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it, we have been first pleased with the accuracy, and we may say sobriety of the pronunciation; equally removed from the extremes of foppery and vulgarity. It is true, we were at first rather alarmed at the bristled appearance of the page, but a very little attention satisfied us, that the apparent complexity soon vanished, and we found a system of marks expressing all the sounds of the English language with great simplicity and neatness. Mr. Pelham's System of Notation contains, in our opinion, the most complete and accurate analysis, which has yet appeared, of all the sounds in the English language. We are especially pleased to find, that the letters now in use can express, with so little alteration, all the sounds of the English tongue; that the vowel sounds may also be noted, so as to shew by the marks their mutual dependence. Indeed we venture to say the vowel sounds have never before been analyzed with so much accuracy. We do not indulge the foolish hope, that the English language will ever be printed in this way; for, as orthoepists and philosophers never made a language, so they will never regenerate one. Mr. Pelham may expect considerable encouragement from foreigners. Of this we are sure, that a book in French, printed in this way, would be sought for with avidity by any man, who was studying that language. Those of us, who have any doubt of the accuracy of our English pronunciation, will rather seek information by looking in a pronouncing dictionary; but this by no means diminishes the merit of this work, which, to a foreigner, must be far more valuable, than any pronouncing dictionary of the English language, with which we are acquainted. The account, given in this number, of the previous attempts of this kind, by many celebrated men, we think will be interesting, even to those, who are not disposed to examine and understand the present system. If they should, however, they will not fail to discern its superiority to any one that has preceded it. The next time we read Rasselas, we shall certainly read it in Mr. Pelham's edition. ED.]

IT has frequently been repeated, and is now universally acknowledged, that the imperfection of our alphabet is the chief obstacle to a perfect understanding of English pronunciation. As language consists of sounds, and sounds are represented by written characters, it seems essential, that each letter should regularly denote a single, invariable sound, and readily combine with the others, to produce the infinite variety of compound sounds. If the Roman alphabet was adapted to the sounds of the Roman language, it by no means follows, that the same alphabet must be sufficient to express the words of other languages. When the Roman alphabet, therefore, was introduced into Britain, such changes should have been made in it, as were suitable to the genius of the new language, it was to represent. Whatever may have been the cause or manner of its introduction, the Roman alphabet was received without improvement, and has, in its present imperfect state, become the established medium of communicating the sounds of the English language. That it can be only partially applied to this purpose is sufficiently apparent in the practice of our most eminent orthoepists, who find themselves compelled to change the orthography of English words, in order to convey an idea of their pronunciation.

To supply the defect of uniformity in the powers of the alphabetical characters, various other expedients have been suggested, all, however, requiring a detail of general rules, with numerous exceptions; so that the student soon becomes involved in a labyrinth of perplexities, and abandons the study in disgust. The next resource was found in expunging all letters not essential to the sounds of the words, and thus presenting the pronunciation in a false orthography. But this remedy may be said to be worse than the disease, for, though an attentive study of the principles of the language is the most fatiguing means of acquiring a knowledge of its pronunciation, it is also the most effectual: whereas, when a person has been taught by false spelling, he has to unlearn this, before he can venture to write a word from memory. As a surer means of instruction, the varying sounds of the vowels have been sometimes noted by characters placed above them, but the characters used for this purpose have generally been numeral figures, and even these have become almost as unintelligible as the vowels themselves, by the same figures being applied to vowels having different sounds. The division of words into the syllables of which they are formed, is a rational and useful mode of instruction, but this implies that the letters have a uniform sound, which is certainly not the case in the Roman alphabet, as applied to the English language. For instance, the letter c has four distinct sounds in can, cell, special, and suffice, while its figure remains the same. A like irregularity exists in the letters in sign, resign, vision, and version. The letter g in gill, (of a fish) has a sound totally different from that of the same letter in gill, (a measure) though the words are exactly the same in appearance. These remarks might be extended to ch, in chaise and chain; to x, in wax and exert ; to t, in late and satiate, &c. It is true, that the Italick character is often employed to distinguish the different sounds of some of the consonants. But it is equally true, that its alternation with the Roman letter is insufficient to mark more than two sounds.

Though the want of regularity in the sounds of the consonants is thus perplexing, the difficulties increase when we approach the vowels. The intermixture of their sounds, resulting from the varying powers of each letter, is a perfect chaos, that can be reduced to order by no other means, than a patient, and diligent study of the principles of combination. Few, however, will undertake this, and fewer still will persevere till they have accomplished the Herculean task. In the words wall, lard, mare, and mane, the vowel a has four long sounds, essentially distinct from each other, and their correspondent short tones are found in wallet, cellar, marry, and many. Thus it appears that a single character is the representative of no less than eight sounds, including the short with the long ones. lettero likewise represents four long sounds in born, worm, pole, move, and four correspondent short tones in bonnet, won, whole, and wolf, besides a dipthongal sound in one, and the vowel sound of i in women. But it is not in the combination of consonants with the single vowels, that the student of English finds the greatest difficulty. The diphthongs, or double vowels, present impediments at every step. The combination ea has five different sounds in bear, fear,great, bread,beat. In the words vein, seize, heir, heifer, sleight, the combination ei has

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likewise five sounds. Each of the vowels and each diphthong represents several distinct sounds, a knowledge of which can be acquired by incessant practice only. It is true, that the difference is sometimes no more than a variation of quantity, without any change in the quality of sound; but the student is not the less embarrassed in making the proper distinction.

This inconsistency between the orthography and pronunciation of the English language has given rise to many expedients intended to remedy the evil.

"There have been many schemes offered," says Dr. Johnson, ❝for the emendation and settlement of our orthography, which, like that of other nations, being formed by chance, or according to the fancy of the earliest writers in rude ages, was at first very various and uncertain, and is yet sufficiently irregular. Of these reformers some have endeavoured to accommodate orthography to the pronunciation, without considering that this is to measure by a shadow, to take that for a model, or standard, which is changing while they apply it. Others, less absurdly indeed, but with equal unlikelihood of success have endeavoured to proportion the number of letters to that of sounds; that every sound may have its own character, and every character a single sound. Such would be the orthography of a new language to be formed by a synod of grammarians upon principles of science. But who can hope to prevail on nations to change their practice, and make all their old books useless? Or, what advantage would a new orthography procure, equivalent to the confusion and perplexity of such an alteration?

"One of the first who proposed a scheme of regular orthography was Sir Thomas Smith, Secretary of State to Queen Elizabeth; a man of real learning, and much practised in grammatical disquisitions.

"After him, another mode of writing was offered by Dr. Gill, the celebrated master of St. Paul's School, London.

"Dr. Gill was followed by Charles Butler, a man who did not want an understanding which might have qualified him for better employment."

The three plans here alluded to by Dr. Johnson were only so many variations of the general principle of representing the sounds of the language by false spelling, with the additional inconvenience of changing the powers of some of the established characters, discarding redundant letters, and introducing new ones.

"In the time of Charles I." the Doctor continues, "there was a very prevalent inclination to change the orthography; as appears, among other books, in such editions of the works of Milton as were published by himself. Of these reformers every man had his own scheme; but they agreed in one general design of accommodating the letters to the pronunciation, by ejecting such as they thought superfluous."

In the year 1773, Dr. Kenrick published his Dictionary of the English Language, with the professed design of ascertaining the pronunciation, without recourse to false spelling. His method was to mark the vowel and diphthongal sounds, in regular succession, from No. 1 to No. 16, affixing to each sound its appropriate num

ber, without regard to the vowels by which it was represented. According to his plan, "each radical word and principal derivative is first printed with its respective accent or accents placed over the proper syllables; and then reprinted in separate syllables, with figures placed over each syllable to determine the exact quality of sound to be given it. Added to this, the consonants are printed in Roman or Italick characters, as they take their hard or soft sound, are audible or mute." [See his Introduction, page iv.] The cypher O is placed over the particle a and the letter e in certain situations, to denote the indistinct sound of those letters in such cases, and the Italick character is the only discrimination made in the sounds of the variable consonants.

Whatever imperfections may be found in Dr. Kenrick's scheme of notation, it certainly possesses this advantage, that the student is never misled by a false orthography; and it is not easy to discover why his Dictionary has been so generally overlooked, unless it be, that the duplicate numerals become confused in applying them to the single and double vowels. The use of numerals is indeed objectionable on another account, as they require a compound operation of the mind, first, to banish the idea of number, and then, to associate the figure with the sound it expresses.

Mr. Sheridan, after having maturely studied the subject, proposed to facilitate and adjust the pronunciation, by detailing the general rules on which it is founded. But as the number of exceptions greatly exceeds the number of the rules, the student is necessarily compelled to load his memory not only with a few examples of each, but with every word to which they apply. Sensible of the inefficacy of this means for any practical purpose, Mr. Sheridan proceeded to place the same series of numeral figures over each vowel, according to its variation of sound. Hence the same figure occurs over different vowels having different sounds, and thus defeats the very object for which it was designed. His chief reliance appears to have been on spelling the words as they are pronounced. This, however, was the worst part of his plan, for the inevitable consequence must be to embarrass the student between the true and the false spelling, when repeating the words from memory.

It is surprising, that Mr. Sheridan's train of thinking did not lead him to the invention of a system of uniform marks, when we read in the fifth section of his Prosodial Grammar, the following observations on the "Use and abuse of letters in spelling or representing words."

"When written words are considered as the types of sounds, in order to make them correspond to their archetypes, the four following rules should be strictly observed.

1. No character should be set down in any word which is not pronounced.

"2. Every distinct simple sound should have a distinct character to mark it, for which it should uniformly stand.

"3. The same character should never be set down as the representative of two different sounds.

"4. All compound sounds should be marked only by such characters as will naturally and necessarily produce those sounds, upon their being pronounced according to their names in the alphabet."

From these remarks it is evident, that Mr. Sheridan was aware of the insufficiency of the means he had provided to counteract the "amazing confusion" arising from the imperfect state of the alphabet. Under this impression, he ought to have abstained from the publication of his sentiments, till he had something better to offer than the mere substitution of one difficulty for another.

[TO BE CONTINUED.]

FOR THE ANTHOLOGY.

REMARKER, No. 40.

"Homo sum, humani nihil a me alienum puto."

TERENCE.

THE present age is peculiarly distinguished by liberality of sen timent and benevolence of action. Bigoted veneration for opinions, sanctioned only by antiquity, has been thrown off; the mind of man has been carefully analyzed, and pure, unbounded benevolence is now taught by philosophy as well as religion. Sectaries have, in a great measure, lost their animosity towards each other, notwithstanding some late attempts to revive it; and party spirit can no lon ger destroy the ties of nature or of society. Benevolence is not now confined to feeding and clothing the wretched vagrant, but provides every comfort for the distressed, and passes not unregarded the suffering victim of vice. Still the nature of benevolence is not fully understood. We forget, that almsgiving forms but an inferiour, though necessary trait in her character. Many suffer want, because they are too proud to beg, and would ungraciously receive a proffered benefit, which they would consider only as an equitable tax upon affluence. Some are in want of friends to bring their talents into notice, and others require assistance to relieve themselves from misfortune. Persons of their own rank are unable to afford them relief. They cannot apply as equals to those above them in society, for there is no sympathy between them; and the pride of independence would prevent their acknowledging them as superiours.

This pride of independence is the cause of the want of gratitude so much complained of in our country. But it is the heart's blood of our present form of government. It is sucked in with the mother's milk, and is the vital principle which animates the whole frame. The child bears with uneasiness the yoke of parental authority, and looks forward with impatience to the period of his freedom, when he shall be released from subjection. Every institution of our country breathes not only equal protection, but per fect, unlimited equality. The meanest citizen in the community is continually called upon to judge of affairs of state, to pass a judgment upon the conduct of the officers of government, and continue them in their employments, or place others more capable in their room.

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