44 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



words are survivals from a former period in the history of the language 

 when more latitude was allowed in English orthography and there was 

 no hard and fast line drawn, no fixed standard. The proper historical 

 spelling, it is interesting to note, is with one consonant, as in counselor 

 derived ultimately from the Latin consiliarius. While either spelling 

 is considered correct, British usage favors the double consonant (coun- 

 sellor) and American the single (counselor). Here again as else- 

 where American spelling inclines to simplification and would make 

 these words conform to the general rule of English orthography as 

 laid down above. Strange to say, British usage shows one exception 

 in the word paralleled, which it has adopted (and not parallelled). 

 Here we find another instance of the striking inconsistency of British 

 orthography. It may be a shocking thing to say, but investigation 

 will prove it true, that if those British critics who censure our spelling 

 so severely, as offending their esthetic sense, were more familiar with 

 the history of the language, they would, without doubt, have far less 

 comment to make upon the so-called eccentricities of American spelling. 



It remains to notice some apparent exceptions to the rule of English 

 orthography stated above. Noteworthy among these are the words 

 handicapped and kidnapped, which are written alike in British and 

 American English. But they can be explained and are only apparent 

 exceptions. A moment's reflection is sufficient to convince one that 

 handicap and kidnap are not simple words, but in reality compounds 

 in which the last element has not completely lost its identity in com- 

 bination. Because of the consciousness of the independent words cap 

 and nap in these compounds, they conform to the rule as a matter of 

 fact and therefore double the final consonant, on the addition of a suf- 

 fix beginning with a vowel. Hence, if they are exceptions, they must 

 be considered exceptions which prove the rule. 



The few points we have drawn attention to in this imperfect little 

 sketch are enough to show how unphonetic and illogical is our English 

 spelling. Many of the eccentricities of our orthography, according 

 to Skeat, have resulted from the futile attempts of pedants in the 

 sixteenth century to make English spelling etymological and to make 

 it conform to the classics, from winch a vast multitude of words had 

 been introduced into our speech. These conscious attempts at etymo- 

 logical spelling gave rise to endless confusion and disorder. But other 

 causes, such as analogy and mere caprice, also contributed to this end. 

 Thus we are to explain the writing of the word female, for example. 

 This word, coming from the Latin femella through the French femelle 

 into English, was originally written femelle and would probably have 

 retained this form to the present time. But because of a fancied con- 

 nection with the word male, the spelling was changed to female. In a 

 similar manner is to be explained the spelling of numerous other words 

 in our language which seem perfectly natural and logical on first blush. 



