Manchester Memoirs, Vol. Ixv. (1921), No. 6 



the part of writers in those times that we have so much bad 

 spelling to-day. We have not less than seventeen ways of 

 spelling the sound I as in " mind " : — 



i-e as in bite 



ay as in 

 i » 



ay 

 blithe 



y 



ye „ 

 uy „ 



bright 

 scythe 

 bye 

 buy 



ui-e 



ey 



ie 



eigh 



eye 



guide 



geyser 



belie 



sleight 



eye 



ai 



as in 



aisle 



ic 



n 



indict 



ei 



j> 



either 



is 



yy 



isle 



ig" 



)) 



alignment 



thirteen ways of spelling the sound OO as in boot : 



eu as in rheumatic 

 00 „ boot 

 oeu „ manoeuvre 

 ew „ brew 

 ui „ bruise 



u-e as in prune 



ough „ through 



ue „ blue 



u „ jury 



ou 

 wo 

 o 

 oe 



as in route 

 „ two 

 „ prove 

 ,, shoe 



ay 



as in quay 



e-e 



as in precede 



i 



,, machine 



ae 



„ Caesar 



ei 



,, receive 



oe 



„ Phoebe 



ie 



„ believe 



eo 



„ people 



and twelve ways of spelling the sound EE as in see : — 



e as in he 



ea „ bead 



ee „ beef 



ey „ key 



Not only were the vowel sounds confused by these ignorant 

 and pedantic people, but a number of unnecessary consonants 

 were introduced, most of which disguise rather than indicate 

 the origin and development of the words. 



The right thing to do is to throw aside this erroneous 

 spelling and get back to simple phonetics. Several plans 

 have been proposed. Pitman has a system in which every 

 sound has a perfectly distinct sign : there is a great deal to 

 be said for this out-and-out phonetic system, but some people 

 may think the change too drastic to be brought about in a 

 single step. The Simplified Spelling Society has proposed a 

 scheme in which only the letters of the present alphabet are 

 used : the vowel sounds are represented either by single 

 vowels or by digraphs used in the way already commonly 

 accepted. This system has the advantage that the present 

 printers' founts need not be extended and that the ordinary 

 typewriter can be used. The S.S.S. system would be a great 

 improvement upon our present system ; and it would be an 

 easy matter to step from it to a shorter method by introducing 



