6 STUDIES IN ENGLISH SPELLING. 
language on account of our peculiar method of utterance. We 
emphasize one or perhaps two syllables in a word, and slur over 
the rest. The accented syllable, or syllables, is or are pronounced 
correctly, but for the other vowels we simply make a sort of grunt. 
Take the word “ photograph.” ‘The first and third vowels are 
sounded correctly, but the middle one is a grunt, and in our 
phonetic spelling would have to be represented by the symbol, 
whatever it might be, used to denote a grunt. Now add the 
syllable ‘‘er,” making the word ‘“ photographer.” The incidence 
of the accent is changed, now falling on the second syllable, 
which is accordingly pronounced correctly, but the third and 
fourth (if not the first also) are grunts, and would be represented 
by the proper symbol. Supposing this symbol to be “ +,” these 
two words would be represented— 
phot+ graph 
ph-+togr+ ph-+r. 
Similarly the word ‘‘Canada,” with its derivative ‘“ Canadian,” 
would appear— 
Can+d+ 
C-+nadi-+-n. 
When a person reads he uses his eyes, and with them he picks 
out the resemblances between the different words, and judges the 
meaning of derivative words by the character of the addition to 
the root. Now, in learning to read under the phonetic system, 
he would in the word ‘‘ photograph” see the ‘‘o” in the first 
syllable, the grunt in the second, and the “a” in the third. 
When he came to ‘‘ photographer” he would see a grunt in the 
first syllable in place of an “0,” an “o” in the second syllable 
instead of a grunt, and a grunt in the third syllable in place of 
an ‘‘a,” and another grunt in the fourth syllable. His eye would 
thus be prevented from recognising the original root in the deriva- 
tive word, and he would be impeded and embarrassed. In order 
to explain this shifting about of the letters many new and com- 
plicated rules would have to be framed and taught, and it would 
take many years to teach a child, or anyone else, to read under 
such a system, 
