, 1877-05-12

likely to succeed with Engll3a, a Iah-
cuage, which, from It's complex history,
presents perhaps greater difficulties il
this regard than any other. Aud besides
the difficulty Of the problem itself, they
have % meet the objections Of English
scholars, who are universally opposed to
all phonetic schemes, the very rugged
ness of the language being cherished by
them, as speaking eloquentiy Of the
past. Advocates Of the change rest their
cause chiefly on phiIanthropic grounds; it
is said that learning to spell woulJ be
so much easier if people were taught to
write as they pronounce. Archbishop
Trench in his "English Past aud Present.
says 1.-The anticipation Of this gain rests
upon two assumptions which are tacitiy
taken for granted, but both OF them
erroneous. The first of these assumptions
is, that all men pronounce all words alike,
so that, whenever they come to spell d
word, they will exactly agree as to whar
the outline Of its sound is. Now, we
are sure men will not do this, from the
fact that, before there was any fixed and
settled photography in our language, when
Therefore everybody was more Or less a
photographer, seeking to write down
the word as it sounded 10 linn TOR he
he'd no other law TO guide him). the
variations of spelling were in6uite,''
The Archbishop then proceeds to give
some striking illustrations he had met
with the word Sudden" 8pelt in no less
than fourteen different ways by early
writer's the postmaster Of Woburn had
made from the superscliptious Of letters. a
collection of PA varieties of ways of spell
ling the name Of that town. Speakiag of
the latter, the author remarks 1T mav be
said that these were all or nearly all from
the letters Of the ignorant and uneducated.
Exactly SC: but it Is for their sakes, and
to place them on a level with The clu-
Gated, or rather to accelerate their edo
cation by the omission of a useless vet
troublesome discipline, that the char ss is
proposed. / wish to show YOU That after
the chsnge they would be Just as much, or
almost as much. at Il loss in their SPELLING rs
now The writer then gees on 10 lis
second point {" And another reason witch
would make it just as necessary to learn
photography as now, IS the following pro-
nunciation, IS ! have already noticed, is far
too subtitle a thing to be more t}ap apnroxi-
mated to, and indicated in, The written
letter. In multitude Of cases the Difficult
ties which pronunciation presented would
be sought 10 be overcome in dilfefent ways,
and thus different spelling, would arise !;
or, If not SO, one would have to be arbitra-
rily selected, aud would have need to be
learned, Just as much as Tie spelling Oft
word now Lss need to he learned." The
author might have made third point, by
noticing (,iat much bad spelling arises from
general ignorance, and cannot he put down
to the account OF the language. The wri-
ter Of this notice received a few days since
a bill for the repair Of "a couard door"
acupboard door being Of course meant.
Had payment been asked for a cab5urd dor
there might have been something to say
for phonography but what can we do
with d" cou0rd door"
We will close with Swif's argument quo
ted in the same work as used against the pho
nographers of one hundred and fifty wears
ago. "Another cause " hich has contributed
not a little to the manning ofour language,
is a foolish opinion advanced Of late wears
that VIC ought to spell exactly as we speak;
which besides the obvious Inconvenience Of
utterly destroying our etymology, would
L. a tbin0 yxa sh0uId novor - a - on