A PHILOSOPHIC ALPHABET, OR ARRANGEMENT OF LETTERS, FORMS, OR FIGURES BY WHICH THE ARTICULATE SOUNDS OF LANGUAGE MAY BE SCIENTIFICALLY DENOTED
Year: 1832

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, GEORGE
EDMONDS, of Saint Mary's Square, Birmingham, in the County of Warwick,
Gentleman, send greeting.
WHEREAS His present most Excellent Majesty King William the Fourth,
by His Letters Patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain, bearing date
at Westminster, the Thirteenth day of April, in the second year of His reign,
did, for Himself, His heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the said
George Edmonds, His especial licence, full power, sole privilege and authority,
that I, the said George Edmonds, my exors, admors, and assigns, or such others
as I, the said George Edmonds, my exors, admors, or assigns, should at any
time agree with, and no others, from time to time and at all times during
the term of years therein expressed, should and lawfully might make, use,
exercise, and vend, within England, Wales, and the Town of Berwick-upon-
Tweed, my Invention of "A PHILOSOPHIC ALPHABET, OR ARRANGEMENT OF
LETTERS, FORMS, OR FIGURES BY WHICH THE ARTICULATE SOUNDS OF LANGUAGE
MAY BE SCIENTIFICALLY DENOTED;" in which said Letters Patent is contained
a proviso that I, the said George Edmonds, should cause a particular descrip-
tion of the nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the same is to
be performed, to be enrolled in His said Majesty's High Court of Chancery
within six calendar months next and immediately after the date of the said
in part recited Letters Patent, as in and by the same, reference being thereunto
had, will more fully and at large appear.
NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the
said George Edmonds, do hereby declare the nature of my said Invention,

page_text: and the manner in which the same is to be performed, are fully described and
ascertained in and by the following description thereof (that is to say) :-
My Invention consists in a certain arrangement of signs to which are given
certain sounds, and then, by combining such signs, the sounds or pronuncia-
tion of words of languages may be readily indicated, and thus may an
individual acquainted with such signs and their respective sounds be able to
give any words their appropriate sounds, even though the individual may not
be acquainted with the particular language, and thus may be facilitated the
teaching of languages, as will be fully understood by the particular description
hereafter given of the said signs and sounds, and their application. The
various signs which I employ are represented on the separate Sheet hereunto
annexed.
DESCRIPTION OF THE SIGNS CONSTITUTING THE PHILOSOPHIC ALPHABET.
First, the letters, forms, or figures in Plan A, which are numbered from 1 to
43, represent the letters, forms, or figures which I collectively denominate the
philosophic alphabet, the lines No. 1, 2, 3, and 4 only serving to determine
the proportion and certain points in the formation of the letters, viz:-The
letters which have an up or fine stroke have that stroke to commence and
conclude on line No. 2. The long letters all occupy the space between lines
1 and 4, and the short ones the space between lines 1 and 3. Lines 1 and 4
include the space of one inch, which I divide equally by line 8, and again
subdivide the upper half inch by line 2. In ordinary use these lines are not
used, and the letters, forms, or figures may be made in different proportions
and sizes, and may be made perpendicular, or in different angles, declining
either to the right hand or left. This collection or arrangement of letters,
forms, or figures constitutes the first part of my Invention.
Second. I now proceed to assign to each letter, form, or figure the name
by which I distinguish it, and the sound which I employ it to represent.
No. 1 I call pee. It represents the same sound as the letter p in the words
pot, pat, pit, pet, put, part, please, priest, cap.
No. 2 I call bee. It represents the same sound as the letter b in the words
back, beck, bit, bought, bind, bless, breast, bulb, cub.
No. 3 I call fee. It represents the same sound as the letter f in the words
fop, for, feel, fin, father, fish, fleet, free.
No. 4 I call vee. It represents the same sound as the letter in the words
volley, vortex, voice, vote, vanquish, love, have, drive, save.
No. 5 I call mee. It. represents the same sound as the letter m in the words
mop, mart, met, mete, man, miss, dream, come, came.

page_text: No. 6 I call nee. It represents the same sound as the letter n in the words
not, nor, noise, nose, nigh, near, pin, pen, ten.
No. 7 I call thee, as heard in the word theory. It represents the same sound
as the letters th in the words think, three, thought, thrill, thirty, pith.
No. 8 I call thee, as heard in the word these. It represents the same sound
as the letters th in the words thou, then, therefore, thine, wreath, writhe,
breathe.
No. 9 I call tee.
tot, taught, toil, tour,
No. 10 I call dee.
words dog, daughter,
It represents the same sound as the letter t in the words
tart, put, pit, part.
It represents the same sound as the letter d in the
dome, dead, dark, dried, deed, bad, lad.
No. 11 I call shee. It represents the same sound as the letters sh in the
words shot, short, shall, shine, wish, wash, fresh, rash.
No. 12 I call zhee. It represents the same sound as the letter & in the
words pleasure, leasure, osier, rasure, measure, treasure, hosier.
No. 13 I call chee. It represents the same sound as the letters ch in the
words chapel, cheer, church, cheap, chesnut, cheese, pinch, peach, bunch.
No. 14 I call jee. It represents the same sound as the letter g in genious,
gentile, ginger, George, giant.
No. 15 I call sce. It represents the same sound as the letter s in the
words sot, sought, soil, soul, slap, slip.
No. 16 I call zee. It represents the same sound as the letter & in the
words nose, those, beards, words, cards, beams.
No. 17 I call lee. It represents the same sound as the letter in the words
lot, law, loin, lore, land, lard, line, lime, loud.
No. 18 I call ree. It represents the same sound as the letter r in the words
rod, rose, red, rare, rope, pare, peer, pore, fire.
No. 19 I call kee. It represents the same sound as the letter k in the words
king, keep, kill, kine, ink, pink, drink, brink.
No. 20. I call gee, as heard in geese. It represents the same sound as the
letter g in the words gone, game, gaudy, glory, grace, pig, leg, big.
9
No. 21 I call hee, aspirating the h. It represents the same sound as the
letter h in the words hope, holy, heaven, hereafter, inheritance, inherit.
No. 22 I call ngee, like ng in king with ee after it. It represents the same
sound as the letters ng in the words gong, sing, swing, lengthen, song, long.
No. 23 I call by the sound it represents, which is the same as that of the
letter o in the words hot, cot, not, on, rod.
The names of all the letters from 23 to 38 inclusive, with those of 42 and
43, are the same as the sound they represent, and I distinguish them by
the sound.

page_text: No. 24 represents the same sound as the letter a in the words ball, call,
tall, pall.
No. 25 represents the same sound as the letters oi in the words, boil, coil,
toil, foil, soil, oil.
No. 26 represents the same sound as the letter o in the words pole, roll, soul,
forego, lo, no, rope.
No. 27 represents the same sound as the letter a in the words bat, hat, cat,
that, rat, at.
No. 28 represents the same sound as the letter a in the words part, hart,
dart, start, half, bark.
No. 29 represents the same sound as the letter i in the words pine, dine,
high, thine, mine.
No. 30 represents the same sound as the letters ow in the words power,
dower, down, gown, town.
No. 31 represents the same sound as the letter e in the words pet, bet, wet,
met, men, then, den.
No. 32 represents the same sound as the letter a in the words dare, share,
care, beware.
No. 33 represents the same sound as the letter a in the words pate, date,
late, hate, make, name.
No. 34 represents the same sound as the letter i in the words pin, thin, dip,
lip, ship, wit, pit.
No. 35 represents the same sound as the letter e in the words me, the, he,
she, tea.
No. 36 represents the same sound as the letter in the words pull, bull,
full, nature, feature, moisture.
No. 37 represents the same sound as the letters oo in the words, moon,
soon, cool, fool, pool, rook.
No. 38 represents the same sound as the letter u in the words tub, rub,
husband, pug, rug, grub.
No. 39 I call wee. It represents the same sound or position of the organs
of speech as the letter w in the words we, why, when, where, webb, will,
when, weep.
No. 40 I call yee. It represents the same sound or position of the organs
of speech as the letter y in the words year, yore, yield, yet, yes.
No. 41 I call the Hebrew aspirate. It represents the same sound as the
leventh letter of the Hebrew alphabet (caph), indicated in the Welch by ch,
nd familiar to the Spanish, by whom it is represented by the letter j.
No. 42 represents the same sound as the letter i when before r, as heard in
he following words, viz., fire, wire, hire, tire, sire.
3
8
4

page_text: No. 43 represents the same sound as the letter es before r, as heard in the
words queer, deer, cheer, beer.
This adaptation or application of letters, forms, or figures to the sounds of
language constitutes the second part of my Invention.
Third. In order to distinguish one syllable from another in any word that is
written or printed with the philosophic alphabet, I place under the vowel or diph-
thong which occurs in such a dot or point such as is placed under the following
letters, viz., v w
U R R r Wr:
See Nos. 44, 45, 46, 47. And further, to distinguish one word from another
by means of a stronger stress or force upon such word when written or printed
with the philosophic alphabet, I place under the accented vowel or diphthong
in such word a horizontal mark, such as is placed under the following letters:
2 U V V V W W V U U nr:
-
-
-
See No. 48, 49, 50, 51. This adaption of forms or figures to the indication
of the accent and emphasis constitutes the third part of my Invention.
I now proceed to describe the method of combining the letters, forms, or
figures of my philosophic alphabet when any word is to be represented either
by writing or printing. In my philosophic alphabet I first divide it into its
eleventary sounds, and this I do by the ear, without any regard to the letters
now in use. For example, the word "bought" consists of three sounds, viz.,
the sound of 6, the sound of a in all, and the usual sound of t. To represent
the first of these sounds I use the letter in my philosophic alphabet num-
bered 2; for the second sound I use Number 24; and for the third sound
Number 9, taking care that the first letters joins the second, and the second
2.24.2

page_text: language, and pronounce it exactly as it is pronounced in a sentence in elegant
conversation. Let the ear alone guide, without any reference to the letters
which are commonly used to spell such word. Then assign to each sound in
such word that letter, form, or figure of my philosophic alphabet which is there
appropriated to the sound, and thereby the word will be perfectly represented
in my philosophic alphabet.
Having now described the nature of the signs, and the particulars of their
use and application, it will be evident that if books in any language be
published, the words being printed in their usual letters on one page, and then
on the opposite page the same words be represented by the philosophic
alphabet, the reader or learner if fully acquainted with the philosophic
alphabet will be able to read such language with facility, pronouncing the
words and giving to each their particular and respective sounds. In some
instances a place of printing on opposite pages the same may be printed in
separate columns, or the same may be printed one like under the other, as
will be readily understood.
What I claim as my Invention is, the applying the signs above described
when used to denote the articulate sounds of language in the manner herein

page_text: Inrolled the Thirteenth day of October, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and thirty-two.