Chips from a German Workshop, Volume 5: Miscellaneous Later EssaysMüller, F. Max (Friedrich Max)
Religion
Chips from a German Workshop, Volume 5: Miscellaneous Later Essays
Müller, F. Max (Friedrich Max)
Comparative linguistics; Folklore; Literature -- History and criticism; Mythology; Religions
The great event hwich formz a deseisiv epok in the histori ov speling iz
the introd[p]kshon ov printing. With printed buks, and partikiularli with
printed Beibelz, skaterd over the k[p]ntri, the speling of w[p]rdz bekame
rijid, and universali beinding. S[p]m langwejez, s[p]ch az Italian, wer
more fortiunate than [p]therz in having a more rashonal sistem ov speling
tu start with. S[p]m, agen, leik Jerman, wer abel tu make teimli
konseshonz, hweil [p]therz, s[p]ch az Spanish, D[p]ch, and French, had
Akademiz tu help them at kritikal periodz ov their histori. The most
[p]nfortiunate in all theze respekts woz Inglish. It started with a Latin
alfabet, the pron[p]nsiashon ov hwich woz [p]nseteld, and hwich had tu be
apleid tu a Tiutonik langwej. After this ferst fonetik kompromeiz it had
tu pas through a konfiúzd sistem ov speling, half Sakson, half Norman;
half fonetik, half tradishonal. The histori ov the speling, and even ov
the pron[p]nsiashon, ov Inglish, in its pasej from Anglo-Sakson tu midel
and modern Inglish, haz lateli been st[p]did with great s[p]kses bei Mr.
Ellis and Mr. Sweet. Ei m[p]st refer tu their buks “On Erli Inglish
Pron[p]nsiashon,” and “On the Histori ov Inglish Soundz,” hwich kontain a
welth ov il[p]strashon, almost bewildering. And even after Inglish reachez
the period ov printing, the konfiuzhon iz bei no meanz terminated; on the
kontrari, for a teim it iz greater than ever. Hou this kame tu pas haz
been wel il[p]strated bei Mr. Marsh in hiz ekselent “Lektiurz on the
Inglish Langwej,” p. 687, _seq_.(69) Hwot we nou kall the establisht
sistem ov Inglish orthografi may, in the main, be trast bak tu Jonson’z
Dikshonari, and tu the stil more kaprishus sway ekserseizd bei larj
printing ofisez and p[p]blisherz. It iz true that the evil ov printing
karid tu a serten ekstent its own remedi. If the speling bekame
[p]nchanjabel, the langwej itself, too, woz, bei meanz ov a printed
literatiur, chekt konsiderabli in its natiural growth and its dealektik
vareieti. Nevertheles Inglish haz chanjed sins the invenshon ov printing;
Inglish iz chanjing, though bei imperseptibel degreez, even nou; and if we
kompare Inglish az spoken with Inglish az riten, they seem almost leik two
diferent langwejez; az diferent az Latin iz from Italian.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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