, 1877-11-18

| prospect OF trout in the North Branch; hut I pur
pose to do what in me lies to keep those poor fcl
lows out OF the lunatIc asylum by doing away witt
In looking over = the outrageous conduct Of oul
vowels and consonants, wc cannot bnt wond er
| HOW so ABSURD SYSTEM EVER CAME mt
The e.pIanation, briefly stated, eeems to be abou
this: The English language Is growth from ecv
Of 'i its own, It adopted the Roman. Tsc s' IatiI
language was probably nearly phonetic in it
spelling; but to adhere to the phonetic
lansuasc, which grew out Of so many ant
such various clements, by an alphabet intended
for only one OF them. was impossible. Anon: ths
sounds that the Latin tongue never possessed. Ii
writing this new language in this unsuitable alpha.
bet, one s=ribe would cndcavor TO express sount
same sound bya different combination. Hence
early English manuscripts exhibit great ortho
sranhlc confusion; ana: On at the o.
and very uucouth l'ut the capriccs Of printer anC
proof render gradually grew into sort OF STANDARD
| ar orthocrnnly: and what hat its origin in ienor-
ancc and dar kncss became law to IN asc of snowl.
| edge The natural outcome Of all thie WAS that.
wien tho written language became in some measure
crystailixcd iu one word. thosc OF another II
another word containing the same sound, thuse ol
| u third in another, and so on.
/ Thcu in onr attempts at explanation we must
| remember that pronunciation undergoes consider
| able change rs time passes. Many words fOrsmer
rhymcd tint now de not and vice versa; ami many
| letters formerly sounded arc now - silent" We
! have dropped out unnecessary Eonnd. for greater
hrcyity aud convenience, but still retain the now
useless letters.
| PRONUNCIATION.
| have thus far considered only the difficulties
aud disadvantages Of our system in the 1uatter oi
spelling. But they are scarcely less in earIiing to
| read and pronounce D'sconragements and per
uIcxitics meet the learner Ut every STRIP. No ono
can tel! with certainty when he word for the
first time what it is TO be called Every letter
posing it stands for different sounds ~ other wards,
the new word thousand Illustrations might be
| given to show that what is learned in one word
| few
] Supnose an clucatcd foreigner to be Just COM
| mcncin. to read English. lie meets with the very
simple word on, winch be learns to pronounce aud
feels that he bus made beginning. Next he meets
with one. aud thinks it mnst be He certainly
never would imagine that it must he pronounced
won. But having learned this he next meets with
! tone aud now thinks this lnust be twon hut finds
OIL investigation it IL Tone His next word s done.
and hc wonders whether It Ia dom or dwon. or
aonx ops o. nn n1s az hsss arc and s
wonders what tho is for, but accepting the situa-
lion. he passes to great and calls it greet But
ge eaos but I it spelled aus aes Ths vow word
must be called great. and great mist
be his astonishmcnt therea,. Learning how to
kindly to it until he meets with down. and ca1k it
down Correcting this, he nert trips On shown by
calling it sloun. Learning the pronunciation Of
do. he thinks doe must b. dooy: and when he gets
this correct be calls does dose. But cannot fol-
low him in detail through such words us now,
snow; ant, want, over, lover; lose, close; river,
iinser, singer; have behave; lumber plumber;
allpw, swallow; agnc, plague; and enough o1hcr
contradictions and absurdities to plague him into
We mist. however, pause long enough to hear
him rcad tic following sentence. supposing him to
hive just met with tic combination ough for the
Fr.s9 ma T1fo7An t1n
obliged 10 ask what to call the name uough; after
which he would read {pronouncing ouyh alike
tthrousbonp ..old farmer Aoush took bis team
to plough: but he had bad cough, and the
ground Was rough anti the roots very tough, and
before he was through he was tired enough" And
60 also would our learner be by the time he had
mastered all tho fantastic tricks OF that meaning
less continuation. We may imagine him occasion
nly stimulating a weakening courage by pro-
nouncing firmly the couplet:
Though the rough cough aud hccougn plough me
Der llfc:s dark slough ny course vii, pursue
A question SO much asked in the spelling fever
days is wonderfully suggestive Of absnrdi1y in the
letters in the representation OF words
ally the questioned purity did not remember to
have met with the word and was usually much
amused to inA after considerable study, that that
combination OF letters gave him packache.
How many times do even teachers OF long c1-
pcrience have to refer to u dictionary, with no
other purpose than to ascertain how to pronounce
spelling does not tell us: our memory cannot be
lied OH III the moment end We can only Look it upor
risk criticism; When we had acherol elocution
in the High School, It was common to see long
columns OF words on the blackboard that had bee.
placed there simply that their correct pson'in-
citation might b. learned. The more. cure,
tut pupils had lists on paper to he hunted
down and n,cnlorized they had leisure. They
were to find out whether the dna! sound Of oaths
sounded in Christmas and often; whether is long
or Short in vineyard and engine: whether root
rhymes with foo, or boot; whether ch is hard or
soft in archan*cl aud archbishop; whether Il mas
the last syllable Of mercantile is tile, TIL or tcel;
whether and are lon, short in heroine; wheth-
Of or Of II; wherhcr in the word pronunciation
itself the middle syllable is she. These are
samples Of nunhcrless questions that are forever
themselves to the student and will Tor
ever continue to do SO unless our system Is IT,
formed, and conforNed approximately st isast to
the phonctlc principle. Il this we're done, % per
cent Of all the labor they involve would be saved.
In turning TO the dictionary, how often 90 we !
find the spelling given BY one combustion Of let |
and t1e p se tSs one ond
bo necessary in almost all cases. But IN 4 very |
large number Of words the Ereguarity is SO grent
that no system OF marking will enable Us TO make
thc same lcl1ers answer for both the spelling aud
the naming ''Speli the word thus, says the lex
lcou, *'hnt on penalty Of losing your standing in
should apply for admission to one Of your schools,
lnd when you asked him the usual question, /
- What is your name:' he should answer, when
written it i Johnnie Williams, but when spoken it
IS Billy Jones, ~ what would you think OF his san
": Yet is not this jnst as reasonable as for word
o require one combination OF letters to tcsl now
write it, and different one to tell how to speak
Taking up pronouncing speler recently. had
he curiosity to note carefully the first hundred
words should meet with in opening the book Mt |
nnaom, to ascertain how many OF them used the
ame letters for the spelling a. for the psonuncia-
ion, and found just I've. Thinking this might
I !