During the greater part of the time every scribe
divided as he pleased, often in ways which seem very strange to us, like
the Greek custom of dividing always after a vowel and even dividing words
of one syllable. With the invention of printing, however, the number of
these devices was greatly diminished. It became a matter of spacing out the
line or dividing the word. Of course that meant frequent word division and
called for a systematization of rules with regard to this division. These
rules for division are necessarily based on spelling and syllabication.
SPELLING
The idea that there is one right way to combine the letters representing a
certain sound or group of sounds, that is a word, and that all other ways
are wrong and little short of shameful is a comparatively new idea among
us. The English speaking folk held down to a comparatively recent time that
any group of letters which approximately represented the sound was amply
sufficient as a symbol of the word. This sort of phonetic spelling was
commonly followed, and followed with great freedom. No obligation was
recognized to be consistent. In ordinary writing, such as letters and the
like, it is not unusual to find the same word spelled in a variety of ways
in the same document.
The last century has brought about an attempt to standardize spelling into
conventional forms any departure from which is regarded as highly
derogatory to the writer.
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