Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1920-03-16

language from cumDerSOm ehteenth century
appearance to of the simplest and most reg
ular of modern written languages.
A littl time devoted to the study of the nature
spirit, laws tendencies of the English language
particularly as to it's methods of representing
sounds will caus any intelligent student to agree
that the undermining of English is mperativ, and
that it can be made at once scientific, complete
and popular; Scientific, in that it must be III
accord with the distinctivly English method OF
representing sounds; the usual values given to
letters; the usual uses made of silent LETTERS and
Difference paid to the essentially English pecu-
liarites Of position of letters of following closely
the photography of bOrrowd words, and of avoid
ing diacritical marks and accents in ordinary dis
course. Complete for each class of words adjust
ed, for to change few convenient words of a
group, leaving the others bas't on the same rules
unchanged would be to increase the confusion.
For exampl, to reform "kist'' mist, etc., and
leav Sliced, walked, ETC., still spelt with
''ed'', is worse than useless. Popular, becaus it
must reach the peopl to succede. Since the news
paper is the most popular institution in the world
today, this re-adjustment must be made by the
daily and weekly press.
Let us begin with one Of the most common
words that needs changing to agree with its
modern pronunciation. Are is pronounct by
many peopl as if it wer spelt air The reason
is plain. Notice these words car, care, bar bare,
far, fare, mar, mare par pare, tar tare war, ware
They ar sufficient to establish the rule. Other
words only strengthen the rule: dare hare, rare,
stare, gar, jar, char, star, ETC. The child or the
foreiner learning English soon comes to recog-
nize an invariabl rule that final silent :" e" in
such words indicates the caret sound Of "a, and
that without the "e'' the sound Of the vowel
should be the Italian sound Is it any wonder,
therefore, that stare" should be mispronounc ii
Modern English requires us to drop the silent
''e'' and thus reduce the exception to the other
wise inyariabl rule. Ar is the proper FORM and
cannot be mispronounc't.
Many smplifers hav, without proper thoht, It
seems to me, adopted the forms thru and
tho, and sthoro'' and s. hot instead Of thu
old forms 4 through . though, thorough. !,
and thought The purpos Of the changes III
thess words IS NOT, like the frst solely to accoln
modste them TO modern pronunciation, bnt
merely 70 shorten them, and save time. This, 4
mean, il the ayuwd purpos given BY the simpli-
hefs. think il is false and insufficient reason
TOR making the change in these words, and results
IA thu nnscientifc spellings given abov. The real
dacnlty with these four words Is that they ar too
4 much Lille n appearance, causd BY tho common
sough ia, al Of them. They need reforming IN
I appearance Is well a. simplifying. Learners are
continually getting them MKT saying one Tor the
other In fact they air . source Of great trnbl to
! teachers il teaching pupils to read The difficulty
follows the learner all thrnh the grades. Ii is
distinctivness and differentiation that they need,
III undermining them lei as not forget our rules oe
English, thoh, for il we do We may hav trnbl with
other like words,
English does not permit long Il Z to stand at
the end Of words witness these words, true, fue,
new (dubl ~ few, sue blue, through, slough etc.
The short form thru Z violates that principl but
sthruh does not, and Is distinctly, as well ~
much shorter than the original form through
But best Of all it is following closely the Englo-
Saxon prior to the middl English period No one
can mistake it, or mispronounce it.
Notice that final Ok is not always long as in
do, TO- Who TOO, two. ETC. Also note that hoe, toe,
roe, doe, oh, know, blow, etc, hav final silent
letter to insure the long sound OF so''. Tho
mint be pronounc correctly part Of the time but
thoh" follows the rule and could not possibly be
mistaken or mispronounc't. 1t is distinctly and
could never he confus d with any Of the other
words nam a abov. Thoroh = is the proper form
for undermining thorough for the same reason
that final oh is always long.
singl vowel followd BY singh consonant at
the end of word is always short witness, bot,
cot, cat, hat not hot, lot, sot, etc. BY the same
rule 'thot" could not possibly be US a to repre-