The evening times. [volume] (Grand Forks, N.D.) 1906-1914, 1906-09-03
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= A STATEMENT ABOUT SIN. .
. pLlFIED SpELI1NG d

. PLlFIED SPELLING. .
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Much Of the opposition which every
Forward movement meets 10 due to
failure to perceive exactly what it's
supporters desire. This ia the case
with the movement for the simplifica-
tion Of English spelling. Many Of the
articles which have appeared in the
newspapers with reference to the move.
ment, and to the Simplified Spelling
BOARD. reveal serious misconceptions
and IN some cases complete lack of
Information. In order to clear away
these Misunderstanding and to sun
ply some necessary information, the
board calls attention to the following
facts:
1. The beard does not propose any
radical" or revolutionary" scheme of
REFORM, or any sudden and violent
change of English spelling. Any pro-
{. posal to upset suddenly and violently
the accepted spelling of any literary
language Is foredoomed to failure. The
BOARD does not intend to advocate any
modihcation of English spelling that Is
not temperate and reasonable. It Is
not In favor Of any freakish orthog-
raphy Of any kind, like the misfit SPELL
Ing of Josh Billings" and of the com
ic" paragraphers. 1t does not desire
to relax the existing rules and anal
ogies of English spelling. 1t desires
rather to make them more certain.
to extend them ana enforce them, so
as to get rid of needless exceptions,
and produce greater regularity than
now exists.
2. The boards chief aim, in view
of the fact that the English language
bids fair to become the world language
of the future, is to arouse wider in
terest in English spelling, and to call
attention to its present chaotic condi-
tion-a condition far worse than that
existing In any other modern Ian
guage. The board believes that when
the people who speak English are
fully awake to the many disadvant-
ages of their present spelling, they
will be glad to help every effort to
better it, as it has been slowly bet
tered, by individual effort, in the past.
3. The board has not yet proposed
any innovations of its own. 1t has
begun by selecting from the several
thousand words now spelled in two or
more ways, three hundred of the most
common, and 1t has urged the public
to adopt, now, the simpler of these two
forms, and thereby establish the prin-
ciple of simplification. It believes that
this is natural and easy first step
toward further simplifications, such as
have been proposed and accepted from
time to time, even in the nineteenth
century and within living memory.
Macaulay, for example, spelt phae-
nomenon, Thackeray CIPHER, and
Parkman engulph, although every one
now spells phenomenon, cipher, en-
gulf So esthetic and program are
now established, and catalog and altho
are certain to win acceptance in the
immediate future.
4. But the board will in due time
make suggestions of its own. 1t will
propose further simplifications of the
same sort. It will advocate the casting
out of certain letters which are not
sounded now, which do not affect the
pronunciation according to existing
analogies, and which merely cumber
the photography. This simplification
by omission is nothing new; It is a
process which has been going on for
centuries and which has given us to-
day. for example. almanac. era.
fantasy, public, and wagon, instead of
almanack, AGRA. phantasie, publick,
and Wagon; and, to go little far
Their back, bat, set, dim, sum, fish, true,
civil, fatal, ETC., instead of the Eliza
bethan bate, settle, dimme, summe,