The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1902-12-07
BAD SPELLING.
Writer Enters Protest Against What
T He Calls "AbominabIe Methods

To the Editor of the indianapolis Journal.
1t grieves me UNNECESSARILY that so wide
awake a paper as the Journal should at
tempt to bolster up the almost obsolete no
ton that bad spelling is indicative of bad
scholarship, measuring spelling by stand
ards that once were authority. The liter
airy world has already moved far away
from that notion, and ii is moving farther
away every day. OF course, reforms of
that kind move slowly at first. and those
who advocate them are squelched by call
ing them "cranks," but you know what
Truth does when crushed to earth. The
truth is that no man lives or ever has lived
that can defend the abominable system of
spelling now in vogue, if anything so es-
sentially unscientifc can be called a sys-
tenn Quoting college presidents signifies
nothing. They proverbially the last to
keep up with the procession; they never
lead; but. calling themselves conservatives,
they always play the part of wheelhorses
whose speciality is to hold back. Three
quarters of century ago, and much later,
they used Comstock's Geology as a text
book on geology instead of Lyelrs. because
Lyell insited that geology taught the earth
must be more than 1000 years old. Now, on
spelling give me the kindergarten teacher
rather than the college president, and the
high-school graduate who knows more
about other things, though less about SPELL
ing. than the country schoolboy did fifty or
even twenty-five years ago. Good spelling
indicates good memory, and that is all,
and nobody is most always right except
typesetters who follow spelling for living
and every composing room has one or more
well-thumbed dictionaries in it, lest, after
all, the typos may be at fault.
1t is wicked to bet, else 1 would bet ten
to one that not one Of those college presi-
dents can tell how to spell $50 If given out
to MIN at a spelling bee. He may come
within three of it without asking what kind
of a so" it is. but whether to say SO or
Sow. or Sew is what no man can tell
without first knowing its connection. No
more can he tell how to pronounce read
until he knows its connection. 1t may be
reed, or it may be red, and so on through
the whole book. This is downright cruelty
to children who are learning to read with
out first learning to SPELL as all the children
in public schools will do before the end of
this century Take. for instance the sound
OF the letter % 1t is designated by more
than half dozen combinations of letters
There is plain o. as I'm so; then in about a
half-dozen words by o-u-g-h as in dough,
H., s
In beau then in scores, by o-w. as in snow;
then in several by o-e, in toe; then by
Gu, as in bouquet; then by g-h-o, as in
ghost TO make the case a greater outrage
these same combinations have several other
pronuncfations. Thus, o-u-g-h has the
sound of 90 in through and the sound of
uf, in tough; and e-a-u has the sound of
e-u in beauty, and so on to the end of the
chapter Not one of these college presi-
dents tell how any given combinatio
or letters Is pronounced unless he sees it in
SURROUNDINGS nv
hours of study than he spent on an impor-
tant problem In geometry. But it is not in
striking instances like these that one is
liable to be at fault; it is in the use or nom
use Of silent letters or double letters. Who
can tell why m-o-n-e-y should spell mummy
and there should be no in puny? And
why should the scholarship of the profound
mathematician be disparaged because he
stumbles In the use or nonuse of these?
The truth is that not many profound
mathematicians ever are good spoilers.
But. says the pedant, we must preserve
the origin OF words by preserving the SPELL
ing. Nonsense. Only the snob attaches
vital importance to his pedigree. Nobody
because he was descended from an Irish
peasant family, and no one ever thought
any more of Mr. York because his ancestors
belonged to the House of York. But this
is not the worst No man can know how 70
pronounce a word by the way it is spelled
that an unusual word coming suddenly
into use is liable TO be mispronounced An
instance of this is fresh A few months ago
the occupation of grave robbers began to be
talked about. These are called ghouls. But
who knows whether they are gools or
wrongfully gowls. II Is the fault of the
abominable spelling Telegraphers and
ts Same e SOUND he to
people should have the same privilege. Life
is too short to waste years upon learning
how to spell.
The reform is well under way. First.
the dispara ging of not smelling as a school