The simplification of English spelling : specially adapted for the rising generation : an easy way of saving time in writing, printing, and reading / by George Harley.

  • Harley, George, 1829-1896.
Date:
1877
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The simplification of English spelling : specially adapted for the rising generation : an easy way of saving time in writing, printing, and reading / by George Harley. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

    43/130 (page 29)
    Look at English spelling in times gone by, and it will be seen that many, very many, of the words which were formerly spelt with dupli- cated consonants are now written with only single ones. It will be cpiite unnecessary for us to go back to early Anglo-Saxon literature in order to illustrate this point; indeed, were we to attempt to do so we should find it a very difficult task, as there are too few of the original i^nglo-Saxon words left which bear a sufficient resemblance to those now in daily use to enable us to make an exact orthographical standard of comparison between them. Old Anglo-Saxon reads much more like a foreign language than anything else. Thus the Lord’s Prayer of the twelfth century is, “ Fadeur, ur in heune, haleweide beitli thi neune, simin thi kuneriche, thi wille beoth idon in heune and in erthe. The euryen dawe bried, gif ous thilk dawe. And vorrgif ure dettes as vi vorrgifen ure dettoures; And lene us nought into tem- tation, bot delyvor eus of evel. Amen.” A.D. 1158.'' In truth, the whole of King Alfred’s English (1,000 years ago) is totally unintelligible to all English scholars, except the few who have made it a special study; and the English of * Diprose’s Annual, p. 108.