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Bu As in 'Bun, Pu, Du, Tu, Fu,Yu, Gu, Ku, Hu, Ju, Lu J By Lila H. Thomson [Evening Sun Staff C orresvondent] W a s h in g t o n , Feb. 22. slap-happy and you have progressed 1 u 1/ Pardon us if we’re not quite clear. What we have just written is “ Thou, shalt love thy neighbor as thyself,” and if you get around to that philosophy in the post-war world, maybe you’ll be writing it just like that. To explain: If Senate documents 49 and 133, titled “ The Global Alphabet,” are given serious consideration by the Senate Committee on Foreign Re lations, before which august body they are now pending, it may very well be that those who are unable to master the— well— curlicues of writing the global alphabet will simply, if possible^ dispense with the old way of spelling and turn to the streamlined phonetic spell ing which is advocated in the Senate documents. Comparatively Simple It will be comparatively simple in the post-war world, when writing to a friend to say, “ Der Jo. Hop u r wel an howz the famle?” In case we appear reasonably \ from disorganized confusion to a ' state of organized chaos, let us ; pioceed in more orderly fashion: . There has been printed re cently by the Government Printing Office at the instance of Senator Thomas, of Oklahoma, and pre sented to the “ world’s greatest deliberative body” on behalf of former Senator Robert L. Owen, of Oklahoma, who fathered the alphabet, two documents which purport to reveal an easy way by which the English language can become a world language. Referred To Committee In a letter accompanying the alphabet, former Senator Owen says “The Global Alphabet can open the doors of knowledge to all people everywhere in the .world, giving them power and immediate means of creating an abundance and the principles of good govern ment under the benevolent exam ple of the good-neighbor policy of the Western Hemisphere.” The Senate, not seeing at a glance how it could give them “ power and abundance and the principle's of good government” [Continued On Page 2, Column 6] T 'Bu As in B u n / Pu, D u ju [Continued From Page 1] referred the matter to the Commit tee on Foreign Relations, which, in turn, asked the State Department to look it over and comment. So far, no comment is available. In Webster’s Unabridged Diction ary, according to Senator Owen— (he was one of the first two Sena tors from Oklahoma, coming to the Senate in 1907 and retiring in 1925 because “ he was sick and tired of it” ), 21 consonants and 19 forms of vowels, or a total of 41 phonetic letters are used, including “ th.” The Global Alphabet discards four of Webster’s forms as “ unneces sary” to the post-war world and substitutes four others. 23 Consonants While Webster used 21 conso nants, Senator Owen prefers 23 consonant sounds and lists them as “ bu” as in “ bun,” pu, du, tu, fu, yu gu, ku, hu, ju, lu, ru, mu, nu, su, wu, yu, zu, “ ch” as in “ chin,” “ th” as in “ thin," “ ng” as in “ sing” and “ wh” as in “ why.” And for those who would dis pense with Webster’s spelling and writing of the English language the venerable Senator recommends a form of global shorthand for rapid and understandable communication between individuals and nations, an example of which is shown in the first paragraph. “ Washington” written in global shorthand looks like this: This is “ Mississippi," whether you recognize it or not: Use Own Phonetics The ex-Senator claims that in Webster’s 604,000 words, which are also given in phonetic spelling, the Roman letters used with their many sounds are impossible to use in his phonetic Global Alphabet, since for eign language dictionaries use their own phonetics in which identical letters are given different sounds. A global alphabet should have one sound for each form, according to Senator Owen, and no forms should be silent whether written, printed or spoken. With negligible additions, Sena tor Owen claims his alphabet can be employed to write any spoken language in the world, but for na tional and international communi cation, his “ shorthand” form of writing should be used. The printed letters in English currently used in books and news papers are artistic, according to Senator Owen, but of complicated forms. He would change all of this by his new alphabet in which the letters are not letters but sounds and the sound of each letter is its name. While this would mean dis carding the old ABC’s, the Senator believes that the world will suffer no great loss. In the Global alphabet, as in Webster’s, there are 19 vowel sounds, but the “ a, e, i, o and u” taught today are eliminated as archaic. The Senator gives the fol lowing vowel sounds for his alpha“ A " as in “ at” : “ a’ as in “ ate” ; a” as in ‘far” ; “ a” as in “ all” ; i" as in “ it” ; ‘ i” as in ‘‘bide” ; e" as in ‘ met” ; “ e” as in “ me” ; er” as in “ her” ; “ o” as in “ got” ; o” as in ‘go” ; ‘or” as in “ for” ; u” as in *rut” ; “ u” as in “ lute” ; ue’ as in ‘‘due” ; “ ou ’ as in “ out” ; ow ’ as in “ how ’ and *ea’ as in “ near.” But, if you’re of international frame of mind, communications ad dressed to China’s Chiang Kaishek,, will be written— simply like this: D r- £ = 0 By use of his uncomplicated alphabet, Senator Owen believes that there will be less illiteracy in the world and greater exchange among nations. He points out that in Russia, a phonetic alphabet of 30 letters is used to teach citizens with over 200 different dialects to read and write their own mother tongue. “A World Revolution" While neither phonetic alpha bets, nor their sponsorship are new, this is the first time the United States Senate has had such a revo lutionary measure before it— and that, said Senator Owen, is just what it is— “ a world revolution.” Congressional leaders asked for comment on the “ revolution” pre fer “ no comment,” but Senator Owen says a class of 40 children in a Washington school are serving as guinea pigs and are “ really doing very well” with his Global Alpha b et.
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