Mr. Upingtoii on Short-hand JViiiing. 329 



der of occurrence, without regard to muscular execution or 

 lineality, — let those who may wish to form and professionally 

 to practise such an alphabet, decide. 



Cy VowEi.s. 



This part of my subject shall be soon discussed. If the 

 immediate reading of any passage promiscuously taken up — 

 and not deciphering with a certain share of difficulty, by the 

 aid of context — be the object of the writer ; occasional vowels 

 not only in the beginning and ending, but in the middle of 

 words, 'are indisputably necessary: and to each of these 

 vowels separate characters must assuredly be given. If Na- 

 ture, then, has not furnished us with simple ones, we must 

 either resort to those of a tedious and complex kind ill-calcu- 

 lated for short-hand, or we must avail ourselves of the most 

 eligible consonant characters, distinguishing them as vowels 

 by position*. The sounds of which I have sometimes felt the 

 want, are as follow : H [or aspirate] A, E, I = Y, O, U, Oo, 

 Au, Ou, Oi; also intermediate Y (as in " heijond"). And if; 

 agreeably to the present plan, intermediate W be added, we 

 shall require no less than eleven characters to represent them. 

 Of these W and Y already exist ; a simple dot shall stand for 

 I = Y ; complex characters shall for obvious reasons be given 

 to the diphthongs ; the aspirate has been already described ; 

 and the vowels A, E, O, U, Oo, must be taken from the class 

 of consonants f. 



As the plate with my observations thereon, when presented 

 to the reader, shall exhibit the whole of this scheme, unne- 

 cessary anticipation must be here avoided. I shall therefore 

 cbntent myselt; on this occasion, with describing the manner 

 of distinguishing those vowels by position-, exemplified by the 

 vowel I = Y. "Let us then so place this vowel with respect 

 to the letters R T, that without the possibility of mistake we 

 shall discover the various combinations Irt -.X Bit /{ liti^. 

 Ittit //• 



What can be more simple and more perspicuous? In 

 truth I know not any case, intermediate or other, with respect 

 to the placing of these vowels, that presents a difficult^,' which 

 (unless the consonants be unreasonably small t or ill-ibrmed) 



a mo- 



* If, agreeably to modem usage, a (hi, by changes of position, shall re- 

 present tlircc ilisiinct vowi-ls; why should not a single change of position 

 distinguish a vowel from a conwiianl? 



f A COMMA , and comma reversed ( arc equivalent to two of these, as shall 

 in due time be explained. Nor shall this comma interfere with our com- 

 mon stop which is called by that name. 



X As expedition is in some degree promoted by exceedingly small writ- 

 Vol. 61. No. 30 1 . Majj 1823. T t '"g. 



