reform can be successful without the
cooperation OF printing-of1ces. Print
ers and publishers are naturally on
the side OF conseT vatism. Compost
tors and prOof-readers are now our
best spoilers, and do not care to beat
the trouble OF learning q new method.
There is-much encouragement, how
ever, in the fact that so many iDfiuen-
tial journals are manifesting interest
in the subject. Should a reasonably
complets system be devised, and be
adopted by publishers of repute, sue
cess would not he far distant. While
We confess that there is q nameless
charm for US in the language which
we have spent so many years In wrest-
ling with, yet we would quickly lay
hold upon any clue which might lead
our children out Of the labyrinth of
letters which go to make
up words Of the cImmolest uss.