The silver star., 1899-03-16
SPELLING WASTES.
CONVENTION OF THE PHlLo-
LOGICAL ASSOCIATION.
College Men Favor It-rfying to Got n
nii Through Congress to DO Away
with Letters Nut sounded-lt Would
Save Time aud Money.

Spelling reform must come, says the
American Pathological association.
And 1t says so emphatically. While
the country is being asked to exercise
itself and grow heated over the dis
cussion of reforms in police depart
ments. aldermanic boards. street car
companies. trust legislation and the
question of the eternal feminine too
little attention is being paid to the
subject of spelling reform, in which
not a small class of citizens. not a Sc
lect few from a certain walk in life.
not the members of an individual
community, but every man. woman
and child in the United States is deep
ly interested. The 74,500,000 persons
in this republic, say the officers of the
association, are all directly affected
by the proposition to reform the man
ner of spelling many of the words in
daily use. The association Is trying to
get bill through congress which shall
correct what 1t describes as an evil.
The statement is made that the irreg-
ular spelling of the English language
causes loss of two years of the school
time of each child, and is mainly the
cause of the alarming iliteracy of our
people; that 1t involves an expense of
hundreds of millions of dollars an
nualiy for teachers and for writing and
printing superiluous letters, and that
il is an obstacle in many ways to the
progress OF the education of those
speaking the English language and to
the spread of the Language among 9TH
er nations. Francis II. March, L. D.,
l.. II. d.. professor Of the English lam
guage and comparative philology at
Lafayette college. Easton. Pa. is at
the head of the movement. and with
him have been actively associated Min
ton Warren of Johns Hopkins, Gle
ment l.. Smith of Harvard, Abby
Leach of Vassar, Herbert Weir Smyth
of Bryn Mawr, Professor Platner of
Adelbert, Professor West of Princeton.
and Professor Wright of Harvard. In
discussing the subject Professor March
said to Herald representative: I'VE
are urging the adoption of gradual re-
forms. mainly the dropping of silent
ietters-espeeially of final e. and the
change of ed to u in preterits and
past participles.'
The position OF the association and
what ii hopes to accomplish are clear
ly stated. Professor March SAYS:
There are a good many authors and
publishers who would be glad to follow
cur advice, but think we have given
them too much of 1t. They want some
simpler beginning. Lists OF bad words
like though ttho), through uhrm.
'programtme).' are only skirmishers
Rules are wanted which will apply to
many examples-rules based on some
phonetic law of frequent operation.
Dropping final e is such n rule. which
has been widely accepted. The changes
of preterits and past participles of
our verbs suggest another and per
haps more interesting rule. In the
early English the preterits of our reg
MAR verbs are two syllables longer
than they are now. In the Wycliflte
Bible 'axide' asked, 'blessde' (bless-
ed. 'kisside' kissed. .fliide' (fllen
'passide' (passed). and 'walkide' walk
edD are familiar examples of preterits
OF three syllables now of one; AN
sweride.' 'perischide.' 'apperide.' and
'worschipide' of four syllables for
merly, but now OF two. The unac-
cented, weak vowels in 'lde' were FREQ
ly dropped. Some early verbs have
'ade.' some ode, some udc.' some
'ede.' and in some the vowel before
de- Is fade-ode-ude-ede'
doveD; 'lyfode-ede.' 1ifde' OiyedD:
'demed.' 'demde' tdeemed: de was
thu eiUniflcnpt p.rt NJ H. an
the law OF least effort led to the weak
ening and dropping of the unaccented
vowel before 1t. But when the vowel
IL dropped and the de comes next to
final consonant OF the root a new
Illustration OF the law of least effort
appears. Whenever the final copso-
nant OF the root is surd (p. I, c. X.
81. K. tn. as In thin and, later. 1.
sh. CHI. the ID Of the sunk changes
to t-'slaept' Slept. 'cyste' (kisO. II
requires u special adjustment Of tho
vocal chords to utter a. sonant,
after u surd. and to neglect tile i'd
justment turns ID into T. But shortly
after the time Of Wyclif the final e.
Of the preterit and participle dropped,
and the SUNK was largely drawn into
the final syllable Of the stem. Thus
We have a number Of preterlts and
participlcs in modern English ending
In u In which the u Ii as old as the
language" Prof. March says tho
printers are responsible for q good
part Of the lack Of progression. "The
printers wnnt only one spelling for
any word" he declares. 'or any gram
maticai form. and their influence has
been against the rs The real speech.
the speech Ms pronounced. has boon
setting In the opposite direction, and
the long FORMS Of the pretcrits and
particIpies nrc no longer heard except
in . few words ending in "a sound or
- sound. like load unite after
which - or "a could not be heard
alone. This separation between the
spoken Language and the writtcn IN
depiorabie." One Of the pioneers In
the reform movement was Julius
Charles Hare. fellow Of Trinity COL