Brookings weekly register. (Brookings, Brookings County, S.D.) 1898-1903, 1899-03-23
SPELLING WASTES.
CONVENTION OF THE PHiLO-
LOGICAL ASSOCIATION.
College Men Favor It-Trying to Get u
Bill Through Congress to Do Away
with Letters Not sounded-It Would
save Time and Money. 3

American Pathological association.
And it 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 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 74,500,00O 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 illiteracy of our
people; that it involves an expense of
hundreds of millions OF dollars an
nually for teachers and for writing and
printing superfluous letters, and that
it is an obstacle in many ways 20 the
progress of t>e education Of those
speaking the English language and to
the spread of the language among 9TH
er nations. Francis II. March, LII. D.,
L. II. 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 representative: 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 It in preterits and
past participles."
The position of the association and
what it hopes to accomplish are clear
ly stated. Professor March SAYS:
There are 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),
| programCme),' 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 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 Wyclifte
Bible 'axide' asked, 'blesside' (bless-
ed), 'kisside' (kissed), 'fillide' (filled),
'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--ode
Qoved); 'lyfode-ede,' 1ifde' Qived);
'demed,' 'demde' (deemeO; de- was
the significant part Of the suflx, 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 tc
final consonant of the root a new
illustration Of the law Of least effor,
appears. Whenever the final conso.
nant of, the root is surd (p. {, C, X
IS, K, tn, as In thin and, later, Z
sh, ch), the d OF the sufix changes
to 't'-'slaept' Slept, 'cyste' (kisD. II
requires a special adjustment of the
vocal chords to utter ID a sonant
after surd, and to neglect the ad.
justment turns "a into t.. But shortly
after the time Of Wyclif the final e
OF the preterit and participle dropped
and the sutfix 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 T. Is as old as the
language" Prof. March says the
| printers are responsible FOR a pood
part of the lack of progression. "Tht
printers want only one spelling fol
any word" he declares. ''or any gram,
matical form, and their influence has
been against the 't's.' The real speech
the speech as pronounced, has beer
setting In the opposite direction, and
the long forms Of the preterits and
participles are no longer heard except
In a few words ending in ID sound ol
t. sound, like load unite after
which t. or d could not be heard
| aIope THE cenaratiop hatuaap thx