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 OPENING ADDRESS 
 BEFORE THE INTER- 
 NATIONAL CONVENTION 
 FOR THE AMENDMENT 
 OF ENGLISH ORTHO- 
 GRAPHY
 
 
 ••A/ 
 
 TO 
 
 
 
 28i 
 
 THE LIBRARY 
 
 OF 
 
 THE UNIVERSITY 
 
 OF CALIFORNIA 
 
 LOS ANGELES 

 
 
 PROF. MARCH'S ADDRESS 
 
 -BEFOHK THE- 
 
 j| itfc! n:.ilioii:i i (I oim i iil'mn 
 
 FOR THE AMENDMENT OF 
 
 ENGLISH ORTHOGRAPHY. 
 
 PHILADELPHIA. AUGUST 15, 1876. 
 
 -

 
 
 V ' 
 
 THE OPENING ADDRESS 
 
 -bp:fokk- 
 
 THE INTERNATIONAL CONVENTION 
 
 FOR THE A.MKMIMENT OF 
 
 nmm ^})r\mi\r:\y 
 
 AT PHILADELPHIA, AUGUST 15th, 1876, 
 
 -BV- 
 
 :f:r,o^- zfir^hstcis ^. nvn^iE^aiEi, 
 
 OF LAFAYETTE COLLEGE, EASTON, PA.
 
 ztstotie. 
 
 TX this address a is printed for a when it sounds as in fast, far , a for 
 *- a as in face, j for i as in fine, o- for o as in not, nor, n for u as in 
 but, burn. \\ for u as in music, use, and, beginning on page 11, g for g 
 iis in general, and a for s, as in is.
 
 
 r* 
 
 33 
 
 LA ft 
 OAll 
 
 * 9. 5AKI« 
 
 R 
 
 Us 
 
 THE OPENING ADDRESS 
 
 BEFORE 
 
 THE INTERNATIONAL CONVENTION, 
 
 FOR 
 
 THE AMENDMENT OF ENGLISH ORTHOGRAPHY. 
 
 %^ ••» ^ » 
 
 Scholars spend a great part of their tjme studying old books and 
 mo-miments. They are apt to think of writing as a record merely. 
 But it is really mighty machinery working for the fqture, the agent by 
 which each generation is introduced to knowledge and culture. Phi- 
 lerlogy prjdes herself en her conquest of the past, her reconstruction of 
 history ; but she should aim at the higher praise of earnest work for 
 the future, of contributions to the progress of the race. The improve- 
 ment of the reading machinery of the English language, the reform of 
 English spelling is a great work. It is doubtful whether the welfare 
 of the race is as much promoted by any invention of the century. 
 whether the steam engine or the telegraph contributes as much to the 
 progress of the people, as would the invention and introduction of a 
 good phonetic system of spelling our language. The difference between 
 a family who can read and one who can not. is vastly more important 
 than the difference between a family that uses railroads and telegraphs 
 and one that does nof. 
 
 EVILS OP BAD SPELLING. 
 
 Our wretched spelling hinders our people from becoming readers 
 in two ways, by the length of tjme which it takes to learn it, and In 
 the disljke of reading which it induces. Three years are spent in our 
 primary schools in learning to read and spell a little. The German 
 advances as far in a twelvemonth. A large fraction of the school tjme 
 of the millions is thus stolen from useful studies, and devoted to the 
 most painful drudgery. Millions of years are thus lost in every gener- 
 ation. Then it affects the intellect of beginners. The chjld should 
 have its reason awakened by order, proportion, fitness, law in the 
 objects it is made to study. But wo to the chjld who attempts to u* (> 
 reason in spelling English. It is amark of promise net to spell easily. 
 One whose reason is active must learn net to use it. The whole pro- 
 cess is stupifying and perverting; it makes great numbers of children 
 
 564564 
 
 ue sets
 
 finally and forever hate the sight of a book and reluct from all learn- 
 ing. There are reported to the takers of our last census 5,500,000 
 illiterates in the United States. One half at least of those who report 
 themselves able to read, cannot read well enough to get much good 
 from it. It may be held certain that good spelling would increase by 
 millions the number of easy readers, and by millions more the number 
 of those fond of knowledge. But moral degeneracy follows the want 
 <>f cultivated intelligence. Christianity can not put forth half her 
 strength where she can not i(se her presses. Republics fall to ruin 
 when the people become bljnd and bad. We ought then to try to 
 improve our spelling from patriotic and philanthropic motives. If 
 these do not move us, it may be worth whjle to remember that it has 
 been competed that we throw away $15,000,000 a year paying teacher? 
 for addling the brains of our children with bad spelling, and at least 
 $100,000,000 more, paying printers and publishers for sprinkling our 
 books and papers with sjlent letters. 
 
 ORTHOGRAPHY NOT ORTHOEPY. 
 
 We are met to reform orthography, not orthoepy ; we have to do 
 with writing, not pronunciation. There are all sorts of English 
 people, and words ore pronounced in all sorts of ways. It is the work 
 of the orthoepist to observe all these different ways, and to decjde 
 which is the prevailing pronunciation of the most cultured, to decjde 
 which is the standard English pronunciation. The orthographer tells 
 how to represent this pronunciation in writing. The orthoepist has 
 many nice and difficult questions to solve. We enter into his labors. 
 We take for granted that there is a standard pronunciation of English. 
 We wish to see it represented by simple and reasonable alphabetic* 
 sjgns. 
 
 AX IDEAL ALPHABET. 
 
 The essential idea of an alphabet is that each elementary sound 
 have its own unvarying sjgn, and each sjgn its own unvarying sound. 
 But in a perfect alphabet the characters should be easy to write and 
 to distinguish, and shapely; similar sounds should have similar signs, 
 and similar series of sounds should have series of sjgns with similar 
 analogies of form ; each character should be so shaped as to easily 
 suggest something about the position of the organs of speech in making 
 it: and all nations should use the same characters with similar valqes. 
 Moreover, derived alphabets, being necesserilv bearers of history, 
 should be esteemed better as they incidentally embody more important 
 history. The perfect alphabet will not press any of these incidental 
 qualities so far as to interfere with the essential purpose of an alpha- 
 bet, the easy eomnnpiication of thought by signs of sound. Standard 
 alphabets for popular use should have signs only for well established
 
 significant sounds. The vowel sounds shade into each other ljke 
 colors. The consonants are made in many ways. Mr. Ellis had signs 
 for some 300 letters, years ago. Thousands may lie distinguished, and 
 need to he. for the purposes of comparative phonology. No minute- 
 ness conies amiss to scjence. Different nations make different qualities 
 of sound significant. Tones make letters for the Chjnese. Length 
 was o greet matter with the early Indo-Europeans. in the Sanskrit and 
 Creek, and the like. We have come to qse stress for the old pitch, 
 and neglect the measure of tune : we mcke letters only on the ground 
 of quality. Many trjbes make nothing of the difference between surd 
 and sonant : p and h are all one to them : both are made with the lips. 
 thay say. We can not he sqre that any difference is so slight that no 
 nation has exalted, or may exalt it to significance. But the general 
 standard of a great nation must always he severely simple. It is 
 wholly undesjrable to admit in it the ever varying gljdes and finishes 
 and coloring of fashionahle or vulgar articulation, or even the more 
 stable and general colorings produced by adjacent letters, as long as 
 they are without significance. The perfect alphabet will not record 
 etymology and history to the neglect of current sounds. 
 
 THE REAL ALPHABET. 
 
 Xo language has a perfect alphabet. Alphabetic writing was not 
 invented to answer to an ideal : it is a sort of growth, or development 
 by natural selection , from pietqre writing, and ljke other things that 
 grow in mjnds without ideas, it needs making over for the qse of man. 
 Moreover, living speech is always changing, the spoken language 
 always running away from the written. 
 
 CHANGES IX SPOKEN LANGUAGE. 
 
 Two classes of changes may be distinguished. One of single 
 wi >rds. The letters of unaccented syllables are carelessly pronounced, 
 and often drop out, and bring together letters which ore hard to pro- 
 nounce together, so that one weakens, is assimilated, or silent. Caro- 
 lina tends to become Carolina, and then Culnia and Culiny and 
 Cljny. In most languages the written words rapidly adapt themselves 
 to these changes. As soon as scholars all stop sounding a letter in 
 any word, they stop writing it. Such changes as affect one word at o 
 time must go on slowly, and the written and spoken speech are not 
 drawn far apart. The other is a general change in some elementary 
 sound. It gets to be the fashion to utter some sound in a slightly 
 different way from the old standard ; a vowel is made closer than it 
 qsed to be, or is made with a finish : every body gets to saying a for a 
 ( past for past) or iu for u (tiune for tune) or ei for a (faite for fate.)
 
 The change goes em until the old letter is merged in sound into some 
 other old letter or letters, or till a new letter is established as signifi- 
 cant. Changes of this class often go far without affecting the written 
 speech. The Greek affords many familiar examples. Several sets erf 
 such changes are of interest in English. 
 
 1. The regular assimilation of letters connected in discourse, by 
 which intermediate letters spring up between the old ones. Between 
 a {far) and e [met) a as in fat, fare, has now become established; be- 
 tween a (far) and o [no), & as in not and nor: then there are the 
 neutral vowels erffon and bvrn. Mqte consonants under vowel infiq- 
 ence change to continuous err spjrant consonants, as ti to sh in 
 notion : and surds change to sonants, as si to zh in jAeasip-e. Six 
 vowels and four eo-nsonants unknown to the earlv Romans have arisen 
 in this way. 
 
 2. Another class of changes is connected with the accent. The 
 close vowels i and u lengthen into diphthongs by taking before them 
 the sound of a {Jar). The long I (ai), as in mine, was at first pro- 
 nounced as in machine : the on (cm), as in house (Anglo-Saxon has), was 
 spelt and pronounced l^ke u in rude. The open and mixed vowels 
 have become closer, a {far) going to e {fate) or & {wall), e {they) going 
 to i [machine, me),o going to u {rule, moon). It has thus come about 
 that single characters stand for diphthongs, and that the short and 
 long sounds which go in pairs in other languages are denoted by 
 different characters in ours, and are derived from different sources. 
 
 :>. These pairs, not having been associated together, have not 
 grown so much aljke as in other languages : the e of met is different in 
 quality frerm its long as heard in may, the i of ft from its long as 
 heard in fee; so that it is doubtful whether one character will do for 
 both, whether we must not have different characters for each short 
 and long, after the manner of old time-observing tongues. 
 
 THE AXGLO-SAXON ALPHABET. 
 
 Our grandmother tongue, the Anglo-Saxon, had a pretty good 
 alphabet. There was early writing in runes, but the Roman mission- 
 aries, who converted the nation, redqced the language to writing in 
 Roman letters. They gave them the power which they then had in 
 Latin, using c always ljke k, and g as in go. For sounds which did 
 not occur in Latin they preserved runes, or qsed digraphs after the 
 manner of the Celts. Runes were qsed for t/t and w. They distin- 
 guished a in far from a in hat, using ae, ce for the latter. They also 
 distinguished other njce varieties of vowel shading and finish.
 
 THE MODERN ENGLISH. 
 
 Our woes spring from the Norman conquest. Anglo-Saxons and 
 Nermans qnjted to make the English nation, and the}- threw their 
 languages into a sort of hotchpotch. Many of the words of each race 
 were hard tor the other to pronounce. Thay were spelt hy the scholars 
 to whom thay were native, in the old book fashion, but the people did 
 not pronounce them correctly. Many letters were left sjlent, or 
 inserted to no purpose, in ill-directed attempts to represent the strange 
 combinations. Then the great shifting already described took place 
 in the whole gamut, so to speak, of the vowel sounds. People hardly 
 knew what was the matter as these changes went on. and before our 
 scholars waked up, the whole habit of wrjting was so far away from a 
 phonetic one, that people ceased to feel any necessity for keeping 
 sounds and signs together, and the scholars gave up. We attained at 
 lost a very fair approach to the Chinese idiographic system. The 
 written words are associated with thoughts as wholes, without refer- 
 ence to the sounds which the separate letters might indicate. Changes 
 in the sounds of words go on with no record in the writing. Ingenious 
 etymologists slip in new sjlent letters as records of history drawn 
 from their imagination. Old monsters, fertile in the popular fancy, 
 propagate themselves in the congenial environment, and altogether 
 we have attained the worst spelling on the planet. And we have been 
 proud of it. and we are fond of it. 
 
 WHAT CAN WE DO? 
 
 What can be done for reform. We can prodqce dissatisfaction 
 with the present spelling. That is easy. We can teach the people 
 what spelling ought to be. That is harder. We can harmonize views 
 as to the changes which are practicable, and the methods of intro- 
 ducing them. And then we can qse reformed spelling, and get others 
 to qse it. 
 
 PREPARATORY WORK. 
 
 Much has already been done to prepare the way. Comparative 
 philology is founded on phonetics, and no scholar ever works in this 
 field without lamenting the condition of the English language. Most 
 of our ablest philologists have spoken out about it. Several of the 
 most eminent have published vigorous essays of demonstration, objur- 
 g ition and appeal. Our venerable chief, the Honorable George P. 
 Marsh, minister of the United States at Rome, Prof. Hadley. the presi- 
 dents of the American Philological Association, Whitney, Trumbull. 
 Haldeman, stand side by side with Prof. Max Miiller, with presi- 
 dents of the London Philological Socjety, with Ellis, with Pitman. Pell 
 and other practical workers, and with all scholars, great and small, of 
 other races.
 
 8 
 
 The growth of the historical study of the, English language and 
 literatqre has also been of great service. It has made it necessary to 
 ascertain the pronunciation of the language at different epochs. The 
 difficulty of this investigation, and the singular facts which are un- 
 earthed from old grammars and dictionaries, err made out by induction 
 from the poets, or reasonings from the laws of letter change, surprise 
 every one. The huge volqmes in which Mr. Ellis has collected the 
 materials for the study of the history of English pronunciation are im- 
 pressive witnesses against the spelling in which the facts were buried. 
 The publications of the Early English Text Socjety, which reproduce 
 the spelling of the> original manx[scripts, similar publications of the 
 Chaucer Socjety, reprints of the first folio of Shakespeare and of the 
 early editions of Spenser, make every one familiar with many ways of 
 spelling, and so make it easy to read in any spelling. We get used to 
 seeing the same word spelt half a dozen ways on the same page, and 
 ore not easily startled by the most ingenious modern professor of 
 phonetics. Modern writers in djalect ljke Burns and Scott, and 
 the comic caricaturists of fashionable or vulgar slang, Dickens, Nasby, 
 Josh Hillings, all help. We make the wjdest guesses at the sound, 
 which they mean to indicate, we read our Burns in Scottish which no 
 Scot ever dreamed of, but at least they set us free from the common 
 spelling. Our common-school teachers have been powerful aids in 
 producing dissatisfaction with the old spelling, especially in those 
 parts of the country where there are German children in the schools. 
 German parents cannot be made to understand why their children are 
 kept in spelling books four or fjve years, and they complain bitterly 
 abou^ it. Our Superintendents, always alert and ready for improve- 
 ments of every kjnd, have been long in earnest to fjnd some mode of 
 escape from the spelling plague. Teachers of Latin and Greek, and 
 of French, German and other modern languages help. Teachers of 
 elocution also teach s} r stems of vocal sounds, which are passed along 
 to teachers in the common-schools and kindergartens who train (he 
 children in reading. Many of our school primers and readers do good 
 work by trying to introduce children to our present written language 
 through a phonetic system. Dr. Leigh's books of this kjnd are used 
 in many of our cities from New York to St. Louis, if not to San Fran- 
 cisco, as they might well be. Many persons learn phonetic steno- 
 graphy. There are a large number of teachers of it and periodicals 
 published in its interest. Mr. Pitman's Phonetic Journal has a circu- 
 lation of ten thousand copies. 
 
 Most persons forty or fifty years old would be astonished to learn 
 how extensive is the preparation for a change of spelling already 
 made in the younger generation. Add foreigners and other persons 
 who read imperfectly and do not know but Josh Billings spells as well
 
 a* any body, a great host, and it would seem that three fourths of the 
 persons in America who ore counted in onr census as able to read, 
 could read with little new embarrassment a reformed spelling having 
 no unkown characters, while the 5,500,000 illiterates might be taught 
 it in half the tune of the old one. 
 
 SCHEMES OF REFORM. 
 
 The remedy for single words which have old sjlent letters stand- 
 ing, or blundering spelling of their own, is obvious, if not easy. Drop 
 the sjlent letters. Correct the blunders- It is not easy to apply these 
 obvious directions, because our spelling is so complex that a change 
 can seldom be made without starting into activity some minor analogy 
 which stops the way. Drop the sclent e of ripe, it becomes rip. Drop 
 one of the ts of latter, it becomes later. Grief has a sjlent letter. Is 
 it i or e V The I in could is a mere blunder under the influence of should 
 and icould ; the o is a modern insertion. Shall we then wrjte cud ? Be- 
 fore we can answer we must decjde on the scheme of sounds which we 
 will i[se. All corrections should bring the words nearer to the ideal 
 alphabet. There are a few words in which we can not go wrong. Such 
 are most of those with a silent e after a syllable with a short vowel, 
 give (giv , live {liv); and of those in which ea has the sound of short e, 
 dead(ded), haul [hed)\ hut in most words we can do nothing to the pur- 
 pose till we have settled the alphabet which shall be the basis of 
 general reform. The remedy for the general insufficiency and contra- 
 riety of our notation is by no meaiM* obvious or easy. There are tliree 
 general methods of cirre, each of which has its show of reason and its 
 able advocates. 
 
 NEW SIGNS. 
 
 The first is the invention and adoption of a new set of alphabetic 
 sjgiis, which shall have forms better suited to rapid and legible writ- 
 ing than the Roman characters, and have scientific analogies with the 
 sounds which they represent. It must be admitted that it is easy to im- 
 prove upon the Roman alphabet in these respects. Any one who 
 has seen the alphabet of Mr. Pitman's stenography, or that of Bishop 
 Wilkins. or of Mr. Bell, will be at no loss for suggestions. It 
 would be a greet thing, certainly, if we could have in English a 
 system adapted to all possibilities of vocal utterance, with scientific 
 simplicity and legibility such as to make it finally the alphabet of 
 the world. For my part, I do not regard it as a wild vision to imag- 
 ine such an alphabet in the fqtuje. But it is obvious that any such 
 system must win its way very slowly, first into co-ordinate i|se with 
 the Roman alphabet, and after a struggle of many generations, to its 
 displacement; so that the improvement of our present alphabet is still 
 to be desp-ed whjle it lasts. As to the direction in which we are to
 
 IO 
 
 look for the coming conqueror, it may be worth remarking, that it 
 seems not unlikely that printing by hand-machines may take the place 
 of wilting to a great extent, and make rapidity quite secondary to leg- 
 ibility. If the press had not been invented, and books, and magazines, 
 and newspapers had to be prepared by penmen for all the readers of 
 the present day, Pitman's stenography, or something ljke it, would 
 have long since displaced the Roman letters; the hand-machine for 
 printing may open the way for an alphabet ljke Bell's, of complex 
 signs with large significance. 
 
 OUR LETTERS WITH ROMAN VALUES. 
 
 The Roman alphabet is so widely and firmly established among 
 the leading civilized nations that it can not be soon displaced. In 
 adapting it to improved qse in English, and in supplementing it, two 
 plans may be followed. One is to hold the Roman values of the let- 
 ters as nearly as they are found in English, and supplement by the in- 
 vention of new characters, and the qse of diacritical marks. This is 
 the system which scholars generally qse when they wish to represent 
 in wrjting the true sounds of English words, and it brings us inter ac- 
 cord with other nations. It gives the following alphabet. The letters 
 which have their Roman sound, or nearly that, in familiar qse,and so 
 retain it, are a (far), e (let), i (pit),o {note),u (bull), b, c (k),d, f, g (go), 
 h, /, in, n, p, r, s (so), t. We now distinguish between the vowel and 
 consonant sounds of the Roman i and u, qsing y and w for the conso- 
 nant sounds: j andr, old variations of /and u, were at first qsed with 
 this power in English, as they still are in many languages, but since 
 the NoTinan mixture they have acquired other sounds, and y and ware 
 too firmly established to be easily shaken. We have also come to dis- 
 tinguish the surd from the sonant utterance of s, the sonant now being 
 denoted by 2, or a reversed s, so that we must add to the Roman con- 
 sonants, v, w, y, z. (a). There ore three new short vowela which need 
 sjgna, those in fat, not, but. For theae the sign-: most eaay to intro- 
 duce are easily recognized variations of a, 0, u, such aa, for example, 
 a. er, u. It ba-i been heretofore found best in languages written in 
 Roman letters to qse the same sign fur a short vowel and its long, ad- 
 ding (( diacritical mark where great precision is needed. This course 
 would probably be acceptable in English with the sounds of a (past 
 far .a [fat fare), (obey note), u (bull rude), & (not nor), u (but, burn). 
 There ia doubt about e (let late) and i (pick pique); variations of e, 
 Looking like a err a, such as, for example, a, and of i looking ljke e, e 
 have good promise. For diphthongs there ore ai (by), au (house), 
 oi (noise , iu (music.) It seema to be necessary almost for us to qae at 
 first for ai some variation of i, such as, for example, j: and for iu 
 some variation of u, such aa, for example, q. Nor is the permanent
 
 II 
 
 qse of a simple character for these glides to be deplored, if poljte pro- 
 nunciation is to be represented. Finally there are the consonants th, 
 dh, (thin thnie), sh, zh, (sugar pleasure), ng (sing), and the combina- 
 tion;-! tsh (church), dzh (judge), which await their signs in the perfect 
 alphabet. The surd and sonant th had their simple sign* in Anglo- 
 Saxon, which scholars would ljke to revive. The old long s has been 
 qsed a good deal for sh by scherlura in Germany. The italic g g offers a 
 good transition f< rrm for g, when it has the sound of dzh ; and many other 
 character have been suggested for all these sounds by our modern 
 inventors, none of them quite satisfactory, or giving promise of easy 
 introduction. But we need not fear. The digraphs with h are not so 
 very bad, and the single signs will be forthcoming in dqe time. 
 
 In behalf of this system it may be said, that it will be easiest to 
 read for all who read French, German, Latin, Greek, or Anglo-Saxon, 
 and will have all learned associations in its favor. It will be easiest 
 for children and the illiterate to learn. It will make the learning of 
 foreign tongues easy. It will settle the school pronunciation of Latin 
 and Greek. We shall pronounce, of course, as the Komans did; for 
 that will be our natqral reading of the letters. ISTo one will think of 
 studying up a pronunciation so remote and difficult as our English 
 method will then become, or of making a lingua Franca of good old 
 Latin, after the manner of the so-called continental method. It will 
 revive the speech of our classic old English authors. As we now 
 read Hamlet and the Canterbury Tales, Shakespeare would understand 
 them with difficulty, Chaucer hardly at all. Chaucer tells us what 
 pains he took with his spelling: 
 
 " So oft aday I mot thy werke renewe, 
 It to correct, and eke to rubbe and scrape." 
 He saj^s further : 
 
 " So preye I God that non myswrite the, 
 ]STe the mysmetere for defaute of tongue." 
 
 The old manuscripts are carefully printed for us ; we have onlv 
 to pronounce correctly and we shall hear the music of the masters. 
 
 That this reform of our spelling will be no hindrance to etymol- 
 ogical studies need hardly be mentioned, it has been so often explain- 
 ed by our great philologists. We have the records preserved of all 
 the old forms of spelling, and scholars like nothing better than to 
 search them out, and give them to the public, who may find them in 
 their dictionaries. It Avill however make it harder for foreigners little 
 versed in etymology, to recognize English words akin to their own, 
 or to the other foreign tongues. It is thought that it will be hard to 
 introduce this scheme; that the printers can not qse it for want of 
 types, and that no one can read it without study. These objections 
 have force against the sudden qse of the whole scheme, but may be
 
 12 
 
 met by its gradqal introduction and by temporary expedients. Three 
 lnies of movement (ire needed, one to render the new types familiar 
 to the public, a second to earn out a system of uniform ijse of all the 
 letters, a third to drop sjlent letters. Something may be done in each 
 lnie at once, but the first natqrally leads the way. The new letters 
 may be substituted for the old ones which they resemble, when the old 
 ones have the intended sound, without embarrassing any reader; and 
 when the new letters have become familiar, they can be gradually 
 U^ed wherever their sound occurs. Printers who have not the new 
 types, can use the old ones of which they are variation*, adding a dot : 
 a - for a, o* for o, a* for u, and the ljke. Every one of these distinc- 
 tions, accurately made, is clear gain, however it may be expressed by 
 types. 
 
 REFORM ACCORDING TO ENGLISH ANALOGIES. 
 
 The other system is to follow the analogies of the present English 
 spelling, to give each of our single letters the value which it has eften- 
 est, and to supplement with those digraphs which now most common- 
 ly represent the sounds which would have no single letter to repre- 
 sent them. 
 
 Two powerful reasons maybe urged for a trial of this method. 
 
 1. It can be easily read by every one who can read in the present 
 spelling. 
 
 2. It can be printed with common types. 
 
 It may be further said, that it is in the ljne of the regular develop- 
 ment of our Language. It is the tendency everywhere in language for 
 minoritiea to conform to majorities. The unusual modes of spelling 
 would naturally, according to this law, give way to the most common 
 mode, and this would ultimately be the only mode of denoting each 
 sound. So that in adopting this system we should only be hastening 
 the natural process by which cosmos comes out of chaos; and this, 
 our scientific men say, is the true office of the reformer. 
 
 Many of the objections to this scheme would be removed by re- 
 garding digraphs which represent elementary sounds, as single charac- 
 ters, and naming them a.s such by their elementary sound without mak- 
 ing mention oi the separate letters. They should be castas one type. 
 Then the type founders would soon invent shapely abbreviations, which 
 would be good enough signs, and record some English history to boot. 
 In redqeing the scheme to practice difficulties arise. The qses of our 
 letters ore so various thai the conflict of qval claims among the dj- 
 graphs s hard to decide, and, however it be decided, the aspect of 
 large numbers of words is so completely changed that easy reading is 
 out of the question. Then this Iqnd of spelling is associated in many 
 minds with buffoonery, vulgarity and illiteracy. It exejtes odium, rid-
 
 x 3 
 
 icqle and violent opposition. In spjte of all this, there ai - e many 
 persons to whom it is more acceptable than any other scheme. It ha? 
 been carefully labored by Mr. Ellis, Mr. Jones, and others, and the 
 use of it may obviously contribute to genuine reform in the present 
 stage of the movement. 
 
 PEACTICAL MEASURES. 
 
 !No eaniest comprehensive effort has yet been made to ascertain 
 and harmonize the views of those interested in this reform. Commit- 
 tees of the English and the American Philological Association would be 
 now in a position to attempt it, and probably the attempt wiL be made 
 during the coming year. If the assent of a few of the most eminent 
 representatives of scholarship can be combined with that of the lead- 
 ing practical workers, an indefinite number of subscription-' of assent 
 from others can easily be obtained. It would be too much to hope 
 that any complete system can at once be agreed upon : but it seem* 
 almost certain that some important particulars may be, since the re- 
 port of the Co-mmittee of the American Philological Association was 
 not only made qnanimously and adopted without opposition, but is 
 apparently cordially assented to everywhere, even by those who have 
 been looked to as champion?, of our present spelling. This report 
 contains the following propositions : 
 
 u The jdeal of an alphabet is that every sound should have its own 
 unvarying sjgn and every isjgn its own unvarying sound." 
 
 "The Roman alphabet is so widely and so firmly established in 
 qse among the leading civilized nations that it can not be displaced ; 
 in adapting it to improved qse for English, the efforts of scholars 
 should be directed towards its qse with qniformity and in conformity 
 with other nations." It can not sqrely be impossible to take a first 
 step in the course thus distinctly marked out. 
 
 AX ASSOCIATION OF REFORMERS. 
 
 But even before any agreement on schemes of reform, a national 
 or international association of those interested in the matter may be 
 formed. A nqcleus of permanent workers might accomplish much by 
 collecting the names of a large number of members, organizing sub- 
 ordinate societies, urging the reform by lectqres, through the press, by 
 private correspondence, and in many other ways. 
 
 LEARNED SOCIETIES. 
 
 Many learned societies may with propriety aid by passing resolq- 
 tions in favor of reformed spelling, and by introdqcing it into then- 
 Transactions. The Philological Society of Loudon, the American
 
 Philological Association, National and State Teachera Associations, 
 the Associationa for the Advancement of Science in Great Britain 
 and America, and other similar bodiea, may be looked to with hope. 
 Both the Philological Soqetiea have had the matter before them; the 
 American ha? appointed and continued from year to year a committee 
 representing our great qniversitiba and our best scholarship — whose 
 ri port for the lust year baa already been mentioned; the London So- 
 ciety allows a certain latitude to its membera in the spelling of their 
 papera in their transactiona. National and State Teachers Associa- 
 tiona have also appointed Committeea to investigate and report, and 
 to co-operate with the Philological Association. 
 
 GOVERNMENT ACTION. 
 
 The Legislatqrea of our States, of the Unjted States, and of Great 
 Britain may introduce the new spelling into public documents. A con- 
 siderable number of documents published by the United States con- 
 tain linguistic material connected with the aborigines, which ought to 
 be printed in uniform phonetic spelling to be eaaily qaed by scholars. 
 The legislature of the conservative old State of Connecticut has the 
 honor of leading the way. The following joint reaolirtion passed both 
 their housea without dissent. 
 
 " Resolved by this Assembly : That the Governor be, and he hereby 
 i/ authorized to appoint a Commission, consisting of six competent 
 persons, who shall examine as to the propriety of adopting an amend- 
 ed orthography of the public documents hereafter to he printed, and 
 how far such amended orthography may with propriety be adopted, 
 and report thereupon to the next session of the General Assembly. 
 That such Commission shall receive no compensation for its services. 
 Approved duly 20th, lsT;").' 1 
 
 The Governor appointed Senator W. W. Fowler, by whom the 
 Eteaolution was offered, Professora Whitney and Trumbull of Yale 
 College, the Secretary of the Board of Edqcation, Hon. B. G. 
 Northrup, Professora Hart of Trinity College and Van Benshoten of 
 Wesleyan University, a Commission of which any State might he 
 proud. This ( lommission has been continued by the legislature in the 
 hope that concurrent action may be taken by other States. The two 
 houaea of the Pennsylvania legislature were passinga similar joint rea- 
 olqtion without dissent, when some one noticed that under the new 
 constitution it must have the form of a bill. This preliminary action 
 has bei n of great importance in awakening interest aud gathering up 
 a certain authority for the movement. The actual i[se of improved 
 spelling in such documents and transactions would give it authority 
 without kindling popqlar hostility.
 
 '5 
 
 PREEDMEN ; S AID AXD BIBLE SOCIETIES. 
 
 An appeal may be made with much reason to all associations 
 which are formed to support our free institution* and to promote Chris- 
 tianity, such a* the freedmen'a aid socjetiea, the home missionary and 
 the Bjhle societies. The freedmen will not learn the present spelling. 
 The missionaries among- the pagan perpqlationa in California and else- 
 where cannert qse the press to reach them. We print Bj'hlcs and other 
 good books in strange djalects in the hope of reaching a few thousand 
 Asiatics or Africans. An English Bjble in reformed orthography may 
 well reach millions in a single generation who otherwise would never 
 read it. 
 
 PUBLISHERS. 
 
 Publishers must be brerughl to take an interest in the reform. 
 Some will doubtless do so from pure benevolence and love erf progress; 
 but they ought also to have money in it. There ore wrjters among us, 
 scholars and perpqlar authorz, who- may insist on qsing in their own 
 publications more or less of reformed spelling. A single new letter 
 is worth introducing, or a single reformed word. Many newspapers 
 and periodicals could be easily opened in this way. Several papers 
 are now printed in a reformed alphabet, and they may be encouraged. 
 Merchants and other advertisers may insist on printing their business 
 advertisements and circqlars in the same manner. Dictionaries must be 
 made, and other standard works of reference in which publishers will 
 invest. Is it not possible that the publishers of primers and spellers 
 ma}- adapt a uniform statement of our alphabetic sounds, and change 
 the names of the letters to the sounds which they oftenest represent. 
 That would be great sain, worth holding a convention for. 
 
 TEACHERS. 
 
 Teachers are our best hope. Thay need the reform most. Thay 
 understand jt best. Thay must teach it to the generation who are to 
 qse it. The way should be made easy for them. Primers, spellers, 
 readers, and all other school-books, and other printed apparatus of the 
 best kjnd should be furnished in reformed spelling. It may be made a 
 matter of discussion and instruction in their institutes and conven- 
 tions, and in their printed periodicals. The superintendents will lead 
 the van. Win the schoolroom and the cause is w^on. 
 
 RAPID PROGRESS. 
 
 Want of faith and want of concert are the greatest obstacles to 
 rapid progress. Scholars, especially, think how slow changes in lan- 
 guage have been, and how little influence the learned class have ex-
 
 i6 
 
 cited upon them; they sleep in the field? of G^ant Despair. But year 
 by year the power ef reason increase? in every form of activity, as year 
 by year the mean? increase erf collecting and concentrating the assent 
 of thinking persona. What with our railroads and telegraphs and 
 newspapers, and our socjetie? and associations, with their meeting? and 
 conventions, it is not extravagant to say that a wjder and more 
 powerful concentration of opinion can now be effected in a single sum- 
 mer than would have been possible in a hundred years three centuries 
 ago. Changes of pronunciation, general changes of spoken language, 
 depend in great part on little known causes which work upon whole 
 net ion? through their physical organization, and which we may well 
 despair of controlling ; but orthography i? independent machinery over 
 which the consent of reason has full control. Several modern lan- 
 guages have had their spelling reformed by the influence of learned 
 academies, or by government; and sqrely no language needs reform 
 more than our?, and no race are more ready reformer?. 
 
 i l 
 
 **«* 
 
 
 -
 
 
 
 OFFICERS 
 
 OF THE 
 
 SPELLING REFORM ASSOCIATION 
 
 PRESIDENT. 
 
 Pbof. F. A. MARCH. Lafayette College, Easton, Pa. 
 VICE PRESIDENTS. 
 
 Pbof. S. S. HALDEMAN, University of Pennsylvania, Chickies, Pa. 
 
 E. JONES, 35 Newstead Road, Liverpool". 
 
 Hon. W. T. HARRIS, St. Louis, Mo. 
 
 Prof. W. 1>. Whitney, Vale Colli'-.'. New Haven, Conn. 
 
 Pbof. C. K. NELSON, St. John's College, Annapolis, Md. 
 
 Miss. E. B. BURNS, 33 Park Row, New York. 
 
 BECOKDINO SECBETABY, 
 
 MELVIL DEWEY, 13 Treniont Place, Boston, .Mass. 
 
 CORRESPONDING SECBETABY AND TREASCRER. 
 
 D. 1'. LINDSLEY, Fernwnod, Pa. 
 
 m
 
 Los Angeles 
 This book is DUE on the last date stamped below. 
 
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 oct x e w« 
 
 APR l 7 1957 
 
 
 
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