, 1879-08-12
OllTliOGRAFY.

40 Wt jst%AVF He 4Hpe-HtHHA6F HHt4 H"7
ltshtrs Ge,.efa'v: Permit mo to ocupy portion
Of the space Ia yonr next iaue uron subject ot
great interest to al who vii cir It scr,us ttlot:
a,,tl, that what I say may be Illustrated rs go
along, uraT let your compos!tor "!olo copy III
al particulars.
The language which nc. ns Amcrcans+ use In
Our dally intercorse Is condemnation, born ot
vartuB tonges md astmilatlnr Gu niles words
from form sorces. Tho oFtaoErnfy which pre-
wallis Is as ynsus IA the sorecs from which the
language has cum; md mora than hui the time
Of our ch!tlreu's school-lfc Is devoted to
the acn,,lrencnt Of tt,e art Of so.coied correct
smelling, and, usually, With very Indifferent sucscs:
When Coxto,, tho first English printer, csayed
10 translate from ti,e French som "f tGa worke
whicl, hav mndo hts maine 1ninus ior al tlme 70
con,, he bcwaetl the snlenraof Ills "EnElyslle,"
mud cnlcynred to polish I: by intcrcorsc Will tic
cort!ers Of tic king.
HAs printing proercst.h saws the lion. Joscph
Atcltll, In llis esay on fonoFrnphy Wriettn Sonic
dozen vcars nEu, ut was found to bc ilconycn-
lent 10 snc the Fainc word III several wavR o'i
thc same paee: tut ther was no dictionary, or
other ortnograac Standard, to setIe tho con-
lick: pyouf.renIess atld cofnposttors wer the
yelitcnl 10 folo the manuscript letter By Letter; 1t
was easier to ndupt one form ur ncnrIy one form
ot spelling word. a,nl to pix up the types "
memory: proof.Feaders encouraged uniformity
tnr tSf tic as asa'y Of aeat es ''3s' s5se% sa ''"
epcllng gradually worked it's way
Iuto printed books. But the printers did not
fec, at liberty to spct bY sotl1ld. or 70 utn the
letters which inost, ncaEly proaust tue word;
thcy therfOre struck an a.trdTe aulonE tue vi
RUS modes Of spelling found In the manuscripts
II a particular. diaGraf or difthnnG was found
,uoro frequently usc.l than another. thcy wer
mt to atiopt It. II popular n1nn rote hook.
the proofreaders w,id civ Ills orthografy Of
sun, words tho preference. Anu as printing and
publishing wer confined to few establishments,
mostly In London, SON ktnd Of uniformity was
Instituted In the orthografY, aud new pub)ishcra
folo tho orthografy, more or les closely, Of thc
establisft Louses.' "Thc. agc Of lexteografy
cau1e to tho MD OF the proof-rcadcr. to which llc
clnng likr sheet anchor In 1870, Dr.. bullo-
ker publisht 1l}4 English ExpositoE.' explaining
tho meaning md giving som sort Of osthoErafy
to 1850 words. Another dictionary of hard
words was pu1lfaht In 1850: third IN ll59, DY
nepl,ow OF Milton. But Nathan Batey's
genealogical Dictionary, In 1121, was tho rst
atcmt to glv complete collection u TO settle
prrlor to nj n.l.ers combined IN l1ng tic extor-
mi forms OF words III settling their meaning.
But tho great DR.. johnson followed the proof
renders method OF spelling. and simply setl7u
many disputes among thetl BY choosing the one
Tint vas oldest or worst. The orthUgrafW Of TIC
I,q'o- Sa1on par. Of our lanq"dqd has thus no
hicr HttrdrV authority than tho tcaf'ns aud
N{F{tGfhtiCS " FFUO}-{fHHEFd H&A t4}E-a[tEfA
Alctllt might llny aletl that, from the ttuc OF
Cnxtou TO TINT OF DR.. Johuson, tier wcr few
cfprts made to flnd ooter methods or to sis,,-
pifv our 0rthografy: the uselcs labor Of spelling
words with uutnerus Silent letters was con-
ttnued.
Our own cnntrymnn, Noah Webster, cnucv-
orcd to reform our orthogrAfy to a limited et-
tynt, by ndautlng or Elvn, prefcrGnc to tic
si,lplrr forms which bcgnn to creep Into use; !;
uul he even invented new systctn for stti fur-
thcr removing many Of the anomalies Of nar
smelling, Iil!s was to bu cfGctcd "by marks,
points, autl alterations OF the present c,arac-
ters" Later, Isaac r!t,nAn, OF EnEllti1, pre-
ecntctl fonotypic scheme, consisting vi forty
Characters twenty-tl,ru lctrrs OF the
nrcsent nlfabet antl at9ing seventeen new u9os
Many advanced thinkers harttlY ahdorst Mr FIT
,nans scheme, u,d MI Aucrlcan convention
wellt stll further u,ll AIDED thrc uore letters to
the aifAbDt. Bouks mil newspapers wcr ptls,.
lisht In the fone.Ic tyncs; a1ns for tins t. d!d
really Bcem ns II we wcr going t. INV gennln
reformation. But Usage and tinlit, which hay
bccom sort Of second nature, took tho nlnrHs.
rAo new characters had iu nang instances
to be gncst at; uflu thc i1sAlnrty
OF the pculc wer too ndolcnt or too carelcs to ba
wiling 10 uig the little time md tabor necessary to
Masicr the new system. Preiut[ce was stronger
than principle, md the new reform seemed to
lnv almost died OUT.
But tt,yr sger crncsL thotful men still Mt work.
Ia L. Is4 $F1-