The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1908-04-20
(New York Evening Post,

pllflcatiOn in the spelling of English
words are not ready to accept the rec
concentrations put forth by the Sim
plified Spelling board because they have
feeling that many of the changes
favored are merely academic or pedan-
uc' and have no better reason or basis
than desire to achieve a degree OF
uniformity or to conform to a phonetic
ideal.
The board realizes that human be-
lngs are so prone to cling TO long es-
tablished customs, however mischiev-
Gus or harmful, whether i'm spelling or
In political or social usages, that il
takes great deal to get them to make
] a change. In recognition of this de-
sire for the authority for the changes
recommended i'm last weeks circular.
DR.. c. P. G. Scott. the secretary of
the board, has furnished material which
Will help those interested to see the
boards reason for making their recon-
mendations.
When, in March of 1906 the board
published its first list of 300 words, it
included only such words as were al
ready spelled in two or more ways by
high authorities. The list was in a
sense a suggestion for new" spellings.
The second list, issued last week, con-
sisted first of list of IS of the more
difficult and anomalous words simpli-
fled, and, secondly, of six classified
lists coming under general rules of sim
( plification. A consideration of the list
of 20 simplified forms and the reasons
therefor follows:
Taking first the word ache. which it
is proposed to change to AXE, it is
shown that its present form is due to
FAULTY derivation. The verb is proper
ly AXE from the Anglo-Saxon acan,
just S bake is the form derived from
the AnglO-SaXon bacan. 1t was so
spelled by Chaucer, Spenser, Shakes
peare and Bunyan-in fact by every
writer before the Eighteenth century,
as 1t has been used by Pope, Richard
son and many other we'll known writ
erS since that time
The dropping of from aisle, isle and
island has a similar reason, namely,
that the never should have been put
into the word. These forms were COM
monty used by Shakespeare, Spenser,
Milton and Sir Thomas Browne.
Ghost received its from Caxton,
who late in the Fifteenth century fol-
lowed Dutch fashion later abandon
ed and printed in the Old English COST
with the h inserted. This action paved
the way for the insertion of the h in
agast and gastly. Many later writers
hesitated to adopt the innovation, and
we find that Spenser, Milton AMI But
Ter spelled agdSt without the H.
Many people will probably balk at
the substitution of for phi in such
words as alphabet, biography, pamph-
let. paragraph, telegraph, phonograph
and the like, but according to the SPELL
ing board the change ought ultimately
TO De made in all words containing PHI
IN that value, although at present
changes are recommended only in a
few of the more familiar words. 1t Is
pointed out that all such words are
spelled with an in Spanish, Italian.
Danish. Swedish, Polish, Bohemian,
Hungarian, etc, and that the same
spelling was common in such of them
as existed in late or middle Latin.
Such words passed into Anglo-Saxon
and middle English with the f, but in
most the classical Latin PHI was re-
stored. Other words in exactly the
same class, such as fancy, frantic. fren-
~, frieze, coffin and Golfer, did not
return to the phi spelling, although there
is apparently no good reason why they
should not also have reverted to the
classical form.
The Greek sign phi. which the classi-
cal Latin expressed by the PHI, is, ac-
cordfng to the board. just as properly
transliterated by f. In the case of
camphOr and cipher the suggested
changes have the added reason that
the phi never should have been intro !
duced, as the words are not derived
historically from the Greek, but from |
the Arabic.
Autumn, solemn and column the /
board would deprive Of their ms be- /
cause, although in the Latin originals |
in the modern English. and therefore is |
considered superfluous; bedstead is TO |
lose its for the same reason that led /
TO the adoption of the spelling sted- |
fast, which was recommended in the |
boards first list of 300 words, The 1
latter has the sanction not only of /
Spenser, Milton, Bunyan and the Bible. /
but is accepted as an alternative SPELL |
ing by the Webster and Century die
tlonaries. Some day. the board says,
all the words such as head and bread,
In which ca is pronounced like short /
e, must lose the superfluous a. The /
recommended spelling bOro for borough. |
II is pointed out, has been in use for
local names ending in borough. as
Edinboro, for 300 years, and has been
adopted by the United States
board OF geographic names 1t is also
N line with the earlier recommendation
In regard to thorough. The spelling
is an erroneous translitera ton
Of the Dutch word Verlof. from which
L was derived, and the present change I
merely corrects the mistake
recommendations for the dropping
Of u from build and building are based
On the forms of the middle English
words from which they were derived.
TO the same class belong busy. which
retains its middle English form. and
1izzy, which has acquired the modern
spelling. The former list contained the
word gid (guild). which has for its
simpler form the authority of both the
standard and Century dictionaries.
1t is recommended that the z be L
iropped from campaign, foreign and
as ii is needless. Cam
Daign is said to be a modern spelling. Il
merely follows the recon-
nendation made in the first list as TO
lpothegm. The earlier spellings of for
ign and sovereign were forein or for
lin, and soverein or soverain. The
BOARD chose the spelling "foren" and
'soveren." although recognizing that I'm
his country the present pronunciation I.
more nearly approximates form and
overin
According to the board, the spelling {;
-