Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume XIII.djvu/475

 PHONOGRAPHY 459 and shun, sion (as in vision). In each of these pairs the heavy stem is given to the heavy sound. The simple vowel sounds are written with a dot or a short dash placed to the con- sonant signs, distinction between one vowel and another being secured by writing these signs to the consonants in three places, namely, at the beginning, at the middle, and at the end, and by making them heavy for the long and light for the short vowels. The four double vowels or diphthongs, the sounds of i in ice, oi in oil, ow in owl, and ew in new, are usually represented by small angles, placed in a similar way to the consonant stems. The following is the alphabet of phonographic signs : P B CONSONANTS. Explodents. I I / T D OH J K G Continuant*. L ^ J J F V TH DH S Z SII ZII Liquids. ~L (~ "^ or x" R Nasals. M ^ N ^ NG ^ Coalescents. W "^ Y f- Aspirate. H ^ VOWELS. Long. ah a e aw 6 66 Short. a 8 i ii 66 The upright skeleton line to which th dots and dashes are placed in the above table is no part of the vowel sign ; it is employed merely to show the positions of the vowels, namely, first, second, and third place. The diphthongs are written as follows : oi ow ew Except in regard to the letters w, y, and h, no change has been made in the phonographic consonant signs since the publication of Pit- man's second edition in 1840. The old stem sign for h, and the one still given by Benn Pitman and Graham, is ^ ; but Isaac Pitman in his later editions adopted the sign ^ (up- ward) or / (downward) for h. H is also sometimes written with a light dot placed be- fore the sign of the vowel which follows it; and in a few instances it is indicated by a tick sign joined to the stem of the succeeding con- sonant. Isaac Pitman also, in his later edi- tions, varies from the above consonant table by adopting the signs </ w and / y. The ar- rangement of the vowels as given in the fore- going scale, namely, ah, a, e, aw, o, do, &c., is the one found in the works of Isaac Pitman and Munson; but Benn Pitman and Graham still adhere to the original arrangement, namely, e, a, ah, aw, d, do, &c. The three diphthongs oi, ow, and ew are variously written by different authors. Both the Pitmans and Graham write the sounds of w and y, with a following vowel, by means of a small curve placed to the con- sonant stems in the vowel places, as shown be- low ; the meaning of the signs according to the two vowel scales is indicated by the letters above and below the characters : wah c; we wa waw wa wah waw wo

wo woo >: WOO yah ya ye yaw yo yoo ya yah yaw yo yoo In writing a word in phonography, the con- sonants are all made first without taking off the pen, and the vowel signs are written in afterward. The following are illustrations of words that are written exactly the same in all the versions of phonography : pay, |- day, beau, J^ show, XT. caw > -7- g fl y _L_ ache, ebb, up, -) us, ^s by, ^ nigh, bake, ^ _ make, f. lake, Q^ orb, X rope, i<. lobe, -[^y- tomb, . beck, ..*". shop, JA, dumb, X " > ^X montn > ..!}*:.. ^ Q - The rule for writing the signs for the vowels when they occur between two consonant stems is as follows: All first-place vowel signs are written to the stem that precedes them; all third-place vowel signs, to the stem that fol- lows them ; of second-place vowel signs, those that are long are written to the preceding stem, and those that are short to the following stem. In addition to the simple stems of the alpha- bet proper, provision is made for still further abridging the phonographic writing by means of compound signs formed from the original simple stems by the addition to them of various hooks, modifications, circles, and loops. In the following table are given all of the hooks and modifications that experience has shown can be safely used by phonographic writers :