SPELLING REFORM.

Dominion, Volume 7, Issue 1986, 17 February 1914, Page 4

SPELLING REFORM.

—^—4——-'. SIR W. RAWS PLEA, ENGLISH A VfmiJ) UNOUAGB SUCCESfED JHtERMATIONAL CONFERENCE. That it was 100 to I in favour" of English becoming the universal language if a spelling reform was- adopted- was the vie« 4 advanced by Sir W. Ramsay, Who presided, at a meeting of the "Sim* plilied Speting Sosieti," at the University of London at the beginning of- last month. , Professor Gilbert Murray sent a letter supporting the need for spelling reform, iu' which ho said: "Many lan--guages in the .past hate,, gone through a crisis similar to that in whjeh English now finds itself. Seme havo had the vigour and foresight to keep their Writ* ten signs abreast of their speech; sopio have failed, and eventually 'become unintelligihto even, ill their own country. I, can have lit-Uo doubt that sooner or later the speakers of English will provo themselves strong enough to grapple successfully with the danger's of decay that lie in our uttreforroed spelling." Sir William Ramsay, after referring to the difficulties foreigners had in learning English, said he supposed ho was right in saying that .English spell-' ing was stereotyped very largely by Dr. John-Soft's dictionary, and "Johnson adopted a number of spellings -which Werfe obviously wrong. It wonld ho a good thing if tho Simplified Speling Sosicti were to bring out a, small penny booklet giving a list of misspelt words, with their derivation and equivalent, and to.try to'.gct people to use- the right ispelliugs for 1 such words—"sulfur" for ".gutphur," fqt example—as a st.HTt. That would acßuatom people to a change of spelling. They attached much more value to their -spel-li-ng than it really deserved, just because of the, labour spent in learning it. What Reform Might qo. What he emphasised particiilarlv Was tlist if we altered our system and "madeit reasonable, the chances were more than 100 to 1 that English ivould be adapted as the universal language. It was spnkei) by the. inhabitants of the United States, Oonada. 4 and. SouthAfrica.; a large.'-' part- of. Japan .now epqke English',; "irf-lndia. the'only language in which- .the natives pouid enmm.uuicate'. with tli'civ: did not coiriewf'foVii country was English.) tho educated in-■liabit-antg of Germany-learnt it; they eo.u.id-,hardly- go...anywhere in Norway and step anyone in tiro street Who would, not answer in English, while tho Swedes knew it extremely well.

Educated people in the whole world almost knew English, and if it was . ltrnde easy to write' English, if there was any rule for modern prouounciation aiid spelling, we should havo English adopted as tho i.miversu.l language, to the enormous. advaiitago not' only of ourselves a,s. Jhigiish peppleV but of t'lia wholes world. Tfiß imperial Siart(tpqlrit, Professor llippman road, a paper oil the stahdatdisatjpji, of Englis.li BPEfitJj, til fllich he s.aid we Siepded- a'universal standard of good speech. We needed it for public Speaking, for, iutereaqr-se, aiid for teaoh.i.Vigj. and" we iteeded it in eider that \\-e might tatto up the right attitude dialect. ' There was. also the. Imperial standpoint. It was very' important, that," our' feeliow-siib-jedts in "Australia and D'ah.ada should karii a .Speech wliinh should be'pleasing, ftnd 'jt was necessary that we should be a-b'ia to tell the foreigner .what was good English! specoh'. What Was tho standard to' be? It must in tho main be ba;seij on the host present ■usage, which, in gome respcpt-Sj " Te> quired to bo determined, and it should Via as goad aesthetically as wo could moke it. We, waiitecj to. make pur 'speech as.pleasant, go.ot, aild clear as possible, and in this..there wpu'ld have to be so-me giye and t-akp<

It was really time for- the Board of Education tp take this question in. hand, and for that purpose there was required, apt merely a, small Departmental Camitiifctce.f but a conference representative o.f various sections of the community, of the' different pn.rts of the Empire, and of tlvp tinited ••■-,•■

A resolution was adopted requesting the Board:of .T&lueatipu to summon a cr.Bferenco for tlift purpose of defijjiUg English standard- speech,.