The Wheeling daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1865-1903, 1880-01-06
ENGLISH SPELLING.
The photographic Curiosities of the
lsnguage---Eesult Of a Blend
Ing Of Races.
Original Derivation of Words...saellc and
Slavonic Influence OIL the Anglo.
Saxon Tongue.

Slavonic influence on the anglo
Saxon Tongue.
The noble literature OF the English Ian
guage has tempted many a foreigner to
try to acquire it, but the number Of those
who succeed is not large. Those who at
tempt it are Infatuated, are driven we'll
nigh to madness by the extraordinary, the
apparently inexplicsble vagaries of the
spelling. Monsieur Tonson, o the young
Alvarez, when he come across such q
word, for instance, as nigh, pronounces 1t
mig, with a strong cultural terminal, and
looks in the face OF his tutor for applause,
which, however, does not arrive, for the
latter points out that in that particular
word the Oh is not sounded. Whereupon
the pupil, alter e%xhausting the vocabulary
of his own language, falls into u slough Of
despond, and ultimately refuses to pursue
any longer studies SO inexplicable, so
peculiar. Nor need we laugh at the victim
OF our genealogical devices, for the booths
in reality on the other leg, and the shame
rests with the Britons, who are unable to
reform their spelling or 70 account for its
eccentricities. When a little girl asks her
governess why laughter is not spelled
latter, or why raiter is not spelled rdughter,
the i~nstructress is dumbfounded, and has
not a word OF explanation to give;and, in
deed, more competent authorities than
the poor governess are equally mute be-
fore such questioning. The men who
write in reviews and public books upon
the idiosyncrasies of the English language
have noticed these vagaries OF spelling and
pronunciation, but have given no clew to
them. They infer, and would have you
believe, that this license Of spelling came
from the untrammeled liberty of the
British citizen; that the British mind, UNI
shackled by court-instituted Sorbonnes,
developed in various ways those
IRREGULARITIES OF ETYMoLoGY
which are alike the despair OF the for
eigner and the literary quicksands OF the
English self.made a To spell well the
Englishman must commence the practice
early in life. At the tender.age OF @ he
must begin to frequent the cheerful spell
ing.bee, and he must, in the shrill accents
of infancy, trace the devious convolutions
NJ may consonants and novels. Even
then, unless he possesses a retentive menu
ory, he cannot hope to be a speller. In
fact, there are many highly-educated men
who have never acquired the art, so that,
TO quote from old Dogberry, ito be q we'll
favored man Is the gift OF fortune, but to
smell comes by nature" And all this be.
cause the English are proud Of their short
comings and disdain 10 be as other folk.
There is n potent reason why an Eng
lishman, not even a Quarterly Reviewest,
is capable OF explaining the mysteries Of
~etymology. He assumes concerning. his
origin something which not emily Is not
true, but which prevents him from COM
pretending many things in his own
tongue. He believes himself to be an
AngIo-Saxon, o term which is wanting in
precision, and though comprehended by
the few is in itself a source OF error TO the
many. He supposes his speech to DO
AncIo.Saxon, and believes that whatever
words in It are not Anglo'Saxon
arc either Norman. and came
in with William the Conquerer, or are de-
rived from the Greek and Latin. He has
never entertained the most remote idea
that there were other elements in his
speech, and yet It is to these unsupported
clements that all the confusion Is due.
The fact is that the Angles and the Saxons,
and the Frisians, who came to England IN
small parties, and, after first harrassing 1t
practically, seized and occupied it, pre-.
cisely as the Danes did in Normandy and
IN ENGLAND
itself, north OF the Humber, were not the
most considerable part Of the population,
nor could they be. They were few in
number, but they came upon a population
that was disguised with its W civiliza'
ton and eager to adopt a new one. They
came upon a Gaelic population that had
been semi.Romanized: that had lost It's
hold upon Gaelic ideas, and notthoroughly
adopted Roman. The wild pirates whom
the Romans termed SaXons and Franks
came to England when II was at slack
water between the ebb and the flow. Be
fore the pear OF conquest was ripe In
Britain, and opportunity Of plumber and
mower came to the confederation OF rest
less men inland, and they streamed into
France and established the Nerovingiar
dynasty. There the population had beer
far more thoroughly Romanized; ant
hence the strangers slowly conquered
and abandoned their own theotisc. Blu
in England the Gaels could make no suct
stand Tor Gaelia as the Gaels In France
did for Latin; and the consequence wa
that they adopted the tongue Of their con
ouerors, which was a dialect Of the nobl
, theotisc or Gothic. But, being In ma
! iority, they nodded 1t imperceptibly IL
the pronunciation Of the Termination,
. And when, at the Renaissance period
literature broke from the converts and be
= came the heritage OF all, this molding pro
cess became visible for the first time; 70
: me monks had hitherto written in Latin
/ which, after the Norman conquest, rC
placed the dear old Anglo.Saxon. TIL
population OF England spelled Englis'
AFTER their lights, and, as these had re