THE COMBINATIONAL KEYBOARD 313 



combinations, though these are of the greatest value in many of the most 

 commonly used words, ST, for instance, being the most powerful combination 

 there is after TH and ND. Unlike N, however, the letter S is in initial 

 generative force by far the most powerful of all the letters of the Alphabet. 

 If we regard the monosyllables only, which are the foundation-stones of 

 our Language, numbering altogether according to Ogilvie,^ 3,660, then S 

 begins 664 of them, the next greatest numbers for other letters falling to the 

 credit of C with 317, T 293, and B 278 each, whilst of the three root letters 

 now under discussion H has 171 and N but 76 ; and what is here said of the 

 monosyllables applies equally to the polysyllables. But, apart from its 

 strong initiative force and its consonantal combinations, S forms with E the 

 frequent plural ending -ES ; yet this extended form of the plural, which alone 

 has been combed out, does not exhaust the plural functions of S, since it i3 

 also used up in forming the plural of all those nouns that add only S itself 

 to their stems {e.g. hands). Another of its functions is to form the oft- 

 recurring 3rd person singular of the present indicative mood. And, as we 

 have already seen, S is also a semi- vowel. Taking into account all the 

 connexions of this important letter, it has been given precedence over T on 

 the keyboard and placed next to the central E, while care has been taken to 

 see that its consonantal combinations come together fluently under the 

 fingers. Moreover, the placing of the T one point backwards from the centre 

 makes the fingering of the TH combination quite perfect, as on account of 

 its importance it ought to be. The total number of occurrences of the S 

 group of combinations is 8,427 exclusive of SH, which has already been 

 included under the H group, and also exclusive of its extensive semi-vowel 

 combinations. 



Summing up results so far attained, these three root letters, H, N, and S, 

 with their sixteen " fixed " combinations, mostly equated on the same lines 

 of the keyboard, represent no less than 70,564 occurrences. 



GENERAL SUMMARY 

 H, N, S Combinations (GENERAL TABLE— ist 



Series) ........ 70,564 occurrences. 



L and R + vowel Combinations (GENERAL TABLE 



— 2nd Series) 64,522 „ 



Seven diphthongal Combinations (GENERAL TABLE 



— 3rd Series) 21,742 „ 



Miscellaneous Combinations unclassified — ist Series . 16,333 .. 



173.161 



The significance of this result for the fluent writing of our Language does 

 not need to be emphasised : it speaks for itself. 



THE FIVE VOWELS 



We have now to consider one of the most distinctive features of the 

 " Combinational " Keyboard, namely, the grouping of all the vowels 

 together, and, as regards the diphthongs, in their natural order as if written 

 by the pen from left to right, i.e. OU, EA, lO, lA, AU, EU, EO. The mind 

 expects the diphthongs to occur in this serial order in the majority of words 

 and the fingers find pleasure in so writing them. 



Collectively the five most important letters in our Language are the 



1 The number of monosyllables is as follows : — under A 49, B 278, C 317, 

 D 177, E 38, F 227, G 195, H 171, I 19, J 46. K 46, L 164, M 158, N 76, O 39, 

 P 251, Q 33, R 134, S 664, T 293, U 5, V 44. W 205, Y 26, and Z 5 = a total 

 of 3,660, out of which number no less than 3,210 contain either consonantal 

 or diphthongal or semi- vowel combinations. 



