English Words As Spoken and Written, Designed to Teach the Powers of Letters, and the Construction and Use of Syllables and Words (Classic Reprint)

Written words are characters designed to cause the reader to conceive certain sound combinations which, whether heard or imagined, express ideas. Every word in our language has its sign-character. The art of constructing or construing these characters is called spelling. Word characters are composite, thfeir sign-structure being strictly analogous to the sound-structure of the words they signify. Each elementary sound in our speech is represented by one or more signs called phonograms. A phonogram may consist of one, two, three, or four letters. Thus, the sound of long a is signified by the phonograms, a, al, ay, au, ea, ei, ey, eigh. In word-structure, the phonogram is always an indivisible unit, and should be so treated. It is never silent. Spelling should be by phonogram, not by letter. By such spelling the words cat and caught have each three phonograms, c-a-t and c-augh-t. This spelling accords with the true phonetic nature of the language; it avoids the confusion and perplexity which result from considering letters as the only phonograms, though nany of them are frequently without function. The phonograms in our language are not very numerous, and are soon learned, as characters, by proper observation in words wherein they occur. Familiarity with them greatly benefits both spelling and reading.
(Typographical errors above are due to OCR software and don't occur in the book.)

About the Publisher

Forgotten Books is a publisher of historical writings, such as: Philosophy, Classics, Science, Religion, History, Folklore and Mythology.

Forgotten Books' Classic Reprint Series utilizes the latest technology to regenerate facsimiles of historically important writings. Careful attention has been made to accurately preserve the original format of each page whilst digitally enhancing the aged text.