Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1880-03-26
Ir in Sir.

Professor March. OF Lafayette Col.
lege. author of biological Study of
the English Language" Anglo.Saxon
Grammar" etc., is writing series of
papers on the subject of reforming
English orthografy. He publishes in
the Independent October 16) a very
conclusive answer to the editer of the
New York Observer, who inconsiderately
ventured short time stree to rid;cule
fonetic spelling as absurd and incon-
sistent. Professor March demonstrates
that our venerable contemporary needs
t. enter the primary class to learn the
first rudiments of the real science of
orthografy. Professor March takes a
single example in the present chaotic
system, the sound of H. as in sir. and
shows the immense saving to the world
that would result from the application
of the fenetic principle:
The fact is that each of the ten
thousand aud more words in which
this sound occurs has to be separately
fixed in memory. Every one who
learns to write English spends hun.
dreds of hours in trying to accomplish
this feat. Many persons whose bust.
ness makes accuracy necessary-teach-
ers, for example, sand proof-readers-
spend months in trying to fix these
spellings and in verifying them. There
are, doubtless, such persons connected
with the Observer; but it is safe to say
that no one of them editor, contribu-
tor or proof-reader-has mastered all
the words. Every man of them would
go down ignominlously at the spelling
bee. Sooner or later word would
come which he could not tell whether
to spell with ar, or, ar, or, ur, yr, ear, re
or something else. Now, the time
spent in this effort is pretty nearly dead
loss; if the sound were always spelled
with the same letter it would be saved.
But it is much worse than lost. The
language is full of this kind of irregu-
lar and inconsistent spelling. Other
sounds are just as bad as this er, ir, ur,
or whatever you write it. The sound
of a in fate is represented in six differ.
ent ways, that of in meet in seven, O
IN no in eight, u in true in nine. Count
ing all the combinations, there are
more than two hundred different ways
of representing the elementary sounds.
Into the midst of this chaos children
are plunged when they first 90 to
school, and they weller there for years
or lie astonished on the oblivious pool.
A few, it is true, have sort of TO.
togra6c memory, and can recall wildly
and easily any visible object they have
once set eyes on. They can spell, of
course. They keep at the head of
their classes and bear off the honors at
spelling matches, and are heroes all
through the primary schools on the
strength of their spelling. To such
persons spelling has pleasant associa-
tions; but most of us learn the little
spelling we know by most painful ex-
periences, by painful infections and
notifications year after year. We
thumb through half dozen spelling.
books atschool and sit with a dictionary
at our elbow the rest of our lives.
Millions of year. are lost in this way
by each generation. The reform OF
English spelling is fully recognized as
one of the most important matters of
the educational department of social
science. Heaven has bounteously
heightened out the life of the Observer
to behold the success of many reforms
it will doubtless live long enough to
adopt a reasonable spelling of the Eng
lish angaage.--Home Journal.