''The Phonetic Journal'' was the official journal of The Phonetic Society based at the Kingston Buildings in Bath,

Somerset ( en, All The People of Somerset) , locator_map = , coordinates = , region = South West England , established_date = Ancient , established_by = , preceded_by = , origin = , lord_lieutenant_office =Lord Lieutenant of Somerset , lord_ ...

, England and is the first ever journal about phonetics. It was published subtitled as ''Published Weekly, Devoted to the Propagation of Phonetic Shorthand, and Phonetic Reading, Writing and Printing.'' It was printed starting 1841 by

Isaac Pitman Sir Isaac Pitman (4 January 1813 – 22 January 1897) was a teacher of the :English language who developed the most widely used system of shorthand, known now as Pitman shorthand. He first proposed this in ''Stenographic Soundhand'' in 183 ...

, and published by F. Pitman at the Phonetic Depot, at 20,

Paternoster Row Paternoster Row was a street in the City of London that was a centre of the London publishing trade, with booksellers operating from the street. Paternoster Row was described as "almost synonymous" with the book trade. It was part of an area cal ...

, in London. The journal was initially in 12 small pages plus a 4-page advertising and information wrapper per issue. It published materials in traditional spelling as well as in

phonetic spelling A phonemic orthography is an orthography (system for writing a language) in which the graphemes (written symbols) correspond to the phonemes (significant spoken sounds) of the language. Natural languages rarely have perfectly phonemic orthographi ...

, and phonetic shorthand. It also included news of the Phonetic Society and its members.

The Phonetic Alphabet

The journal promoted ''The Phonetic Alphabet''. It explained the alphabet promoted as "consisting of 36 letters, namely the 23 useful letters of the common alphabet (c, q and x being rejected) and 13 new letters included. The vowels a, e, i, o, u were used for their short sound as in pat, pet, pit, pot and put and all the other letters having their usual signification". A proposed order of the alphabet was as follows: Consonants: p, b; t, d; ç, j; k, g; f, v; h h s, z; ʃ, ʒ; m, n, ŋ; l, r; w, y; h. Vowels: a, ɐ; e, ɛ; i, e o, γ, σ; u, ɥ. Diphthongs: ei (as in by), iu (as in new), ou (as in now), ai (as in ay), oi (as in ay). The alphabet also included 9 "foreign sounds", 7 from French and 2 from German.

Further contributions for a proposed alphabet

Isaac Pitman, the founder of the journal published ''Phonotypy'' in 1844, his major work on spelling reform just three years after the founding of the journal. Pitman and

Alexander John Ellis Alexander John Ellis, (14 June 1814 – 28 October 1890), was an English mathematician, philologist and early phonetician who also influenced the field of musicology. He changed his name from his father's name, Sharpe, to his mother's maiden na ...

, an English mathematician and philologist jointly proposed in 1845 an

English Phonotypic Alphabet The English Phonotypic Alphabet is a phonetic alphabet developed by Sir Isaac Pitman and Alexander John Ellis originally as an English language spelling reform. Although never gaining wide acceptance, elements of it were incorporated into th ...

made up of 40 letters based mainly on the Phonetic Alphabet of ''The Phonetic Journal'' and that of ''The Phonotypic Journal''. Furthermore, in a book edited in 1848, under the title ''A Plea for Spelling Reform'', by Alexander John Ellis, edited by Isaac Pitman, the authors compiled a series of articles from ''The Phonetic Journal.'' and from other periodicals, recommending an enlarged alphabet and "A Reformed Spelling of the English Language" as a "means of placing the arts of Reading and Writing within the reach of all who speak the English language or wish acquire it", as Pitman said in the intro.

Notes

Sample volume of ''The Phonetic Journal.'' (Vol. 41 for the year 1882)
Phonetics journals Publications established in 1841 English-language journals {{ling-journal-stub

The Phonetic Alphabet

Further contributions for a proposed alphabet

See also

Notes