The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1906-09-10

ing Mr.. hOoooV0lJ 3 prOpObhls WhiOu boOAs
a. " Il would lead In tho long run to q good
deal OF inconvenience and expense without
any corresponding saving OF time or trouble
for the moment. But IL 10 a. well TO look At
the facts a little more closely without BON
demning offhAnd q number OF proposals
which apparently have the approval OF such
authorities on the history OF the English
language as Prof. Skeat and DR.. Murray.
When people talk a little rashly about
abandoning the time honorod method OF
spelling this or that word or class OF words
they are apt TO forget not only that there
are plenty OF words the spelling OF which
has beer changed during the past hundred
years without anybody proving much the
worse for 1t, but also that standardized
spelling Is a comparatively modern institu-
ton. Practically speaking, 1t began with
DR.. johnson. Those who object most
strongly 20 ny sort OF "nnkering' or tam
pering with the language OF Shakespeare
may reflect that Shakespeare himself was
50 tolerant OF change a. TO sign his own
name In twenty-six different ways. The
books which he read and In which he saw
the words printed that he used in writing
his plays were not consistent In their meth
DDS OF presenting combinations OF letters
to the reader. Imagine him, for instance,
comparing parallel passages In Purver's
Reoension Of Wyolife's translation Of the
Bible and Tyndale's New Testament. The
first would run:
But whannc Jhesus was come doun FRO the mn.
mych puple suede hym. And looi q loprouse man
cam and worschiplds hymn. and seide: Lord II thou
volt thou maist make me clene.
In Tyndale the same passage appears
thus:
When Jesus was come downe from the noun
tayne, moch people followed him. And 10. Their cam
. iepre and worsheped him saynge: Master. II thou
wyit thou canst make me cene.
To which spelling, .puple' OF people,
would the student incline who read those
two passages for the first time. knowing
thai the parent word vas the Latin ~popu-
lus'7 II the first two vowels In people
are pronounced separately instead Of tho
e. being heightened and the 20 omitted,
the resulting sound IL practically the same
as ~puple.' Would 1t occur to the student
Of the sixteenth century that Of the VI
spelllngs. zach Of which probably sounded
to him the same, one would some day be
discarded as wrong and the other selected
As right and then pronounced differently
Probably he would resent the idea Of dealing
Oitl III u ~ WHO bAAAO hOhOION RdRNos
He would not realize the need for q certain
methods OF spelling until he came to at
tempt the making Of a dictionary.
In the same way those who are readiest
TO condemn as ~'soornful Innovations or
'Americanisms' various suggestions for an
altered photography are apt to forget how
arbitrary the greatestof English dictionary
,-.l.~-. znaa.g~..I- -. l.. hi nA.ta.
between variant spellings. It was DR..
Johnson who added the -k' to smusiok'
and -rhetorick' and "physick,' which be-
fore his day were more commonly spelt
rs we spell them now. Labor and honor
and favor irritate many readers, who
style them Americanisms. But IL was DR..
Johnson who introduced the unnecessary,
though perhaps rather graceful, -u,' and
who wrote, in addition, 'authour' and
-errour' and -governour.' The last SPELL
ing has only dropped out Of the English
prayer book in the twentieth century.
How many church goers have noticed the
changer
There are, as a fact, a large number OF
English words the spelling Of which has
been undergoing and Ia now undergoing
a series OF changes, yet which very few
readers or writer's notice are being changed,
simply because the change is coming about
80 slowly. II the same change that is now,
going on slowly were suddenly reoomp
mended or commanded, there would proba-
bly, be an outcry. Take, for example, the
words Judgment" -skillful, ""dogmatiEe,"
-fulness' and quartet Contrast with
them @quartette, -~fullness, !" -dogmatise,'
-skilful" and Judgement Which is the
old n which is the new spelling1 Proba-
bly, not one out Of three ordinary educated
men would care to risk his reputation on
the orthography Of all five. As to -kist"
and -blusht,' which are two of the Presi-
dents choices which ave been subjected
10 much criticism, both forms are just as
pleasant to see and hear a. 'kssed' and
FLUSHED But it was not President Roose-
Welt who invented them. They belong TO
all the poets, ancient and modern, and
perhaps they are only objected to because
they do not seem to At in quite properly
with the prosiness Of modern existence.
'When l kist her Jenny blusht' il clearly
an opening for slyrio which would do credit
to the most amorous; but it looks a little
queer to write hat "this smart teuilIetOn
is now being publisht on page s.
As to other suggested changes, why
should we oppose the dropping Of the "a"
out Of the diphthong in aesthetic and
"ROlian' when we already have celestial"
and ~-penalise" and -Egypt"2 Even in
some OF the articles in which the strongest
objection has been taken TO the elimina-
ton Of the "a" the writers. who would
hate TO be accused Of dropping their his
have argued this way and that way
about -dipthongs.' Here and there, 1t
must be owned. the suggested revision Of
the spelling is hideous. "Catalog' would
only be admissible il the cutting OF Of the
'ue" made the word more like the Greek,
but it does not. As for program" 1t Is
formed on the analogy Of ~-epigram'; but
there is evidently a further change in store
for it. 1t will follow the example Of gro
gram and shorten itself into m~onosyllabic
unseemliness.
The truth Is that the photography OF
modern English provides. or would pro-
vida n albiaoe for diaolaaion Among EDo-