Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1886-09-11
TIE ABsURDITIEs OF THE DICTION-
ARR.

-N'I-i'ct EFdn>, an accom- Ilshel
scholar, one who knows all the "rules"
which grammarians throw at the heads Of
-eiorm philologists as g reasons for the
Inconsistencies of the English language
has the courage to admit, in the Current,
.hat our method Of spelling is a miserabiy
intricate and unreasonable system. Sup
pose the "ruIesn do recitc the use of
towels and consonants in q myriad of
permutative relations? What of it? Who
ether than pedagogue or a devoted liter
airy scholar is expected to keep them in
mind, and who can give good sound,
logical reason for half of them, or indeed
one Of them? The truth is, they are
despotic, dogmatic and absurd, and we
clap our palms in plaudits that one scholar
has the courage to rise superior to them,
and admit the folly of our spelling. She
says good part of her life was spent in
memorizing long lists of words commonly
mispronounced," and now after ten years
experience, she wants to give the result of
i all. And this recital proves to be very
interesting. 1T was of no use to her what
ever; it was lost time, it was wasted en-
ergy. Hear her: If any acquaintance
of mine is the wiser for my having by this
means learned that heinous is pronounced
hanus, and coadjutor coadjutor, that NOUS
cache is moostahch, crupper crOopper, and
game, gap, and that while mall is properly
sounded NAL Pail Mall is pei mel, let him
hold up his hands. Most people mispro-
nouuoe these words innocently. | do so
deliberately, and for the simple reason that
| am, 10 a certain extent, sensitive to ridi-
cule.' That is to say, this good lady
believes the mass of Engli,h-spealling man
kind is right, and that if she stands by the
rule she will simply Isolate herself as a
curiosity. So she will go with the swim"
And She is right, because with few ex-
. ccp;ious the swim moves in the right d.
rcciion. Thus, all the world knows that
cement, a mineral mixture, should be pro-
uounced seH-ent; vet ninety-nine men out
Of hu dred who make, buy, sell, and Use
cement pronounce it see-meat, and will
continue to do so despite the Iexicosraph-
eIs and pedagogues. Mrs. Evans says she
applied once for teachers position, and
was examined before Board. BY adher-
ing TO the rules she would have proved her
right to hold her diploma but she would
certainly have lost the place, she thinks,
had she told the Board little story in the
following language; " As a mail agent in
the Far West was riding along the root, he
saw squeerei in tree, at hite OF twenty
feet; He raised himself in his steerups
and shot ii: then he stopped to dine with
q family sunk in the depth Of sluaylor
and had nothing for dezzart but corn bread
and seerup." She asks with comical scri-
business if any one ever heard jeweler
call the stone on which canoes are fire.
quently cut onyx, as Webster says lie
should. Does the jeweler sin through Is
noranee or conformity" So, we adj
vised that even the descendants of the
Pertains are mainly unaware that
It Is Thanksgiving, not Thanksgiving
and that few young ladies who delight in it
venture, however well-informed to say ice
cream, or dare to speak of the waxy bells
of the fuchsia rs fooksia. The Current
thinks these repentant confessions by oil
teachers may after a while have due effect
The New York Times, on the same subject,
points its finger with ineifable scorn to
paragraph in the preface to the edition of
Webster's Dictionary OF 1882, and it reads:
1t seemed necessary, first of all, that
these new principles and methods should
be applied in the entire revision of the
etvmologies of Dr. Webster by scholar
Who had made etymology hisspecial study.
In 1854 arrangements were made with Or.
c. A. f. Main, of Berlin, Prussia, to I'M
dertake this task" And DR.. Mahn. of
Germany, became and remained the mont
tor, umpire, for the chronology of the stand
ard dictionary of the English language. As
the Current puts it, a prussian has been
our main authority for saying, Rice of
the Dutch Republic, instead of rise The
need for revision Of our dictionaries to
make the rules" conform to reason is