, 1877-11-18

knows that in the South the case is far worse
Inc difficulty Of acquiring IN approximat'
mastery Of spelling was well Illustrated IN
brief conversation had some time ago With I
gentleman Of much learning, who is at the sam'
time one Of the best spoilers Of my acquaintance
anu one OF the strongest opponents Of ny
views on this subject He WAS speaking in :
somewhat satirical way OF the inability Of many
him: You hare an exceptionally rctcntiye
! memory, and i do not think you fairly
appreciate the difficulty the average mind d
rspled II t'i Is mn5'r not meno!y t is
work. + will venture to say that l have
spent ten times as much time On spelling
as you haye.': Comment is unnecessary, except
! to assure you on my honor, rs a man and
! more
Let US now inquire definitely
| why THIS DIFFICULTY
and this want OF success. We have seen that 3
truly phonetic system requires as many chasae-
tcrs or letters us there are sounds heard In
speech. III tho English language fosty-one or
forty-two sounds are used, but in our alphabet
arc only twcnty-sIx letters, and three Of these
arc redundant (c hard is K, C soft is S, and ! is
Isl. Tvcnty-thrce letters, then, are all we have
for over forty sounds. Attcast eighteen sounds
arc without signs; and to get themselves be-
fore the eye they must borrow those OF others.
Great loss and confusion necessarily result
Still. toIcrahlc approximation to correct rep
with this alphabet hy assigning two sounds to
the same letter as far is necessary, leaving the
reader to detcrm,ne by its connection in use
| which was intended ly the writer; or, better
to the unrcprcscuted sounds. In this
way our written language might he
made nearly enough phonetic to answer
very well all pFaetiea! pnosc*. II each letter, and
t each combination taking the place OF a letter, al
! ways stool for the samc sound few simple rules
would render our spelling easy and natural.
no ser Of
scented in several different ways, but every snund
that has its letter II perpetualy gcttns itself rep:
| combinations. For instance. we dnd thc sound Of
q represented in each Of the following ways, tThc
words in parsnthesis illustrate the spelling>;; ly
| O (od}, oa tboat). oe (foe}, ow flow, oh (oh>.
| owe towe). ct folks). Oh tsonl), 90 {duor>. vi
| tdepot> os (coloene). CIV {scw}, ough though.
Tie 1seaup. an {EsanmsuS, ', sc Is iswsrdS % ans {hant
boy1. aoh tpharaoh). Thc sound OF long We ina
SPELLED by t1nc?, &c tscc) ca tcat), e tconccit,
ie {sriese, ae {cmsar, oe (phGni1}, vi {mosquito}
eiR lseeeint,, iI,t.t nay lqaay); ,,.,,
are the worst All the yowels are "surpassina
rich - in the number Of dresses in which they
permitted II appear in public. might give you at
Of short II; Of what is called Italian thirteen
OF broad u; ten Of long i, twentyo Of shurt i;
seventeen Of short Z; and 50 on through the entire
list OF vowel sounds In no case do know or
suppose that my observation has covered the entire
/ list; and have not in any case included in my
To- .a h1ss ts e in o n al b .
| middlc Of the word or last syllable, Us in such
words as home, fate, pine, leave, believe, etc.
This would add large percentage to the numbers
given:
go bad, but It's badness ought to satisfy the most
ardent lover Of anarchy, as single illustration will
show. We find the sound Of II represented by Ii
tpln>, ne tdone}. m unn}, nne {caycnne>. in tba-
FINN 5fart
ku (kuock>. aud sn tgnat).
THOSE WHO HAVE EXAMINED THIS MATTER
CAREFULLY
say that the number Of different combinations
with te singe letters. used in the spcllin. ot sin
Elt sou uda. exceeds 800. My own observation ha.
Covered about 25U Think OF it! An uIphabct OF
800 characters, But tins docs not half tell the
stoEy; for almost every letter and combination
represents more than one sound. and many OF them
in tue words yea. year. heat. head. heart, earth,
guinea: Of . IN ulote move. moi nor SON: OF j in
mild. pin. police, bird: Of In fable, fat, far.
In faet. our spelling is perfectly lawless. The
moment we Try to reduce it to rule VIC find the
ceptions numerou. that the rule is worthless.
and abandon the attempt in disgust anu despair.
1t IL a,ncnablc to neither rule nor REASON. Let
ask few questions: Why bu, one , in copy and
One One in ply and two in dltiy. One i in Control Control
and two in enroll! One in lizard and two in
lizard! Ono in clef and two in clitf? Why one ]
in propel and two In foretcll. and two with in
gazeller Why an 0 In prison and none in prism:
Why a al the end Of ones thumb and none in
drIm WY ca IT, speas and &C. % IN speec9 Why
0 IN touch and none in much? Why ou in scourge,
in urge, i in dirgc. and in merge! Why in
time. to one sound Of in either word' OF what
use the in play the in people, the in beauty,
the o in you, the W in how the e in foe, thu in
schism, the in true, the in plague, the b in
doubt? but there is no end to the questions
we might ask These are but SAMPLES. and easy
der wonder! II two spells two, why will no. !
d-w-o do' Let us transplant few more spelngs. /
very ign; come f-o-l-k-s can colks; do not ]
k-1l-o-w why We spell ksow; on his t-o-n-g-n-e |
the sound ronguc; how does o-p-a.q-n-e taaue? |
eis-h-t is hard 10 rccciEht; i-n-d'i.c-t is quiet
polict; a-i-s-l-e should make smuisc: c-a-l-f |
might make one lalf; and la is too funny BY
!5e peG q sat aa BE
will dough; for We have had e-n-o-n-g-h OF such
siough.
1t would seem as il every. thoughtful observer
must admit that spelling is an
ABSURD, USSATuRAL, ILLOGICAL, UNREAsoN-
ABLE, AND CONTRADICTORY coNTRlvAScE.
In photography we are On houndless sea with
rents. eddics and whir:poola bescr us on every
hand. One difficulty mastered helps little or nunc
abont the next, Memory is about our sole ret-
spell. and adults are always questioning their
spelling and ever aud anon manipulating the lexi
ess wod r m
must spell 1t to pass muster, for every word may
be written in many different ways. For iliuetra-
ton. SUPPOSE we have OCCASION 10 write the SIM ]
pie word rninbows, with 10 guide but analogy; let
US what questions may arise, The initial
sound We find represented by ifar), re {are} IT
{morigage). r tbuEs> rps (corps), wr twritc}. rh
{rilyme), and rrh {myrTh). The second sound we
End spelled by tfamc>, at {aim), ny {day), aye
(aye;,) 40 (gaoll, ag tchampagnc), ,ltete}, CO
!Es egh and and sish sGSa4asi 1stfsigls;
found spelled in thirteen different ways. For the
hrst sound OF the second syllable need perhaps |
decide only between and bb; anu then make
choice Of one Of the twcnty-pne spelings OF pre-
sjously eircn: which will bring to The dnal
sound. and set us to choosing among {zone), zz
(buzz} ze tsize}. tas> IS shussy}, cs {thicvcs},
&c toiseasc,, ce tsnhicc}: sp .t1aspbeEry), and K
[heanx.) After due deliberation we might per-
the being appended partly to indi-
cate hat after all pains the correct spelling is
When teaching school many years ago at Su-
,artown. aswcei little village in Pennsylvania. l
used to spell the name OF the town thus:
shoulgueyuhphthoughkn This spelling Is
justified analogica1ly by the following words:
sboulld, rotgue), mtyrrh). tphtb>isic, ph{ough),
[kniow-
How many times have you been Obliged to refer
o the dictionary to ascertain whether to spell it able
or ibe! aud perhaps then You found II ebie, as In
'clebfe, while it is bc ndelible It would take
# this little sutli1 alone. Hc world be furnished |
10 less task in words ending With tho syllable |
,eard ia wntef. dollar honor, 1nuEinur, fakif and
hcatre: and after he had ucni0rized all words OF |