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
“Mei litel Sidney, who iz nou a fiu m[u]n[t]s more than four yearz old,
wil read eni fonetik buk without the sleitest hezitashon; the hardest
namez or the lo[n]gest w[u]rdz in the Old or Niu Testament form no
obstakel tu him. And hou lo[n] do you [t]ink it tuk me (for ei am hiz
teacher) tu impart tu him this pouer? Hwei s[u]m[t]i[n] les than eight
ourz! You may believ it or not, az you leik, b[u]t ei am konfident that
not more than that amount ov teim woz spent on him, and that woz in
snachez ov feiv minits at a teim, hweil tea woz geti[n] redi. Ei no you
wil be inkleind tu say, ‘All that iz veri wel, b[u]t hwot iz the use ov
readi[n] fonetik buks? he iz stil az far of, and may be farther, from
readi[n] romanik buks.’ B[u]t in this you ar mistaken. Take an[u]ther
ekzampel. Hiz nekst elder br[u]ther, a boi ov siks yearz, haz had a
fonetik ediukashon so far. Hwot iz the konsekwens? Hwei, readin in the
ferst staje woz so deleitful and eazi a [t]i[n] tu him that he taught
himself tu read romanikali, and it wud be a difik[u]lt mater tu feind
w[u]n boi in twenti, ov a korespondi[n] aje, that kud read haf so wel az
he kan in eni buk. Agen, mei oldest boi haz riten more fonetik shorthand
and lo[n]hand, perhaps, than eni boi ov hiz aje (eleven yearz) in the
ki[n]dom; and now[u]n ei daresay haz had les tu do with that abs[u]rditi
ov abs[u]rditiz, the speli[n]-buk! He iz nou at a ferst-rate skool in
Wiltshire, and in the haf-year presedi[n] Kristmas, he karid of the preiz
for or[t]ografi in a kontest with boiz s[u]m ov them hiz seniorz bei
yearz!”
Bei the adopshon ov the fonetik alfabet, the difik[u]ltiz that lei in the
way ov forenerz lerni[n] I[n]glish, also wud be d[u]n away with. The Rev.
Newman Hall reits, “Ei met with a Danish jentelman the [u]ther day who
heili preizd the I[n]glish fonotipik Niu Testament. It had been ov great
use tu him, and _enabeld him tu read [buks in the komon speli[n]] without
an instr[u]kter_, removi[n] the greatest obstakel in akweiri[n] I[n]glish,
the monstr[u]s anomali[z] ov pron[u]nsiashon.” Ekzampelz leik theze go a
lo[n] way.
Mr. A. J. Ellis, than whom now[u]n haz labord more devotidli for a reform
ov speli[n], az a ferst step in a reform ov nashonal ediukashon, and who
haz himself elaborated several most injeni[u]s sistemz ov fonetik
reiti[n], givz [u]s the folowi[n] az the rez[u]ltz ov hiz praktikal
eksperiens:
“With the fonetik sistem ov speli[n], the Primer iz masterd within tree
m[u]n[t]s at most. The children then proseed tu praktis this fonetik
readi[n] for s[u]m teim, til they kan read with fluensi from the jeneral
luk ov the w[u]rd, and not from konsideri[n] the pouerz ov its leterz.
[T]ree m[u]n[t]s more, at most, ar rekweird for this staje.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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