Evening star., 1928-03-27
THIS AND THAT
BY CHARLES +. TRACEW ELL.

Next to misspelling mans name
in letter. the unforgivable crime
In correspondence would seem TO be the
wrong spelling OF any word whatsoever,
RI was not for nothing that the old
time pedagogy placed such emphasis
upon spelling Educators felt. and
rightly, that IL was the basis for all
future learning
Spelling was regarded rs fundamcn-
tai. as necessary to school life as breath
ing to life itself Just as without
breath there could bc no life. so with
out spelling there could be- no history
grammar geography, even mathematics
In the same manner that breathing
was regarded as instructive spelling was
To be so thoroughly drilled into the
small human being that by tho time
he became a man tho correct spelling
OF words was to be natural with him.
This was the ideal Of The old spelling
drills. and all the intensive study put
upon words as such leading often
enough to what might bc termed word
nausea on the part Of some pupils. but
later in life enabling them to spell or
binary words without being forced to
think about them and even making
it possible for them to spell mos of the
fancy words which one ordinarily uses.
After all, the vocabulary OF the aver
age human being is not very large.
We forget Just exactly what the C0mpu-
tation is. but 1t is something around
three or four thousand words
Even Shakespeare. master OF words, is
popularly credited with using no more
than 1000 or so in his galaxy OF plays
Some rare students are supposed to
have vocabularicS Of 10000 words and
l.
scSs the spontaneous power to properly
usH many more
Most of us, however, use 50 few words
comparatively speaking, that there
would seem 10 be very little reason
except a sort of sheer laziness for not
spelling them all correctly,
Cne may admit that th0rc is no
rhvmn or reason tn the spelling OF
words in English. Effort after effort,
however. has failed 10 make dent IN
their honorable tradition. Some Of the
greatest and most powerful names have
been lent to the movements for spell
ing reform. but still the English-speak-
ing world wagS right along using long
forms for simple sounds.
Those who love their mother tongue
insist on these difficult Spellings. not be-
cause they are difficult nr because they
give them chance 10 air tnelr knoWi~
cdgo. but simply because th"" have a
heritage, a past, an honorable tradi-
ton
Every word i'm uso today has come
down through the centuries. bringing
with it a peculiar favor which any one
may taste for the price Of little effort
Or Fernald's Expressive English" Of
fers an excellent introduction to this
study
Thousands Of our words come directly
from other languages, 50 that English
"as she is spoken" contains the flavOrs
Of all nations. Soma Of tAcss have been
Angclcized. others kept 10 their foreign
pronunciation.
II w.
Thousands Of perfectly good words
have practically no currency. Often this
strikes one who loves them as sad for
these are perfectly good words as well
adapted to everyday usage as many al
ready in use
One has but To open q large dlcti0n-
airy to sce them upon almost every page.
Take tho word "ramos"," for instance.
II is a good word with quite a sound
10 H. II has an air. "'as one nigh, say.
II SIMPLY means branching. Although