air gushing from the lungs. The windpipe is contracted near the mouth by a projecting mass of muscles called the glottis. The edges of the glottis are membranes, and form the vocal ligaments. Ordinarily, these membranous edges are inclined from each other, and, consequently, no vibrations take place during the passage of the breath; but, by the aid of certain muscles, we can place them parallel to each other, when they immediately vibrate and produce a tone. With the aid of other muscles we can increase their tension, and thereby the sharpness of the tone; and by driving the air more forcibly from the lungs, we may increase its loudness. The tone thus formed is modified by the cavities of the throat, nose, and mouth. These modifications form the first elements of articulate language. They are produced, not by the lungs or the windpipe, but by the glottis, the palate, the tongue, the teeth, the lips, which are called the ORGANS OF SPEECH. As the tongue is the principal organ in changing the cavities which modify the tone, it has given its name to speech, both in the Anglo-Saxon and the Latin, and many other languages.

CLASSIFICATION

OF THE PHONETIC ELEMENTS.

§ 110. In the spoken language, the phonetic elements are divided into two classes: I. VOCALIC or VOWEL SOUNDS. II. CONSONANTAL or CONSONANT SOUNDS.

VOCALIC OR VOWEL SOUNDS.

§ 111. VOCALIC SOUNDS are those which can be formed without bringing any parts of the mouth into contact to interrupt the stream of air from the lungs.

Thus the sound of a or o can be pronounced with the mouth partially open, and the breath in one continuous current. The word vowel is from the Latin word vocalis, vocal, through the French voyelle. It means what can be sounded or form voice by itself. Some ambiguity is connected with the use of the word, inasmuch as it not only denotes a sound, but also the letter which represents the sound. In this chapter it is used to denote the sound, and not the letter.

It has been found that the note of a common organ may take the qualities of all the vowel sounds in succession. This is effected merely by lengthening the tube which confines the vibrations. It would seem, therefore, that the peculiar character of the different vowel sounds depends on the length of the cavity which modifies the voice. In pronouncing the a in father, the cavity seems barely,

if at all, extended beyond the throat; in pronouncing the a in all, it reaches to the root of the tongue; and to the middle of the palate in pronouncing the long e in eat; the sound of the long o in oat requires the cavity to be extended to the lips, which must be stretched out to form a cavity long enough to pronounce the u in jute. See GUEST'S English Rhythms.

CONSONANTAL OR

CONSONANT SOUNDS.

§ 112. CONSONANTAL SOUNDS are those which can not be formed without bringing the parts of the mouth into contact. Thus the sound indicated by the letter p can not be produced without bringing the lips into contact. So the sound indicated by I can not be pronounced without bringing the tongue and the roof of the mouth near the teeth into contact.

Though the consonantal sounds can be isolated, that is, separated from the vocalic, yet in practice they are joined to vocalic sounds and pronounced with them. For this reason, this class of sounds can be properly called consonants, from the Latin words. con, with, sonans, sounding.

The particular consonantal sound that is produced by interrupting the stream of air which flows out in the production of a vowel sound, depends upon what parts of the mouth are brought into contact.

§ 113. An ARTICULATE SOUND, from articulus, a Latin word for joint, is properly one which is preceded or followed by the closing of the organs of speech, or bringing some parts of the mouth in contact. A consonant is, in the strict sense, an articulation, or an articulate sound; but, in use, the term is frequently extended to vowel sounds. Vowel sounds are produced by the lower organs of speech, and consonantal sounds by the upper. Brute animals utter vowel sounds; man only can utter consonantal sounds.

ANALYSIS OF SYLLABIC SOUNDS.

114. In the analytical examination of words and syllables for the purpose of discovering the elementary sounds of which they are composed, we must withdraw our attention from the letters, and fix it upon the sounds themselves. In the common pronunciation of words and syllables, the consonantal sound is not uttered without

the vowel sound with which it is connected. But in our analytical examination, we can utter it or partly utter it without the vowel. We can in this way separate an elementary consonantal sound from its associated vowel sound, so far, at least, as to discover its nature. Thus, in analyzing the sounds in the combinations indicated by ro, lo, do, po, we can isolate the sounds indicated by r, l, d, p, and pronounce them as if written r-o, l-o, d-o, p-o. In the case of d there is an imperfect sound, in which there is a slight vocality. In the case of p there is but little more than an effort at a sound.

§ 115. If the vocal ligaments be so inclined to each other as not to vibrate, the emission of breath from the lungs produces merely a whisper. This whisper may be modified in like manner as the voice by similar arrangements of the organs. Every vocal sound has its correspondent whisper sound.

If you take the sounds of p, f, t, k, s, th in thin, sh in shine, and isolate them from their vowels, and pronounce them, the sound is that of a whisper.

If you treat the sounds of b, v, d, g, z, th in thine, z in azure, in the same way, the sound is no whisper, but one at the natural tone of the voice. The first class are called SURDS, the second class SONANTS. Instead of these, the terms sharp and flat have been used, or aspirate and vocal, and are their equivalents.

CONTINUOUS

AND EXPLOSIVE

SOUNDS.

§ 116. A part of the consonant sounds are CONTINUOUS, and a part are EXPLOSIVE. If you isolate the sounds of p, b, t, d, k, and g surd, you have no power to prolong the sounds or of resting on them. They escape with the breath at once. It is not so with the sounds of f, v, sh, z, zh, s, l, m, n, r, ng. breath is transmitted by degrees, and the sounds can be prolonged. The first class are explosive, the second continuous. See LATHAM'S English Language, and Introduction to WALKER'S Dictionary.

DR. RUSH'S CLASSIFICATION.

Here the

§ 117. I. TONIC SOUNDS. A-ll, a-rt, a-n, a-le, ou-r, i-sle, o-ld, ee-l, oo-ze, e-rr, e-nd, i-n. These twelve tonic sounds have a vocality, as

distinguished from a whisper or aspiration, and admit of indefinite prolongation.

II. SUBTONIC SOUNDS. B-ow, d-are, g-ive, si-ng, l-ove, m-ay, n-ot, r-oe, have unmixed vocality; v-ile, z-one, y-e, w-o, th-en, a-z-ure, have aspiration. Some of the subtonic vocalities are nasal; as, m, n, ng, b, d, g.

III. ATONIC SOUNDS. U-p, ou-t, ar-k, i-f, ye-s, h-e, wh-eat, th-in, pu-sh. These nine have no vocality, but only a whisper or aspiration. In this classification of the elementary articulate sounds, we have twelve tonic, fourteen subtonic, and nine atonic sounds; in all, thirty-five.

Seven of the tonic elements are Diphthongs: a-ll, a-rt, a-n, a-le, i-sle, o-ld, ou-r. The remaining five are Monothongs, having one unaltered sound: ee-l, oo-ze, e-rr, e-nd, i-n.

This classification, though distinguished by great analytical ingenuity and talent, is not so well adapted to the purpose of this work as the one adopted.

15. That of h in hot, an aspirate or simple breathing.

§ 119. 1. The first, the sound of a in father, called the Italian or ancient sound; the second, the sound of a in fat, called the short or French sound; the third, the sound of a in fate, called the long or English sound; the fourth, the sound of a in fall, called the German sound, are varieties of one and the same original sound. Of the last there is a shortened variety, as in what. The fourth is allied to the eighth and ninth.

2. The fifth, the sound of e in mete, though considered as the long sound of the sixth, is strictly the long sound of i in fit, the seventh.

3. The sixth, the sound of e in met, is strictly the short sound of a in pate, and not of e in mete, as sometimes stated.

4. The seventh, the sound of i in fit, though often considered as allied to i in fine, is, in the opinion of good writers, a shortened variety of the sound of e in mete.

5. The eighth, the sound of o in note, bears the same relation to the ninth, that of o in not, as that of a in fate to that of a in fat.

6. The tenth, the sound of u in bull, is closely allied to the eleventh, the sound of oo in pool. They are both varieties of the same sound, pronounced rapidly in the one case, and slowly in the other. The two sounds bear the same relation to each other as the sound of a in fate to the sound of a in fat, and of ee in feet to i in fit.

7. The twelfth, the sound of u in but, is regarded as the short sound of u, the long sound being, in this table, put down as diphthongal.

8. The thirteenth, the sound of w in wet, is allied to the sound of oo in cool. Some writers consider it as identical, and assert that the words will, oo-ill, are sounded alike. It is, however, convenient to consider the w, as in will, as a separate and independent sound. It is sometimes vocalic and sometimes consonantal.

9. The fourteenth, the sound of y in yet, is allied to the sound of