The most important phonograms are the uniliteral or alphabetic signs, twenty-four in number in the Old Kingdom and without any homophones: later these were increased byhomophones to thirty.
In later times the number of homophones in use increased greatly throughout the different classes, the tendency being much helped by the habit of fanciful writing; but few of these homophones found their way into the cursive script.
What the Society asks for is not a list of lost words that are interesting in themselves: we need rather definite instances of good dialect words which are not homophones and which would conveniently supply wants.
In speaking, the Chinese express these homophones by varying tones and gestures.
Table of homophones that may seem to be presently falling out of use.
This will be illustrated in due course: the actual condition of English with respect to homophones must be understood and appreciated before the nature of their growth and the possible means of their mitigation will seem practical questions.
This is a reckless assertion; it may be that among the languages unknown to me there are some that are as much hampered with homophones as we are.
The first essential, then, is to know the extent and nature of the mischief; and this can only be accomplished by setting out the homophones in a table before the eye.
Table of homophonestaken from among the obsolete words in Cunliffe's 'A New Shakespearean Dictionary,' Blackie, 1910.
Footnote 11: It would follow that, supposing there were any expert academic control, it might be possible to save some of our perishing homophones by artificial specialization.
True homophones are separate words which have, or have acquired, an illogical fortuitous identity.
The above list will hopefully give you a few useful examples demonstrating the appropriate usage of "homophones" in a variety of sentences. We hope that you will now be able to make sentences using this word.
