ABSTRACT
Those in italics are duplicates; and ( w )i and ( w )e, though written with different characters from i and e, have practically the same pronunciation.
It will be seen that both of these arrangements are more or less artificial; at least, they appear to be mnemonic contrivances, and are certainly very convenient, because they are flexible. For instance, the demands of modern times and European languages for a v sound has led the Japanese to represent it by the simple device of attaching the common diacritical mark to the w series. By a similar device they might utilize the r series for land the s series forth!
