474 



SCIENCE. 



[Vol. I., No. 17. 



(one who longs) and ' longer ' (comparative 

 of long), ' singer ' and ' linger,' etc., the same 

 diversitj' in the use of these letters will be 

 observed. 



The sounds of the vowel letters in the above 

 illustrations are equallj' diversified. The letter 

 a in 'la,' Hangue,' and '■-gaise,' has three 

 sounds, the second of which does not exactlj^ 

 correspond to anj^ English sound. The letter 

 e in the words ' the ' and ' English,' has two 

 sounds, neither of which is normallj^ associated 

 with the letter as an alphabetic element, and 

 the second of which does not correspond to an}' 

 French sound. The letter o in ' tongue ' has a 

 sound which does not occur in French, and 

 which is different from either of the regular 

 ' long ' or ' short ' sounds of o in English. In 

 addition to these diversities in the sounds of 

 single letters, the above six words illustrate 

 another anomaly in the use of combinations of 

 letters to denote simple elementary sounds, 

 — as J/i in 'the,' sh in 'English,' and ng in 

 ' tongue.' 



On account of the impossibility of reconcil- 

 ing the varied associations of sounds and letters 

 in different languages, speUing-reformers are 

 obliged to limit their efforts to a single lan- 

 guage, and to disregard all hope of arriving 

 at international uniformitj'. This latter could 

 only be attained by means of such an alphabet 

 as that of Visible speech, which obviates in- 

 ternational difficulties by furnishing a physio- 

 logical key to the sounds of all letters. But 

 an important immediate use might be made of 

 a few of the Visible-speech symbols, to sup- 

 plement the Roman alphabet by furnishing 

 letters for sounds that are at present unrepre- 

 sented. Many of the anomalies of orthogra- 

 phy would be removed in this way, and with 

 a minimum of interference with established 

 usage. It is well known that we have six 

 consonant sounds, which, for want of separate 

 letters, are written bj' digraphs, or by various 

 combinations of letters. These are, — 

 sh — in Jish [ce in ocean, ci in vicious, ti in 



notion, etc.]. 

 zh' — [s in pleasure, vision; z in azure; ge 



in edge, rouge.'\ 

 th — in tJiin. 

 dh^ — in then. 

 wh — in when. 

 ng — in sing \ji in ink, anger, etc.]. 



Even objectors to" spelling-reform would 

 probably admit the desirability of adding let- 

 ters to the alphabet for all ackuowledged sim- 



1 This orthography of the intended sound nowhere occurs in 

 practice; but Roman letters admit of no better way of writing 

 the element. 



pie sounds. In the present paper, consonants 

 alone are dealt with. Arbitrarj' letters have 

 been often proposed, but they have not met 

 with acceptance. The Visible-speech letters 

 — being ph3'siological pictures of the organic 

 formation of their sounds, and in no sense 

 arbitrar}' — might, with great advantage, be 

 adopted in these cases. ^ 



New characters being wanted to supply the 

 consonant deficiencies in our system of letters, 

 there is no need to seek for forms in old or for.^ 

 eign alphabets, or to devise a set of arbitrary 

 characters, when Visible speech offers for our 

 use its i:)hysiological letters ready to fill every 

 gap in our own or other alphabets. The follow- 

 ing are the symbols which, in this S3'stem, de- 

 note the six unrepresented consonant sounds in 

 English. The physiological meanings of the 

 sj'mbols need not be here explained ; but the 

 reader can judge of the simplicity of the forms, 

 and of their adaptability for intermixture with 

 ordinary letters, bj' the annexed illustrations. 



ILLUSTRATIONS, 

 fish, sheep, catch, ocean, caution, vicious, 



fin, neep, catn, onan, cauOon, vinous, 



edge, rouge, azure, measure, vision, usual, 



edn, roun, abjure, raeanure, vision, u^Jual, 



thin, truth, three, author, ethnic, athwart, 



win, truw, wree, auMor, ewnic, auwart, 



then, this, breathe, either, gather, within, 



wen, wis, breaw, eiwer, gawer, wiwin, 



why, what, when, whether, awhile, nowhere, 



Dj, Dat, Den, Dewer, aDile, noDere, 



sing, ink, uncle, angry, sanctify. 



sie, iek, uescle, aegiy, saectify. 



The advantage of adopting the required 

 supplementary letters from a scientific and 

 universal alphabet is, that the same additions, 

 as well as others from the same source, ma^'" 



1 Those who are not acquainted with Visible speech, as a 

 source from which letters may be drawn as wanted, may be 

 referred to the judgment pronounced on the system by the most 

 eminent authority on phonetics, Alexander John Ellis, F.R.S., 

 who writes to the Reader (Aug. 5, 1865), "Until Mr. Melville 

 Bell unfolded to me his careful, elaborate, yet simple and com- 

 plete system, I had no knowledge of alphubetics as a science. , . . 

 Alphabetics as a science, so far as I have been able to ascertain, 

 — and I have looked for it far and wide, — did not exist." 



