The work of Mr. Ellis is entitled:-On Early English Pronunciation, with especial reference to Shakspere and Chaucer, by Alexander J. Ellis, F.R.S. The first two parts were published in 1869 by three societies in combination, viz. the Philological Society, the Early English Text Society, and the Chaucer Society; and the third part, by the same societies, in 1870. The work is not yet completed, and the fourth part, not yet published, will contain a full account of our modern English provincial dialects, shewing their distribution and connections. Mr. Ellis employs a system of symbols called palæotype, but, as every one of these has its exact equivalent in Mr. Bell's system, it admits of the same degree of accuracy, and has the advantage of being wholly represented by ordinary printing-types.

The next system is that invented by Mr. Ellis for the special representation of English dialectal sounds, and denominated Glossic. By the kindness of the author, a copy of the tract upon Glossic is in the hands of every member of our Society. The attention of readers is directed to page 11 of that tract, where the thirty-six vowels of Mr. Bell's Visible Speech have their equivalent values in Glossic properly tabulated.

In Mr. Sweet's volume, now in the reader's hands, the corresponding table of vowel-sounds is given at page 5, and one principal object of this short Preface is to shew how Mr. Sweet's symbols and the 'Glossic' symbols agree together, and how, again, each table agrees with that of Mr. Bell.

I shall refer, then, to the three tables as given at p. 5 of Mr. Sweet's book, at p. 11 of the Glossic tract, and at p. 8 of Visible Speech for the Million. See also p. 14 of Mr. Ellis's Early English Pronunciation.

1 The system called Glossotype, illustrated at p. 16 of Mr. Ellis's Early English Pronunciation, may be considered as now cancelled, and superseded by Glossic.

Mr. Ellis and Mr. Sweet agree with Mr. Bell in their use of the terms High, Mid, and Low; in their use of the terms Back, Mixed, and Front; and in their use of the terms Wide and Wide-round. The only difference is that Mr. Sweet uses the term Narrow instead of Primary (see page 4, note 1), and also uses the more exact term Narrow-round in place of what Mr. Ellis calls Round simply. As Mr. Sweet has numbered his sounds, it is easy to tabulate the correspondence of the systems in the following manner. I denote here Mr. Sweet's sounds by the number only, and include the Glossic symbol within square brackets, in the usual manner.

Now it should be clearly understood that these two systems are both perfectly exact, because both refer to the same positions of the organs of voice; but, as soon as these sounds come to be described by illustrative examples, a few slight apparent discrepancies arise, solely from a difference of individual pronunciation, even in the case of common 'keywords.' I believe I am correct in saying that even Mr. Bell's 'key-words' do not represent to everybody the exact sounds intended, but are better understood by a North-country man than by a resident in London. Mr. Ellis describes this difficulty in the following words: "At the latter end of his treatise Mr. Melville Bell has given in to the practice of keywords, and assigned them to his symbols. Let the reader be careful not to take the value of his symbol from his own pronunciation of the key-words, or from any other person's. Let him first determine the value of the symbol from the

exact description and diagram of the speech-organs,—or if possible also from the living voice of some one thoroughly acquainted with the system-and then determine Mr. Bell's own pronunciation of the key-word from the known value of the symbol. This pronunciation in many instances differs from that which I am accustomed to give it, especially in foreign words."

In order to steer clear of such minor difficulties, Mr. Sweet has adopted a very simple system of notation, which only aims at representing the broader distinctions between vowels, using, for example, the same symbol [a] for the mid-back-wide and the low-back-wide sounds (nos. 11 and 12), without further distinction, and defining it only as the sound a, as most commonly heard in the word father. Roughly speaking, then, the symbols which Mr. Sweet employs in his vowel-table may be thus represented in Glossic.

a, as the short vowel corresponding to the first vowel in father; compare Glossic [aa], as in [faa'dhur].

æ, as a in man; Glossic [a], as in [man].

è, as e in tell; Glossic [e or ae], as in [tel]; provincial [tael].

é, as ai in bait; Glossic [ai], as in [bait].

→, as u in but; Glossic [u], as in [but].

i, as in bit; Glossic [i], as in [bit].

ò, as in not; òò, as in naught; Glossic [o] in [not]; [au] in [naut].

ó, as oa in boat; Glossic [oa], as in [boat].

oe, as ö in Germ. schön; Glossic [oe], as in Germ. [shoen]. u, as oo in foot; uu as oo in cool; Glossic [uo, oo], as in [fuot, kool].

y, as ü in Germ. übel; Glossic [ue], as in Germ. [uebu'l]. ai, a diphthong of a and i, as y in my; Glossic [ei], as in [mei].

au, a diphthong of a and u, as ou in house; Glossic [ou], as in [hous].

éi, a diphthong of é and i, as a in tale; Glossic [aiy], as in [taiyl].

óu, as o in no, i.e. ó with an aftersound of u; Glossic [oaw], as in [noaw].

oi, as oy in boy; Glossic [oi], as in [boi].

It may be added, that p is used to represent the sound of th in thin, Glossic [thin]; and to represent the th in this, Glossic [dhis].

According, then, to Mr. Sweet's notation, the word father is written faaðǝr; man, mæn; tell, tèl; bait, bét, or (more commonly) béit, in Southern English, béét in Scotch; but, bət; bit, bit; not, nòt; boat, bót, or (more commonly) bout, in Southern English, bóót in Scotch; Germ. schön, shoen; foot, fut; Germ. übel, ybəl; my, mai; house, haus; tale, téil; no, nóu; boy, boi.

The long vowels are expressed by doubling the symbol employed for the shorter vowels. The following are examples, viz. father, faader (the short sound of which is found in the Anglo-Saxon man, in modern English changed to man); earn, worse, een, wees; saw, faught, sòò, fòòt; whose, huuz; and the like. Examples of diphthongs are seen in eight, éit; lord, hoarse, lòǝd, hòəs; smear, smier; bear, béər; etc.

The easiest way of becoming familiar with this very simple notation is to observe the long list of words beginning at p. 84. By comparing the third column, which gives the modern English spelling, with the fourth, which gives the modern English pronunciation according to the above system, the sounds intended can be very easily ascertained, and the reader

1 More clearly heard when used as a negative, in response to a question, than when used as in the phrase 'no man.' EXAMPLE: Do you like that? Answer

nóu.

will be prepared to understand what is meant by the first and second columns, which exhibit the pronunciations of the Old and Middle period respectively. The thanks of students are especially due to Mr. Sweet for these word-lists, with the alphabetical register of them appended. They can only have been compiled at the cost of much labour and diligence, and shew an intimate acquaintance with the spellings and pronunciations of all periods of English.

W. W. S.