A Grammar of Modern English for foreign students [antikvár]

THE ALPHABET There are twenty-six letters in the English Alphabet: (?) Capitals : ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQR STUVWXYZ. (?) Small letters : abcdefghijklmnopqrs t u V w X y z. The letters a e i o u are called Vowels ; the others are called Consonants. The Phonetic Alphabet As the English language is not a phonetic language, the above vowels are pronounced in many different ways. In order to show what sounds they may possibly represent, a different and more comprehensive alphabet is necessary. This other alphabet is an alphabet of symbols and it is called ' The Phonetic Alphabet.' For example, the letter ' a ' has quite diflFerent sounds in the following words : Hate, man, many, what, water, again, hare, last. As we have not enough letters to represent these different vowel sounds, we use Phonetic Symbols, each of which represents a definite sound. Thus a certain symbol must often be used to represent different vowels or different combinations of vowels, as in the following words : Bed, said, read {past form of ' to read ') ; make, they, freight, lain ; chair, where, hare, pear, their ; etc. Similarly a certain symbol must be used to represent different consonants or different combinations of consonants, as : Cat, kitten, queen, taxi; gentle, just, judge, etc.