SIMPLER SPELING REAZONS 
anguaj, 
a to be 
needed 
t func- 
reader's 
silly to 
or to 
as long 
{ many 
em stil 
~ But 
nts wil 
world’s 
rention 
grafical 
writers 
1 ading 
In fact 
‘homas 
aments 
printer 
ense of 
han to 
unense 
red in 
ations 
o busy 
simply 
xt paje 
~dantic 
sistent 
18 they 
— this 
due to the fact that — becauz 
sum of $10,000 — $10,000 
in a prudent manner — prudently 
put in an appearance — appear 
the twenty-eighth day of May in the year of our Lord one thousand 
eight hundred and ninety-nine — 28 May 1899 (70 vs 9 typs) 
it is often the case that authors fail — authors often fail 
giv the boundaries of — bound 
Can it be dun? Absurd spelings like old ‘fysshe’ and ‘dogge’ for 
fish’ and ‘dog’ ar slufing off useless letrs as a tadpole loses its tail, or as 
scum rizes from boiling sap in a maple orchard. Samuel Johnson in 17353 
printed a dictionary which greatly delayd this natural process. Uzing 
neither rime nor reazon he embalmd in a book, with the weight of his 
great name, simply the usaj of London printing offises, which wer run 
almost wholy by Dutch and German printers, many of whom knew no 
English. He laid down as a sacred law, ‘Uphill with 2 1s’ but ‘downhil 
with 1’, and endless similar absurdities, at which we laf, but we hav made 
‘downhill’ as difficult as his ‘uphill’ and stil look askance at one who spels 
‘til’ as he does ‘until’. Our greatest filolojist, William D Whitney of 
Yale, editor Century dictionary, wrote to our 1876 International Conference 
on Speling Reform a concise statement which has been very often reprinted, 
and I think never questiond by any competent authority: ‘The true and 
sole offis of alfabetic writing is correctly to represent spokn speech’. 
Writing is attempt to convey to 1 at a distance (either in space or time) 
what wud be spokn to 1 close at hand, and therefore writn word shud 
represent spokn word as exactly as posibl. 
Many chanjes wer merely corruptions resulting from slipshod pronuncia- 
tion and lak of accurate speling, which wud hav been a relyabl gyd. 
Always many chanjes ar inevitabl in any languaj, as its words and idioms 
gro, dy or chanje, in pronunciation, speling and meaning. To continue 
old spelings after words hav chanjed is as absurd as to continue old price 
quotations insted of following the market. Englishmen ar conservativ 
but we hav substituted (tho only long after other nations) arabic numerals 
for the clumsy I, V, X, L, C, D, M; we hav a reazonabl and uniform way 
of writing music; we ar soon (again last of civilized nations) to uze interna- 
tional metric mesures, thereby saving countless millions. Practical busi- 
ness wil not much longer endure the costly tirany of the 1 educated and 
wholy unbusiness-like and inefficient pedant. So if the intelijent wil do 
their duty we shal expedite greatly the stedy growth of English toward 
simplicity, strength and efficiency. That infinitly desirabl process can 
be bro’t about only by pyoneer adoptions by those who hav both knowlej 
of the great need and curaj to lead in a cauz bound to be unpopular with 
those ignorant of fonolojy and of the vitalv important reazons which hav