OCR Text |
Show ON THE ALPHABET. 5 each case a slight difference of tone in addition to the difference in quantity. In English we have a vowel sound heard in awe, aught, aJl, lord, and many other words. It should be written by d. Then there is the sound of a in cat, man, and other words. This should be represented by & Finally there is the vowel sound heard in but, son, blood. It is often called a neutral vowel, because in its utterance the organs of the mouth are nearly in the indefinite position of simple breathing. It is the obscure sound heard in many unaccented syllables It is nearly like the German 6 and the French eu, but not exactly the same as either. As it is called by us " short u," and to one accustomed to English seems most naturally represented by a u, the sign & has been here adopted for it The peculiar sound of the French u in tu, pure, m& r, etc., or of the German u in kuhl, kussen, etc., will, whenever found, be written with the German sign £. It is made by a combination of the tongue- position by which i in pique is uttered with the lip- position by which u in rule is uttered. These four additional vowels are thus provided for: d a t a u aU, cat, but, Jcvhl and m& r. Sometimes a vowel is excessively prolonged, and this characteristic plays an important part in some languages. In such cases the sign for plus + should be written after the vowel thus prolonged; thus- a+, a+, d+, o+, H+. DIPHTHONGS. What is called the " long i" of aisle, isle, etc., is really a compound sound, a diphthong, beginning with a ( far) and running down and ending with i ( pique or pick). It is, therefore, to be written with ai. The sound in how, out, etc., is in a precisely similar manner a compound, beginning with a ( far) and running down to u ( rule or fall). It is accordingly to be represented by au. If such a diphthong as ours in boil or boy is met with, it must of course be represented by di, the signs for its two parts What we call " long u," as in use, pure, mew, feud, etc., is clearly a |