A Plea for Spelling Reform: A Series of Tracts Comp. from the Phonetic Journal and Other Periodicals, Recommending an Enlarged Alphabet and a Reformed Spelling of the English LanguageIsaac Pitman |
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A. J. Ellis absurd adopted anomalies Bath child consonants dát deigrafs difficulty digraphs diphthong eksept English language etimolojikal etymologists etymology explanatory of Phonetic fakt ferst Fonetik Alfabet Fonotipi French Freng Greek Inglif insted ov intu Isaac Pitman konsider kwit langwej Latin learning to read leterz letters ling Max Müller means moar oald objection orthography ortografi ov fonetik parcel of Tracts philologists phonetic alphabet Phonetic Institute Phonetic Journal Phonetic Printing Phonetic Shorthand phonetic spelling Phonography Phonotypy post-paid practical praktikal present spelling pronounced pronunciation represent riten serten Shorthand and Phonetic signs sistem ov sound speech spel spelin speling Spelling Reform spelt spoken syllable system of spelling teacher teaching teip ther thing Tracts explanatory truth vouel vowel-signs vowels whiç whig whot words wordz writing written
Popular passages
Page 1 - A more lying, roundabout, puzzle-headed delusion than that by which we confuse the clear instincts of truth in our accursed system of spelling was never concocted by the father of falsehood.
Page 5 - As it is usually managed, it is a dreadful task indeed to learn, and, if possible, a more dreadful task to teach to read, With the help of counters, and coaxing, and gingerbread, or by dint of reiterated pain and terror, the names of the four-and-twenty letters of the alphabet are, perhaps, in the course of some weeks, firmly fixed in the pupil's memory.
Page 6 - There are many carefully worded rules in the spelling-books, specifying before what letters, and in what situations, g shall vary in sound, but unfortunately these rules are difficult to be learned by heart, and still more difficult to understand. These laws, however positive, are not found to be of universal application, or at least a child has not always wit or time to apply them upon the spur of the occasion. In coming to the words good gentleman, get an ingenious grammar, he may be puzzled by...
Page 5 - ... letters of the alphabet are, perhaps, in the course of some weeks, firmly fixed in the pupil's memory. So much the worse : all these names, will disturb him if he have common sense, and at every step must stop his progress.
Page 11 - For any one who believes in the civilising power of letters and often talks of this belief, to think that he has for more than twenty years got his living by inspecting schools for the people, has gone in and out among them, has seen that the power of letters never reaches them at all and that the whole study of letters is thereby discredited and its power called in question, and yet has attempted nothing to remedy this state of things, cannot but be vexing and disquieting. He may truly say, like...