170 PROCEEDINGS OF THE AMERICAN ACADEMY 



Mr. Duponceau describes as a johistle, citing the word ^wtehim'' as 

 containing it initially. This consonant I have noticed in Cherokee and 

 in Weko (e as in they), in the latter of which it is peculiar in being 

 final as in ta"v, three, the a as in cart. No grammarian or phoneti- 

 cian has properly analyzed the English wh. Of two opinions con- 

 cerning it, one gives it as the English w preceded by h, according to 

 which the word when is represented by hwen, by Noah Webster and 

 Ellis. Others consider it a distinct whispered consonant, and Dr. 

 Comstock perverts to its use Q (consecrated to the Oriental qof, at 

 least as early as the building of the pyramids), writing q^n for whe7i. 

 The first party is wrong in inserting h, and the second in giving three 

 instead of four sounds. 



" Let sonant be represented by a grave, and surd by an acute ac- 

 centual ; and let the Greek aspirate-mark indicate an aspirate, and 

 the lenis a lene consonant. Let the English w be represented by its 

 Latin character V, and the elements of whe7i will stand "v'Vsn, or in 

 English letters, wh-w-e-n. Mr. Ellis overlooks this sound in his ac- 

 count of Welsh. 



"This succession depends upon a law not hitherto announced, pre- 

 vailing in the more flowing consonants (the liquids* and nasals), 

 which results in a tendency of their surd aspirates to be followed by 

 their lene sonant power. The English interjection hem and German 

 hm (formed with the mouth closed) affbrd a second example. Mr. 

 Ellis writes it ' h'm,' as if it were h preceding 7n.f N and L take 

 the same phases in Cherokee. In this language, when the ordinary 

 I is not interposed, and a vowel follows the aspirate, the vowel is 

 whispered. In Welsh, the whispered element occurs final. The two 

 modes of its occurence have not been recognized by Mr. Ellis. 



" I have found whispered vowels, and even syllables, not uncommon 

 in several American languages, as in the two final syllables of the 

 Comanche word for ten, SfWANchut ; the first syllable of which agrees 

 with seiid, but nasal ; the second with want ; the third with the vowel 

 in nut, whispered ; and the fourth with that in foot, whispered. 



vowels in pit, pet, pat, to tlie French (p. 109), inserts the characters with which 

 he represents them in his example of this language on p. 156. 



* English W and Y bear the same relation to P and K respectively, that L does 

 to T, or R to the palatal contact. 



t Phonetic Juurnal, 184S, p. 141, 5th line from below. In other cases, the inter- 

 posed comma indicates a second syllabi^. 



