THE SKELETON ALPHABET. 



of the world, are very few, although, as in the case of 

 colors, they may be made numerous by attention to 

 minor or intermediate shades of sound. The Three 

 Pivotal or Leading Yowel-Sounds are 1. a, which is, 

 for the purposes of Universology to be pronounced 

 ah, or like a in far ; 2, i, to be pronounced ee, or like 

 i in machfne ; and 3, u, to be carefully and uniform- 

 ly pronounced like oo, or as some people pronounce 

 u in rule (rool). Between a and i, there is e, to be 

 pronounced like a, or like e in obey ; and between i 

 and u there is o, with its ordinary pronunciation. 

 Two Yowels, pronounced closely, or with no inter- 

 mission, are called a Diphthong. Au (ah, oo) is the 

 leading diphthong. This leading diphthong will be 

 used as a short method of denoting all the vowels col- 

 lectively ; so that, to say au, is, as if we should say, 

 all the voicels. More strictly, au (ah-oo) fails to in- 

 clude the Middle-Mouth Yowels i (ee) and e (a) ; if 

 they are also explicitly meant, the Triphthong iau 

 (ee-ah-oo) is requisite. 



93. The following Table exhibits the Natural Al- 

 phabet with the proper Ordinary Degree of Minute- 

 ness in the discrimination of the Sounds ; accom- 

 panied by the Headings and Side-Titles which de- 

 scribe the Specific Characters of the different Classes 

 of Sounds; so as to ln'iHile a] im.lerxtandt. 

 of their Inherent Relations f>> l/ie Pi-'nim-rij Enl'ii. 

 and Laics of Deiim. Apart from minor shades or 

 with slightly important additions, this simple Alpha- 

 bet, primarily serving for the English language, is ade- 

 quate to the representation of all existing languages, 



