RUSSIANS DISCOURAGED

Waikato Times, Volume 106, Issue 17803, 30 August 1929, Page 9

RUSSIANS DISCOURAGED

BY RUSSIAN SPELLING. TRADITIONS MAINTAINED. Although Russian orthography was simplified a little after the revolution, educational circles at Moscow still feel abashed by the poor progress made In the last ten years in the simplification of the language. Radical reforms in Russian spelling were recently taken up by the press, and the discussions are expected to lead to practical results. The Russian language is full of illogical rules, maintained mainly for tradition’s sake. New Russians, however, care very little for tradition, esr pecially if it is going to hamper any scheme which they consider a step in the path of progress. There was, for example, an old grammatical rule, abolished at the revolution, which was supposed to have been introduced by Alexander 111 in order to keep the lower classes out of the universities and which caused no end of trouble among the students. What was called the “ vat ” was introduced to replace the usual “e ” in some instances. When the “ yat ” should lie used was a problem even to experts. Mistakes in this “ yat ’ and “e ” business flunked thouands of students, and inability to master the complicated rule drove many an unfortunate to suicide.