The Black Hills union. [volume] (Rapid City, Pennington County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1889-1904, 1899-03-24
SPELLING WASTES.
CONVENTION OF THE PHlLO-
LOGICAL ASSOCIATION,
College Men Favor It-Trying to Got .
Bill Through Congress to DO Away
with Letters Not Sounded-It Would
Save Time and Money.

And it says so emphatically. While
the country is being asked to exercise
Itself L grow heated over the dis
cussion of reforms in police depart
ments, aldermanic boards, street cal
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 deem
ly interested. The "A, 500, 900 persons
in this republic, say the officers OF the
association, are all directly affected
by the proposition to reform the man
ner OF spelling man OF the words in
dally use. The association is trying to
get a bill through congress which shall
correct what it describes as an evil
The statement is made that the irrer-
ular spelling Of the English language
causes a 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 superluous letters, and that
it. 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, LII. D.,
l.. FL. 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 a Herald representatives: eve
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 participates"
The position Of the association and
what 1t hopes to accomplish are clear
ly stated. Professor March v
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
like though (tho), through (thru),
'program(me),' are only skirmishers.
Rules are wanted which will app]y 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
u 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 Wycliite
Bible 'axide' (asked), 'blesside' (bless-
ed). 'kisside' (kissed), 'fllide' (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
EIDE and in some the vowel before
de- is Observation-Disclosures
Qoved); 'lyfode-ede,' 'lifde' Qivedl;
'demed,' 'demde' (deemed); de was
the significant part Of the sufix, and
the law of least effort led to the weak
ening and dropping of the u%naccented
vowel before it. But when the vowel
is dropped and the de m next to
a final c%onsonant of the root a new
illustration of the law of least effort
appears. Whenever the final conso-
nant of the root is surd (p, t, c, k,
SIS, Y, tn, as in 'thin,' and. later, t,
sh, ch), the ID Of the sufix changes
to 't-slaept' Slept, 'cyste' kist. 1t
requires a special adjustment Of the
vocal chords to utter ID a sonant,
after a surd, and to neglect the ad-
justment turns d. into t.. But shortly
after the time OF Wyclif the final e.
Of the E~'eterit and participle dropped,
and the sutfiX was largely drawn into
the inal syllable of the stem. Thus
we have a number of preterits and
participies in modern English endins
in t. in which the t. 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, cor any gram
NAUTICAL form. and their influence has
been against the 't's.' The real speech,
the speech as pronounced, has been
setting in the opposite direction, End
the long forms of the preterits and
participates are no longer heard except
in a few words ending in ID sound or
t sound, like load unite after
which t. or ID could not be heard
alone. This separation between the
spoken language M the written is
deplorable." One of the pioneers in
the reform movement was Julius