New-York tribune., 1882-04-10
4 SUGGESTION TO SPELLING REFORMERS.
A correspondent puts to The Boston Journal the
following cOnundrum:
MR. EDITOR: Tall'me why colonel
Is spelled III styl" 40 infOlOncl!
Shed one ray Of light
L,u q. anrr.rs ftl v-igut
Who for y ears has subscribed for the

-,
Who for Years has subscribed for the Jo,onel.
We suspect that the propounder of this question
is merely n spelling rcfoTmer in disguise, and acting
on that assumption, we have a suggestion to sub
init to him and those who stand with him.
But before making the suggestion we may premise
that il strikes Us that this reform is plant of such
extremely slow growth that those who planted and
have watcred il must feel heartily disc 'uraged.
Up TO date the revised spelling, like the revised ver
sion OF the Bible, has not become at all popular.
Here and there a newspaper drops the nc at the end
of words like dialogue. where the preceding
vowel is short drops the final In
such words as definite, where the pre-
ceding vowel is short drops the final te IN words
like quartete and cigarette; drops the final me in
words like programme; and changes ph for fin pho
netic. philosophy, and the like. But the journals
that have adopted these innovations so few and
far between that their combined influence spell
ing refOrmers, however great we may assume 1t to
be- is when compared with the counter influence
of the newspapers which not spelling resormcrs,
but as the small dust Of the balance. 1t does, in
deed take but little leaven to leaven the whole
loaf but the leaven OF the spelling refOrmers will
have sensiby to increase in size before 1t can
leayen the current spelling of the Engishspeaklng
race. And now for our suggestion. Gentlemen OF
the American Pathological Association, why not
adopt resolution at your next annual meeting to
this effect
Resored That hereafter no member Of this Association
will countenance irregularities In adecilYes or verbs,
what they ought be- anenable to the rules which reg
ular aCjcctiycs and verbs obey
That this resolution is simply admirable must ap-
pear to every spelling reiormer upon moments re-
nection. They all present, as their leading argu-
mcnt in favor of spelling reform. that our language
as it now stands presents great and entirely un-
necessary nconveniences to those engaged i'll learn
ing 1t. Says of their leaders i'll a paper
advocating the reform: " The English Ian
guagc from the simplicity of its grammatical
structure would be one of the easiest in the world
to learn were it not for its ab0ninable spelling"
Continuing in this vein he protests against the IL
logical and tedious drudgery of learning to read and
write English spelt at present" Now we submit
to the spelling leformers that where one person
complains of the difficulties in spelling one hundred
become broken-henrted in attempting to master the
irregular verbs aud adjectiyes. The member of the
American Pathological Association who rises SUI
pcrior 10 the existing order of things sufficiently to
abandon rent and gone and to substitute
COED in their place for the past and
perfect tense of the verb to 30, or who resolntely
adopts goOder and goodest respectively as the
comparative and superlative f good will do more
to simplify the English language and make 1t meet
for the Inheritance of those VINO are to come alter
us than doz ms of his brother reformors who 90
further than "dialog" "defnit" quartet" and
program"
The innovation which we hint at invites adoption
not only on pathological but moral grounds. To
say that adjective verb is ire gular is to admit
that it is not what it ought to be. And if our aim
in life Is perfection in all things why should go
on year after year. decade after decade century
after century condoning irregularities In words.
when we have it IN power to cure
those irregularities9 Words are but the garb of
thought Thought is simply action in the making.
Who shall say that to make light of irregular,y
in verb does not make an irregularity in thought
and action seem less wicked than il would seem if
we remembered that it the first step that
counts"i
We urge all progressive spelling reformers to
ponder upon this suggestion of ours, confident
that the longer they regard it the better
pleased they will be with It, What un-
speakabIy grand thing it would be for
mankind If a meeting could be had of tho philOlog-
ical associations of every nation and Kingdom
der the sun, at winch by unanimous consent all ir-
regular verbs and all other irregular parts of speech
in all languages should be reformed into regular
verbs. Until such action is taken, in spite Of the
best efforts of the phIlologsts, the Tower of Babel
will continue to cast its balefu shadow upon those
who fain would learn to read write and speak cor
rectly.