Page:Proposals for a Uniform Missionary Alphabet.djvu/8

 convenient to the missionary, and easy for the printer," we must consider three points:—

I. Which are the principal sounds that can be formed with our organs of speech, and therefore may be expected to exist in any of the dead or living dialects of mankind?

This is a physiological question.

II. How can these principal sounds, after proper classification, be expressed by us in writing and printing so as to preserve their physiological value, without creating any new typographical difficulties?

This is a practical question.

III. How can this physiological alphabet be applied to existing languages, and

a. to unwritten dialects; This depends on a good ear.

b. to written dialects; This depends on philological research.

Coroll. III. a. In the application of the physiological alphabet to languages not yet fixed by writing, the missionary should be guided entirely by his ear, without paying any regard to etymological considerations.

III. b. In transcribing languages which have an historical orthography, and where, for reasons best known to the archæologist, one sign may represent different sounds, and one sound be expressed by different signs, new and quite distinct questions are involved which can be solved only by archæological and philological research. We shall, therefore, discuss this part (III. b.) separately, and distinguish it by the name of "Transliteration," from the usual method of "transcribing" as applied to unwritten tongues.

On the first point, which must form the basis for all the rest, we have the immense advantage that all scholars who have written on it have