188 PROCEEDINGS OF THE CANADIAN INSTITUTE. 



preservation of obsolete letters, many of them inserted 'by way of 

 mistake, is not so much an aid as a stumbling block to the student of 

 language. His problem is this — what is the speech of a people, how 

 has it developed, through what changes has it passed ? The matters 

 which he desires most to know are the changes which take place in 

 language, that he may discover and apply the law of the change. 



I make use of the vowels of the Koenig forks for many reasons. 

 As already said, they embi-ace the highest and lowest tones of the 

 human voice, are equi-distant one from another and are common to 

 all speech. An objection such as this I have heard : they are 

 universal and therefore not necessarily English. A universe that 

 does not include English-speaking countries, or universal vowels that 

 are not necessarily found in the English tongue, would be rarities 

 indeed ; round squares simply, or round squares in the shape of 

 isosceles, rhomboidal triangles. With other scholastic lumber they 

 should be sent to Pai'is for exhibition next year at the centenary of 

 the Great Revolution. Second, these sounds may be used as aids in 

 and tests of vowel production. Mr. Ellis, who is, I suppose, ovir best 

 authority on phonetics, says that few men, probably no man, pro- 

 nounces his vowels precisely the same at all times. What elaborate 

 supports singers have by way of accompaniments and forks ! Yet 

 they do not at all times strike every note truly. What would their 

 execution be had they no accompaniments, no foi-k, and but a hazy 

 notion that a particular note were required 1 This is precisely the 

 situation of the vast majority of speakers. Again, as the sounds may 

 be made externally and the same at all times, they not only give us a 

 test of pure production, but enable us to allot their proper position to 

 intermediate vowels and to detect compounds. This is their chief 

 scientific function. A subordinate reason will have influence with 

 many ; that, as they are the principal sounds of European speech, 

 practice upon them will render the acquirement of modern languages 

 more easy. Those who are engaged in voice-training would add, from 

 the experience of singers, that they are a better means than our 

 vowel name-sounds of developing the riches and power of the human 

 voice. To me their principal recommendation is that they set forth 

 in clear relief the dominant chai-acteristics of English, and may be 

 adapted to our printed forms with very great ease. 



