ORTHOGRAPHT. Is short-hand no regard is paid to the common orthography. With respect to consonants words are spelt as they are pronounced, all quiescent letters being omitted. Letters are not doubled unless a vowel come between them. Thus, command, burlesque, phrase, laugh, island, enough, scepter, are spelt comand, burlesc, fras, laf, iland, enuf, sptr. In the words talk, walk and a few others, it is advisable to retain the 7. We have already remarked that vowels are for the most part entirely omitted. This however is not always the case. It is evident that if consonants only were used, as is indeed the case in most systems, many words would be confounded with others which resemble them only in containing the same consonants. The insertion of one vowel will render the majority of words sufficiently precise, but that vowel must be selected which is most distinctly sounded and on which the stress of the voice is laid. For instance, I should write húman, umn, because the emphasis is laid on the syllable hu. But if the word were humáne I should express the a since the accent falls on the last syllable. Write no vowels in short words of frequent occurrence; less common words, however, containing the same consonants, require their insertion. Thus more, from, said, which are continually recurring, should be spelt mr, frm, sd; while mere, frame, sued should be spelt mer, fram, sud. It frequently happens that where two vowels meet together and form two syllables, only the most prominent sound is expressed. created may be spelt crated. Thus In polysyllables it is not generally necessary to insert any vowels whatever. The terminations ious, uous, &c., may be sufficiently denoted by os. Some compound words may be divided. As example is better than precept, I subjoin a list of one-hundred words with the stenographic method of spelling them. The reader will find the same words delineated in the short-hand character on Plate 3. ARBITRARIES. Arbitrary characters have no relation to sound or the letters of the alphabet, but partake of the nature of the common arabic numerals and some typographical marks which, addressing themselves to the eye and not to the ear, are at once recognized by the natives of every country in Europe. The Chinese writing consists wholly of arbitrary characters, which confer this advantage; that a written composition is intelligible to a person utterly ignorant of the author's language, the knowledge of the written symbols being more widely extended than that of the spoken tongue. Bishop Wilkins and others have exercised their ingenuity in attempting to construct a real and philosophic character to be the medium of communication throughout the world.1 In 1 See Pasilogia: an Essay towards the formation of universal language, &c., including a succinct account of the principal systems of similar character heretofore published, by the Rev. Edw. Groves. Dublin, 8vo. 1846, |