The Press., 1888-03-01
{ Norwich Bulletin. ]
 EULAPUk.

The progress of Volupuk is one ihs it- erary sensati.'us of the day.
 The English language isi fnll of ortbo- aphicaI aud grammat, cal d,tfic llties. IL abounds with absnrdti'. x, contradictions, deformi'it and perplexiti-s. gentleman named Turner once gave an effective illus tration of some of these incopgruities when he wrote his name "Phth' being the ''1"' sound in the word "phthi- - ''Olo" being the ''ur" sound iu "col- onel ;" ign" being the 'n" sound in "ynaw ;" and 'yrrh" being the ser" sound in ''myrrh" Our language is philologi- cal hodge podge. Ii is made up of scraps of almost every dialt ct nnder the sun. There is no uniformity to it. Rough" is l pronounced ruff ;" "slough" is propounc- ed "slouw;" and through" IS pronounced "throo." How iA a foreigner to know when" "ough" means "uff, ""ouw" or "ooY | Great confusion is also caused by the same word meaning exactly contrary things. The man who has inst made his horse secure | to bitching post so that the animal can't budge says: My horse is fust :" while another man who is flying like the wind behind a two-forty trotter says also, My horse Is fast" When Frenchmau makes that di, covery how Is be to know whether the fast colors" in a piece of calico are
 
 grammatical forms are fendish. Tense distinctions are gradually becoming obht- erated. Mott people use "sung" for tn plst tense of "s!ng, and the dictionary que thorjzes 1t. "He sung beautifully" is a correct expression, although "He sang beautifully" would seem to be better Mode distinctions are also falling into disregard. How many persons follow Eff" with the proper form of verb? Such expressions as 'If he go to Europe he will sec the sights" or eff he were man he would stand up for his rights are most always rendered "If he goes" and of he was," etc
 But we have neither time nor patience to pick out all the faults of our language. Suffice it to say that it is so extremely diff fcult that only a handful of English speak CTS use pure English (such as it is) and it is the despair of foreigners who attempt to l learn it.
 There have been various efforts to reform our language, notably Tn the department of orthography, and the Spelling reform" has made a very small amount of progress. That there has not been more progress is not because there is no need for reform. The need is palpable one, and strong ef- forts are being made to accomplish some thing toward the simplifcation of the Ian guage. It was only this week that Repre- SODtdllNO WdLAOL Ol NllbbOuE1 lnlEOUuCSd III congress a bill for the appointment of a commission on reform in ortho9raphy. It provides for the appointment of three com miSsioners to report to congress whether there IS any practical system of orthogra- phy for the English language simpler than that now in use, the commissioners to be distinguished scholars, and be paid $25 per day.
 The mC st conspicuous movement of the times for language reforms is the Volapuk movement. This system, some of the prin- ciples of wh oh have already been publish ed ln this paper, was invented about nlne years ago by Prof. Schleyer, German lin- guist, and since then has won n great amount of popularity. Prof. Schleyer de. signs 1t for universal language, aud the study of 1t is making enormous strides in various parts of the world. Its adherents are numbered by hundreds of thousands and include men of high standing and scholarship who endorse it's principles ir full. It does not aim to be literary Ian guage, but to afford means of communi cation devoid of lingual and grammatical difficulties and capable of being mastered in few weeks.
 There are many who predict that this language will come into universal use. Per haps it will, and perhaps not. Language Is natural product and its growth Is al fected by the historical, hereditary, geo graphical and other circumstances of a na tion. It is almost impossible sometimes for people of one nationality to speak tho language of another because they are DO built that way. For example, notice how the Chinaman almost invariably substi tutes the 'l" sound for "r." He sayt ''vely' for "very," "Melican" for "Amer ican, etc. What American who has stud jed German has been able without indefat igable practice to sound the TeutoniC gutterals or the umlauted VOW, Is correctly And it is declared that nobody but borr Frenchman can give the correct nasal sounds of the French tongue. Professor March of Lafayette college, Easton, Pa. . points out a strong objection to Volapuk when he notes that the universal language starts off with the umlauted vowes a, ( and u. (There should be dots over the ( and u, but The Bulletins type wasn't built for Volapuk.) There is a good deal oi German in Volapuk, and it will have to be simpGfied before Englishmen can screw up their tongues, hps and courage to tackle it. 
 Champion shsrt Hand Writer.
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