The progressive farmer. [volume] (Winston, N.C.) 1886-1904, 1891-06-16
EDUCATIONAL.

REFORM IN SPELLING GEOGRAPHIC NAMES.
1t is certainly a long step in the right
direction that a competent committee
has at last been chosen from scien-
tIhc bureaus at Washington to revise
geographic names, and present to u
publishers OF maps and textbooks, and
to the public generally, a system of
nomenclature which will correct the
present extensive evil. The first bulle-
tin of the Board on Geographic Names.
appointed several months ago by the
President, has just been issued. 1t
contains 226 names, a large part of
them relating to Alaska, whose
photography has been particularly
confusing. The executive committee
of the board is charged with the thor
ough investigation of all questions
relating to photography, and is expected
to consult authorities and to make use
OF all the assistance it finds anywhere
available. The result of this investi-
cation with regard to any name is re
pOrtedt to the whole board, dadecisiOn
is reached by vote. The principles the
board has adopted for determining the
form of geographic names are largely
those which were formulated several
years ago by the Royal Geographical
Society of England. The aim is to
have the spelling give an apprOXima-
ton Of the true sound of every name.
The novels are pronounced as in Italian
. and the cOnsOnantS as in English, with
one or two exceptions. SC" for in
stance, according to the rule adopted
by the Board on Geographic Names, is
always soft, and has nearly the sound
of s. Here T q few examples of
the most conspicuous changes that
appear in the first bulletin of the board:
Barbados for Barbados, Bering Sea
for Behring Sea, Chile for Chill, Haiti
for Hayti, HeIg0}dnd Island for He'll
goland, H0ngEOng for Hong Kong,
Hudson Bay for Hudson's Bay, Kan
erum for CAMERON, HODgO for Congo,
MdSkdt for Muscat, Ouch for Dude,
Pri65ZOf island for PribylOv, Mt. Rainier
for Mt. Tacoma, Tristan dU Cat3bd
Island for Tristan d. Acunha. It will
be observed that some of these revised
forms have been employed by the best
and most careful authorities for a long
time. While, on the whole, the syS-
tenn adopted by the Board of Geo
graphic Names conforms with that of
the Royal Geographical Society, it
goes a little further. Under the Eng
llsh rules no change is made in the
spelling of the names in languages
not written in Roman characters which
have become by long usage familiar to
English readers. Thus, while the
English rules specify that sc" is
always soft, and should be pronounced
like &c" in Celebes; yet the English
make many exceptions to the rule, as.
for instance, in Calcutta, Congo and
Mecca. 1t is hardly probable that
words in such common use as Congo,
and sanctioned in this form by long
service, will be changed to KongO, the
form the Germans use, by ourmapand
textbook makers, or that our news
papers will readily adopt the proposed
change. 1t might have been preferable
if the board in its decisions had omitted
from its list of proposed changes words
so familiar to English readers in their
present form. This may be said of
Hayti, which the board renders Haiti,
undoubtedly the preferable spelling,
though the more common form is still
in use by the best English authorities,
and probably will not be dropped
GOIdthuGite's Geographical Magazine
for February.