The mirror. (Stillwater, Minn.) 1894-1925, 1906-11-01
MEDDLING WITH LANGUAGE.
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1T is curious fact that of all
civilized languages only the two
Oldest, Greek and Latin, were pro-
nounced strictly in accordance
with the pronunciation of the letters
of their respective alphabets. Every
letter in every word was distinctly pro-
nounced. AS none of their letters had
the sound of the English "i," as in
slight" or the sound of the "a," as in
'that," these two sounds were produced
by "ei" and by sac" as is done to this
day in several European languages.
Greek and Latin, though of incalcula-
BILE Importance for literary and scien-
tific study and research, are now dead
languages; but they have formed the
basis of most modern languages. Old
Greek 10 not spoken any more; while
Latin is still used in the formulas and
rites of the catholic church. The dog
mas, theses and pronunciamentos of
this church are still issued in Latin;
but they have to be carefully prepared
and constructed beforehand, as even
the best of Latin scholars are unable
to use Latin with the same tiuency as
their mother tongue.
The great modern culture languages
of our times are the outcome of pOpu-
lar expressions and usages, arisen as
necessity-not science-dictated them
to a people, the majority of whom
were but very partially educated. Not
one of all the languages owes it's pres
ent formation to certain time and
period; far less to dictate by any
government, ruler or scholar; but each
one is the result of many centuries of
popular usage. What changes did oc-
cur in the course of the centuries, were
not so much produced by expressions
used by linguistic scholars, as by ex-
pressions used by the peoples idols,
poets, etc., and, in our times, by the
commercial and industrial demands
of practice and necessity. AS science
had no hand in the formation of Ian
guage, it is but natural that the gram.
mar of all languages is very irregular
also, that many words are not pro.
.nounced exactly as they are spelled
This latter fact has always caused
much dissatisfaction and irritation
and several nations have tried to elm
mate in the spelling of the words al
those letters that are not used in the
pronunciation of the word according
to popular usage.
About thirty years ago, an attempt
to eliminate all unnecessary letters
was made in Germany, where such {
course found numerous disciples
among all classes of the populace
The German words, which allowed tn
leaving out of certain letters, were no
numerous; hardly three hundred ant
fifty all told. One would imagine tina
the reconstruction of such smal
number of words should have proved al
easy task. And it might have 81
proved, if the new idea had but takel
fast root in the will of the majority o
the German people. As it was, man
Germans commenced to write in cor
formity to the "new Orthography," as
was called, but very few were conse
4quent enough to spell EVERY word i
accordance with the new rules, so tha
modern German soon presented th
neither edifying nor practical appear
ance of nonconformity to any ortht
grapic rule. That this has cause
much confusion, is but self-evident.
A few years after the experimer
was commenced in Germany, a simils
movement was inaugurated by the lite
ary world of Sweden; but there it we
never taken hold of by the masses {
the people. The consequence was, tn,
q large number of novels, essays an
scientific publications were printe
according to the new Swedish ortho
raphy; while over ninety-five per Gel
of the populace pertinaciously hel
fast to the old way. As the Swedif
language contains far more words,
which letters can be left out, than Il
German, most all of the modern Swe
ish authors, ETC., were compelled
have their manuscripts corrected
experts in the new way of spelling.
lit comes to pass that . new ortho