_Some Deserving "Climbers"_
Language, like society, has to recruit its upper strata from the
lower. Here are some recent candidates.
I. The very eminent author of _The Baby and the Bee_ in this number
puts into the mouth of one of the characters the word "humans" as an
equivalent for human beings. The same use of it has been met elsewhere
in quarters of less dignity. Many of our readers must have regretted
the absence from the language of a single word equivalent to _homo_.
Is not "human" as a noun worthy of being raised to that dignity?
II. Another new labor-saving locution has already found its way into
the Standard Dictionary, and seems worthy of general recognition. The
dictionary treats it thus:
thon, 1 thon; 2 thon, pron. sing. pl. [thon's, poss.; thon, obj.]
that one; he, she, or it; a pronoun of the 3rd person, common
gender; a contracted and solidified form of _that one_, proposed
in 1858 by Charles Crozat Converse, of Erie, Pennsylvania, as a
substitute in cases where the use of a restrictive pronoun
involves either inaccuracy or obscurity, or its non-employment
necessitates awkward repetition. The following examples, first as
ordinarily written, and afterward with the substitution of the
genderless pronoun, illustrate the grammatical deficiencies of
the English language in this particular and the proposed method
of removal: "If Harry or his wife comes, I will be on hand to
meet _him_ or _her_ (or whichever appears)." "Each pupil must
learn _his_ or _her_ own lesson." With the substitution of
_thon_; "If Harry or his wife comes, I will be on hand to meet
_thon_ (i.e., that one who comes)." "Each pupil must learn thon's
lesson (i.e., _his_ or _her_ own)." Compare he'er, him'er,
his'er.
III. A third applicant for the _cachet_ is "near," not as a
preposition, but as an adjective signifying imitation or ineffective
approximation, as, near pearls, near lover, near artist, etc., etc. It
would at least often save several syllables, and sometimes save a
circumlocution. It seems to have begun rather low down. We don't half
like it, and we were surprised to find it as far up as in an article
by an eminent professor in our present number. But there it was, and
it seems well on the way to full habilitation.
_Simplified Spelling_
The invitation in the January number for views on Simplified Spelling
has brought some interesting letters from both sides. The best
objections that we have seen anywhere are the following:
(1) From an eminent professor:
... This point, briefly, is whether the spoken language is the
only _entity_, so to say, to be considered in the case, and the
written language merely an effort to represent it, or whether the
written language is equally a reality for the purposes of
civilization....