1 86 JOURNAL AND PROCEEDINGS. 



A PHONETIC ALPHABET FOR DEAF MUTES. 



Read before the Philological Section, April Bjth, i8g2. 

 BY C. R. m'cULLOUGII. 



Nearly eighteen months ago the thought occurred to me that 

 an adaptation of the phonographic characters invented by Mr. Isaac 

 Pitman, of Bath, England, to the fingers, would prove an easy and 

 interesting method in the instruction of my classes in phonetic 

 shorthand. I accordingly set to work and found the experiment suc- 

 cessful, the members of my classes reading the words spelt on my 

 fingers with ease and accuracy. This led me to the consideration 

 of the question, ' Why cannot this scheme be extended to assist the 

 deaf and dumb?' Mr. A. W. Stratton, B. A., the secretary of 

 the Association, to whom I mentioned the proposed method, re- 

 quested me to present the matter before this section, which I do in 

 the hope that -merits and demerits may receive consideration and 

 criticism. 



In the sixteenth century Jerome Cardan, naturalist, philosopher, 

 mathematician and physician, discovered the theoretical principle 

 on which is based the education of the deaf-mute. " Writing," said 

 he, " is associated with speech, and speech with thought ; but writ- 

 ten characters and ideas may be connected together without the 

 intervention of sounds." This being true, what need is there for a 

 phonetic alphabet in deaf-mute education ? To this the answer may 

 be made that though the deaf cannot hear, they can appreciate consis- 

 tency, economy and speed. If a phonetic scheme cannot present to 

 the mind of the deaf the sensation and appreciation of sound, it 

 certainly will not offer those orthographical hindrances which our 

 present unsystematic and difficult spelling places in the way. 



The scheme advanced will, I believe, enable the operator to 

 communicate his thoughts with one-fourth less labor than at the 

 present time. This is to be accounted for by the fact that a pho- 

 netic system of spelling is nearly twenty-five per cent, shorter than 

 the nomic or customary method. 



