THE SOUNDS OF " CH" AND "J" 351 



A record for "Mitchell" is shown in Fig. 2. It begins with very 

 faint vibrations for " m " ; thereupon follow strong vibrations for the 

 vowel " i." The straight line after the vowel indicates a complete stop- 

 page of breath, that is, the sound is an occlusive. After the occlusion 

 the line rises at first gently and then strongly, as the result of the stop- 

 page being ended and the air rushing out rapidly; this phenomenon is 

 called an explosion. The sound at this point is therefore an occlusive 

 with an explosion. This is the sound " ch " which is indicated by the 

 spelling " tch " in the word recorded. The word ends with strong 

 vibrations for the vowel " e " and fainter ones for " 1." 



A record of the word " nut " by the same speaker is shown in Fig. 3. 

 It begins with very faint vibrations for " n " followed by stronger ones 

 for " u." The straight line indicates the occlusion for the " t." The 

 strong sharp rise of the line indicates that the " t " ends with a sharp 

 explosion. This explosion is quite different from the more gradual 

 explosion of " ch " as shown in Fig. 2. 



A record of the word " nutshell " by the same speaker is shown in 

 Fig. 4. Very faint vibrations for " n " are followed by stronger ones 

 for " u." The straight line indicating the occlusion of the " t " is fol- 

 lowed by a very gradually rising line which remains for a time at quite 

 a distance above the base line. This indicates that the occlusion of the 

 " t " was not followed by an explosion, but by a continuous rush of air. 

 This portion of the record is typical of the records for " sh." 



A record of final " ch " in the word " atch " is shown in Fig. 5, a 

 record of initial " ch " in " chew " in Fig. 6. Kecords of " j " differ 

 from those of " ch " in showing small vibrations during the occlusion 

 and the explosion. These are due to the vibrations of the larynx which 

 are present during " j " and not during " ch." The " j " is said to be 

 " sonant," the " ch " to be " surd." 



These records and many others from the same person and from other 

 persons (Americans) show clearly that the sounds "ch" and " j " con- 

 sist of an occlusion with an explosion following it, that the explosion is 

 more gradual than the explosion for " t " and " d," and that the explo- 

 sion is of quite a different character from the rush of air during " sh." 

 The conclusion is unavoidable that " ch " and " j " are not compound 

 sounds, but simple occlusives with characteristic explosions. 



By coating the tongue with ultramarine just before speaking, " ch " 

 or " j " or by any of the other methods of palatography 1 a record of the 

 contact of the tongue with the palate may be obtained. The regions of 

 contact for " ch " and " j " are found to be larger than those for " t " 

 and " d." 



The final conclusion is that " ch " (c) and " j " (j) are to be 

 recognized as individual sounds quite distinct from the compound 

 sounds " tsh " and " dsh." 



1 Scripture, ' ' Elements of Experimental Phonetics, ' ' chapter XXI. 



