New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1891-09-20
Il NEW LANGUAGE.
SWEEPING CHANGES PROPOSED TO FIT
ENGLISH FOR UNIVERSAL ADOPTION.

NJ ENGLISH. A Proposed simplfed English Ian
guage for Home Use and for International Com
merce and Travel. BY Elias MOlee, Phi. D. PIP. 81.
Minneapolis
Those who wish TO get an idea of the way Dr.
Moce's revised and simplihed English would sound can
do so in measure by listening to the italian street
vendors in their efforts to make themselves understood
in unfamiliar tongue For OF the most salient
characteristics of his system Is the artificial addition Of
vowes to English words in imitation Of the Latin and
Romance languages. This contrivance is supposed TO
meet lone-fclt want In the way OF euphony. But
the whole hypothesis about the comparative euphony
Of various languages IS an absurlity. DR.. MOlee ad
duces the standard accusation against English that it
has TOO many sibilants. That charge was first pre-
erred by foreigners aud, though often reiterated 1t
would probably be hard to find an Engllshman or an
American conscious Of the defect Any language Is
euphonous to the of those born 10 it. The Eng
sh sibllant is offensive than the everlasting
sch' in German, the buzZng nasal of French or the
u that makes ordinary conversation in italian sound
Ike the drbbe of small shot through a sieve
DR.. Molee endeavOrs to make apparent need for
the changes he proposes by emphasizing not 10 say
cxaggerating tho difficulties Of English both to native
and foreign students A large proportion of these
disappear with the bad methods Of teaching that caused
them. One Of the difficulties he alludes is the I'M
phonetic and arbitrary modes of spelling. But the
fact is that person who not learn this art would
spell incorrectly words formed by the strctet phonetic
rules. ANY one VINO mas had experience In reading
manuscripts knows that the perssently bad speller
has rules for himself and will write the same
word in the same line two different ways 1t is true
DR.. Molee says that language is purely conventional
and that any one may contrive system Of speech
If he get Others to it, but this is also true in
a sense, of the whole social fabric and even OF re-
ugiOn. The fact that language IS conventional makes
IL indispensable that 1t should meet universal not
partial acceptance within given This universal
acceptance means far than the acquicscence Of
single generation; il is process continued from
generation TO generation, adopting the conventional
instrument to the needs of those who use It, Thus
every word becomes the symbol of associations which
marred by a change in its form. If change I'm a
given is reluctantly acceded 10, then the word
must go through new process of incrustat0n with
memories thai make II familiar. 1t Is this feeling
which makes English readers look on words like
color" and "humor," spelled without the "u7 IN
the last syllable. barbarisms. The omission of a
single letter seems 10 them like dropping whole chap
ter from English history. Even in those numerous
where an ambiguity in spelling is allowed by the
rules an underlying psychological can be found
for the diversity. wcllknown man Of letters who
is extremely sOrtsighed and very sensitive 10 changes
Of color. has averred that grey" and gray call M
to him two distinct shades the one much darker than
the other. simply by reason of the
shading of the letters. For him one
shade of color would be taken out of the Ian.
guage by the complete suppression OF either form of
the word. The loss Of the aus In words ending in
or" has certainly resulted driving out of the Amer
lean consciousness the Norman element In these yords