The Washington herald., 1906-11-25
SIMPLIFIED SPELLING,
Editor WASHINGTON Herald;

4
slheation and TO the limitation Of the list
Of words proposed.
One important class consists OF preterits
or perfect particlpIes which, by establish
/ ed or prevailing usage, emo IN ed, pro-
nounced with a sound. These preteTits
come principally from verbs, whose pri-
mary forms end with the aspirate conso-
nant sound Of f. k, p. s, ch. sh. or TIL.
| any one Of which sounds naturally
| Icoalesces with. or is followed by, a t
sound rather than a d sound; whereas.
their corresponding subvocal sounds Of V,
| g (hard), b, 2, ], zh, and th more natu-
rally coalesce with or are followed by the
sound.
| Examples OF the class appear in the
verbs loaf. look, stop. kiss. attach, flush,
unearth, and mix. whose preterits, accord
| ing 10 prevailing usage. are spelled loafed.
/ looked stopped, kissed, attached, flushed.
unearthed. and mixed, but pronounced as
/ II spelled loaft, Iookt, stopt, kst. attacht.
fiusht. uneartht. and mkt. In the sim
plihed spelling it IS proposed, in forming
/ the preterit Of such verbs. to substitute [
1 fo- ed, and for ed plus the preceding
duplicated consonant in words Ike kiss.
/ pass, &c. ending IN double consonant.
and In verbs Ike stop coming under the
| following old rule Of orthography:
Monosyllables, and words Of more than
one syllable, accented on the last. ending
/ in a single consonant after a single short
vowel. double the final consonant on tax
| ing a suflx."
/ The verb whip is an example OF the
/ latter subciass. The old p-eterit under
/ the rule. whipped. Is TO be supplanted in
the simpiifed spelling by whipt. taking
I the place Of ped.
| OF the 800 words enumerated IN circular
No s, transmitted by the President to
the Public Printer with his letter OF Au-
gust q, 1906, seventy-two, or nearly one
fourth Of all. are preterits or participles
OF the class above considered. Why these
ssventy-two words were chosen for the
list Of 800. in preference to many others
| OF the same class is not quite clear. Il
| appears that the list was prepared by the
so-cailed ''simPlifed spelling board who
found by research that respectable au-
thors long ago approved and used the sim
plihed spelling Of the words listed. Circu-
lar No. 2, dated March 2. 1896. pub
lished In the pamphlet with the list, iudi-
/ Gates the purpose Of the board 20 include
( only the words whose proposed simpIi-
/ fed spelling has the sanction Of respecta-
/ bic usage. and not 20 include those whose
simpl!hed spelling lacks such sanction,
although they belong 10 the same class.
and were years ago listed by the "Philo-
/ logical Society," and recommended for
/ simp1Ged spelling. Whatever the cri-
/ terion by which the words OF this class
+ were chosen and limited to the seventy
/ two, it seems probable that a mistake
was made, at least in the limitation. for
the following reasons:
/ First-Whether the listed words Of this
/ class were OF were not used IN the sim
pli0ed form by Spenser, Shakespeare,
! TeunysOn, or Lowell, OF by other noted
/ writer's. is necessarily a question of the
4 least practical importance to present or
( future users o. the words, and can have
/ bat ittle influence upon future usage.
Authors and editors publ.cists and pub
l fishers are, and will be, more interested
/ Ia ascertaiaing the accepted forms Of
words now prevailing or coming into use
/ than IN ascertaining what sporadic use
lnfrequent forms may have had in the
past, near or distant. As a rule. they
will have neither time, opportunity, nor
/ Inclination 10 delve in the records Of the
past,
Even as the great Augustine
Questioned earth and sea and SKY,
And the dusty tones Of learning.
/ And old poesy.
/ in order TO sanction the present use Of a
/ practically new or obsolete form by
proving its use in the long vanished ED
/ Such research is for philologists, anna
/ teur or professional.
! SeCOnd-The adoption OF the simplified
( form. as to the seventy-twO listed words
while adhering TO the standard or com
I mon spelling Of other words OF the same
/ class must naturally have a tendency 10
| cOmplicate rather than simplify our spell
lng. Manifestly, the mass of men and
women viii not memOTize the list. and
/ habituate themselves to applying the re-
/ form 10 the listed words only. and not To
( other words Of the same class. II the
! scheme had been to take in the whole
/ class OF words, instead OF limiting the
/ reform 70 particular, selected words OF
+ the class. It would have been more phllO-
/ sOphicaI and reasonable, easier OF ac-
/ cOmplshment, and more effective when
/ accomplished.
In illustration Of the second reason Il
/ IS noted that IN the selected list we have
"dasht' and ''lasht' as recommended
/ by the Philological Society. but not
I clssht, flasht, gasht, plaSnt. smasht, and
/ splasht, which are also recommended by
/ the Pathological Society. nor casht.
/ QUasht, masht. and slasht, which belong
/ to the same group OF class OF words,
/ and should properly follow the same rule
/ Of OTcnogTaphy. although. perhaps. not
/ so recommended by the Philologicsl So
/ c!ety- In the list We also find past
/ from the verb pass. but not clast, from
/ the verb class; also contest from the
/ verb confess, but not progrest, from the
I verb progress, and "blusht," from the
verb blush. but not fiusht. from the
verb flush. These Illustrations among
many others that might be given indi-
/ cate the difficulties that will be encoun-
tered by those willing 10 adopt the sim
/ piifed spelling. To the masses the Sc
/ lections must necessarily seem arbitrary
/ and their adoption to impose an onerous
/ task Of memorizing. which would have
/ been avoided II the reform had been
based on lines Of classification Of words,
/ instead Of upon the more or less arbi-
tvsTy selection Of particular words.
! The foregoing comments have been con-
/ bned 10 one class Of words, in order 10
/ limit this article to a proper length. a.
/ though both similar and different re-
marks might appropriately be made upon
other groups or classes or words in the
| list Of three hundred
! II may be contended that the inclusion
/ or the selected words in the LIST shou1d
/ not be interpreted as excluding from
/ the proposed reform other words of the
! same classes as those included in the
| list. l do not think such contention
/ sound. L Is not to be presumed that the
/ Public Printer OF executive departments
/ viii extend the simplifed spelling beyond
/ the limits OF the list furnished by the
( Prncidauf 20 Dfrblgc