NORDENSKJOLD. 



53 



have more than twenty different spellings to his name, 

 besides others which are manifest errors. Similar dis- 

 crepancies exist in the spellings of many other names, 

 of which we may instance the Russian poet, Pooshkin 

 or Pushkin in English, Pouchkine or Pouchekine in 

 French, and Puschkiu in German, and his fellow-poet, 

 Derzhavin, Derjaviue, or Derschawin. A more recent 

 example is the Russian novelist, Toorgenef or Tur- 

 genieff. 



The above examples will suffice to show the great 

 need of a revision of method in the spelling of foreign 

 names, and the adoption of some clearly defined system 

 of orthography, for the use of English writers at least, 

 if not a general system for the use of all the writers of 

 civilized communities. Although this necessity has 

 been long recognized, no steps of an authoritative 

 character have been taken b3' biographers to produce 

 a uniform spelling of proper names, and no generally 

 accepted ones by geographers. Dr. Joseph Thomas 

 says, speaking of biographical names, that then are 

 only three courses that can possibly be pursued : "(I) 

 To blunder over, or pronounce such names at random ; 

 (2) to endeavor to pronounce all names, foreign and 

 English alike, according to English methods of or- 

 thography ; (3) to adopt the system of pronunciation 

 now generally recognized by the more highly educated 

 - in England, America, and continental Europe ; 

 that is, to pronounce all names, as nearly as possible. 

 as they are pronounced by the well-educated people of 

 the country to which they belong, with the exception 

 of such names as have acquired an established English 

 pronunciation." The third method, which he adopts 

 as the only rational one, does not present as many 

 difficulties in spelling as might be imagined, and could 

 in his opinion be generally adopted with very little 

 difficulty. All suggestions in regard to biographical 

 spelling, however, have been personal only, and none 

 of them carry the weight which would attach to a body 

 of fixed rules adopted by a recognized congress of 

 biographers. 



In regard to geographical orthography, the Royal 

 Geographical Society of England, feeling that some 

 method of producing uniformity in spelling was 

 seriously demanded, adopted in 1886 the following 

 rules, which are the same as those which were pre- 

 viously in use in the orthography of the Admiralty 

 charts. The high standing ot the society gives its 

 utterances and recommendations much weight, and we 

 append its adopted rules. These rules apply only to 

 those names which are not written in Roman charac- 

 ters in the countries to which they belong. In Spain, 

 Portugal, Holland, and other countries which use 

 Roman characters the native spelling will be pre- 

 served ; nor will in any case a change be made in the 

 spelling of names which long usage has rendered 

 familiar to English readers. The true sound of the 

 word, as locally pronounced, IB to be taken in all cases 

 as the basis of the spelling, but the finer inflections of 

 sound and accent are not required to be preserved, a 

 reasonable approximation to the sound being all that 

 is deemed desirable. 



As a general rule of orthography, vowels are to re- 

 ceive the Italian, consonants the English sound. No 

 accent is to be used but the acute, and this only where 

 it is demanded by a particular stress upon some syl- 

 lable of the word. Every letter is to be sounded, and 

 where two vowels come together each should be 

 sounded, though sometimes so quickly as to seem but 

 one sound, as in ai, mi, and <!. Hindu names will be 

 accepted as they are spelt in Hunter's Gazetteer. The 

 sounds of the several letters of the alphabet are as 

 follows : 



A a* in father. 



E R in benefit or r A. 



1 ai in mocAintor English e. Thus Fiji, not Feejte, is the 



correct 8|>elliug. 

 O a in mnlf. 

 V aiu flute. 



All vowels are shortened in sound by doubling the follow- 

 ing consonant. The vowel is to be doubled only wheu there 

 is a distinct repetition of the sound, as in Nuulua. 

 Ai corresponds to English ', as in ice. 

 Au corresponds to English ow, as in how. 

 Ao is slightly different from u, as in Macao. 

 Ei bus the sound of ihe two Italian vowels, but is fre- 

 quently slurred and resembles ey in they. Example, 



Jieirut. 



The consonant sounds are as follows: 

 B, D, L, JI, N, P, R, S, T, V, W, ami Z ns in English. 

 C is to be always soft, but nsunlly should l>e replaced by 



S, which it s<t closely resembles. 

 Ch always soft, as in church. 

 as English /. Ph should not be used for /. Write 



Ifaifong, not Haiphong. 

 G is always hard. Soft g is given by_/. 

 H is to be always pronounced when given. 

 J as English j. Dj should never he used for^. 

 K as English k. This letter should always be used for 



hard c. Exmniile: Karen, not I 'urea. 

 Kh is the Oriental guttural, as in Khun. 

 Gh is another guttural, us in Turkish d.-igh, or gfiazi. 

 Ng has two sounds ; one as ill English jiuyrr, the other as 



in English finger. 

 Q should never be used. 

 Qu is given as Kw. Example: Kwangturtg. 

 Y is always a consonnnt, as in yard. It should never be 



used as a terminal, but be replaced by t or e. 



To what extent these useful rules will be adopted is 

 a matter to be settled by time. _They may come into 

 general use or may serve as a basis for more fully con- 

 sidered rules, to be chosen by some future congress of 

 societies. At all events they mark an important step 

 toward a highly desirable reform and may arouse those 

 who have suffered from the annoyance of indiscrim- 

 inate spelling to some decided measures of improve- 

 ment in this direction. Probably the final system of 

 geographical and biographical orthography will be one 

 that can be applied with little or no variation by all the 

 enlightened nations of modern time and will help 

 towards that general linguistic conformity which is so 

 desirable. 



Another subject of importance may be noted in this 

 connection the superabundant nomenclature of zoo- 

 logical, botanical, geological, and other sciences. The 

 species of animals and plants have been renamed so 

 frequently by different observers that the super- 

 abundant lists of synpnyrnes are confusing and often 

 misleading, and it is highly desirable that some authori- 

 tative body should adopt a fixed rule of biological 

 nomenclature which will reduce the names to a single 

 accepted one for each species. This is being gradually 

 done by the labors of specialists throughout the world, 

 while varieties which have been classed as species are 

 also being dropped, but the task is a difficult one and 

 many years will be needed for its full accomplishment. 

 A similar difficulty exists in the science of geology, in 

 which the same formation bears different names in 

 different parts of the earth, and there is a great need 

 of a revision and simplification of the nomenclature. 

 Important steps in this direction were taken at the 

 London meeting of the International Geological Asso- 

 ciation in 1888, which it is to be hoped may go far to 

 remedy the existing confusion. (o. M.) 



NORDENSKJOLD, NILS ADOLF ERIK, BARON, 

 a Swedish Arctic explorer, was born at Helsingfors, 

 Finland, Nov. 18, 1832. His lather, Nils, was a dis- 

 tinguished mineralogist and took him early on explor- 

 ing tours in the Ural Mountains. The son after 

 graduating at Helsingfors, in 1857, went to Stockholm, 

 where he was appointed professor of mineralogy. He 

 assisted in Arctic expeditions in 1859 and 1861, and 

 organized others in 1804 and 1868. In the last ot 

 these, conducted in a steamer, he reached on Sept. 19, 

 1868, a point in 81 42' N. lat. He also thoroughly 

 explored Spitsbergen, and on his return made known 

 its geology, mineralogy, botany, and zoology. In 18iO 

 he visited Greenland, where he found the three largest 

 meteorites yet known. In 1872 he set out again for 

 Spitzbcrseii, where he spent the winter, and in the 



