Atlanta tri-weekly journal. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1920-19??, 1920-07-31
Our Hard-WOrking
Words
By Frederic J. HaSkin

w T ASHINGTON, D. c., July zb.-
w and tA 3ofa fqt or Of be the lead 0pgue
Gil that goes on from the
time one is born to the day of his
last slow ride, Mnat word of all
those in the dictionary, do you sup
of times? Would you like to know
the word that is the second favor
tie, the one that is enunciated third
most frequently, and the one that
occupies fourth place among verbal
tools?
been determined. Folks use the
word the twice as often as any
other. Next to it is and. Then fol-
cyclists the little pronoun I is the
fifth word in use and occurs one
third oftener than the pronoun you.
A, in, that, for, it, was, is, will
and as appear in order.
In eIiciting the above facts the
statistician has disprover the widely
accepted theory that he is a dull and
tedious individual who may be de-
pended upon to s%ect for his enum-
subject in which the average run of
men and women are not interested.
Here is one man of tables and aver
ages WHO is human. He was, during
Ayres, attached to- the Office of the
chief of staff. He is now Mr.. Ayres,
director of education for the Russell
Sage foundation.
Save These war Figures
At the close of the war Colonel
AyreS compiled for the war depart
ment a statistical summary which
showed at a glance what had hap
pened during those months of
conflict. His summary showed, for
instance, that the total battle deaths
IN the recent war were greater than
the deaths in all wars for hundred
years before; that Russia suffered
most, despite her withdrawal that
Germany lost thirty-two times as
many men as the United States;
France tWenty-eight times as many
and Great Britain eighteen times as
in 1000 were killed in battle in a
year, while in the Civil war thirty
three in 1000 were so killed, and in
the Mexican war fifteen in each 1000.
ing the world war was highest of
all wars.
Colonel Ayres further reported that
during the Mexican war 10 in each
loo men died of disease, and that
sixty-five in each 1000 men were
lost from the same cause during the
Civil war But during the world
war the loss from disease was only
nineteen in each 1000 men, so that
the late conflict scored a great sue
cess through making a science of
cleanliness.
Now the man who compiled these
vital figures has been counting the
words people use. The ten next most
used words are have, not, with, be,
your, ,,t at, we, on, he, by They are
al little fellows. who, like Peter
Colonel Ayres, in his study of edu-
cational problems, developed the
theory that the, words in the SPELL
ing books should be those which peo-
pie use in that most common form
of writing which appears in the let
ters they transcribe. Spoken words
do not need to be spelled. Few peo-
pie write anything other than bust
ness and personal letters. Would it
what words were used in this sort
of writing, and to make sure that
they were in the spelling books?
Few Words Are Used
He went to dozen different or
ganlzation which received typical
for statistical analysis. He tabu-
lated letters running into more than
300, 900 words altogether The sur
pra1s1ng fact altogether. The sur
used in all this correspondence. A
man with a vocabulary of 1000
words could have dictated those let
ters from thousands Of people, writ
ing on hundreds of subjects. Yet the
child in the elementary grades stud
les about 10000 words, anda desk
dictionary contains $4,000. Many of
these words are SO rare that the av-
erage individual never uses them.
The practical thing would seem to
be to learn the used words first. TO
lind out those words was the object
of this queer statistical compilation.
Half of the bulk of the letters
written by the people is made up of
a simple list Of fifty words, all of
which are of one syllable, except the
modest participant, any. Three hun
dred words constitute three-fourths
of the space in the letters we write,
cent, Of the work. In the first 200 of
most frequently used words there are
but half-dozen Of more than one
syllable: They are nearly all home
They are such words as when, time,
some, any, can, what, send, them,
more, week, night, they, good, say,
could, make. write, thing.
If you run along the list of Colonel
Ayres' words you find at the bottom
of the eight columns the following:
men, came, matter, separate, tenth,
push, concern, and the thousandth
word in the frequency Of it's use, is
Even were the language reduced to
the simplicity of the thousand words
most frequently used, there are few
people who can spell them all cor
rectIy. Among them, for instance,
is judgment, and it is surprising how
many individuals there are who prof
1igately spend an uniustifiied "e'' on
this stout number of the dictionary
family. Of the thousand recommend
spelled. Allege is another of the
willing workers which often proves
an photographed stumbling block.
The NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS. wanted to get
exact information as to which of his
most used words were hardest to
spell. There seemed but one way to
tell and that was to give them to
folks to try and record the result.
Children in school were the readiest
material. available for. conducting
were sent to eighty-siX cities where
10000 children furrowed their brows
over them, did the best they could,
and unk1owingly made a record in a
new field of investigation.
The Hardest to pe11
The words were arranged in three
columns in accordance with the diff
ficulty of spelling them. The three
just given were, placed in the column
of those hardest to spell. The next
hardest column contained two words
decision and principle. The third
column contained seven words as fol-
ceiDt, preliminary, disappoint, espe-
cially, annual, and committee. In
the fourth column were the words
organization, emergency, appreciate.
sincerely, athletic, extreme, practical
proceed, cordially. character, sep
arate, February. In the fifth column
appeared the list of words next most
difficult to spell as follows: princi-
pal, testimony, discussion, arrange
ment, reference, evidence, experience,
session, secretary, association, career,
height.
These are typical Of the every day
words used in current orrespond-
ence which vex most people. These,
according to the word-statistician,
are those which should appear in the
spelling books, and which should be
mastered before the child is inflicted
with that multitude of more diff
cult words that are kill-joy to
youth.