1. Sound-Writing

Phonography is the art of writing according to sound. This is done by means of signs which represent the sounds of speech. A scientific system of phonetic writing must give to each elementary sound of the language a separate and distinct sign, which sign shall under all circumstances represent its own proper sound and it only. This phonography does, and as the signs are of the shortest and most easily-formed kind, phonography is, as a matter of necessity, a brief and practical system of shorthand.

2. Deficiencies Of The Roman Alphabet

The ordinary longhand script is utterly inadequate for the purpose of rapid writing. Not only is the outline of the letters needlessly long and complicated, but the letters are not sufficient in number to represent the English language phonetically. With only twenty-six letters (of which three are practically useless) we are required to write a language which contains more than forty elementary sounds. Some of these elements must under such circumstances be represented by the clumsy expedient of combining two or more letters to represent a single sound. Thus, there is no single letter to stand for the first sound in the word thy, nor one for that which ends the word sing. But the worst feature of our ordinary orthography is that no single sound is represented uniformly by any one sign or combination of signs. Thus, although the same sound begins the words /a// and phrase, this sound is represented in one case by f and in the other by ph; the vowel sound heard in the words ape, aim, veil, day, grey, sleigh, though one and the same in all, is variously represented by a, at, ei, ay, ey, eigh. Irregularities of this kind abound to such an extent in the ordinary representation of English as to make "orthography" a distinct branch of education, to acquire a tolerable mastery of which several years of school life must be given.

3. The Phonetic Alphabet

In phonography the simple plan is adopted of spelling each word exactly according to its sounds. Every sound has its own sign which is used for it and for no other sound. The consonants are represented by lines - straight and curved - while the vowels are written by small signs - dots and dashes - placed beside the consonant signs. From the nature of the phonographic system, the consonants must be considered first. The term "consonant" is here used as meaning any sound which is not a vowel. For a scientific classification of the sounds of the English language see Appendix A.

4. Consonants

The strokes which are used in phonography to represent the consonants are derived from the following geometrical diagrams

It will be seen that the circumference of the circle is divided into four equal parts, first; by a horizontal and a vertical line, and second, by lines slanting to the right and to the left midway between the horizontal and vertical lines. This gives in all four straight lines and eight curves, clearly distinguished from each other by form or direction. If these twelve strokes be made both light and heavy we have a total of twenty-four strokes suitable for the representation of the consonants.

5. Explodents

Those consonants which are abrupt and explosive in their nature are called explodents and they are uniformly represented by the straight lines, as follows :

The order in which these sounds are arranged accords with the position of the articulating organs by which they are obstructed, beginning with the lips, the most external, and proceeding in regular order back to the soft palate, the most internal.

6. Shade

It will be seen that advantage is taken of the relationship existing between the whispered and voiced consonants to represent the whispered member of each pair by a light sign and the voiced sound by the same sign thickened. Similar sounds are thus represented by similar signs. The mind perceives and the hand feels the consistency of making a thin stroke for a light sound and a heavier stroke for its deeper and louder mate.

7. Continuants

The continuants, as their name implies, are sounds capable of an indefinite degree of prolongation. They are uniformly represented by curved lines. The continuants are divided into three classes called, according to the nature of their articulation, fricatives, liquids, and nasals.

8. Fricatives

The fricatives are those continuants which are produced by means of a friction or rustling of the breath upon the organs of articulation through a much contracted, though not quite closed, opening. Like the explodents, they exist uniformly in pairs, and the distinction between the whispered and voiced members of each pair is maintained by making the strokes light and heavy. They are

9. Liquids

The liquids are less closely obstructed than the fricatives, and take their name from the fact that their flowing nature enables them to combine readily with other consonants. They are

10. Nasals

Nasals are obstructed in such a manner as to force the expired breath through the nose. They are all represented by horizontal curves, thus:

11. Coalescents

All the obstructed sounds of the language are thus provided with signs. It is necessary, however, for practical convenience, to provide strokes for the representation of w and y, sounds which hold a middle position between consonants and vowels. These sounds occur only immediately preceding a vowel with which they intimately combine, and they are therefore termed coalescents. They are written in phonography

12. Aspirate

Practical convenience demands that the unobstructed whisper, or aspirate, h, shall also be given a stroke sign,

13. Supplementary Strokes

Besides the foregoing signs, we have as an additional stroke for r (the sign being more slanting than that for ch), and the stroke which is not needed for the representation of any elementary sound and which is usefully employed to write the frequent combination mp, and rarely mb.

14. Tabulation

The table on the following page shows the consonant signs divided into groups according to the classes of sounds represented. In the second column a name is provided for each consonant for convenience in speaking of it. It must, however, be clearly understood that, although the name of is " pe," its value in writing words is simply the whispered sound heard at the beginning of the word post or at the end of the word rope, as shown in the third column.

It will be observed that the sound does not begin or end any true

English word. It is heard, however, medially in many words like pleasure, treasure, vision, etc. In the last column are given the letters which most frequently represent the consonants in ordinary spelling. " Dh " is used to indicate the voiced sound heard at the beginning of thy, as the ordinary spelling does not employ a distinctive sign or even a distinctive combination of signs to represent this sound. The letters in this column are printed in accordance with the scheme of typic notation shown in Appendix B.