17
in a less number of modes than 10 each; of the remaining 10 vowels, only 3, namely, æ, ɵ, ų, have less than 15 different representatives, and the remaining 7, which are the very frequently occurring vowels ɩ, i, ɛ, e, u, ɷ, ɯ, have from 15 to 23 equivalents each!!! The following analysis of the 43 letters of the speech-alphabet will serve to show the extraordinarily stupid and perverse plan adopted in heterotypic spelling:—
3 letters have 2 heterotypic equivalents each, making in the whole 6 different forms,
A mere inspection of this Table would be enough to make any one shudder who had to learn English heterography. Fortunately for the young child, such a Table is not presented to him. The teacher never thinks of placing before him a list of the sounds of the language, and their heterotypic representatives, because it would be impossible for the strongest memory to recollect all the rules which such a method would require. The child is simply set to learn by heart the mode of spelling every single word in the language, column after column, as given in a school dictionary!! Most amazing caricature of a written language! ⸮And what is the result? No one spells correctly; many spell wretchedly; but no one is at all times certain of the proper mode of spelling any given word. For there is not even method in this madness. Words of precisely the same sound are spelt in the most different manners—words of different sounds are spelt in the same manner. Of these two cases, the following examples occur to us immediately. We give the phonetic representative of the sound, followed by =, and the heterotypic spellings:—
(26.) There is this difference between this word and the two following, it is unaccented, so that there is a real discrimination in speaking, which may be represented in writing by placing the accent to the other words; thus: tɯ, tɯ'.B
