These had long and short sounds, with the exception of the
guttural. He next considered his consonant, or dividing sounds,
and estimated the number of combinations of these that would give
all the sounds required to make words in their language. He first
adopted fifteen for the dividing sounds, but settled on twelve
primary, the G and K being one, and sounding more like K than G,
and D like T. These may be represented in English as G, H, L, M,
N, QU, T, DL or TL, TS, W, Y, Z.
It will be seen that if these twelve be multiplied by the six
vowels, the number of possible combinations or syllables would be
seventy-two, and by adding the vowel sounds, which maybe
syllables, the number would be seventy-eight. However, the
guttural V, or sound of U in UNG, does not appear as among the
combinations, which make seventy-seven.
Still his work was not complete. The hissing sound of S entered
into the ramifications of so many sounds, as in STA, STU, SPA,
SPE, that it would have required a large addition to his alphabet
to meet this demand. This he simplified by using a distinct
character for the S (OO), to be used in such combinations. To
provide for the varying sound G, K, he added a symbol which has
been written in English KA. As the syllable NA is liable to be
aspirated, he added symbols written NAH, and KNA. To have distinct
representatives for the combinations rising out of the different
sounds of D and T, he added symbols for TA, TE, TI, and another
for DLA, thus TLA.
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