The Talking Deaf Man - A Method Proposed, Whereby He Who is Born Deaf, May Learn to Speak, 1692 by John Conrade Amman
page 28 of 35 (80%)
page 28 of 35 (80%)
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1000 times tried in vain to make her say _Mamma_, which yet I I
brought her to in a small time. And now, _Reader_, I commit to thee another Secret, _viz._ that if a Deaf Person be committed to thee to teach, beware that you do not teach him to pronounce together _Semi-vowels_ and _Consonants_, together with their annexed _Vowels_; as for example, _em. en. ka. ef. te, &c._ For thus they would learn neither to read, nor rightly to pronounce any word. The power and force of _Semi-vowels_ and _Consonants_ consists not in the adjoyned _Vowels_, but in a peculiar _Voice_ or _Breath_; and when you would have a Deaf Person to say _Tafel_ or _Swartz_, you shall hear from him nothing else but _Te. a. ef. e. el._ or _Es. we. a. er. te. zet._ which is very uncouth, nor can you easily mend it: But by this Method, so soon as ever they know their Letters, they begin to read; for _to read is only to pronounce the Letters successively_. Here note well, that in the Schools this very thing would be of great use, chiefly when they are taught Languages, whose Letters are expressed by whole words, as _Alpha, Omega, Gimel, double u, zet, &c._ For more time is lost, and the desire of Learning taken away from Children, before they are able to abstract the Letters of these Sounds, and to connect them together in _Reading_; so that it is very much to be wonder'd at, that this most eminent short way of reading hath hitherto lain hid in the dark. The other _Nasalls_ [_u_] and [_ng_] have nothing peculiar, unless it be that I shew the Deaf the posture of the _Tongue_ in a |
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