Sword and shield. (Clinton, Miss.) 1885-1888, 1885-09-05
SPELLING REFORM.

The object Of this paper is simply
to present in the language of distin-
guished men, scholars and statesmen,
the necessity for a reform of our
English spelling.
At the annual meeting of the
American Pathological Association
in 1874, in his opening address, the
President, among other things, said
cit is Of no use to try to charac-
terize with fitting epithets and ade-
quate terms of objurgation the mon
strous spelling of the English Ian
guage. The time lost by it is large
part of the whole school-time OF the
mass of men. Count the hours that
each man wastes in learning TO read
at school, the hours which he
wastes through life from the hind
rance to easy reading, the hours
wasted at school in learning to spell,
the hours spent through life in keep
ing up and perfecting this knowledge
of spelling in consulting dictionaries,
a work that never ends, the hours
that he spends in writing silent let
tiers and multiply this time by the
number of persons who speak the
English language, and We shall have
a total of millions of years wasted
by each generation. The cost of
printing the silent letters of the En-
glish language is to be counted by
millions Of dollars for each genera
ton. Yet literary amateurs fall in
love with those squintings and lisp
ings. They try to defend them by
pleading their advantage in the
study OF etymology. But a change
less photography destroys the mate
rial for genealogical study, and
written records are valuable to the
philologist just in proportion as they
are accurate records Of speech as
spoken from year to year. 2
In 1875, the President spoke as
follows:
"There are indications of increased
interest in this subject. The popu-
lar mind seems awake as never be-
fore to appreciate the difficulties,
eccentricities, and absurdities of the
present standard English GEOGRAPHY.
The remarks of Prof. March, in his
address to the Association last year
have been extensively copied, and
apparently meet very general ap-
proval. Prof. Whitney's discussion
of the question, How shall we spell ?
has helped expose the weakness Of
the stereotyped objections against
reform. Legislators are beginning
to look at the subject from an eco
nomic point of view as related to
popular education, and are consid-
ering how much bad spelling costs
the country per annum. The spell
ing matches which last winter be-
came epidemic, had their influence
by bringing more clearly to popular
apprehension the anomalies of the
current photography, and disposed
many to admit with Mr.. A. j. Ellis
that to spell English is the most diff
fcult of human attainments.
"Among scholars there is little
difference Of opinion on the real
question, Is reform of the present
spelling desirable? The objection
that reform would obscure etymolo-
gy, is not urged by real etymolo-
gists. Prof Hadley AYERS that our
Common spelling is an untrustworthy
guide to etymology and Prof Max
Muller's declaration that if our
spelling followed the pronunciation
Of words, it would in reality be of
greater help to the critical student OF
language than the present uncertain
and unscientifc mode Of writing, re-
ceiyes the nearly unanimous assent
of English scholars. Equally un-
founded is the objection that words
when decently spelled would lose
their historic interest. The modern
photography is, superlatively, unhis-
toricaI. Instead of guiding us to, it
draws us from the well Of English
undefyled.' The only history it can
be trusted to teach is that which be-
gins with the publication of John
sons dictionary"
At the international Convention
for the Amendment of English Or
biography, held in Philadelphia
during the Centennial, Prof. F. A.