October 13, 1893.] 



SCIENCE. 



207 



Without wishing to uphold the ascensional theory of 

 the formation of lodes, it may be pointed out that the 

 gold may have risen from below in both the veins in the 

 gneiss and those in the Dharwar, but that owing to un- 

 favorable conditions in connection with the gneiss (e. g., 

 absence of a precipitant) the gold has not been deposited 

 in the veins in the gneiss. The case does not stand alone. 

 The influence of the " country " on the productiveness of 

 veins is a phenomenon well known and appreciated by 

 mining engineers, and both the ascensional and the lat- 

 eral secretion theories can be adapted to explain it. 



It would have been interesting if Mr. Lake had given 

 details of those observations which led him to believe that 

 the schists of the district were lava-flows. 



L. H. LiNNELL CoOKE. 

 Glasgow, Scotland, Sept. 22nd, 1893. 



A Phonetic ORTHoapAPHY. 



A NEW system of English orthography is proposed in 

 Science (July 21), by Prof. J. I. D. Hinds, of Lebanon, 

 Tenn., and endorsed with slight alterations {Science, 

 August 25), by Frederick Krafft, of Jersey City Heights. 



Reform, not revolution, in English orthography, is very 

 desirable; but reform, to be successful, must be in accord 

 with the spirit of the English language; it must also be 

 attempted a little at a time. "Great reforms progress 

 slowly." 



Any system proposed that is simply phonetic must fail 

 for the following reasons: (1) Our alphabet is inadequate; 

 (2) the people of different sections or schools pronounce 

 many words diflierently; (3) everyone would spell accord- 

 ing to his own ideas of pronunciation, and there would 

 be no standard. The fact that Prof. Hinds and Mr. 

 EJraft't, who attempt to agree, diflrer is evidence of that. 



People are not all born with perfect audition and 

 perfect powers of enunciation. These are matters largely 

 of education. Perfection in these two particulars is very 

 rare. In order that two persons pronounce all their 

 words alike they must be of the same race or family and 

 have the same teachers all their lives. 



In America, where the most perfect English is said to 

 be spoken, there are great differences in some of the 

 vowel sounds in the different sections of the country. In 

 any neighborhood in the west the same differences may 

 be found according to the section from which the different 

 neighbors came. The state or section from which a man 

 came may usually be determined by his speech. 



Without laying claim to perfection myself, but only to 

 show the differences of pronunciation in different parts 

 of the country, I wish to point out discrepancies in the 

 pronunciation of these two gentlemen: 



Professor Hinds offers aa to represent the sound of a 

 in father, and then gives as an example, waaz for was. 

 That will not do. The sound of a in was is very nearly 

 the sound of o in dog. It would better be represented 

 luoz. Again he gives ivaac for ivatch. The vowel sound in 

 that word is identical with the sound of o in not, and 

 should be represented by woe (wotch). Mr. Krafft's re- 

 presentatiori ivac, as if to rhyme with thatch, is worse yet, 

 and is probably a typographical error. Laaf will do for 

 laugh, if he likes it; but is it not rather pedantic and af- 

 fected ? Better the sound of a in laat. Let the following 

 nonsense sentence be read aloud and the differences of 

 sound of the vowel a noted: "Father laughed hard after 

 Fanny's hairless watch-dog was last granted fat." 



Laj in villaj will not do. Villaje is much pleasanter. 

 The sound of a in village is as a in mate, shortened, un- 

 accented, and rendered somewhat obscure, less in time 

 ^than short e in edge and less open in quality. 



With in Prof. Hinds's extract may be an oversight. 

 Widh would be better. 



O'r should be oer, — long sound of o, not short. 



Murmur will do; but yondur, sobur and hurd will hardly 

 do. They have not the sound of u in wp. Bher by Prof. 

 Hinds, in the same line, may do for their if the word is 

 not emphatic; otherwise his dhair (probably dhaer was in- 

 tended) for there, and Dr. Krafft's thare for both there and 

 their would be better. Yonder, sober and herd, ordinary 

 spelling, would be less liable to be misjjronounced, con- 

 sidering that e followed by r differs from e in met. 



Fuel, skuel and lues are very bad, when ue is given to 

 represent u in rule. Undoubtedly Prof. Hinds meant 

 that ue should represent oo in tool. U in rule is the same 

 as u in mule, except that in mule a y is distinctly sounded 

 before the u, and in rule the y is indistinctly sounded on 

 account of the preceding r. Pool, school and loose are 

 much different from pwfe, skule and luce. 



U in playful should not be sounded as u in up. It 

 should be as u in 2}uU. For this sound Professor Hinds 

 proposes oo. The notation then should heplaefool. 



Weind should be wind (short sound of i). The word 

 does not rhyme with mind and should not be so read. 

 The rhymes are allowable, not perfect. 



Some words in the extract are lengthened, defeating 

 one of the objects sought, as waaz, vaekani, konfyuzhun. 

 Again, dissylables are written with a single vowel, as 

 sofnd, gabbld. 



Thus all this is designed to show the impracticability 

 of a phonetic system. The one proposed is as good as 

 any. No phonetic system will meet all requirements for 

 the reasons here given : (1) Differences of pronunciation 

 among different jDeople, and (2) defective alphabet, neces- 

 sitating the use of digraphs to represent some of the sim- 

 ple sounds. 



Sx^eaking of digraphs, how can we limit a simple 

 sound to single digraph when our language now 

 furnishes us with such a vast yariety of digraphs, tri- 

 grajjhs, and even polygraphs to represent the different 

 sounds ? Take, for instance, the sound of a in male. We 

 are by no means limited to the twenty combinations pre- 

 sented by Professor Hinds. We must spell plague with 

 a-ue. Naas with aa, Mselar with ce, and Grseme with ce-e. 

 Mr. Baehr is particular that we shall spell his name with 

 aeh; while another Bhaer is equally strenuous that hae 

 shall go into his name. Brahe, however, gives the letters 

 another twist (ahe) : while Mahlon drops the e entirely. 

 Praise is stronger than pain in having a final e; and the Des 

 Plaines River requires a final es to comjalete its orthog- 

 rapy. Marais des Cygnes will have ais, Aisne ais and e 

 final, while chaise (colloquially "shay") except the deacon's 

 one-hoss one, carries the polygraph aise. We must re- 

 member to spell Basle with as-e, Naix and Morlaix with 

 aix, Carhaix with haix. La Haye with haye, and Aux Cayes 

 (O. K.) with ayes. 



The Ray family is large and diverse. One branch 

 clings to Rhe, showing he; another adds an a making it 

 Rhea (hea); while a third, the Scotch Rea, omits the h. A 

 gentleman of Ireland, who long ago built a castle (Castle- 

 reagh) near Lough Neagh (Nay), with his descendants, to 

 this day spell the name Reagh with eagh; and a pioneer 

 of the west, Mr. Reaugh (Ray), with probably a still more 

 ancient lineage, delights in eaugh. The name of the late 

 governor (Seay) of Oklahoma requires eay for its correct 

 make-up; Payne wants ay-e, Cheyne ey-e, and a certain 

 Swedish American, Hoeland, prefers oe in his name. 

 When fully Americanized he will probably be Hayland. 



Among" words from the French, employe and resume 

 require an accented e ; protegee one accented and one 

 plain e, and the plural, pronounced similarly, an s addi- 

 tional, thus ees. Feting requires a plain e, crepe two, e-e, 

 melee double ee, entrees ees, orgeat eat, entremets ets, 

 mobilier er, and chef d'ceuvre ef or efs, according to 



