But we must also take into account what Skeat rightly says—that the simbol for a sound should not be distributed in two places; and therefore rite is not so good as riit. But the e at the end of a closed silabl to lengthen the vowel, is so intrencht in the language that it woud be doutful policy to attack it yet in words fairly fit to stand, e. g., fate, mate, bite, mote, lute. So the transition policy we recommend is to let all fairly goud forms stand, but where a form is to bad to stand, change it into the best possibl, as right into riit, even at the price of such an inconsistency as leaving rite from write, because rite is more workabl, tho riit woud be theoretically better. Som such inconsistencys ar inevitabl, as we cannot start fresh, but must evolv from an existing inconsistent—very inconsistent—orthografy.
In spelling, as in matters perhaps more important (tho the importance of rational spelling is vastly grater than generally realized), it is wel to recognize the ideal, but to try to advocate at any time only what is workabl at that time.
Now we proceed tu a much clooser approximashon tu an ideal for owr children, so far az it appeerz practicabl with the prezzent alfabet. It wil at first seem a very funny ideal. All such approximashonz wil differ, and wil hav tu fiit it owt, and this wun wil seem at first tu be caos and oold niit, but allmoost enny wun ov them, tu a miind withowt an alien training—tu a chiild's miind, woud be moor orderly and luminus than owr prezzent sistem, or rathther lac ov sistem.
The rezonz for the niu formz which ar not obvius wil be explaind alfabetically after the text.
Moost ov the formz we giv ar recommended by the S. S. B. and the S. S. S. But thair ar itemz on which theze bodyz ar not yet agreed, even among themselvz; yet thair laborz hav reecht the point whair individualz shoud taak hoold and subject the formz thay beleev in tu the strugl for existens and the survival ov the fittest.
The grait difficultyz ar in indicating the vowelz with owr prezzent alfabet, which givz, for instans, oonly the wun simbol a for at leest ait sowndz, and probably moor not generaly discriminated, and the wun simbol e for at leest fiiv, i for three, o for foor, and dubld for foor moor, and u for fiiv.
The short vowelz ar dispoozd ov with comparativ eez: for in a silabl cloozd with a consonant, the vowel iz uzualy short, e. g., bad, bed, did, cod, cub, but unfortunaitly not all short vowelz hav thair silablz cloozd. In Saxon dissilablz, owr ancestorz generaly did clooz the first silabl when it woz short, by repeeting the vowel beginning the folloing silabl, e. g., gabble, filling, fizzle. But the practis ov cloozing in this way woz generaly restricted tu dissilabls, az the pronunsiashon ov polisilabls iz apt tu indicait itself, and economy iz wurth considering. In wurdz directly from the Latin, az thair iz les differens ov axent between the silabls, the clozing ov the first silabl az abuv descriibd, iz not yuzual. It woud probably be wel tu introduus it, however. If, for instans, the first silabl wer cloozd in viggor, we shoud not hav such contradicshonz az vigor and vizor siid by siid.
Az tu the long sowndz, the oonly way tu reprezent them, whair thay ar not determind by pozishon at the end ov an oopen silabl, iz (az allreddy illustrated) by combining the letrz with different letrz, az we now combiin in gain, real, mine, soar, rule: evidently gan, rel, min, sor, rul, woud not anser the purpus. We hav tu maik theez combinashonz becawz the genius ov owr rais duz not seem tu favor adding letrz tu owr alfabet, inazmuch az we hav allreddy dropt tu valuabl wunz reprezenting respectivly th and dh.
It certanly woud be best, az allreddy propoozd, tu dubl eech vowel for its long sownd, az we allreddy du in deem and door. But we hav no exampl ov dubl a, i, or u (except in tu or three forren wurdz liik bazaar, and ov coors, owr utterly exentric w), but the S. S. S. recommendz uu insted ov the oo in coon, and dubl a in faather, which we accept. We do not need to dubl the a befoor r final in monosilabls becawz it haz the ah sownd befoor r exept when the a follooz a w sownd, iither in w itself or in cw exprest az q, e. g. in war (wawr) or quart (qawrt). The foorgoing givz dubl vowelz for all but i, and we propooz them thair. This iz a compleet sistem baasd on a principl.