Page:A plea for phonotypy and phonography - or, speech-printing and speech-writing (IA pleaforphonotypy00elliiala).pdf/40

36 It would of course be a work of very considerable time to acquire a correct pronunciation of all these 82 elements, nor can we suppose that any one person will accomplish the task perfectly; yet, when once able to pronounce them, there is scarcely a language to be named (except perhaps Chinese, with its many nasals) which he could not immediately write in this alphabet.

For English, as we have seen, 43 elements only are necessary; for German, we should want seven in addition, namely à, ö, ü , k q, making a total of 50 for English and German. French adds six more, on account of its great richness in vowels. These six additional letters are, î, á, â, ô, û, and, making 56 letters for English, German, and French. Italian only requires the addition of è, ó, ò, so that 59 letters would be enough for the 4 principal European languages. If these languages then were printed in accordance with this alphabet, the pupil by only learning the values of 59 letters would be able to read them off with facility. If we had extended our second Table to embrace all the anomalies of these 4 languages, instead of confining it to the English alone, we should of course have very much increased it; and the difference would have been still more strikingly exhibited between a correct phonetic representation founded upon analysis, and a haphazard application of the Latin alphabet, with the powers of which the writers seem to have been unacquainted, and which, consisting only of 23 letters, (as j, v, w, do not form a part of it) was of course totally inadequate to perform the office of an alphabet of 59 elements.

The following examples are the same as those given in the "Appendix to the First Style of Phonography," in the 7th Edition of Mr. Pitman's "Manual of Phonography," where the heterotypic representation and translation of the same passages will be found. The accent is upon the last syllable but one when not otherwise marked, except in English where it is not marked at all; in Sanscrit, where we are not acquainted with its correct place; and, in French, in which there is no accent.

The Author craves indulgence if he have in any case misrepresented the pronunciation; such errors are due, not to the alphabet itself, but to his own ignorance, arising from want of memory, and want of due power to appreciate the multifarious sounds of so many languages.

1. SANSCRIT. Sir W. Jones, Works, vol. 3 p. 295.

2. ANCIENT GREEK. Etonian Pronunciation. Hom. Il., 1, 43—49.