New-York tribune., 1906-12-01
SAVING THE LETTERS.

Our language is the objective Of two counter
movements. one designing to knock letters out
of it. the other to keep letters in 1t. The one
is aimed at writing, the other at speech. The
would clip our spelling, the other would
keep us from clipping pronunciation. II
should go from generation to genera
, ton leaving behind us wrecks of letters once
sounded, but now forever Silenced. spelling
would always be in need of reform Linguistic
laZiness is no respecter of the printed word.
When we shall have deleted from the written
, records those literal monuments to the greater
linguistic energy of our fathers we shall be
already leaving to new unsounded
| letters for them TO strike out The terminal
g" whose fate hangs in the balance. will have
joined the silent majority, and the spelling re-
formers of the future will be waging their
battles over the photography of present parti-
cfples. the dOughtiest insisting upon ending
them in In" without even an apologize apOs-
trophe. The raucous "r,' which our best speak
ers in New York, New England and the South
have euphonized into a haZy blur of sound,
will be the subject Of special legislation. Per
haps it. too tongues grow laZier and
the memory Of its gentle roll dies out of our
ears, will join the silent band of dead letters
which record the superior agility of our ances-
tors in tongue twisting
Easy speaking, unlike easy spelling needs no
promotion requires no financing proceeds with
out the personal Endorsement of the lords tenn
pOral of the earth. A man will slur with his
tongue and save with his pen Witness "h,"
the clustering primal aspirate the rude and
blowsy outbreathng of full lunged primeval
man. 1t has disappeared a sound from many
languages. The French rarely sound II. An
apologetc little mark stood for it IN the
cient Greek, and we believe that after while
the Greeks paid no attention to the mark. 1t
was disappearing from English when some one
noticed that the vulgar We're proceeding to dis
pense with the aspirate faster than the polite
1t then grew questionable TO drop "hs." The
aspirate became the sign literal of good breed
ing. That saved 1t and restored it, so much
that Americans, recognizing the difficulty of
sounding 'h" after ''w'' i'll 'wh" hit upon, so
the English tell Us, the sounding of the 'h"
before the "w'' to avoid the social stigma of
the silent 'h.' 1t is, PERHAPS this same social
stigma that accounts for q mans scrupulosity
with his pen. Easy spelling has always been
exceedingly impolite. An omitted letter In q
written word was as much an accusation
against the writer's social character as an ig-
nored "h" in spoken word.
The new Society for the Study of Spoken
English whose parent chapter is in New York
is making an effort to our letters. Termi-
nal 'g' it will try to brace up and keep from
dropping Off ~" is to be made to offer re-
slstance TO the fate which seems likely to con-
denim it to merger with 100" "A' is to be
broadened out, restored to the ancient dignity
of its unshrunken dimensions Something NAV
be done for letters by making their abuse un-
fashionable If a depleted "a," slurred ''u,
or neglected "g" is met everywhere with a
tilted nose and an indrawing of mantles from
contaminating personal contact, they will doubt
less recover and hold their lost estates But
what can be done, a member of the society
would like to know, to oppugn provincialism
tat sectional pride which delights In linguistic
havoc. The slurred ''r' is not individual but
sectional, and those who sur it pride them
selves on their Improvement of the English
tongue In striking out q cacophonous conso-
nant Them you cannot shame into its restora-
ton.
The society has one practical suggestion tow
ard the saving of our letters and the simplify
ing Of the growing problem OF simplihed spell
ing. Look" they say, after the nursery maids
and goVernesses." See that they set an exam
PIE 10 The children OF enuncatory chastity.
They have the future OF the language at the
END or their tongues. They do more for
our speech than Mr.. Henry James, with his
crluclslns OF finishing school" misses vocal
lNitoh III they are scrupulous with their "g's"
thef as" would pass current unchallenged