SPELLING BY SOUND.
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A SYSTEM OF ORTHOGRAPHY, whereby superfluous letters could be dispensed with, educational reformers have long sought to introduce. Of these, the following method of Spelling by Sound was published some time since by the Hon. Joseph Medill, editor of the Chicago Tribune, its advantage over the strictly phonetic system being that the same alphabet is employed as that in general use, which makes it much easier to introduce. It is at the same time more agreeable to the eye. By this system the student can spell any word after learning the sounds, and the reader can readily pronounce any word when reading. The great advantages gained are less space used in writing, less time, correct pronunciation, and correct spelling.
The application of this system of spelling is shown as follows:
A Specimen of His System.
The extreme iregilarities ov our orthografy hay long ben a sours ov inconvéniens and anoians. Men eminent az skolars and státsmen hav often pointed out theze absurdities ov speling. Yet the évil remanes. It encumbers our primary edûcásion and robs our yuth ov yeres ov time that shùd be dévóted tu the acquizision ov nolej. It impozes a burden upon the literary man thru life in the ûse ov'súperfúius leters, and compels meny persons tu study speling from the crádle tu the grave or fale tu spel corectly. It iz a fereful barier tu foriners hu wish to lern our langwaje; and wors than aul, it hinders thousands ov persons from lerning tu rede and rite, and thus largly augments the ranks ovignérans and depravity.
Theze évils ar so énormus in the agrégate that we fele compeled tu endors the words ov the distinguished President ov the American Filólojical Asósiásion, Prof. F. A. March, úzed in hiz opening adres at the last anûal méting ov the Sósíety:
"It iz no úse tu try tu caracterize with fiting epithets the monstrous speling ov the English langwaje. The time lost by it is a larj part ov the hole skule time ov the most ov men. Count the ours which éch person wasts at skule in lerning tu rede and spel, the ours spent thru life in képing up and perfecting hiz nolej ov speling, in consulting dicshunáries —a work that never ends—the ours that we spend in ríting'sílent leters; and multiplying this time by the number ov persons hu speak English, and we hav a tótal ov milyuns ov yeres wásted by éch jenerásion. The cost ov printing the sflent leters ov the English langwaje iz tu be counted by milyuns ov dolors for éch jenerásion."
"Súner or láter English orthografy must be simplified and réformed."—Benjamin Franklin.
"I fele very hopeful that a begining wil be made before long in réforming, not indede everything but at lést sumthing in the unhistorical, unsistematic, unintelijible, untéchable, but by no menes unamendable speling now curent in England."—Prof. Max Muller.
In spéking ov the disgrásful state ov English orthografy and the best mode ov réforming it. the grate American lexicografer, Dr. Nóah Webster, in the intróducsion tu hiz Quarto Dicshunary, says:
"Nothing can be more disreputable tu the literáry caracter ov a násion than the históry ov English orthografy, unles it is that ov our orthóepy." * * *
"Dr. Franklin compíled a dicshunary on hiz skeme ov réform, and prócured típes tu be cast, which he ofered tu me with a vû tu engaje me tu prosecute hiz dezine. This ofer I declined tu acsept; for I wos then, and am stil, convinsed that the skeme ov intródûcing nu caracters intu the langwaje is néther practicable nor expedient. Eny atempt ov this kind must sertenly fale of sucses."
"The mode ov asertáning the prónunsiasion ov words by marks, points or trifling olterásions oy the present caracters, semes tu be the ónly won which can be rédused tu practis."
"Delitful task! to rere the tender thaut,
Tu téch the yung ídéa hou tu shute,
Tu pore fresh instrucsion ó'er the mind,
Tu brethe the enlivening spirit, and tu fix
The jenerus purpos in the glóring brest."
"O, thautles mortals! ever blind tu fate,
Tu sune dejected and tu sune élate."
"Worth makes the man and want ov it the felo;
The rest is aul but lether or prúnela."
Where there iz a wil there iz a wa; and while the evil continûes the nesesity for orthógrafic réform wil never cese. If there ar eny among us hu hav tu litle regard for there éne children tu smuthe for them the path on which there infant fete must stumble, we conjure them in the name ov God and hûmanity tu beware ov the gráter sin ov crushing by opózing inflûens the rising hopes ov milyuns les fortunate, hu hav néther mony nor time tu squonder, but hu nede aul the ades posible tu enáble them tu take a pozision among the intelijent, vertûus and hapy sitizens ov our grate and glórius cuntry.
The foregoing will suffice to represent Mr. Medill's idea of simplified orthography. It is almost phonetic and yet preserves most of the analogies and peculiarities of the English language. He retains the general rule that e ending a word and preceding a consonant indicates that the vowel is "long." Thus he spells such words as
| believe, | beleve, | guide, | gide, | prove, | pruve, |
| receive, | reseve, | course, | corse, | proof, | prufe, |
| release, | relese, | pique, | peke, | through, | thru, |
| fierce, | férse, | chaise, | shaze, | school, | skule, |
| repeal, | repele, | paid, | pade, | door, | dore, |
| feel, | fele, | repair, | repare, | four, | fore, |
| sleeve, | sleve, | gauge, | gage, | boar, | bore, |
| league, | lege, | pear, | pare, | blow, | blo. |
Where the e sound does not indicate the long vowel sound, he proposes to use accented vowels, viz.: á, é, í, ó, ú, and for the sound of u in full, should, etc., he uses ù thus, fùl, shùd. For the broad sound of a heard in ought, caught, awful, all, broad, he employs au and spells them out; caut, auful, aul, braud, etc. For the terminals tion, sion, -cian, scion, etc., he uses sion. He retains ed as the sign of the past tense, and s as that of the plural of nouns and singular of verbs. Ble as a terminal is also retained. K is written for ch in all words in which ch has the sound of k. Ex.: arkitect, monark, skule, etc. All double consonants are reduced to single ones, as only one of them is heard in pronunciation. In all words now spelled with ck, as back, beck, lick, rock, luck, he drops the c as being wholly superfluous. In words ending in ous, he omits the o, as in curius, spurius, and when ou has the sound u he also drops the o, as in duble, jurny. He retains y at the end of nouns in the singular, as copy, foly. He writes f for ph in alfabet, fonetics, flosofy, etc. He omits all silent vowels in digraphs, and writes
| head, | hed, | said, | sed, | tongue, | tung, |
| earth, | erth, | heifer, | hefer, | sieve, | siv, |
| though, | tho, | leopard, | lepard, | built, | bilt, |
| phthisic, | tizic, | cleanse, | clens, | myrrh, | mer. |
The proposed system is very easily written. After an hour's practice the pen runs naturally into it, The plan is one which would cost adults scarcely an effort to learn to write, and no effort at all to learn to read it. He thinks it is the simplest and most rational compromise with existing usage, prejudice, and etymologies, which can probably be devised with any hope of acceptance, and if accepted and adopted it would secure to the Anglo-American race throughout the world one of the simplest and best orthographies in existence.
