MR. HERRLE: Any one conversant with the state of geographic nomenclature of a large part of the world cannot fail to appreciate the difficulties in the way of the establishment of a comprehensive and uniform system of writing geographic names, that would be acceptable to all nations using the Roman alphabet in their literature. But while some advance towards international uniformity has been made within the last five years, we are still very far from it; we may, however, at least rejoice in the prospect of the general acceptance of a uniform system in geographic orthography by all writing the English language.
I refer to the action of the British Hydrographic Office and of the Royal Geographical Society in 1885, when they adopted certain main principles to guide the orthography of geographic names, and thereby took an important and far-reaching step in the line of a reform which had already been too long delayed.
In France a reform in geographic nomenclature had been earnestly agitated by Édouard de Luze since 1880, and soon after the publication of the system adopted by the Royal Geographical Society, the Société de Géographie appointed a commission which, in 1886, reported a system for the guidance of French geographers.
In Germany, we also find individual attempts made (Egli, Kirchhoff, Ewald and others) to bring system into the orthography and pronunciation of geographic names, primarily with a view to secure uniformity in text books and in the teaching of geography in schools.
No doubt influenced by the action of the British and French geographic societies the Imperial German Hydrographic office in 1888 also established rules for guidance in its future publications.
We thus see three of the principal nations of Europe inaugurate a reform, the beneficial effects of which will not, however, become apparent until a sufficient time has elapsed, that is, until the British, French and Germans have had time to apply the rules in their publications, and particularly in the construction of new and in the correction of old charts. No reform of this nature can be carried through by the stroke of a pen, but a generation's life-time will be required to accomplish it.
The adopted rules which lay down a general phonetic principle only require, of course, perfection in details, so as to furnish an unerring guide in the treatment of names belonging to special languages.
If we compare the British, French and German systems, we can clearly see a gravitation towards uniformity in the spelling of foreign geographic names that are not originally written in the Roman alphabet. Each of the three systems contains important concessions to the others; the British, by adopting the continental vowel system, and the French and German, by representing certain phonetic values differently from the old way, so as to approach the British system. In the French system, this is particularly the case in regard to the letters ou, c, ch, g, q, th, tch, w and y, and in the German system in regard to the letters c, j, q, ch, sh and y.
There is very little doubt that English and French geographers will readily adopt the systems set up by their foremost geographic societies; but whether scientific Germany will be willing to follow in the wake of its Hydrographic Office, we will probably learn after the next meeting of the German Geographic Congress.
If we compare the British, French and German systems further, we find also a perfect agreement in the treatment of the geographic names of those nations that use the Roman alphabet in their literature, they differing only as to exceptions from the rules of old forms of names, which, through long usage, are held almost sacred. The spirit of conservatism tends to retard every reform, and this one makes no exception from the rule. It is, however, to be regretted that neither the British, nor the French, nor the Germans have set any fixed limit to permissible exceptions, leaving, apparently, everybody to decide for himself what is meant by "long usage."