English visible speech for the million : for communicating the exact pronunciation of the language to native or foreign learners, and for teaching children and illiterate adults to read in a few days.

  • Alexander Melville Bell
Date:
[1868]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: English visible speech for the million : for communicating the exact pronunciation of the language to native or foreign learners, and for teaching children and illiterate adults to read in a few days. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Harvey Cushing/John Hay Whitney Medical Library at Yale University, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the Harvey Cushing/John Hay Whitney Medical Library at Yale University.

    10/24 (page 7)
    CAPITALS, small types not having yet been cast. When a larger Reading-book is demanded, the ' lower-case' letters will be indispensable ; and they will be found preferable both for ease of legibility and for typographic beauty. The forms of the letters are identical in both alphabets ;—the only difference being, that the lines of ' lower-case' vowels ascend or descend beyond the consonant curves. Thus : aft, instead of Q[\, (Key.) Notes on the Diagrams, at page 8. I. Each of the positions of the mouth shown in the three Diagrams in the first column, produces four Consonants. Thus : OOQ The mouth-passage closed (and opened) by means of the sym- bolized organ. QQ© The same actions, with a murmur of vocal sound during the contact. QOO The same actions (voiceless) with the nasal passage open. QQ30 The same actions, with the nasal passage open and the voice sounding. The letter Q is separately illustrated (3rd Diagram of 2nd column), in order to show the means by which the breath, or the voice, is admitted to the nose in pronouncing the six nasals Q O D G O D- II. Each of the nine vowel configurations produces four vowels : I. Primary, as ] ; II. Round, as J ; III. Wide, as 3 ; IV. Wide-Round, as J. This principle being understood, learners who know only the English sounds, will find themselves able to pronounce foreign and unheard vowels by means of their 'visible' relations to English elements. Thus 1J are seen to be the same as JJ, but without the cross bar ; that is, the sounds of 1J have the same lingual positions as }J (oo, aw), but without contrac- tion of the lips. So, likewise, tf are seen to be the same as [\, with the sign of 'round' quality added ; that is, ft are simply the vowels [\ (eel, ell) pronounced with the lips contracted. III. 'High' vowels have the closest labial contraction, and 'low' vowels the broadest ; as illustrated in the Diagrams of the ' Positions of the Lips for 'round' vozvels? Thus: 1 (00) has the lips as in No. 1 ; } (0) as in No. 2 ; and J (aw) as in No. 3. IV. The Diagrams showing the ' Positions of the Tongue for 'front' vowels? are intended to help the reader to a clear conception of the organic cause of vowel variety. The eye is supposed to look down on the tongue through the roof of the mouth. The difference between Primary and Wide Vowels cannot be illustrated by diagrams. The expansion of the cavity of the mouth for the ' Wide' sounds will, however, be felt in pronouncing any of the pairs of vowels, as H (eel, ill), [C (ale, air), \\ (ell, an), ]] (must, mast), \\ pool, pull), &c.