i 



18S9.] 32 1 



"Similar movements for reform are taking place in the Scandinavian 

 kingdoms. The Swedish spelling appears to be about equal in quality 

 to the German, but for the last 100 years, or thereabouts, attempts have 

 been made by competent persons to establish a purely fonetic system, 

 and the Swedish Academy lias adopted some of their proposals and 

 embodied them in a model spelling book; but the government has 

 taken no part in the matter, and there is consequently much diversity in 

 practice. In Denmark, the movement originated with Prof. Rask and 

 some other learned men and schoolmasters, and it has resulted in a 

 government decree, confirming certain regulations with respect to double 

 consonants, the silent e and d, the abolition of q, and some other points. 

 These 'official' changes are not obligatory; but they are winning their 

 way both in public and private schools. In July, 1869, a meeting of 

 scholars from Sweden, Norway and Denmark took place in Stockholm, 

 with the object of establishing a fonetic mode of spelling which should be 

 common to the Scandinavian languages." 



And there have been and are other similar movements, among the 

 Slavic nations as well as the Romance-speaking peoples, including the 

 French and the Portuguese. 



Thirdly, What 7ias been done already in our oion language? Has any 

 one dared to lay hands on our fetich and lop off a superfluity or restore a 

 lost feature ? 



The Anglo-Saxon spelling was fairly fonetic, the chief defects being the 

 double use of/, the double use of s and the ambiguous use of two charac- 

 ters for the two sounds of th. In the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries 

 "the English language was practically respelt according to the Anglo- 

 French method, by scribes who were ftimiliar with Anglo-French;" 

 thus, qu was substituted for cw, c for s (before e and i). 



It was at this period that Orm, a canon of the order of St. Au<Tusline 

 wrote "The Ormulum" (1215), which was a set of religious services in 

 meter, spelt according to his own scheme. One peculiarity of Orm's 

 method was the doubling of the consonant after the short vowel. Orm, 

 or Orminn, may be called our first spelling reformer, and we have to 

 thank him for preserving to us the pronunciation of his day. In 1554, 

 John Hart, of Chester, England, wrote on "The Opening of the unrea- 

 sonable writing of our inglish toung : whcrin is shewed what necessarili 

 IS to be left, and what folowed for the perfect writing thereof." This the 

 author followed up by a publisht work in 15G9, called "An Orthographic 

 conteyning the due order and reason, howe to write or painte thimage of 

 mannes voice, most like to the life or nature." The object of this "is to 

 use as many letters in our writing as we doe voyces or breathes in our 

 speakmg, and no more ; and never to abuse one for another, and to write 

 as we speake." In 1568, Sir Thomas Smith, Secretary of State in 1548, 

 and successor of Burleigh, suggested an alfabet of 34 characters. This 

 was followed, in 1580, by William Bullokar's book in black-letter, propos- 

 ing an alfabet of 37 characters. Then, too. we must mention Sir John 



PROC. AMER. PHILOS. SOC. XXVI. 129. 20. PRINTED MAY 10, 1889. 



