The Grammar of English Grammars by Goold Brown (free ebook reader .txt) 📕

reformation must be wrought by those who have no disposition either to exaggerate its present defects, or to undertake too much. Regard must be had to the origin, as well as to the sounds, of words. To many people, all silent letters seem superfluous; and all indirect modes of spelling, absurd. Hence, as the learner may perceive, a very large proportion of the variations and disputed points in spelling, are such as refer to the silent letters, which are retained by some writers and omitted by others. It is desirable that such as are useless and irregular should be always omitted; and such as are useful and regular always retained. The rules which I have laid down as principles of discrimination, are such as almost every reader will know to be generally true, and agreeable to present usage, though several of them have never before been printed in any grammar. Their application will strike out some letters which are often written, and retain some which are often omitted; but, if they err on either hand, I am confident they err less than any other set of rules ever yet formed for the same purpose. Walker, from whom Murray borrowed his rules for spelling, declares for an expulsion of the second l from traveller, gambolled, grovelling, equalling, cavilling, and all similar words; seems more willing to drop an l from illness, stillness, shrillness, fellness, and drollness, than to retain both in smallness, tallness, chillness, dullness, and fullness; makes it one of his orthographical aphorisms, that, "Words taken into composition often drop those letters which were superfluous in their simples; as, Christmas, dunghil, handful;" and, at the same time, chooses rather to restore the silent e to the ten derivatives from move and prove, from which Johnson dropped it, than to drop it from the ten similar words in which that author retained it! And not only so, he argues against the principle of his own aphorism; and says, "It is certainly to be feared that, if this pruning of our words of all the superfluous letters, as they are called, should be much farther indulged, we shall quickly antiquate our most respectable authors, and irreparably maim our language."—Walker's Rhyming Dict., p. xvii.

OBS. 27.—No attempt to subject our orthography to a system of phonetics, seems likely to meet with general favour, or to be free from objection, if it should. For words are not mere sounds, and in their orthography more is implied than in phonetics, or phonography. Ideographic forms have, in general, the advantage of preserving the identity, history, and lineage of words; and these are important matters in respect to which phonetic writing is very liable to be deficient. Dr. Johnson, about a century ago, observed, "There have been many schemes offered for the emendation and settlement of our orthography, which, like that of other nations, being formed by chance, or according to the fancy of the earliest writers in rude ages, was at first very various and uncertain, and [is] as yet sufficiently irregular. Of these reformers some have endeavoured to accommodate orthography better to the pronunciation, without considering that this is to measure by a shadow, to take that for a model or standard which is changing while they apply it. Others, less absurdly indeed, but with equal unlikelihood of success, have endeavoured to proportion the number of letters to that of sounds, that every sound may have its own character, and every character a single sound. Such would be the orthography of a new language to be formed by a synod of grammarians upon principles of science. But who can hope to prevail on nations to change their practice, and make all their old books useless? or what advantage would a new orthography procure equivalent to the confusion and perplexity of such an alteration?"—Johnson's Grammar before Quarto Dict., p. 4.

OBS. 28.—Among these reformers of our alphabet and orthography, of whose schemes he gives examples, the Doctor mentions, first, "Sir Thomas Smith, secretary of state to Queen Elizabeth, a man of real learning, and much practised in grammatical disquisitions;" who died in 1597;—next, "Dr. Gill, the celebrated master of St. Paul's School in London;" who died in 1635;—then, "Charles Butler, a man who did not want an understanding which might have qualified him for better employment;" who died in 1647;—and, lastly, "Bishop Wilkins, of Chester, a learned and ingenious critic, who is said to have proposed his scheme, without expecting to be followed;" he died in 1672.

OBS. 29.—From this time, there was, so far as I know, no noticeable renewal of such efforts, till about the year 1790, when, as it is shown above on page 134 of my Introduction, Dr. Webster, (who was then only "Noah Webster, Jun., attorney at law,") attempted to spell all words as they are spoken, without revising the alphabet—a scheme which his subsequent experience before many years led him to abandon. Such a reformation was again attempted, about forty years after, by an other young lawyer, the late lamented Thomas S. Grimke, of South Carolina, but with no more success. More recently, phonography, or phonetic writing, has been revived, and to some extent spread, by the publications of Isaac Pitman, of Bath, England, and of Dr. Andrew Comstock, of Philadelphia. The system of the former has been made known in America chiefly by the lectures and other efforts of Andrews and Boyle, of Dr. Stone, a citizen of Boston, and of E. Webster, a publisher in Philadelphia.

OBS. 30.—The pronunciation of words being evidently as deficient in regularity, in uniformity, and in stability, as is their orthography, if not more so, cannot be conveniently made the measure of their written expression. Concerning the principle of writing and printing by sounds alone, a recent writer delivers his opinion thus: "Let me here observe, as something not remote from our subject, but, on the contrary, directly bearing upon it, that I can conceive no [other] method of so effectually defacing and barbarizing our English tongue, no [other] scheme that would go so far to empty it, practically at least and for us, of all the hoarded wit, wisdom, imagination, and history which it contains, to cut the vital nerve which connects its present with the past, as the introduction of the scheme of 'phonetic spelling,' which some have lately been zealously advocating among us; the principle of which is, that all words should be spelt according as they are sounded, that the writing should be, in every case, subordinated to the speaking. The tacit assumption that it ought so to be, is the pervading error running through the whole system."—R. C. Trench, on the Study of Words, p. 177.

OBS. 31.—The phonographic system of stenography, tachygraphy, or short-hand writing, is, I incline to believe, a very great improvement upon the earlier methods. It is perhaps the most reliable mode of taking down speeches, sermons, or arguments, during their delivery, and reporting them for the press; though I cannot pronounce upon this from any experience of my own in the practice of the art. And it seems highly probable, if it has not been fully proved, that children may at first be taught to read more readily, and with better articulation, from phonetic print, or phonotypy, as it has been called, than from books that exhibit words in their current or established orthography. But still it is questionable whether it is not best for them to learn each word at first by its peculiar or ideographic form—the form in which they must ultimately learn to read it, and which indeed constitutes its only orthography.

IMPROPRIETIES FOR CORRECTION. ERRORS IN SPELLING. UNDER RULE I.—OF FINAL F, L, OR S.

"He wil observe the moral law, in hiz conduct."—Webster's Essays, p. 320.

[FORMULES—1. Not proper, because the word "wil" is here spelled with one l. But, according to Rule 1st, "Monosyllables ending in f, l, or s, preceded by a single vowel, double the final consonant." Therefore, this l should be doubled; thus, will.

2. Not proper again, because the word "hiz" is here spelled with z. But, according to the exceptions to Rule 1st, "The words as, gas, has, was, yes, his, &c., are written with single s." Therefore, this z should be s; thus, his.]

"A clif is a steep bank, or a precipitous rock."—See Rhyming Dict. "A needy man's budget is ful of schemes."—Old Adage. "Few large publications in this country wil pay a printer."—Noah Webster's Essays, p. x. "I shal, with cheerfulness, resign my other papers to oblivion."—Ib., p. x. "The proposition waz suspended til the next session of the legislature."—Ib., p. 362. "Tenants for life wil make the most of lands for themselves."—Ib., p. 366. "While every thing iz left to lazy negroes, a state wil never be wel cultivated."—Ib., p. 367. "The heirs of the original proprietors stil hold the soil."—Ib., p. 349. "Say my annual profit on money loaned shal be six per cent."—Ib., p. 308. "No man would submit to the drudgery of business, if he could make money az fast by lying stil."—Ib., p. 310. "A man may az wel feed himself with a bodkin, az with a knife of the present fashion."—Ib., p. 400. "The clothes wil be ill washed, the food wil be badly cooked; and you wil be ashamed of your wife, if she iz not ashamed of herself."—Ib., p. 404. "He wil submit to the laws of the state, while he iz a member of it."—Ib., p. 320. "But wil our sage writers on law forever think by tradition?"—Ib., p. 318. "Some stil retain a sovereign power in their territories."—Ib., p. 298. "They sel images, prayers, the sound of bels, remission of sins, &c."—Perkins's Theology, p. 401. "And the law had sacrifices offered every day for the sins of al the people."—Ib., p. 406. "Then it may please the Lord, they shal find it to be a restorative."—Ib., p. 420. "Perdition is repentance put of til a future day."—Old Maxim. "The angels of God, which wil good and cannot wil evil, have nevertheless perfect liberty of wil."—Perkins's Theology, p. 716. "Secondly, this doctrine cuts off the excuse of al sin."—Ib., p. 717. "Knel, the sound of a bell rung at a funeral."—Johnson and Walker.

   "If gold with dros or grain with chaf you find,
    Select—and leave the chaf and dros behind."—Author.

UNDER RULE II.—OF OTHER FINALS.

"The mobb hath many heads, but no brains."—Old Maxim.

[FORMULE.—Not proper, because the word "mobb" is here spelled with double b. But, according to Rule 2d, "Words ending in any other consonant than f, l, or s, do not double the final letter." Therefore, this b should be single: thus, mob.]

"Clamm, to clog with any glutinous or viscous matter."—Johnson's Dict. "Whurr, to pronounce the letter r with too much force."—Ib. "Flipp, a mixed liquor, consisting of beer and spirits sweetened."—Ib. "Glynn, a hollow between two mountains, a glen."—Churchill's Grammar, p. 22. "Lamm, to beat soundly with a cudgel or bludgeon."—Walker's Dict. "Bunn, a small cake, a simnel, a kind of sweet bread."—See ib. "Brunett, a woman with a brown complexion."—Ib. and Johnson's Dict. "Wad'sett, an ancient tenure or lease of land in the Highlands of Scotland."—Webster's Dict. "To dodd sheep, is to cut the wool away about their tails."—Ib. "In aliquem arietare, CIC. To run full but at one."—Walker's Particles, p. 95. "Neither your policy nor your temper would permitt you to kill me."—Philological Museum, Vol. i, p. 427. "And admitt none but his own offspring to fulfill them."—Ib., i, 437. "The summ of all this Dispute is, that some make them Participles," &c.—Johnson's Gram. Com., p. 352. "As, the whistling of winds, the buz and hum of insects, the hiss of serpents, the crash of falling timber."—Blair's Rhet., p. 129; Adam's Lat. Gram., p. 247; Gould's, 238. "Vann, to winnow, or a fan for winnowing."—Walker's Rhyming Dict. "Creatures that buz, are very commonly such as will sting."—Author "Begg, buy, or borrow; butt beware how you find."—Id. "It is better to have a house to lett, than a house to gett."—Id. "Let not your tongue cutt your throat."—Old Precept. "A little witt will save a fortunate man."—Old Adage. "There is many a slipp 'twixt the cup and the lipp."—Id. "Mothers' darlings make but milksopp heroes."—Id. "One eye-witness is worth tenn hearsays."—Id.

   "The judge shall jobb, the bishop bite the town,
    And mighty dukes pack cards for half a crown."—POPE:
       in Joh. Dict., w. Pack.

UNDER RULE III.—OF DOUBLING.

"Friz, to curl; frized, curled; frizing, curling."—Webster's Dict., 8vo.
Ed. of 1829.

[FORMULE—Not proper, because the words "frized" and "frizing" are here spelled with the single z, of their primitive friz. But, according to Rule 3d, "Monosyllables, and words accented on the last syllable, when they end with a single consonant preceded by a single vowel, double their final consonant before an additional syllable that begins with a vowel." Therefore, this z should be doubled; thus, frizzed, frizzing.]

"The commercial interests served to