Standard Alphabet for Reducing Unwritten Languages and Foreign Graphic Systems to a Uniform Orthography in European Letters |
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Common terms and phrases
adopted African languages ai ae Arabic Asiatic aspirates basis Berlin Bible bm f Bopp Bornu cerebral characters Church Missionary Society Clicks compound sound consonantal consonants dental Devanagari diacritical signs engl European alphabets European languages explosive letter expressed faucal French fricative sounds friction German ch Gramm Grammar graphic system Greek guages hard palate Indian Italian k g n Kanuri Language kh gh langues Latin lenis lingual London orthography p b m palatal physiological principles Professor Lepsius pronounced proposed Roman š ž S. W. Koelle sanscr Sanscrit simple signs simple sounds Sir Charles Trevelyan soft sound spiritus asper spiritus lenis Standard Alphabet t d n th dh tongue tš dž uniform orthography Volney vowel-system vowels write Zulu language αα γι οδ
Popular passages
Page 9 - Persian words or sentences, in the characters generally used among Europeans ; and almost every writer in those circumstances has a method of notation peculiar to himself : But none has yet appeared in the form of a complete system, so that each original sound may be rendered invariably by one appropriate symbol, conformably to the natural order of articulation, and with a due regard to the primitive power of the Roman alphabet, which modern Europe has in general adopted.
Page 44 - In their formation, the breadth of the tongue either touches or approaches the whole anterior space of the hard palate as far as the teeth, its tip being turned below. It is consequently entirely different from the Indian cerebrals, although these, too, are frequently called linguals. It appears, therefore, suitable to confine this latter denomination to the Arabic sounds, and to retain the former for the...
Page 32 - ... similar objections. In every one of these cases, we heartily approve of the choice which he has made ; but we do not approve of his cutting himself and us off from other such convenient adaptations, by the peremptory action of a rule which he observes so imperfectly. The fourth rule runs as follows : Explosive letters are not to be used to express fricative sounds, and vice versa. That is to say, for instance, c, of which the original sound was that of k, an explosive, or full mute, must not...
Page 15 - ... state of perfection which they now possess. With an acumen worthy of all admiration, with physiological and linguistic views more accurate than those of any other people, these grammarians penetrated so deeply into the relations of sounds in their own language, that we at this day may gain instruction from them, for the better understanding of the sounds of our own languages. On this account no language and no alphabet are better suited to serve, not indeed as an absolute rule, but as a starting-point...
Page 9 - Mr. Halhed (in his Bengal Grammar), having justly remarked, that the two greatest defects in the orthography of any language are the application of the same letter to several different sounds, and of different letters to the same sound, truly pronounces them both so common in English, that he was exceedingly embarrassed in the choice of letters to express the sound of the Bengal vowels, and even to the last was by no means satisfied with his own selection...
Page 11 - The application of the Roman Alphabet to all the oriental languages ; contained in a series of papers, written by Messrs. Trevelyan, J. Prinsep, Tytler, Rev. A. Duff, Mr. HT Prinsep, and published in various Calcutta periodicals in the year 1834. Serampore press, pp. 162.
Page 32 - ... to the first of these we have been ready above to admit a single exception (or rather, to replace by it an exception admitted by our author himself to the second), in a peculiar case, and in order to gain what seemed to us an important practical advantage. The third rule is to the effect that those European characters which have a different value in the principal European alphabets are not to be admitted into a general alphabet.
Page 27 - indistinct vowel" is doubtful as a German sound, being more probably elided in licb'n, &c., as it sometimes is in the English words nation, theatr1, &c. Its resonance may, we are told, be lost " by partially contracting the mouth, or even closing it entirely. In the latter case it is heard through the nose.
Page 6 - ... he makes in treating of his practical aim : — " It was natural that the European system of writing should be used for all those languages which had no system of their own. But here the same question arose as in linguistic science. Which orthography ought to be used ? Was it advisable to force upon those nations to which the Bible was to be presented as their first reading-book, the English orthography, which is complicated...
Page 2 - ... lasting expression of the whole national mind. From the relations of separate languages, or groups of languages, to one another, we may discover the original and more or less intimate affinity of the nations themselves. We learn, for instance, by this means, that the Indians, Persians, Greeks, Romans, Slavonians, and Germans form a catenarian series whose parts are far more intimately connected with one another than with any link of the chain, which consists of the Babylonians, Hebrews, Phoenicians,...