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 or it might be written double, thus:

and had I been writing a sermon, I might have chosen those words for my text.

To show how far this sound is ousting all the proper vowels, it will suffice to take a book that was issued three years ago by the University Press at Oxford—of which I learn that over 1000 copies are already in circulation—the Phonetic Transcriptions of English Prose, by Daniel Jones, and to examine what is there described as the 'Pronunciation used in careful conversation, or in reading aloud in private', which is 'the pronunciation recommended for the use of foreigners'.

On the first three-quarter page of these examples (p. 10 of the book) I find the following pronunciations; I am, of course, irresponsible:

MONOSYLLABLES

Present pronunciation according As written in

English word. to Mr. Jones, expressed in Mr. Jones'

Victorian spelling. phonetic.

a er 9

of erv QV

and ernd 9nd

as ers 9z

from frerm from

at ert 9t

to ter tg

but bert bot

for fer f9

must merst most

than them <59n

that thert ttat

the ther tfe

are er