PHONOGRAPH V. 219 



I have examined a number of attempts to form a new English Al- 

 phabet, among others those of Ewing, Kneeland, and Antrim, the last 

 published in Philadelphia in 1843. I have been promised that of Grimke 

 whose I have not yet seen. The vital error of these authors is the 

 making of the Roman alphabet the basis of their systems icilh a total 

 subversion of the powers which belong to these characters by universal 

 (except English^ consent. Thus e = Italian, French and German i; i is 

 made to represent the diphthongal ai; a is made e in where instead of in 

 far, &c. We must have a general alphabet, or none, one that can be 

 adapted to all languages without variation ; no localisms, as z for ts in 

 German and dz in Italian, or J for dj = d -j-j Fr. The authors above re- 

 ferred to have also failed in their attempts to analyze the sounds of the 

 English language, and several of them have gone to much trouble and 

 expense in having queer-shaped types cut. I propose to use the Roman 

 alphabet with but little modification, except that which can be produced 

 by inverting letters, as Mr. Ewing has done, and I arrange them in natu- 

 ral order, according to their affinities, as follows : 



PHOIVOGRAPHIC AliPHABET. 



r 1 I Eng. i in marine, French He. 



< 2 7 (or "1) Fr. Eng. Span, i in idiom. This is not a yhort quantity 

 ( of the foregoing. 



^ 3 E Eng. e in where. French e ; German Span. Ital. 

 ^ 4 £ for 3 j Eng. e in 7ncnd, met. Fr. nette., Ital. Gerni. 



5 A Ital. a in amo., Fr. ame, Eng. arm. This is also the genuine 

 German a of polite usage. 



6 X Eng. a in man., mat. JYot the short sound of A, as frequently 

 "j asserted. 



7 f\ Eng. a in fall. When short, Eng. and Fr. in ojy^ra, a in what, 

 [^ Irish a or a. 



^ 8 O Eng u in mvrdcr. Fr. cw, German a; in LcBwe. 



^ 9 O ^^^S- ^^^^- Germ. &c. o. French 3. 



j' 10 U Eng. u in rwle, fuil. Fr. on, Ital. Span. Germ. u. 



I 11 Y Danish y, French m, Germ, w, Latin ?/, which is a vowel; Greek 



] f, which in modern Greek has degenerated into I, just as the 



[ Ger. ichel becomes \bcl in vulgar discourse. 



c cr 



12 U (or V) Eng. ly in wine, Lat. winum ; \J wh in when. \J a 



whistle — Indian languages. 



13 1 ( or J) Eng. y, Ital. and Ger. J. 14 H Eng. Ger. h weak, 



h strong, li guttural, h' aspirate, h inspiration, h nasal insp. 



