The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1900-06-20
or
ENGLISH LANGUAGE
idiosJ ncrasies OF Our Tongue
Pointed out by }. +. Davis
at Triacgle Club.

j. u. Davis delivered An i,,.~a.,,u
auuress before the Triangle Literary
oluo ut the Young Men Christian As.
ISOLATION han last evening on The or
thography OF the Eng ism Language.
Which In substance was as follows IT a
Spe"Nsr Illustrated his remarks by
means OF n blackboard and chalk:
The English language of today bears
littIe resuaoiaIce To the o,a Anxio-
saxon. AZ has 40 claim To ortpina.,,v
III iect. W ~ composite lang aa,s. hay-
,'s sfao1auy evOIved tro.n an uncouth
eo"sue lhto beautifdI language or
great wealth of expression. ine nres-
e,,OS OF so many words In our langu age
OF Latin, Greek, German ana Erencn
origin is directly traceao Q To- the ,nf,u-
ence OF the languages spoken bv many
OF the Inhabitants OF Britain at Various
periods
The Roman invasion, migration of
herman settlers In the fifth century
anu later the Norman conquest all con-
.rinuted To make the language what II
rs today. But II IN not OF the language
mat purpose To speak tonight. but OF
us photography. One of the Character
lSuc features or the English language
IS the incongruity of its spelling. The
fundamental principle of a written Ian
g..
is, To express words as they are sound
ed. The English language does not do
This. Why3 Because IL can't The al
phaoet was never constructed to ex-
press the language as we have IL TODAY.
with the result that our present or
tnography ~ nothing more nor less than
absurd. IL Is an almost lncredib fact
that only one word in "A thousand in the.
English language Is spelled the way II
~ pronounced, and that therefore in a
dictionary OF $4,000 words only fifty
would be spelled Theoretically correct.
Let me demonstrate some of the pecu.i-
arities and Inconsistencies OF our SPELL
ing. Take. for instance. the letter "a.
This vowel represents six different
soun, I'm the words mat, mate, father
many. fall, want. and this same sound
OF "a Is represented I'm ten different
ways In the words name. pay. pain.
great, veil. thev straight. weighed.
reign, gauge.
1T might well be asked, II. as is very
evident. the spelling Of our language is
In need OF reform. why has not such re-
form been undertaken. Well. such a
reform has been attempted. Spelling
reform was advocated as far back as
l540. when Sir John Cheke and Sir
James Smith In England pointed out
the Inconsistencies of our irregular or
biography and urged a reform. The
same cause was advocated by Bishop
WI kins In 1865 and by DIR. Franklin In
I76S.
cor later years numerous changes
have been Euggeste,.. Particularly our
old friend Webster mad some very val
liable suggestion which were embodied A
I In his dictionary some sixty years ago.
\ OF these I might mention the best
known; The elimination OF the useless
vowel "a In color. labor. parlor. etc.
also the substitution of err for re I'm
L no o1 ~
the useless e in AK. and the substitu-
ton OF pillow for plough, and many
others.
Five or six years ago the United
\ Pathological Societies OF Great Britain
and the United States made a number
81 valuable suggestions. all OF which |
cannot enumerate. but Give the follow
ing as specimens: Change OF &C. TO IS
ia side. pence. thrice, etc: PHI to f
in sulphur, phantom, etc; CHI to TX
Ia architect, monarchy, etc.
/ Some OF the changes recommended
by this society were embodied in the
STANDARD Dictionary. recently publish
ed. But chief among modern reformers
Is the late Isaac P1tman. who In 1915
published mis- system OF phonetic writ
ing and printing and established the
Phonetic Society Of Great Britain, OF
which 7 have the honor OF being a mem
Der.
The beauty Of the phonetic system OF
Pitman Is its simplicity. II Is divided
into two sta~"s. the first stage being
nothing more nor less than an adapta-
ton OF our present spelling. giving each
sign It's proper sound. The second
stage II the compete system. necessi-
tating the elimination Of useless letters
like c. Y, q. x. etc. and the addition al
thirteen new letters. (These letters ne
lcessitating the use 81 special type can
not be here expressed). There Is M
question about the need Of reform In our
spelling: the only question II as to the
practicabiIity OF Its adoption at the
present time or IN the near future"