PHONETIC SPELLING.

Daily Telegraph (Napier), Issue 3143, 25 July 1881, Page 4

PHONETIC SPELLING.

Prof. Knowlton made a few highly interesting remarks upon phonetic spelling at the late teachers' meeting in San Fraucisco. He proved conclusively that there i 3 not a single man or woman in America who can spell the English language correctly, and pointed out tho absurdity of teaching our little children certain sounds to represent the letters of the alphabet, when in fact those letters symbolise many sounds. Taking the vowels, for instance : A has eight clifforent pronunciations; E has six; I, fire ; O, nine ; and TJ, eight. When he reached the consonants, the reportorial pencil fell, for a repetition or explanation of hieroglyphic sounds (if mysterious breath characters can be thus defined), was entirely beyond the power of any one not a walking dictionary of phonetic curiosities. As an example of this fact, and one of the singular possibilities in spelling, one word from the Professor's vocabulary will be given. To use blown language : Will you pronounce for me the following word : " G-bonghphtheigtht-teau. " No, you cannot answer. Well, it spells potato. Do you see ? No ? Then I'll prove it to you. O-h stands for p, a« you'll find from the last letters in hiccough. Ough stands for o, as in dough. Phth stands for t, as in phthisic. Eigh stands for a, as in neighbor. Tte stands for t, as in gazette, and eau stands for o, as in beau— and so from that jumble of letters you unearth the simple potato.