The National tribune., 1906-05-17
THE SPELLING REFORM.

| the work or great number or leading
| educators brings this question once
more prominently before the people.
There has always been a widespread de-
mand for a simplification of our bar
barous. unphilosophical and timewas..-
ing orthography. but none of the many
past century has been particularly
| fruitful of SUCCESS. The Americans have
gone far aheadtof the English in the
elimination OF Useless letters, but the
! principal success has been in eliminat-
! ing the unnecessary "u'' in such words
as honor, favor; dropping one ''g" from
| wagon. and so on. There is a world of
! improvement yet TO be made, and it
should be begun as early as possible.
| 1t is estimated that it costs at least one
year of every child's life to learn our
system of spelling, and no man or wo-
man ever really learns to spell the Eng
lish language He or she may be able to
spell few thousand words in common
use, but the moment they get beyond
| that they are lost. The campaign for
simplified and rational spelling has been
| bN i'y tiit ''lIhBiihti 'pVliiiiS poii u
sending out list of 900 words from
which unnecessary letters can be
dropped to advantage. Wherever this
list goes it is accompanied by a postal
card which it is hoped the receiver will
sign and send back. This card reads:
| Il will use in my correspondence, as
| far as may be pra cticlble, the simpler
spelling recommended by the SimpIifed
Spelling Board in its circular of March
| 81, 1906
The circular says:
Some of those who would like to see
our spelling made simpler fear that this
will obscure the derivation of words;
but all etymOlogists deny the statement
and repudiate the argument. Etymology
is history, and is new secure in innum-
cradle books. Some object to any
change, not realizing that change
much of it in the nature Of simpIifica-
| tion-has been almost continuous in the
history of English spelling. We do not
print Shakpere's or Bacon's words as
they were written; and surely no great
catastrophe to English literature or to
| the literary charac, er of the language
will happen il our successors fnd-as
| they certainly villas great or greater
| differences between their spelling and
| that OF the present day.
| III lIIllliidf tOIiF SpOIitltlltt
simpified forms are now used which
shock no ones nerves, anu in the most
emotional poetry such forms as opt
slept, pIest (TennysOn) are printed
without attracting attention. 1t is prob
abe that if all English words were
| printed tomorrow in the simpler forms
which they will unques;ionably bear a
| hundred years, hence, it would take a
very little while for US all TO become
accustomed to- them"
Among the forms recomm ended are
tho aitho, thru, sthruout, ak. kist Cfor
| kissed, slept. stopt. wo. ticro. clipt
fxt, nipt, preptr pur tf'r pnrr), aad
husht. Words in which t is substitut-
Ell for ed form the greater part of the
vanguard Taken as who'e, the
changes are not violent. and any one
| who fears to have his etym m2logical sem
sibilities shocked will met an agree
able surprise. Classical authorities are
cited to show that many of the s1-called
new forms are not really new. but we're
gradually changed by the adoption of
| imperfect standard. If Milton wrote
contest anaiif Shakspere. Bunyan and
Burns wrote ."2rSst," why, asks the
Simplied Spelling Beard in effect,
should present day ctIzens raise the
cry that history and etym 2lo-y are be-
| ing outraged?
Below are given some Of the words
sent out by the Smpl fed Spelling
! Spelling Board. Many are omitted, be-
cause it requiI es only one or two of a
| certain class to indicate the general
plan. The forms in the first column
are to be used instead of those in the
| second:
abridgment abridgement
| accouter accoutre
| accurst accursed
addreSt addressed
| ADJ adZe
anesthet.; araesthetic
antipyrin antipyrine
| appriZe apprise
| arbor arbour
| artiZan artisan
| assiZe assise
| bark bdrque
| braZen brasen
| bun bunn
! caliber caibre
| careSt careSSed
| cataIog catalogue
| center centre
| cIapt clapped
/ claspt clasped
| cDqueI
| crost crossed
| crusht crushed
I cue queue
/ curst cursed
cutlas cutlass
dasht dashed
defense defence
demagog demagogu2
| dipt dipped
DISGUST discussed
dram drachm
drest dressed
eolian aeolan
| eXprest expressed
| gage gauge
j gild guild
j gipsy gypsy
i gript gripped
kist kissed
i lookt looked
;, mama mamma
i mist missed