Wausau pilot. [volume] (Wausau, Wis.) 1896-1940, 1902-01-14
wisconsin" Humor.

The Milwaukee Evening Wisconsin
has attempted humorous article at
the expense of Prof. Karl Mathie, on
account Of the latter's advocacy of a
modified form of phonetic spelling.
The humor of the article is confined to
an attempt to initiate the Josh Billings
style of spelling. Josh, however, got
humor into his sayings. They would
have been witty if spelled according to
the dictionary. Bad spelling alone will
not make writing humorous. The Wis
consin article, though it may have
missed the mark in that respect, con-
tains considerable inadyertent proof
that Prof. Mathie is right 1t proves
this by showing that the writer does not
know how to correctly pronounce some
fairly common English words. One of
the greatest evils of English spelling is
its tendency to mislead us in our pro-
nunciation. Here is an illustration in
point from this humorous attempt of
the Evening Wisconsin: The Wiscon-
sin State Teecherz Assoshiashun." Now
suppose that the word association were
spelled "assosiashun," as it should be
pronounced, the editor of the Wiscon-
sin would not be making that blunder
in pronouncing the word. He would
have learned the correct pronunciation
of the word in learning to spell it.
Here is another break He thinks the
editurz will be with him when tina get
thare pedagogy at the skoolhOws.
Hware duz he think enybody gets ped
agogy kept thare 90 Here the writer
shows his inability to pronounce the
word pedagogy, for elsewhere he uses
the letter j to repsesent the sound OF
soft G. What little attempt the article
makes at argument is quite puerile. 1t
says that Mir. Mathie liz a good fello
and brite minded, but he IL also yung."
Later on it says: Mr.. Mathie is not
an old man." We see nothing in this
unless it is some proof that the other
Milwaukee dailies are not quite wrong
in bestowing upon the Wisconsin the
nickname of granny"
Referring to Mr. Mathie's query: 'Is
it any wonder that it takes our pupils
two years longer to learn to read
English than it does German pupils to
learn to read German, language that
has simplifed spelling?' The Wis
consin's editor naively remarks: per
hapz he IL rite and perhapz the German
pupilz have better teecherz. There ar
too ways of looking at that" Now
was inanity such as that ever exceeded ?
The idea that one can learn to read
German so much more easily than
English because the German teachers
are better! Why every one who has
studied German knows that it is just
because of its phonetic spelling that
one is able to learn to read it without a
teacher. And here is another almost
as silly: but how IL it that the Eng
fish langwij is speeding over the wurld
so much faster than oiherz, if it is so
fundamental defektiv ?" Three-fifths
of the worlds commerce is carried on
by English speaking people. The other
two-fifths is divided among the Ger
mans, Russians, Scandinavians, French,
Dutch, Spaniards and Italians. This
condition would compel the more rapid
spread of the English language, no
matter how hard it is to learn it. 1t
comes within the catalogue of things
that must be had, although they "come
high" 1t is an additional reason why
the spelling of the language should be
simplified