ELOCUTIONARY DRILL. 197 



w and sh, pall, push. When one looks upon the printed' English of 

 to-day, he would not at first blush entertain the thought that the 

 characters I, E, A, O, U, represented in old Englisli the sounds 

 "which they represent in the chart, or that our fathers used them in 

 the island of Britain for more than four hundred years, and attached 

 to them the same powers which they now have in the best educated 

 circles of Europe. Yet such is the incontestable fact. 



In drawing up table III. I endeavoured to confine myself to mono- 

 syllables and words which are in frequent use and in its compilation 

 have received much assistance from Mr. HuUah's work on the 

 •*' Speaking Voice." I give but one example of each coiasonant except 

 where there seemed strong reason to use a greater number, in the case 

 of intermediate 4 and U. Had I allowed myself greater latitude I 

 might have lengthened the table indefinitely. As it stands it falls 

 much short of my wish. The difficulty of picking out monosyllables 

 beginning with each consonant containing each vowel in cases where 

 pronunciation is not open to serious question, must be my apology for 

 its incompleteness. My endeavour has been and I hope the table on 

 examination will be found to exemplify with a reasonable degree of 

 fullness, the vowel and consonant sounds of English on a basis of 

 pronunciation which is accei)ted by all standard authorities and is in 

 use on both sides of the Atlantic. 



I should add that the chart is copyrighted in the United States by 

 Mr. L. W. Seely, in Canada by myself, and is submitted to the mem- 

 bers of t e Institute for their considei-ation, and in the hope of 

 receiving such suggestions for its improvement as may occur to them, 

 while the right of publication and translation is reserved. 



