and e, employed to denote one simple vowel sound; and, to make bad worse, most of these same characters and combinations are also used to express other sounds besides. Among the consonants there is a similar confusion. C, k, ch, are used to denote the same consonant sound as heard in can, take, chasm. Sometimes c is sounded like s, as in mace, and, in combination with h, it is made sometimes to represent the sound heard at the end of the word such, and sometimes that heard in the beginning of chaise. These specimens are sufficient to show us how difficult it must be to ascertain the real number of elementary sounds in our language from attending only to what the alphabet teaches, or indeed from any other sources to which people in general have access.

Our alphabet, to be perfect, should contain just as many characters as there are simple sounds in our language, and no character should represent more than one sound. The advantages of such an alphabet would be incalculably great, extending to every individual who has, or shall have, use for it at the present, and in all future time. No such thing as bad spelling, or bad reading, so far as calling the words is concerned, could in such a case exist; the expenditure of many millions of dollars annually in teaching children to read and spell might be saved, the business be better accomplished, and a great amount of time would be redeemed for the pursuit of other objects.

Before attempting to exhibit the elementary sounds which our language contains, let us first attend to the organs of speech, and the manner in which those sounds are formed.

The organs of speech are the throat, the passage leading thence through the nose, the palate, the tongue, the roof of the mouth, the upper jaw with its gums, the front teeth, especially the upper ones, and the lips. To these may with propriety be added the lungs, as being the bellows which sends forward the air through the throat, mouth, and nose. By the various action of these organs, the air, in coming from the lungs, is vibrated, reverberated, and otherwise affected, so as to produce all that variety of sounds which are heard in both speaking and singing.

If a passage for the breath be left open and uninterrupted from the throat quite through the mouth and lips, the sound which is produced, however modified it may be in other respects, is continuous and open, capable of being protracted or shortened, elevated or depressed, in various degrees. A sound so produced is called a vowel. While this current of breath or air is issuing from the throat, if two or more of the organs of speech are brought into contact so as to stop it, or to allow but a very

small portion of it to escape, except in some few cases it passes out through the nose, the sound, or modification of sound, so produced is called a consonant. If the organs are similarly situated before the air is issued from the throat, and the effort to issue it is then made, that is, if the commencement of sounding has the same position of the organs as the ending of it, the effect is the same. The distinction, then, between a vowel and consonant is, that the former is a sound uninterrupted by the contact of the organs, and not deflected by them into a new channel, while the latter is a sound in which the breath is quite or,nearly interrupted, or deflected from the mouth through the nose. Let any one make an experiment on any or all of the vowels, he will perceive the breath to escape through the mouth without interruption or deflection. Let him attempt to pronounce the syllable ep: he will perceive that no breath escapes either from his mouth or nose, but that both passages are firmly closed. Let him make trial of the syllable eb : he will find the same position of the organs as before, with no escape of breath; but he will perceive that the breath has now been forced up part way through the nose, and there arrested in its progress, producing a slight vibratory sound in that organ. Again, let him take the syllable em, and try as before: here every thing will appear as in the two former cases, except that now the breath will escape, and entirely so, through the nose. All the difference, therefore, between these three consonants consists in the entire stoppage of the breath at the lips, a deflection of it from the mouth a little way into the nasal passage where it is stopped, and its entire passage through the nose; yet what a difference in their respective sounds is the result! A similar experiment may be made with t, d, and n, placing the tongue against the gum of the upper front teeth, and then breathing as before: the same order of results will be again obtained. A like order of results will be obtained by taking the consonants heard in the syllables ak, ag, ang, or eng, or ing. By crowding the tongue against the extremities of the upper jaw and its rear teeth, if it have them, and the arch of the mouth immediately above, and thus entirely preventing the escape of the breath every way, the first of these consonants will be produced; suffer the breath to pass up the nasal passage and there stop it, the second will be formed; allow the breath to pass entirely through the nose, and the last one will be uttered.*

A vowel may now be defined, A sound of the human voice, uttered with an open passage for the breath through the throat,

* This proves that ng in the end of a syllable is a simple, and not a double consonant sound, as we are usually taught.

mouth, and lips. A consonant may be defined, A modification of sound produced by the contact of some of the organs of speech so as to interrupt or impede the passage of the breath.

A dipthong is the union of two vowels in one utterance, as in voice, out. What the two vowels in each example are, will be shown hereafter. A tripthong is the union of three vowels in one utterance, of which an example will be given further on.

CHAPTER II.

SPECIFICATION OF ALL THE VOWEL SOUNDS.-POSITION OF THE ORGANS IN FORMING THEM.-DIPTHONGS.

In the following syllables, each contains a distinct vowe sound, without any repetition of the same one. Take away the consonants from every syllable, and the vowel will be left alone, and ought to be named and pronounced as it thus stands. For convenience of reference I shall designate each separate vowel by arithmetical figures. This will also prevent circumlocution, and at the same time each figure may be pronounced,

if one chooses, according to the vowel which it represents.

4

5

6

7

8

9

* Art, at, ale, eel, all, ope, boot, tune, up.

Here are given nine different sounds, having all the characteristic distinctions of vowels, and for which there ought to be nine separate characters or letters. Most of these can also be divided into long and short, by which means a still greater variety of sounds is produced.

Let the lips be open, and lying against the teeth, forming a very flat, oval-shaped aperture, with the corners a very little drawn in; at the same time let the tongue, gently pressing against the extremities of the upper jaw, form an aperture there similar in shape to the first, and then let the breath be passed out, the vowel 1 will, or may be, sounded. Let every thing be as before except contracting the corners of the mouth, and flat both apertures a very little more, and the vowel 2 will be produced. Carry the whole further yet, and further still, and the vowels 3, 4 will be pronounced. Now protrude the lips a little from the teeth, with the aperture large and of a circular form; in the mean time let the aperture at the root of the upper jaw assume a corresponding shape, and vowel 5 will be produced. Protrude the lips still more preserve the shape, but

* Strike off the consonants, and the sound which remains is the true name of the vowels.

lessen the size, of their aperture; diminish the size, but increase the rotundity of the interior aperture; and you will have vowel 6. Go still further with the protrusion of the lips, and the lessening of both apertures, and you will have 7. Protrude the lips, but make the opening of them oval instead of circular, while the interior aperture assumes again an oval form, with the muscles of the tongue pressing forward and not so perpendicularly upward as in the case of vowels 1, 2, 3, 4: you will then pronounce the vowel 8.* Vowel 9 is nothing more than a deep guttural breathing, forcibly made with the mouth open. Some have denied that 2 is a distinct vowel. An attentive consideration, however, of the position of the organs, and of the real sound which is made, will show that it is, in reality, intermediate between 1 and 3. It is, besides, always short, while 1 is generally, and indeed almost always, long; and where a short 1 might otherwise be wanted, 2 is principally employed in its stead. This may be another reason why 2 has been confounded with short 1.

For the sake of undeceiving such as are liable to mistake the real short vowel sounds on account of our false orthography, I will here write down the respective long vowels, with their corresponding short ones underneath. From this exhibition it will be readily seen how our ears have been deceived by what has met our eyes.

Vowels 2 and 9 are always short. 1, 6, and 8, when short, are never followed by a consonant in the same syllable. When our characters a, o, u are followed by an accented consonant in the same syllable, they do not represent the sounds of 1, 6, 8, but of other vowels. The sound in map, tan, dab, is that of 2. The sound in top, blot, is that of 5; in son, idol, that of 9. The sound in but, hum, is that of 9; in pull, full, that of 7.

Dipthongs contain two short vowels, and the combination will produce a long syllable, except those into which the vowel 7 enters, and is placed first. These latter may be either long or short. The vowels which form a tripthong are likewise short, and the syllable into which they enter is long. The only dipthongs which we have in our language are those heard in the words mind, out, toil, and vowel 7 in combination with each of

* The French u has the same position of the organs, except that the apertures are still more flattened.

the other sounds except 8, and, what is peculiar, with itself. The simple vowels which constitute the dipthong heard in mind, mile, bile, are 2 and 4 very intimately united. Those which constitute the dipthong heard in out, owl, our, are 1 and 8; those which constitute it in toil, loin, noise, are 5 and 4, less intimately blended than in either of the preceding ones. Example of the union of 7 with other vowels may be seen in

2

3

4

5

6

7

9

waft, wax, wane, weep, wall, wo, wood, word. Waft, with its derivations, affords the only instance of a union between 7 and 1 which I can recollect. In all dipthongs of this kind beginning with 7, we employ the letter w to denote the first vowel sound. It has not, I am aware, been customary to call these combinations of 7 with the other vowels dipthongs. W has been generally treated as though it was a consonant, and the vowel united with it as a simple sound. But there cannot, I believe, be any definition of a dipthong given with any tolerable correctness which will not include these combinations of 7 with other vowels. The union of sounds in all these cases is very intimate, but it is a union of vowel sounds alone.

The only tripthongs in our language are the combinations of 7 with the dipthong composed of 2, 4, as heard in wipe, wild; and with the dipthong 1, 8, as heard in wound, participle of the verb to wind. This word, and the substantive wound, with the verb to wound and its derivatives, are the only ones in which, to my recollection, the latter tripthong occurs.*

CHAPTER III.

SPECIFICATION OF ALL THE CONSONANT SOUNDS IN THE LANGUAGE. POSITION OF THE ORGANS IN FORMING THEM.

The following syllables exhibit, I believe, every simple consonant to be found in our language, and express the names by which they should be called.

Pe, be, em, te, de, en, ka, ga, eng, enk, ef, ve, eth, the, el, es, ze, ar, ye. He may be added, though not properly a letter.

In this exhibition I have had regard to classification of sounds, and convenience of explaining them, rather than the order of the common alphabet, so far as the latter contains them.

* Many, I am aware, pronounce this latter word as though it were spelled woond; but I never found any good ground for giving it that sound. The word is Saxon, and in all other words of Saxon origin ou has one uniform sound. Why, then, this exception? Why this needless anomaly?