The Pensacola journal. (Pensacola, Fla.) 1898-1985, 1906-10-21
QUALIFICATION
. Of ENGLISH
SPELLING
Brander Matthews Urges
Teachers to Adopt
Simpler Spelling.
Special to The Journal.

vroyidence, r. l., Oct. 19.-Prof. !
handler Matthews discussed "Simph-
,,ation of English Spelling" before a
rye audience of teachers at this
|,0ernoon's session of the Rhode Is
End Institute of Instruction.
! Mr. Matthews said in part:
English is the worst of all modern
|,ncuages. because its photography is
|rot rcducible to rule. It's spelling is
|so freakish, so violent and so absurd
|-bat il rejects all analogies.
The ideal spelling of any language
would be that in which there was one
sound for one symbol. There are forty
Sounds in English and only twenty
|,bree possible symbols. But that is
not the worst. If We had loaded al
most everyone of our twenty-three
SYMBOLS with the duty of representing
|oplv two separate sounds, that would
h. bad enough, but it would not be so
had as the situation which confronts
|uS
Let me illustrate what l mean. Here
is a list of English words. short Anglo
Saxon words, in which the spelling is
perfectly satisfactory: Sad, slap, self,
smash, strong, strength. Here is a
second group of longer words derived
+ from the Greek, which are also salts
factory: evident, ability, peculiar,
memorial, monopoly, biology.
But when we look at certain other
groups we are brought almost to the
brink Of despair. Take this, group, for
Example. perhaps the most famous ex-
|amples of the absurdity of our spell
|ing which exist: Cough. dough, thor
|Cugh. rough, through, hough, sough,
plough. And here again are four
words beginning with the sound of
I'm" know, pneumonia, gnaw, mnemon-
|iCS. There are seven words in which
the sound of "e" in '1et" is represent.
I'll by seven different symbols, or com
|bination of symbols: Let, heifer, says
|many. head, leopard, said
The sound Ssh" in ship" is repre-
scented by eight distinct combinations:
Ehip. suspicion, ocean, anxious, sure
conscience, notion, issue.
There is nothing like it in any other
language in the world 1t is this alb
kurd misspelling which makes it hard
for children to learn the English Ian
|guage. which causes them to waste
precious years, and which forces then
TO reject the results of observation
Ind analogy. It is this ridiculous spell
Dog which makes it hard for the for
eigner, here or abroad. to acquire
English and which therefore retards
the spread of English. Something
Ought to be done.
Not Phonetic Reform.
If the two peoples who speak the
English language were logical as the
French are, if they were governed by
an autocrat, as the French were in the
time of Napoleon, we should call in
THE men of science, and should modi
fly and increase our twenty-three sym
bOls. until every one of them repre-
sented exactly one sound and one
sound only. But the population OF
Great Britain, where our language was
developed, and the population of the
United States, where now dwells the
large majority of those who use it, are
not as logical as the French, and they
are not governed by an autocrat. They
are fond of happy-go-lucky compro
misses. They are in the habit of gov
erning themselves and of having theil
own way, and of taking no orders
from any autocrat. Phonetic reform
Of any kind therefore is hopeless. Tt
! spend time in setting forth its possible
styantage Is to waste time
This is one reason why the Simpli
ned Spelling board has not advocated
any scheme of phonetic reform. And
Il does not intend to advocate any
thing of the sort. | say this emphati
cally because so many of the OppO
nents of our movement have accused
US of being phonetic reformers. i
they do so hereafter, in spite of oul
formal disclaimer, they will be dis
hcnest, for there is a dishonesty o.
carelessness, as we'll as a dishonesty
Of intention.
Now, what is the Simplified SPELLING
Board urging if - is not urging pho
hetic reform? There is at least one
hing that can be done Every one