January 3, 1890.] 



SCIENCE. 



you in the contributions you will receive from year to year, — such 

 as historical phonetics, or the order of past changes in pronuncia- 

 tion ; national phonetics, or the tendencies of individual languages; 

 formal phonetics, or the operation of definite laws ; assimilative 

 phonetics, or the influence of sound upon sound ; and doubtless 

 other varieties, — but all these should pre-imply a fundamental 

 power in practical phonetics. Theorizing on sounds which you 

 cannot illustrate is profitless. 



Sounds have been described as long, short, acute, grave, flat, 

 sharp ; heavy, light, dull, obscure, hard, soft ; harsh, smooth, open, 

 shut, thick, thin ; narrow, broad, fat, liquid, etc. ; and organically as 

 labial, lingual, palatal, guttural, nasal, dental, head sounds, throat 

 sounds, chest sounds, even ventral sounds. The whole nomen- 

 clature has been indefinite and unscientific. Such names must be 

 discarded for a terminology that shall express something which is 

 uniformly intelligible to all who use it. 



For example: certain mouth-actions are produced with, and 

 certain others without, accompanying voice : these are clearly dis- 

 tinguished as " vocal " and " non-vocal." Certain actions are per- 

 formed by the back of the tongue, others by the top of the tongue, 

 -others by the front of the tongue, others by the point of the tongue, 

 -others by the lips ; and the resulting elements are unambiguously 

 named " back," " top," " front," " point," " lip." Some sounds are 

 formed with the tongue in close approximation to the roof of the 

 mouth, others with the tongue removed from it as far as possible, 

 and others in an intermediate position : these varieties are clearly 

 distinguished as " high," " low," " mid." Some sounds are formed 

 with constriction of the organic aperture, and others with com- 

 :parative looseness and expansion ; and these are distinguished by 

 the term " wide " applied to the latter class. Some sounds issue 

 through ,a channel over the centre of the organ concerned, others 

 through apertures formed at the sides, and some with the mouth- 

 passage entirely closed : the last are descriptively named " shut ; " 

 and the side-aperture sounds, " divided." Some sounds are formed 

 with the co-operation of two parts of the mouth, and these are 

 •called " mixed ; " and some are emitted wholly or partly through 

 the nose. The former are called " nasal ; " the latter, " nasahzed." 

 Such definite nomenclatures as these are easily learned, readily 

 remembered, and unambiguously understood. 



One practical application of phonetics will probably come occa- 

 sionally under the consideration of this section ; namely, the re- 

 moval of anomalies and irregularities in spelling. This association 

 •may well become the national authority and umpire in questions of 

 -what is called " spelling-reform." The established writing of our 

 words is only partially phonetic ; and the first point to be de- 

 termined is. Can it be made wholly so .' The answer is both yes 

 and jio, — no, if the condition be made to admit no new letters, 

 and to maintain the present aspect of words ; yes, if new letters be 

 allowed, and the aspect of words be free to change, without regard 

 to present usage. Written words become pictorial to the eye, and 

 any change of the literal picture destroys for a time the identity of 

 the word. Thus words are both combinations of sounds and com- 

 binations of letters. The sound is the original, the real word : the 

 letters form a conventional pictorial word. Are we to retain both 

 in mutual independence, with all the inconvenience which the pres- 

 ent arrangement entails, or are we to alter the conventional so as 

 to represent the real } If we agree to disturb the old word-pic- 

 ture, let us make the new one perfectly accord with the word- 

 sound ; but that would be to give up historical spelling altogether. 

 If we decide to retain historical spelling, we should then agree on 

 some initiatory scheme, by which the difficulty of learning to read 

 may be importantly lessened, for the benefit of children and of the 

 .nations which are acquiring the'English tongue. 



In an extended English alphabet recently published under the 

 title of " World-English," a method is shown by which the writing 

 of the language is rendered perfectly phonetic, while the aspect of 

 words is changed in the least possible degree consistent with that 

 result. • The alphabet is designed only for initiatory use, and to 

 facilitate the learning to read from common letters and common 

 spelling. Some critics have failed to see this limitation of the 

 scheme, and have looked on the proposition as a new attempt at 

 spelling-reform ; but, on the contrary, the reason for producing 

 •" World English " was to demonstrate, that, so far as learners of 



the language are concerned, present orthography may remain al- 

 together untouched ; and that the literature of England and America 

 need not be rendered foreign to the eye by any change in spelling. 



Why cannot our legislatures rise to the importance of regulating 

 school and official practice in the representation of our speech ? 

 Private efforts have cleared the way, and shown, in a variety of 

 modes, what may be done. Official action now would be com- 

 paratively easy. 



In the mean time, might not this association with advantage 

 formulate some conclusions on the subject .' Suppose the follow- 

 ing questions to be discussed, and the answers promulgated for 

 general information : — 



1. Should our spelling be altered for the sake of facilitating the 

 work of learning to read .-' 



2. Can that object be attained without such alteration .' 



3. Can our spelling be partially phoneticized, by dropping silent 

 letters and otherwise, without destroying the identity of words to 

 the eye .' 



4. Can a purely phonetic method, in place of ordinary spelling, 

 be made acceptable to the educated public ? 



5. Should we not recognize two independent forms of our written 

 words, — one in common spelling, for use in literature ; the other 

 in phonetic spelling, for use in primary schools, and wherever else 

 may be desired .' 



Definite answers to these or such questions would tend to con- 

 centrate effort in the approved direction, and to suspend futile 

 effort in other directions. 



The varieties of sound heard in dialectic and district pronuncia- 

 tion prove that the necessities of intercourse do not depend on nice 

 phonetic distinctions. In fact, one who is familiar with the words 

 of a language can understand speech when only one unchanging 

 vowel-sound is used ; or writing, when a mere hyphen is substi- 

 tuted for all vowel-letters. One system of shorthand is based on 

 this principle. The consonants are written small when no vowel- 

 sound follows them ; and in this way the relative size of these 

 characters informs the eye where vowels do and do not occur; 

 with the result, that, except in monosyllables, the writing is suffi- 

 ciently free from ambiguity for practical stenography. 



Extended intercourse is assimilating the pronunciation of dis- 

 tricts which differed widely in their utterance before the days of 

 steamboats and railways. The dialect of my native place is no 

 longer what it was in my remembrance. The provinces of a na- 

 tion, and the nations of the world, are rising gradually to one 

 phonetic standard. But variety comes with refinement ; shades of 

 sound become associated with shades of meaning ; and the ear it- 

 self becomes more appreciative of slight differences. 



Early English pronunciation was very unlike what we hear now, 

 chiefly because it lacked many shades of sound which we dis- 

 tinguish. The letter r had always its consonant sound, which is 

 now heard only before a vowel. A was alway a/i ; at, ah-i ; aw, 

 ak-w. W was always pronounced after a vowel, as ew, eh-w ; 

 ow, o/i-w. U, as in biti and tis, was always pronounced oo ; and 

 our silent letters gJi and /, as in might and would, were always 

 sounded. I can fortunately illustrate the effect of the English of 

 Shakspeare's time by repeating a short speech, the pronunciation 

 of every word in which has been ingeniously recovered by Mr. 

 Ellis. This is Portia's speech on mercy, from the " IVIerchant of 

 Venice," as pronounced on the Shakspearian stage [" The quality 

 of mercy," etc.]. IVIy object in this brief address has been simply 

 to incite you to give increased attention to practical phonetics. 

 Mastery of the mouth will give an advantage in all the other de- 

 partments, and also in the teaching of modern languages. With- 

 out entering further into detail, which would make this a lesson 

 instead of an address, I shall conclude by hoping that the delibera- 

 tions of this Phonetic Section may advance the study of the art 

 and science of speech, enhance both professional and popular in- 

 terest in the subject, and be a continuous credit to the Modern 

 Language Association. 



The Russian Government has in contemplation a project for 

 connecting, by a system of canals, the White Sea with Lake Onega 

 and with the principal navigable rivers of Russia. The canals are 

 to be of sufficient depth to admit vessels drawing ten feet of water. 



