The pioneer express. [volume] (Pembina, Dakota [N.D.]) 1883-1928, 1899-03-24
SPELLING WASTES.
CONVENTION OF THE PH,Lo.
LOGICAL ASSOCIATION,
College Men Favor It-rrying to Got a
BIN Through Congress to Do Away
with Letters Not sounaed-It Would
Save Time and Money.

Anu IL says so emphattcally. While
the country is being asked to exercise
Itself and grow heated over the dis
cussion OF reforms in police depart
ments. aldeFmanic 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 small class Of citizens, not q 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 74,50O,OO0 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 it describes as an evil.
Inc 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 illiteracy of our
people; that it involves an expense of
hundreds Of millions of dollars an
nually for teachers and for writing and
printing super1uous letters, and that
1t is an obstacle in many ways to the
progress OF tie education of those
speaking the English language and to
the spread of the language among 9TH
er nations. Francis H. March, LII. D.,
L. H. D., professor of the English Ian
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: 1--WE
are urging the adoption of gradual re-
forms, mainly the dropping of silent
letters-especially of final e. and the
change Of ed to t. in preterits and
past participles."
The position Of the association and
what 1t hopes to accomplish are clear
ly stated. Professor March SAYS:
There are a good many authors and
publishers who would be glad to follow
our advice, but think we have given
them too much Of it. They want some
simpler beginning. Lists of bad words
ike though tho). through (thru,
'proEram(me).' 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 a 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
ular verbs are two syllables longer
than they are now. In the Wyclifite
Bible 'axide' asked, 'blesside' (bless-
ed). 'kisside' Ckissed), 'illide' (flled).
'passide' (passed), and 'walkide' walk
ed) 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 'ide' were free
ly dropped. Some early verbs have
'ade.' some ode some. 'ude,' some
'ede,' and in some the vowel before
de- is absent-'lufade-ede-ude-ede'
Qoved; 'lyfode-ede,' 'lifde' Qived);
'demed.' 'demde' (deemed); de- was
the significant part of the suf1lx, and
the law OF least effort led to the weak
ening and dropping of the unaccented
vowel before it. But when the vowel
Is 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 conso-
nant Of the root is surd %, t, c. k.
SIS, x, tn, as in 'thin,' and, later. Z.
sh, CHI, the d. Of the suflx changes
to t'-'slaept' Slept, 'cyste'' (kist) It
requires a special adjustment Of the
vocal chords to utter d. a sonant.
after surd, and to neglect the ad.
iustment turns d. into It.. But shortly
after the time Of Wyclif the final 'e"
of the preterit and participle, dropped,
and the sufix was largely drawn into
the final syllable of the stem. Thus
we have a number of preterits and
participles in modern English ending
in t. in which the It. is as old as the
language" Prof. March says the
printers are responsible for a good
part OF the LACK Of progression. "The
printers want only one spelling for
any word" he declares, t4or any gram
matical form, and their influence has
been against the 't's.' Tho real speech,
the speech as pronounced, has been
setting in the opposite direction. and
the long forms Of the preterits and
participles are NO longer heard except
in few words ending in "a sound or
t. sound, like load unite after
which t. or d. could not be heard
alone. This separation between the
spoken language and the written Is
deplorable." One Of the pioneers In
the reform movement was Julius
Charles Hare, fellow Of Trinity COL
lege, Dublin, in 1919, afterward arch
deacon Of Lewes, prebendary of Chi