The Talking Deaf Man - A Method Proposed, Whereby He Who is Born Deaf, May Learn to Speak, 1692 by John Conrade Amman
page 16 of 35 (45%)
page 16 of 35 (45%)
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either of their compounding _Vowels_ can be heard, such are [_oi_] of
the _French_, and [_uy_] of the _Dutch_, not to mention more Examples, or else they are variously sounded according to their various Placings, so as if I were to teach some Deaf _French-man_, I would from the beginning teach him, not the _French_, but the _German Letters_, or else he would be plainly confounded. Nor is the state of the _Consonants_ in better case for the Pronunciation of some of them, is so very different, that there are scarce two Nations, which pronounce the Character [_g_] after the same manner. But in the _German_ Alphabet, that which most disliketh me, is, their Order; which, in good truth, is none; because scarce two Letters of the same rank do follow mutually after one another, which would render the information of Deaf Persons to be so much the more difficult; wherefore I have reduced them into this following order, which seemed to me to be the most natural. _a. e. i. j. y. o. u. ä. ö. ü. m. n. ng. l. r. h. g. ch. s. f. v. k. c. q. d. t. b. p. x. z._ To those who observe well, it will from this order alone, appear, that I have divided this whole Alphabet into _Vowels_, _Semi-vowels_, and _Consonants_. The _Vowels_ are a _Voice_ or _Sound_ modified by a various opening of the Mouth only, and are either _Simple_, or Uniform, as _a. e. i. j. y. o. u. w._ Or else they are mixt, which out of two, do so melt down into one, as that they are pronounced together, and are different from _Diphthongs_, in as much as their _Vowels_ are successively pronounced: Now these mixt _Vowels_, are ä. |
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