AN ENDEAVOR
TOWARDS A
UNIVERSAL ALPHABET,
WHICH SHALL HAVE A LETTER FOR EVERY DISTINCT SOUND AND ARTICULATION
UTTERABLE BY -THE HUMAN VOICE;
WHICH SHALL HAVE A DISTINCTIVE FORM FOR EACH LETTER, THAT SHALL RESEMBLE NO OTHER, UNLESS IT IS SIMILAR IN POWER;
WHICH SHALL RETAIN THAT DISTINCTIVE AND ESSENTIAL FORM OF EACH LETTER,
THROUGHOUT THE RANGE OF AND CHANGES FOR CAPITAL AND BODY,
OR LOWER CASE PRINTING LETTERS, CAPITAL AND BODY
ROUND WRITING LETTERS, AND SHORT
WRITING LETTERS;
AND WHICH SHALL FORM THE BASIS OF AN EASY, PRACTICAL SYSTEM, ADAPTED
TO ALL KINDS OF PRINTING AND WRITING.
By A. D. SPROAT,
CHILLICOTHE, OHIO.
CHILLICOTHE:
PUBLISHED BY THE AUTHOR.
1857.








ADVERTISEMENT.
To Pulblishers, and friends of the Spelling,Reform:
THE change from the present heterogeneous ways of spelling to the
phonetic mode, necessarily produces a very considerable change in the
Alphabet.  Phoneticians endeavor to make this change as little as
possible, by using nearly all the Roman letters, and adding enough
new ones, or making slight changes in the old ones, so as to fill out
the complement of a list of all the sounds. But even this involves a
great change.
It is certain that a person having an English education can learn to
read Phonotypy, as it has heretofore been proposed, sooner than he
can learn an entirely new alphabet, and read by it.  Now, is this
advantage (a superficial and temporary one), and any other advantages
-that can be named, which an emended Roman alphabet may have over
a new one (an AMERICAN ALPHABET), of sufficient importance to
countervail the serious disadvantages connected with it?  This is the
question which 1 wish to bring emphatically before you. Please turn
to numbers 5, 6, 7, 8, and 9, in the body of this work, for the reasons
why we should have but one alphabet; and suffer me to say here, that
any enterprise of this kind which employs more than one alphabet,
however successful it may be in its inception, will not stand the test of
time.  Why, then, put up with amendments?  Why not make the
reform a thorough and permanent one, at once?
While this work was being put in type, I have become aware that
a variation of Pitman's Phonography is taught in England, called
Phonical Stenography.  The Printing Schemes, as now proposed in
England and America, are variant, and have been changing ever since
Phonotypy became agitated. The language of the two countries not
only should, but must be the same; and not in its spoken form alone,
or written form alone, but in both. Nothing, therefore, in this printing
and writing reform is yet fixed; and although considerable outlays in
types and books have been made, no one can reasonably hope or even
wish for the success of his scheme, when satisfied it is far behind what
is easily attainable.
It is said that there must be a time when changes shall cease: when
we must settle down on some plan, and keep to it. True; but we must
first have aplan, and one on which the great body of those who speak
our language can be made to'settle.
I claim superiority for my system, on the following points:'
1st. I claim that my tables of vocal and consonant elements are
V




Vi                      ADVERTISEMENT.
either perfect, or, if they should not be deemed so, that they are
nearer the truth than any heretofore proposed.
2d. I claim that my Alphabet (the table of forms appropriated to
the elements) is by far the best and most practical one yet devised for
all purposes of printing, and round or long hand writing; and this
without reference to its connection with brief writing. For reasons
for this superiority, see NoS. 8 and 9.
3d. I claim that my Brief Writing, in its recording stage, is superior
to Pitman's, or any other, in its adaptation to all purposes of short
hand, save that of reporting, by showing the exact sounds of words, in
a plain, lineal, and easy manner, not depending on thicknessing the
letters, or on minute turns, which cannot be shown with a pencil, or
dull pen. See No. 150, and plate No. 3.
4th. I believe that my system of writing, in its reporting stage, is,
or can very easily be made, equal, if not superior, to Pitman's, even as
to brevity. By brevity I mean the quickness with which a word can
be written, and not the shortness of the strokes. As Mr. Pitman's
Phonography is considered to be the shortest and best now known, I
have made a comparison between his and mine, in plate No. 4. Many
words can be written shorter by his system than by mine, and vice
versa.  I think that any regular piece of composition, containing a
dozen lines or more, where all the words are to be written out, or
plainly and separately designated, can be done by my system shorter
than by his. See No. 151.
5th. I claim that my system, as a whole, although it may be imperfect, is still integral, and far in advance of any yet proposed. I
solicit investigation of the above claims, by those who are competent
to judge.
This little work has cost me much labor. I offer it to the public
free of copy-right, feeling that' I have but little pecuniary interest in
its success. But I do feel a very considerable interest as an author
and philanthropist, in having its merits and demerits fully canvassed.
If any one shall put forward a better system, or shall make improvements in mine, I shall wish him God speed.
The recital of the foregoing claims may appear arrogant and egotistical. I have made them with the view of eliciting investigation,
and thereby inducing some publisher, or some society, after examining
my system, to undertake its advocacy, in a monthly paper. To do
this properly, will involve a considerable outlay for matrices for the
new type, &c. The journal should receive and publish suggestions
and corrections from all who felt interested; so that, before the final
adoption of any system or plan, the relative merits of all should be
thoroughly discussed, and the best one rendered as perfect as man can
make it. I can spare neither time nor money to conduct these matters,
and must leave them to others.
AMASA  D. SPROAT.
Chillicothe, Ohio, January, 1857.




AN ENDEAVOR
TOWARDS
A UNIVERSAL ALPHABET.
INTRODUCTION,
PROMINENT among the improvements soon to come into use,
will be the substitution of a new, or at least of a corrected and
extended alphabet, for our present one'; and the consequent
abrogation of our abnormal ways of spelling. Subsequent to
this, (it may be long in the future,) will be the regulation to
some extent, of our language. That art by which all other arts
are made known and their knowledge perpetuated, and by which,
next to reason, we are distinguished from brutes; the medium of
our social intercourse, and thereby, in a great measure, of our
civilization and happiness; and above all, the medium through
which the Word of the Lord is communicated to us, has been,
as respects any sophical amendments in its construction, or
attempt at any, almost entirely neglected. It has been left to
tumble into shape, to drift, to stretch, as ignorance, chance, or
caprice, might sway it.
2. Our own loved English, rough, irregular, redundant, and
defective as it is, we would not exchange for any other tongue
on earth, either ancient or modern.  But it has faults which
need correcting, such as pronouncing different words alike, and
irregularities in tenses; and probably it has a few deficiencies
which should be supplied. We do not want the machinery of
Greek or Latin conjugations and declensions, but we think that
short terminals to verbs to note their moods and tenses, and to
substantives for their numbers and genders, might be employed
(7)




8                      INTRODUCTION.
with considerable advantage. Endings might be arranged so as
to show the parts of speech, and give definiteness to the meaning,
as -ing,-ed, -ly, -tion, -ness, &c. do now; and so as frequently
to enable one word to express what is now done by several.
Such innovations being based on a few simple rules, might be
learned by any person in a few hours.
3. The regularity, beauty, and power of the Greek and Latin
languages, their grammatical -construction, particularly in their
declensions and conjugations, prove that they were set in order
by men of science. Many of their radical words were drawn
from  other tongues; some might have sprung up fortuitously;
yet no chance convention of children, or ignorant barbarians,
could have produced the harmony and order we see reigning
there. Their writing too, we have every reason to believe, was
strictly phonetic, except that they had two or three double letters.*
How sadly have we departed from  this plain and simple way
of expressing speech on papert What years of toil does this
departure cause our youth to endure!
4. No living language is stationary. Ours is not, and can not
be made so; therefore improvements ought not to be so much
regretted, or opposed simply on account of the change.  I deem
it impracticable in the present state of religion and science, for
men to form  a good philosophical language; a perfect one
would be out of the quesfion; and therefore I would correct
our own as a man amends his life, which is not by jumping at
once into a new one, but by gradually reforming the present.
5. But not so with improvements in the Alphabet and mode
of spelling. Here the change, when made at all, should be a
thorough one. It should leap at once from the present deficient
alphabet and heterogeneous modes of spelling, to the most
perfect means of recording words that can be devised.
* The rule adopted by our Latin grammars, of pronouncing c and
g soft, as it is called, before e, i and y, and pronouncing e, ce and e
alike, has always seemed to me absurd. We have no evidence that
the -Romans ever perpetrated any such jumble; but have every
reason, to suppose that -with them c and g were always hard,
and that their single vowels indicated simple sounds, and when
two vowels came together, that both were sounded and formed
a diphthong.




INTRODUCTION.                       9
6. To write speech by having and using a separate letter for
each and every distinct articulate sound, or element spoken;
to always express each element in writing or printing by its
own proper letter, and by that alone; and to set down the letters
in the same order in which the elements are uttered, are principles so plain, so natural, so easy to be learned, and which
dispense at once with such an immense amount of disadvantage
pertaining to the present system  of spelling, that they must
ultimately prevail.*
7. Writers on Phonetics, as far as I have noticed, have taken
great pains to depict the advantages of Phonetic spelling over
the common orthography.  They, however, adopt the present
letters as far as they go, adding a few new ones, or new parts
to old ones, to:complete the list. Two reasons are assigned for
this course:  The first is they wish to retain the old letters, so
that the present generation may be able to'read the new way
with little trouble.  Grave as this consideration may look, it is
really but a slight one. A man can learn a phonetic alphabet
which is altogether new to him, and learn how to read with it
in a few hours; a labor insignificant in comparison with even
the slightest advantage in an alphabet intended to spread over
the world, and endure for'ages. There is no advantage to the
learner, in retaining a letter as to its shape, and changing its
character. We may retain the letter e, but when we restrict it
to one of the many sounds it now stands for, we in fact make
a new letter -of it. I ha-ve;found  it occasioned me more trouble
and more labor to learn and remember that a particular sound
belongs to the printing a, and another particular sound to the
written form, a, than to attach those particular sounds to new
characters, because in this latter case the other sounds of the
letter a are not constantly occurring to my mind to bother me.
The other reason for retaining the old letters is that the old
* Although our table of elements and the characters representing
them, are to be in strict conformity with these precepts, yet a
departure from them is convenient in common printing and writing,
and even necessary in brief writing, so far as to combine two or
more elements which are frequently associated in words,  in one
letter. - Such letters will~-be called double, or composite letters.




10                     INTRODUCTION.
stock of types may still be used instead of casting new ones.
This objection, too, dwindles away when it is considered that a
reform of this kind can not be adopted at once. The present
type will continue to be used, and more will be cast probably
for centuries yet.
8. The forms of the Roman and Italic letters, (g excepted,) are
beautiful.  The Italic give the idea of gracefulness and delicacy;
the Roman that of firmness and strength. Placed in words and
sentences they form a writing surpassing all others in its regular
and noble appearance. Why not adopt them  then?  Because:
1st. I wish to dispense with tailed letters, or projections below
the line of writing. 2d. I wish all the stemmed letters -those
rising above the upper line —to be vowels, so that they may be
distinguished thereby from the consonants, and the writing be read
easier. Too great uniformity mars the ease of reading, as is seen
by the greater difficulty of reading a sentence when it is in capitals, where there are no stems or tails for the eye to catch at. This
object is attained by having the vowels for the common (or body)
letters uniformly taller than the consonants. Letters answering to
our capitals must all be of the same hight. 3d. I wish, as far
as convenient, to conform the shapes of the letters to their
classification; thus showing a connection between p and b, f and
v, &c., by the similarity of their forms. This relationship will
be better understood by referring to my table of analogical forms
of the consonants, paragraph No. 86. Though this feature is very
desirable, it can be but partially developed. It must give way
to others of more practical importance. 4th. I wish to have the
letters as simple as they well can be, not giving them unnecessary
or unmeaning parts; so that they may be more easily written, and
more compactly put together, and so that the eyes may be less
fatigued in reading them. Although a reader can gather words
with his eye, as they are now written, much faster than he can
speak them, yet if they were written phonetically, and with
more simple characters, he could gather them still faster and
with far more ease.  This will be acknowledged by noticing how
much easier and quicker a number written in figures can be
comprehended than when in words. Hence, what I shall call short
writing can be read easier by those acquainted with it than




INTRODUCTION.                      11
the present print. Several of the Hebrew letters are so very
much alike as to make it difficult to distinguish them. The Roman
letters are free from this fault, yet with some of them simplicity
and distinctiveness of form, whereby the eye can apprehend them
easily and quickly, are made subordinate to a fine rounded appearance. And 5th, and lastly, I wish to have a single alphabet;
that is, one series or set of letters, which shall constitute a complete table of all the simple elementary sounds and articulations;
each sound and articulation having its own appropriate letter;
and these letters so formed, that they, or their analogues, shall
serve for all kinds of printing and writing.  The shapes of the
letters and their appendages, must be formed, of course, so as to
meet all the different purposes and exigencies of printing and
writing; of capitals, of common letters, of short hand letters, &c.
The intention is, that throughout all these changes, each letter
shall, as far as possible, retain its distinctive form.
9. The disadvantage and confusion, and consequent folly, of
having to learn and use three alphabets, or, in other- words,
of having three or more entirely different shaped characters to
signify the same letter, as we now have for capitals and small
printing and short hand letters, must be obvious without argument.
All the advantages- of capitals, italics, &c., are easily secured by
means of projections on the corners, and small modifications in
particular parts, by the leaning of the letters, and by change in
their thickness; while their characteristic or essential forms are
unaltered.
10. To devise forms which shall best fulfill all the foregoing
requirements is a matter of great labor. Until quite recently I
supposed I was the first to attempt it, and I can not suppose
my attempt is not susceptible of improvement.  Yet I must beg
of any proposer of new forms, that he will previously consider
well his scheme in comparison with mine, by taking his forms
through the whole range of printing and round and short and brief
writing. The organic forms of the printing letters must be the
same as the writing, and these must be such as can be easily and
quickly written with a pen. And as the short and brief kinds of
writing will be principally used, I have arranged the shapes
with especial regard to them. Indeed my present short con



s12.      BPEECH.
sonants, with a few exceptions, are the same as those in a
breviscriptive scheme I had formed for my own convenience in
A. D. 1822. In fixing the forms of my letters, instead of avoiding
the roman, I can show that in my Table of 28 simple consonants,
(No. 104,) all but f6ur-hc, h hli and 1, in the fourth column-are
the result, as to their shapes, of carrying out into methodical
arrangement the present forms.
11. Mr. Isaac Pitman, author of a "Manual of Phonography,"
and Mr. Alexander John Ellis, "author of " Essentials of Phonetics," each by far the most complete work of its kind I have
seen, deserve great praise for their sterling productions, and their
efficient and untiring exertions to bring Phonetics before the
public. I must refer the reader to the "Essentials" for the configurations of the organs in forming the letters, for full lists of
-them, and nice discriminations between them, for lists of the
elements belonging to the principal European languages, for an
ethnicl alphabet, &c., &c. I intend to describe here merely what
I consider necessary to a full understanding of the principles
of my alphabet.
SPEECH.
12. The substance of human speech is the breath, —air expired
from the lungs. Breath has relation to Truth, and to Life. It is
or should be known, that the original words which are rendered
Holy Ghost and Holy Spirit in the New Testa;ment, literally mean
Holy Breath. This Holy Breath in its descent from' Jehovah,
assumes a form and meaning apprehensible by men and angels,
and is then called the Word; answering in man to the transition of
the breath into sound, and the modifications of that sound so as to
form speech. It would seem that inarticulate sound and singing,
and probably the vowels also, have reference to the affections;
while the consonants are representative of what is intellectual.
The letters formed by the lips and teeth, being the most outward
organs, seem to denote the more external truths and principles;
while the palatals and gutturals, being produced further down the
mouth, signify those principles more internal.  Hence these letters
enter into the scripture names which involve holy things.. The
aspirate'I-, which is breath without sound, or articulation, being




TONEl.                        13.
breath heard simply as breath, signifies To Be, or Life itself.
The Jews write the name of the Lord by a simple f, (h;) and
the Arabic and Mohammedan name Allah is Al-ah, that is, the h7.
The h is twice inserted in the most holy name Jehovah.  The
other two consonants in this great name are j, or more properly y,
a deep sounding guttural, and -v, or properly w, the most outward
sounding labial; the two signifying the first and the last.
TONE, OR LARYNGAL SOUND.
13. Sounds are vibrations of the air. They are heard by their
striking on the tympanum of the ear, whence report of them is carried through the auditory nerve to the brain. We are now to consider those sounds only which are emitted from the human mouth.
These are produced by the vibrations of the vocal chords, or ligaments of the larynx, while air from the lungs is passing through
them. This sound is sometimes called phonation; and when modified by the organs of the throat and mouth, it is called the voice.
14. Except the noise of breathing and of whistling, and a few
slight gurgling sounds made by inspiration, all the vocal sounds
are produced during the expiration of air from the lungs. For a
description of the lungs, the bronchihe the trachea or windpipe,
the larynx and its appendages, and the vocal organs generally,
and their operation in the production of sound, I must refer the
reader to works on Anatomy and Physiology; for the theory of
sound to works on Acoustics, As it is difficult to describe intelligibly the formation of consonants and the sounds of vowels, I
shall assume those we have in our language to be already known,
and attempt the description of such only as are foreign to it.
15. Laryngal sound is modified by the expansion and contraction of the vocal chords, thereby forming different tones or notes
in music.  These tones have quantity, (intensity, or loudness,)
and quality or timbre. It is this last which distinguishes one person's voice from another's. By this the ear instantly distinguishes
between the sound of a wind and a stringed instrument, or between
a note made by a flute and the same note made by a fife. It is
from a nice appreciation of this quality, that one violin will command twenty or thirty dollars, while another, whose appearance is
just as good, will sell but for two or three.




14                         TONE.
16. A. person's natural tone of voice is the key, or pitch in
which he usually speaks. If he did not vary this pitch his speech
would be monotonous. Variation upwards is called the rising inflection; downwards the falling inflection, or cadence. The latter
is used at the end of a sentence; the former when a question
is asked. Much of the meaning as well as beauty of speech depends upon intonation, accent, and emphasis; all of which are due
to the regulation by the glottis, of laryngal sound and its force.
17. Though tones and forces enter so largely into the expression of speech, we have very imperfect ways of noting them at
present. For modes of expressing force, see Nos. 25, et seq.
Tones affect vowels and sounding consonants, and may be considered as belonging to words rather than to letters. It will not
do to encumber letters themselves with parts or marks to indicate
tone. We scarcely ever want to trouble ourselves about it in
writing, otherwise than what the pauses.and other characters in
use for other purposes will indicate.
18. All the pauses except the comma and interrogation point,
denote a cadence.- The interrogation point always marks a question; and this is generally made by the rising inflection. But
sometimes an emphatic word is set in a high tone, and the inflection runs downward instead of up; as, will you do it? In such
cases the emphatic word should be noted. Whether the question
begins with a low tone and runs upward, or the contrary, it should
have the reversed interrogation point (?) at the beginning, to give
the reader due notice of it, as well as the common point (?) at
the end.
19. It may be well to have a few points to signify tone and
inflection exclusively. A triangular dot immediately preceding a
word placed at the hight of a capital letter, thus Y, will indicate a high key or pitch of voice for that word; placed midway
between the high key dot's place and the bottom of the line,
(thus,) it will indicate the middle key; and at the bottom,
(thus A ) the low key. A triangular dot with a tail to it, the head
up, (thus Y ) will show the rising inflection, indicating that from
that point to the end of the sentence the tone of the words runs
upwards; and with the head down, (thus j, ) the falling inflection,
or running downwards of the tone is shown.




PRODUCTION OF SPEECH.
20. The parts concerned in the articulation, (jointing,) of
sound, commonly called the organs of speech, are the palate, uvula,
fauces, nasal fosse, tongue, teeth, gums and lips. By these organs laryngal sound and breath are'variously reverberated and
obstructed, (articulated,) so as to form speech. Whispering is
articulation of breath without voice. In whistling the sound is
produced in the mouth instead of the larynx.  Sighing, crying,
and laughing, form  no part of artificial speech, and need not
be described here.
21. The Elements of Speech naturally divide themselves into
Sounds, called Vowels, —vocales, from vox, the voice; -and Interruptions of Sound, called Consonants, — consonantes, sounding with, because, as was supposed, they can not be uttered by
themselves, but require a vowel to be sounded with them. This
was a mistake, for letters like z can be uttered by themselves;
and indeed we frequently hear a whole syllable so uttered, as in
the words opened, pronounced op'n'd; humbled, pronounced humbl'd. The word consonant has been long in use to signify any
letter which is not a vowel, and as I shall need a word of this
signification, I shall so use it.
22. Our letters which represent these elements of speech are
still but articles or joints of speech. The filling up, or transit of
voice from one letter to another can not be written.  Our vowels
are stand points, and vague ones too, among the indefinite shades
and varieties of tone and sound which the vocal apparatus can
send forth. All these will run into each other: many consonants
will run into each other. Hence it is evident that letters, (or written language,) can only point out the principal landmarks of
speech; and that to have as perfect an agreement as possible
between them, we must make our speech conform to the usual pronunciation of the letters, as well as make letters to represent the
elements of speech.




OF VOWELS AND SOUNDS.
28. To vowels belong tone, timbre, sound, loudness, and length.
I have spoken of the tone and timbre.  For want of a word
having a more definite meaning, I shall use the word sound to
signify that quality which distinguishes one vowel from another;
thus a has one sound, and e another.
24. As in the formation of tone in the larynx there is produced
a gamut or scale of notes, so there seems to be something
analogous to it in the re-formation or re-verberation of that tone
in the mouth, producing vowels, or distinct sounds. ]Emerging
from y where the -proceeding breath is too closely pent up to
produce a clear vowel, and its hiss in passing forms that consonant, the first pure sound uncombined with hissing is 6. By
gradually enlarging and drawing back the cavity of the mouth
we make a continuous change in the, sound until we get to 65,
which is the last and lowest pure vowel. The scale is then shut
off by the lips in the consonant w. Distributed along this diapason, at about equal intervals, are the vowels of our language,
and of others. Are these intervals arbitrary? Or are they in
accordance with some law of nature, as are the intervals of the
notes in music?  I have not detected any such law, and suppose
the particular sound of each vowel, as well as its distance from
another, to be arbitrary, that is, fixed by custom  alone. My
remarks on particular vowels, their number, &c., is deferred to
another place. See No. 39.
ACCENT, EMPHASIS, QUANTITY, LOUDNESS OR INTENSITY
OF SOUND.
25. We have a rule which says, "Every English word of more
than one syllable has one of them accented."  In long words,
besides the principal accent, there is a subaccent on another
syllable; and in a few words even a third accent. The accent
then with us forms an important part of our pronunciation; and
should be noted in print; at least there should be a way to express it when we choose. Mr. Ellis says, "The misplacement of
an accent destroys the whole character of an English word; and
as the position of the accent is not determinable by anyprecise




ACCENT, EMPHASIS, ETC.                  17
rules, and has even varied in the course of time, as words passed
from  learned to conventional use, there is hardly a part of
English pronunciation which is more difficult to ascertain.  In the
usual orthography, the accent is never marked, and the consequence
of this neglect is, that few who are not Englishmen place the
accent aright; and many Englishmen mistake the place of the
accent in any rather uncommon word."
26.. Accent is the distinguishing one syllable of a word from
the rest by a greater stress of voice. The marking one word of
a sentence from the rest in the same manner, is called emphasis.
I would make a distinction, however, between what may be called
accented words and emphasised or emphatic words. In common speaking, the words of a sentence are frequently huddled
toogether as if they were but one word; and one or two of them
are accented without any apparent reason for it. In saying "It
was laid upon the shelf," we put a stress on laid and shelf, or
rather, a half stress on laid and a whole one on shelf, hurrying
over the other syllables, even the accented one in upon, as so
many unaccented syllables.  Here shelf may be called an accented, or accentuated word; but not an emphatic one; and laid
a half accented word; the others, unaccented words.
27. It has been questioned whether accent belongs to vowels
exclusively, or to vowels and consonants, or to syllables. When
in the accented syllable the vowel is long, the accent is evidently
on it; when the vowel is short, it is what has been called a stopt
vowel, and the accent or stress seems to be shared by the stopping consonant.  There is no doubt that tonic consonants can
be. accented; and atonic ones can be attended with greater force of
breath, which is accent to them. But the idea entertained by some,
that the consonant alone is accented when the vowel is a stopt
one, appears to me erroneous. Supposing a vowel and one or two
or three consonants coming together, should all be considered accentel, we cannot afford to give them more than one accent mark;
an(l to me it appears all sufficient to place that mark to the
vowel. Placed there, it can as well stand for an accent on the
whole syllable as when placed at the end of it.
28. Phoneticians have accent rules, and place the accent mark
only to such accented vowels as are exceptions to the rules. But
2




18                  ACCENT, EMPIIASIS, ETC.
the rules are complex and the exceptions are many, and the
same necessity exists for a full assortment of type to mark the
exceptions, as where the accent is always marked. A prominent
full spoken monosyllable should also have the accent mark.
29. An obvious way of designating accent is by doubling the
thickness of the vowel post, the upright part. In writing, the
thick vowel post can be expressed by a heavy downward swell,
without any extra trouble. The half, or subaccent, would be expressed by swelling the upper part only of the vowel post; and
the unaccented vowels by thin posts. An analogous way of expressing an emphatic word is by putting it in heavier faced type.
The German plan of spacing the words is a convenient one.
30. In my list of vowels, No. 40, the letters are duplicated to distinguish the long from the short; the short letters being narrower.
I have made them all uniformly with thin posts. To mark them
for accent too, by giving them thick posts as well as thin, would
require a re-duplication, or making four letters for each sound,
which is entirely too many for convenience in printing.  In
English there are but very few words, (as female, eighteen, plumbline;-they are mostly compound words,) where two long syllables come together, and where a long vowel is unaccented; so
that we may assume as a general rule that all long vowels are
accented. The first and third sounds when short are always unaccented. So we have but eight short simple sounds in English,
which would require doubling to show accent. But we do not
wish to'increase the list of letters even by eight; and as an
alphabet for all languages must be capable of showing accent
any where, I recommend the employment of accent marks for
this purpose, as follows:
31. The mark shaped thus,' placed high up, immediately before a vowel, will show a half accent on that vowel, or on the syllable which the vowel is in; and the double mark, thus -, will show
a full accent. The single mark placed lower down, thus %, before a word shows the word to be accented; and when double, thus,
t it shows the word to be emphatic.
A true representation of speech requires that the accent on
every word, even the stress on monosyllables, should be shown;
and if the vowel types are re-duplicated to mark the distinc



LENGTH OF VOWELS.                     19
tion between accent and non-accent, this showing will not only
be easy, but must be done as a matter of necessity, as much
as a iword must be spelt right from necessity.  Such a representation, I believe, will ultimately be adopted; but it is asking
too much to go into it now. Instead of showing the stress by
swelling a part of the letter, putting a dot in a vacant place on
the type so as not to increase its width, may be preferred.
LENGTH OF VOWELS.
32. Two lengths only, the long and the short, have generally
been acknowledged in English.  But from the unsettled condition
of our speech we sometimes find a vowel which it is difficult to
classify.
33. Messrs. Pitman and Ellis make a division of the short
sounds into brief and stopt; the former occupying unaccented
syllables, and ending "smoothly," the latter ending "abruptly,"
being stopt, or cut off by a consonant following in the same syllable. All their stopt vowels are short, and each one as they
suppose, has its mate among the long ones. They seem to consider the distinction between the stopt and brief vowels as of more
consequence than between brief and long, as their six characters for long vowels stand for brief ones too, depending on the
accent to determine to which class they belong. Their three
remaining brief vowels, being very seldom used, are suffered to
take stopt vowel letters, so as to keep the number of characters as
few as possible.
34. I feel a diffidence in raising a point against men who have
exhibited so much keen and careful discrimination, but it certainly appears to me that where a long vowel is succeeded by a
consonant in the same syllable, it is as fully stopt or shut off
by that consonant as a short vowel can be; and that when a
long vowel ends a syllable it expires quietly as much as a short
one. The difference between "expiring quietly" and "stopping"
seems much more theoretical than practical.  As some of my readerls may not be acquainted with their system, I will take as an
example the word indivisibility, instanced by Messrs. Andrews
and Boyle in their " Phonographic Class Book," displaying Pitman's Phonography.  They say, very truly, that "the beginner
would be very likely to use the small dot, [short i] for every
syllable." But they instruct him that the second, fourth, sixth
and seventh syllables are to be written with a heavy dot, (that
is, e long.)  The reason is this: the word is divided into syllables, thus, in-di-vis-i-bil-i-ty; the vowels ending syllables are
brief, the others are stopt; and at the end of each brief vowel




20                   LENGTH OF VOWELS.,a "dieing away" or short halt is made, or should be understood
before commencing the next syllable.  There is no actual halt
made between the syllables, and a change may be made in their
division without producing the least change in the pronunciation
of the word. Notwithstanding the " initial and finaleffects," tile
syllibication of letters does not change their character; and it
is a mere bother to make a circumstance or situation in which
a letter may be placed an inherent quality of the letter itself.
As the old distinction of long and short appears to me tho
more practical and apparent, I shall adopt it.
35. It may appear to the English ear that some sounds, as e and
A, are naturally long; and others, as i in pin, and e, in met, naturally short and abrupt; and that the long and full sounds are what
may be called stationary, and the short ones transitionary, or mere
half-way places. We cannot pass from e to a without going by i.
Let any one utter e, and continuing the voice without faltering,
proceed slowly to a; he will come to an intermediate place, or
sound, which is neither e nor a, but which has precisely the sound
of i in pin. In the same manner he will discover the sound of e
in met, to be between the different sounds of a in cane and care.
So also is short u between au and 5, etc. As these short sounds
are generally stopped in English words, they do not appear to have
the same stationary character as the long. and full ones.  I believe
this appearance arises from our being constantly accustomed to
hear one class of sounds pronounced long,, and others short, and
not from any inherent quality of the sounds themselves.  The
French make their sound in meme, which is nearly our e in met,
long; so also is their sound in deux long, which differs slightly
from our short ii; and I have no doubt these sounds appear to
thetm as stationary,: as do as and 5 to us. I conclude that nature
establishes no determinate sounds, or intervals, or lengths for the
vowels.
36. The length of lette.rs, the time occupied in pronouncing
them, will vary according to the rapidity with which words are
uttered.  The relative lengths are somewhat as follows:  A long
vowel is from once and a half to twice the length of a short one,
and from once to three times the length of a consonant. In the
word stray the vowel is about as long as the three consonants.
The word steam is easily spoken in half a second. It may be divided, as to time, into three parts, thus, st-S-m. This makes s and
t each one-twelfth of a second long, and the e and m each onesixth, and indicates that short vowels are about a twelfth.  A
considerable portion of these times are taken up in changes of
configuration,-in passing from one letter to another.
37. I have noticed foreigners sometimes make longer vowels




DEFINITIONS.                      21
than we do. The prolongation of a sound is easily noted on paper
by adding letters. Thus a sesquilength vowel is shown by putting
a long and a short letter together; a double length sound by two
long ones, etc. The consonants, which, by some, are called continuants, can likewise be drawn out; and if so, may be represented
in a like manner.
DEFINITIONS.
38. A simple vowel is one whose sound remains the same
throughout its utterance; or, what is the same, one which is uttered
while the position of the organs of speech remain unaltered.
While uttering a compound vowel or dipthong, the position of
the organs change, and consequently the sound changes.
A pure vowel is one whose utterance is clear, unattended with
hissing, roughness, or rolling; one free from any peculiarity arising
from the approach of the organs toward a consonant.
An impure vowel is one whose sound is modified by the near
approach of the organs toward a consonant, whether the consonant is heard in the sound or not.
What is called a nasal vowel is one which is uttered while a,
part of the sound from the larynx passes into, or through the
nostrils.
OF THE ENGLISH VOWELS.
39. Orthoepists are not agreed as to the number of simple
vowel sounds which our language contains. The number usually
reckoned before Phonetics became agitated, was twelve, as heard in
1   2  3   4    5  6   7:8  9  10  11   12
eat, in, age, end, at, art, on, all, up, old, fiull, poor;
and four diphthongal sounds as heard in pine, tune, noise, town.
They were divided into long and short; the 1st, 3d, 8th, 10th and
12th simple, and the diphthongal sounds being considered long, and
the others short.
We are just now in search of pure and simple sounds only, and
of these, mature observation has convinced me that we have but
ten which are clearly distinguishable by the sound alone; and that
all these, with two exceptions, are both long and short. My
scheme is shown in the following table. The new characters in
the table are the letters to represent the sounds of the Italic let.
ters in the words opposite to them;




22                     ENGLISH VOWELS.
No. 40.
lNumber.  Form.    As heard in.                 French.
1  Long,'    eve, deep,                       ile, vie,
1  Short,'[   evoke, depart,                   fini,
2  Long,   ~    (pitying,)
2  Short,  4    it, pity,
3  Long,  r    aim, rave,                       fe, j'ai,
3  Short,  r    amuse, ravine,                  sujet ete,
4  Long,  h    (e'er,)                          meme,
4  Short,.   end, sell,                       bee,
a  Long,  It   are, grasp, branch,              faire,
5  Short,   L   at, carry,                      mal,
6  Long,  C    art, calm, father,               dame,
6  Short,  G    market, barrow,                 madame,
7  Long,   P   all, warm, loss, slaughter,      patre,
7  Short,   t    on, got, borrow,               pas, mol,
8  Long,  li  learn, nerve,
8  Short,        up, sun, furrow,               (peu?,)
9  Long,   d    old, hole,                      eau,
9  Short,  d    obey, whole, only, hollow,      mot,
10  Long,   b    ooze, move, pool, too,          joute.
10  Short,  [r  full, put, foot, to,
41. The first sound in my scheme is probably always long when
accented, and when in monosyllables; in unaccentedsyllables, ap
in the examples, it is short. It is true the e, in such cases, is frequently sounded like short i; thus, demand is pronounced as if
written dimmand; but good speakers give to the vowel the same
sound as e long; that is, it is e short, and not i short. The Scotch
generally give this sound first short to i and y in such words as
ability, city; and the short i in French has always this sound.
42. I believe we have no word in which the second sound is
long. We make it pretty closely by putting two short i's together,
as in carrying, rallying; but in these cases there is, theoretically,
an intermission of sound between the vowels, so as as to break
them into two syllables,, and therefore they should be written with




ENGLISH VOWELS.                     23
two short i's, and not one long one. I have noticed Germans
make this sound long in asking for myrrh.
43. The third sound, like the first, was formerly thought to be
always long, but like it, it is short when ending unaccented syllables, as lament, Sunday. We have properly, as I think, no words
wherein the fourth sound, is long, unless the one in the table.
Some modern Phoneticians, however, have provided it with a character to be used in earth, etc. That sound long is common in
French; and there may be some districts in England where it is
given to care, pair, etc.
44. Mr. Joseph E. Worcester, in his Dictionary, among other
sounds for a, has one for fat, man, carry; another for fare, pair,
bear; and still another for fast, branch, grasp. As far as I
have noticed, people very generally speak these words all alike,
as to the \sound, only making fat, man, carry, short, and the
others long. The difference in length has been mistaken, I believe, by many orthoepists, as it has been by myself, for a difference in sound.  The a in fat, pan, and carry, is short; in' fast,
pant and care it is the same sound lengthened.  There are a
few, however, in this country, and I suppose more in England
who do pronounce grasp, &c., a shade broader, approaching a
in father.  But is it politic to establish a distinction which is
perfectly useless, which the multitude does not countenance, and
which is too slight to be generally noticed when made? An
Alphabet made for the people of all nations must be simple and
short; and its distinctions broad enough to be obvious to the
dullest intellects. Nice discriminations and shades of difference
would be not only entirely unnecessary and out of place, but
would be great impediments to the introduction and use of the
alphabet. And if words should be made to depend for their
meanings on such discriminations, the mischief would be immensely increased.
45. The foregoing observations will also apply to my seventh
sound. Awning, naught and caught are long; on, not and cot are
short. Some persons may give the long vowels a deeper intonation, but the difference they would make is entirely too slight to
found a distinction on, as to the sound alone. If you pronounce
naught short enough it will be not.




24                    ENGLISH VOWELS.
46. I believe the eighth sound is short in all cases where it is not
followed by r, and in some cases where it is, as in the word hurry.
In fervid, burn, and such words it seems to be long, and is generally considered so; but a question may be raised whether the
u in these cases is not really short, and its apparent length due,to dwelling on the liquid r; or rather on the impure vowel
sound between the pure fi and r. (See impures Nos. 57, &c.)
47. The ninth sound is most evidently short as well as long,
even  in monosyllables, though not marked so in the dictionaries. Every good speaker in this country makes a manifest difference between hole and whole, known and none, quote and coat;
while he equally avoids the Yankeeism of saying hull for whole, or
stun for stone.  This short o in whole and stone is what Mr.
Ellis would call a stopt o; but he does not acknowledge it in
English: he acknowledges the brief o.
48. I am aware that in my last number, as well as in the fifth
and seventh, I have brought together two vowels which are made
to differ frequently in sound as well as in length. The sound
we often hear given to full, if prolonged, does not become fool,
but is more open.  The difference is so small, however, that if
we shorten the latter sound it seems to coalesce with the former.
The sound we often hear spoken in wood, hoop, &c., is identical
with the longer one in fool, &c. So that the distinction in
these two classes of words should be attributed to difference of
length and not of sound.
All the above vowels are here considered as being strictly simple, that is, as having no variation of sound during their utterance.
Some speakers do make a slight diphthongal or cadential ending to
a few of the long vowels. Of these I shall speak in another place.
49. This scheme, then, presents ten pure and simple vowels,
each clearly disting.uishable from the others, while yet they are
so close together that a sound cannot be interposed between any
two adjoining ones without confusion. I would make these vowels
the standard not only for our language, but for others. And
where a shade's difference is to be noted between one of our
vowels and a foreign one, letit be done by some nob, or variation of the figure.  Foreign impure vowels -will come under a
different category.




25
NASALITY.
50. If, during the utterance of a vowel, a part of the sound
from the larynx is sent through the nostrils, that ipart is called
a nasal sound, in contradistinction to that from the mouth, which is
called oral. Both sounds taken together are called orinasal, and
have been frequently, though improperly, called nasal. The two
sounds are readily distinguished by the ear.  The; nasal sound
proper is variable by intonation, but not by vocality. A subnasalism, or sound in the nasal cavities can also be produced when
the nostrils are closed. All the oral sounds, pure, impure, and
diphthongal, and the sounding consonants, may be combined with
nasality. In fact there is usually a slight vibration of sound in
the nasal cavities in pronouncing our common vowels, and the
sounding (tonic) consonants, as we can discover by holding the
nose, and thereby interrupting the sound and producing a nasal
twang.
51. We want no new letters to represent nasal vowels as they
are called; but either some simple badge attached to the vowel
letters, or a simple and uniform modification of their forms, to
indicate that nasal sound is to be superadded. Although the nasal
mark belongs to the letter itself, and should be considered a part
of it, yet as it would be expensive and inconvenient to have
another set of types for such vowels, I have adopted the plan
of representing them by a square dot, or short upright mark on
a separate type to be placed to the right of, and in juxtaposition
to the letter, and at the same hight, thus'.
52. I know of no language, but the French, which uses this
kind of vowels. They h-ave four, as heard in their words fin,
chant, brun and bon. And as these four are all the nasal vowel
letters now needed, they may be accommodated.with separate type
having the nasal marks in the vacant places, thus,;7'  ~.
53. I have seen some blundering descriptions.of these French
nasalized vowels, even to confounding them with the nasal consonants.  There is no difficulty, as I believe, in maki:ng them plain
to the comprehension of those who have never heard them.  The
letters m, n, and ng, are p, t, and k, with nasal sound added.
This sound commences with the consonant and ends with it. It
belongs to the consonant alone. But the French nasal vowel




26                  DEEPENED SOUNDS.
sound belongs to the vowel alone. It begins and ends with it, and
there is no consonant after it. Take our word fan; it has three
elements, f, a, n. The last one, however, might be called a double
element, as it is t with nasal sound added. But the a is precisely the same in fan as in fat. It is not nasal in either. Now,
if you pronounce the first two elements, f, a, with a full, strong
voice, at the same time letting a part of the a sound pass through
your nose, you pronounce the French word fin; and that is all
there is of it.
DEEPENED SOUNDS.
54. While the particular configuration of the organs by which
any vowel, (e for example,) is formed, remains the same, or nearly
so, the posterior cavity of the mouth may be deepened, and the
palate drawn further back. These changes will have the effect of
deepening the sound without changing its main characteristics;
and while the tone or key note remains the same. That a deepened sound is not a depression of tone is made evident from this,
that singers often deepen their sounds as above indicated, while
they must of course accord in tone with those singing with them.
Vowels are often deepened in speaking, and no attention paid to
the difference. Many teamsters tell their horses to steady or stop,
simply by a heavy, prolonged, deepened sound.
55. The French sound in je me, which by some is supposed to
be the same as u in tub, is, or was originally, I have no doubt, the
deepened sound of e in met. The same sound is frequently given
to our the when spoken rapidly. The sound in les mes j'avais, etc.,
I believe to be the deepened sound of 6, but it is difficult to distinguish it from the sound of e in met lengthened.
56. The barytone or deepened sound is denoted in a way similar
to the nasal, with this difference, that the stroke, instead of being
upright, is to incline in the direction I.  Thus the sound in je
would be Hi. This barytone mark may be on a separate type; or
if the two French sounds r and h are all that are to be shown as
deepened, let this showing be done by putting the marks on the
same type in the vacant places, thus R,.




27
IMPURE VOWELS.
57. Under the head of impure vowels, I include all such as have
their sounds modified by the near approach of the organs to the
configuration of one of the sounding consonants, namely, w, v, dh,
z, y, zh, r, 1.
58. It is evident, not only that such sounds can be made, but
that we are constantly, though unconsciously, giving them utterance while speaking; for the transition of the configuration of
the organs for one letter to the configuration for another, can not
be instantaneous, consequently, as there is a continuous issue of
voice during the change, there must, of course, be a continuous
change of sound; or, in other words, there must be a continuous
series of sounds, ranging from  one fixed configuration to the
other, each sound indefinitely short, and varying in an indefinitely
small degree from the next. Wherefore, if in passing from a
vowel to a consonant, or vice versa, we arrest the change about
half way, and continue the sound, we shall find it neither a proper
vowel or consonant.
59. We want no character to denote the mere passing from one
letter to another. It is only when a go-between sound is dwelt upon
that we need one. And then the form of the character should
partake of, or combine the forms of, the letters it is between.
60. There are three impures Which extensive use has rendered
important. These are the only ones I shall make characters for.
The fiat is the sound commonly given to er at the end of English
words. This is an impure between u in up and r. Premising that
my letter for r will be r, the combined letter formed according to
the above suggestions, will be,
61. The French u, as in vu, is an impure between' and w.
The Germans have the same sound in fiber, and the same shortened in hiitte. Any one who has not heard the sound can pronounce it by fixing his lips as if to whistle, and then trying to
sound e. Premising that w will be shaped thus I', the form of
this letter will be I.  As frequently spoken, this sound would
be better represented by d,that is, i as in pin, and w.
62. The other impure is the French eu as in feu. This sound
is f, or the deepened e in met modified by w; but the lips are




28 -              VARIATIONS OF SOUND, ETC.
not brought so closely together as in speaking i. The figure for
this sound is \.
VARIATIONS OF SOUND.-DIPHTHONGS.
63. In the ordinary concurrence of two sounds in a word, as in
create, going, react, each is sounded at full length, and there is no
stop or drawing -off of the voice at the end of the first, until the
organs are put in position for the second; but the voice continues
throughout the transition. The same, too, in the transition from
a vowel to a consonant, and from a consonant to a vowel. These
transitions, however, are made so rapidly that the vocal sounds
uttered during them, are not- appreciated. Thus, in the word
going we appear to hear only the sounds o and i, and nothing
between them. But it is evident there is a curved sound, as it
were, or an indefinite number of indefinitely short sounds made
between them. (See No. 58.) In all these cases, the two vowels
thus associated are considered as perfectly distinct, and are to be
described (written) simply by their two vowel letters.  I shall
call them adjoining vowels, to distinguish them from what I shall
now describe as diphthongs.
64. A diphthong proper differs from adjoining vowels in this,
that instead of the two simple beginning and ending sounds being
the only ones heard, they are shortened up so as scarcely to be
heard at all, while the intervening ones, (the curved sound,) form
the prominent feature of the combination. The' reader will see
that a diphthong is not a blending of two sounds into one uniform
sound, as two colors may be so mixed as to become one, for this
can not be done; but it is the passing from one sound to another.
65. An obvious mode of expressing any diphthong whatever, is
to write it by its continents, the outside letters, with some uniform
sign attached to them, or change in them, to show that they are
not simple vowels, but slides. I adopt the plan of showing a
letter to be a slide by separating it by a cut in two places, taking
care not to mutilate it so but that the figure can be readily recognized. Examples will be seen in what follows. By this simple
contrivance all diphthongs, and triphthongs too, by using three
letters, may be described..66. The theoretical number of possible diphthongs is equal to the




VARIATIONS OF SOUND, ETC.                  29
number of permutations of two letters each, which can be made
with the simple vowel letters.  A very few out of this great number, however, can ever be of any practical service.  The others
can not be distinguished to the ear from short adjoining vowels..
67. There are, in English, four generally acknowledged diphthongs. These are i, oi, -i, and ou.
I is spoken variously with the continents' ~,'1, and  " ~.
It appears to me that?' are the usual ones; but the first is
difficult to determine, because the slide commences with the inception of the sound, and goes rapidly to I, where there is a momentary stop.  As Mr. Ellis, and others, take' for the first
continent, I shall adopt their view. The proper expression of the
diphthong, then, according to the foregoing plan of notation, is; ~, that is, the first continent divided, the other not.  a
68. The German ei, is the same as the above. Their ai has for
its continents    1:, and yet it is quite a different sound, for the
reason that they dwell on the first, and not on the last continent.
The Greek alpha iota and the Latin X (ae,) are probably like it.
The German eu sounds something like our i, but the mouth is less
open.  Its first continent is' or r, its last the French ft.
69. Our oi, (in toil, boy,) is very like a double vowel.  The
continents are r I, and like the German ai, the first one is dwelt
on before sliding toward the last.  Its proper expression is r I.
70. The continents of a (as in new,) are I [j, the last one
slightly dwelt on.  Its proper- expression then is ~ L,.'When u is
sounded as in use, (yu-se,) there is;, of: course, a y before it..
71. The proper continents of our: diphthong onu are either; |J
or? I. In some paorts'of New'England' the Sound.is flattened
into h ).  The last continent is a little dwelt on, and -sometimes
the fiist.  The b'est expres`sion, I uppose,. is;i i[.
72. These founr, (i, oi, u and ou,) I propose to furnish with single
characters.
The horizonrtal and curved parts of the vowel marks being the
most essential in designating their sounds, we- will call their characteristics. By combining the. characteristics- for- the continents
of i, and retaining the upright part common to both, we have the
form  ~:. A:nd this wouild be, the proper single character for i, but
for the consideration that the characteristic for the first continent




30               VARIATIONS OF SOUND, ETC.
comes at the bottom and at the right hand of the figure, and
hence appears to be the last end of it; and in writing it would
be the last part written, instead of the first. To obviate this
defect I place the first characteristic at the top, and then comes
the following figure q, which I adopt for the sound of i.
73. The characteristics for the continents of oi, and the vowel
post common to both, when combined, form -I, which is adopted
for that sound.
74. The characteristics and post for the continents of -a combined make 1), which is adopted.
75. The combination of the characteristics for ou produce  j.
By writing the first letter in full and adding the upward turn for
the last, we have the figure j. Either would answer; but as these
figures are not so compact, I prefer to adopt for the first continent
of the dipthong, the broader sound'.  As the slide should start
with the sound, the difference is hardly perceptible. This gives
the diphthong the figure G.
76. As an easy way of expressing two of the values of our u,
I have put two compound vowels in my full alphabet. The first is
the diphthong u preceded by y, as in use, unit; and the same when
unaccentedcl, as in unite, gradual. The figure for this is the oo to
which the horizontal portion of a y is prefixed, thus'l. The other
letter is the short u preceded by y, as in fortune. The figure for
this is -.
77. Diphthongs are usually spoken in the same time as. long
vowels. They are somewhat shortened up when unaccented, as
will be noticed in speaking the words dire, direct, dure, duress.
Like simple vowels, they can be shown to be short by narrowing
the letters.
78. Mr. Pitman, in his recent publications, discards all double
letters.*  He even writes the foregoing diphthongs by two letters
each. We cannot ask an Englishman to come here to learn how
to pronounce his own language, but we can say the separate
sounds in en, in, put together in Mr. Pitman's mein make some* Since this was prepared for the press I have seen a November
number of the Phonographic Review.  On the inside of the cover
is the Alphabet, in which i, oi and ou have single characters; the
u is made by two. This is probably the latest English arrangement.




CADENCE AND DIPHTHONGALISM OF SOUND, ETC.        31
thing widely different from our mine: so does his two sounds of.
o u make something different from our ou. I think Mr. Pitman
has not sufficiently studied the distinction which should be made
between adjoining vowels and a diphthong, (See Nos. 63 and 64.)
Adjoining vowels always make two syllables; a diphthong is never
cut into two. This consideration alone shows that two vowel letters not marked as slides, cannot properly represent a diphthong.
A diphthong is not two sounds, but one compound sound; and
therefore there seems to be a propriety in representing it by one
letter compounded of the letters for the principal sounds heard
in it.
79. I leave the fixing foreign diphthongs to others better acquainted with them. There can be no necessity for augmenting
characters for such; for all diphthongs whatever can be correctly
and exactly expressed by the modes I have described. What I
have attempted, (and what I think I have succeeded in,) is to furnish such principles and directions, that any person, who is acquainted with the sounds of a language, can write them with
accuracy; and any person who has never heard them can read
them thus written, and speak them aright.
CADENCE, AND DIPHTHONGALISM OF LONG VOWELS.
80. We frequently hear a kind of secondary effort in pronouncing long vowels, and sometimes, too, in pronouncing short ones
at the end of a sentence. With some speakers it is a cadence,
or tapering off, produced simply by a depression of tone. With
others it is a change of sound, a sliding of voice, forming a kind of
diphthongal ending to the main sound. This is practiced more in
England than in America. Here, I believe, it is regarded as a
patois. This way of speaking changes e into ei, a into ai, or e,
6 into 5-oo. In the original Saxon, (once written more Phonetically than at present,) it is probable that such words as may, (like
joy,) had a diphthongal ending, which was expressed by the letter
y. More rarely we hear a softener at the beginning of a vowel.
Thus garden is changed into gyarden.
81. It is not my business to approve or disapprove of these
slides; but to show how they may he expressed. The directions
for diphthongs, No. 65, will cover all these cases. For example, if
I. wish to show a diphthongal ending to the word may, I add the
slide for i to the long a, (thus r 1.) If I wish to show my pronunciation of guard to be gyard, I put in the sliding. before the a;




32                    OBSCURE VOWELS.
or if I wish to show it still stronger than that will make it, I put
in the letter for y.
Diphthongalism among nasals, and deepened and impure vowels,
and changes from either to pure, or the contrary, may generally
be managed according to the foregoing directions.
OBSCURE VOWELS.
82. The momentary, dull or subtonic sounds frequently heard
in short unaccented syllables, where the speaker passes rapidly
from consonant to consonant, paying no attention to the sounds
he utters between them, have been termed obscure, (because no
clear sound is heard,) and have been a perplexity to orthoepists
and phonographers, on account of their indefiniteness.  A proper
case of this kind is where there is a sound uttered which is not
due to the consonants themselves, and yet no clear vowel is uttered. The reader, by noticing what is said in No. 58, will be
able to understand how it is, that a change of configuration from
one letter to another, with a constant emission of sound between
them, can take place, and yet no clear, definite vowel sound be
uttered. For in no part of the change is there a configuration of
the organs free from approximation to a consonant, and therefore
the sound, or any portion of it, is impure, and bears more the
character of a subtonic than a tonic.
83. Extreme precision in representing these sounds would require characters for them, composed of their containing consonants, (continents,) somewhat after the manner described for
diphthongs, (No. 65.)  But such niceties are inadmissible in a
practical alphabet.
84. It should be borne in mind that the written form of a word
should present the clear, full, deliberate utterance of it. In most
instances of these obscure sounds, therefore, the proper short
vowel representing the short sound of the Roman letter by which
the sound is now written, should be used. Such, if there should
be any, which cannot be written with proper vowels, might be
practically represented by an obscure vowel mnark, thus shaped 3.
This sign would not represent a definite sound, but represent
that the sound to come in at that place is short, unaccented and
indefinite.




CONSONANTS.                       33
85. There are other cases where the sounds are entirely, or
almost entirely, suppressed; as between pn in open, sn in chosen,
pl in apple, vr in over.  Such cases Mr. Ellis writes with an
apostrophe, thus, op'n, cat'l. In these cases, that is, where there
is an entire suppression of all intervening sound, except the subtones properly belonging to the consonants, I would prefer to
write neither vowel mark nor apostrophe; for if we obey strictly
the phonetic principle, we must make no mark for a sound where
there is none. I do not condemn the apostrophe, if by it is signified that there has been, or should be, a sound there, which is not
now uttered; though it can hardly be necessary to give the reader
such information every time the word is written.
I would use the apostrophe only to signify the possessive case,
and the contraction of a word; thus I would write M'r instead of
Mr. for Mister.
CONSONANTS.
A TABLE of the Simple Consonants Systematically Arranged;
with Analogical Forms.
Gingival, or Palatal, or
No. 86.            Labial.   Linguigin- Linguipal   Guttural.
gival.     atal.
Atoni  p          t     (   k      (   h
o -  Tonic,         2.  b     L   d      C   g?b    Nasitonic,    )-  m          n          ng
u ( Atonic,         )\  ph         th     C   oh         h
Tonic,           vh         dh         gh
m{ {Atonic,         }   f            C   sh    (   hi
Tonic,            -v         z          zh
3




84                       CONSONANTS.
TIHE CONSONANTS ARRANGED IN TABULAR FORM.
87. This table, (No. 86,) I believe comprises all the proper consonants that can be uttered.  Some of them  will run into each
other, and of course many variations can be made; but I think
these are all that should legitimately be called simple consonants.
As with the vowels, so also with these, Mr. Ellis makes out a far
greater number than I do. This is owing to his making distinctions where there are but small differences. Thus, beside the soft
breathing, which is not heard as breathing at all, otherwise than
as sound, he has five others, (p. 39 and 40,) differing principally
in the force of their enunciation, all of which are symbolized by
the letter h. The hamza, (to be explained No. 100,) he divides
into the break, and hiatus, which is an " exaggerated break."
88. The letters of the table taken vertically, are divided into
four classes, each column being a class. The letters of the first,
(the Labial class,) are made by the lips, or lips and upper teeth.
Those of the second class, (Gingival,) are formed by the tongue
and gums back of the upper teeth. Those of the third, (the Palatal,) are formed further back in the mouth, by the tongue and
palate, or roof of the mouth. And the fourth class, (Guttural,)
farthest back of all.
89. Considered horizontally, the letters are grouped under the
names of close, rough and soft. The close letters have been
called explodents; the others whispered and spoken, consonants,
liquids, etc.
90. All the consonants are either atonic or tonic.  The tonics
are all oritonic, except the three nasitonics. By atonic letters I
mean such as are whispered. They are without sound or tone in
themselves; and by tonic letters I mean such as are accompanied
by a sound or subsound. It is well known- that most of our consonants are divisible into; pairs of letters, or couples, having the
same articulation, and differing from each other only in the above
respect.
91. There can be no resemblance between a spoken letter and
its representative on paper. The two are essentially and totally
different.  We can not paint a sound.  The letters that we use,
as -to their shapes, are taken arbitrarily to represent the: spoken




elements.  The most direct way of representing a spoken letter,
is to make a pictorial sketch of the situation of the organs in
uttering it. This can only be done with respect to. the consonants, or some of them. The vowel sounds must still have arbitrary representatives.  The sketching would be done thus: a
sectional view of the lips closed would denote p. If sound was
represented by an arrow-head, the closed lips and the arrow-head
inside of them pointing toward the closure, would stand for b)
(i. e. p plus sound.)  The arrow-head pointing upward toward the
nostrils, with the lips closed, would signify m. The lips slightly
parted would indicate ph, (not f.)- The arrow-head added, p:ointing to the opening, would show vh.  The lips protruding, open,
and the arrow-head would show w. A section of the upper teeth
and gum, with the tip of the tongue against the gum, would be t,
etc. Such drawings can never become practical letters without
simplifying them so much as to destroy the resemblance between
the picture and the letter.
92. But there is another basis for constructing letters, which I
should wish to have carried out, did not other considerations imperiously forbid it; and that is to assume some simple geometric
forms for simple principles, and always use; them for such.  On
this basis I have formed the characters in the foregoing table, No..86, so as to make them  analogical representatives of the consonants, to show the relationship existing between them.- They are
not to be the common printing letters, which must be more simple,
better looking, and more in harmony with the writing letters.
These will be shown in the- table No. 104.
93. To form the Table No. 86, I assume the figures ), 1-, (,
and <, for characteristics of the four classes, (No. 88,) and assume a short, horizontal mark for tonicity; at'the bottom  of' the
characteristic for oral,- at the middle for nasal; and assume an
oblique mark for breath.  With these the whole table is made, as
will be seen by the following description.
94. The first class has the mark ) for its- characteristic.  The
atonic p, the simplest letter of all, is this mark alone.  The addition of the oritonic mark- to this letter, thus,.., makes b, (i. e;
p plus sound.)  The addition of the nasitonie mark, thus, )~-;
makes m, (i. e. p plus nasal sound.)  The audible passage of air




36                       CONSONANTS.
through the lips makes the letter ph, unknown in our language.
We have, it is true, the digraph ph, (as in the word digraph,)
but we pronounce it the same as f. The letter ph is supposed to
be the Greek s phi. It can scarcely be distinguished by the ear
from our f, which is produced by passing air between the under
lip and upper teeth. As the ph is p plus passing breath, it was
originally denoted by adding h, the rough aspirate to p. It is
symbolized in the table by an oblique stroke started from near the
top of the characteristic, and drawn in a downward direction.
95. The ph has two tonics.  The proper one, vh, is also unknown in our language. It is used in Germany,- and by some
Germans for our w.e  This letter ( =ph + tone,) is, of course,
formed from ph by adding the tone mark. The other tonic for ph,
which may be called its casual tonic, is our w, and is a variation
of the vh. In speaking the w there is a slight protrusion of the
lips, and an effort toward making the opening between them circular.  The whiz of the vh is scarcely heard in the w, while the tone
is a deeper murmur resembling the sound oo, closer, of course,
than the pure vowel, but so plain as to make it the main feature
of the letter.  It is, as it were, a concrete oo.
96. The attempt to pronounce e with the lips fixed for w produces the impure French u, the concrete of which is vh.  This
concrete may vary in a slight degree from the ordinary vh, (which
has the edges of the lips close to the teeth,) but not more than
many other letters are capable of varying without changing their
names.
97. A change in the manner of passing breath through the lips,
making f, is indicated by a change in the direction of the oblique
mark, thus'. Its tonic v is ).
98. This explanation of the formation of the first class will do
for the whole, for in a similar manner are the letters of the other
classes formed from their characteristics.
99. I have sufficiently explained the letters of the first column
while speaking of their relationships; some of the others will
need a few words. The letter marked th is heard in thin: its
tonic, dh, is heard in this.  The nasitonic of k, ng, is heard in
sing. The letter indicated by ch is not in our language, but common in the German and some others. The English scholar may




CONSONANTS.                       37
know it by its being the asperate of k, ( = k + breath.) Like ph,
it has two tonics. The proper one, gh, is heard in the German
selig, koenig.  The casual one is our y. The ch, like some other
letters, is capable of considerable variation. When preceded by a
low vowel, as in the German buch, it is more guttural than when
preceded by a higher one, as Ich.  The tonic of the most guttural
one is always gh. The tonic of the high-one is y, (as in yet,) and
this is the concrete e. The soft atonic of k is heard in shall; the
soft tonic in azure, vision.
100. The mute guttural marked hc, is produced by closing
down the epiglottis, or top of the windpipe.  It is uttered in
coughing, in groaning, and very forcibly when the breath, having
been pent up during exertion, is suddenly and audibly let loose.
A cough is a spasmodic effort of this kind. Mr. Ellis says this is
the Arabic hamza. His own name is "the break," and when
strongly expressed, "the hiatus."  He gives an example of its
use by a London Cockney, as follows, the colon standing for the
hamza or hiatus: "On  iz hone: ee neve: saw e: ous like this ere:ous, neve:," [ On his honor he never saw a house like this here
house, never.] The hamza can be spoken about as easily and as
distinctly as the other mutes, and hence it is a good letter. I
have heard several persons use it occasionally in place of t or c,
apparently because they were too lazy to pronounce the proper
letter. As the closure of this letter is formed just over the larynx,
and below the openings into the nostrils, it has no corresponding
tonic and nasitonic letters.
101. H is the true asperate of the above letter he, and hence
it is a proper letter, (which some have doubted.)  It is the audible
passing of breath through the epiglottis, and along the upper passages, and mouth, unobstructed by other letters. It can be uttered
at the beginning and end of vowels, and before and after consonants. It is often necessary to the full pronunciation of a mute
or close letter; as in the word oft, pronounced oft-h; and in such
cases it has been called a post whisper.  The letter h, (explosive
breath,) has to follow the mute, to indicate to the ear of the
hearer the kind of mute used. Breath only is frequently used in
place of a short and obscure vowel. Thus the word often is fre



38                      CONSONANTS.
quently pronounced oft-hn; sometimes it is shortened into of'n.
The Irish put the h into a multitude of words.
102. The letter r is placed in the table as being the tonic of h.
It does not seem to be very properly so, tho' it is the only tonic
the h has. The atonic of the common r seems to be a guttural
somewhat between h and ch, a very rough breathing. The trilled
or asperated r is not properly a simple consonant. Its asperation
can be shown by putting an h before it, or by a double letter
shaped thus, C7.
103. To pronounce 1 the tongue must be in contact with the
roof of the mouth, while sound passes by the sides of it. It is
the purest specimen we can get of laryngal sound unmodified by
reverberation in the mouth. The letter I have marked hl in the
table, that is, the proper atonic of 1, is, of course, a passing of
breath instead of sound, while the organs remain the same as for
i. It is difficult to pronounce this hl in connexion with a vowel
without sounding 1 between them. The Welsh 11 is not this atonic
1, as it is said to be. I have had several Welshmen pronounce
their 11 for me, and they made it the same as ch, (which they also
have,) except that it is still more guttural. The table begins with
p, the most external and close atonic, and ends with 1, the most
internal, open, and soft tonic.
104. The table which follows has the letters in their proper
shapes in place of their analogical characters in Table No. 86.
In this table every letter stands in its proper place, classifiel by
the heading at the top, and described by the words at the: left
hand side.




ANOMALIES.                      39
A TABLE of the Simple Consonants Systematically Arranged.
Gingival, or Palatal, or
No. 104.          Labial.   Linguigin- Linguipal  Guttural.
gival.    atal..              0 "I   0( ~.,   -             C  i  -
Atonic,             p                               hc    | 
i JTonic,               b         dl       gli
Nasitonic,   w               7             r
fAtonic,            fh    2 h                       h i 
LTonic,         y          wdh            gli
Tonic,   Vv                         g zh U 1
ANOMALIES.
105. I have already said that several of the consonants will run
together, and that anomalous sounds can be pronounced between
two proper letters. It would seem to be not only unnecessary,
but in bad taste, for a language to make use of such sounds when
we have; such an abundance of proper letters already furnished;
for if a language were to be made comprising a thousand times
the number of words in any present one, the present list of simple
vowels and consonants would be amply sufficient for it. But as
my system  may appear defective, unless it can write all the
sounds of the principal European tongues, I must notice such as I
know to be in use.




:40                      ANOMALIES.
106. The French gn Liquid. Perhaps the nearest we can come
to agneau with the English power of our letters, is ang-nyo; but
this is not precisely the thing. From the specimens I have heard
of this liquid, gn, I believe the following to be a true analysis of
it. If the reader will pronounce n, (en,) in the usual way, putting the fore part of the tongue to the upper gums, and afterwards
pronounce it with the tip of the tongue on the lower gums, while
the middle portion of it only is in contact with the upper gums,
or roof of the mouth, he will perceive a manifest difference of
sound, though the last is evidently n. If, keeping the fore part
of the tongue down, he makes the contact between the tongue and
roof further, and then still further back, he will come to a point
where the sound appears no longer as n, but as ng. Now this gn
I believe to be a mongrel engendered between the letters ng and
n. Most of those I have had to pronounce it for me, have worked
it as though they had a thick tongue, making a continuous contact with the roof of the mouth from  ng to n. Sometimes I
would hear a slight g before the nasal. The break of the contact, supposing a vowel to follow, would commence on the ng side,
making the sound slide slightly toward n; but finishing the break
in such a betweenity that a slight y must necessarily follow before the succeeding vowel could be pronounced.
The figure of this half-way letter, then, should be something
between the form of ng and n, as this, }(.
107. The French 11 Liquid, or -ille. Possibly the reader has
listened for half an hour to a French master showing him that
sometimes these letters are pronounced so, and so -, (giving examples in French words,) and sometimes they are not pronounced at all, so. And in following his guide in the latter
case he may have been puzzled to make out he had such a pudding
in his mouth, that, with his best efforts toward the utterance of an
1, he could not accomplish it. Nor could he see clearly into the
reason given, why he should try to pronounce a letter as it were,
and yet omit to pronounce it at the same time. In the former
case he may have astonished his teacher at the close of the lecture, by what, to him, seemed a plain question, enunciated in
something like this form:- "If you make an 1 out of an 1 at all,
why don't you let it stay an 1?"
This peculiar 1 seems to have originated like gn, from a thick
tongue, or from great carelessness in speaking. In pronouncing
it the tongue is flattened out more than for 1; the root of the
tongue is brought closer to the roof of the mouth, while the tip is
retracted. The "liquid" is preceded by i, (=e in English,)
which is compressed into a y, and is forced along a straightened
passage where several gutturals seem to be struggling for birth.
Among them, sometimes, something like, an 1 actually escapes,




DOUBLE LETTERS.                      41
and sometimes it almost does it. In ordinary talk there is no 1
spoken.  The e slides into its concrete, y, and the syllable ends
there. The next syllable begins with y; the two y's being equal
in length to a long vowel.
Form. The form of the unpronounced 1 I must leave to be
fixed by the man that painted the angel out of sight. The liquid
1 being something between y and 1, or a passing from y to 1 may
be shaped thus, -U.
108. Lisping, (lithping,) is the production of a mongrel between the clear sibilant s and the rough th. It is used for s by
those who can not speak the letter plainly; and as it is considered
a defect, it needs no letter.
DOUBLE LETTERS.
109. By a double letter, I mean a single type or figure which
represents two letters, as the Roman letter j, as pronounced by us
includes the letters d and zh. It is quite convenient, and almost
necessary for us to have letters for the four diphthongal vowels;
but besides them, we can do without any such combinations in printing and round hand writing; in which I think it best not to use
them at present. I do not, however, seek to influence the question whether they shall ultimately be employed. A few will be
necessary in brief writing.
110. Some phoneticians insert tsh and dzh, (j,) in their alphabets. If put in mine, their genesis will be as follows. The tsh is
sh, (6,) with the stem turned down horizontally, and a portion of
the circular part made straight and upright to represent t, thus,
A-.  The round writing letter is A,  and the short letter, o —.
The printing letters ^d and zh joined together and slightly
changed make y; this is the printing j.  The round writing letter is 9, the d part being commenced from the bottom. But to
join easily to a preceding letter, the lower part of this d must be
left off; and to maintain a proper discrimination between the
remaining portion of the letter and y, (rb 7,) the loop or small
circle must not be omitted. This loop and the circular, portion
immediately joining it, form the short hand letter q.




42
CAPITALS, ITALICS, VARIETIES AND STYLES OF LETTERS.
111. Capital letters, as they are called, or letters larger and
having different shapes friom those in the body of the writing and
printing, have been used since very early times in the history of
writing, for headings of discourses, for the first word or first letter
of a sentence, and first letter in many other words. It is not
much over a century since English printers commenced every substantive word with a capital; and our grammars now contain definite rules for their use.  These letters add to the variety, and
probably, somewhat to the beauty of a writing, but beyond this
there is but little utility in them. They are seldom or never used
to change or settle the meaning of a word. Proper pointing will
always show where a sentence ends: a capital will show where one
begins. But is such showing necessary? The first word of a discourse or chapter is frequently put in capitals, and the first letter
of that word in a large capital, as much as to say, Here the chapter commences. The fancy is still kept up in some publications of
making this big letter ornamental, and sometimes of enclosing it in a
cartoon or case, entirely separated from the other parts of the word.
112. The universal use of capitals in connection with lower case
letters, causes them to be regarded as essentials, rather than embellishments; and a scheme of writing which would dispense with
them would be greatly prejudiced thereby.
113. Many styles of letters, varying from each other in their
thickness, in the projections from their corners, in their ornaments,
etc., will be in use: and it will do no harm to call one of these
styles capital, and another lower case letters. And both of these
styles may be made leaning, and then they may be called or
answer for Italic capital and lower case letters.
114. In conformity with this usage of two sorts of letters in a
writing, and in order that it can be carried out in my scheme, I
put two sorts or styles in my alphabet; the first to be called capital or head letters, because they are put at the heads of discourses,
sentences and words; and the other, body letters, because they
constitute the body of the writing. Leaning letters and ornamental styles will also be made, together with round writing or script
type, and short writing type. So we can have plenty of variety.




'THE FULL ALPHABET.                   43
115. The capital printing letters are all of the same height.
The body printing vowels are the same height as the capitals, but
the body consonants are only two-thirds of that height. The
writing capitals and body vowels are the same height, and double
that of the body consonants. Writing capitals are essentially the
same as the writing body letters, but made larger, heavier, and with
flourishes. Short vowels are double the height of short consonants. For the mode of expressing capitals and italics in short
writing, see No. 136.
116. The following proportions of parts may serve for common
printing letters.
Capital Vowels and Consonants and Body Vowels to be six parts high.
The height of Body Consonants to be four parts;
The width of Long Vowels to be three parts;
do.  of Short  do. to be two   do.
do.  of Capital Consonants to be four parts;
do.  of Body       do.   to be three do.
The swelled parts of Capitals to be one part thick;
do.         of Body Letters to be two-thirds that of Capitals;
The thin portions of Letters to be half, (or one-third,) the thickness of the swelled portions.
The horizontal projection on the ends of the letters to be the- same
thickness as the thin parts of the letters, and to project
equal to, (or once and a half,) the thickness,
THE FULL ALPHABET.
117. The letters we have heretofore described being collected in
consecutive order, present ten long and ten short simple vowels,
four English diphthongs, two compound diphthongs, ya and yi,
(and as many more diphthongs and compounds as you please,)
four French nasal vowels, (and all the other vowels nasalized, if
need be,) two, (or more,) deepened vowels, three, (or more,) impure vowels, two mongrels, twenty-eight simple consonants, and
two, (or any other number of,) double consonants.
118. The lithographic plate headed "' The Full Alphabet, Plate
No. 1," has a vertical double line running to the bottom, dividing
the plate into nearly equal parts. On the left hand side are the
vowels; on the right, the consonants. At the top of the first




44           PRACTICAL ALPHABET FOR ENGLISH.
column on the left, after the heading, the reader will see the number " 1 1," meaning the 1st sound long, with the word "eel," having
that sound in it. On the same line in the next column are the
capital and body printing letters for that sound, in the third column the capital and body round writing letters, and in the fourth
column the short writing letter. In the next line, immediately
below "1 1," is "1 s," meaning 1st sound short, with a word having
that sound in it, the- letter indicating the sound being in Italic;
and on the same line, in the proper columns, are the printing and
round and short writing letters for that sound. In the.third line,
is " 2 1," that is, second sound long; but as we have no words
with that sound long in it, the place for a word is vacant; the letters for that sound, however, follow  on the same line. Then
comes " 2 s in," and on the same line the different letters for it.
And so on through the ten long and ten short simple vowels.
Then follow- the six diphthongal vowels in the same manner; then
the four French nasals, and two deepened sounds; which brings us
to the bottom of the plate. The three impure vowels are put at
the bottom on the right hand side.
Commencing at the top of the plate on the right hand side of
the double ruled line, are the consonants, following the same
arrangement as the vowels on the left.
THE PRACTICAL ALPHABET FOR ENGLISH.
119. In strictness, ten vowels and twenty-eight consonants
comprise the list of simple elements. The principal accidents of
vowels, are length, force and tone, (No. 23.) The last two are
shown by concomitants, but the determination of length is so important that it must be shown by the letters themselves, and therefore a duplication of the simple vowels is necessary. The other
vocals, though varying in length by accent, are not doubled. For
English, the four diphthongs are necessary. The two compound
ones ya and yui, and the double consonants, j and ch, may be convenient, but are nbt necessary.
120. All the letters we need then in English are eight long and
ten short, simple vowels, four diphthongs, and twenty-two consonants, (= 44.) In No. 121, below, the capital and body letters
for printing, answering to Roman, for these forty-four letters are




PRACTICAL PRINTING ALPHABET.               45
shown quite large, so as to exhibit the shapes and proportions of
parts more accurately. Leaning letters, answering to Italics, will
be the principal variations from these. It will be an easy matter
to fix the shapes of them when they shall be needed. Other variations for ornamental purposes, etc., will also be made.
THE PRACTICAL PRINTING ALPHABET.
No. 121.    Vowels.                      Consonants.
rcr aa ccr
v,! Z Vv 77
k  pI  Td e  ^i  I J    ZA
Mob,                           3       Cc




46
OF POINTS, FIGURES, AND OTHER CONCOMITANTS OF
THE ALPHABET.
122. Most of the points and other characters now ill common
use, will be needed.  The following are adopted from those now
universally in use, and therefore they need no explanation:;:.'""??!*ti IF ~T () E]+ x. —$12345 67890
123. The common! parenthesis, when used in short and brief
writing, will be made much longer than the short letters for
c and p.
The parenthesis     ) i's used by Mr. Ellis, and others, to include words printed in the common orthography, and will be useful
for that purpose.
The hyphen in short and brief writing, must be a double mark,
thus, =, and the dash, a single one twice the length of the short
letter,...
124. Instead of using the dagger and other figures for reference marks, I would use the star (*) alone for the first reference,
and, add to it the figures 2, 3, 4, &c., for succeeding references on
the same page. In Bible references, or wherever they are numerous, the figures alone, or letters of the alphabet, will be used.
All figures in mathematics, the sciences, etc., can be as well employed with my alphabet as with the Roman.
In addition to the foregoing points, etc., are the following concomitants of the alphabet hereinbefore explained, viz: v high key,
I middle key,, low key, TY rising inflection,, falling inflection;
see No. 19:' half accent,,  full accent, ~ accented word,:  emphatic word; see No. 31: also sliding vowels, see No. 65: obscure vowel mark, see No. 84: anomalies, see Nos. 106, 107.
SPELLING AND WRITING.
125. The one simple rule for spelling, to be followed without
exception, is to speak or write down each letter as the sound it
stands for occurs in pronouncing words. Thus the spelling of a
word, (or the letters composing it,) will indicate the pronunciation;
and the pronouncing a word will show its spelling.  Considered in
this light, the writing is called Phonography. Considered as a
universal medium for writing different languages, it would be called
Pasigraphy.




SHORT WRITING.                     47
126. Phonography, compared with our present way of spelling,
presents the following advantages:  1st. About two-thirds the
number of types or letters are required in a composition, there
being no redundants, and no contrivances to exhibit a single sound
or articulation by two or more letters instead of one. 2d. The
time of learning to read, the alphabet being committed, is reduced
from  years to minutes.  3d. It will establish a uniform  pronunciation wherever the language is spoken. 4th. It will afford a
ready means of showing the exact pronunciation of words in other
languages, thereby rendering their acquisition much more easy.
127. The only difficulty in spelling aright is in determining what
is the exact pronunciation. Tuesday cannot be written without
deciding whether it is tewsdy or chewsdy, or tyiisdy. This is no
part of my present business.
No consonant can be doubled in a word except it is a compound
one, where a distinct effort is made on the second letter, as in
mis-spent, innate, solely; t must be retained in words ending in
-nts, -Its, and -fts. Thus cents will have the t in it, and sense will
not, though they are apparently pronounced alike. So must p be
retained in words ending in -mp where s is added.
128. The expense of procuring matrices for new type prevents
me from displaying my Alphabet in print. Plate No. 2 contains
paragraph No. 6 in round writing, and part of the same in short
writing unabridged.








SHORT WRITING.
129. This writing retains the essential parts only of the letters.
The simplest forms, or marks, that can be made on paper, are the
point, (dot,) the straight line, and the circle and its parts. These
are our elements for short and brief writing.  The short letters,
both consonants and vowels, are shown in plate No. 1, under the
head of short letters. The brief consonants are nearly the same
as the short; but in brief writing the vowels are designated by
very short marks, half circles, hooks, large and small dots, &c.
130. The consonants are composed of straight marks, quarter
circles, and small circles, (loops.)  If a circle be divided by
a, horizontal and vertical diameter, the quarters will represent four short letters: and a horizontal and vertical radius
two more, as in the margin. If the whole be turned round (
forty-five degrees, the position of six other letters will be Y
shown,: see margin.  These twelve simple characters are applied
to the twelve consonants most in use.  The other letters are
necessarily more complex.
131. We frequently see all distinction between the atonic and
tonic letters, (No. 90,) confounded by foreigners, who are. nevertheless perfectly well understood.  Such characters have been
allotted to most of these couples as are most likely to be mistaken
for each other.  By this arrangement, if a corresponding letter
should be formed by a little carelessness in its position, or
intentionally substituted (in brief writing,) on account of the
lineality or beauty of the writing, the legibility is not affected.
132. The horizontal letters are written from left to right. The
perpendicular and oblique ones are written downwards, except
such as lean like /, which may be written either way. The loop
4                                          (49)




50                      SHORT WRITING.
of a letter, except A, is always the first part written, and the
stem starts off tangentially to it.  Sr is written A-; ss is /, or
I; pr is A, or it may be written, the last half of the p
being left off; mpr should be`', the better to distinguish it from
mtr; dc is Q%,  or.,- the first part of the c being left off; dr is
either f  or (.  These three cases of pr, dr, and dc, are the
only ones where one consonant is allowed' to cross another.
133. The vowels are double the height of the other letters.
Every part of a letter should be made plain and full, but not
swelled. The exact position and shape of the letters must be
maintained; the straight must be perfectly straight, the upright
perfectly upright; there must be no general leaning of short and
brief -letters.
134. The paper to be written on should be ruled, or faint lined,
as is commonly done, to keep the lines straight. The faint lines
will constitute what is called the bottom line of writing, below
which the writing should not pass. At the distance of from the
eighth to the tenth of an inch above the faint line is an imaginary
line called the top line of the consonants, which the upper ends
of the perpendicular and oblique consonants are to touch; and
at the same distance above this is another imaginary line, called
the top line of the vowels, which the upper ends of the vowels
are to touch.
i35. The horizontal consonants may be placed on the upper or
lower line of the csosnants as will be most convenient in joining.
The letters of a word must be placed close together; they need
not join; but where it is more convenient to join them, do so.
Oft times the hpen imust be lifted from  the end of one letter
to the commenceement of the next. But this is not so great
a disadvantage as -it may at first appear; for a person can take
his pen off from one point and put it down on another, in just
about th     e s tie that he can make a stroke between them;
that is, he can write two disconnected lines, thus I, as quickly
as he can write them  connectedly, thus, 11.   It is better
that no -marks should be made in this writing but what are
significative.
Vowels are generally written downwards, but it is sometimes
easier to project one upwards from a preceding consonant.




136. A capital letter is denotea by a dot over the head of it, in
a line with the direction of the letter. A small dot over the letter
will signify a small capital, and a, large dot a large capital, as
/ s, / S. A short stroke, light or heavy, in the place of the
dot, will signify a small or large Italic capital, as    s, A S.
Capital and italic words can be shown by underscoring, as is tow
done by writers for the press; viz, one line for italics, two lines
for SMALL CAPITALS, and three lines for LARGE CAPITALS.
Points, figures, marks, &c., as mentioned in No. 122, are to be
used in short and brief writing, the same as in round hand,
putting them at a little distance from the words, The comma is a
simple cuspis, thus,, the semicolon a point and cuspis.
Common abbreviations and initials of names are expressed by
writing a point at the foot of the letter in a direct line with it.
137. Numbers will commonly be expressed by words, or the
Arabic numerals, (figures,) as they are at present.  In tables,
calculations, etc., where they are so situated that they cannot be
mistaken for common letters, the following letters are used for the
figures standing over them 
1    2   3   4    5    6   7   8   9   0
Those composing a number may be written separately, or joined
in the usual way, or unusually, that is, the end of one joined to
the next, not at its end, but somewhere along its length. An
object in thus connecting them is to show them to be figures. In
performing arithmetical operations they must be separate. As
like straight letters coming together will not join without coinciding they must be written separately, as \, (55.)  Cyphers
occurring together are expressed by so many dots in a horizontal
row.  The decimal point is indicated by a colon, as $,
($4.50.)
138. Current Short Writing. Although all contractions properly belong to the brief' department, yet it, may be convenient to
abbreviate the short mode of expressing vowels,
1st. By using half-length vowels, when they will join to a succeeding consonant and make an angle with it. As suth vowels
will be distinguished from consonants only by their height in the
writing, they must always come up to the upper vowel line.




52         ADVICE FOR WRITING SHORT HAND, ETC.
2d. By writing ing at the end of words by simply turning o on
the end of the preceding letter, as 4yo bring.
3d. By omitting obscure vowels.
ADVICE FOR WRITING THE SHORT AND BRIEF HANDS.
139. Do not try to write before you have studied well the
instructions.  It is easier to take a little care, and start right, and
go right from the first, than to cure an erroneous habit afterwards.
In order to write well and write fast in time, write slow at first.
Place your paper square before you, and as there is to be no
sloping of letters, as in common writing, the face of the pen must
be turned more to the right. Make every letter as near as possible
to its exact shape and size, and in its proper position. A proper
distance is to be observed between the words; also between the
lines.
140. Be not discouraged at not being able to read your writing
easily at first. You can neither read nor write rapidly until you
are familiar, with the letters and way of spelling. Practice will
soon accomplish this familiarity. Let your writing, unless where
you are sparing of room, be open and bold. Nothing is gained in
time by making the letters diminutive; besides they are apt to be
not so well formed.




BRIEF WRITING.
INTRODUCTORY.
141. Stenography, Brach'graphy, Short Hand, and Brief
Writing, or Breviscription, all mean the same, namely: the art or
process of writing by fewer and more simple characters than those
in common use. The word now used to designate this writing is
Phon6graphy, which, etymologically, means the writing of sound.
In a strictly philosophical sense, sound can not be said to be written at all, unless its impact on the ear of the hearer can be called
so; and this fades away during the very moment of its impression. But sounds are signified or represented on paper by letters,
which, when collected into certain groups called words, represent
words of speech. This representation of speech on paper is Phon6graphy in its broad sense; and hence our present abnormal
mode of writing might be called by that name; for the seven letters in the word thought, when put together in that order, signify
the spoken word, or the sound of that word, as fully as would be
done by a proper system in which the word would be written with
three letters. A proper system of representation requires a letter
for every sound, and to have the letters follow each other on
paper in the same consecutive order as the sounds follow each
other in speaking. And to this corrected mode of representation
many writers now restrict the meaning of the word Phonography. But thus restricted, the word: makes no reference as to
whether the letters are simple or complex, whether the writing is
done easily and quickly, or the reverse. It contemplates, besides,
the writing of all the sounds, so that, although intndd is sufficient
to show the word intended, it would not be Phonography, or
writing the sound of the word. Phonography, therefore, is not the
proper name for Short Hand.
142. The principal object sought of Brief Writing, is the means
of recording words with dispatch,-nearly or quite as fast as they
are delivered by a speaker. A minor object is that the writing may
occupy less space on paper. These ends are attainable to such
an extent, as to constitute important advantages over common
(53)




54             BRIEF WRITING.-INTRODUCTORY.
writing; fer the time spent in writing an article in short hand- as
well as the space occupied by it when written, need not exceed
one-fourth of what they would be in long hand; while the article
can still be read with ease and certainty.
143. A good system must be,
Plain, so that the writing may be read without the least difficulty:
Short, that the writing may be easily and quickly done:
Simple, so as to be easily acquired and remembered.
These requisites have a mutual dependence; for if we strive to
make our writing very plain, we lessen the speed with which we
write; if we make it very short, we endanger its legibility; and
if we make it very simple, or short to be learnt, we deprive ourselves of the ways of abbreviation, which are convenient to every
one, and necessary to the reporter.
144. From thesge considerations arises another, which is, that
the system should be capable of varying its ways of writing, so as
to accommodate itself to the various uses and exigencies for which
it is designed; that it should, in a plain, neat, and tolerably expeditious manner, express words with the utmost precision, and thus
be a safe and reliable continent for important records; and that it
should also furnish such modes of contraction that when haste
requires, sentences can be written in the shortest possible manner.
145. Most of the characters now used in every system, or
scheme, being the shortest and simplest of all possible marks, will
always continue to be used in all ages and languages.  The merit
of each particular scheme will depend on the judicious application
of them to the elementary sounds of the language.
146. In forming the alphabet I have been guided by the following principles, adopted chiefly from Byrom:
1st. Every simple sound in the language should have its proper
character, which should be sufficiently distinct from  all
others.
2d. These characters should be the shortest and simplest marks
in nature.
3d. Those marks which are shortest and most easily formed,
should be assigned to the sounds which are of most frequent occurrence.
4th. The most frequent combinations of letters in speaking
should consist of characters which will most readily join,
or run into each other in forming these combinations.
5th. Such marks should be assigned to the letters, that, when
joined together in words, they will not interfere with each
other, or go much above or below the common line of
writing.




BRIEF W1RITING.-INTRODUcTQO..X
6th. Those characters subject to be mistaken for each other,
should represent letters of similar power147. No one of these principles is to be followed out exclusively. It is in giving to each its due weight that their excellence
as a whole must consist. I have endeavored with patient-labor to
arrange the alphabet in accordance with them; and in prosecuting
the system I have been guided by the considerations of legibility,
brevity, beauty, and ease- of attainment.
148. I claim as new in my system, 1st, The arrangement of
the letters in more perfect accordance with the above principles;
2d, The arrangement of the different modes of expressing the
vowels, whereby the precise sounds are shown in a short and plain
manner; 3d, The half lettering; 4th, Merging unaccented vowels at the beginning and end of words; 5th, Manner of writing
Initiants and Terminants; 6th, Merging 1, n, r, s, and d, or reducing to a few simple rules the way of expressing two or three
letters in one, by varying the thickness and length of the characters.
149. The foregoing, commencing at No. 142, is part of what
was written many years ago as a Preface to my "System of Breviscription," previous to my entertaining the idea of the E'ndeavor.
A few alterations have been made to bring it in more perfect unity
with the forepart of the Endeavor, but I have not sought to
change its particular adaptation to the English language rather
than to universal Phonography.
150. Brief writing must eventually come into general use.
Thousands will use it in their ordinary affairs where one will use it
professionally as a reporter of debates. It is immensely more
important to have a system adapted to the wants of the thousands
and the millions, than to the few. My desire has been to fill both
uses; but especially the great one, by furnishing a Writing, 1st,
That shall contain a full alphabet, where every sound can be plainly
written, and where no minute niceties of turns, or leaning, or
lengths, or thicknesses are necessary to escape confusion, and consequently where any word whatever, when properly written, can
be read with the utmost ease and certainty; 2d, That can be
learnt without difficulty, and by a moderate amount of labor; 3d,
That can be written with ease,-by which I mean that the letters
and combinations shall follow the same order in writing as in
speaking, and so obviously that no thought is required in the
arrangement; 4th, That shall be fair in its appearance and lineality: 5th, And that shall be as brief as the foregoing requisites
will allow.
151. The Reporting stage contains a few general rules by which




56             BRIEF WRITING.-INTRODUCTORY.
most of the words in our language can be shortened. Probably
three-fourths of the words we use which contain three or four
consonants, may be safely contracted by merging, where the writer
has a fine pen and shows the swellings plainly. Tables of contracted words, and other appliances resorted to by reporters, will
be needed; most of which, I presume, can be attached to my system as well as to any other. I am wholly unacquainted with the
business of reporting; I have read no works on the subject, and
leave this part of my system confessedly unfinished.




BRIE-F VOWELS.
152. The short letters, their forms, and the manner of writing
with them, have already been described under the head of Short
Writing, beginning with No. 129; to which the reader is referred,
as the remarks there made, with the exception of what is said of
short vowels and of joining, will apply to brief writing also.
Brief Consonants are the same as short ones, except that the
loops are made small, that they may not be in the way of dotted
vowels, and the strokes made long that dots can be written on
them; and except duplicates, double letters, solid heads, substitutes, and contractions, as will hereafter be explained. See forward for table of Brief Consonants, No. 198.
153. The Brief Vowels bear some analogy to the short ones,
but still they are quite-different. We have two general methods
of expressing them.
THE FIRST METHOD
Is by using the following brief vowel letters for the sounds in the:words next them:
- eve,    c end,. all, on,    U ooze, full,   c due,
I in,    v are, at,              l up,    ice,  C out,
n aim,    c art,    u old, -        oil,       c use.
These brief vowels, when in words, are to be joined to the consonants they are next to, and all the letters of each word are to be
joined together when practicable, excepting as will be shown.
154. Four of these vowels are straight marks. The first five
crooked ones are half circles. The oo, i and', differ from 6, a
and a, in having their ends extended so as to bring them into
something like an ox-bow shape. The oi and ou are more- bellied
than i and a, malking three-fourths of a circle. The fourth vowel
(57')




58                     BRIEF VOWELS.
(.sound end,) is always written upwards. The sixth vowel, (sound
art,) and'C yu are always written downwards. The other letters
are written either end first according to circumstances.
155. These vowels, instead of being double the length of the
consonants, as in short writing, are distinguished from them by
being only a quarter or a third of their length. They are to be no
longer than what is necessary to show their form and direction.
The only way of distinguishing a long from a short vowel, is by
swelling it. Accent, however, frequently determines the length,
and this is marked by writing a dot close to the side of the
accented vowel.
156.                   EXAMPLES.
7 or r  eat,,   tame,         j   ring,
at,          f   rat.,              wrong,
[       ought,     (f   write,   (.    wrung,
cj      out,         (   rot,               rang,
J or L teal,         q   wrought,      fb  seeing,
5L     -tie,        f1  accent,        /r- sighing,
[o       team, ea'        acc6nt,       4:  sawing,
feet,            deer,        \>  various.
In accordance with strict phonography every long vowel should
be swelled; but it is seldom necessary to do that. A swelled i,
(perpendicular mark,) is 6, and is only to be used where the ends
of the letters it joins are horizontal, as  green.
157. As respects the time spent in writing them, these little
brief vowels are no shorter, or very little shorter than consonants;
for the impulse guiding the fingers in forming one proceeds from
the mind, and must have reference to the commencement, direction and ending, (length,) of the stroke; and all these things can
be as quickly attended to in forming a mark the common length
of a letter as in a shorter one.
158. Independently of size, the crooked vowels are distinguished from the consonants by a much greater curve. To guard
further against mistaking straight vowels for consonants, they
should be turned backward when it can conveniently be done; that
is, the contrary way from which a consonant would be written, as
r  rib, and the words feet and dear above, No. 156. It may be




BRIEF VOWELS.
better in some instances even to make one consonant cross another
than to write the vowel forward, as'  fear,'  leap, f6 war.
159. With the exception above, vowels must always be so writtenl as not to interfere with the letters they are joined with; thus,
in ) due, the crook for the it is written upwards, in  _ tune it is
written downwards. Where letters will not join in the usual way,
one must be joined on to the other, as A  iota. An acute angle
with a consonant is preferable to an obtuse one; thus._X-  is to
be preferred to —.
160. There are a few occasions wherein a circular vowel must
lean a little out of its erect position, as./ test, v( bear,  f
car; and a few where one arm of an ox-bow must extend a little
farther than the other, as A  suit. A circular vowel between two
consonants should make an angle with one of them.
161. A straight vowel letter can generally be written before a
looped consonant as well as before any other, as, {   rich, "`
brush. So can frequently a circular vowel, as    - approach.
A small loop can sometimes be turned inside, as (. coach; otherwise the joining is inconvenient.  It is better even to lift the
pen and join on the looped letter, as (a.-, than not to make
the word plain. But better ways of writing such cases will be
shown.
162. It frequently happens that a straight mark vowel is to be
joined to a consonant having the same direction. It will not do
to denote a vowel by merely writing the consonant a little longer
than usual; but if there is another consonant on the other side of
the vowel, this case is easily and prettily disposed of by using this
consonant to cut off the vowel from the other, as  f near, /
writ;  /I, cross; /rf,  suffer. When there is no other consonant to make the separation, the. vowel is written detached, No. 167,
or by a dot.
163. It will readily be seen that, theoretically, all the crooked
vowels, except oi and ou, will join without forming angles only to
such ends of consonants as are either perpendicular or horizontal,
as 9, rp,?    X-,,, J.  A vowel thus joining a consonant without an angle is called a hook; and as it is easier to write
a consonant and hook than to write the two letters with an angle
between them, it is desirable to make as many of the circular vowels




60             LATERAL INSERTION OF VOWELS.
hooks as we can; also to have a rule for ascertaining the particular
vowel intended by a hook in case of doubt. Wherefore we make
these rules in regard to consonants having oblique endings:
1st. Hooks on straight consonants, standing obliquely, are supposed to bend inwards a little, so as to make more than a half
circle, as \.-', fan; \-, fine; /2-, sign; /Z, race; f, rays,
or raise.
2d. Hooks being put on the concave side of circular consonants
ending obliquely, are supposed to make less than a semicircle, as,' cone; E,   lamb; A,   lime.
We are by no means constrained to use these rules; for we can
write either'  or`  for might,-,,/ or    for news.
164. Restrictions.-Long hooks will be used to represent r, 1,
and -nt, under certain conditions, (Nos. 230, 234-5-6-7,) and to
avoid clashing between them and the oxbows i, fi and oo when hooks,
observe, that except _, written for yiin, (as in  -, unit,) and 7
yufs, (as in the-word use,) no words are to commence with a long
hooked vowel. The few words which might thus commence, are
easily written some other way. In regard to words ending with
long hooks see forward, No. 231.
165. The writing a knob on a vowel shows it to be a nasal sound,
Example, 2, pin, [French];.J  or f  dent, or dans; _J  dont;. aucun. In writing French it will probably be sufficient to
signify the nasals, by simply swelling the simple vowels. The
French u is this figure ~ or,, and eu is >.
166. In case a break is made in a word to prevent the last part
of it going too far above or below the line, the parts must be connected by a double hyphen, as 2  c, confute.
LATERAL INSERTION OF VOWELS.
167. Generally it is easier, (more quickly done,) to write a word
connectedly, according to the foregoing directions, than to separate
the letters. But sometimes the joining is not convenient, or the
appearance is awkward, or the exact figure or swelling of the vowel
cannot be well shown; or the writing may be done in a hurry and
the vowel omitted at the time, to be supplied afterwards. In such
cases, or wherever desired, the vowel may be written separately,




LATERAL INSERTION OF VOWELS.               61
and it is then called a detached vowel; but the consonants or other
parts of the word must be joined.
168. If the vowel precedes the consonant, it is written before it;
that is, near it, on the left hand side, if perpendicular or oblique,
or if horizontal, under it, as v(, oar; c-, own. If it comes after
the consonant, it is written on the other side, as A, row; _,, no.
The vowel coming between two consonants is either written after the
first, as  \, fate, or before the last, as ~  fate; or somewhere
between the two, as )X, pass. If two vowels come between two
consonants, each vowel is written closely beside the consonant it is
next to, as TC, ruin.
169. The fourth sound is written like a diminutive r, (thus c,)
while the sixth sound is like a small g, (thus c.)  If this sound is
long, the upper part is swelled, as A,   balm.  The mark for the
fifth sound when long is also swelled at top, as \'f, fair.  The
first part of the o may be swelled, but no harm if it is not.  To
designate the unaccented o and the stopt o, (No. 47,) let the right
hand limb be swelled. This can easily be done by commencing the
letter on the right hand side, and writing it backhanded, as q.,
whole; q~_, hole. In the same way distinguish, when necessary,
the two lengths of the tenth sound, as \,, fool; \1,, full.
There are comparatively but few words where it will be necessary to
show a vowel, (whether detached or not,) to be long by swelling it.
170. The oxbows for oi, ou and oo, are substituted by a cuspis,
(spear point,) in the direction A for oi, \ for ou, and! for oo; as., oil; At, boy;'|, out; \,  fool; \t_, full.
SECOND METHOD OF INDICATING VOWELS.
171. That end of a consonant which is first written, is called the
head; even if, as may appear by the connection, it is written the
reverse of the usual manner, as a I struck upward, still the end
first written is the head of the letter; and the other end is called
the foot. The left hand side, or if horizontal, the underside, is
called the foreside; the other, the hind side.
172. A dotted vowel is said to be written on a consonant, or on
the side of it, when the dot made for the vowel is written close up
to, but not touching the side of the consonant. The consonants




62            NOTATION OF' THE DOTTED VOWELS.
of a word, (sometimes called the skeleton,) are'first to be written,
joined together, and the vowels are then dotted out on them.
173. There are reckoned five vowels places on each side of a
consonant.  The first, (or e's place,) is even with the head of the
consonant, as'1; the second, (a's place,) half way between the
head and the middle, as'1; the third, (i's place,) at the middle
as i[; the fourth, (o's place,) half way between the middle and
foot, as of; and the fifth, (u's place-,) even with the foot, as I; or,
they may be called the vowels' first, second, third, fourth and fifth
places.
174. A large dot always represents a long sound; a small dot a
short sound. A vowel coming before a consonant is written on the
fore side of it; coming after, it is written on the hind side; coming
between two, it may be written on either, as is most convenient.
When two vowels come between two consonants, each is written on
the consonant next to it; or, if one only of the vowels is dotted,
that one is read next to the consonant it is written on; and when
two vowels are to be expressed on one side of a consonant, the dot
for the vowel next the consonant is placed the closest to it; or the
sound next the consonant is written by a dot, and the other by a
vowel.              -
175. Accent is expressed by a small dot, placed on that side of
the vowel dot which is opposite to the consonant.  See examples
in notation of sound 3 short, and sound 5 short. An accent dot
is placed only against a vowel, or vowel dot. See latter part of
No 155.
NOTATION OF T-HE DOTTED VOWELS.
176. Sound 1 long is written by a large dot in the e's place, as, eat; 1',tea;,e.
177. Sound 1st short, and sound 2d short, are written by a
small dot in the e's place, as the first e in I/, secrete; 1, it;
or Lpin.
178. Sound 3 long is written by a large dot in the a's place, as
~i, ate or eight;', way or weigh.
179. Sound 3 short and sound 4 short are written by a small
dot in the a's place, as.,  marine;  j,   amend; ), pen.
180. The dipthong I is written by a large dot in the i's place, as
y, ice; "w, life.




NOTATION Of THE DOTTED VOWELS.              68
181. Sound 5 short is written by a small dot in the i's place, as., at; v.af-],  ccent,?vAacceent.
182. Sound 5 long cannot be written by a dot, so as to discriminate it from the short sound, but it must be made in one of the
ways pointed out in the 1st method. No ambiguity, however, can
arise by employing the small dot.  Eare shortened up does not
become far. Ask, fast, pant, &c., spoken quickly, are still the
same words.
183. Sound 6 long and short, and sound 7 long, are to be written
by the first method.
184. Sound 7 short is written by a small dot in the o's place, as
on; x, lot.
185. Sound 8 long and short are written by a small dot in the
u's place, as \j, fur;./, sun.
186. Sound 9 long is written by a large dot in the o's place, as
(, oak;,, go. This sound, unaccented, may be expressed in
the same way; but to be precise, see No. 169.
187. Dipthong -a is written by a long dot in the u's place, as
K, tube.
Sounds 10 long and short, and dipthongs oi and ou, cannot be
described by dots.
188. When, from the interference of letters, we cannot place a
dot just where we would on one consonant, we can frequently do
it on another. In writing four we have not room to place the dot
in the proper place on the f, and so we put it on the r, thus \.
A dot must never be used where a vowel's place cannot be plainly
shown by it. Hence it must not be put in or near an angle where
it can be read to either of the two consonants it is between,
unless it makes the same letter on either, (as  f).  Nor must it
be put near where two letters run together. Thus it cannot be
told whether  ~   is meant for born or burn. A detached vowel,
instead of the dot, makes any such case plain. The vowel is but
little harder to write than the dot; it requires no exactness as to
its situation on the consonant, and its sound can be read independently of it.
189. Detached and dotted vowels written before the combinations for pr, dr and dc, No. 132, are read first, or before either of




64           NOTATION OF THE DOTTED VOWELS.
the letters; when written after they are read last; written over pr
and dr, and under de, they are read between the letters, as.
upper;',  pure; ), dike.
190. Several vowels and dots are used for words, as will be
shown in the Table, No. 220. Any vowel sound which is to be
noted separate from consonants, can be expressed by marking the
vowel on the foreside of a solid headed h, (1,) as,, oh, or owe;
], awe. Capital and abbreviation dots, (No. 136,) are put to
the h' thus A. will be nj
OTHER MODES OF INDICATING VOWELS.
191. A vowel which would be expressed by a small dot, occurring
between two consonants, may be denoted by commencing the consonant succeeding it in its place, as I -, tin; I-, ten; ]-, tan;
_, tun; A), bud.
192. A large dot, coming between consonants, may be written
in its proper place on the preceding consonant, and have the succeeding one projected from the dot, as 1, time; (), keep.
193. The large dot will appear to be a head to the letter joining
it. The head and stroke of a descending letter, (and of a horizontal one byturning the pen in the fingers a little,) may be made by
the same effort. But the head of an ascending letter can only be
swelled by a distinct effort. Thus, if the word four is to be written
by this rule, the \ is first written, then a large dot in the o's
place; and lastly, without taking off the pen, the - is projected
frorm the dot, (which then becomes a head,) thus \C.  If the succeeding letter is looped, the large dot is indicated by a swell on
the back of the loop.
194. In expressing a vowel, according to the last two rules, it
is desirable that the head of the indicating consonant should not
necessarily.be more than half a letter's length off from the vowel's
proper place, and should either be on a level with it, as IC take,
or perpendicular to it, as 7=;, mean. There are some cases where
the indicating head cannot be brought up so close, and where too
it would be desirable to avoid going so far below the line as would
be done by joining the consonants and dotting the vowel. In such
cases the vowel is best determined by the position which the following consonant holds with respect to the foot of the preceding




NOTATION OF THE DOTTED VOWELS.               65
one. If the feet of the two consonants come together, it is a first
place vowel; the head of the indicating consonant being swelled
shows it to be long, not swelled, short, as \T, feet; D1, betray.
The indicating consonant being lowered a fourth part of its length
marks a vowel of the second place, as \, fate; lowered half its
length, a vowel of the third place, \, fight.  Still lower, a fourth
place vowel, as TV, got; and when the head of the indicating consonant is even with the foot of the other, a fifth place vowel is
marked, as shown in No.:i191.
195. When two vowels come together between consonants, the
first may be dotted, and the last made by the next consonant, as
f' ruin.  Or show the first by commencing the next consonant
in its place, and the other by writing or dotting it on the foreside
of that consonant, as (R-, ruin.  Or write the first vowel by the
first method, and show the other by the head of the next consonant, as (, ruin.  Still other ways are shown in other places.
A detached or dotted vowel, written on a consonant, is always to
be read next to it, although it comes between the consonant and
a vowel that is made to join it, as (/, chaos, or ()', chaos.
196. Any word or writing can be done by means of the first
method alone, and,, with a few exceptions, it can be done by the
second-method alone. It is not intended that a writer shall in any
case confine himself to either of them; but that he shall choose the
best way of writing each word as it shall occur; having reference
to clearness, to lineality, to the beauty of the writing, and to the
time he can spare for it.
197. It is certainly easier, in most cases, to join in a vowel
where it occurs in a word than to lift the pen and write a detached
vowel, or a dot for it afterwards. But it will often happen that
from carelessness, from a bad pen, or a dull pencil, these little
marks will be blurred, or will not be formed with precision, or will
come in an awkward place to join, or being straight marks, undetached and not written backhanded, they can only be distinguished
from consonants by their lengths, thereby requiring care in this
respect, in writing both the vowels and consonants. Hence it is
frequently preferable, if not necessary, to write vowels detached,
or by dots.
5




66
BRIEF CONSONANTS
198. Table of Brief Consonants, with the Roman printing letters answering to them annexed. (For the powers of these letters
see Table No. 86, with the explanations following it. See also
Plate No. 1.)
)   p         It           (k                h
- b   JJ d _    g
f m  n                   o  ng
K   ph        P th            ch         9  h:   vh          db            gh
w                     /c y           r  r
\   f      /     /        /~  sh           h]
\v                      4  z h            1
199.. Besides the above, which are all single consonants, we
have five double ones, namely:
or  o-, oh, as in chip,
to or 6-' j, as in jet,
\  wh, (or hw,) as in why,
a x, or ex at the beginnings of words, and
C  qu -(or kw,) as in quit; and gu as in anguish.
200. It will be noticed that the brief letters v, z and zh, have
no crooked arm at the top, as the short letters have, but are distinguished from their atonics simply by a more horizontal leaning.
An additional character for z is the half length stroke. This is
particularly useful at the ends of plural nouns and singular verbs.
The y, sh, ch and j, have each two forms on account of facilities
for joining with preceding letters; thus, dch requires the first and
tch the second form of the oh. The x; is a variation of the letters
cs made half size, the figure being about the size and shape of an
oxbow vowel. S preceding an x must be written upwards, as a
six; following it, downwards, as'k, taxes. The qu is a half circle
whose diameter is half the length of the letter (.
201. To keep in line, d is written by its second form [J,] downwards, as fJ read; and for the same reason the | is sometimes
written upwards, as (   _, content. When t succeeds t or p, it
may be substituted by the first or second form of d struck




BRIEF CONSONANTS.                   67
upwards, as in the word /vJ substitute. C, p and th may be
written upwards, and even lean a little to the right by marking a
cross on them, as \fl, victim. As c and p are never to be written upwards without the cross, r and d may be safely put in their
position, or nearly so, the r to make a better angle with a following p, and the d to show it to be put for t.
202. The /  and / are always taken to be written downwards
and ( upwards, when it is not shown by their connection that
they go the other way. Thus, /' is see and not sue. In joining
an o to an s thus unconnected, a first method vowel must be supplied, to prevent the word from being mistaken for a looped letter
written the other way.
203. The letter ng is usually expressed by its proper character,
the small circle, (o.) There are half a dozen or more words, with
their derivations, which, when properly spelt, have ng for their
first consonant; as ink is not pronounced in-k, but ing-k; angle
is not an-gle, but ang-gle, the n, when followed by the sound of k
or g, being changed into ng. And as the o does not admit of
having dotted vowels written to it, these cases are managed by
writing a first method vowel on the foreside of the o0 and annexing the next consonant to the hind side, thus ( ink.  Such words
will be plain enough, though not spelt right, if written with an -,
as 7  ink.
204. As the little circle forming the loop of a letter, and the
nrg are the same figure, it will be necessary to bear in mind that
every looped letter always commences with the loop. The pen commences to form the loop at that point where it makes an angle
with the stem; and the stem is started tangentially from that portion of the loop which is last written. When the small circle is in
any other position, it is known to be ng; as when the pen is turned
back in writing the next consonant, as in /L  Kingston. Here
the figure of d  is shown, but it is known not to be sh, because to
write it according to, the above direction we must join it to the
preceding letter, thus, V   or thus A'   Whether necessary or
not, a consonant succeeding ng can      be commenced in  a
straight direction from the center of the o, thus /L.
205. The o stands for ing when turned on the hind side of the
straight stemmed letters; or the inside of the curve of the circu



68                   BRIEF CONSONANTS.
lars, and no vowel written, as /A  sting, Yo bring; also after a
long vowel, as A, or /4b staying. When any other vowel than
the short i precedes the ng, it must be written by a vowel letter,
as in examples to No. 156, or by a dot. The o unattached is ing
together with the vowel indicated by its location, as /o saying.
(A plainer way has been taught, No. 156.) The z, (short /) may
be added tangentially to an ing at the end of words, as    K IKings.
Two ings can be written together, as A'   bringing.
206. A ( full size, can be added to o only where the pen is
turned back, (No. 204,) as j.   drink. An easy way of writing
nk is to make the circle, and  then continue the pen round a
little outside.of it, as if commencing a spiral, thus forming a small
(, either upwards or downwards as the case may require: the short
i is understood, as in No. 205, when another vowel is not written,
as g, think, YQ  blank,  ~   wrinkle. Also when g succeeds
the sound of ng, let it be written by a spiral downwards in the
position of k, as Ad linger.
207. Instead of looped or open headed letters, solid heads are
allowable when there is no joining to preceding letters, as 1 for 9,
for c__. They are written, (like crotchet-heads in music,) at
once by a sudden bearing down of the pen, which, after a little
practice, is performed quicker than by carrying the pen round in
a circle. In joining to a preceding consonant it is always better
to make the loop, as the whole is done with about as much ease
with the loop as without it. For instance, this mark -P can be
made nearly as quick as this  ]. If, however, the loop should be
blurred into a solid head no harm is done.
208. As the looped letters are not formed so readily as the simple ones, there will be an advantage in substituting small detached
angles for them in certain conditions. The mark' is the substitute *for h, > for y, v for wh, v for w, < for ch, < for j, A for
th, and, for dh. The necessary conditions are, that there must
be a vowel which may be written by a dot intervening between the
letter to be substituted and another consonant, so that the substitute can be written against the consonant in the vowel's place, and
thus mark the vowel too. The part of the substitute nearest the
consonant will show the precise place where the dot would be.
The long sound is indicated by swelling one side of the substitute.




BRIEF CONSONANTS.                   69
EXAMPLES.
q  heat,          hit,          hate,      -   hight,'[ wit,      vI  wheat,'I  whit,          Vi  white,'| yet,')  cheap,   ~  teeth,'-  nature.
As an angle is always placed so as to indicate a vowel or a consonant, it can thereby be told from a double vowel.
209. If a letter comes after a substitute, it is either joined to
it or to the preceding consonant, as Ad or &  riches.  The >
will do for ia at the end of words, as.>  Lydia.
210. The gain in speed by employing substitutes is in their
indicating by their position the vowels next them. Their use will
serve to keep in line such words as hope, both, thought, woful.
211. When the short i is followed by another vowel, the two
making a diphthong, with the accent on a preceding sound, the i
becomes practically a y, and is written by one, or by its substitute,
as V  VJa   or H-,  trivial.
212. The sound following y being obscure, it will not generally
be necessary to notice it; and the y can be written in with the
skeleton of the word, as in the first trivial above. The exact
sound, however, must be written in words which are uncommon,
and words which are similar to others in sound, as (2  carious,
C(f7 caries.
213. The unaccented yu in words ending in ual and uous is
easiest written by q,. or its substitute, as',    or /"/  sensual.
ON KEEPING IN LINE.
214. The faint lines, if the paper is ruled, are the bottom lines
of the writing, as in short writing. The sixth of an inch, or a
little less above these, are the imaginary top lines of the writing.
To maintain a good appearance it is desirable to keep within these
bounds as much as possible. But in brief writing we can not
always do so. There are many words, whereof some of the letters
by their connection will be forced over the lines. Many consonants must transgress the half or the whole of their length, and
there may be words, (I do not know that there are any such,)
where it will be necessary to go two lengths. If all the consonants of the word disordered are stretched upwards, the last one
will be five lengths above the upper line. Predecessors can also be
drawn out five lengths, and disregarded four lengths. Captivate




70                  ON KEEPING IN LINE.
will go four lengths below the lower, line. These words are probably as difficult to write as any that can be found, but they can be
folded in so as to look passably well, thus,
215. The first consonant of every word must always be within
the lines; and if it is horizontal it must be written at the top or
bottom, as will best suit the succeeding parts of the word. Thus,
n in 7  will be on the top line, and in._    on the bottom one.
216. Letters may occasionally be curtailed in length to help
the appearance, as dr in (/f,  and rd in'.  He who wishes
his writing to look well, will take pains to make it as straight and
compact as is consistent with perfect legibility and plainness. The
instructions which have been, and will be given, will be found to
afford a great variety of ways for writing words. They should be
well studied and attended to in selecting the best ways-the plainest and most lineal ways-of writing words, until the habit of
writing them is formed; and then these best ways will suggest
themselves to be used as a matter of course.
217. The foregoing is Breviscription free from all contractions
and arbitrary marks. It establishes methods whereby the exact
sound of every word in our language can be plainly shown. The
scholar should practice a while before proceeding further, by writing sentences from a newspaper or book, and inserting all the
vowels in each word, even those that are short and obscure, with
the accent, punctuation, etc.; for although this minuteness need
not be attended to in ordinary writing, yet. it will often be necessary in some words, especially if in a foreign language.
RECORDING STAGE.-LETTERS STANDING FOR WORDS.
218. There are many little words which, from their frequent
occurrence, it is very convenient to have some easy way of
expressing. This is done by having a single letter or mark, when
alone, represent a whole word. Such a letter is called a logogram,
or word letter.
219. A letter may be written full sized, and half size; and in
the latter case it can be put at the top or bottom line of writing;
and if horizontal, it can be placed full size and half size at the
top, middle, and bottom, and have each of these variations of
size and position signify a different word. By these means and
by the substitutes, No. 208, we are enabled to express upwards of
sixty words by single characters.




RECORDING STAGE.                     71
220. The following table may be considered as an arbitrary
application of particular letters, considered both as to size and
their place on the line, to signify the words next to them. The
bottom line of the words in print will show whether the short
hand letters are on or above the line.
a, an,      -                     aamong,     had,    God,. period,,     Mr.,    -       in,       Ik got,
I, eye,,   himself,      -  an,        L, again,
c  you,' the~thee,    A   themselvee,  on,    U. good,
the, thee,                      not,           give,
V.                    not, *        giv'  how, thou, we,
abu t with,      no,        o thing,
-' perhaps,
-e   raft]r,   without,  ye,
7  be,         u  within,.    t or. arnd,  d  yet,,    would,,                   or your,
) but,        4  was,          1  into,      6' she,
being,    \  were,        L   under,    /  shall,
V  why,         "   they,      &  should,
_ been,
ove,      v  iwhat,           that,          he,
beloy,        \  if,    J          is his,  -    who,
\ before,          of,
behind,    \   have,                          howev
mgtwe X,' for,             sd            however,
L  between',                        us,          xare,
from2   us,
beyond,                                     r  or,
\~. very,.   / this,
#46 -                                 9     I r   her,
]'about,   \[  ever,         7  these,        w
him,  "' after,        Y  thosell,
am,         I  it,              through,        l,
them,      I   at,               the'         along,
me,            to,           (   could,    cr. each.,  may,. together,    (   according,'   church,,-.o my,.}  do,       o    can,       < which,
might,.) did,              annot,    judge,
-v- many,       J   does,        C   question,   t  except.




72                 SUNDRY CONTRACTIONS.
SUNDRY  CONTRACTIONS.
221. Many obscure and unaccented vowels which do not begin
or end words, may be omitted without the least detriment to the
legibility, as )j\, or )\(, difr, (differ.)  j\f  dfur, (defer.)
It is generally safe to omit such as must be spoken; for example,
the Italic letters in retain, defect, conclude, mountain, parent, majority. Where the rest of the word can be spoken without it,
and especially if by suppressing it another word is made, it must
be written; as the vowel between n and 1 in finally, which, if omitted, would make finely, and the u in support.
222. A short vowel beginning a word, is shown by writing the
first consonant half length; as 1IJ  intend, if   appear.
223. The short y at the end of words, is shown by writing the
last consonant half length; as /r' scenery, j)'  duly, \j
Friday, /4 city.
These half length letters will admit a short / after them for the
plural, as _/1 —  insanities.
224. A slight distinction might be made in the leaning between
the short z and half length s, (cy,) of the above rule, as \
fans, \-7 fancy; but it is better to write the cy in- full.'Cies
can be written with two short s'es, and \ —7 fancies.
It is of importance to have an easy and obvious distinction
between stand z, and this is effected much more readily and certainly by writing the z half length than by its leaning.
225. The half of any quarter circle letter, except _, and,
may be left off, when by doing so it will run into another letter, or
have another letter run into it without forming an angle, as:,
form. ~ Here, by leaving off the last part of the r we make it run
into thd m, and thus save an angle. Other examples, \'J fillei
AJ 1 advised, ~    gleam,''K       mingled.
226. If vowels come before or after letters connected by hit lving, write them by first method vowels either joined or detached,
or by dots on the consonants before or after. Vowel sounds coming between such letters, are written plainest by detached vowels
placed near the head of the first, or foot of the last. But when
such vowels are expressed by dots, the first three places on the




SUNDRY'CONTRACTIONS.                 73
combined character, belong to the first, and the last two to the
last letter. Examples:  l1 wrist, (1 rest, f] roast,', guile,
V  goal, K  glow. The vowel is always taken to be on the last
letter, when-it is indicated by the head.of a succeeding consonant, as,    remember.
227. In a few combinations a little deviation from the natural
position of a half letter is advisable, that the compound character
may not so easily be mistaken for a single letter. Rs is made
thus (, ds thus,./, ct r, sd 2.  As the combinations for ds
and rs will be much used, it is well to state that the sound c (ar,)
does not come before s in English; hence no harm can arise from
writing ds a little hooked, thus J; and as there are but few
words in which 6s occurs where these letters ca4 be written  ~, it
is better always to write them thus  /, and a hooked rs thus 6
will then be plain. Dz and rz ending words are written as in'Kf~- words, and )   pillars.
228. A d may be added to d by continuing the circle further
round, as   ) ended. In writing sr (connected with other letters,) let the s part be made pretty straight up, as   r answer.
229. Similar to the above half lettering, and with similar dispositions of vowels coming between the letters, are the following
contractions: 6  sh'r, o/ sh'd, and  r( y'r.
230. A word ending in nt may have these letters designated by
a hook made too long for a vowel, on the preceding consonant; on
the foreside if straight, or on the inside of the curve if circular,
as A'  faint,  A   dependent.
231. The placing the hook for'nt on the fore side of a straight
letter prevents it from being confounded with an ox-bow vowel.
Example: J     advent, J_    defy. But where the'nt is put on a
circular consonant it must be on the same side as the hooked
vowel; and it may be said that to write a hook a trifle longer for'nt does not sufficiently discriminate it. True, it does not; but it
will seldom happen that both ways of reading it will make English
words, or if so, that the connection will allow more than one of
the words to make sense. Writing a vowel before'nt will always
determine the case; and where this is done no harm can arise by
turning the hook for'nt on the hind side of a straight consonant,




74                 SUNDRY CONTRACTIONS.
or by making the hook a short one. Examples: -1 intent, s
my, -b meant.
232. A dotted vowel is not read to a hook, and therefore may
be put outside of it, and still be read to the consonant, as
blunt.
233. A z or s is added to the'nt by turning the hook inward so
as to touch the consonant, as (9 comments. This will also serve
for -nce; so that, by changing the accent in the last example to
the second syllable, thus (., it will stand either for comments or
commence: >9 evidence. D instead of s is indicated by carrying the mark through the consonant, as' painted: ing is added
to the hook by turning a small loop inside of it, as;j painting.
A z may be added. to -nce, as Mb  evidences.
234. The ending -nd instead of -nt is shown by writing the consonant the hook is on half length. The hook, too, must be made
small, so that when looped for s, it may not reach the fore end of
the consonant. Examples: a m'nd, ro minds, Jb d'f'nd'd. A
fine pen is required for such little marks. When there is time and
room enough, the plain way of writing these endings is much the
best.
235. A long hook * commencing a word and written on the
foreside of p, b, f, v and t, and the concave side of c, g, 1 and q,
signifies r; written on the hind side of f, v, and t, it signifies 1.
Examples:  \(  refer, %'-  return, d  relent, | write, of
light.
236. M and the hook prefixed signify cm, as --     command.
This hook represents a small ( written upwards.
237. N and the hook prefixed, thus  -, is cn; (generally con-).
This way of writing cn is not preferred to the regular C   on
account of being shorter, but it is to be used on account of lineality, where, as is generally the case, a succeeding consonant has
a downward direction, as.-  convey.
238. An r written downwards, (being joined to other letters to
show that it is,) is ar, as G  arm. T and c are added to a downward r by half lettering, as 4  mark.
* The suggestion of these hooks, as well as several other matters, is from Pitman's Phonography.




INITIANTS AND TERMIANTS.                  75
INITIAINTS AND TERMIANTS.
239. An Initiant is a letter made to represent several letters at
the commencement of a word, by terminating its end in, or drawing
it through the side of the letter it is joined to.  Written the first
way, v stands for over-, t for trans-, n for inter- or intro-, and s for
super-. When drawn through, n stands for under- and s for circum-.
EXAMPLES.
V\        overturn,    Nj  transfer,       /\- superfine,
understand,   — j  introduce,  --          interview,,undertake,    -    entertain,            *circumscribe.
240. A Termiant is a letter made to stand for several letters
at the end of a word, by commencing it in, or drawing it through
the side of the preceding consonant.  In the first way, b stands
for -ble, b half -size for -bly, the foot of the b being lengthened
for -bility, m (after a hook,) for -ment, s for -self, s double length
for -selves, 1 for -shal or -cial, 1 half size for cially.  When drawn
through, n is -xion or -ction, s is -soever or -city, or -citude, and 1
is for -lity.
EXAMPLES.
<   possible,           ~   possibly,       4  himself,
GoN  contentment,         -  infection,    f- introduction.
- is shus (-cious,) and o/ is yus (-ious.) They are joined in the
usual way, their tails being made a little longer than for sh and y.
241. -Ct is indicated by joining a short mark to the foreside of
the letter preceding it, as._/  inspect.  This is not a contraction,
but is intended to save the unsightly appearance of going over the
line of writing.  It is not necessary that the mark should be horizontal, and it may pass through the letter it is written on, forming
one on the other side, as  l   respects, ()  respected, 6<
respective.
242. -Tion is denoted by writing an    half length, and -tions
by writing it full length, backhanded on a foregoing letter, as
motion, m, notions.  The plural, however, may be made by z if
preferred, as c;  confessions. If the mark for -tion or -tions
cannot be written backhanded, write it as a terminant, as  Lsedition.  Also if a letter follows it, as.;. additional.  At the
end of a horizontal letter -tion is best written by curving the end
up, thus  ~     invention.




76                    REPORTING STAGE.
243. A consonant put a little above the first part of a word to
the right takes -ation after it, as   X  salvation.
244. A heavy dot put -above to the right is -ation, as A * station. A z is added as a tail to it, the dot and z making a large
cuspis, as A/  stations,: nations.
245. A vowel letter put in the place of the dot for -ation, signifies
that vowel followed by -tion, as (" caution,,  motion. The z
added is   a motions.
Plate No. 3, headed "Breviscription," contains the first and
second paragraphs of this work, commencing "Prominent among".
REPORTING STAGE.
246. In this there will be more vowels omitted than in the preceding stage. Where, besides the accent, there is a long vowel or
half accent, they should both be written. Vowels beginning and
ending words must also be noted. But in most long words there
need be but one vowel written. This one will then indicate both
the accented syllable and its sound; and when these two things
are attended to, we can hardly miss pronouncing the word by
speaking the short sounds of i or i between the other consonants,
whenever it is necessary to their utterance.  In following a
speaker, or whenever a writing is done in haste, many vowels must
be omitted. They can be afterward supplied. In hasty writing
also, the distinction of the large dot from the small one, or making
a swelled head to a letter, will not be so strictly attended to;
especially where a separate effort is required to make it.
In reporting speeches, &c., many words must necessarily remain
unwritten at the time. A proportionate vacancy should be left, to
show the omission, and give room for supplying it at leisure.
Such words especially should be retained as will show the object
and meaning of the sentence.
COMPOSITE LETTERS.
247. By composition of letters is meant the representing two or
more letters considered as combined together, by one character,
which is called a composite letter. This character must of course
be shorter, that is, more readily formed than the separate letters
which it represents, or there would be no use in employing it.
248. Brief consonants can be modified in length, or in thickness, or in both. By means of these modifications, the five letters
1, n, r, s, and d, are, under certain circumstances, merged in
others, forming five series of compounds, as follows:
249. L. Series. L is merged in the consonant going before




COMPOSITE LETTERS.                   77
it by swelling that consonant along the middle if circular, or
throughout its length if straight, to twice the usual thickness.
Examples: \% fly, (  clay, i\ useful, (  rattle, )o reply, -
inflict, NC  revolution.
250. D1, rl, sl, and shl are written downwards, as J'  delay,
re rely, J' idle. The curved letters have a neater appearance
when swelled only in the middle, tapering off each way. The
loop of a letter is not to be swelled or changed in any of the
series. As the head of a circular swelled letter is thin, a long
vowel can be expressed on it as in, No. 192- thus I".
251. N Series. N is merged in a preceding downward or horizontal letter, by writing it swelled and half length. Examples:
tk  given, 7T reason, 3   invention, -   intended, ) open, \M
fallen,, engine.
252.. R. Series.  R is merged in a foregoing consonant by writing that consonant twice its usual length. Examples: L true,
fraud.
253. Exception. The lengthened s struck upward is ss as
passes. The sr is made by half lettering the r, or by a
~)'    straight, double length stroke nearly perpendicular, as
/  passer, /    surpass. Lengthening the letters y and sh
add an s/    and not; r. (No. 240.)
254. S Series.  S is merged in the consonant following it by
commencing it with a swell, and decreasing to a small stroke.
Examples. sky, t  stone.
255. S and z are merged in a preceding consonant by ending it
with a swell. Examples:'   notes, (,- comes, ~ states.
256. The s is merged also in the r series, either at the beginning or end. Examples~:   master, q   matters,   spring.
257. D Series. Words ending in d or t may have these letters
merged in a preceding downward consonant by writing it half
length and swelling the end. If the consonant is atonic, the
merged letter is probably t; if tonic, d. Examples:.   baked,
related. Lt following an expressed vowel is u' as (/u result.
Writing the vowel before this It prevents its being mistaken for 5.




78                 NOTATION OF VOWELS, ETC.
NOTATION OF VOWELS ON THE FOREGOING COMPOSITES.
258. A vowel coming after a composite letter is written after it,
or on it, as on a simple one; if the letter is dotted e is put at the
head, i at the middle, &c., as   tree, j~ try. A vowel coming
before a composite must be joined to it, as -f nitre, or dotted on
a previous consonant as   i nitre.
259. The foreside of composites being thus unoccupied by foregoing vowels, is used whereon to dot out vowels coming between
the combined letters, Examples: /  seal, 7e or, /  sail,'a
while, )pore,    vessel.
260. A dot before a double composite signifies a vowel between
the first and second consonant, as   tears. If the sound cannot
be written by a dot, write it by a brief vowel letter and put a dot
beside it, as   towers. A vowel letter without the dot shows the
sound to be between the second and third consonant, as  j trees.
261. The substitutes, (No. 208,) when written on the foreside
of a composite always precede, as VI waste. And when the r
and 1 hooks are prefixed to composites, the vowels dotted before
them  precede, &  later,    writers,    roaster,.        rooster.
Vowel letters come in next the last consonant, as   retire,  \
reveal, ~ restore. Where there is a choice between half lettering and merging, -the former is generally to be preferred.
262. Letters placed in position to indicate -ation after them,
may be composites, as c-{    conflagration.  A merged z on the
detached letter is -ations, as,(  vacations.
263. The use of double length letters makes very unsteady
looking lines.  This has to be submitted to in hasty writing.




CONNECTING WORDS, ETC.                  79
There can be but little objection to the use of swelled letters, even
in careful writing, provided the writer has a good metallic pen
and flowing ink, so as to write the unswelled lines finely, and yet
plainly, and the swelled lines at least double thickness.
264. The connecting of words, abbreviating sentences, &c., are
matters pertaining exclusively to reporting, and are not developed
here, but a few are merely hinted at, as follows:
When several words expressed by single letters in the table No.
220 come together, they may be joined, and yet shown to be logograms by placing them a little above the common line of writing.
Many characters in the table No. 220, might have been made
shorter, but as it was especially designed for the recording stage,
it was deemed best to have every character perfectly plain and
distinct from  all others, and not depend on swellings. By swelling the simple marks, (the half length and full length, straight
and quarter circular letters,) we double their number; and by
swelling the heads only, or the feet only of most of them, as
might be done, we can also largely increase them. The old ste
nographies had tables wherein each character stood for several
words, depending on its situation in the sentence to show which
word was meant. Hence it is evident a Reporter's Table can be
made out, embracing from one hundred and fifty to two hundred
words, each written with a single stroke of the pen; and although
one may vary only in a slight degree from several others, as 
for as, and  for has, or by not being written accurately, may not
be distinguishable at all when separate from the context, yet in the
context they may all be sufficiently legible.
265. This table would not only embrace composites representing
single words, but composites alone, or composites joined to single
letters to represent several small words, as I for sit, or is it; | for
its, or it is; L  for it is not; A  for it has been; _7 for did not,
&c. The table would include some long words expressed by their
first syllables, as ) for opportunity, v-  for immediate,, for
immediately. In such a table, or in another, might be short hand
letters made twice the common size, and swelled to distinguish
them from the r series, to represent common adverbial phrases and
ideas: as, for instance, C would represent the Latin ablative causk,
and stand for such words as because of, on account of, by reason




80                  NOTATION OF VOWELS.
of, for the sake of, or it was caused by, occasioned by, originated
in, &c. Cn would be consequence, as in consequence of, hence it
happened, &c. Q quantity, either with respect to time, distance,
number or magnitude; the bigness of the character to be proportioned to the length of time, distance, &c. Q1 quantulum, the
reverse of the foregoing.  Ns, necessity, as It is necessary that -,
the matter cannot be avoided -, we, he, &c., must, shall be obliged
to, &c. In the same way, Pr, probability, Ps, possibility, S,
similarity, G, agreement, P, opposition, D, advantage, R, reference.
Sutch adverbial and sentential contractions may be carried to
almost any extent.  To be of use they must not only be fixed in
the memory, but so familiar as instantly to present themselves
whenever needed.
COMPARISON OF MR. ISAAC PITMAN'S PHONOGRAPHY
WITH MINE.
266. Mr. Pitman uses hooks, small half circles and angles, large
and small dots, thick and thin dashes, and half length and double
length, and swelled consonants. In my reporting stage I use all
these means too.  Our systems being on a par in these respects,
it may be desirable to compare them in regard to brevity, appearance, accuracy, &c. The American Manual of Phonography,
published by the Brothers Longley, of Cincinnati, contains the
American Declaration of Independence, written by Pitman's System. In Plate No. 4 of this work I have inserted as much of the
Declaration as will go into it. In Mr. Pitman's system the vowels
are all written separate from the consonants. They can all be so
written in mine, too; but I have joined in some with the consonants, as being an easier and better way of expressing them.