New Ulm weekly review. [volume] (New Ulm, Minn.) 1878-1892, 1880-03-03

How 70 Spell.

w SsSA~A SAA0 AAAOAVSAOssA.\tOAVO SSV
its recent session in Newport, and 80
said the Spelling Reform Association
at its still more recent session in Phila-
delphia. It is easy enough to show
that an alphabet in which every char
acter represented one sound, and one
only, would save something like twenty
per cent. of all the money that books
and newspapers now cost; but that
does not by any means bring about the
change, nor is it likely to do so at any
time. In the first place, the human
eye likes what it has become accus-
toned 70, and it would require very
peculiar circumstances to induce a man
OF ordinary literary tastes to read h
book, or even single page, of the un
recognizable stuff that the spelling re-
faurmers'' write. 1t is useless to say
that this offensiveness would wear away
by use, for the use is just what very
few would willingly accustom them.
selves to. In the next place, most En-
glish words, and especially those which
are reckoned Of peculiarly objectiona-
BILE structure, indicate. by their form,
something of their derivation and his
tory, and thus to the scholar become
full of interest and of delicate shades
of meaning. The history of the En-
glish people can be traced in it's Ian.
guage and in the forms its words have
assumed. and when the Pathological
Society OF England completes its pro-
jected work, upon which it has been
engaged for twenty years, of making
dictionary of all the words which have
ever been in use in English literature,
showing as accurately as possible the
date of the appearance of each word in
the language, with the changes in form
and meaning which it has undergone,
and also the time of the disappearance
of such words as have become obsolete,
then, indeed, will the words as they
are so shown become most interest,"
ing and instructive study. It is easy
To see that the phonetic system would,
if carried out, substantially abolish the
English as written language, and put
in its place a new language made up
from spoken sounds precisely as John
Eliot constructed written language of
the Natick Indian dialect two centuries
and quarter ago; and as Cyrus Bying.
ton constructed written language for
the Choctaws in 1925.
Writing words according 90 thei,
sound is no new idea in this country.
1t was one of the multitudinous sub
jects to which DR.. Franklin gave some
attention. On the 18th of july, 1856, he
wrote to Mrs. Jane Mecom, from Phil.
adelphia: "You need not be con.
cerned, in writing to me. about your
bad spelling; for, in my opinion, as
our alphabet now stands, the bad spell
ing, or what is called so, is generally
he best, as conforming to the sound
of the letters and of the words. To
give you an instance. A gentleman
reviewed q letter in which were these
words: Not finding Bro,on at hon,, /
le/svered your 'aeseg to his yf: The
gentleman finding it bad spelling. and
therefore not very Ineligible, called
his lady to help him read It. Between
them they picked out the meaning of
Ill but the yf. which they could not
understand. The lady proposed call.
ing her chambermaid, because Betty,
says she, has the best knack of reading
Dad spelling of any one l know. Betty
came, and was surprised that neither
Sir nor Madam could tell what yf was.
Why says she, ~ spells sUife what
else can it spell?' And, indeed, it is d
much better, as we'll as shorter method
of spelling Vife than doubleuou, I, eff e,
which in reality spell doubleyfey."
Noah Webster, before he got to work
1T his dictionaries, and while he was
instructing young ladies and gentle
men in Connecticut "not only in the
common arts of reading, writing anc
arithmetic, but in any branch Of AGA,
lemical literature" for the low price.
or board and tuition, of "frOm six to
line s!lillings, lawful money, per
week." became an ad vocate of the pho
aetic plan, and printed some pieces in
hat style in one of his school reading
cooks. When he grew older and knew
more Of the language he seems to have
given up the thing as system but
perhaps traces of his studies in tina,
direction may be seen in his earnest
'tforts to simplify and make uniform
the photography of many classes OF
words. ..- -'=n
A standing obstacle to phonetics is
the fact that there is no such thing as
making permanent written language
according to sound, because the sounds
are constantly changing, and are never
entirely uniform over any considerable
district of country. How long is it
since the proper pronunciation OF
laughter was dafer, and after was
called ohter, and oil was aie, and Join
vas .jiee, and search was sarcb, and
clerk was clark? These are pronunoia-
ions which prevail mostly among H.
iitera,e people at present, It is true.
1ut they, and thousand more like
them, which have passed out of vogue,
have all had the support of the best
usage in their time. The lower orders
of people always take their pronuncia.
ton from their betters, and they pre-
serve it long after the betters have
changed 10 some other. But suppose
everybody undertook to write accord
ing to the present sounds given to
words. Take the common word chair,
to illustrate. Most educated Americans
would write it chare, with a as in hare.
some gentleman in Virginia would in
iicate his pure English descent by
writing it cheer, and q South Carolin.
ian. If he wrote as he pronounces,
would make it chnyr, with a nearl y as
IN late. Hearth would be hs1rth in one
olace, hdrth in another, haerth (ae as
The French in perez in another, and
he fiat old English hath in another.
Early would be urly, and aerlv, and
eirIy, and arly. All these pronuncia-
tions can be heard among American
born people of English stock in Cook
County. So, until the speech of men
can be reduced to absolute and perpet-
ual uniformity, there is little prospect
Of any radical and sudden change in
our method of spelling words. Chicago
Int r. Ocean. ~
AJURY. says Baron Huddleston. an
English judge. can award three kinds
OF damages: First. what are some
what wrongly called vindictive; next,
contemptuous, to mark the iury's sense
of the action; and, lastly, the middle
kind, which are supposed to carry
costs.o