THE SPELLING REFORM.

Otago Witness, Issue 2744, 17 October 1906, Page 88

THE SPELLING REFORM.

(Paoir Our Own Correspokdznt.) NEW YORK September 8. The order ol President Roosevelt to the Public Printer at Washington that hereafter in the publication cf all public documents of the executhe departments tho chanred in spelling suggested by the Simplified Spelling Board foL- SOO wcrds shall be followed was the rause of such a furious di^cu?-=ion botb in this country and abroad that the President is not likely to forget the occasion. It was even declared thai tho order, which was very generally condemned, had sei\ously affecte-J the President's reputation. English comment appears to have been that it made the President ridiculous. Newspapers here declared that in editing siicii documents «•! appeared in their pages they would continue to print the English language and disregard the errors of spelling reeulting from this order. The criticism was sufficient to call forth a statement from tho President in the form of a letter to the Public Printer, which was made pubic. It said in part: " Mo-t of the criticism of the proposed elep is evidently made in entire ingorance of what the step is, no less than in entire ignorance of the very moderate and cora-mon-senss ■v iews as to the purposes to be achieved. There is not the slightest intention to do an3 thing revolutionary or initiate any far-reaching policy. The purpose is =imply for the Government, instead cf lagging behind popular .sentiment, to advance abreast of it, and at the camp time abreast of the views of the ablest and mest practical educators of our time, as well as the most profound scholars — men of the stamp of Professor Lounsbury and Professor Skcat. If the slight changes in the spelling of the 300 words proposed wholly or partially meet popular approval, then the changes will become' permanent, without any reference to what public officials or individual prhate citizens may feel; if they do not ultimately meet with popular approval they will Le dropped, and that is all there is about it. They represent nothing in the world but a very plight extension of the unconscious movement which has made agricultural implement makers and farmers w rite ' plow instead of plough ' ; which has made mo^t Americans write 'honor' without the eomewhat absurd, superfluous 'v ' : and which ia even now making people write 'program' without the ' me' just as ali people who speak English now write 'bat.' 'set.' 'dim.' 'sum, pud 'fish' instead of the Elizabethan ' batt<\" 'settee,' ' dimme,' 'summe,' and 'fyssho"; which makes us write • public ' 'almanac,' 'eia.' 'fantasy, and 'wagon,' instead of the 'publick^ 'almanack.' 'aera,' 'phantasy,' ana ' waggon 'of our grandfathers. It is not an attack upon the language of Shakespeare and Milton, because it is in some instances a going back to the forms they u=ed and in others merely the extension of change^ which, as regards other words, have taken p'ao» since their time. It is not an attemp; to do anything far-reaching, or sudden, or violent, or, indeed, anything very great at all. It i-t merely an attempt to cast what slight weight may properly b? cast on the 6>de of the popular forces which are en deavourin* tc make our spelling a htt,e less foolish and fantastic." A New York paper summarises the sirapbfied spelling rules as follows :-(l) "When offered a choice between oo and c, choose c. Examples. Anesthetic, esthetic, medieval. (2) If the choice lies between c and no c m words like abridgment, lodgment, acknowlodg ment always omit the c. (3) Use tin place of c<l for the past or past participle of \erb-, ending in c. eh, or P- Examples: Dipt, dnpt. pre=t, Jistrfet, husht, washt. (4) Stick to onse in preference to enee when you li.aye a choice. Example* : D'-fense, offens.o. pretense. (5) Do not double the tin coquet, epaulet, ehquet, omelet. (6) When you can replace gh with f. do it. Example: Draft. (7) Better still, get r.d of gh altogether. For plough write plow; for through write Ira. (8) Write the Greek suffix i£C or ize, with the z by preference. Examples: C«techize. critics. (9> Whenany authority allows it, omit the c in words spelled with" ite. Exampi* : Preterit. (10) Use a single 1 in words like distil, instil, fulfil (ll> Omit one 1 from wort's now written like fuihi<:=-<. Example : Dulness. (12) In words sometimes spelled with one and sometime with a double m, choose the short form Kxarrple: Gram, program. (13) In worths s7)Pl]Pd with oo or c, choose o. Example; E^ophagus. (14) Always omit the it from words sometimes spelled with oiuExamples : Labor, rumor. (15) Where you can feet any authority tti-c f in place of ph. Examples. Sulfur, fantasm. (16) In words spelled with a double, v-" a mustl* 1 r. as bur, pur. (17) Spell theatre, centre, etc . in the Ensrli-li wjj— renter, theater, nitor, motcr. (13) If a word is t-pellod with s or •i. in root. u~o tho z: a-, apprize, surprize. (19) From word-, spelled with so or s omit tho c EvpmpVs: Simitar. «=ithe. (20) Omit the terminal u^ when allowed. Examples : Catalog, decalog, demagog, pedasfog.

shortly after leaving Capetown, the pasc »ngers by the lonic, which arrived at Wellington this week, saw an immense .school of porpoisea. The procession of fish wa». roughly speaking, half a mile long. Photographs taken by Mr Penny, one of the passengers, refute the suggestion of * " fish story.'*