278 ANALYTIC ORTHOGRAPHY. 
76. Figures of the organs of speech, either pictorial or mnemonic, must have attracted 
attention at an early period; and it is probable, that when the knowledge of the hiero- 
elyphic origin of the common alphabet was lost, the form of the letters was influenced by 
the position of the vocal organs, as in figuring the closed lips in B, and their circularity 
in O. Pownal (Study of Antiquities) accounts for the vowel characters in this manner. 
I (in marlne) would represent the linear aperture, the figure being turned to range with 
other letters. A (in Arm) would represent the mouth well opened. T might figure the 
tongue rising against the palate; @ the tongue forming an obstruction in the middle of the 
mouth; ¢ a similar obstruction by the two lips, but with a vertical line to distinguish it 
from @. The middle line of E (in vEin) was originally as long as the others, and might 
represent an opening of the mouth nearly as narrow as that of I. H was much like H, 
being a square with a horizontal medial line, and in some Greek inscriptions, the character 
H represents the consonant h, in others the vowel e. 
77. Such a system is impracticable from the difficulty of figuring the position of the in- 
ner organs; and as the number of essentially distinct elements is not great, a pictorial re- 
presentation of them would be as little worthy of attention as a proposal to use the sign 
III instead of the numeral 3 in arithmetical processes, as being more suggestive of three. 
78. An anonymous author issued a sheet from Lockport, New York, in 1853, proposing 
a set of characters to indicate the organs. Here B is 4, its reversal a (with the apex of 
the semicircles angular) makes p, and 4 (with the curve angular) is /, the base represent- 
ing the lip and the top the teeth. This reversed, or facing to the right, is v; a character 
like m (with the left side rounded like the right) is m, and w when inverted, leaving Eng- 
lish wh, German w and Greek ¢ unrepresented. ~ D is taken as the base of the dental let- 
ters, the curve being the palate and the stem the tongue. Yet, whilst 7 is a nasal d (as 
m is a nasal b) the first and second lines of N are assumed to represent the nose, and the 
third line the tongue. 
73. A philosophic alphabet would represent the same phase of speech in the same man- 
ner, and A. D. Sproat has endeavoured to accomplish this, as in 1 4, L d, + nm, p th. 
Here the base line indicates vocality, the angular one aspiration, and the medial one na- 
sality; but the m is discrepant, it represents a surd n, it wants the base line to make it in- 
dicate the common sonant n. This system has a shorthand form. 
80. Pitman’s Phonography has a philosophic basis, as far as this is compatible with rapid 
to for, of, none; men is mén (mane,) have is Av, and has nasal in, hath is as, the has French z; despised is des- 
pa-ist, with pure st; others in French orthography would be azzceurss, and Goldsmith and Géthe ought to have 
spelt their names Golshmect and Gét. In German, euch is made up of short French a, long eu, and French ch or 
English sh; zu is made (in French spelling) the impossible ¢zon; German, English, and Greek initial h is silenced, 
and Greek 4 y are turned into f, ¢. 
