BURTON-ON-TRENT 
NATURAL HISTORY & ARCHAOLOGICAL 
SOCIETY. 
Studtes tv English Spelling: tts Atethods and 
Delustons. 
By T. KNowLEs, M.A. 
(Presidential Address delivered November 20th, 1891.) 
[CONDENSED. ] 
Y first study will be in the double vowels, as I call 
them. No careful reader of English can fail to 
observe the considerable number of double vowels, 
that is, two concurrent vowels which have only one 
sound. Here is a list of them :— 
I. ae, ai, aO, au, aw, ay. 
ea, ee, ei, €0, eu, ew, ey, eau. 
Win 
a) 
0a, Oe, Ol, 00, OU, OW, Oy. 
5. ua, ue, ul, uy, Uoy. 
No cognate language contains so many of these double vowels. 
The reason of this is that the alphabet we use does not contain 
