Deseret evening news. [volume] (Great Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1867-1920, 1909-07-20
sIMPLIFIED SPELLING

The movement for simplified spelling
has now, in the judgment Of It's friends
and promoters, advanced 50 far as to
justify the publication Of a periodical,
as means of communication between
them. The first number Is at hand.
1t is called the simplitfed Spelling Bull.
letin. The Intention is to send. out
four Bulletins a year, reporting the
news of the movement and affording a
forum in which those Interested may
exchange views. &
The Bulletin at hand contains an ac-H
count of the third annual meeting Of
The Simpllfled Spelling board at the.
Waldorf-Astoria last April Interest
and satisfaction,"",s 1t says, 'markt tho
sessions. On another page the in
formation Is given that many signersl
Of the agreement to use simpler SPELL
tings "have expresst the desire to orr
Eganize themselvs into general asso-5
fciation,p and that "the eXecutiy COM
gnittee4 has taken up the proposal
There is another article on the pro-
fgress Of the movement for the year
and another on the formation in Great
Britain Of a Srnplified Spelling society.
The Rev. Professor Walter w. Skeat,s
of Oxford, the eminent biologist" Is
president, and its vice presidents con-
sist OF gentlemen of 'dlstinguisht" rank.
There are a number OF other items OF
interest, and it closes as follows;
"When you have red this number
thru, show your interest n :the cause
Nv sending 10 cents, for q years subs
scription. to the Simplified Spelling
Bulletin, No. Madison avenue, New
York. Z;
ashow 1t more strongly by sending
ono dollar and the names and addresses
Of nine other persons TO whom you
wish the Bulletin sent for a year
There can be no two opinions about
the desirability of a simplitied spelling,
hut whether the reform can be forced.
is another question. Language sro~s.l
Gradually 1t changes in accordance.
with the taste of the ever changing
times.
The recommendations made so far by
the board are very good in many par
ticuiars, While in others they seem ra-
Their arbitrary. For instance the drop
ping of the final re- in comparative.
and many other words. is an improve
,nent as Is the spelling biologist
where ..f'' takes the place of PHI But
lis there sufficient reason for dropping
the ..e,' in Increased" and writing "t''
for "d2" Does thru" fill the bill bet
ter than through E'oren" for for
Seignr' is an improvement, since the s''.
does not belong to the word at all, if
the derivation is considered
The main trouble is that our alpha
bets are imperfect. They are at once
deficient and redundant They con
tain useless letters and yet not enough
to represent all the elementary sounds
that are used.
The English alphabet comes from the
Romans who borrowed it from the
Greeks. These adopted the Hebrew
alphabet. which is essentially the same
as that handed down by the Phoenic-.
ians, who are supposed 70 have collect
led - signs out of the thousands of
crude pictures then in existence. These
90 letters We're consonants.
The Greeks changed four symbols into
vowels, discarded three letters for
which they had no use and invented
five new signs. The Romans did not
adopt this simplifted classic alphabet
but retained the worthless letters ..an
and 'sx," and discarded the letter 9Th
The Roman influence was further feltin
the Co for 81 and the. invention of
81"
The Anglo-saxon influence was slight
The letter "a was discarded and two
letters. one for the '.,v,, and pnc for
the 'thH-sound We're introduced. But
with the Norman invasion the two let
ters We're dropped and the "a was
again introduced.
Under English Influence the letters