Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1883-05-26
SOME INTERESTING Coz sIDERATIoEs
CONCERNING A GROWING REFORM.

1t Is again becoming a prominent ques-
ton among public philologists, "Shall we
reform our system of spelling?" It is to
be said at the outset that it has been popn.
lar in the past to sneer at proportions to
introduce phonetic spelling, and the pho
netic reformers have been soorned and de-
rided for the past thirty years and more.
The difficulty has been that the phonetists
have nearly all gone to the extreme in de-
handing such radical changes that the
public sentiment has revolted But of late
years new school has developed, which
occupies the middle ground between ad-
herents of the present or historic system
and those who would force upon US to-
tally different alphabet This school pro-
poses no abandonment of our alphabet, but
simply to spell words as we pronounce
them as nearly as may be.
Now, despite all that may be said to the
contrary, every sensible man knows that
there is no reason for spelling fully one
third of English words as we do. Prof.
Whitney says the intent of alphabets is
TO furnish a sign for every articulate sound
of a spoken language, and the ideal is real
lied when there are just as many written
characters as sounds, and each has its own
unvarying value, so that the written Ian
guage ia an accurate and unambiguous re-
Election of the spoken. Now, words change
their spoken form, but our written forms
remain like unyielding brass. Prot. Whit
ney, nor any other, has ever been able to
give consistent and adequate reason for
the use of silent letters. They are simply
Che tyrannies Of our written language, and
it is generally admitted that our system is
full of arbitrarinesses and blunders of
every kind, chung to and extolled simply
because they ale old and familiar,
1t is perfectly safe to say, and every
parent knows it, that nearly one-half OF
the school life of children, up to twelve
and fifteen years of age, is recklessly and
cruelty wasted in the effort to warp the
child's reason to our defective spelling sys
tenn. That our standards of scholarship
should be gsuged by such system is re-
buke to our civilization. There is no
scholar in the land who has been able to
satisfactorily or reasonably explain why
the child should not spell gauge gage.
Max. Muller was simply in advance of the
age when he produced his physiological
alphabet, with all its errors. Professor
Whitney has improved upon it, and given
us physical scheme of an English-spoken
alphabet, based on true politics. He holds
that both ia writing and speaking words
we should give up such parts as can be
spared to the sense, thus making what is
left more manageable to the user. This
should be and is the fundamental law OF
the reform now going on.
For we cannot close our eyes to the fact
shat the reform is growing into strength,
insenlbly perhaps, but growing. Its char
acter is seen in the tendency to abbreviate
words in writing and to drop the silent
letters. The whole tendency is to ease OF
work and economy of time and money.
For instance, a well.known journal an.
lernces that by dropping superfuous let
/, sszz = less than twenty words there was