10 α Choose the sizes of type which you wish for the different parts of your newspaper, and decide what portions shall Do this after

be double leaded, what leaded, and what solid. studying the Appendix pages upon proof-reading.

b Attach to your dummy a sheet of directions for the printer, explaining just how your paper is to be printed.

11 a Elect by class vote a newspaper staff— editor, assistant editor, correspondents, and reporters.

b Let the editors, with the help of your teacher, select from all the matter which the class has prepared what they consider best and sufficient for the several departments of the paper. After considering the various suggestions made, let them decide upon the sizes of type to be used and the style to be followed in the class paper.

C Issue at least one edition of this class newspaper, in either of the following ways: (aa) Have all the matter copied in manifold (by use of carbon impression paper) upon the typewriter, making enough copies for the entire class. Let this typewritten copy indicate as nearly as possible the typographical style chosen, and let it show as attractive headings as can be made. (bb) As a better plan, get some printer to "set up," or put into type, all your copy and print enough copies for your class. If this is done, read your own proofs, as directed in a former exercise of this chapter.

d If conditions permit, continue to issue your paper from time to time, as convenient.

NOTE: If drawing is taught in your school, and if your teacher should approve, several drawing periods may be used in preparing cartoons or other illustrations for your paper.

CHAPTER XIV

A REFINED PRONUNCIATION

THE RELATION BETWEEN SPELLING AND PRONUNCIATION

By your study of dialect and provincialisms you have seen that every person's manner of pronouncing words or sounds tells plainly whether or not he is well educated. Hence, because some attention must be given to gaining correct habits of pronunciation if one would avoid blunders, I shall give you today studies among the classes of words which are most often mispronounced. I shall also warn you in regard to the pronunciation of a few of the words whose spelling is likely to lead you astray.

Of all English vowel sounds, the one chiefly abused in oral speech is that of a when having the sound ah, called by Webster its "Italian" sound. By the way, however, Webster might just as well have called this sound of a French, or German, or Swedish, or Danish, or Spanish, or Portuguese, or what not; for all European languages except English name this sound and letter ah. Our own alphabet name, you see, is one exception among many related tongues. For this reason, many great English scholars now wish to change this and others of our alphabet names, so that Europeans may learn English and we may learn their languages with far less trouble.

It is very important that you be sure always to pronounce correctly the key-word of every group of similar words. Ask is usually given as key-word to a large group. Hence, if you mispronounce ask you will doubtless mispronounce all words in the same class with ask. Certain large groups of words are often pronounced one way in one part of a country, and another way in

another part. This is not a desirable thing, as it tends toward provincialisms and dialect. If you shall absolutely master the exercises given in this chapter, there is a strong probability that your habit of oral speech will be altered for life and altered for the better. Remember that no teacher, not even the best, can correct your bad habits for you. This you must do for yourself by patient practice. And you can do for yourself whatever you really make up your mind to do. So I shall hope that you, who study this lesson, may soon pay to the beautiful Italian "a, our finest and most open vowel sound, all the respect that it claims and deserves.

If our spelling should be somewhat simplified, as is likely to be the case before very many years, this matter of correct pronunciation will almost take care of itself. For spelling has everything to do with pronunciation to make it hard or easy, simple or involved. You and I must spell today as the dictionaries direct; but whenever a reformed spelling is endorsed by the authority of a great dictionary, we should be quick to take it up in our own everyday use. In this way, we shall be making paths smoother and straighter for all who come after us.

Do not fancy for a moment that our spelling now deserves respect merely because of its age. It is only as ancient as the dictionary of that interesting old bachelor, Dr. Samuel Johnson, who lacked sound judgment, or he would have chosen the shortest and easiest spellings from the many which lay ready-made to his hand. Instead, he threw away simple forms of hundreds of our words, which Geoffrey Chaucer and other writers had used for years and years before; and he chose instead to put into his dictionary spellings which had been made by Dutch printers who knew nothing about the English language. Wise as he was, he missed that greatest wisdom of all, the simplicity which marks whatever is truly great. Jolly Oliver Goldsmith, who so loved

fun and a fiddle, once said to Doctor Johnson, "Doctor, if you were writing a fable about little fishes, you would make them talk like whales." This is about what the mistaken Doctor did in regard to English spelling. When you are older, if you study Early English, you will see this for yourself. Perhaps you remember even now, as one instance, that Shakspere in his immortal song, "The Lark," sensibly enough spelled our been b-i-n, as we ought still to do, and that we saw the same spelling in the old ballad of " King John and the Abbot" in Book One of this series.

These are devices still

A few words about diacritical marks. employed by some dictionaries to help out our insufficient alphabet and our unreasonable spelling. Webster's dictionary, which is perhaps most widely used today in our public schools, employs the macron, or bar (-), the breve (~), the tilde (~), the cedilla (7), the suspended bar (1), the dot (·), and the double dot (...). This makes a very complicated system if one fully masters it in all its details. But no two dictionaries mark alike, altho all agree quite closely as to how to pronounce our language. Moreover, the thing needed is not to learn markings, but to learn pronunciation. For no one ever learns to pronounce very many of his words properly thru study of diacritics, or thru trying to memorize markings. Much oral practice is the one key to a refined and accurate pronunciation.

Before many years all dictionaries will probably employ a scientific alphabet, and then there will be no need of any diacritical marks whatever. A scientific alphabet has only one sound for each character used and one character for each sound, hence every word is always pronounced exactly as it is spelled. At present, our English is the worst spelled language in the world; for it often uses several letters for single sounds and several sounds for single letters. When we stop to consider how absurd this really is, how

expensive in the matter of printing and proof-reading, how wasteful in the all-important matters of learning to read and to spell, we can only wonder that English spelling was not reformed long ago. In. this, we are behind several nations of Europe which have already reformed the spelling of their national tongues. That wonderful invention, the printing-press, has preserved all our bad spellings for us along with all the good ones, much as the Egyptian process of embalming turned bad or good kings and queens alike into permanent mummies, quite regardless of their characters or deserts.

The great Oxford dictionary of Doctor Murray is the best authority today, so far as it has been prepared. It will not be completed for several years, and has now (June, 1903) reached the letter Q. This dictionary, as well as the Standard dictionary of America, and the new Worcester soon to be issued, all employ scientific alphabets for marking pronunciation. Our most eminent English and American scholars say that this is proper; hence the Webster's and the Century dictionaries must probably some day give up their present clumsy systems of diacritics.

It will be a good day for school children when all dictionaries agree upon one simple system of marking the pronunciation of words. Until this is the case, it is to be hoped that many of you may be fortunate enough to use the Standard dictionary, which will at least lead you toward a correct system of spelling, thru its use of a scientific alphabet to indicate pronunciation.

Just a word to you here about reading well aloud. This is an accomplishment as charming as it is rare. Practice in reading aloud should never cease, and every child should resolve to become a good reader. This you can help on by reading aloud at home in the privacy of your own room, for at least a few minutes each day, and also by means of vacation reading clubs, where each reads, turn and turn about. I hope that you remember occasionally to read aloud a story or a book to your mother or to some other