THE POLYNESIAN ALPHABET. 19 



an incomplete series, the sibilant also incomplete, the spirant incom- 

 plete. Now how, in this explanation, are we to account for this 

 incompleteness in the intermediate range of possibility? To form the 

 sounds which should fill the gap calls for precision in the employment 

 of the vocal organs, calls for a training to which the incipient needs 

 of the speech-beginner are by no means such as to subject him, calls 

 for an elaboration of a system of differentiating his consonantal 

 modulants far in advance of the arising of the need therefor in his 

 thought life. I can find no shred of evidence that the Proto-Samoan 

 could have had a richer equipment than is here diagrammed. It is 

 different with our own speech. Our forebears had a far richer alphabet 

 in this central area than we use. Through disuse we have lost the 

 power of use. Our former palatal spirants, surd and sonant, gh and ch, 

 are retained in the by-ways of our written speech as cumbersome 

 monuments which we must revere through piety, but whose inscriptions 

 we never read, save we are Scotch and use an older, purer English. 



Hitherto it has served to deal with the consonant diagram in hori- 

 zontal series. This is not a mere device of typography, a convenience 

 of arrangement for the display of the material upon the page. A 

 consistent principle underlies the arrangement. 



In the case of the uppermost of these horizontal tiers the name con- 

 notes the unity of principle in thus ordering the three nasals; to the 

 vowel production by a vibrant column of air in a soft-walled container 

 wholly without closures the first experiment in consonant creation 

 adds the supplementary and supporting resonance of the upper head 

 cavity, the nose. Though the name mute does not so clearly bespeak 

 the unity of principle at that remoter region of consonant possibility, 

 yet it is easy to satisfy ourselves that a speech-forming impulse is com- 

 mon to all the mutes, no matter upon which of the three organs it may 

 be applied. We may by experiment upon ourselves establish the essen- 

 tial variety of the impulses which yield us spirants and sibilants and 

 aspirates, even though we find it matter of great difficulty to acquire 

 the wealth of consonants in this central area which gives to the Russian, 

 for instance, its melody. Is there a good reason to propose why the 

 Polynesian has acquired so little in this mid space of speech? 



To examine this in detail requires that we shall leave the horizontal 

 order and consider the vertical. In the horizontal order we have con- 

 sidered impulses toward consonant creation. We are now to consider 

 the reaction possibilities to such impulses which may exist in the three 

 speech-organs, the palate, the tongue, and the lips, and the ease or diffi- 

 culty with which each organ may be trained to respond to such reactions. 



The three speech-organs perform each a divided duty, their contribu- 

 tion to articulation is but one of several natural functions, and in the 

 performance of these several functions there is wide variation in the 

 familiarity with which they impress themselves upon our acquaintance. 



