Page:Proposals for a missionary alphabet; submitted to the Alphabetical Conferences held at the residence of Chevalier Bunsen in January 1854 (IA cu31924100210388).pdf/49

 but vapparos, with beautiful chariots; they wrote av¾p, man, but Evavopia, manliness. Nor in fact does there seem to be any necessity for marking the spiritus lenis in the middle of words. Every vowel beginning a syllable has necessarily the spiritus lenis; as going, seeing. As to the spiritus asper, which we have in "vehement," "vehicle," I fear that "ve'ement," "ve'icle," will be objected to by the printer. If so, we have still the h as a last resource to express the spiritus asper in this position.

The guttural flatus asper, as heard in loch, might be expressed by an Italic h. The flatus lenis cannot be distinguished in pronunciation from the guttural semi-vowel, and has therefore never received an alphabetical exponent. If it should be necessary, however, to assign a type to this physiological category, we should be obliged to write the flatus asper by 'h, and the flatus lenis by 'h.

The dental flatus sibilans, pronounced sharp as in "sin" or "grass," has, of course, the best claims on the letter's as its representative. Its corresponding soft sound, as heard in please or zeal, is best expressed by z; only we must take care not to pronounce it like the German z. The more consistent way of expressing the sonant flatus would be to put a spiritus lenis over the's. This, however, would hardly be tolerated, and would be against the Third Resolution of our alphabetical conferences, where it was agreed that only after the Roman types, and the modifications of Roman types as supplied by common fonts (capitals, italics, &c.), had been exhausted, diacritical signs should be admitted into the standard alphabet.

As all palatals are represented by italics, the palatal sibilant would naturally be written with an italic's. This would represent the sharp sound as heard in "sharp" or "chose." The soft palatal sibilant would have the same exponent as the soft dental sibilant, only changed into italics (z). This would be the proper sign for the French sound in "je," "genou," and for the African soft palatal sibilant, which, as Dr. Krapf, Mr. Tutschek, and Mr. Boyce remark, will never be properly pronounced by an adult European.

Where it is necessary to express the original, not yet assibilated, palatal flatus, which is heard in könig and kön'ge, an italic y, with the spiritus asper and lenis, would answer the purpose (y and y).

The labial flatus should be written by f € 3 This is the sharp flatus,