All the vowels in the common orthography are irregular. They each represent more than one sound.

lindsley's phonetic short-hand.

A has six Bounds, - along sound, as in hate; a short sound in hat; an open sound in far; a broad, open sound in fall; a medial sound in air; and stands for ě in many.

E has three sounds, - a long sound, as in eve; a short in ebb; and an obscure sound before r, as in person. It is generally silent in the end of words.

J has three sounds, - a long, diphthongal sound in fine; a, short in fin ; and a sound more or less obscure before r, as in bird.

0 has five sounds, - a long sound, as in tone; a short sound, as in non; an open, as in or; a close, as in who; and the sound of ŭ in son.

U has five sounds, - a long, diphthongal sound in tune; a short in sun; a close in full; and the sound of ě in bury, and ĭ in busy.

Grouping these sounds together, we have E, A, Aĭ, Ah, I, e, ă, Oo, 0, Au,ŏŏ, ŭ ,ŏ, 1, and Ew; to which we might add two more diphthongal sounds, - Oi and Ow.

To make the confusion of our common orthography still more complete, each of these sounds are expressed in several ways, as will be seen in the following examples. The letters that represent the sound are italicized.

E long is represented by e, ea, ee, ei, eo, ey, i, ie, and ay, as in the words, eve, ear, beet, conceit, people, Key, pique, pier, and quay.

A long is represented by a, ai, ao, au, ay, e, ea, ci, ey, ue, aigh, eigh, as in the words ale, aid, gaol, gauge, gay, fete, great, veil, they, bouquet, straight, eight.

Ah is represented by a, Ah, and ua, as in are, Noah, and guard.

Ai is represented by a, ai, e, and ei, as in the words care, air, there, and their.

I short (ĭ) is represented by i, y, ee, u, and ui, in the words in, system, been, busy, and circuit.

E short (ĕ) by e, ea, a, ai, ay, and ue, as in met, head, any, said, says, and guess.

So, also, the following, as illustrated by the annexed examples : -

A short, - at, guaranty.

Oo, - who, soot, soup, through.

O, - note, oat, though, bowl.

Au, - all, cause, laws, ought, slaughter, dialogue.

06 short, - foot, full, legion, dungeon.

U short, - up, enough, love.

O short, - on, hough.

It will be seen that, in the case of vowels, as well as consonants, we express simple elementary sounds by two letters; in a few instances by three.

The necessity for this arises from the impossibility of expressing fourteen sounds properly by five letters. The digraphs employed to represent simple sounds are aa, ae, ai, ao, au, aw, ay, ea, ee, ei, eo, ey, ie, oa, oe, oo, ou, ow, ua, ue, ui, uo, uy. The trigraphs are eau, eou, iou, besides aigh, eigh, ough, etc.

As in the words Aaron, fail, gaol, Gaul, law, and lay; head, heed, forfeit, bludgeon, they, sieve, oat, hoe, door, soup, bow, guard, guess, circuit, Guy, Halcyon, beau, gorgeous, religious, straight, eight, though, etc.

Most of these digraphs have, also, several sounds. Ai, for instance, has different sounds in the words air, fail, said; so, also, ea in mead and meadow; ou in about, trouble, sought, soup, bough; and ough in though, thought, trough, cough, hough, hiccough, bough, etc.

To represent the fourteen simple vocal sounds, we have five simple vowels, twenty-three digraphs, three trigraphs, and three combinations of four letters each, - thirty-four in all. It will be noticed farther that no one of these thirty-four vocal-sound letters, or combination of letters, has any definite sound that can be relied upon, but represents variously from two to eight or nine sounds each.

Diphthongs and Triphthongs. The long sounds of the vowels I and U are diphthongal. Other diphthongal sounds are represented by two vowels, both of which are sounded. They are oi, ou, and ow, as in oil, out, how. Some trigraphs represent diphthongal sounds, as iew in view, ieu in lieu.

In summing up this hasty view of the English alphabet, and the orthography resulting from it, we may say of the alphabet that it is, -

1st. Redundant; containing three superfluous letters, - c, y, and x.

2d. Deficient; wanting letters for the sounds of lsh, Zhe, Ith, The, Ing, and Cha; and at least nine out of fourteen vocal sounds.

3d. Ambiguous; on account of supplying the want of proper letters by three times the needed number of combinations for the vocal 6igns, and an indefinite number of consonantal combinations.

4th. Inconsistent; in representing the diphthongal sounds I and U (long) by single letters, and using, in numerous instances, two, three, or four letters, to express one simple elementary sound; and in making the same letters represent both vocal and consonantal sounds, as W and Y do.

Of the resulting orthography, we may say that the spelling is no guide to the pronunciation; that if its design had been to disguise sounds instead of expressing them, it could not have been more happily adapted for the purpose; that the redundancies and deficiencies of the alphabet are needlessly increased by the use of silent letters without method, order, or law; that caprice determines the letters which shall be employed in any given case, without any regard to necessity, convenience, beauty, or reason; that it is not an orthography at all, but a cacography or pseudography; that it is a nuisance, a stupendous folly, a hoary, chaotic ruin, - a curse to the English language, and a disgrace to the people that use it.