other cases seems to indicate the long sound of the vowel, as in roll, tall.

In a poem called "The Ormulum," every short vowel was indicated by a double consonant, as waterr, filledd.

6. The use of c before k is sometimes an orthographical expedient to indicate the short or dependent sound of the preceding vowel, as in pickle. K is never doubled.

7. The use of u after g is an orthographic expedient indicating the surd sound of g, as in guile, prorogue.

8. "The use of th for the simple sound of the first consonant in thin and thine is an orthographical expedient. The combination must be dealt with as a single letter."

9. The use of d before g, as in edge, abridge, budge, lodge, is an orthographical expedient showing that the vowel is short. Elementary sounds, then, in the English language, are expressed,

I. By single appropriate elementary signs; as, in the words law and bar the first elementary sound in each is normally represented by the letter 7 or b.

II. By single elementary signs used abnormally or irregularly; as, in the words many, design, the a in the first, the s in the second, are used irregularly, the one to represent the sound normally represented by e, and the other the sound normally. represented by z.

III. By conventional expedients as above described.

Of these three modes, the first is greatly to be preferred, as being regular, and as promoting consistency in the language. The second and third are not to be encouraged, inasmuch as they introduce irregularity and confusion.

QUESTIONS UNDER CHAPTER V.

1. For what purpose are orthographical expedients especially employed! 2. In what several modes is the long sound of the vowel expressed? 3. In what several modes is the short sound of the vowel expressed 4. What is said of the use of c before k?

5. What is said of the use of u after g?

6. In what three ways are elementary sounds expressed?

7. Which of these three modes is to be preferred, and why?

CHAPTER VI.

ORTHOGRAPHY.

IN WHAT ORTHOGRAPHY CONSISTS.

§ 223. ORTHOGRAPHY, or right spelling of a word, consists in the use of those letters which best agree, first, with its Pronunciation; second, with its Etymology; and third, with the Analogies of the English language, particularly of that class of words to which it belongs. A person acquainted only with the general power of the letters, but ignorant of the intricacies of English orthography, will very likely use those letters which merely express the sounds of the words which he employs, irrespective of the other two particulars. For thought he would write thaut. An etymologist would be inclined to adopt that spelling which would best give the history of the word. For governor he would very likely write governour. A spelling-book maker would, in forming his tables, have his mind fixed on the analogy of particular classes of words, and withdrawn from the other two particulars. But, in order to form a correct system of orthography, one must, instead of leaning to one of these modes, comprehend them all in his view, giving to each its due prominence, and at once expressing the Sounds of words, their Histories and Analogies.

DIVERSITIES IN ORTHOGRAPHY.

§ 224. The diversities in Orthography which have existed in the Anglo-Saxon first, and then in the English language, may be dated back, I. To the original dialectic differences in the Saxons, the Angles, and the Jutes; II. To there being for a period eight Saxon kingdoms, each of which, in an age when there was no printing, might originate some peculiarities of dialect; III. To the partial introduction of Scandinavian terms from Norway, Sweden, and Denmark; IV. To the influence of the Norman Conquest; V. To the writers of the period of Queen Elizabeth, some of whom attached but little consequence to orthography. Shakspeare's name is spelled in at least two, if not three differ

ent ways in his will, and the proper way of spelling it is not yet fully settled.

In the Anglo-Saxon, a single word was sometimes spelled in as many as fifteen or twenty different ways. And more than one word can be found in the present English which are spelled by different authors in ten or twelve different ways. Though Johnson in his Dictionary was thought to have settled the "external form" of the language, there still remain what he calls "spots of barbarity," which the orthographist may endeavor to remove. Diversities still exist, and questions not unfrequently arise which can be settled only by an appeal to the true principles of orthography.

INCONSISTENCIES OF ENGLISH ORTHOGRAPHY.

§ 225. The inconsistencies of English orthography might be inferred from the examples under equivalent letters, § 209. They are still more strikingly seen in the following examples, in which the same sounds are expressed by different letters, or different sounds are expressed by the same letters. In the case of done, the analogical spelling would be rone, the actual spelling is (run). So eight, leight (late); thigh, trigh (try); design, lign (line); two, dwo (do); hearty, pearty (party); learn, tearn (turn); such, tuch (touch); double, bouble (bubble); despair, thair (there); beauty, deauty (duty); said, haid (head); laughter, aughter (after).

B makes road broad; c makes limb climb; d turns a crow into a crowd; e turns yes into eyes; f turns the lower regions into flower regions; g makes one gone; h turns eight into height; k makes now know; I changes a pear into a pearl; n changes a crow into a crown; p changes a rover into a prover; s changes hall into shall; t turns here into there; w turns omen into women; y turns ours into yours.-PITMAN'S Phonetic Journal.

§ 226. For instance, the celebrated William Cobbett proposed, by a summary process, to give up the forms of the preterits of the irregular or strong verbs, and substitute for them the forms in ed, thus making the verbs regular, as arised for arose, abided

Р

for abode. This would be a sweeping change in our orthogra-
phy. On the other hand, with more reason, that distinguished
scholar, Archdeacon Hare, proposed that, following the example
of Spenser and Milton, we should return to those forms in spell-
ing the preterits which express their sounds in pronunciation,
as stept for stepped, cald for called, exprest for expressed. Thus
Spenser uses the orthography which makes the letters conform
to the sound, lookt, pluckt, nurst, kist; so did Milton, as hurld,
worshipt, confest. In confirmation, he quotes the authority of
Grimm: "In case the e is omitted in the preterit, the d becomes
t after 1, m, n, p, k, ƒ (from v), gh (from k and ch), and s, as
dealt, dreamt, learnt, crept, crackt, reft, sought, kist.”
To illustrate his proposal, he makes the following happy quo-
tation of a stanza of Coleridge's beautiful Genevieve:

"Her bosom heaved, she stepped aside-
As conscious of my look she stepped;
Then suddenly, with timorous eye,

She fled to me and wept."

"How much," he remarks, "the grace of these lines to the eye would be improved, if stepped were written, as the rhyme shows it must be pronounced, stept."

Other reformers have proposed to lay aside all silent letters as useless or inconvenient; while others still, like Dr. Franklin, have proposed a reformed Alphabet.

OPPOSITE VIEWS.

§ 227. Two views have been taken of the subject of reform in language. The one is in favor of innovation, the other of conservation. Pope ridiculed a love for the rust of antiquity.

"Authors, like coins, grow dear as they grow old;

It is the rust we value, not the gold."

Shakspeare, on the other hand, in Love's Labor Lost, Act V., scene i., makes one of his characters ridicule innovation in language: "I abhor such fanatical phantasms, insociable and point-devise companions; such rackers of orthography, as to speak dout fine, when he should say doubt; det, when he should say debt-d-e-b-t, not d-e-t. He clepeth a calf, cauf; half, hauf; neighbor, vocatur nebour; neigh, abbreviated ne; this is abhominable, which he would call abominable."

J

These views relate to orthography in particular, as well as to language in general. One class are attached to the external form of the language as they have been acquainted with it from their childhood, when they rejoiced in being good spellers; and they regard every change in the word, which they have associated with the great thoughts and noble sentiments produced by themselves or others, as a kind of profanation. The other class are inclined to dwell on the acknowledged defects and inconsistencies of English orthography, and to aver that we are bound to aim at their removal by salutary reform.

We incline to the opinion of Mitford: "Unfortunately for the English language, custom, distracted between two widely dif ferent idioms, the Anglo-Saxon and the Norman-French, has not only neglected science, but has allowed capricious ignorance to riot. Hence it will be necessary, with stricter care, to survey the established representation of the sounds of English speech by written characters; to unfold its perplexities; to discover among its anomalies what may pass for rules; to fix upon a mode of pointing out to the reader, with certain precision, any sound in the language."-MITFORD on the Harmony of Language, p. 13.

§ 228. There are in the English language as many as four thousand words whose orthography is given in different forms by different modern dictionaries. The authors and editors of these dictionaries, or most of them, have felt that reform was necessary, and therefore have set up to be reformers; some of them leaning to usage, some to etymology, some to the analogies of the language, some to convenience, or other considerations.

USAGE.

§ 229. It is often asserted that USAGE or CUSTOM is the sovereign arbiter in all matters pertaining to language. "But what is this custom to which we must so implicitly submit? Is it the multitude of speakers [spellers], whether good or bad? This has never been asserted by the most sanguine abettors of its authority. Is it the usage of the studious in schools and colleges,