An ESSAY Towards An UNIVERSAL ALPHABET.
HAving observed a great difficulty in truly writing what is pronounced, or truly pronouncing what is written, either in our own or foraign Languages, by the Ordinary Alphabets now in use, arising either from the want of some Letters, or the differing Pronounciation of the same Character or Letter in differing Languages, and the irregularities of its various Sounds in any one Language, I saw a necessity of some such expedient as I have here attempted, Viz. An Ʋniversal Alphabet, which should contain an Ennumeration of all such single Sounds or Letters as are used in any Language, which I have endeavoured by Examining all those Languages, which hitherto I have considered: Altho this my attempt be not new, but what before by others hath been attempted, yet I hope what herein I have done will not be unuseful.
The Benefits of such a Collection being perfect.
1. Children from their first beginning, being [Page 2] taught and accustomed to the true Expression of all these single Sounds or Letters, will without difficulty be brought to pronounce truly and readily any Language how seemingly difficult soever; for the pretended difficulty to some Persons of Pronouncing some Letters, is only that they have not been accustomed to pronounce them, either singly or in conjunction with others, and this difficulty is chiefly in Persons come to Age.
2. It will enable any one, accustomed to the true Pronounciation of this Alphabet, truly to describe the Pronounciation of any Language whatever, that shall in his hearing be distinctly pronounced; so as another also accustomed to this Alphabet, although he before never had heard this Language pronounced, shall notwithstanding at first sight of such Writing, be able so truly to pronounce it, that it shall (if at all) very little differ from the Original Pronounciation. Whereas by the use of the common Alphabets, if any strange Language be written, another, and a stranger to that Language, shall never be able truly to pronounce such Writing, as it should be or was by the Writer intended, nor even the Writer himself sometime after that he hath forgotten what Sound he designed to describe.
3. It will also be useful to perpetuate the true Sounds of any Language, and serve as a Standard [Page 3] thereof to after Ages: for if all the single Sounds expressable, be here Collected and Characterized, And that no one Character have more than one Sound, nor any one Sound be expressed by more than one Character; it cannot fall out that any Character should be falsly pronounced, but it will soon be discovered; for this false Sound he giveth it, must be the true Sound of some other Letter of this Alphabet: and so none can Erre herein, but he that wilfully or carelesly will do it.
In this Collection I proceed according to these Rules.
1. THat no true single Sound can be truly described or expressed by the Conjunction of any two or more other single Sounds, Viz If a Vowel, by the Conjunction of other single Vowels, or if a Consonant, by the Conjunction of other single Consonants.
2. That whatever Sound cannot be expressed or described, but by the Conjunction of two or more single Sounds, is no single but a compounded Sound.
3 That in every composition of single Sounds, the particular single Sounds which make up that Composition, ought to be truly and clearly discerned in the Sound of the Composition, otherwise it cannot be truly said to be a Composition, and composed of such single Sounds.
The Single Sounds
USually named Letters, are commonly distinguished into Vowels and Consonants. Vowels are such as are singly expressable: as, a, e, o, &c. Consonants are such as cannot singly be expressed without the Conjunction of a Vowel, as, b, d, f, g, &c.
Of Vowels
THe whole number of them are these 14 following, to which, for the better discerning of their Sounds, I have annexed so many words wherein they are expressed, all English but three, Viz. the 7, 8, 12, because no English words occurred to my memory, wherein they are exprest.
| 1 | a | as tall |
| 2 | a | tallow |
| 3 | a | tale |
| 4 | e | tell |
| 5 | ea | teal |
| 6 | i | till |
| 7 | u | dure French |
| 8 | ui | muis Lowdutch |
| 9 | y | tile |
| 10 | o | tone |
| 11 | u | tunne |
| 12 | u | une French |
| 13 | oo | tool |
| 14 | ou | tould |
These are the Vowels, each of which are long and short.
- Short as in the words, God, Man, Sin.
- Long as in Ball, Demand, Seen, &c.
Of Dipthongs.
A Dipthong in the ordinary use of the Word signifieth a Compound of two Vowels but those in ordinary so named, are most o [...] them nothing but only single Vowels, as ea, oo, ou, eo, ai, in the Words teal, tool, tould, people, main, &c. That these are but single Sounds will appear, if we consider the Sounds of the Vowels singly, that make those supposed Compositions, and then whether those Sounds in Composition will make out the true Sound required, so as both of them may be clearly discerned in these pretended Compounds. For instance, in ea in Teal.
Consider the Sound of e in the Word sent, or in the word scene; and a in the Word ball, or in the Word and, or in the Word tale, and then whether e, in either of the two Sounds going before and a in either of the three Sounds following joyned together, will make out the true Sound of ea in the Word teal, if not, then is it a single Sound; thus, if you proceed to examine all the other, you will I doubt not find the same event, and I believe the true Dipthongs and Tripthongs of the Greeks were no other but a true expression of the single Vowels they joyned together, but in so short a time, as both or all three were express'd in the [Page 6] time that in ordinary one single Vowel was express'd.
Of Consonants.
THe whole number of Consonants are these undermentioned, as nigh as I could Collect, by examining all the Languages I am acquainted with or have heard express'd, and I think but few, if any single Consonants have escaped my Notice, all which in this following Table I have ranged in 11 Files, and 6 Ranks.
| 1 | 2. | 3 | 4 | 5 |
| 1 B b [...] | D dark | J Jest | G Game | = |
| 2 p pond | T tart | Ch Chest | K came | = |
| 3 M mind | N name | gn Seigneur Fr. | ng song | = |
| 4 = | dh this | J Jean Fr. | g gave l.d. | V Vally |
| 5 = | th thing | sh shall | ch dach l.d. | F Folly |
| 6 | h [...]se fr. |
| 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | |
| [...] | L land | H hand | Y yard | R rand | W [...]and | Fr. sign. Fren. Ld. Lowduch W.—Welch |
| [...] | ||||||
| [...] | ||||||
| Z Zeal | [...] w | |||||
| S S [...]l [...] |
The First File containeth three Consonants, the Second six, the Third and Fourth ten, the Fifth and Sixth four, the seventh two, the remaining four each one, in all twenty nine Consonants.
The Second Rank in each File contain Derivatives [so I shall name them] in relation to the [Page 7] First Rank, or their Primitives, all alike in kind, so also all the Derivatives in the Third Rank, in the Fourth and Fifth Rank, whereby their Sounds will be the better comprehended.
Those places filled by two strokes (=) signifie that Sounds may be express'd by the same posture of the Mouth with their Primitives, answering in kind to those in the same Rank wherein they stand, but they would be so like in pronounciation to some others in the Table, that the difference would be too nice for common discernment, and also for that I have not observed them used in any Language I have heard express'd by a perfect Mouth, I thought it needless to characterize them.
As those of the Fourth and Fifth Rank in the First File are like those of, the Fourth and Fifth Rank in the Fifth File, those of the First, Second, Third Ranks in the Fith File, are like those of the same Ranks in the First File, those of the First, Second, Third Ranks in the Sixth File, are like those of the same Ranks in the Second File.
Some of these above-mentioned twenty nine single Consonants, are vulgarly supposed compounded, as th, ch, sh, gn, ng, &c. But if you shall consider the Sound of each single Consonant in the Composition apart, and then the Conjunction of them in that order, so as the single Sounds may be clearly discerned, in the Composition you will never make the Sounds required, and if neither by this nor by any other [Page 8] Conjunction the required sound can be made out, it must be a single and no compound Sound.
Whereas these single Sounds, vulgarly described as Compounds, ought to have single Characters; and Secondly, that some of the single Characters have in the same Lanuage a different Sound, as c in the Words, can, mice; g in the Words George, Game, &c. and also a different Sound in different Languages, as I Consonant differently express'd in several Languages, as in English, Low Dutch, French, Spanish; and Thirdly, that some single Sounds are different-characterized in the same Language, as the Sound of s in same, and c in mice, the same Sound by two different Characters; so also c in can, and k in kind the same, &c. and the same also in different Languages, as ch in the French Word chose, and sh in the Word shall, the same, &c. It will be imposible in the use of the present Characters or Alphabets to add those wanting, and to correct and limit the Sound of others in use, thereby to constitute a perfect Alphabet because people so long accustomed or habituated to such corrupt and differing Expressions of the present Characters, will be always subject on the sight of the old to give them those Sounds they have been used to, and to Spell Words according to their old and corrupt custom, whatsoever Rule [...] shall be set to the contrary, and therefore there will be a necessity of a whole new Set of Characters, both of Vowels and Consonants.