The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1906-04-25
PHONETICS.
The Views OF One OF the Most Eminent
Practitioners or Shorthand.

~ INF EADlhchN ~ 'H' ''' .''f " NOl
can AFFORD me n little space would like to
say a few words In your paper in opposition
to what ] consider an Ill advised and mis-.
chievous move In regard TO phonetic spelling
] am a believer in phonetics. and think We
should write by sound whenever II may be-.
come possible to do so. But the scheme for
a little bit of phonetics that is now being
pushed to the front by the American spelling
Reform Association and others. in my opinion
Ia not one that should be encouraged. The
harm that II Ia liable to do far exceeds the
possible good there is in it.
In order to white a language Theoretically
you must have a letter for each sound. The
spelling Of the Romans was phonetic, because
their alphabet gave them a letter for each
sound In the language. But as they only had
sixteen consonant and five vowel sounds
their alphabet of twenty-three letters was
even more than they needed. When they
adopted words from other languages which
contained sounds that were foreign to the
Latin language they took In the new letters
along with the new words. The letters y
and Y came In in that way.
The English language contains very many
sounds that are not found in Latin. We have
at least twenty-five consonant sounds and
eighteen vowel sounds - over forty ele-
mentary sounds In all. Now, how are you
going to write all these sounds. as they occur
In words, in a phonetic manner with only
twenty-three distinct and different letters
1.-THE duplicates C, q and K being omittedl1
The trouble with En- glish spelling is that it
has attempted to cut out a big garment from
a piece Of cloth only half large enough. The
grandfather has tried to clothe himself In his
little grandson's trousers, and he has only
been able to succeed partially by piecing out
here, there and everywhere with every old
patch that could be found. Now these
patches are not to be gotten rid of by the
reformers' plan. En- glish spelling is a net
work Of compromises. but to attempt 10
reform 1t until we have a proper and adequate
alphabet with which to do the work would
be folly. 1t would SOW the seeds Of the great
est confusion in spelling that was ever known.
II is all very we'll to talk about doing away
with silent letters; but the fact is that where
you can eliminate in the way suggested one
silent letter hundreds will have TO remain.
For instance, take silent final e in a vast
number of words such as tape. tube. time,
tome. take, dime, dame. shame. cap cope.
cube, came, gave. lathe, like. rake. ripe, robe.
arrive, rage. urge. pile. pale. pole. bile, file.
vile. mile. tale. dale. gale. &c. IL you omit 1t
where will you be? Tape will be tap, tube
VIII be tub, cape will be cap. gale will be gal.
and so on
Then. again. the use OF d ouble consonant
letters to indicate that the vowel letter just
preceding them has what is called It's short
s s oTInGldaed lnst onIy OF one ,s Of lSnt The sou cons equrIts Is
sounded, the other being silent, but it is 1eces-
sary to insert both OF them IN order to dete 4o
illustrate what ] mean, suppose We leave out
one of the, double consonants IN a lew Wotds
come pined; planned will become planed.
halter will become hater. a9d latter, later bt-
ter. bitter; title title; rudder' ruder' gaooe'
Because Of the success that has attended
the efforts to PhonetiGize the Writing Gif 81 G th.
present alphabet some people have been led
ia Ia.Itah Gunh hnWaUnF Is mot the case
The Continental Vowe Scale, as it is some
times called, Il a teehl, e a; i Ss, 2 l' y CO.,;
Now, the quality Of sound OF me fbo ss v0se y:
that of the long vowels. so that it is phonetic:
ally feasible to use e Zach e. OF sb the v sonnd Letters tbds
ten vowel sounds With Ave letters. wheTea,
sounds of the vowel letters do not bear the
slightest resemblance to each other s as Ss IS
hat; mete. met; bite. bit note, not: cute, cut.
Indeed, the long sounds of two OF these let
tiers. / and y. are diphthongs and not simple
Then. again, the proposition that we write
or surd mate Of ordinary ". The aspiration
WI in When bears the same relation, so far
as sound is concerned. to W in wen. that IN
in in t J N does isisn to tn 2c in then; r qn 81 h s snps a HGfs
write this sound. We might Just as well write
Nothing Is gained Theoretically by substi;;
tuting final i for 2 in words like stmpIin
In the two words and D represents them quite
The proposed adoption of : for wherever
the latter has the z sound would work havoc
in more ways than one; 1t would upset tns
spelling of a vast number of words and az
penman, especially II he has to use the long
tailed script 2 that Is taught 70 the children
they appear in ordinary composition thelc'-
ter 8 is more frequently sounded as 2 than :.
p ps S%y a Gdc can and ff looking SA ss at the sser H%E
singular Of regular verbs. Fgrthermore. WE we
words, because nouns and verbs that end
with sprd consonants would take s, while
Thus. we, should have lists. but SCHOOL,;
thinks and writes. but lagz and ridez.
might be mentioned I think it Is a dangerous
thing to ,tamper with our spelling in the way
p spS p oStSouS Our nr o5bsh%S;E y na1 IN is BE, Sett hest R %St
use Il; and q unit until We We haGye a q real thtnt phonetic ho n IT,,
phohPstics, The, improved results that can
great disturbance that would inevitably
tSiiSH' by ee edSoator 80 as suG s r sfs5qR fh to- have We
clpal OF the PlaInfield High School oil miro
ducing the new. style of spelling into, the
public schools of hat city. Until something
definite is determined upon children are
entitled to be taught to spell in the old way
business would find It dif1Cult TO get and
hold positions II they wrote az. IL. waz. h"en.
hwich, bi2neZ, &c.
The only. phonetic alphabet that has yet
been published that promised good results y
Bells Visible Speech. But the inventor ~
that scheme seemed to be content with using
II only in instructins deaf mutes. I think
the best way, and perhaps the only way, &!
Introduce phonetic printing and writing OF
English Will be to first perfect a phonetic
scheme, including an alphabet for both print
ing and writing purposes. then to publish a
few books In accordance with the scheme.
and let the public learn to read and write in
the new style without attempting to displace
the style now in use. 1t Is so. easy to learn 10
read phonetic printing, and the study 81
phonetics is so fascinating that ! believe most
people would take to il for the mere pleasure
OF the Trims After a time they would begin
TO correspond with each other. in the new
mode, periodicals would be, published in Il,
far enough, it would by natural process step
in and take the place of the present imperfect
and irrational method. which IL too much out
Of repair to be tinkered into anything lik"
decent shape. This cannot be done by plnr-
ing out and patching up the Roman alphabet