ENGLISH ORTHOGRAPHY.

Evening Star, Issue 4294, 30 November 1876, Page 1

ENGLISH ORTHOGRAPHY.

The convention to revise the orthography ot the English language, at present assembled at Philadelphia, has discovered that “the present English alphabet is inadequate. It has only twenty-six symbols for more than forty sounds. It is redundant as to C, Q f and X, and certain forms called capitals. It is contradictory ‘a’ representing no fewer than nine sounds, ‘e r seven, ‘i’five, V nine, and ‘u ’ eight. The so-called long sound of each of these letters is represented by more than fifteen different letters or combinations ; * c ’ and ‘ t each by ten, and other letters in so many different modes that for forty sounds there are more than 350 equivalents. The system is the outgrowth of ignorance and chance. Caxton’s workmen were meu, unable to write correct English. Words were clipped or lengthened according to the space which it was convenient to give them in arranging the printed lines. Fanciful deviations have been embodied and perpetuated in the blunders of printers and transcribers, until the graphy of words is no. reliable guide to their history, even were such history more important than a phonetic picture of our language as spoken from time to time.”