ALPHABET. 



IN forming the alphabet which was to be used in this work, the principle was adopted 

 that ench simple sound should be invariably represented by one and the same character. 

 The basis of the system is that proposed by Mr. Pickering in his well-known Essay, pub- 

 lished in the Memoirs of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Some alterations 

 have been made, but such as are agreeable to the principles there laid down. The fol- 

 lowing are the only peculiarities of the alphabet which require explanation. 



1. The vowels have the same general sounds as in the German, Spanish, and Italian 

 languages. A is sounded as in father, e like in fate, i as in machine, o as in note, u 

 as in rule, or like oo in cool. Two other characters, suggested by Mr. Pickering, have 

 been found necessary the one (a) to represent the sound of a in hall, the other (u) for 

 the sound of u in but. These do not, indeed, comprise all the distinctions of sound which 

 have been found to exist. The French u and German d were heard in some of the dia- 

 lects. It has seemed best, however, in order to avoid, as far as possible, the multiplica- 

 tion of characters, to be contented with noting the existence of these minor shades of 

 sound in the languages in which they occur. 



2. The consonants b, d, f, h, k, /, m, n, p, r, s, t, v, w, y, z, have their usual 

 English sounds. G is always hard, as in go, get. Q (c with a cedilla) has been used 

 for the sound of sh in shall. Jis sounded as in French, or like z in glazier. Q is used 

 for a very harsh guttural, pronounced deep in the throat, which occurs in some of the 

 Indian languages. 



3. The new consonantal characters, which it has been found necessary to introduce, 

 have been mostly taken from the Greek. Theta (9), delta (<?) are employed to represent 

 the different articulations of hard and soft th, as heard in the words thigh and thy, each 

 being the sounds which these two characters have in modern Greek. For the latter (<?), 

 a capital letter (c") has been formed more nearly resembling it than the awkward triangle 

 of the Greek alphabet. To represent the hard guttural, common to the Spanish and Ger- 



