ANALYTIC ORTHOGRAPHY. 261 
says pronun-si-ation, another pronun-shi-ation, and there is probably no orthoepist who 
has determined the theoretic form by investigating the laws of speech which govern such 
words. Richardson, Eng. Dict. Prelim. Essay, § II. p. 17, tries to split a simple element 
(ng in sing,) in citing Gothic “ga-g-gan” Anglosaxon “ga-n-gan” to go; Regnier* does the 
same for the German past participle “ge-sun-gen,” and J. H. Worcester also, in the word 
“haidin’gerite” for hai/ding-erite. 
7. In Professor Fowler's English Language, (chiefly Latham’s Book,) and under the head, . 
“Combinations not in the Language,” he states, that English has “but few rough-breath- 
ing or true aspirates in comparison with the Greek, and those mostly confined to compound 
words like of@hand, with-hold, knife-handle.” Such combinations as th-h and fA are not 
Greek, nor do th-h constitute an aspirate. This statement is probably due to a misunder- 
standing of a false view of Greek ¢, (and why not of 9, y also?) confidently given in Do- 
naldson’s New Cratylus. The uneducated sometimes assert, that there are but few vowels 
in Arabic and Hebrew; and Professor Fowler seems to think it remarkable, that there 
are syllables “in Choctaw like yummak, in the Welsh like yspryd. . . . Combinations 
like these are altogether undesirable.” This is a very roundabout, but strictly literary 
way of saying that he considers the English syllables hum and us objectionable, since but 
few of his readers could know the pronunciation of the words quoted. His view of quan- 
tity, (which is subject to the same phases in all languages,) is strangely perverted. “If 
the quantity of the Syllable be measured, in the Classic mode, not by the length of the 
Vowel, but by the length of the Syllable taken altogether, see in seeing, being followed by 
another vowel, is short.” Compare Latin hérdés and English héroes, or illéus and 
illetis. : 
7 a. In the Latin Grammar of Prof. C. D. Cleveland, A. M., it is stated that “A letter 
is a mark of a sound,” that these marks of sound or “ Letters, are divided into vowels and 
consonants,” and that the mark he calls “A vowel, is properly called a simple sound.” 
According to this, Comanche has neither vowels nor consonants, French has not a pecu- 
liar u, y is a long “vowel,” and o is a round one. 
7 b. In one of the widely spread school books of R. Sullivan, LL. D., T. C. D., it is stated 
that “A letter is acharacter or mark used in writing words. . . . Letters are divided 
into vowels and consonants. . . . A tripthong is the union of three vowels into one 
sound, as ieu in adieu.” “In every syllable there must be at least one vowel.” It can 
have but one, and may have none. ‘“‘ Ness denotes the prominent or distinguishing quali- 
ties. . . . Ness properly means a promontory.” “For the sake of euphony, IN, in com- 
* Traité de la Formation des Mots dans la Langue Grecque, Paris, 1855, p. 138. 
