CORRESPONDENCE. 



PHONOGRAPHY. 



To the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution : 



The system of writing called j^honography has acquired some inte- 

 rest for the public from its singular success as applied to verbatim 

 reporting, for which purpose it is rapidly supplanting all former 

 methods of short hand. But independent of its merits in this regard, 

 it has claims of a scientific character from its philosophic basis, its 

 simplicity, and its adaptedness to a general system of education, which 

 have been less appreciated. 



With a view of calling attention to these points, this communica- 

 tion has been prepared in the belief that, if it shall lead any to inves- 

 tigate the system, they will find it not the least among the means of 

 promoting " the increase and diffusion of knowledge among men." 



The inventor of phonography, Isaac Pitman, of Bath, England, 

 has sought to combine the perfect phonetic representation of the Eng- 

 lish language with a selection of signs so simple as to furnish, like- 

 wise, a system of short hand. For the phonetic representation of a 

 language, we require, first, an analysis of the sounds heard in speak- 

 ing it, so as to determine the elements of which it is composed ; and, 

 secondly, the selection of a special sign for each distinct sound as thus 

 derived. This done, all that is needful for the representation of any 

 word in writing is to set down the signs agreed on for the sounds in 

 the order in which such sounds appear in the given word ; and con- 

 versely reading is but the rapid utterance of the sounds indicated by 

 the signs or letters with which the given word is written. 



The original from which European alphabets are derived was doubt- 

 less phonetic ; that is, it had a letter for each sound to be represented, 

 and such sound was uniformly represented by that letter ; but at 

 present the traces of such an origin are more or less obscured. 



In English this is especially the case, insomuch that we have many 

 elementary sounds in our speech which we have no means of certainly 

 representing ; and, on the other hand, letters professedly selected to 

 denote certain sounds are employed for other sounds as well. Asa 

 consequence, instead of the harmony and simplicity of a phonetic 

 system, we have one which is essentially arbitrary. Our spelling_ is 

 determined, not on any fixed principles, but by the force of authority 

 and custom ; so that if a word be presented to us for the first tinie, 

 we cannot feel assured of its spelling from the pronunciation, or of its 

 pronunciation from its spelling, without first referring to the diction- 

 ary. Hence the very foundation of modern knowledge, the art of 

 . reading and spelling, is beset with peculiar difficulties ; and that 

 which, through a phonetic alphabet, is acquired without annoyance 

 in a few months, demands, through the imperfection of our present 

 alphabet, the labor of as many years. An analysis of the English 

 tongue shows that, for its complete phonetic representation, an alpha- 

 bet "of thirty-four elementary sounds is demanded. These sounds are 

 those indicated by the italicized portion of the following words, viz : 

 ^it, to, cot,yat, theme, seal, rush, 

 bit, do, got, vat, them, zeal, rouge. 



