In examining the modern alphabets by the principle which ought to regulate the construction of a complete alphabet, it cannot he denied that considerable defects will appear. 'Fhese alphabets being formed from the Roman, it is no way surprising that they should not in all respects be fully adapted to languages in great part derived from the northern tongues. Aber all, however, these imperfections do not materially alfect their use and application to the expression of almost any words whatever which we wish to signify in writing ; we can conceive indeed, that, by certain alterations, this might sometimes be done with greater simplicity, conciseness, and perspicuity ; but still, even with the present on and structure of our letters, the object may in general be fully, and without any extraordinary difficulty, attain ed. As defects however are found, these have at differ ent times engaged the attention of ingenious men, and schemes for a more perfect system of letters have been given to the world. It may be worth while to take a short liew or one or two of the schemes thus proposed.
Our English alphabet, it has been justly remarked, is both redundant and defective. In it several characters are superfluous ; as C, whose place is supplied some times by K, sometimes by S ; and J, which may be sup plied either by G or I. In other cases, there is a defi ciency of characters, as in the instance of the vowels, of which many more are used in pronunciation than lire, the number of the vowel letters : and frequently, where the sound is simple, the character is complex. Thus sh in shape, is a simple sound ; as is th in thumb, and ng in king. These defects arc aggravated by the very arbi trary orthography, introduced by custom into the Eng lish language, which deviates often more widely from a just representation of the words as they are uttered, and from the principles of a regular analogy, than the orthography of any other language of Europe. Thus the following words, though they arc spelt differently, arc pronounced exactly alike Dear, Deer ; Mart, Hart ; Son, Sun ; To, Two, Too, &c. Some words, on the other hand, though spelt alike, arc differently pronounced ; as, Give, (the verb,) and Give, (a chain,) &c. read in the present, and read in the past tense. The most remark able of these anomalies is in the case of the termina tion ough, which in different words is pronounced in no fewer than nine different manners; it has the sound of 2ip in hiccough ; of aou in bough ; of o in dough ; of Off in cough ; of ock in lough ; of VI' in tough ; of ou in through ; of o short in thorough ; and of aw in This is a very wide violation of the precept of Quin tilian, that words ought to be written exactly as they are pronounced, in order that they may be a fit sign to those who read them, of the sounds they arc intended to con vey. " Ego nisi (plod consuetudo obtinuerit, sit scriben
dum yuodque judico yuomodo sonar: Inc enim usus e literuram, ut custodiant VOCC8 et welat deposicum reddant I gentibus ; id exprintere debent,quod dicturi sant." (Inst. Orat.1. 1. c. 7 .) it is untOrtunate, that custom is with great difficulty got the better of in this particular; and when once a nude of orthography is sanctioned by habit, it too often obstinately withstands all innovation or improvement. It is related, that Chilperick, king of France, having enjoined by edict, that the Greek du plices and aspirates &, should he employed throughout his dominions for the greater commodious ness of writing, and taught in the schools; no sooner was he dead than they were entirely disused. The great Augustus himself declared, that he was unable to bring into use a single new word. Some improvements, how ever, have, by perseverance, been made in our ortho graphy. We now no longer write indiscriminately v for a, and j for i, as our forefathers did; but give to the v and j the constant power of consonants, and to the u and i their proper effect as vowels; and doubtless more improvements might be accomplished if gone about in a cautious and judicious manner.
The ingenious Dr Franklin had bestowed considerable attention on the reformation of the English orthography, and actually constructed a new alphabet and system of spelling, apparently free from any of the above objec tions. In the alphabet of Franklin, c was omitted as superfluous, k supplying its hard sound, and s its soft; k also supplied the place of q, and with an s added, the place of x ; y and x were therefore omitted also. The vowel u being sounded as co, made w unnecessary. The y, where used simply, was supplied by i, and where as a diphthong, by two vowels ; it was therefore likewise omitted, as was the j, whose place was otherwise sup plied. In the room of these six discarded letters, six new ch•tracters were introduced, all expressive of sim ple sounds employed in the English language, and dis tinguished by peculiar The first of these was meant to express the long a, as in awl, ball, folly, &c.; to avoid introducing new characters, we shall mark it by "a," with a line under it thus a. The second was for the short a, as in umbrage, unto, &c. and may be ex pressed by u; the third was for sh in ship, wish, &c. and may be marked s; the fourth was for ng in throng, among, &c. and may be marked g; the fifth was for Hz in think, and may be marked t ; and the sixth was for c/h in thy, and may be marked d . The difference be tween short and long vowels was expressed by a single vowel where short, and a double one where long. Thus, for mend, write mend ; but for remain'd, write remeend ; for did, write did ; but for deed, write diid, &c.