ANALYTIC ORTHOGRAPHY. 345 
short in équal, éduce, deceit, heat, beet, reef, grief, teeth. German examples are vieh, 
wieder (against,) wider (again,) wie viel (how much,) vielleicht (perhaps.) It is medial 
in knie (knee.) rench examples are surprise, vive, ile, style, il, vif, physique, imiter, 
liquide, visite, politique, which must not be pronounced like the English physic, &c., with 
the vowel of pit. The following are perhaps medial,—prodige, cidre, ligue, vite, empire. 
A, (A, a,) in Gisle, Cairo. (§ 372, 4, 5.) 
400. Proceeding in the labial direction from A, the first element is French @ in ame, patte. 
The former is commonly received as the vowel of arm, the latter of pat. Duponceau™ in 
1817 made the distinction. He says that French a occurs in the English diphthongs 7 
and ow, and that the sound is between af and awe, being ah pronounced as full and broadly 
as possible without falling into awe. The initial of Hnglish 7 (or e in Aéight,) differs in 
being pronounced wp and at; whilst the orthography ‘ow’ was partly intended to repre- 
sent the French vowel of could, and partly the Saxon (Plattdeutsch) diphthong, which 
we have heard, and consider to have the initial of odd. 
401. Ellis uses @ with a horizontal medial line for it, and Comstock A, and a lower case 
form (a) with the base open, and the left branch turned outwards. Pantoléon admits 
this sound when short, as in a, la, pas, ma, e®, il a, and in both syllables of voila, avoir ; 
but he places the true A in a*, tu a, car, toi, voix, naif, matelot. This is probably the 
proper vowel for grass, grant, pass, alas, (Fr. hélas.) See § 379, note. When accessible, 
we prefer Mr. Pitman’s reversed a for French a. 
Ni» (g) in awe. 
402. This sound lies between A and O, and is common in several German dialects, and 
in Bengalee, where nae is nine. The Germans represent it very commonly by 4, adopt- 
ing the Swedish mode, where however the sound seems to be a kind of o. Franz, Hpi- 
graph. Gr. p. 246, line 1, has a Greek character very like d. 
403. This awe is not to be determined by its length, but by its quality. It is long in 
raw, flaw, law, caw, all, pall, call, thawed, laud, hawk ;—medial in loss, cross, tossed, frost, 
long, song, strong, or, for, lord, order, border, war, warrior, corn, adorn, born, warn, horn, 
morn, storm, form, warm, normal, cork, wan, swan, dawn, fond, bond, pond, exhaust, 
false, often, soften, gorge, George;—and short in squish, wash, (cf. rush, push,) author, 
(cf. oath, pith,) watch, water, slaughter, quart, quarter, wart, short, mortar, horse, (cf. 
curse,) remorse, former, often, north, moth, fault, falter, paltry. 
404. For the vowel pair in awe, odd, Ellis uses 00,¢ 0;; Comstock, Bien and Graham 
0,0; Bishop Wilkins Greek a; Hale « in a single character; Hart and Kneeland O witha 
horizontal medial line; Parkhurst 0,; 0; Lepsius 6, 0; Masquerier 0, using one sign for 
* Am. Phil. Trans., 1818, Vol. I, p. 258. + With the appendage on the right. 
