The Simplified Spelling Board was an American organization created in 1906 to reform the spelling of the English language , making it simpler and easier to learn, and eliminating many of what were considered to be its inconsistencies. The board operated until 1920, the year after the death of its founding benefactor, who had come to criticize the progress and approach of the organization.
112-516: The Simplified Spelling Board was announced on March 11, 1906, with Andrew Carnegie funding the organization, to be headquartered in New York City . The New York Times noted that Carnegie was convinced that "English might be made the world language of the future" and an influence leading to universal peace, but that this role was obstructed by its "contradictory and difficult spelling". Carnegie committed $ 15,000 per year for five years to initiate
224-485: A " self-made man " in both his economic development and his intellectual and cultural development. He was so grateful to Colonel Anderson for the use of his library that he "resolved, if ever wealth came to me, [to see to it] that other poor boys might receive opportunities similar to those for which we were indebted to the nobleman". His capacity, his willingness for hard work, his perseverance, and his alertness soon brought him opportunities. Starting in 1853, when Carnegie
336-538: A $ 600 mortgage on the family's $ 700 home, but the opportunity was available only because of Carnegie's close relationship with Scott. A few years later, he received a few shares in Theodore Tuttle Woodruff 's sleeping car company as a reward for holding shares that Woodruff had given to Scott and Thomson, as a payoff. Reinvesting his returns in such inside investments in railroad-related industries (iron, bridges, and rails ), Carnegie slowly accumulated capital,
448-698: A bond salesman, raising money for American enterprise in Europe. He built Pittsburgh's Carnegie Steel Company , which he sold to J. P. Morgan in 1901 for $ 303,450,000 (equal to $ 11,113,550,000 today); it formed the basis of the U.S. Steel Corporation . After selling Carnegie Steel, he surpassed John D. Rockefeller as the richest American of the time. Carnegie devoted the remainder of his life to large-scale philanthropy, with special emphasis on building local libraries , working for world peace, education, and scientific research. He funded Carnegie Hall in New York City,
560-519: A digraph ⟨jh⟩ that represents [h] in words that correspond to [ʒ] in standard French. Similarly, Catalan has a digraph ⟨ix⟩ that represents [ʃ] in Eastern Catalan , but [jʃ] or [js] in Western Catalan – Valencian . The pair of letters making up a phoneme are not always adjacent. This is the case with English silent e . For example, the sequence a_e has
672-409: A digraph or a combination of letters. They are the most common combinations, but extreme regional differences exists, especially those of the eastern dialects . A noteworthy difference is the aspiration of ⟨rs⟩ in eastern dialects, where it corresponds to ⟨skj⟩ and ⟨sj⟩ . Among many young people, especially in the western regions of Norway and in or around
784-538: A doubled consonant serves to indicate that a preceding vowel is to be pronounced short. In modern English, for example, the ⟨pp⟩ of tapping differentiates the first vowel sound from that of taping . In rare cases, doubled consonant letters represent a true geminate consonant in modern English; this may occur when two instances of the same consonant come from different morphemes , for example ⟨nn⟩ in unnatural ( un + natural ) or ⟨tt⟩ in cattail ( cat + tail ). In some cases,
896-483: A philanthropist. From 1901 forward, public attention was turned from the shrewd business acumen which had enabled Carnegie to accumulate such a fortune, to the public-spirited way in which he devoted himself to using it on philanthropic projects. He had written about his views on social subjects and the responsibilities of great wealth in Triumphant Democracy (1886) and Gospel of Wealth (1889). Carnegie devoted
1008-472: A point of naming it after Thomson. As well as having good business sense, Carnegie possessed charm and literary knowledge. He was invited to many important social functions, which Carnegie exploited to his advantage. Carnegie, through Keystone, supplied the steel for and owned shares in the landmark Eads Bridge project across the Mississippi River at St. Louis , Missouri (completed 1874). This project
1120-512: A public library; in 1886, he gave $ 250,000 to Allegheny City, Pennsylvania , for a music hall and library; and he gave $ 250,000 to Edinburgh for a free library. In total, Carnegie funded some 3,000 libraries, located in 47 U.S. states, and also in Canada, Britain, Ireland, Belgium, Serbia, France, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, the West Indies , and Fiji . He also donated £50,000 to help set up
1232-675: A regular contributor to numerous magazines, most notably The Nineteenth Century , under the editorship of James Knowles , and the influential North American Review , led by the editor Lloyd Bryce . In 1889, Carnegie published "Wealth" in the June issue of the North American Review . After reading it, Gladstone requested its publication in Britain, where it appeared as "The Gospel of Wealth" in The Pall Mall Gazette . Carnegie argued that
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#17328378836131344-612: A significant spike in interest in the word list following Roosevelt's edict. In response to mounting criticism from British newspapers, the board announced the additions of James Murray , the Scottish lexicographer and primary editor of the Oxford English Dictionary , along with Joseph Wright , an Oxford University professor of comparative philology and editor of the English Dialect Dictionary . Combined with
1456-582: A single character may be a relic from an earlier period of the language when the digraph had a different pronunciation, or may represent a distinction that is made only in certain dialects , like the English ⟨ wh ⟩ . Some such digraphs are used for purely etymological reasons, like ⟨ ph ⟩ in French. In some orthographies, digraphs (and occasionally trigraphs ) are considered individual letters , which means that they have their own place in
1568-540: A special vault was built to house the physical bulk of nearly $ 230 million worth of bonds. Carnegie continued his business career; some of his literary intentions were fulfilled. He befriended the English poet Matthew Arnold , the English philosopher Herbert Spencer , and the American humorist Mark Twain , as well as being in correspondence and acquaintance with most of the U.S. Presidents , statesmen, and notable writers. Carnegie constructed commodious swimming-baths for
1680-489: A specific place in the alphabet , separate from that of the sequence of characters that composes them, for purposes of orthography and collation : Most other languages, including most of the Romance languages, treat digraphs as combinations of separate letters for alphabetization purposes. English has both homogeneous digraphs (doubled letters) and heterogeneous digraphs (digraphs consisting of two different letters). Those of
1792-588: A steel rolling mill , and steel production and control of industry became the source of his fortune. Carnegie had some investments in the iron industry before the war. After the war, Carnegie left the railroads to devote his energies to the ironworks trade. Carnegie worked to develop several ironworks, eventually forming the Keystone Bridge Works and the Union Ironworks, in Pittsburgh. Although he had left
1904-547: A substantial breadwinner. But Carnegie attracted the attention of John Hay, a Scottish manufacturer of bobbins, who offered him a job for $ 2.00 per week ($ 70 by 2023 inflation). In his autobiography, Carnegie writes about the hardships he had to endure with this new job: Soon after this Mr. John Hay, a fellow Scotch manufacturer of bobbins in Allegheny City, needed a boy, and asked whether I would not go into his service. I went, and received two dollars per week; but at first
2016-521: A success and a source of profit for Woodruff and Carnegie. The young Carnegie continued to work for Pennsylvania's Tom Scott and introduced several improvements in the service. In the spring of 1861, Carnegie was appointed by Scott, who was now Assistant Secretary of War in charge of military transportation, as Superintendent of the Military Railways and the Union Government's telegraph lines in
2128-460: A thorough education, making the acquaintance of literary men. I figure that this will take three years' active work. I shall pay especial attention to speaking in public. We can settle in London and I can purchase a controlling interest in some newspaper or live review and give the general management of it attention, taking part in public matters, especially those connected with education and improvement of
2240-499: A trip to the United Kingdom. They toured Scotland by coach and enjoyed several receptions en route. The highlight was a return to Dunfermline, where Carnegie's mother laid the foundation stone of a Carnegie Library which he funded. Carnegie's criticism of British society did not mean dislike; on the contrary, one of Carnegie's ambitions was to act as a catalyst for a close association between English-speaking peoples. To this end, in
2352-487: A typical weaver's cottage with only one main room. It consisted of half the ground floor, which was shared with the neighboring weaver's family. The main room served as a living room, dining room and bedroom. He was named after his paternal grandfather. William Carnegie had a successful weaving business and owned multiple looms. In 1836, the family moved to a larger house in Edgar Street (opposite Reid's Park), following
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#17328378836132464-614: A year for nothing here in the East." Carnegie was further irritated to learn that his own trusts' annual financial reports were seen to be taking "a step backwards in reference to spelling." One month later, in February 1915, Carnegie penned a letter to Holt, the president of the board. In this letter, he wrote that "A more useless body of men never came into association, judging from the effects they produce. [...] Instead of taking twelve words and urging their adoption, they undertook radical changes from
2576-528: Is a letter that represents a plosive most accurately pronounced by trying to say /g/ and /b/ at the same time. Modern Slavic languages written in the Cyrillic alphabet make little use of digraphs apart from ⟨дж⟩ for /dʐ/ , ⟨дз⟩ for /dz/ (in Ukrainian, Belarusian, and Bulgarian), and ⟨жж⟩ and ⟨зж⟩ for the uncommon Russian phoneme /ʑː/ . In Russian,
2688-697: Is capitalized ⟨Kj⟩ , while ⟨ ij ⟩ in Dutch is capitalized ⟨IJ⟩ and word initial ⟨dt⟩ in Irish is capitalized ⟨dT⟩ . Digraphs may develop into ligatures , but this is a distinct concept: a ligature involves the graphical fusion of two characters into one, e.g. when ⟨o⟩ and ⟨e⟩ become ⟨œ⟩ , e.g. as in French cœur "heart". Digraphs may consist of two different characters (heterogeneous digraphs) or two instances of
2800-408: Is thus a matter of definition. Some letter pairs should not be interpreted as digraphs but appear because of compounding : hogshead and cooperate . They are often not marked in any way and so must be memorized as exceptions. Some authors, however, indicate it either by breaking up the digraph with a hyphen , as in hogs-head , co-operate , or with a trema mark , as in coöperate , but the use of
2912-497: Is tu hi fr him to takl, nor tu lo for him to notis. He makes tretis without the consent of the Senit." The Baltimore Sun joked: "How will he spell his own name? Will he make it 'Rusevelt' or will he get down to the fact and spell it ' Butt-in-sky '?" One editorial summed it up this way: "This is 2 mutch." Overseas, while the London press viciously mocked the executive order, the board received
3024-591: The Armenian language , the digraph ու ⟨ou⟩ transcribes / u / , a convention that comes from Greek. The Georgian alphabet uses a few digraphs to write other languages. For example, in Svan , /ø/ is written ჳე ⟨we⟩ , and /y/ as ჳი ⟨wi⟩ . Modern Greek has the following digraphs: They are called "diphthongs" in Greek ; in classical times, most of them represented diphthongs , and
3136-605: The Carnegie Institution at Washington, D.C., to encourage research and discovery. He later contributed more to these and other schools. CIT is now known as Carnegie Mellon University after it merged with the Mellon Institute of Industrial Research . Carnegie also served on the Boards of Cornell University and Stevens Institute of Technology . In 1911, Carnegie became a sympathetic benefactor to George Ellery Hale , who
3248-768: The Peace Palace in The Hague , founded the Carnegie Corporation of New York , Carnegie Endowment for International Peace , Carnegie Institution for Science , Carnegie Trust for the Universities of Scotland , Carnegie Hero Fund , Carnegie Mellon University , and the Carnegie Museums of Pittsburgh , among others. Andrew Carnegie was born to Margaret (Morrison) Carnegie and William Carnegie in Dunfermline , Scotland, in
3360-725: The Philippines . Carnegie strongly opposed the idea of American colonies. He opposed the annexation of the Philippines almost to the point of supporting William Jennings Bryan against McKinley in 1900. In 1898, Carnegie tried to arrange independence for the Philippines. As the conclusion of the Spanish–American War neared, the United States purchased the Philippines from Spain for $ 20 million. To counter what he perceived as American imperialism , Carnegie personally offered $ 20 million to
3472-525: The Tatar Cyrillic alphabet , for example, the letter ю is used to write both /ju/ and /jy/ . Usually the difference is evident from the rest of the word, but when it is not, the sequence ю...ь is used for /jy/ , as in юнь /jyn/ 'cheap'. The Indic alphabets are distinctive for their discontinuous vowels, such as Thai เ...อ /ɤː/ in เกอ /kɤː/ . Technically, however, they may be considered diacritics , not full letters; whether they are digraphs
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3584-478: The Union Dime Savings Institution , the board's first treasurer, noted that the group was careful to keep the word "reform" out of its name and gave the word "believe" as an example of a word that would benefit from elimination of its unneeded "i", stating that "If believe were spelled 'beleve', I think it would be a good change." On March 13, 1906, The New York Times editorialized in support of
3696-732: The United States Steel Corporation . It was the first corporation in the world with a market capitalization of over $ 1 billion. The buyout, secretly negotiated by Charles M. Schwab (no relation to Charles R. Schwab ), was the largest such industrial takeover in United States history to date. The holdings were incorporated in the United States Steel Corporation, a trust organized by Morgan, and Carnegie retired from business. His steel enterprises were bought out for $ 303,450,000. Carnegie's share of this amounted to $ 225.64 million (in 2023, $ 8.26 billion), which
3808-473: The University of Birmingham in 1899. As Van Slyck (1991) showed, during the last years of the 19th century, there was the increasing adoption of the idea that free libraries should be available to the American public. But the design of such libraries was the subject of prolonged and heated debate. On one hand, the library profession called for designs that supported efficiency in administration and operation; on
3920-524: The alphabet and cannot be separated into their constituent places graphemes when sorting , abbreviating , or hyphenating words. Digraphs are used in some romanization schemes, e.g. ⟨ zh ⟩ as a romanisation of Russian ⟨ ж ⟩ . The capitalisation of digraphs can vary, e.g. ⟨sz⟩ in Polish is capitalized ⟨Sz⟩ and ⟨kj⟩ in Norwegian
4032-552: The orthography of a language to write either a single phoneme (distinct sound), or a sequence of phonemes that does not correspond to the normal values of the two characters combined. Some digraphs represent phonemes that cannot be represented with a single character in the writing system of a language, like ⟨ ch ⟩ in Spanish chico and ocho . Other digraphs represent phonemes that can also be represented by single characters. A digraph that shares its pronunciation with
4144-449: The 14 years), the board's operations ceased in 1920, the year it had published its Handbook of Simplified Spelling . In 1920, the SSB published a Handbook of Simplified Spelling , which was written wholly in reformed spelling. Part 1 is a brief outline of the history of English spelling and the attempts to reform it up until 1920. Part 2 presents the arguments in favor of reform and replies to
4256-722: The Century (60%) and the Standard (two-thirds). In June 1906, the board prepared a list of the 300 words designed for teachers, lecturers and writers, which was sent out upon request. In June 1906, the New York City Board of Education received a report from the Board of Superintendents recommending adoption of the 300-word list, and would pass on the recommendation to the Committee on Studies and Textbooks for approval. In August 1906, President of
4368-525: The Columbia Oil Company in Venango County, Pennsylvania . In one year, the firm yielded over $ 1 million in cash dividends, and petroleum from oil wells on the property sold profitably. The demand for iron products, such as armor for gunboats, cannons, and shells, as well as a hundred other industrial products, made Pittsburgh a center of wartime production. Carnegie worked with others in establishing
4480-471: The East. Carnegie helped open the rail lines into Washington D.C. that the rebels had cut; he rode the locomotive pulling the first brigade of Union troops to reach Washington D.C. Following the defeat of Union forces at Bull Run , he personally supervised the transportation of the defeated forces. Under his organization, the telegraph service rendered efficient service to the Union cause and significantly assisted in
4592-627: The English language." The motion passed unanimously. The President let the Public Printer and the Nation know that the old style was reinstated. Roosevelt ultimately decided to rescind the order. Brander Matthews, a friend of Roosevelt and one of the chief advocates of the reform as chairman of the Simplified Spelling Board, remonstrated with him for abandoning the effort. Roosevelt replied on December 16, 1906: "I could not by fighting have kept
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4704-815: The Hartman Steel Works, the Frick Coke Company, and the Scotia ore mines. Carnegie combined his assets and those of his associates in 1892 with the launching of the Carnegie Steel Company . Carnegie's success was also due to his relationship with the railroad industries, which not only relied on steel for track, but were also making money from steel transport. The steel and railroad barons worked closely to negotiate prices instead of allowing free-market competition. Besides Carnegie's market manipulation, United States trade tariffs were also working in favor of
4816-612: The House Committee on Printing, introduced a resolution on December 13, 1906: "Resolved, That it is the sense of the House that hereafter in the printing of House documents or other publications used by law or ordered by Congress, or either branch thereof, or emanating from any executive department or bureau of the Government, the House printer should observe and adhere to the standard of orthography prescribed in generally accepted dictionaries of
4928-531: The Pennsylvania Railroad Company, he remained connected to its management, namely Thomas A. Scott and J. Edgar Thomson. He used his connection to the two men to acquire contracts for his Keystone Bridge Company and the rails produced by his ironworks . He also gave stock in his businesses to Scott and Thomson, and the Pennsylvania was his best customer. When he built his first steel plant, he made
5040-520: The Pennsylvania Railroad would be vital to his later success. The railroads were the first big businesses in America, and the Pennsylvania was one of the largest. Carnegie learned much about management and cost control during these years, and from Scott in particular. Scott also helped him with his first investments. Many of these were part of the corruption indulged in by Scott and the president of
5152-472: The Pennsylvania Railroad, John Edgar Thomson , which consisted of inside trading in companies with which the railroad did business, or payoffs made by contracting parties "as part of a quid pro quo ". In 1855, Scott made it possible for Carnegie to invest $ 500 in the Adams Express Company , which contracted with the Pennsylvania to carry its messengers. The money was secured by his mother's placing of
5264-695: The Philippines so that the Filipino people could purchase their independence from the United States. However, nothing came of the offer. In 1898 Carnegie joined the American Anti-Imperialist League , in opposition to the U.S. annexation of the Philippines. Its membership included former presidents of the United States Grover Cleveland and Benjamin Harrison and literary figures such as Mark Twain . Carnegie spent his last years as
5376-403: The Simplified Spelling Board's efforts, noting that 90% of English words are "fairly well spelled", but that "a vast improvement could be effected by reducing to some sort of regularity the much-used tenth that makes most of the trouble". An editorial in the following day's edition noted that opponents of the board's efforts had suggested that the language be kept as is, only taught better, but that
5488-615: The State educational department should tell the people how they must spell". By August 1906, the board reported that over 5,000 individuals had pledged to use the words on the initial list, with another 500 to 600 agreeing to use some of the words, but objecting to others. The press on both sides of the Atlantic had a field day with the "reform spelling crusade", and editorials and cartoons abounded. The Louisville Courier-Journal published an article which stated: "Nuthing escapes Mr. Rucevelt. No subject
5600-601: The Treasury Lyman J. Gage , United States Commissioner of Education William Torrey Harris (and editor-in-chief of the 1909 Webster's New International Dictionary ), publishing magnate Henry Holt , professor Calvin Thomas , and author Mark Twain . Offices were obtained at the Metropolitan Life Building at 1 Madison Avenue , and Brander Matthews was selected as the board's chairman. Charles E. Sprague of
5712-825: The U.S. output of steel exceeded that of the UK, and Carnegie owned a large part of it. Carnegie's empire grew to include the J. Edgar Thomson Steel Works in Braddock (named for John Edgar Thomson , Carnegie's former boss and president of the Pennsylvania Railroad), the Pittsburgh Bessemer Steel Works, the Lucy Furnaces , the Union Iron Mills, the Union Mill (Wilson, Walker & County), the Keystone Bridge Works,
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#17328378836135824-423: The United States Theodore Roosevelt had supported the plan, signing an executive order at his home in Oyster Bay, New York , mandating the use of reformed spelling in his official communications and messages to Congress. Prof. Matthews stated that he had received no advance notice of the President's order and had been taken by surprise when it was issued. Roosevelt tried to force the federal government to adopt
5936-441: The United States in 1848 for the prospect of a better life. They headed to Allegheny, Pennsylvania , where they heard there was a demand for workers. Carnegie's emigration to America was his second journey outside Dunfermline. The first was a family outing to Edinburgh to see Queen Victoria . In September 1848, Carnegie and his family arrived in Allegheny. Carnegie's father struggled to sell his product on his own. Eventually,
6048-409: The United States. When Carnegie was 12, his father had fallen on tough times as a handloom weaver. Making matters worse, the country was in starvation. His mother helped support the family by assisting her brother and by selling potted meats at her "sweetie shop", becoming the primary breadwinner. Struggling to make ends meet, the Carnegies decided to borrow money from George Lauder, Sr. and move to
6160-436: The United States. One of his two great innovations was in the cheap and efficient mass production of steel by adopting and adapting the Bessemer process , which allowed the high carbon content of pig iron to be burnt away in a controlled and rapid way during steel production . Steel prices dropped as a result, and Bessemer steel was rapidly adopted for rails; however, it was not suitable for buildings and bridges. The second
6272-452: The Western Division of the Pennsylvania Railroad. On December 1, 1859, Carnegie officially became superintendent of the Western Division. He hired his sixteen-year-old brother Tom to be his personal secretary and telegraph operator. Carnegie also hired his cousin, Maria Hogan, who became the first female telegraph operator in the country. As superintendent, Carnegie made a salary of $ 1500 a year ($ 51,000 by 2023 inflation). His employment by
6384-415: The apostrophe is seen in pinyin where 嫦娥 is written Chang'e because the g belongs to the final (-ang) of the first syllable, not to the initial of the second syllable. Without the apostrophe, Change would be understood as the syllable chan (final -an) followed by the syllable ge (initial g-). In some languages, certain digraphs and trigraphs are counted as distinct letters in themselves, and assigned to
6496-525: The basis for his later success. Throughout his later career, he made use of his close connections to Thomson and Scott, as he established businesses that supplied rails and bridges to the railroad, offering the two men stakes in his enterprises. Before the American Civil War , Carnegie arranged a merger between Woodruff's company and that of George Pullman , the inventor of the sleeping car for first-class travel , which facilitated business travel at distances over 500 miles (800 km). The investment proved
6608-462: The board believed that Carnegie was too meddlesome in its business. Signs of a break with the board were apparent as early as January 1915. Carnegie received a letter from Matthews, which included a list of daily newspapers that had adopted the reformed spellings. Carnegie was not impressed. In reply, Carnegie wrote, "Please note, not one Eastern paper. I see no change in New York and I am getting very tired indeed, of sinking twenty-five thousand dollars
6720-454: The board's first aim was "a conservatively progressive evolution, aiming chiefly at the dropping of silent letters", accelerating a process that had been going on for centuries. This would be followed by the use of a phonetic alphabet developed by the American Philological Association and including the 40 basic sounds used in English. Phonetics would be taught to children in nursery school or kindergarten. The board's initial list of 300 words
6832-454: The constituent sounds ( morae ) are usually indicated by digraphs, but some are indicated by a single letter, and some with a trigraph. The case of ambiguity is the syllabic ん , which is written as n (or sometimes m ), except before vowels or y where it is followed by an apostrophe as n’ . For example, the given name じゅんいちろう is romanized as Jun’ichirō, so that it is parsed as "Jun-i-chi-rou", rather than as "Ju-ni-chi-rou". A similar use of
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#17328378836136944-543: The demand for more heavy damask , from which his father benefited. Carnegie was educated at the Free School in Dunfermline, a gift to the town from philanthropist Adam Rolland of Gask. Carnegie's maternal uncle, Scottish political leader George Lauder Sr. , deeply influenced him as a boy by introducing him to Robert Burns ' writings and historical Scottish heroes such as Robert the Bruce , William Wallace , and Rob Roy . Lauder's son, also named George Lauder , grew up with Carnegie and later became his business partner in
7056-432: The diaeresis has declined in English within the last century. When it occurs in names such as Clapham , Townshend, and Hartshorne, it is never marked in any way. Positional alternative glyphs may help to disambiguate in certain cases: when round, ⟨s⟩ was used as a final variant of long ⟨ſ⟩ , and the English digraph for /ʃ/ would always be ⟨ſh⟩ . In romanization of Japanese ,
7168-412: The different sounds the incoming telegraph signals produced. He developed the ability to translate signals by ear, without using the paper slip. Within a year he was promoted to an operator. Carnegie's education and passion for reading were given a boost by Colonel James Anderson , who opened his personal library of 400 volumes to working boys each Saturday night. Carnegie was a consistent borrower and
7280-433: The doubling of ⟨z⟩ , which corresponds to /ts/ , is replaced by the digraph ⟨tz⟩ . Some languages have a unified orthography with digraphs that represent distinct pronunciations in different dialects ( diaphonemes ). For example, in Breton there is a digraph ⟨zh⟩ that represents [z] in most dialects, but [h] in Vannetais. Similarly, the Saintongeais dialect of French has
7392-433: The earlier naming of Walter William Skeat , editor of the Etymological English Dictionary , the board could claim it had the three top English language dictionaries from both the United States and United Kingdom on its side. The Supreme Court entered the fray and directed that its opinions should be printed in the old style. Finally, Congress had the last word when Representative Charles B. Landis of Indiana, Chairman of
7504-454: The early 1880s in partnership with Samuel Storey , he purchased numerous newspapers in Britain, all of which were to advocate the abolition of the monarchy and the establishment of "the British Republic". Carnegie's charm, aided by his wealth, afforded him many British friends, including Prime Minister William Ewart Gladstone . In 1886, Carnegie's younger brother Thomas died at age 43. While owning steel works, Carnegie had purchased at low cost
7616-467: The establishment of public libraries throughout the United States, Britain, Canada, New Zealand, and mostly other English-speaking countries was especially prominent. In this special driving interest of his, Carnegie was inspired by meetings with philanthropist Enoch Pratt (1808–1896). The Enoch Pratt Free Library (1886) of Baltimore, Maryland , impressed Carnegie deeply; he said, "Pratt was my guide and inspiration." Carnegie turned over management of
7728-411: The eventual victory. Carnegie later joked that he was "the first casualty of the war" when he gained a scar on his cheek from freeing a trapped telegraph wire. The defeat of the Confederacy required vast supplies of munitions , railroads and telegraph lines to deliver the goods. The war demonstrated how integral the industries were to Union success. In 1864, Carnegie was one of the early investors in
7840-419: The father and son both received job offers at Anchor Cotton Mills, a Scottish-owned facility. Carnegie's first job in 1848 was as a bobbin boy , changing spools of thread in a cotton mill 12 hours a day, 6 days a week in a Pittsburgh cotton factory. His starting wage was $ 1.20 per week ($ 42 by 2023 inflation). His father soon quit his position at the cotton mill, returning to his loom, and was again removed as
7952-453: The founding and major benefactor of the board, disagreed with its chosen approach of prescribing recommended changes. Rather, he believed that the board would be more productive by encouraging grass-roots changes. His beliefs are contained in a statement given to an editor of The Times : "Amended spellings can only be submitted for general acceptance. It is the people who decide what is to be adopted or rejected." For their part, some members of
8064-571: The latter type include the following: Digraphs may also be composed of vowels. Some letters ⟨a, e, o⟩ are preferred for the first position, others for the second ⟨i, u⟩ . The latter have allographs ⟨y, w⟩ in English orthography . In Serbo-Croatian : Note that in the Cyrillic orthography , those sounds are represented by single letters (љ, њ, џ). In Czech and Slovak : In Danish and Norwegian : In Norwegian , several sounds can be represented only by
8176-476: The library project by 1908 to his staff, led by James Bertram (1874–1934). The first Carnegie Library opened in 1883 in Dunfermline. His method was to provide funds to build and equip the library, but only on the condition that the local authority matched that by providing the land and a budget for operation and maintenance. To secure local interest, in 1885, he gave $ 500,000 to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania , for
8288-527: The life of a wealthy industrialist should comprise two parts. The first part was the gathering and the accumulation of wealth. The second part was for the subsequent distribution of this wealth to benevolent causes. Philanthropy was key to making life worthwhile. Carnegie was a well-regarded writer. He published three books on travel. In the aftermath of the Spanish–American War , the United States seemed poised to annex Cuba , Guam , Puerto Rico and
8400-500: The long vowel sound in the new words altho, tho and thoro, and changes to represent the "z" sound with that letter, where "s" had been used ("brasen" and "surprise" becoming " brazen " and " surprize "). Digraphs would also be eliminated, with the board promoting such spellings as "anemia", "anesthesia", "archeology", "encyclopedia" and "orthopedic". The board noted that the majority of the words in their list were already preferred by three current dictionaries: Webster's (more than half),
8512-537: The major cities, the difference between / ç / and / ʃ / has been completely wiped away and are now pronounced the same. In Catalan : In Dutch : In French : See also French phonology . In German : In Hungarian : In Italian : In Manx Gaelic , ⟨ch⟩ represents /χ/ , but ⟨çh⟩ represents /tʃ/ . In Polish : In Portuguese : In Spanish : In Welsh : The digraphs listed above represent distinct phonemes and are treated as separate letters for collation purposes. On
8624-424: The members of the board would respect the language's history in its improvement efforts without hiding or distorting it. Brander Matthews , the board's chairman, emphasized that the board's primary mission in simplifying the language was to eliminate unneeded letters, noting that "[s]implification by omission – this is its platform; this is its motto". Isaac Funk wrote to The Times on March 20, 1906, emphasizing that
8736-404: The most valuable of the iron ore fields around Lake Superior . Following his tour of the UK, he wrote about his experiences in a book entitled An American Four-in-hand in Britain . In 1886, Carnegie wrote his most radical work to date, entitled Triumphant Democracy . Liberal in its use of statistics to make its arguments, the book argued his view that the American republican system of government
8848-511: The name has stuck. Ancient Greek also had the "diphthongs" listed above although their pronunciation in ancient times is disputed. In addition, Ancient Greek also used the letter γ combined with a velar stop to produce the following digraphs: Tsakonian has a few additional digraphs: In addition, palatal consonants are indicated with the vowel letter ι , which is, however, largely predictable. When /n/ and /l/ are not palatalized before ι , they are written νν and λλ . In Bactrian ,
8960-435: The new spelling in, and it was evidently worse than useless to go into an undignified contest when I was beaten. Do you know that the one word as to which I thought the new spelling was wrong – thru – was more responsible than anything else for our discomfiture?" Next summer Roosevelt was watching a naval review when a press boat marked "Pres Bot" chugged ostentatiously by. The President waved and laughed with delight. Carnegie,
9072-560: The objections that are commonly made. Part 3 contains the SSB's proposed rules for simplified spelling and a list of the words that would be changed by them. The handbook repeated and explained the SSB's plan of "gradual" rather than "sudden" reform. It noted that previous spelling changes had come into use gradually—"so gradually, in fact, that at all times (as today) ther hav been, and ar, many words speld in more than one way on equal authority of good usage". It also noted that most reformed spellings that had come into general use were originally
9184-404: The old land some part of the debt we owe them by revealing more clearly than ever to them the new heavens." The telescope saw first light on November 2, 1917, with Carnegie still alive. Digraph (orthography) A digraph (from Ancient Greek δίς ( dís ) 'double' and γράφω ( gráphō ) 'to write') or digram is a pair of characters used in
9296-522: The organization. Then he provided $ 25,000 a year and recruited advocates. The initial 30 members of the Board consisted of authors, professors, and dictionary editors, among them Supreme Court Justice David Josiah Brewer , President Nicholas Murray Butler of Columbia University , Dr. Melvil Dewey (inventor of the Dewey Decimal Classification ), Dr. Isaac K. Funk (editor of The Standard Dictionary ), former United States Secretary of
9408-538: The original ones. Doubled consonant letters can also be used to indicate a long or geminated consonant sound. In Italian , for example, consonants written double are pronounced longer than single ones. This was the original use of doubled consonant letters in Old English , but during the Middle English and Early Modern English period, phonemic consonant length was lost and a spelling convention developed in which
9520-559: The other hand, the digraphs ⟨ mh ⟩ , ⟨ nh ⟩ , and the trigraph ⟨ ngh ⟩ , which stand for voiceless consonants but occur only at the beginning of words as a result of the nasal mutation , are not treated as separate letters, and thus are not included in the alphabet. Daighi tongiong pingim , a transcription system used for Taiwanese Hokkien , includes or that represents /ə/ ( mid central vowel ) or /o/ ( close-mid back rounded vowel ), as well as other digraphs. In Yoruba , ⟨gb⟩
9632-464: The other, wealthy philanthropists favored buildings that reinforced the paternalistic metaphor and enhanced civic pride. Between 1886 and 1917, Carnegie reformed both library philanthropy and library design, encouraging a closer correspondence between the two. In 1900, Carnegie gave $ 2 million to start the Carnegie Institute of Technology (CIT) at Pittsburgh and the same amount in 1902 to create
9744-855: The overt act of a lone writer, who was followed at first by a small minority. Thus, it encouraged people to "point the way" and "set the example" by using the reformed spellings whenever they can. The handbook used and set forth the following rules: The handbook also suggested the following spelling changes, which are not covered by the above rules: acre→ aker , answer→anser, beleaguer→beleager, campaign→campain, counterfeit→counterfit, delight→delite, foreign→foren, forfeit→forfit, friend→frend, masquerade→maskerade, mortgage→morgage, receipt→reciet, sieve→siv, sleight→slight, sovereign→sovren, sprightly→spritely, touch→tuch, yeoman→yoman. Andrew Carnegie Andrew Carnegie ( English: / k ɑːr ˈ n ɛ ɡ i / kar- NEG -ee , Scots: [kɑrˈnɛːɡi] ; November 25, 1835 – August 11, 1919)
9856-544: The people of his hometown in Dunfermline in 1879. In the following year, Carnegie gave £8,000 for the establishment of a Dunfermline Carnegie Library in Scotland. In 1884, he gave $ 50,000 to Bellevue Hospital Medical College (now part of New York University Medical Center ) to create a histological laboratory, now called the Carnegie Laboratory. In 1881, Carnegie took his family, including his 70-year-old mother, on
9968-406: The poorer classes. Man must have no idol and the amassing of wealth is one of the worst species of idolatry ! No idol is more debasing than the worship of money! Whatever I engage in I must push inordinately; therefore should I be careful to choose that life which will be the most elevating in its character. To continue much longer overwhelmed by business cares and with most of my thoughts wholly upon
10080-595: The rest of his life to providing capital for purposes of public interest and social and educational advancement. He saved letters of appreciation from those he helped in a desk drawer labeled "Gratitude and Sweet Words." He provided $ 25,000 a year to the movement for spelling reform . His organization, the Simplified Spelling Board , created the Handbook of Simplified Spelling , which was written wholly in reformed spelling. Among his many philanthropic efforts,
10192-492: The rich to use their wealth to improve society, expressed support for progressive taxation and an estate tax , and stimulated a wave of philanthropy. Carnegie was born in Dunfermline, Scotland . He immigrated to what is now Pittsburgh , Pennsylvania , United States with his parents in 1848 at the age of 12. Carnegie started work as a telegrapher . By the 1860s he had investments in railroads, railroad sleeping cars, bridges, and oil derricks . He accumulated further wealth as
10304-462: The same character (homogeneous digraphs). In the latter case, they are generally called double (or doubled ) letters . Doubled vowel letters are commonly used to indicate a long vowel sound. This is the case in Finnish and Estonian , for instance, where ⟨uu⟩ represents a longer version of the vowel denoted by ⟨u⟩ , ⟨ää⟩ represents a longer version of
10416-537: The sequence sh could mean either ša or saha. However, digraphs are used for the aspirated and murmured consonants (those spelled with h- digraphs in Latin transcription) in languages of South Asia such as Urdu that are written in the Arabic script by a special form of the letter h , which is used only for aspiration digraphs, as can be seen with the following connecting (kh) and non-connecting (ḍh) consonants: In
10528-552: The sequences ⟨дж⟩ and ⟨дз⟩ do occur (mainly in loanwords) but are pronounced as combinations of an implosive (sometimes treated as an affricate) and a fricative; implosives are treated as allophones of the plosive /d̪/ and so those sequences are not considered to be digraphs. Cyrillic has few digraphs unless it is used to write non-Slavic languages, especially Caucasian languages . Because vowels are not generally written, digraphs are rare in abjads like Arabic. For example, if sh were used for š, then
10640-458: The sound /eɪ/ in English cake. This is the result of three historical sound changes: cake was originally /kakə/ , the open syllable /ka/ came to be pronounced with a long vowel , and later the final schwa dropped off, leaving /kaːk/ . Later still, the vowel /aː/ became /eɪ/ . There are six such digraphs in English, ⟨a_e, e_e, i_e, o_e, u_e, y_e⟩ . However, alphabets may also be designed with discontinuous digraphs. In
10752-454: The sound represented by a doubled consonant letter is distinguished in some other way than length from the sound of the corresponding single consonant letter: In several European writing systems, including the English one, the doubling of the letter ⟨c⟩ or ⟨k⟩ is represented as the heterogeneous digraph ⟨ck⟩ instead of ⟨cc⟩ or ⟨kk⟩ respectively. In native German words,
10864-531: The start and these they can never make ...." Using spelling that demonstrated his own continuing attachment to certain reforms, Carnegie added, "I think I hav been patient long enuf ... I hav much better use for twenty thousand dollars a year." It was always a condition that Carnegie's dollars had to be matched by results, and at his death in August 1919, his will contained no provision for the Simplified Spelling Board. Without that source of funds (a total of $ 283,000 over
10976-565: The steel industry. Carnegie spent energy and resources lobbying Congress for a continuation of favorable tariffs from which he earned millions of dollars a year. Carnegie tried to keep this information concealed, but legal documents released in 1900, during proceedings with the ex-chairman of Carnegie Steel, Henry Clay Frick , revealed how favorable the tariffs had been. In 1901, Carnegie was 65 years of age and considering retirement. He reformed his enterprises into conventional joint stock corporations as preparation for this. John Pierpont Morgan
11088-640: The system, sending an order to the Public Printer to use the system in all public federal documents. The order was obeyed; among the many documents printed using the system was the President's special message regarding the Panama Canal . The New York Times noted that the New York State Commissioner of Education thought the state would not support the board's proposal as "he did not believe that
11200-470: The vowel denoted by ⟨ä⟩ , and so on. In Middle English , the sequences ⟨ee⟩ and ⟨oo⟩ were used in a similar way, to represent lengthened "e" and "o" sounds respectively; both spellings have been retained in modern English orthography , but the Great Vowel Shift and other historical sound changes mean that the modern pronunciations are quite different from
11312-409: The way to make more money in the shortest time, must degrade me beyond hope of permanent recovery. I will resign business at thirty-five, but during these ensuing two years I wish to spend the afternoons in receiving instruction and in reading systematically! Carnegie made his fortune in the steel industry, controlling the most extensive integrated iron and steel operations ever owned by an individual in
11424-399: The work was even more irksome than the factory. I had to run a small steam-engine and to fire the boiler in the cellar of the bobbin factory. It was too much for me. I found myself night after night, sitting up in bed trying the steam gauges, fearing at one time that the steam was too low and that the workers above would complain that they had not power enough, and at another time that the steam
11536-656: Was a Scottish-American industrialist and philanthropist . Carnegie led the expansion of the American steel industry in the late 19th century and became one of the richest Americans in history. He became a leading philanthropist in the United States, Great Britain, and the British Empire . During the last 18 years of his life, he gave away around $ 350 million ($ 10.9 billion in 2023 dollars ), almost 90 percent of his fortune, to charities, foundations and universities. His 1889 article proclaiming " The Gospel of Wealth " called on
11648-484: Was a banker and America's most important financial deal maker. He had observed how efficiently Carnegie produced profits. He envisioned an integrated steel industry that would cut costs, lower prices to consumers, produce in greater quantities and raise wages to workers. To this end, he needed to buy out Carnegie and several other major producers and integrate them into one company, thereby eliminating duplication and waste. He concluded negotiations on March 2, 1901, and formed
11760-555: Was an important proof-of-concept for steel technology, which marked the opening of a new steel market. Carnegie believed in using his fortune for others and doing more than making money. In 1868, at age 33, he wrote: I propose to take an income no greater than $ 50,000 per annum! Beyond this I need ever earn, make no effort to increase my fortune, but spend the surplus each year for benevolent purposes! Let us cast aside business forever, except for others. Let us settle in Oxford and I shall get
11872-472: Was around 18 years old, Thomas A. Scott of the Pennsylvania Railroad employed him as a secretary/telegraph operator at a salary of $ 4.00 per week ($ 146 by 2023 inflation). Carnegie accepted the job with the railroad as he saw more prospects for career growth and experience there than with the telegraph company. When Carnegie was 24 years old, Scott asked him if he could handle being superintendent of
11984-475: Was in his vertical integration of all suppliers of raw materials. In 1883, Carnegie bought the rival Homestead Steel Works , which included an extensive plant served by tributary coal and iron fields, a 425-mile-long (684 km) railway, and a line of lake steamships . In the late 1880s, Carnegie Steel was the largest manufacturer of pig iron, steel rails, and coke in the world, with a capacity to produce approximately 2,000 tons of pig iron per day. By 1889,
12096-574: Was paid to him in the form of 5%, 50-year gold bonds. The letter agreeing to sell his share was signed on February 26, 1901. On March 2, the circular formally filed the organization and capitalization (at $ 1.4 billion—4% of the U.S. gross domestic product at the time) of the United States Steel Corporation actually completed the contract. The bonds were to be delivered within two weeks to the Hudson Trust Company of Hoboken, New Jersey , in trust to Robert A. Franks, Carnegie's business secretary. There,
12208-427: Was published on April 1, 1906. Much of the list included words ending with -ed changed to end -t ("addressed", "caressed", "missed", "possessed" and "wished", becoming "addresst", "carest", "mist", "possest" and "wisht", respectively). Other changes included removal of silent letters ("catalogue" to "catalog"), changing -re endings to -er ("calibre" and "sabre" to "caliber" and "saber"), changing "ough" to "o" to represent
12320-529: Was superior to the British monarchical system. It gave a highly favorable and idealized view of American progress and criticized the British royal family. The cover depicted an upended royal crown and a broken scepter. The book created considerable controversy in the UK. The book made many Americans appreciate their country's economic progress and sold over 40,000 copies, mostly in the U.S. Although actively involved in running his many businesses, Carnegie had become
12432-597: Was too high and that the boiler might burst. In 1849, Carnegie became a telegraph messenger boy in the Pittsburgh Office of the Ohio Telegraph Company, at $ 2.50 per week ($ 92 by 2023 inflation) following the recommendation of his uncle. He was a hard worker and would memorize all of the locations of Pittsburgh's businesses and the faces of important men. He made many connections this way. He also paid close attention to his work and quickly learned to distinguish
12544-435: Was trying to build the 100-inch (2.5 m) Hooker Telescope at Mount Wilson , and donated an additional ten million dollars to the Carnegie Institution with the following suggestion to expedite the construction of the telescope: "I hope the work at Mount Wilson will be vigorously pushed, because I am so anxious to hear the expected results from it. I should like to be satisfied before I depart, that we are going to repay to
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