SCIENTIFIC SPELLING 363 



' = palatalisation. 

 " = indeterminate vowel. 



' = the acute, v the grave, and A the ' intense ' accents. 

 - = stress on a vowel, and « unstress or special tenuity of 

 . sound. 



C = the dental click ( in Zulu, etc. ; 3, the alveolar; CJ, the 

 palatal ; and C the lateral. 



Consonants : — 



m, b, w, v, p,f, s, z,j, d, t, n, I, r,y, k, g, and h as in English ; 

 p like English sh ; 3 like French/ or z in ' azure ' ; c like 

 English ch ; d for the th in ' that ' and t> for the th in 

 'theory'; 5, z, It, \i like peculiar Arabic sibilants and 

 dentals (^ lb, le, ^j,) ; % or a; for the Scottish and German 

 ch ; ^ for the Polish s and the German ch in ' ich ' ; r 

 for the velar r (the Northumbrian ' burr ') ; r for the 

 vocalised r (the ' Midland' r) ; 7 for the Arabic ghain 

 (?) often expressed in English ^/j ; q for the Arabic j ; 

 « for the »^ in ' singing ' ; i for the Polish /; and li for 

 the strong Arabic // (Z). 



Vowels : — 



0,0; e , (f>, or ; 9,9; &> ; ^, a ; « ; e, e ; /, ? ; -»|r ; w ; u, u. 



So much for the system of scientific spelling which — bor- 

 rowing from many sources and adding a few original suggestions 

 of my own — I have published in my book. I believe that 

 this will be found in every way the most convenient alphabet for 

 transcribing all African, Asiatic, and Amerindian languages 

 which are now being put into print. It will, perhaps, have been 

 already noticed by one or two critics that my alphabet looks a 

 good deal simpler than that which is in use by certain German 

 philologists for transcribing African languages — philologists 

 who attempt to discriminate between three or four different 

 ways of pronouncing the letters /, d, z, n, r, I, etc., in Bantu or 

 Sudanese Africa. I have given, perhaps, equal time and attention 

 to the consideration of this problem, and I have decided that to 

 mar one's print and tire one's readers' eyes with an infinitude 

 of diacritical marks above or below a consonant is a useless 

 preciosity. It must be taken for granted that Africans, as well 

 as Asiatics and Europeans, do not always clearly enunciate 

 their words ; also, that there is great individual variation (within 

 a certain degree of range) in the pronunciation of consonants. 



