, 1881-05-14

remember lie lively co1nbats over t1e worda
ending IN our, and ::!ch when WebstoT
,,fSt " 81, gave as,, HI; authority II i, favor
!so sps,!ae a e;o e trst 1s'''%eee neeeard Tnf" !"
Tint centre Of Afassachnsetts, Witch IS TIC
ee,.tc q The nniyersc put out sgn lesterd
nhu sl,e! IT. viii, ierIsty shouts, anu plaster
the sIgn will mu1.hnIs In summer ana snow
na,s. nas I! wi,ter. Hut 'n,tstck !'aa now Fon
so,i TOO, ,Eeonomy Saskt BY & etymoloE9 nu, 1I'S
sccnld to demand these changes. Thc school
masters and the literary men, who control
re ue sls!l9ng, WITH the advice md eonsent Of
No. III 1t. md iiolu.r Ind 40 II In 1t.
:. This may teach us what words hr 1nnst
likely to bc changed next. They arc words
which hav tlsefes letters which ar
WRONG IN KTYMo1b0Y.
Tll0 greater part ut these nr Anp]o.Saxon.
spels But fifty years neo the lnen who knew knew
AI,nGioosa$ot,@ @ c9ad be counted on t1e fingers.
,"t'eo was st.died \ nnwicra IN ENGLAND or
writer's to tillate Upon the glorIcs Of tho
lhother ttng. nr grandmother tung, at
Mn.e,t .ey yk3 knew MT one word. The lexi-
worse sill. They gave currency to imaEin-
ary derivation. of AnKlo.Saxon English,
words from Latin and Greek. and .nisspelt \
them 10 perpetdate their plumbers. Thus the
y
1pntcr. was Imagined to be from Latin stly,.l1,
aud OH TINT bascles fancy a silent = was In
sHrted M, ~ 70 @ pressrv the memory Of the Latin;
Tha 2a }ra,E EnFi1s rte yss, as supposed
SR efss ny s o SfnsEaee ss ssytne' g e.sss was
thought to be from the root OF LRtin sctndo.
cou,paiions IL binnde1ins, scissors ind
ehoosc 10 spet the I'D Ensis,! ci,reie1. TUG
sas got,d old English wor,!!, lint our Latin.
uai, French fdn9rte, and they turnd It Into
tongue, An .AnglttSaxon scholar cnnnot
~: anch words q as these without I. protest.
And so AnsfSaTo Todnni sstlors Or becoming
grown IN favor within Tho last len ycars.
There nr few, 1t arly, nf our we'-tnnnd col
teEes without q corse It, It. and It IL fast
These ntyMologIcs ar bccqn.ing part Of the
cO1ntnonr!aces nf the schooi-roonl. They
llaY already reacht tho popular dictionaries.
Tic new edition Of Worcester, otr great COLI
ing, .-..-....
HAS THEM FAITHFULLY 1tEcoRpED.
Hand, for example. IS down In Its ilroper
place. and we nrc fold that 1t Is the correct
sat!r statementjs repeateti. with tic expla-
nation that the lias hcei ig,lorantly Inserted
thru confusing It with fstc, from t'as,tlt,. So
with rtnac. atsd sithc and oti,ors. 1t seems
ground mitch longer.
The same snay be said Of similar words,
the 4isgnlse OF whicltts not to be traced n
he l,atin L,i etyin9loE,st Thus the Of conld
1ronid al'd should the Is OF which con from
,giil md s',tlu. Tie 10 In ir1olc is Il pure
hlunder, VOID Of mnlice utorettoneht, bnt
heal, heaNh, ho.'v. IND weakens The slgntii.
cRnce of the h!,1e fanlIly. There Is class Of
wurdS ~ which MI nntotiettc and uretymo-
l1gfe +, llas been inserted: feather, fron!! the
Webster drew Mttentloa to these and spelt
them correctly, but there wer not len Anglo
Saxors iil America 10 sta,a by him. There
r. some ,s seventy c9Mnton % words in which ca
oucc. Readers Of old Englls!, whose eyes
nr lnade gln4 by the pages of Cll8acer. and
20 ks fssHu aff Thsrs s anoss
habit of tile erly writing which. may wei be
inorc, extensively used, that Of spelling ths
past tense and pnrtlclplB Of verbs
AS THEY Ar rlboSoUNcT,
writing t ilnnl when tint IL the sound. It
has always been th use, was olcc nnlyurHal,
and Is INV ngeil becotning .colnnlon:, leIsth
1nfrt, kit, sfrtckt. anl the like, cnn he used
!. by any author without embarrassing hlsr read.
Grs. T!ip teyiyn! Of gDDil Dlt spuIl1Xs COLI
onds Itself indeed to literary artists and
critics nf English literature rs MI nttructlv
trait. Tleru can l,e no student Of Shnkespera
who DOES not find that Mr.: Furnlyal's Intro
peculiar plqunncy and keeping trols his fire.
t,uent happy use nf thesr forms. They nr Il
sauca to his Eood m mwit, nor can tlley bo cnviate
to the general. The Interest ~, " thls kim! Of
clety OF Londun l,as been Induced by many
nppea1s 10 taku uD tic matter In ernest and
appoint 4 committees to report ippn IT, Ms.
sc''nlarslp in EngImld, has lately nade the
report Tic palntlat cnnlaiulng ftIs entitled
"psutal Corrections Of Ergiiah sfetn9s rec
onlended by tho Filutoglcu! SncLusy for lnnle-
of il. lnals up largely u lists Of Words to be-
amended. The great body of. tie uluent-
lnents proceed OH historical! or otymofogical
grounds. such rs hav been illustrated til this
Of silent letters. Silent G IL
THE GREATEST oFFENDEns
There ar sollthlnx like twenty counts in. the
Indictment against 1t, twenty lists OF speclh.
catlous, som 'f them long. The first at
as being used atter short vowel and slngj
c01,K0iant. 1t ls regularly IN orthogrnffo
expcdtcnt In SUCH position to denote i long
vowel; hHrc, for example, ought BY good
a,,d % tue !iks SO Qlvc: s!,oul!i rmc with htve'
There ar hosts Of suc. words: nlcdtct1s,
etst DO a' Taa Tgs' ta s T. ill., n & wors asm Il MeS 16
an Is simply, uselos, rs the length. Of the
preceding syllable Is p!a!n Without II, as IL
bcticrc. Vrfcue, where the difthong Shows
the lgnGth; or III cftrpe, 7lcruc, where tho
consonalits ar asufIlc|ont guido. It Is auvized
10 chnngu -rc to .er centre to center, theatre
To tleu,cr. With such backing this improve
Ism or d Webslerlsrn. Wo al to drop tho j OF
-ic In many wards, tlsscIbl tlEt, c0upE, beadi,
and the like, and III the examinations -1l,le,
t11e. allu tclc, as In 1rnlhlbt, crceifbt, arttcl
Il vii tAke US n long time to got rid OF al
those els.
Meantime we can be going on with
OTHER IMPROVEMENTS.
The biologists, or at least Mr.. Sweet, vii hav
that for tsopart and f9rn M tas oda.
Bc0l,ht1l should be U0nlatl. Tie unIi!storfcal
I of. parliament should he dropt. The old
English and old French4 shond be restord
1enitder, 1Dtlr7ll, and q long list OF words now
spatt witt. D. Tlie originally should he I'd.
stora in tptntch (womsn). A long list OF
n%ut'NE Nrtr.xt% r.