Some writers would add to these the additional sound of the _['e] ferm['e]_ of the French; believing that the vowel in words like _their_ and _vein_ has a different sound from the vowel in words like _there_ and _vain_. For my own part I cannot detect such a difference either in my own speech or that of my neighbours; although I am far from denying that in certain _dialects_ of our language such may have been the case. The following is an extract from the Danish grammar for Englishmen, by Professor Rask, whose eye, in the matter in question, seems to have misled his ear: "The _['e] ferm['e]_, or _close ['e]_, is very frequent in Danish, but scarcely perceptible in English; unless in such words as, _their_, _vein_, _veil_, which appear to sound a little different from _there_, _vain_, _vale_." The vowels being twelve, the diphthongs four, and the consonantal sounds twenty-four, we have altogether as many as forty sounds, some being so closely allied to each other as to be mere modifications, and others being combinations rather than simple sounds; all, however, agreeing in requiring to be expressed by letters or by combinations of letters, and to be distinguished from each other. Now, although every sound specifically distinct should be expressed by a distinct sign, it does not follow that mere modifications or varieties (especially if they be within certain limits) should be so expressed. In the Greek language sounds as like as the _o_ in _not_ and the _o_ in _note_ are expressed by signs as unlike as [omicron] and [omega]; that is, by the letters _omicron_ and _omega_ respectively; and so it is with [epsilon] and [eta]. All that can be said in this case is, that it is the character of the Greek alphabet to represent a difference which the English neglects. With respect to the diphthongs it is incorrect, uncommon, and inconvenient to represent them by simple single signs, rather than by combinations. In the English language the sounds {184} of _ou_, _ew_, and _oi_, are properly spelt with two letters. Not so, however, of _i_ in _bite_. The compound sibilants may also be expressed not by single signs, but by the combinations _tsh_ and _dzh_; although, for certain reasons, such a mode of spelling is inconvenient. With these views we may appreciate, I. _The insufficiency of the English alphabet._ A. _In respect to the vowels._--Notwithstanding the fact that the sounds of the _a_ in _father_, _fate_, and _fat_, and of the _o_ and the _aw_ in _note_, _not_, and _bawl_, are modifications of _a_ and _o_ respectively, we have still _six_ vowel sounds specifically distinct, for which (_y_ being a consonant rather than a vowel) we have but _five_ signs. The _u_ in _duck_, specifically distinct from the _u_ in _bull_, has no specifically distinct sign to represent it.