Page:Proposals for a missionary alphabet; submitted to the Alphabetical Conferences held at the residence of Chevalier Bunsen in January 1854 (IA cu31924100210388).pdf/37

 altogether (as it is, to a great extent, if Tataric languages are written with Arabic letters), unless to these vowels a distinct category were assigned. Besides the broken or softened a, o, and u, the Tataric languages have a fourth vowel, a softening of the i, which we hear in "will." Thus we have, in Yakute:

Hard vowels a, o, i, u. Soft vowels ä, ö, I, ü. 24 i, o, ö, u, ü. Heavy vowels a, Light vowels i, 1,

All the vowels in a Yakute word depend on the first. If the first is hard, all following vowels must be hard; if soft, all become soft. Again, if the vowel of one syllable is heavy, that of the next can only be the same heavy vowel, or its corresponding light vowel. If it is light, that of the next syllable must be the same light vowel, or its corresponding heavy vowel. For instance, if the first syllable of a word. has a, the next can only have a or i; if ä. ä or ï; if o, o or u; if ö, ö or ü,

The vowels would, therefore, come under the following physiological categories:

It has frequently been remarked that the short vowels in English (hat, bed, pit, pot, full) differ from their corresponding long vowels,