The Palaeotype alphabet is a phonetic alphabet used by Alexander John Ellis to describe the pronunciation of English. It was based on the theory of Bell's Visible Speech, but set in roman script, and attempted to include the sounds conveyed by Lepsius's Standard Alphabet as well. It in turn inspired Henry Sweet's 1877 Romic alphabet, which itself served as the basis for the International Phonetic Alphabet. It differs from previous phonetic alphabets, especially the English Phonotypic Alphabet of the same author, by maximal use of trivial changes to existing characters, including rotated letters (such as ⟨ə⟩, ⟨ɔ⟩), small capitals (such as ⟨ɪ⟩), rotated small capitals, and italic rather than roman typeface (such as ⟨𝑙⟩).
Letters The alphabet and its diacritics were quite similar to early versions of Sweet's Romic alphabet. All letters could be capitalized. In the case of small-capitals, capitalization was marked by a colon, so e.g. ⟨:R⟩ was a capital ⟨ʀ⟩. ⟨ɔ⟩ was a graphic substitution for small-capital o, so its capital was ⟨:O⟩. For some reason, turned-Q instead of turned-A was used as the capital of ⟨ɐ⟩. (Parentheses) were used to set off phonetic transcription from regular text.
Vowels ⟨i y e œ æ ə a a ɔ o u⟩ had basically the same values as in the IPA. Not all of the vowels seem to make sense when plotted on a modern chart, as below, either through jumbled graphic correspondence or according to the languages they were identified with, suggesting that the phonetic analysis was not sophisticated. For example, (a) is defined as unrounded (o), but (a) is identified as the 'a' of Italian matto and French chatte (that is, IPA [a]), whereas (o) is identified as the Italian 'open o' ("o aperto") and the 'o' of French homme (that is, IPA [ɔ]), and [a] is not unrounded [ɔ]. Nevertheless, all vowels are identified in their placement in the table through sets of definitions that lock in place each of nine tetrads (such as the four close front vowels i · ɪ · i · y).
⟨ɐ⟩ was used for the English reduced schwa, as the 'a' in 'real' or the 'o' in 'mention', ⟨ə⟩ for the vowel of 'but'. Long vowels were doubled, as ⟨aa⟩ for long (a). A comma was used for hiatus (diaeresis), as ⟨a,a⟩ for two (a)s in sequence. (.,) was used for "strong hiatus" (beginning the following abruptly), and (, ) for a soft/inaudible onset to a vowel. A turned apostrophe, ⟨⸲⟩, essentially an ogonek, was used for nasal vowels, as in (a⸲) = IPA [ã], but ⟨ʌ⟩ for French nasal vowels (which phoneticists of this era described as having some sort of guttural quality), as in (aʌ) = IPA [ɑ̃]. A turned zero indicated a more-open articulation, (w) indicated rounding, and a minus sign removed an element of articulation. E.g., (a0) is a more-open (a), (aw) a rounded (a), (a−0) a less-open (a), and (o−w) an unrounded (o). (’) was "simple voice", as in (tabl’) for French table, or (𝑜𝑜p·’n) for English 'open'. (’h) was "a scarcely audible (ə)", and (’j) a "faint sound of (ᴊ, i)" as at the off-glide of the English vowel in see. When doubled, (’’) was used for Sanskrit ॠ (’’ʀ) and theoretical ॡ (’’l). (‘), bending in the opposite direction, meant voiceless, as in (‘a) = IPA [ḁ].
Consonants The letters ⟨h, j⟩ and italic ⟨𝑤⟩ were only used for digraphs, and had no sound value of their own. ⟨j⟩ and ⟨𝑤⟩ were equivalent to IPA ⟨ʲ, ʷ⟩, whereas the effect of ⟨h⟩ was unpredictable. The h could come after a j or 𝑤, as in s𝑤h (defined as sh*wh). ⟨ʜ, ᴊ, q⟩ were used for IPA [h, j, ŋ].
English ch and j sounds were written ⟨tsh⟩ and ⟨dzh⟩. Czech ř is ⟨rzh, rsh⟩. (lh) is a voiceless (l), but apparently not a lateral fricative, as Ellis renders Welsh 'll' as (lhh). ⟨r⟩ was used for both the Spanish flap and English initial 'r'. ⟨ɹ⟩ and 'palatal' ⟨ɹ⟩ were used for English rhotic vowels, either as a coda if a distinct vowel could be heard, or alone for e.g. (sɹf) or (səɹf) 'surf' and (sɹf) or (səɹf) 'serf'. A combining ⟨ʜ⟩ made the aspirates ⟨pʜ, tʜ, kʜ⟩ etc. (‘b, ‘d, ‘g), defined as (b*p) etc., are unvoiced unaspirated (p, t, k) -- specifically the Germanic consonants frequently written [b̥, d̥, ɡ̊] in IPA. After a consonant, ⟨‘⟩ seemed to have meant an aspirated release, e.g. English (b𝑖t‘) 'bit'. Italic ⟨t, d, s, z, th, dh, n⟩ were used for the 'emphatic' sounds of Arabic and similar languages. As noted below, 𝑏, 𝑝 were also used. 𝑝 might have been Lepsius's notation for the Quechua ejective p', in which case 𝑏 would have no explicit meaning. Voicing transitions were apparently indicated by combining voiced and voiceless consonants. E.g. (zs) for the final /z/ in English days, buzz, (sz) for German initial s. ⟨1⟩ (a turned digit 1) was used for the Semitic letter 'alif.
Modifications of consonants Various symbols were used to modify consonants, such as ⟨j⟩ for palatalization and ⟨𝑤⟩ for labialization. ⟨*⟩ was used to indicate simultaneous articulation, what in the IPA would be a tie bar. For instance, (tj) could be defined as ⟨t*ᴊ⟩. A period / full stop was used for forceful pronunciation. E.g., (.f) was a "violently hissed (f)", and (.gh) a "violently buzzed [= voiced] (gh)". In the case of ⟨.r⟩, it produced a trill. However, with other letters for alveolar consonants it was taken to mean 'advanced', with "the tip of the tongue on gums" (presumably dental, though that doesn't quite fit the second definition). The right half of a dagger, ⟨⸷⟩ (that is, ⟨†⟩ with the left arm removed) indicated fronting (pronounced closer to the front of the mouth), and the left half, ⟨⸶⟩, retraction (pronounced closer to the throat). A dagger indicated protrusion, as in interdental (t†). A turned dagger indicated retroflection, so (t⸸) was the same as (ᴛ). A double dagger indicated a click, so a fronted (t‡) was the same as (5), and (t⸸‡) the same as (↊). ⟨§⟩ indicated bilateral airflow (off both sides of the tongue). Usually the bottom loop was filed off to indicate unilateral airflow. ⟨¿⟩ was combined with other letters to indicate they were trilled, ⟨¡⟩ that it was ingressive.
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