Our alphabet is imperfect in at least these three ways:--

1. Some of the letters are superfluous; _c_ stands for the sound of _s_ or
of _k_, as in _city_ and _can_; _q_ has the sound of _k_, as in _quit_; and
_x_ that of _ks_, _gz_, or _z_, as in _expel_, _exist_, and _Xenophon_.

2. Combinations of letters sometimes represent single sounds; as, _th_ in
thine, _th_ in _thin_, _ng_ in _sing_, and _sh_ in _shut_.

3. Some letters stand each for many sounds. Twenty-three letters represent
over forty sounds. Every vowel does more than single duty; _e_ stands for
two sounds, as in _mete_ and _met_; _i_ for two, as in _pine_ and _pin_;
_o_ for three, as in _note, not_, and _move_; _u_ for four, as in _tube,
tub, full_, and _fur_; _a_ for six, as in _fate, fat, far, fall, fast_, and
_fare_.

_W_ is a vowel when it unites with a preceding vowel to represent a vowel
sound, and _y_ is a vowel when it has the sound of _i_, as in _now, by,
boy, newly_. _W_ and _y_ are consonants at the beginning of a word or
syllable.

The various sounds of the several vowels and even of the same vowel are
caused by the different shapes which the mouth assumes. These changes in
its cavity produce, also, the two sounds that unite in each of the
compounds, _ou_, _oi_, _ew_, and in the alphabetic _i_ and _o_.

1. 2.
_Vocal Consonants_. _Aspirates_.
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