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only a question of teaching the teachers. The mind of the child is a blank board, ready to take in whichever sound is given; and if the teachers knew their business, there would be no difficulty with the children.

It is much to be desired that the Americans should go handin-hand with the English in a reform of the spelling of the language. It will be a misfortune if the two nations diverge in their orthography. The English are more in contact with foreign nations, and therefore, in this respect, more favourably placed for effecting a reform. On the other hand the Americans have a large German population; and if they would humble themselves to admit the defect in ear, which they have in common with the English, and call in some Germans to their help, they might lead the way, and the English would be obliged to follow. They have also got Mark Twain, and if he took the matter up he would carry it to successful issue. His observations on the defects of German grammar show that he would be equally alive to those of English orthography. In the meantime the American attempts at reform are possibly mischievous, and certainly useless, and as much may be said of many of the English propositions. I would advise the Americans to spell Ohio and Iowa, as Ohaio and Aiowa. This would point to the direction in which reform should go.

The objects that should be aimed at are:

1. The language should be thrown into gear with those of Northern, Central, and Southern Europe.

2. English, being a Teutonic language, should, as far as possible, be brought into accord with German and Dutch, as also Scandinavian.

3. As a preliminary step in the reform, the classical languages, particularly Latin, should be pronounced as in German and Italian, &c.

4. Scriptural names should be pronounced as on the Continent, and the spelling left unchanged.

And now a few remarks with regard to the deterioration of the Maori language may not be amiss. This language has been reduced to a correct orthography; but emigrants arrive from England who know nothing of it, and who have been taught Latin in the English style. They at once begin to spoil the nanes of places. Thus Ti nui, the big ti or cabbage tree, becomes Tenui, literally the big, which is senseless. Pitone, or Pito-one, the end of the beach, becomes Petone, without meaning. Titahi, bay, becomes Tetai, Tuitai, sometimes Teti. Ohiro becomes Ohairo, and so on.

Apart from mispronunciation or mis-spelling of Maori, the English dialect that is developing in Australasia is not satisfactory. The tendency is to a modification of Cockney. Thus we generally hear "I seen him" for " I saw him," which is certainly

queer grammar; but sometimes this is diversified by "I sawr 'im." As expletives, "My word" and "No fear" are favourites, both drawn out as long as possible. The letter h is frequently treated in Cockney fashion, i.e., omitted where it should be pronounced, and put in where not wanted.

I have often observed in London Colonial newspapers complaints of the use of Maori names, as being unpronounceable, &c. Considering that the Maori language is softer than Italian, this shows how much the writers know of what they are writing about. I should strongly object to displace the soft, easily pronounced, and generally descriptive Maori names, by the Bellevues, Mounts Brown, or Smith, or Jones, or other names showing the poverty of the English language for nomenclature. Compare the Spanish language for this purpose. Masafuero, the name of a small island outside Juan Fernandez, means literally more far, or farther off. Expressed in English the name would never do, whereas in Spanish it is sonorous and euphonious. Similarly Cape Cow's Tongue will not answer, whereas Cabo Lengua de Vaca is euphonious and appropriate. Even in Great Britain the old Celtic names are generally the best, and have more poetic meanings than the more homely names of the Sassenach, such as Pitmuis, "the field of blood," Kilkiaran or Kilkerran," the cell of Kiaran," &c.

The sound of the letter s has been very often changed in English to that of , as in is, iz; was, waz. The spelling reformers would change all these into z. Cannot the original sound be reverted to ? In phonetic printing the frequent occurrence of z looks hideous, almost as bad as shun.

Some persons may say, Why should we object to the French sounds in the language and prefer the Teutonic? The reply is easy English is a Teutonic language, and although it has borrowed many words from French, it can under no circumstances be converted into a Romance language; besides the French sounds are non-phonetic-as such they do not do the same mischief in French as in English, because in the former language the sound is nearly constant, whereas in the latter it is arbitrary and variable.

Certainly the pronunciation of French words is peculiar. We find eau, eaux, au, aux, all = 0; beau = bo, peau, pót =po, maux = mo, faux = fo, chateau, chato. We adopt some of these words into English and call bean, ho; but beauté we call biuty. Beauly (firth), we call Biuly. Then the French call comment, commong; vraiment, vraimong; appartient, appartieng; proportion, proporshiong; maison, maesong; bon, bong; mauvais, morae; suis, sui; es and est, ae; sommes, som; êtes, aet; sont, song. This is not the language on which English orthography should be reformed. It is essentially a Latin patois, the rule being to cut off the final syllable of Latin, thus: Rome for Roma; bon for bonus,

French is the foreign language which is most taught in England. The consequence is that Englishmen suppose there is no such thing as a phonetic language. If German, Italian, and Spanish were more taught they would learn to understand the subject.

A few more peculiarities of English present themselves. Cacao we spell cocoa, and pronounce coco. Bilbao used to be, and often is still, spelt Bilboa. Kakatua we spell and pronounce cockatoo. The name has nothing to do with a cock; the bird may be a hen. Kaka is the generic name for parrot among many languages of the East, and kakatua is that of the particular family.

Chinchona we spell cinchona, and generally pronounce as if it were an Italian word. The name, if Spanish, was derived from that of the Countess Chinchon, wife of the Captain-General of Peru, and ch in Spanish is always soft, as it is generally in English. There is, no doubt, the authority of Linnæus for cinchona, but he evidently made a mistake in this name.

In the first attempt of a child to speak he says ba, and this whether he is of English or any other race. When the child grows up and goes to school we tell him that a = ae, and therefore that ba ought to be bae. Luckily he knows better, he has found out by instinct that ba is ba, and not bae. Afterwards he learns

to say papa and mamma, and notwithstanding the teachings of his alphabet, he does not call them paepae and maemae. Advancing in age he speaks of his father, not faether; although, strange to say, the Scotch adopt the latter sound, contrary to their usual habit of broadening the vowel a.

In these days of æstheticism it is utterly impossible that the orthography of the English language can remain long in its present barbarous and almost ludicrous state, but the change to a more correct system must be brought about by real linguists and men of taste, men who thoroughly understand the Teutonic languages-not only German, but Dutch, Flemish, and the allied Scandinavian tongues. Until some result is arrived at by men of the above-named qualifications, it would be much better for both English and Americans to desist from any premature changes.

It appears to me to be a misfortune that the Teutonic name berg, mountain, should have been lost to the English language, except in iceberg, and the Romance names mount, mountain, substituted. Mount may generally be considered as a diminutive of mountain, but we find it applied to mountains of the greatest elevation. Thus we find in Mount Cook, Mount Everest, and other mountains of the first class, the name mount filling the position which it does in the Mounts Pleasant, or Brown, or other small elevations in the vicinity of English towns. Cookberg and Everestberg would be infinitely better. In New

Zealand we have the relative height of elevations well defined in maunga, mountain; puke, hill. Suppose we convert Mount Cook into Maungakuku, this would be much more euphonious than Mount Cook, and serve as well the purpose of commemorating the name of the great discoverer.

Mount, as a rule, is applied to a hillock; when exceptionally used to denote the highest mountains in the world the effect is feeble.

To return to a few more illustrations. The German name for ice is the same as our own, but they spell the word eis. Any one can see that the German spelling is phonetic, but what shall we say to the English ice. The i is made into the diphthong ei, the c into s, and the e is mute and useless. In the same category we have nice, twice, rice, spice, mice, &c. The mute e, at the end of words, ought to be abolished.

What must a foreigner think when he hears an educated Englishman talk of Demostheniez and Pericliez. This pronunciation has a thoroughly illiterate effect, something similar to the crier in Court calling out, "Oyiez, Oyiez," or of a lawyer talking about laechiez, or of Naisai Praius. The pronunciation is not even according to English custom, for we do not say Agniez, businiez, Totniez, prickliez, wrinkliez. When an Englishman is asked why he does not pronounce names correctly, he says that it would look like affectation to do so, whereas the affectation is all the other way.

A few illustrations will show in what a curious way the letter o is treated in English. We find its different and varying sounds in tome, tom, one, come, cooper, coffee. There may possibly be more variations. I have picked out the above at random.

Now all these various defects in English orthography have a strong bearing upon the future of the Maori language. That language has been brought into a phonetic orthography, and many of the European settlers understand this: but every day fresh arrivals come from England who know nothing of the subject, and who proceed to damage the Maori tongue. The culprits are to be found in the Post Office Department; as compositors in newspaper offices; as officials in the Land Office, and in the public generally. Thus we find the native names mis-spelt and made ridiculous. I have already mentioned the cases of Petone, for Pito-one, Tenui for Tinui. I may add Kaiwarra for Kaiwharawhara, Mangahao for Mangahoa. When I traversed the Forty-mile Bush, some twenty-four years ago, I put this name down as Mangāwha, which is practically the same as Mangāhoa. Mangahao does not give the sound at all.

Pauatahanui is converted into Pahautanui. Ohiro is not mis-spelt, but is pronounced Ohairo, and so on. One could find many similar examples. But what can be expected when

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the English alphabet is treated in the way in practice when the child is taught that a = ae, and no symbol is given for the broad a; that i ai; that u = iu, &c. Let the reform begin at the fountain head, by a re-arrangement of the alphabet. One or two Scotch names give good examples of the difficulties in spelling brought about by the want of system in English orthography. Let us take the name MacNeil. We find this variously spelt McNeil and McNeal. Although apparently a Celtic name, I suspect that it came from Scandinavia, where we have to this day the frequent Christian name of Nil, Nils. The French could make nothing of Neil, so changed the spelling to Niel, in the case of the celebrated marshal. The McNeils and Neals should do the same, and the name would then be written phonetically.

We find the name Mackay spelt the same, whether the owner of it comes from the Highlands or from Galloway; but the pronunciation is different. In the former case it is Mackai, in the latter Māckae; and at San Francisco I found another variation, viz., Mackãe, the accent being on the last syllable.

In looking up the Scandinavian languages, I have been struck with the similarity in some respects to broad Scotch, und I suspect that the language of the old kingdom of Northumbria, extending from the Humber to the Forth, has been more influenced by Scandinavian immigrants than is generally supposed. Such words as baru for bairu are suggestive; and in Norwegian I found a sentence, viz.: “Qua sae?" meaning "What do you say?" which one may hear any day in the streets of Edinburgh or Glasgow.

ART. VII.-The Non-Euclidian Geometry Vindicated: a Reply to Mr. Skey.

66

By F. W. FRANKLAND F.I.A.

[Read before the Wellington Philosophical Society, 13th February, 1884.] THE following observations are an abridgment of a series of letters addressed to Mr. Skey, the author of the paper entitled Notes upon Mr. Frankland's Paper On the Simplest Continuous Manifoldness of two Dimensions and of Finite Extent,'" read before the Wellington Philosophical Society on 26th June, 1880, and contained on pages 100-109 of the thirteenth volume of the Transactions of the New Zealand Institute. By Mr. Skey's kindness and courtesy these letters were made available to me for the preparation of a printed reply to his criticisms. I make no apology for the form in which this reply appears. I have taken, seriatim, the main points which Mr. Skey raised, and replied to each of his contentions in detail. Mr. Skey's own words are in each case placed at the commencement of the

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