Page:The Diothas, or, A far look ahead (IA diothasorfarlook01macn).pdf/195

 syllabic characters were not arbitrary. They had been indicated by the phonograph, the extensive use of which had re-acted very strongly on pronunciation, by necessitating a clear, precise enunciation of each syllable.

The words of most frequent use in the language had been reduced to monosyllables: there was a large number of dissyllables, a much smaller number of trisyllables; and no words of more than three syllables were tolerated. It had thus become possible to introduce a printed character that held the same relation to ordinary print that shorthand does to current hand.

Books printed in this character were very compact, but could, of course, be read only by those who had learned to distinguish the two hundred and fifty characters above mentioned; as I had already discovered to my cost. I could read the ordinary print, but, at the time now referred to, had mastered only a few dozen of the lonna character, as it was called.

I found the study most fascinating, though sometimes tantalizing. A whole sentence, otherwise clear, would be rendered incomprehensible by the presence of a word necessitating recourse to the syllabary with which Utis had provided me. In this way I was, as it were, gradually spelling my way through Eured Thiusen's book, in which I was becoming more and more interested.

The youth of both sexes were taught these characters by degrees; a complete knowledge of them being regarded as neither necessary, nor, indeed, desirable, till the attainment of majority. There was no deprivation in this, for almost the whole store of intellectual wealth accumulated during so many ages was open to them in the common