ble which held it to speech, and
we know neither how to write a new word when we hear it nor how to
pronounce one when we see it. Strangest of all, we have come, in our
English insularity, to look on this as a matter of course. But Germans
and Spaniards, Italians and Dutchmen, have no such difficulty and never
have to turn to the dictionary to find out how to spell a word that they
hear or how to pronounce a word that they see. For them spelling and
speech are identical; all they have to make sure of is the standard
pronunciation. They have done what we have neglected to do--developed
the alphabet into an accurate phonetic instrument, and our neglect is
costing us, throughout the English-speaking world, merely in dealing
with silent letters, the incredible sum of a hundred million dollars a
year.[5] Our neighbors look after the alphabet and the spelling looks
after itself; if the pronunciation changes, the spelling changes
automatically, and thus keeps itself always up to date.

But this happy result has not been brought about without effort, the
same kind of effort that our reformers are now making for our benefit.
In Swedish books printed only a hundred years ago we find words printed
with the letters _th_ in combination, like the word _them_, which had
the same meaning, and originally the same pronunciation, as the English
word. At that time, however, Swedes had long ceased to be able to
pronounce the _th_, but they kept the letters just as we still keep the
_gh_ in _brought_ and _through_, though for centuries no one who speaks
only standard English has been able to sound this guttural. In the last
century the Swedes reformed their spelling, and they now write the word
as they pronounce it--_dem_. German spelling has passed through several
stages of reform in recent decades and is now almost perfectly phonetic.
Germans now write _Brot_ and no longer _Brod_ or _Brodt_. It must be
frankly confessed that the derivation of some words is not so obvious to
the eye as formerly. The appearance of the Swedish _byra_ does not at
once suggest the French _bureau_, which it exactly reproduces in sound.
But Europeans think it more practical, if they cannot indicate both
pronunciation and etymology in spelling, to relegate the less important
to the dictionary. Much, to be sure, has been made of the assumed
necessity of preserving the pedigree of our words in their spelling, but
in many cases this is not done now. Who thinks of _alm