April 29 1887.] 



sgiu]^c:e. 



421 



A SYSTEM OF ORTHOGRAPHY FOR 

 NATIVE NAMES OF PLACES. 



The Ro3'al geographical society of London, and 

 the Societe de g6ographie of Paris, have each 

 adopted a system of geographical orthography 

 which is intended to put an end to the existing 

 confusion in the mode of spelling in maps and 

 books. We fully agree with the first rule set forth 

 by the Royal society, — "No change will be made 

 in the orthography of foreign names in countries 

 which use Roman letters : Thus, Spanish, Por- 

 tuguese, Dutch, etc., names will be spelt as by the 

 respective nations." The second rule is, "Nei- 

 ther will any change be made in tlie spelling of 

 such names in languages vvhich are not written in 

 Roman characters as have become by long usage 

 familiar to English readers : thus, Calcutta, Cutch, 

 Celebes, Mecca, etc., will be retained in their pres- 

 ent form." Though this rule may give rise to 

 some doubt as to what names have become by 

 long usage familiar, it may be accepted. We 

 should prefer to retain anglicized foreign names, 

 e.g., Munich for Miinchen, Milan for Milano, Nor- 

 mandy for Normandie, instead of introducing the 

 original form, as the first rule demands. The new 

 system does not provide for the spelling of names 

 in languages written in foreign characters. Of 

 course, German and Danish must be classed among 

 the languages to which the first rule refers. But 

 it is doubtful how Russian and Polish names 

 shall be spelled. In the Polish language the 

 Roman, in the Russian the Cyrillic, alphabet is 

 used, and yet the sounds of the languages are very 

 similar. It would be inconsistent to apply to the 

 one the first rule, while the other is spel'ed merely 

 according to the sound. It would have been de- 

 sirable that the society should have expressed its 

 opinion on this point more precisely. The pho- 

 netic rules do not decide whether it is correct to 

 spell Kasimov, Kasimof , or Kassimov, nor will we 

 be able to decide whether it be correct to write 

 Trnova, Ternava, Ternova, or Tirnova. 



The third rule is, "The true sound of the word 

 as locally pronounced will be taken as the basis of 

 the spelling ; " and the fourth, " An approxima- 

 tion, however, to the sound, is alone aimed at. A 

 system which would attempt to represent the more 

 delicate inflections of sound and accent would be 

 so complicated as only to defeat itself." Both 

 these rules are good, as far as they go. Any lin- 

 guistic alphabet would be too complicated for the 

 general reader, and therefore the idea of applying 

 it must be at once rejected. The alphabet upon 

 which the society has decided follows the principle 

 that vowels are pronounced as in Italian, and con- 

 sonants as in English. This does away with the 

 ee for the sound i in ' ravine,' and with the oo for 



the M in 'flute.' The rule that vowels are shortened 

 in sound by doubling the following consonant is 

 not good, as repetitions of consonants occur in 

 many languages, and short vowels are of more 

 frequent occurrence than long ones. Therefore it 

 is better to mark the long ones. The French al- 

 phabet is in many respects better than the Eng- 

 lish. This is particularly true in regard to the 

 introduction of the circumflex for marking the 

 length of a vowel, and of the apostrophe for in- 

 dicating exploded sounds. The German o and ii, 

 which are not in the English alphabet, are ex- 

 pressed by the letters oe and u. The use of dh for 

 the soft th (as in ' these') is another improvement. 

 Both systems, though materially improving the 

 system of orthography of geographical names, are 

 open to criticism. Whoever has any experience 

 in reducing languages to writing, and has com- 

 pared his notes with those of other students, or 

 even the notes written before any knowledge of 

 the sound and structure of the language was ob- 

 tained, with later ones, will acknowledge that the 

 sound as perceived by a traveller is in no way 

 binding. The individuality and nationality of the 

 author give the sound a peculiar character which 

 not at all corresponds to the word as pronounced 

 by the natives. In Central Africa, for instance, 

 we find r and I or j and ch constantly interchan- 

 ging, according to the nationality of the explorer. 

 The rules adopted by the societies named can only 

 help the explorer who is not at all acquainted 

 with linguistics — which every explorer ought to 

 be — to write down the names in an intelligible 

 form. They are in no way sufficient for determin- 

 ing the proper spelling. This ought to be done by 

 linguists, and the results of their studies laid 

 down in a gazetteer. It is impossible to decide 

 by a rule whether it is correct to write Uganda 

 or Waganda ; Urua, Warua, or Kerua, though the 

 linguist will know that the first is the name of the 

 country, the second that of the people, and the 

 last the adjective form. On the English admiralty 

 charts we find numerous mistakes. Native names 

 are mistaken for English, and misspelled so as to 

 make the meaning intelligible. In Davis Strait 

 we find the name ' New Gummi Luck,' The cor- 

 rect name is ' Nugumiut,' and means ' the inhabit- 

 ants of the cape.' On the north-west coast of 

 America we find the place ' Bella Bella.' Though 

 this name has become that of a settlement, its 

 origin dates back to a misunderstanding. The 

 channel on which it is situated has the name ' Mil- 

 bank Sound.' The natives of that district cannot 

 pronounce this word, and say ' Bilbal,' which is 

 transformed into 'Bella Bella' by the English 

 traders and seamen. Similar mistakes occur 

 everywhere. For these reasons it is impossible to 



