Crawford. — <>n the Maori L/tnyuctge, ll> 



the latter is the proposal to render Jollier and farther equally by 

 fadha. 



The most provoking thing in the interests of spelling reform is 

 that men of the highest education in England are as unconscious 

 of the defects in scientific orthography as the most ignorant of 

 the people. Until they awake to a sense of the incongruity there 

 is little hope of a reform in the right direction. Thus we hear 

 Ismailia, Port Said, &c, pronounced iu the French fashion, 

 which is altogether wrong, either with reference to the diphthong 

 or to the Arabic name. We have Aeden for Aden, Gaol for 

 Point-de-GaUe, Aethos for Athus. We may hear Mehemet All 

 called Mihimet Aelai; although, strange to say, Pacha is not yet 

 converted into Paechae. We find Lima called Laima ; Bio, Raio ; 

 and even Panama, Paenaema. Lately I heard a learned arch- 

 deacon, who had travelled iu the East, talk of Baeaelbec, 

 unconscious that the double a should give an extra breadth to 

 the sound. 



At the time of the Crimean war, we used to hear of Bisaika 

 Bay for Besika Bay, Skiuterai for Scutari, &c. On one occasion 

 on returning from Lake Taupo, a well-known New Zealand 

 statesman, an M.A. of Oxon, in a conversation we had together 

 respecting the interior of the island, insisted on giving the 

 French sound to the word Taupo, as if an represented the same 

 sound as awe in English. I objected. He said, " I pronounce 

 it as spelt, and I object to the foreign spelling of the Maori 

 language." I replied, " How then would you spell Taupo in 

 English fashion?" He said " Towpo." My reply was, " That 

 would in English make the word sound Topo, although a 

 Scotchman might probably hit upon the correct pronuncia- 

 tion." 



A Saturday Keviewer lately objected to the spelling of Hawaii, 

 preferring Captain Cook's orthography of Owhyhee. There is no 

 accounting for taste ; but the Hawaian language has been brought 

 into a phonetic orthography, and Hawaii is the name of the 

 island, and of the kingdom, which Owhyhee as usually pro- 

 nounced is not ; but if we accent Owhyhee thus, we arrive very 

 nearly at the sound of Hawaii. 



The reasons why English orthography is so irregular are 

 sufficiently obvious : — 



1. The peculiar sounds given to the vowels in the English 

 alphabet. 



2. The adoption of a peculiar mode of pronouncing Latin, 

 and also of Scripture names. 



3. The introduction of a number of French words into the 

 language, which are sometimes pronounced in French, in others 

 in English, fashion. 



4. The small attention which is paid in England to the 

 study of other foreign languages than French. 



