318 



[April 5, 



withstanding the great attention paid to the English hingimge, the scholars 

 never become nearly as proficient in spelling it as they do iii spelling the 

 German. * * * 



"It English ortliografy represented English pronunciation as closely as 

 the Italian does, at least half the time and expense of teaching to read 

 and spell would be saved. This may be taken as 1200 hours in a lifc- 

 tmie, and as more than half a million of money ($2,500,000) per annum 

 for England and Wales alone." 



Various experiments have been made by educators in teaching Englisli 

 spelling by a foneiic alfabet. The results show that children taught 

 in this way acquire the ordinary spelling much more easily afterward. 

 The latest expression upon this point is from the pen of Dr. Thomas Hill, 

 in The Forum for April, 1889. He says: "Experience has demonstrated 

 that there is no means so efficient as the use of simple reading-books 

 printed in a truly fonetic manner, so that each sound has but one repre- 

 sentative, and each combination of letters but one sound. The accent 

 must also be markt, and in some cases the emphasis. When the pupil 

 can read tluenlly fonetic English, he requires but a few weeks to learn 

 to read the ordinary spelling. 



"Three fundamentally different ways have been proposed of giving to 

 elementary books a fonetic dress. First, by diacritic signs, such as are 

 used in pronouncing dictionaries ; stcondly, by using an enlarged alfabet ; 

 thirdly, by a serious and well-considered imitation of those American 

 humorists who apply the twenty-six Roman letters to a fonetically uni- 

 form use. The first method is not only expensive and troublesome to 

 print, but trying to the reader's eyes, and not always applicable without 

 respelling. The second is the mode of the Cincinnati alfabet, and is pro- 

 posed in a new and improved form in Mr. Bell's World-English. The 

 Cincinnati alfabet was tried long enough and extensively enough to give 

 a practical, experimental demonstration of its immense value. We tested 

 it thoroughly for six or seven years in the town of Waltham, Massachu- 

 setts, which then had about 800 children in the public schools. The effect 

 on the school life of the town was very markt. The saving of time in 

 teaching the children to read and spell enabled us to introduce exercises 

 for the eye and the hand, thus cultivating habits of observation, skill in 

 drawing and writing, and geometrical ability. The fonetic print corrected 

 the brogue of the Irish children and the Yankee dialect of the American 

 in a surprising manner. An improvement in the moral and intellectual 

 tone of the schools was also noticeable, arising certainly in part from 

 giving the children interesting reading, in place of stupid 'a, b, ab, ' ' b, 

 a, ba,' and instead of such absurd falsehoods as that of saying 'sea,' 

 'you,' 'pea,' spells 'cup.' • 



"Fears were exprest lest this method should injure the pupils' spelling. 

 In order to test that question, I took pains to procure, several times, lists 

 of words which had actually been used in Boston, Roxbury, and other 

 places, with the percentage of failures on each list. Springing these lists, 



