Excerpt from A History of English Sounds, From the Earliest Period, Including an Investigation of the General Laws of Sound Change, and Full Word Lists

The History of English Sounds, by Mr. Henry Sweet, was originally written for the London Philological Society, in further illustration of the great work on Early English Pronunciation by Mr. Alexander J. Ellis. Upon application to the Council of the Philological Society, and to the author, permission was at once obtained for making arrangements whereby additional copies of the work should be struck off for the use of members of the English Dialect Society. The importance of it to all who study English sounds, especially such sounds as are frequently well preserved in some of our provincial dialects, will soon become apparent to the careful reader. But as there may be some amongst our members who may not be aware of what has been lately achieved in the study of phonetics, a few words of introduction may not be out of place here.

I have more than once received letters from correspondents who boldly assert that, of some of our dialectal sounds, no representation is possible, and that it is useless to attempt it. Against such a sweeping denunciation of the study of phonetics it would be vain to argue. It may be sufficient merely to remark that precisely the same argument of "impossibility" was used, not so many years ago, against the introduction of the use of steam locomotives upon railways.

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