El nuevo sistema simple et raisonné de pronunciación y lectura: los signos parlantes de P. Marie (Toulouse, 1875)

This paper analyses the method, claimed to be «simple et raisonné», of talking signs,
invented by P. Marie and expounded in his Signolégie ou Méthode facile de prononciation
et de lecture (Toulouse, 1875), a text whose aim was to present a method through
which people could «apprendre à bien lire en fort peu de temps» (learn to read well in a
very short time'), «[...] et leur procurer, à coup sûr et promptement, une prononciation
parfaitement correcte» (and, without fail, quickly provide them with a perfectly correctpronunciation'). As such, it is a precursor of the International Phonetic Alphabet, which
was to appear only a few years later. The descriptions of the articulation of sounds, the
comparative method (it could be applied to French, Latin, English, German, Spanish and
Italian), the system of notation invented by the author and the representation of pronunciation
by the use of various different symbols make this method a source of information
on the teaching of sounds and on the historiography of the sound system of our language.