instrument by which he communicated with
other men; he imagined also that each shade of
color represented a letter of the alphabet, and
that by touching the keys rapidly, he combined
these letters into words and phrases, and, in
fact, spoke in colors.
You may imagine he was pleased with his
own perspicacity in ;nding this out, but our friend
did not rest on his laurels; the idea suddenly came
into his head that he now grasped what music
and musical instruments were. He supposed that
music was a peculiar manner of communicating
thought, and that musical instruments—lutes,
violins, and trumpets—were so many di;erent
organs of speech. You will say that only a man
who had never heard music or a musical instru-
ment could have happened on such a theory.
But please consider that this theory, although
obviously false to you, seemed almost proved
to a deaf-and-dumb person. When the deaf-
and-dumb man calls to mind the attention he
has observed us pay to music and to musicians,
and the evidences of joy or grief depicted on
our countenances and in our gestures as we
listen to beautiful music, and when he com-
pares them with the similar e;ects produced by
speech or by visible objects, he cannot imagine
that music has no de;nite meaning and that
vocal and instrumental music arouses in us no
distinct impressions.
Reform Movements
Successful attempts at linguistic overhaul
When /Where Reformer(s)
c. 863:
Moravia
St. Cyril and
St. Methodius
1446:
Hanyang,
Korea
Sejong, a
king during
the Choson
dynasty
1783:
Connecticut
Noah Webster
1928–1930:
Istanbul
1998–2007:
German-speaking
Europe
Kemal Atatürk
Institute for
the German
Language
Problem Solution
Slavs who, according
to Prince Rostislav
of Moravia, need
converting lack a
written language to
read Scripture.
Create proto-Cyrillic
alphabet and translate
Latin liturgy into what
becomes known as Old
Church Slavonic.
Use of Chinese
script restricts
literacy to the ruling
class.
Create Hangul, phonetic
alphabet for writing
Korean, then declare it the
o;cial writing system.
American
English looks
indistinguishable
from British
English.
Turkish su;ers
under the “yoke of
foreign languages.”
German
orthography,
governed by
Duden dictionary
since 1902, is too
complicated.
Revise English spelling,
removing and sometimes
replacing seemingly
unnecessary vowels and
consonants.
Replace Arabic alphabet
with Latin in the writing
of Ottoman Turkish;
Turkish equivalents of
Persian and Arabic words
are created.
Simplify orthography
and have major German-
speaking European
countries sign it into “law,”
and use in education and in
all major publications.
Outcome
Russian Orthodoxy; Cyril
and Methodius named
“apostles of the Slavs.”
Hangul Day celebrated on
October 9 every year since
1926, even though alphabet
remained unused by Korean
upper class until end of
Japanese rule after 1945.
Turkey attains one of
Middle East’s highest
literacy rates.
After nearly ten years of
disagreement, last holdout
publications against
reform agree to start using
new orthography.
