The Portland daily press., 1882-01-18
The Spelling Reform,

The promoters of reform in English spell
ing, who have their headquarters in St.
Louis, at the office of T. r. Vickory, pub
Usher of that paper with the odd-looking
name, the "Fonetic Techer," are making
appeals to the journals of the country to
further their object by adopting the follow
ing rules: l. Omit 'a" from ''e" when pro-
nounced as "e'' short, as in shed, helth,"
etc.; 2. omit silent "e'' after short vowel,
as in ''hav, giv," etc.; 8. write ''f'' for 'ph''
in such words as 'alfabet, fantom,' etc.; 4.
when a word ends in a double letter, omit
the last, as in "shal, elf, eg," etc.; 5.
change "ed'' to ''t'' where it has the sound
of ''t,'' as in '1asht, imprest," etc. Over a
hundred journals, they say, are guided by
these rules. The Chicago Tribune is per-
haps the most prominent converter per-
vert, if we choose TO regard the change as
detrimental Instead of advantageous to writ
ten English. The Tribune, we believe, goes
beyond the deviations from standard ortho-
graphy given above, and discards silent end
ings. like the "te'' of "tte,' the "me" of
'mme," and the ''ugh' of ''ough." The
ultimate object of the enthusiasts is pho
netic alphabet which shall have distinct
sound for every letter and distinct letter
for every sound. But recognizing the TACT
that this change necessitates new printing
characters they refrain from pushing their
premise to its logical conclusion and con-
tent themselves, for the present, with the
innovations indicated above and with re-
commendation Of the immediate adoption OF
the following eleven words: Gar, catalog,
definit, gard, Civ, hav, infnit, liv, tho, thru,
wisht., They urge that these words call
for no new letters, change the appearance
of the old words but little, convey no doubt
as to meaning, and can be easily used by any
printing Office OF writer.
In support of the changed spelling are
found respectable authorities like Prof. w.
D. Whitney, of Yale, President Barnard, OF
Columbia, Prof. Childs, of Harvard, Prof.
March, of Lafayette, and William T. Harris,
of st. Louis, and on the other side of the
water, Max Muller, Skeat, and A. FL. Sayce.
The English indeed go further than the
Americans and urge for rhyme, rime; for
ache and anchor, axe and ankor; for could,
coud; for receipt, receit; for aisle, allie; for
scythe, sythe; for scent, sent; for once. onse;
for cinder, sinder; for debt, det; for trouble,
truble; for journey, jurney; for women,
wimen; for choose, chuse; for govern, guy
ern They also insist that iland is better and
more historically correct than island; SOW
erin than sovereign; loren than foreign; de-
lit than delight; controller than comptroller;
glamer than glamour; hole then whole;
agast than aghast; dout than doubt; fain
than feign; and so with long list. But
until the English can be brought to discard
the superfuous SUI in 'humour" and
"splendour'' and words of that kind, little
hope can be reasonably entertained OF the
success of innovations or restorations like
the above. In this country the outlook is
much more hopeful for the spelling reform
ers, and there is strong probability that
some of their suggestions will be generally
accepted.