OF ARTS AND SCIENCES. 31 



and on being farther drawn out, repeated these sounds in the reverse or- 

 der, then, successively, with different lengths, the same series direct, and 

 again reversed. This experiment settles the order of the vowel-sounds, 

 which had also been already determined by the utterance of a continu- 

 ous stream of vocal sound, with the parts of the mouth gradually chang- 

 ing their position. It does not determine at which end of the series the 

 vocal sounds should be considered as beginning, which has been settled 

 on other grounds. The number of vowel-sounds has been determined by 

 a careful analysis of the spoken language. There seem to be fourteen 

 well settled vowel-sounds in authorized use in the language.* Several 

 others are sometimes heard ; as, for example, the sound of o in most, 

 among ourselves. Four diphthongs, i, oi, ou, and m, from their fre- 

 quent occurrence in the language, have symbols assigned them. 



" The natural order of the consonant-sounds is determined by ob- 

 serving the organs of articulation employed in forming or modifying 

 them, and the order settled upon by Mr. Pitman is that of labials, den- 

 tals, palatals, gutturals, nasals, beginning with those formed by the lips 

 and going back to those formed by aid of the teeth, the palate, and 

 the nose. The reverse of this order might have been taken ; and has 

 been taken by Bishop Wilkins and Dr. Franklin. 



" What particular consonant-sounds are found in the language is 

 determined, as in the case of vowels, by an analysis of the language 

 itself. They are settled at twenty-four, including those of an ambigu- 

 ous nature, represented by w, y, and A, and called coalescents, and the 

 breathing represented by h. After exhausting the letters of the present 

 alphabet, excluding k, q, and x, it became necessary to adopt nineteen 

 new letter-signs for the unrepresented or misrepresented sounds. These 



* Eight are long, as 1. cc in keep, 2. a in make, 3. a in mare, 4. a in mark, 5. aw 

 in caught, 6. M in burn, 7. o in pole, and 8. oo in fool ; and six short, namely, 9. i 

 as in pin, 10. e in met, 11. a in sat, 12. o in top, 13. u in cup, and 14. oo in foot. 

 Of the short, only two correspond precisely to long sounds, namely, 1 1 to 3, and 

 12 to 5. The order in the phonic scale would seem to be nearly 



1 



9 

 2 



10 

 3 — 11 

 4 



5 — 12 

 6 



13 

 7 



14 

 8. 



