Our common writing has two defects: first, the complexity of its letters; second, the irregularity of their use.

1. The letters have each from three to five, six, or seven inflections; that is, the pen must trace such a number of curves and strokes in making each letter. We overcome this difficulty by using alphabetic signs that can be made with one stroke of the pen. Many of these signs have still a resemblance to the letters of the old alphabet. Compare the old with the new letters. See Illustration A.

2. The second difficulty, the irregular and redundant use of the old letters, we overcome by the phonetic method; that is, we employ enough characters to represent each elementary sound in the language, and then use this sign in all cases for its proper sound. It will be seen that by this method we omit all silent letters, and, where digraphs have the sound of a single letter, one sign only is employed. The word they, for instance, contains four letters, but only two sounds; hence, only two signs would be required to write it. The word thought contains three sounds, requiring three signs, etc. The student should commence by analyzing each word; that is, separating it into the individual sounds that compose it, giving each sound its appropriate sign.

The irregularities of our orthography result from the use of silent letters, as y in may, bay, ray, say, etc.; e in foe, hoe, etc.; gh in taught, sought, etc.; from the change of sound that letters undergo, as a in fate, fat, far, fall, etc.; e in mete, met, they, etc.; o in note, not, son, moon, etc.; from the use of different letters and combinations of letters to represent the same sound; as a (long) by a in fate, by e in fete, by ai in rain, by ei in rein, by ay in may, by ey in they, by au in gauge, etc.; and from 6uch a mingling of all these causes as to render any clear and methodical classification of these irregularities impossible.

Now all we need to say to the student of Tachygraphy is this: pay no attention to the letters in a word, but pronounce it accurately and use the signs that represent those sounds. Unlike the old letters, the new signs represent always the same sounds. The long sound of A long is always represented by , the short sound by ; the long sound of E by the short sound by . ; the long sound of J by v, the Bhort sound by the long sound of O by the short by the long sound of U by the short sound by etc.; sh is always written (, ph ), th , etc. The matter will be made clearer by studying the following examples. See Illustration B.