(3) The various English speech-sounds are written with an even greater variety of symbols and combinations of symbols. These sounds, which comprise 16 vowels and 24 consonants (with 4 diphthongs). are represented in the standard phonetic alphabet, adopted by the American Philological Association, as follows (the sound being that of the corresponding letter in the word placed within the parenthesis) : i (it), e (met), a (at), a (ask), a (not), o (obey), uu (but), n (full), i (pique), e (they), a (air), fl (arm), a (nor), 1 (no), f, (burn), (rule). p (pet), t (tip), eh (chest), c or k (come), f (fat), th (thin), s (sown), sh (she), h (he), b (bet), d (dip), j (jest), g (gum), v (vat), dh (thee), z (zone), zh (azure), w (wit), 1 (lo, ell), r (rat, are), y (ye. year), in (me), nn (no), ng (sing) : diphthongs, ai (aisle, isle), au (out, hour), ei (oil, boy), iu (fend, kir). The ways in which these sounds arc represented in the customary spelling are too numerous to be here given and illustrated in full, but the orthographic situation will be under stood from the following examples: i (it), ac cented or unaccented, is represented by i, y, e, o, u, ie, ee, ui, ai, hi, ire, eo, a, ia. ei, ey, ea, eig ('), ehea, ewi, ois, uy, oi, igh, ay, ieu, as in the following words: fit, hymn, pretty, women, busy, sieve, breeches, build, Saint John (sin'jun), ex h ib i t firepence ( fip'ens ) Theolm Id carriage, forfeit, donkey, guinea, sovereign, James's forehead, housewife (hus'if), chamois, plagay, .Tervois (jer'vis), Denbigh, Rothesay (roth'si), Beaulieu (bew'li). E (met) = e, ca, a, u, ai, ci. ie, co, ue, ay, m, ace, as in get, head, many, bury, said, heifer, friend, leopard, guess, says, fcrtid, Aberga ecnny ( abergen'i 1, 0 (no) = o, 0-e; oa, ow, on, owe, oe. oo, ew. ewe. ough,
oh, eau, eo, au, os, ant, ock, as in holy, vote, road, bowl, soul, roircd, woe, brooch (broch), sea-, though, oh, beau, yeoman, hauteur, apropos, hautboy. l'ockburti ( (come) = e, q, ch, cc, eq, qu, qne, lk, gh, Sc, x, ke, Ike, quh. cell, as in call, kill, quell, back, ache, account, acquaint, liquor, barque, walk, hough, viscount, except, Burke, Folkestone, Bacchanal. T (tip) = t, tt, ed, th, tw. ht, et, pt, cht, phth, te, tte, as in ten, better, stopped, thyme, too, debt. indict, receipt, yacht, phthis-is, caste, gazette. In brief, the 44 (with the diphthongs) English sounds are repre sented by upward of 500 symbols and combina tions. From this it results that an English word can, theoretically, be written in a great variety of forms.
The confusion of English spelling, however, while great, is not so complete as might be ex pected from its above-stated theoretic-al defects: it exhibits a certain amount of system and it is possible also to demonstrate in it a very con siderable phonetic element. Apart from the in adequacy of the alphabet, its chief practical defects are the ambiguities in the use of c and k (cat, kill). c and s (cinder, seat ), f and ph (fool, philosopher), t and d or c(/ (dropped, kept), ch and k (cholera, keep), and the em ployment of silent letters, that is, letters which if omitted would leave the symbol (see above) a simpler and, generally a more common (though 1101 neeessarily more phonetically correct) one for the same sound (as in feather, jeopardy. par liament, pedagogue, guard, add, feign, ghost, though, thorough, scythe. etc.).