ANALYTIC ORTHOGRAPHY. 347 
quantities may be confused by the same person in the same word. Other pairs are 
furnished by the rejected forms of the Phonotypic Journal, as a, 4, or a. 
410. The chief difficulty is in finding approximate forms which can be readily made 
with the pen. One of the preceding forms might answer for the open sound of awe, and 
g (which approaches Gothic O,) for the close one. The ‘A’ part of the latter could be so 
much reduced as to make the character approach o, with the mark in contact. A pair 
like g with the upper or o part large for odd, and 8 the lower or a part large for awe, | 
would solve the problem in print, but they would be likely to take an e form in writing. 
A writing character formed of « united, would answer for the awe, and the script a 
recommended for aisle (the middle of the 7 portion broken towards the left,) for the closer 
sound; or, the closed e character (Hale’s aw long and short,) might have the close power, 
and have the ¢ part descending in a short tail, for the open sound, or the ¢ portion with 
the break thrown to the left. 
O, Italian “o aperto.” 
411. To an unfamiliar ear this vowel is referred at one time to O and at another to 
awe, and if an Italian speaks English with it, the word bold seems to be bald, and bald 
seems bold. It is long in ‘péco, little; pdrtd, port; spdso, husband; and short in troppo, 
too much; notté, night; cosa, thing. Mr. Ellis’s key words are rdco (hoarse,) and rocco 
(crozier,) and he refers to this sound, Swedish a° and Danish aa; and with doubt the 
French vowel of hotte, homme, with which we do not agree. Mr. Ellis’s character is a 
good one, a Q form with the tail on the left—which might end with a dot when the vowel 
is short. Dr. Comstock uses O with a minute vertical tail below, for the short vowel of 
Fr. bonne (good,) Ital. dotto (learned;) and he places the vowel of own in the French 
trone (throne,) and Italian dolce (sweet,) the latter being “‘o chiuso” of the Italian gram- 
marians. An Italian grammarian compares the “o aperto” to the French o in hotte— 
“YO aperto detto da Francési aigu o bref, ha il suono dell’O aperto toscano, come hotte (0-t.)” 
Q, French o. 
~ 412. This sound seems to the writer to be more open than owe, and closer than o aperto, 
and his impression is that the long and short sound have the same quality.* Gouraud 
* The Author’s French pronunciation was acquired from heterogeneous sources, chiefly English and German, 
and although he has occasionally revised it in casual intercourse with Frenchmen, early habits are continually 
crossing later opinions. His practice is to pronounce 6 as owe, bonne as English bone shortened, and mon with 
the same nasalised. His ideas of Spanish pronunciation were derived from a South American, whilst his English 
is partly provincial. On the other hand, his ear is good enough to enable him to tune a piano, (except in the 
low bass notes,) and to distinguish across a room whether a speaker of German uses the German w or English », 
provided the voice is familiar. 
VOL. xI.—45 
