Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1906-05-20
Literary Gossip Abroad.


LONDON. May TO- 1905.
a NDREw CARNEGIE. Mark Twain
n and the other leaders of the recent
agitation in the United States In fa-
vcr of phonetic spelling viii be glad to hear
that they have an ally on this side of the
water In the person of Prof. W. ". Skeat
of Cambridge University who is considered
one of the greatest living authorities on
the English language. Up to now the
American suggestions regarding the reform
of spelling have been subjected TO whole
sale ridicule in this country. but possibly
some of the writer's who made merry over
them will conclude to change their tune aft
err reading the vigorous address In support
Of the American arguments which was de-
livered by Prof. Skeat last evening before
a gathering of the British Academy held
at Burlington House.
Beside being professor of Anglo-Saxon at
Cambridge. DR.. Skeat Is the founder and
president of the English Dialect Society, and
the titles of his works on English literature
occupy something like ten pages i'll the
catalogue, of the British Museum library. So
1t was rather striking to fnd him beginning
his address to the British Academy by de-
claring that all of what he called the sci
entific arguments were on the side of
those who want to reform the spelling OF
the English. and that dense ignorance was
the Cnlef CHARACTERISTIC OF tHuSe WHO OPP
posed it. Etymology and phoretics, Prof.
Skeat said. were the two sciences which
the British press in particular could not I'M
derstand to be such, and he went on to as
sert that the English language as at pres
ent spelt was full of the most absurd con-
tradictfons warranted neither by history
nor by common sense.
Then he proceeded to give Il number of
examples of useless letters in spelling. and
declared that the final "e'' IN have live,
solve. adze awe and axe-words that he
would spell hav liv, solv. adj. aw and ak
was the chief delinquent. 1t had Prof.
Skeat said, no right to its place. 1t had
been introduced at the end of have at the
time when that word was spelt ''haue"
and its purpose then was to distinguish the
otherwise undistinguishable u and V. Again,
the letter 20" in comfort, which historically
should be "cumfort"-in donkey. which
should be .dunkey," and IN money, which
should be ''muney," was another unjustifi-
able innovation, called into being because
In script the Normans did not like an I'M
az m to follow u because of the want of
Eligibility.
Prof Skeat also provided a surprise by
ridiculing the idea that the shortening of
''labour' to labor" was an American inno-
walton. Labor he said. lis found In the
504th line of The Pearl which was written
before Columbus discovered America. and,
indeed, before he was born Similarly, he
went on, there were the best of pathological
reasons for spelling arrive with only one
r; affair-which was the French a faire-
with only one f; attack as "atak;' com
mence without its double m, and lamb,
limb and plumber without their b. In con-
clusion. the professor showed by philolog-,
ical science that the spelling of language
was altered originally to conform with pho
netic utterance, and commended that we
ought to reform and alter it now according
to the same principle. Thus, he said, race
gradually would spring up which would
perceive that the best spelling for given
word was that which gave most reasonably
the sound of it.