1861.] 285 



INVESTIGATIONS INTO THE LAWS OF ENGLISH 

 ORTHOGRAPHY AND PRONUNCIATION. 



By prof. R. L. TAFEL, A.M., 



■Washington University, St. Louis, Mo. 



The Elementary Sounds of Language in General, and of 

 THE English Language in Particular. 



INTRODUCTION. 



§ 1. A strictly phonetic mode of writing prevailed originally in 

 those languages which produced their own alphabets, as in the San- 

 scrit, Arabic, Phoenician, &c. When these alphabets were after- 

 wards adopted by other languages, either some of the superfluous 

 signs were dropped, or deficiencies were made up by the introduc- 

 tion of new signs, as in the Greek, Latin, and also in the Ptussian of 

 the present day, so that these languages too may be regarded as pho- 

 netic. The same may be observed with regard to the Italian, Spa- 

 nish, German, and most other languages. In the French, and still 

 more in the English language, the case is different, for not only are 

 some of the consonants silent under certain conditions, but in the 

 English language, likewise, the vowels and diphthongs, or rather di- 

 graphs, have three or four different modes of pronunciation. Still, 

 even in these languages, the consonants which are now mute, were 

 formerly pronounced, and each of the vowels and diphthongs ex- 

 pressed but one sound. That such was the case in the Anglo-Saxon 

 language we may infer from the fjict that the present Germanic tribes, 

 who originally spoke the same language with the Anglo-Saxons, still 

 retain this custom, and their written language, even at the present 

 day, is a reflex of their spoken language. In England the vowels 

 and diphthongs became diversified when the Anglo-Saxon language 

 was wedded to the French. Of this process I shall treat more ex- 

 tensively hereafter. This process was brought about in the popular 

 pronunciation, according to some fixed laws, based on the relation- 

 ship among the vowels themselves, and their affinity to some of the 

 consonants. This I shall endeavor to prove in a future part of my 

 work. 



From this general statement of the changes which took place in 

 the English language, it is evident that before we can discuss the 



VOL. VII r. — 2n 



