334 ANALYTIC ORTHOGRAPHY. 
353. Length of syllable derived from consonants requires no special notation, to show, 
for example, that string is longer than ring, and strips longer than rip, trip, trips, strip. 
354. The length is relative in vowels,* the longs and shorts becoming shorter in rapid 
discourse, and longer when it is retarded. But for the sake of illustration, we will assume 
that vowels have an absolute length. Probably the limit of shortness is about 74 of a 
second of time, that is, the syllable ¢a cannot be repeated more than thrice in 7 of a second. 
355. The length of a short vowel, as in da, at, et, ot, ut is + (2) of a second, but the sylla- 
bles is, as, ws, ess, ox, are half a second long on account of the continuous consonant. 
356. Long vowels, like ah, oh, owe, awe, oo-ze are from 3 to ¢ ($) of a second, the latter 
being 90 of Malzell’s métronome, with which, and with a watch beating quarter seconds, 
these results have been obtained. 
357. Medial vowels are 2 to 4 of a second long. The vowel of awn is long, of on me- 
dial, and of hénest honor short. There has been much error and confusion in English pho- 
notypy from neglecting medial vowels, especially between awe and odd. These have been 
discriminated rather by length than quality, the close lengthened form of odd being con- 
sidered the open awe, and the latter, when abbreviated, marked as the close odd. Some 
words have been written both with awe or odd, as George (George Phon. J. June 1847, p. 
180; George id. p. 276; war, id. 1846, p. 129; war, p. 287;) or, for, short, alter, horse. 
358. The following have been spelt with awe:—author, authority, exhaust, false, always, 
although, thowght, quarter, Baltic; and the following with odd :—on (the key word with 
some) swan, morn, warn, cross, across, loss, long (cf. Ger. lang,) was, often, orthography, 
coffin, order, God (cf. gét,) John, wander (cf. wonder,) hog (cf. htig, big.) Compare the 
quantity of 
or ore hog hawk 
swan swoon alter older 
on own short hiirt fort 
horse hoarse cross. crease crusty 
long lung morn mourn burn. 
* Ellis, Essentials of Phonetics, London, 1848, § 9. 
+ “There are great varieties of opinion and practice respecting the vowel in the words cited, both in England 
and America. There may be a real difference between awed and long odd, the latter may be closer. . . . Some of 
the differences you name arose from Mr. Pitman (speaking by dictionary) preferring a close scund and a stopt 
vowel in cross, loss, gone, often, office, where a long or medial vowel is often or generally heard in London. In 
long we never lengthen 0. The word god has the vowel unhistorically lengthened by many,” but not opened into 
gaud. “Before r there is a dispute as to whether a long or short vowel should be placed. Isaac Pitman, who 
cannot trill an 7, prefers the ancient short vowel, which to my mind can only be properly used before trilled7. . . . 
I cannot help thinking that in your experiments on the length of vowels, you must, by the process of measuring 
the time, have been led to take the consonants into account.” —A. J. Ellis, MS. 
