Editing Visible Speech (section)

{{Short description|Featural phonetic representation script}}
{{Infobox Writing system
|   name = Visible Speech
|   type = [[Alphabet]]
|   time = 1867 to the present
|languages = 
|creator = [[Alexander Melville Bell]]
|sisters = 85
| children =
| sample =
|imagesize = 200px
|unicode = U+E780 to U+E7FF in the [[ConScript Unicode Registry]]
| iso15924=Visp
|direction = Left-to-right
}}

[[File:VisibleSpeech-illustrations.jpg|thumb|Illustrations of Visible Speech]]
[[File:VisibleSpeech-Englishchart.png|thumb|chart of English sounds]]
[[File:VisibleSpeech-nature&use.jpg|thumb|On the Nature and Use of Visible Speech]]

{{distinguish|text=[[John DeFrancis|Visible Speech: The Diverse Oneness of Writing Systems]]}}

'''Visible Speech''' is a system of phonetic symbols developed by British linguist [[Alexander Melville Bell]] in 1867 to represent the position of the speech organs in articulating sounds. Bell was known internationally as a teacher of speech and proper [[elocution]] and an author of books on the subject.  The system is composed of symbols that show the position and movement of the throat, tongue, and lips as they produce the sounds of language, and it is a type of [[phonetic transcription|phonetic notation]].  The system was used to aid the deaf in learning to speak.

In 1864, Melville promoted his first works on Visible Speech, in order to help the deaf both learn and improve upon their speech (since the profoundly deaf could not hear their own pronunciation).<ref>Winzer 1993, pg.192</ref> To help promote the system, Bell created two written short forms using his system of 29 modifiers and tones, 52 [[consonant]]s, 36 [[vowel]]s and a dozen [[diphthong]]s:<ref>Winzer 1993, pg.193</ref> they were named [[International English|World English]], which was similar to the [[International Phonetic Alphabet]], and also Line Writing, used as a shorthand form for [[stenographer]]s.<ref name="Winzer 1993, pg.194">Winzer 1993, pg.194</ref>

Melville's works on Visible Speech became highly notable, and were described by [[Édouard Séguin]] as being "...a greater invention than [[invention of the telephone|the telephone]] by his son, [[Alexander Graham Bell]]".<ref name="Winzer 1993, pg.194"/> Melville saw numerous applications for his invention, including its worldwide use as a [[universal language]].  However, although heavily promoted at the [[Second International Congress on Education of the Deaf]] in Milan, Italy in 1880, after a period of a dozen years or so in which it was applied to the education of the deaf, Visible Speech was found to be more cumbersome, and thus a hindrance, to the teaching of speech to the deaf, compared to other methods,<ref>Winzer 1993, pg.195–203</ref> and eventually faded from use.

Bell's son [[Alexander Graham Bell]] learned the symbols, assisted his father in giving public demonstrations of the system and mastered it to the point that he later improved upon his father's work.  Eventually, Alexander Graham Bell became a powerful advocate of Visible Speech and [[oralism]] in the United States.  The money he earned from his patent of the [[telephone]] and the sale of his [[Volta Laboratory and Bureau|Volta Laboratory]] [[Volta_Laboratory_and_Bureau#Laboratory_patents|patents]] helped him to pursue this mission.