But I shall say no more on this, for as it is, I know I shall never hear the end of it, and shall go down to posterity, if for nothing else, at least for this the most suicidal folly in a student of languages; a folly comparable only to that of Leibniz, who actually conceived the possibility of one universal language.
To return, however, to the problem to the solution of which Mr. Pitman has devoted the whole of his [pg 139] active life, let me say again that my interest in it is purely philological; or, if you like, historical. The problem which has to be solved in England and the United States of America is not a new one, nor an isolated one. It occurs again and again in the history of language; in fact, it must occur. When languages are reduced to writing, they are at first written phonetically, though always in a very rough-and-ready manner. One dialect, that of the dominant, the literary, or priestly character, is generally selected; and the spelling, once adopted, becomes in a very short time traditional and authoritative. What took place thousands of years ago, we can see taking place, if we like, at the present moment. A missionary from the island of Mangaia, the Rev. W. Gill, first introduced the art of writing among his converts. He learned their language, at least one dialect of it, he translated part of the Bible into it, and adopted, of necessity, a phonetic spelling. That dialect is gradually becoming the recognized literary language of the whole island, and his spelling is taught at school. Other dialects, however, continue to be spoken, and they may in time influence the literary dialect. For the present, however, the missionary dialect, as it is called by the natives themselves, and the missionary spelling, rule supreme, and it will be some time before a spelling reform is wanted out there.
Among the more ancient nations of Europe, not only does the pronunciation of language maintain its inherent dialectic variety, and fluctuate through the prevalence of provincial speakers, but the whole body of a language changes, while yet the spelling, once adopted in public documents, and taught to children, [pg 140] remains for a long time the same. In early times, when literature was in its infancy, when copies of books could easily be counted, and when the norma scribendi was in the hands of a few persons, the difficulty of adapting the writing to the ever-varying pronunciation of a language was comparatively small. We see it when we compare the Latin of early Roman inscriptions with the Latin of Cicero. We know from Cicero himself that when he settled among the patricians of Rome, he had on some small points to change both his pronunciation and his spelling of Latin. The reform of spelling was a favorite subject with Roman scholars, and even emperors were not too proud to dabble in inventing new letters and diacritical signs. The difficulty, however, never assumes serious proportions. The small minority of people who were able to read and write, pleased themselves as best they could; and, by timely concessions, prevented a complete estrangement between the written and the spoken language.
Then came the time when Latin ceased to be Latin, and the vulgar dialects, such as Italian, French, and Spanish took its place. At that time the spelling was again phonetic, though here and there tinged by reminiscences of Latin spelling. There was much variety, but considering how limited the literary intercourse must have been between different parts of France, Spain, or Italy, it is surprising that on the whole there should have been so much uniformity in the spelling of these modern dialects. A certain local and individual freedom of spelling, however, was retained; and we can easily detect in mediæval MSS. the spelling of literate and illiterate writers, the hand of [pg 141] the learned cleric, the professional clerk, and the layman.
[A style of spelling will now be introduced which has received the name of Semiphonotypy. It requires no new letter: “[D] [p]” for the vowel in but, son, are made from “D p” by a pen-knife. The short vowels, diphthongs, and consonants are all written phonetically, except an occasional “n” = “[n]” before k and g, and “th” = both “[t]” and “[dh]” leaving only the long vowels in the old spelling. Six syllables out of seven are thus written as in full phonotypy. The italic and script forms of “[P [italic form] ]” are “[p [italic form] ]” (a turned italic “a”) and [P p [script form] ].]
The great event hwich formz a deseisiv epok in the histori ov speling iz the introd[p]kshon ov printing. With printed buks, and partikiularli with printed Beibelz, skaterd over the k[p]ntri, the speling of w[p]rdz bekame rijid, and universali beinding. S[p]m langwejez, s[p]ch az Italian, wer more fortiunate than [p]therz in having a more rashonal sistem ov speling tu start with. S[p]m, agen, leik Jerman, wer abel tu make teimli konseshonz, hweil [p]therz, s[p]ch az Spanish, D[p]ch, and French, had Akademiz tu help them at kritikal periodz ov their histori. The most [p]nfortiunate in all theze respekts woz Inglish. It started with a Latin alfabet, the pron[p]nsiashon ov hwich woz [p]nseteld, and hwich had tu be apleid tu a Tiutonik langwej. After this ferst fonetik kompromeiz it had tu pas through a konfiúzd sistem ov speling, half Sakson, half Norman; half fonetik, half tradishonal. The histori ov the speling, and even ov the pron[p]nsiashon, ov Inglish, in its pasej from Anglo-Sakson tu midel [pg 142] and modern Inglish, haz lateli been st[p]did with great s[p]kses bei Mr. Ellis and Mr. Sweet. Ei m[p]st refer tu their buks “On Erli Inglish Pron[p]nsiashon,” and “On the Histori ov Inglish Soundz,” hwich kontain a welth ov il[p]strashon, almost bewildering. And even after Inglish reachez the period ov printing, the konfiuzhon iz bei no meanz terminated; on the kontrari, for a teim it iz greater than ever. Hou this kame tu pas haz been wel il[p]strated bei Mr. Marsh in hiz ekselent “Lektiurz on the Inglish Langwej,” p. 687, seq.[69] Hwot we nou kall the establisht sistem ov Inglish orthografi may, in the main, be trast bak tu Jonson'z Dikshonari, and tu the stil more kaprishus sway ekserseizd bei larj printing ofisez and p[p]blisherz. It iz true that the evil ov printing karid tu a serten ekstent its own remedi. If the speling bekame [p]nchanjabel, the langwej itself, too, woz, bei meanz ov a printed literatiur, chekt konsiderabli in its natiural growth and its dealektik vareieti. Nevertheles Inglish haz chanjed sins the invenshon ov printing; Inglish iz chanjing, though bei imperseptibel degreez, even nou; and if we kompare Inglish az spoken with Inglish az riten, they seem almost leik two diferent langwejez; az diferent az Latin iz from Italian.
This, no dout, iz a nashonal misfortiun, but it iz inevitabel. Litel az we perseive it, langwej iz, and alwayz m[p]st be, in a state ov fermentashon; and hwether within hundredz or thouzandz ov yearz, all [pg 143] living langwejez m[p]st be prepared tu enkounter the difik[p]lti hwich in Ingland starez us in the fase at prezent. “Hwot shal we do?” ask our frendz. “Ther iz our hole nashonal literatiur,” they say, “our leibrariz aktiuali b[p]rsting with buks and nuizpaperz. Ar all theze tu be thrown away? Ar all valiuabel buks tu be reprinted? Ar we ourselvz tu [p]nlern hwot we hav lernd with so much tr[p]bel, and hwot we hav taught tu our children with greater tr[p]bel stil? Ar we tu sakrifeiz all that iz historikal in our langwej, and sink doun tu the low level ov the Fonetik Nuz?” Ei kud go on m[p]ltipleiing theze kwestionz til even thoze men ov the w[p]rld who nou hav onli a shrug ov the shoulder for the reformerz ov speling shud say, “We had no eidea hou strong our pozishon reali iz.”
But with all that, the problem remainz [p]nsolvd. Hwot ar peopel tu do hwen langwej and pron[p]nsiashon chanje, hweil their speling iz deklared tu be [p]nchanjabel? It iz, ei believ, hardli nesesari that ei shud prove hou kor[p]pt, efete, and [p]terli irrashonal the prezent sistem ov speling iz, for now[p]n seemz inkleind tu denei all thát. Ei shal onli kwote, therefor, the j[p]jment ov w[p]n man, the late Bishop Thirlwall, a man who never uzed ekzajerated langwej. “Ei luk,” he sez “[p]pon the establisht sistem, if an aksidental k[p]stom may be so kalld, az a mas ov anomaliz, the growth ov ignorans and chans, ekwali rep[p]gnant tu gud taste and tu komon sens. B[p]t ei am aware that the p[p]blik kling tu theze anomaliz with a tenasiti proporshond tu their abs[p]rditi, and ar jel[p]s ov all enkroachment on ground konsekrated tu the free play ov bleind kaprise.”
It may be useful, houever, tu kwote the testimonialz ov a fiu praktikal men in order tu show that this sistem ov speling haz reali bek[p]m w[p]n ov the greatest nashonal misfortiunz, swolowing [p]p milionz ov m[p]ni everi year and bleiting all atempts at nashonal ediukashon. Mr. Edward Jones, a skoolmaster ov great eksperiens, having then siuperintendens ov the Heibernian Skoolz, Liverpool, rote, in the year 1868:
“The G[p]vernment haz for the last twenti yearz taken ediukashon [p]nder its kare. They diveided the subjekts ov instr[p]kshon intu siks gradez. The heiest point that woz atempted in the G[p]vernment Skoolz woz that a piupil shud be abel tu read with tolerabel eaze and ekspreshon a pasej from a niuzpaper, and tu spel the same with a tolerabel amount ov akiurasi.”