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THERE

ARTICULATION.

ELEMENTARY SOUNDS.

are forty-one elementary sounds in the English lanage, which may be thus arranged according to three principles of classification:

1. According to the organs with which they are chiefly Vocal, Labial, Linguo-Dental, Linguo-Palatal, and

formed:

Guttural.

2. According to the nature of the sound: Tonic, Subtonic, and Atonic.

1 According to the manner of expressing the sound: Checked, Vanishing, Abrupt, Smooth, Liquid, Resonant, Aspirate, Ambiguous.

These are presented in one view in the following table

THE ELEMENTARY SOUNDS (41)

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25 ATONICS AND SUBTONICS.

7 Labials. 6 Linguo-Dental. 8 Linguo-Palatal. 4 Guttural

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OF THE LETTERS OR SIGNS OF SOUNDS.

The irregularity and the inadequacy of the signs of sound used in the language, present great difficulties in learning to read and write it correctly.

It is an obstacle likewise in acquiring a correct articulation; for in this the proper significance of every letter or sign of sound that enters into the word should be distinctly apprehended. But this is not always easy in the present state of Orthoepy.

I proceed, therefore, to such an analysis of the use of the present signs of the elementary sounds in the language, as may assist in acquiring a correct articulation.

There are forty-one elementary sounds, and only twenty-six letters or signs of sounds; consequently there is a deficiency of fifteen signs, which has to be made up by making the same sign represent several different sounds; and for some sounds there i no especial letter, but only some combination of letters.

NOTE. Indeed the greatness of the difficulty that attends thi subject, can only be appreciated by those who have directed to it a special attention. The painful toil and trouble of our childhood is forgotten in the facility which long drilling and constant repetition have given to our maturer years. Yet the first three or four yearз of instruction are chiefly spent in teaching children the proper significance and use of those signs of sound. When we consider that all this labor is owing to irregularities that can be swept away in one blow by the adoption of one simple law, viz: that of having a single sign for each elementary sound, it seems a wonder that intelligent beings should submit to such a monstrous perversion of human labor.

It is a subject I cannot here enter upon; but the reformation proposed in this respect demands the earnest attention and practical co-operation of every one interested in the cause of education. What shall we make of a system of representative signs, in view of anything rational or convenient, which leaves one a choice of eleven thousand six hundred and twenty-eight different ways of spelling the same word!

To make my assertion good, I will take the word Constantinople. There are thirteen simple sounds in it, not counting the final e which is silent. A glance at the following analysis with respect to the signs of sounds, will show that the analogy of common usage will justify one in representing several of these sounds by more than one sign, making in all nineteen different signs for thirteen sounds. These nineteen signs, according to the Algebraic Theory of Combi nations, can be used to spell the word in eleven thousand six hun dred and twenty-eight different ways! And this, not throwing in

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