‘~ Miscellanies. 197 
25. Notices of Proposals for Reforming the Orthography of the Eng- 
lish Language.—The imperfections of English orthography are so great 
and so manifest, that no one can fail to desire its amendment. 
The legitimate objects of an improved English orthography are, (1.) an 
enumeration of all the simple sounds in the language; (2.) an appropria- 
tion of one character, and of one only, to each simple sound; (3.) the 
invention of an entirely new character, or else a selection of such char- 
acters now in use as would be most ter, emaeee by all who employ 
the Roman alphabet; (4.) that analogies between certain sounds, as p 
and b, s and z, should be denoted by corresponding analogies between the 
Gharticters: (5. ) that a regard should be had to the ease or conciseness of 
writing ; and (6.) that the names of the letters should be simplified and 
rendered uniform. 
1. Mr. A. D. Sproat, of Chillicothe, Ohio, ina letter to the senior edi- 
tor, dated Feb. 22, 1834, proposes to introduce thirty nine entirely new 
characters, viz. wales for pure vowel sounds, and twenty seven for con- 
_ Sonant sounds. The chief peculiarities of his system are, that the sub- 
tonics 6, x, etc. are expressed by curving one of the linés of the corre- 
sponding atonics, p, s, etc.; that the nasal vowels are expressed by cross- 
ing the stem of the corresponding simple vowels; and that the length of 
the vowels is denoted by the length of the arm of the letter. These are 
ingenious suggestions 
2. Mr. Michael H. Barton, of Geneva, N. Y. (the editor of ** Somc- 
thing New,” Boston, 1830,) in the first number of “ The Morning Sun,” 
Geneva, N. Y., Feb. 25, 1889, proposes, after twenty years’ attention to 
the subject, a plan for reforming the present English orthography. 
He finds twelve pure vowel sounds, and twenty one simple consonant 
sounds, besides three diphthongs, and eight double consonants. 
For all these he e offers aes distinct modes of resigns ee, 
new ¢ appears: 
the other, Gy evailiag hitneslt of the-peee English alphabet; ‘together 
with a few Greek characters, which he See without ~~ care in the 
selection. 
In carrying out the latter mode of nowiiod, he proposes a. ) to reject 
all superfluous letters ; as, da for day, do for dough, gost, hole for whole, no 
for know, rite for write, skal, tru, woud for would ; (2.) to transpose certain 
letters ; as, center, gentelmen, Wubel: (3.) to substitute the appropriate 
climseter ; as, aty for eighty, confushin, hoze for whose, na for neigh, nu 
for new, oe for obey, obade for obeyed, ov for of, ruf for rough, savyer for 
saviour, wade for weighed; and (4.) to use simple u for the pronoun you, 
and simple 6 for the verb be. 
8. Dr. Joseph Torrey, of Salem, Mass., in a letter to the editors, dated 
Dec. 1839, dwells largely on the imperfection of our existing orthography, 
and on the acknowledged advantages of a more perfect system. He 
