Excerpt from A Phonographic and Pronouncing Dictionary of the English Language The popularity of phonography arises from 1. A general desire to expedite the process of writing, 2. The scientific basis of the Art, and 3. Its abbreviating principles. Phonography is an exposition of that branch of the general science of Acoustics which has received the special name of Phonetics, or the science of articulate and vocal sounds. Phonetics treats of the elements of speech, and their collocation into words, and is included in the general Science of Lan guage, which treats not only of the composition and analysis of words, but of their relations to each other as signs of ideas. The claims of phonography, as a system of Shorthand founded on the Alphabet of Nature, are brie y described in the Manual of Phonography, pars. 20 to 24. On its claims as embodying a system of abbreviations for some letters of frequent occurrence, in. Addition to their alphabetical signs, and as thus giving a choice of two alphabetic forms for r, w, and three for h, it seems necessary to say a few words, because this principle opens the door to a diversity of stenographic representation for some words, and casts on the writer the necessity of deciding which form is most convenient. The present work is intended to relieve him of this labor, by presenting to him, Without study, the shorthand outlines which experience has shown to be the best adapted for rapid writing. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works."