Page:Proposals for a missionary alphabet; submitted to the Alphabetical Conferences held at the residence of Chevalier Bunsen in January 1854 (IA cu31924100210388).pdf/46

 an exception is here to be made, let it be a single exception, whic we retain the regular notation for every other word in which the purė palatal media occurs.

The linguals, as modifications of the dentals, have been hitherto written by common consent as dentals with dots or lines. In writing, this method must be retained, though no doubt a more current form will soon grow up if the alphabet is used by natives. They will probably draw the last stroke of the t and d below the line, and connect the body of the letter with the perpendicular line below. The linguals, therefore, will be, t, th, d, dh; only here also the printer will step in and convert the dotted or underlined letters into italics, t, th, d, dh.

I am at a loss how to mark that peculiar pronunciation of the dental aspirate, whether tenuis or media, which we write in English simply by th. It is not of frequent occurrence; still it occurs not only in European, but in Oriental languages, for instance, in Burmese. If it occurs in a language where no trace of the pure dental aspirate remains, we might safely write th (and dh) or th (and dh), as we do in English. The Anglo-Saxon letters and 8 would be very convenient; but how few fonts, even in England, possess these forms! Again, sh and zh, and even 9' and 9', have been proposed; but they are liable to still stronger objections. Where it is necessary to distinguish the aspirated th and dh from the assibilated, I propose for the latter a dot under the h (th and dh). But I think th and dh will, on the whole, be found to answer all practical purposes, if we only look to people who have to write and read their own language. Philologists, whatever we attempt, cannot be informed of every nicety and shade in pronunciation by the eye. They must learn from grammars or from personal intercourse in what manner each tribe pronounces its dental aspirate; and comparative philology will find all its ends answered if th represents the organic dental aspirate, until its pronunciation deteriorates so far as to make it a flatus or a double consonant. In this case the Missionary also will have to write it ts, or ss, or whatever sound he may happen to hear.