To remedy the deficiency of traditional alphabets, many more detailed and adequate visual systems have been designed for the representation of pronunciation. These are of four classes :— (I ) Based on no existing visual forms, e.g., The Bell-Sweet system.
(3) Based on existing Roman letters with abundant diacritical marks, e.g., The Lepsius Alphabet.
(4) Based on existing Roman signs, but using new letters in stead of diacritical marks, e.g., The International Pho netic Association Alphabet.
One or other of these systems must be used when it is desired to describe a pronunciation in detail, as in pronouncing diction aries, descriptions of languages, and in comparative philological works.
Phonetically there is little to choose between these systems, but recent investigation into their comparative merits would appear, upon psychological, pedagogical and typographical evidence, to favour alphabets of the fourth class.
6. Influence of Spelling upon Pronunciation.—There is observed, in the case of highly civilized and educated communities, where the majority of the speakers are familiar with the visual language, a very marked influence exerted by the visual language upon the pronunciation. The visual language, which was origi nally designed to represent the pronunciation, and to be sub servient to it, tends to become the criterion of accuracy, and to dominate the pronunciation.
As familiarity with the visual language increases so a new stand ard of accuracy in pronunciation arises, namely, the printed word.
This is very evident from a consideration of the pronunciation of English place names. Historical pronunciations are being aban doned in favour of pronunciations more in keeping with the visual forms, which become familiar only with the advent of postal and railway communication. Daventry is now pronounced as written, though a local pronunciation, Daintry, has existed for centuries. It is interesting to record these old pronunciations, but it is doubtful whether they can now be restored to general use. If Daintry is to be admitted at the expense of Daventry, then "ain't" must be given preference to "haven't," for the principle that governs the disappearance of the medial "v" is the same in both cases. The influence of the visual upon the spoken language
is likely to be a prominent feature in determining the future pro nunciation of language.
7. Standards of Pronunciation.—The impression that one form of pronunciation is "better" than all others appears to be common in the languages of most civilized communities ; it is found even in the case of those African languages that have never been written. The prestige of this form of pronunciation varies from language to language, and the degree of adverse criticism levelled at those who do not use it varies from country to country. It is by no means certain that there is now, or that there has ever been at any time, in any language, with the possible excep tion of Classical Arabic, what is popularly called a standard pro nunciation ; but it is quite evident that the desire for such a criterion is widespread.
The greater the territorial extent of the nation, the greater will be the number of metropolitan centres; the more organized and complex the social life, the greater will be the number of social classes, each with its own conventions of pronunciation. Where, as in the case of English, separate nationalities, at different ends of the earth, speak the same language, there will tend to grow up in each centre of national life, a different ideal as to what is considered the most desirable pronunciation. There is no more evident manifestation of national entity than a national language, and a new national language will begin when any one of the national groups of the English-speaking world desires to estab lish a national standard of pronunciation at variance with that in vogue in the geographical area where the language was born. History tends to teach that disintegration was inevitable in the conditions that prevailed in the past ; it may be checked by in creased oral communication, increased intermingling of popula tion. but most of all by the definite teaching throughout the area, of one form of pronunciation. This teaching has preserved the entity of Classical Arabic; it has not prevented the disintegration of the Arabic into the various colloquial pronunciations that pre vail in the different parts of the Arabic-speaking world.