Year: 1875

The prevailing epidemic OF spelling
matches brings up question over which
philologists have often disputed, of the
number of words comprised in the every
day vocabulary of everyday people. 1t is
not question very readily answered, and,
as a matter of fact the estimates given by
equally competent authorities vary as widely
as four thousand from thirty thousand
We may very safely say, however, that it is
not at all necessary, as the conductors of
these matches seem often to assume, for
even highly educated person to carry the
whole dictionary i'll his head. The number
of words which every one should be able
not only to recognize in reading, but to
write correctly, is large enough to make us
marvel Mt the capacity of the human men,
Ory but compared with the whole number
of words admitted into the dictionaries, or
even of those which properly belong to the
English language, it is surprisingly small.
There is a large class of words with only
technical application, or of abstruse and
knciful construction, which one may be





for an explanation of which, if met with in
reading, one need not be ashamed to con-
suit the dictionary. Again. there is another
large and more important class of words,
with which every educated person is expec-
ted to have so much familiarity as will
enable him to recognize and understand
them at sight, but which are so seldom
employed i'll common conversation or fami-
liar writing that knowledge oftheir orthog-
raphy may be regarded as an accomplish
ment, rather than as q necessary part of
eVeryOne's education. When we have
excluded these two classes, we come down
TO hard-pan, to the solid, everyday words
of our English tongue, which we must
know from top to bottom or be counted
illlterato. There are some thousands of
these, and if one can place the letters in
their right order in each of them he NAV
certainly be for given if he hesitate on
unfamiliar words. Yet it is really these
familiar words that commonly give the
most trouble. One can easily spell out with
due deliberation, a many-syllabled Greek or
Latin word, with an evident etymologv ;
but these little native English words, whose
spelling seems altogether arbitrary and
caprlcious, they are the puzzlers To spell
them correctly is, to a very large extent, a
pure act OF memory, and the schoOl-masters
ought not to overload their unfortunate
victims lest they break down altogether.


Our first suggestion to the conductors OF
spelling matches, then, is to let the long
hard-lOOking, unfamiliar words alone; there
will be just as much fun and as many blum
ders without them. The next point
Is one which we approach with some diff
dence; tOr to suggest doubt of the infalli
billty of any one standard of orthOgraphy
is terribly dangerous thing to do. Blu
We shall not question the authority of Mr.
Noah Webster. We only wish to sugges
that word may be spelled otherwise thai
as he i'll his wisdom has ordained, and We
not be incorrectly spelled. We are agreed
to follow Webster, since we must submit +
the inevitable; but very large proportiol
of cultivated people here have never beel
educated to knowledge of improvements
and it seems little rough that they mus
be spelled down" or spelled out on tina
account. OF course it is necessary in aspc
ling match to adopt some one authority
but if the words concerning which Webstf
differs from Walker, or his modern repr,
sentative, Worcester, land which are no
after all, very numerOus) cannot be excl
ded, the schOOlmaster ought to recolle,
that all the class has not had the benefit


the same instruction. This is really IL
greatest practical difficulty to be guardc
against in the conduct of public spelir
match. But it is not insurmountable al
there are plenty of words about which the
is no dispute and no possibility of msa
Rrehension, to puzzle any class that can
get together. So let the fun 90 on.-Phu
T,as>s