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Phonetic Alphabets life Qfulsa Orifctme Hichara U oya Jones Published every week-day evening Dy The Tulsa Tribune Co. Address all letters to The Tulsa Tribune. Tulsa. Oklahoma. The Tulsa Tribune Is entered as second class mall m atter at che cost ottice at Tulsa. Oklahoma, under the a ct ol M arch 6. 1879. Membei The Associated Press. The Associated Press Is exclusively entitled to. the use for republicatlon of all news dis patches credited to >t or not otherw ise credited In this paper and also local news published herein. Member o f the United Press Association. American Newspaper Publishers Association. Audit Bureau of Circulation MAKE TULSA A G O O D CITY FOR YOUTH Tulsa, Oklahoma, Friday, February 11, 1944 W e shall never understand one another until we reduce the language to seven words. — K ahlil G ibran. THE SEQ U O YA H SYSTEM O B E R T L. O W E N , three tim es a S enator fr o m O k lah om a and n o w in the 88th v ig orou s year, has e v o lv e d a “ g lo b a l a lp h a b e t” w h ich he h op es w ill n ot o n ly p erm it the b illio n od d illite ra te p e o p le on this earth to read and w rite tHeir o w n lan gu ages flu e n tly , but w ill en a ble them to un derstan d and use basic E n g lish, the p ro p o se d in tern ation a l lan gu age. S en a tor O w e n ’s w o rk , w h ich is g ettin g som e atten tion in C ongress, is bu ilt aroun d sy m b ols fo r 18 con son an t sou nds and 15 v o w e l sounds. T h e U sou n d in the w o rd “ to o ,” fo r ex am p le, w o u ld be ex p ressed w ith a fig u re lik e a U. T h e U -so u n d in “ b u t” w o u ld e m p lo y the sam e fig u re w ith a sm all lo o p on the le ft arm . T he U -so u n d in “ y o u ” w o u ld h a v e a lo o p on the righ t arm . A ll signs w o u ld be m ade o f the sim plest p ossible stra igh t or cu rv e d lines. B y the use o f such a system the read er w o u ld be requ ired o n ly to m em orize' the sounds e x p ressed b y each sign, repeat the sou nds alou d, and he w o u ld fin d h im se lf speakin g the w ords. C o n sciou sly o r not, S en a tor O w en is tre a d in g a path bla zed b y S eq u oya h , the great C h e r o k ee teacher, m ore than 150 years ago. B a ck in his n a tiv e tent v illa g e in G eorg ia the y o u n g I n d ian ex am in ed w ith cu riou s e n v y the “ talking p a p e rs” o f the w h ite m an. K n o w in g n o alp h a bet, he set out to m ake one fo r his p eople. A ft e r p atien t p ra ctice he con clu d e d that the hu m an v o ic e co u ld m ake 88 sounds, so he set ab ou t gath erin g su itable sym bols. He b o r r o w e d all 26 o f the E nglish letters (a lth o u g h the sounds h e m ade them rep resen t had no relation to the E nglish sou n d s) and he in v en ted 62 m ore signs. W hen S e q u o y a h ’ s w o r k w as fin ish ed a C h e ro k e e had o n ly to m em orize the sounds r e p resen ted by the 88 letters and on read in g them alou d he w o u ld fin d h im self sp eakin g his na tive ton g u e. S equ oya h m ade the C h erokees the first ed u cated trib e o f Indians in A m erica, and a la rg e and r e sp e cta b le C h erok ee literatu re q u ick ly resulted. S en a tor O w e n ’s alp h a bet is sim pler than S e q u o y a h ’s. It sh ould be tw ice as easy to learn. T h e fa ct that it elim in ates all silent letters w o u ld p e rm it con d en sed prin tin g. T h ere is a pretty big idea here. P e o p le w h o are a lrea d y literate m igh t o b je c t to learn in g a n ew alphabet, but m ore than h a lf the p o p u la tio n m ust start fr o m scratch . B y e x e cu tiv e o r d e r 15 years ago K e m a l A ta tu rk caused the T u rk ish p eop le to ju n k the cu m b e rso m e T u r k ish a lp h a bet and ad op t the R o m a n letters. S in ce th en lite ra cy has treb led in that cou n try . W h y c o u ld n ’ t an even sim p ler p h o n e tic alp h a bet do th e sam e fo r the ben igh te d b illio n ? R Ka ** la Ka ‘ ' In the last 2 decades 350 nation; alities have adopted phonetic alphabets which an individual can * ; learn in one day and immediately read and write his own language or i dialect. It is rapidly Abolishing the illiteracy, ignorance and poverty of People in Asia. The Russian Soviet Republics, under the guidance of Lenin and Stalin adopted the phonetic alpha bet as a means to immediately over c o m in g illiteracy of the Russian people, who had been kept in ignoriance by their highly cultivated, literary educational leaders. • ; By the phonetic alphabet 30,000 |” ew, ^ o k s Per annum are being printed phonetically, teaching the Russian people all the arts ; and sciences, modern I chemistry, agriculture, animal industry increasing their production over 400 per cent within a few years in spite of previous ignorance and poverty. What the phonetic alphabet is doing for Russia it is doing for the people of India also and lor the Philippines and Africa and ot South America. x lechnhology theAmericanpresshasanoppor- l minty now of informing the Amer- . lean people of the supreme im portance of the phonetic alphabet as a mechanism for overcoming ig norance and poverty and creating enlightenment and abundance. The global alphabet, devised by an I humble servant of the American people, is an improvement on all j other Phonetic alphabets by ex treme care in the forms employed in the 33 letters used. Such forms beginning and ending on a central writing line are stenographic. With the global alphabet a Russian • could write his own language three, or four times as fast with a pen as he can now by printing his letters with a pen, the global alphabet letters cofisisting of only one or " two strokes of the pen. Such let ters are more legible than the Eng- : lish letters, the Roman letters or I the Russian letters. American children 8 to 10 years of age can j learn the global alphabet in one j day, some of them in one hour. It will enable American children to '■ write their own language intelli gibly and legibly and five times as fast. The global alphabet requires only half the paper to write on or to print on. > ROBERT L. OWEN Washinston, 10. .d t iS t
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