"Mark Twain. A simplified alphabet (англ.)" - читать интересную книгу автора

ago, but nothing more inflamed than that. It seemed to me to merely propose
to substitute one inadequacy for another; a sort of patching and plugging
poor old dental relics with cement and gold and porcelain paste; what was
really needed was a new set of teeth. That is to say, a new ALPHABET.

The heart of our trouble is with our foolish alphabet. It doesn't know
how to spell, and can't be taught. In this it is like all other alphabets
except one--the phonographic. This is the only competent alphabet in the
world. It can spell and correctly pronounce any word in our language.

That admirable alphabet, that brilliant alphabet, that inspired
alphabet, can be learned in an hour or two. In a week the student can learn
to write it with some little facility, and to read it with considerable
ease. I know, for I saw it tried in a public school in Nevada forty-five
years ago, and was so impressed by the incident that it has remained in my
memory ever since.

I wish we could adopt it in place of our present written (and printed)
character. I mean SIMPLY the alphabet; simply the consonants and the
vowels--I don't mean any REDUCTIONS or abbreviations of them, such as the
shorthand writer uses in order to get compression and speed. No, I would
SPELL EVERY WORD OUT.

I will insert the alphabet here as I find it in Burnz's PHONIC
SHORTHAND. [Figure 1] It is arranged on the basis of Isaac Pitman's
PHONOGRAPHY. Isaac Pitman was the originator and father of scientific
phonography. It is used throughout the globe. It was a memorable invention.
He made it public seventy- three years ago. The firm of Isaac Pitman Sons,
New York, still exists, and they continue the master's work.

What should we gain?

First of all, we could spell DEFINITELY--and correctly--any word you
please, just by the SOUND of it. We can't do that with our present alphabet.
For instance, take a simple, every-day word PHTHISIS. If we tried to spell
it by the sound of it, we should make it TYSIS, and be laughed at by every
educated person.

Secondly, we should gain in REDUCTION OF LABOR in writing.

Simplified Spelling makes valuable reductions in the case of several
hundred words, but the new spelling must be LEARNED. You can't spell them by
the sound; you must get them out of the book.

But even if we knew the simplified form for every word in the language,
the phonographic alphabet would still beat the Simplified Speller "hands
down" in the important matter of economy of labor. I will illustrate:

PRESENT FORM: through, laugh, highland.