Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1920-05-11
undermining English
Spelling
SIXTH STUDY.
by j. NJ. Tadlock)
copyright. All rights rcservedD

Almost every etymoogist who has pubsht
any work upon the etymoogy Of English words
has cald attention to ullmerus words in which
mistakes hav been made in Englicizng borrowd
words. Som of these errors hav occurd from
faulty tracing Of the origin of the word and
others hay resulted from carelessness or ignorance
Of som of the early dictionary makers, The
printers of that age also contributed somthing
toward the errors which crept into the written
forms of many words by their well-meant but
detectv attempts to correct seeming errors, and
to regulate the spelling Of words the eymology of
which they did not understand Somtimes they
even shortend or lengthend words to make them
fit into the line of type, or for other reasons
equally absurd. In other cases they followd a
fancied analogy and thus went astray These
mistakes persist Notwithstanding the fact that the
errors often hav been shown These words
should all be corrected to agree with the original
root words, particularly if the word is made
simpler thereby.
Words which hav com into the language from
forein lungs should follow as nearly as the rules
of English vii permit the photography of the
word in the original First among the words of
this character to be chang ID is the word Angs'.
and "Anglo-Saxon." The term in our own
English was always spelt with E. and the A came
from the Latin usage. We do not say 'Angle-
terre" and "Anglase' as the French do, neither
Ont we to use the spelling for Englo- Saxon which
the Latin races apply to it. 1t is the one word
which should be charactersticaly English Let
u.s. therefore, always say 'Englo-Saxon" just as
we do England and English, and never spell it
with an "a"
Three words derivd from the Latin root
"cedere" ar misspet. They ar succeed !,
exceed" and proceed All other similar de-
rivativs from this root spelt cede''. The three
abov mentioned should be corrected to conform
with the others.
succede accede precede concede
procede recede secede excede
Words derive directly from the Latin capio
(cepi ceptus retain the of the perfect stem, and
the same is pronounce as part of the word:
percept except deception
concept precept reception
But those coming into our language from the
French, althoh Originally from the same Latin
root should follow the French form which drops
the p from the noun FORMS and employs ''v'' in
the verbs:
receiv deceiv conceiv
receit deceit conceit
Words with PHI coming directly from the
Greek should retain the phi in the English word !:
geography philosophy telephone diphthong
Phillip physician sphere phrase
But those which came into our language thruh
the modern languages change the phi to to agree
with the modern usage:
feasant (pheasant) fantom blasfeme
sulfur (sulphur) fantastic blasfemus
Filipino frenzy sulfurus
Errors made by printers or dictionary makers
should be corrected wherever the correct form is
simpler than the erroneous one.
l. Solder; corrected from solder. The ~
was erroneus'W inserted becaus the Latin original
is solidere": but it is not in the Old French word
from which language the word came into English
9 Coud; corrected from could" The past
tense form of can was in early English written
could. but when it appeard alongside of
would" and should, the past tense forms of
"wil'' and "slal''. som printer thoht he saw
discrepancy, so he proceeded to correct" the
irreguarity, and make them all look alike regard
less of the fact that ''w'' and shall contain
the letter ~ and "can' does not. The | was at
first pronounce in both would and should, but
later it became silent There was never any reason
why coud should contain an !.
Z Oct and dout corrected FROM 'dCht' and
doubt The silent b inserted by the lexi-
.I.;or ,