Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1911-10-19
IMPROVE Our SPELLING.

"Tha com of more under miSt-hlcodhum, "
or as we would say: Then came from
| the moor under midst-hlls."
! From Cadmon of l296-l3G5 We have
"lc willie MID flode folc acwellan," the
translation OF which is: II will with a
flood the folk destroy"
We read in Lagamon AN preost ives
ON leoden;" or "a prest was in londe"
We would say: There was priest on
earth. or land"
From Ormuum: "Nu, brother Wall
terri brother min," which is: Now,
brother Walter, brother mine"
We also have from Ormulum: "Annd
whase wilenn shall this boc;" or, And
whose shall wish this book"
Robert of Gloucester: Thus com 10!
Engelond into Normannes honde," but
we would say Thus came 10, England
| into the Normans hand.
Chaucer said: Vivian than ApriIe witt,
his schowers swoote" (showers sweet
We read In Tyndale's New Testament:
when he was come downe from the
mountayne. moch people followed him.
And 10, Their came lepre and worsheped
him. saying; Master if thou wylt, thou
| canst make me Clene"
81 y,
and using ~" for a." also kiss miss.
pass, bliss, etc. and we keep it up.
| Anglo-Saxon version of Matthew 81:
"Sodhlice tina Sc haelend of than munte
nydhor astah," for "Soothly when the
Savior from the mountain came down,
there followed him a great multitude"
From King Alfred's Boethius: ION
thare tide the Gotan Scidhhumaegdhe
/ widh Romdna-rice gewn upahofon."
which is I'm the time which the Cloths
from Scythia-country against the Roman
empire commenced war"
Saxon Chronicle: "Thissum thus ge-
done, Sc cyng Wilhelm cearde ongean to
Normandige;" or, This being thus done,
the King William returned again to Nor
| mandy"
When we write pseudo" for "sudo.'
| comptroller" for "controler," "phos-
rhate" for "fosfate," and ''schsm" for
'sizm," wherein do we improve on their
| orthography? We lind fault IL they use
"wurshipped,' but we write stopped
end dropped" We are always sticking
"ch' in where 1t liz unnecessary, Ike
scholar" In Ormulum we have Wall
terri" and "brotherr," and we think such
spelling was foolish, and then We use
"hemorrhage," which is no less foolish
There was some excuse for such spelling
In struggling to formulate system, but
we will be condemned by our children for
maintaining the absurdities.
We may not he ready to follow Pro-
fessor F. A. March and the Pathological
association as far as they go In this re-
form. but it IS inconsistent to stand still
Max Muller says that IA living Ian
guage is like a mountain stream which
ia ever changing and widening az II moves
on its course: that dead language Is
like such a stream when the frost of
winter checks its onfiow and hardens 1t
to change through growth 1t is dead; the
moment a constitution ceases to change
through growth 1t Is dead"
From the Articles Of Confederation of
the United Colonies of New England,
1913:
"Betweene the Plantation vnder the
government Of the Massachusetts, lanta-
cous vnder the gournmont of New Ply
mouth the Plantacons vnder the gouern-
ment of Connectacutt and the gouern-
ment of New Haven, with the Plantacons
of Combinacon Herewith
Whereas wee all came into these
parts OF America with one and the same
end and ayme, namely. 70 advance the
Kinsdomc of our Lord Jesus Christ, and
TO enjoy the liberties of the Gospel in
Puritie with peace And whereas in our
settleingc (by a wise Providence of God)
we are further dispersed vpon the Sea
Coasts and Riuers than was at first in
tended. "'etc
Penns plan OF Union, 1897: "A Brefe
and PLANE Scheam how the English col
onies in the North parts of America, viz
| Boston. Connecticut Road Island, New
York Jerseys, PENNSYLVANIA. Maryland,
| virginia and Carolina may be made moro
! useful to the Crowne, and one another
peace and salty with an UNIVERSAL concur
renee"
The Declaration of Rights of 1865 and
1866. the spelling of the document OF the
! FIRST Continental Congress ia; the
Mecklenburg resolves as printed in the
| North Carolina Gazette, l775, the Vir-
sinia Bin Of Rights, l77G: the Articles OF
| Confederation, III; Petatiah Websters
Tract of 1888, the Virginia plan Of 1877 by
Edmund Randolph. the Pinckney plan OF
l'S7, Alexander lIamilton's plan, the New
Jersey plan introduced by Paterson. the
draft Of the constitution, the constitution
reported on September II. 1857, ana y, ep-
ster's defense of the constitution, and the
constitution finally adopted, were all spell
ed practically ar they would be to-day.
The modern spelling was used by Coke
and Franklin in their plan of 1854, and
we have made little advance on that
style since that time.
Shall we stop
shorthand writer has no patience
with the present spelling. He writes all
the lions with one hook. regardless OF
the different letters. He cannot under
| stand why &C. or IS" should not be used
for the same sound, nor why Y" should
not give way for IS" when the sound Is
the same. lie viii not write phonetic
when "fonetic" is the proper way. and he
wants to drop all ''phils" when "fis
answer the same purpose, He has never
seen tho necessity Of the extra letters in
| thought, wrought, brought etc. except
II be to follow some clumsy old speller
or ancient days We need uniformity In
pretXes and suffixes, and we are bright
enough TO bring 1t about Useless letters
We're stuck in at will years ago, and we
| hllndly follow suit We have dropped
one -" in travelled, Cancelled, installed
and can dispense with double letters In
many other words, such as I'll, will, bill
and swill They are absolutely unneces-
sary, as wee" was in the last century
We must look to the future It may
bother MS little, but 1t Is almost a crime
70 make future senerati lions go through
this maze of nonsense. If we cant DC
he tor pl,A I uvntI