Arizona republican., 1904-02-20
PHoENIx. ARIZONA. FEB. 20, 1904.
Names in the Far East.

Newspaper re ders should not take It to heart if they are unable readily to| ,ronounce the names with which the teIecraphic news from the Russo-Jap- anese war is burdened. O. if they find the names of people and. Of places printed in many different ways in the papers. For the truth is that there exists no rule by which these names shall be spelled or pronounced, from an American standcOiEt.
 It is dispiriting, of course, fer a read CT to run head-on into mars of jagged, impregnable names in follow ing the Russian and Japanese opera tions. but the situation might be worse.
 The New York Tribune Dettinently suggests that the war in East Asia is preferable to our old friend the war cloud in the Balkans in one respect. namely, of the names it involve. Tu k ish names were not particularly bad, nor Roumcnian. but those of the other lands and Decrles involved were liter ally unspe kabIe. Fer what mere An Clo-Saxon tongue can do justice to name which written displays enc vowel and sixteen consonants. and spoker- re sembIes nothing so much as three coughs and d sneeze? In East Asa there is. Of course, some incursion of Russian barbarities Of speech. But, the Tribune points out, so far as Japan, Korea and China are concerned, all is pretty easy writing and speaking. after all. Short nanes, abounding in melo- dious vowels and liquid conson,ntg, make the local nomenclature a thing Of beauty and a joy.
 In SO far as the names in question ere at all perplexing. the circumstance is due to outside perversity. The vari7 Orum editions Of some of the simplest and most musical names are little short of distracting to even the most philo- sophie mind The seesaw of "Corea" and Korea" We can endure, through long hlbituation. But what shall be said of the name of the capital of that country? We were brought up to write it Seoul" But some of our neighbors persist in spelling it "Seul." Others aver that Soul" is the only proper form. Still others are satisfied with nothing but "Sw." And now here comes an estimable authority with the assurance that we shall not know sal walton unless we write it "Seyool" In such case, what are we to do? Call it "Constantinople" and go on to the next word?
 We'll the next is Manchuria What! Oh, well "Manchooria," if you please or "ManchOuria," # you prefer: or "MaHtChuria, if you like that better; or "MaRtchoorie,' if you insist upon it.; or "MantcSouria," if you won't bo hap py until you get it. All six forms are in use, and, for al we know, half a dozen more. Then there is Moukden. There are those who regard with pity those who know not "BIukden, and also those who are prepared to maintain "Mc0kdcn" against all the world. Nor does the AmcOr escape. Some insist that it is the Amour" while others with equal confidence proclaim it the "Amur.' Of course, too, there is the Yalu' or YalOo; and also the Sungari, or Soongari; likewise Chefco, CT Chifoo or Chefu, or Chifu: not to mention To- kio' or Tokyo, and Fusan, or Foo-San. and-but that way madness lies.
 lt is probably useless to protest against such vagaries. There is nc positive authority upon these names. since the Chinese and Japanese origin als are. not spelled with letters. but Q are expressed with ideographs. Each man will insist on interpreting them as he nleases; and cur elastic language makes it possible to express the same souRd with "oo," or "ou." or long "u. 9 Where however, such possibility of df- Vers'ty exists, with substantial indiffer. enee among the various forms, it is q great pity that uniformity cannot be aTr7eed upon .Ind stuck to. When in. world Rad for many years been accus toned to write Seoul" ard when that form expressed the sound of the native rS'fe as perfectly as any combination of English letters could express i. where was the good in inventin:
 Seul,' and Soul" and "Sul." ant
 Se"ool'? Granted that these also ex press the same identical sound witt equal exactness, they do it nc bette than the old form did and does; an, there Is no use in disearding an old anc famlliar thing for a new and strang
 one unless something is to be gaine,
 by the change,