NOTE ON SPKLLINO. I43 



again represeiilalive of two sounds, whence, by another read- 

 justment of form, were produced the modern J' and IV, the 

 name "double U " still remaining in Knglish to suggest the 

 origin of the new letter. 



This is typical of the history of the alphabet. By such 

 evolutionary processes it has been adapted to many languages 

 and become a more precise instrument of phonetic representa- 

 tion. While by no means perfect, it seems practically suffi- 

 cient for the European languages. It is to be noted that every 

 change in the alphabet since we first know of its use in the 

 Semitic languages has been toward its better phoneticism. 



The phonetic idea of writing is based on the principle that 

 our thoughts are too many and intricate to be represented by 

 signs addressed to the eye. The picture, the statue, the 

 gesture and the numeral are all signs whereby another's 

 thought may reach us, but this method of conveying ideas is 

 limited and lacking in definiteness. The alphabet itself began 

 as just such ocular signs of ideas and by gradual development 

 became signs of mere sounds, and thereby capable of repre- 

 senting anything that can be said. Without this phonetic 

 idea, alphabet and spelling are meaningless, and the line of 

 development by which the alphabet has been evolved is toward 

 the " unfit." 



But the written word is subject to conditions that are not 

 phonetic. Its scries of letters, at first arrayed in orderly pre- 

 sentation of its sounds, soon becomes impressed upon the e3^e 

 as a whole. Each letter is addressed to the eye as a merely 

 physical part of the total form. We recognize this fact prac- 

 tically when in doubt about spelling a particular word, for we 

 then write it in two or more likely ways and select whichever 

 " looks right." So, too, writing spelled phonetically to repre- 

 sent our actual pronunciation cannot be read as rapidly as 

 when spelled in the usual way, although the spelling as such 

 is really better. 



Thus arises traditional as opposed to phonetic spelling. 

 It stands opposed to any change of spelling to represent a 



