Chase.] 272 [October. 



modifications, chiefly of the cavity of the mouth and pharynx. 

 Vowels are pure or normal ; nasal, as some of the French, Portu- 

 guese, and Polish vowels are; tchispered, of which some of the 

 aboriginal American languages afford examples; independent (of 

 expiration, inspiration, or voice), being a vowel effect succeeding a 

 clack ; and glottal, in which the vowel is accompanied by a scraping 

 effect along the rather close glottis. Its type is the Hebrew and 

 Arabic ain. Consonants are the results of interrupting the vocalized 

 or unvocalized breath." (Hald. § 15G-7.) 



Grammarians have usually admitted an intermediate class of semi- 

 vowels, and the gradation is so imperceptible from the pure to the 

 impure vowels, and from the impure vowels to the consonants, that 

 a consideration of the consonant sounds is almost necessarily involved 

 in any inquiry about the vowels. 



The Sanscrit grammarians recognized three primary or pure 

 vowels: 1. The full a (a); 2. The glottally interrupted i (i) ; 3. 

 The labially interrupted li (u). Of these the a or u is the purest, 

 and, perhaps, the only one that is strictly entitled to the name of 

 vowel. The u glides imperceptibly into the o, the i into the e, the 

 a into a and u, thus giving Haldeman's groups of 1, i e a o u; 2, 

 i e u or a ou. 



The three primitives, i a u, with the modifications of a (a and u), 

 are spoken with tolerable uniformity; the others tend to become 

 diphthongal ei or eti, ou or oii. This tendency in the English a 

 and 0, was happily noticed by Dr. B. H. Coates, in the note to 

 Professor Tafel's communication on the Laws of English Orthography 

 and Pronunciation. (Proc. A. P. S., V. IX., p. 54.) 



The Sanscrit grammarians were aware of the same peculiarity in 

 their own language, but their delicacy of analysis has not been 

 generally appreciated by others. Thus Wilkins says (p. 5) : 



" e, though classed among diphthongs, differs not from the 

 simple sound of e in where (a u) It is said to be a com- 

 pound of a and /. 



" differs not from our o held long, as in stone (o u) ; though 

 it is said to be a diphthong composed of a and ?t." 



Even our Saxon ancestors showed their perception of vocal com- 

 binations, by expressing with two letters sounds that the mistaken 

 reformers of our day would fain denote by a single character, e. g., 

 they, their. There are undoubtedly vowel-sounds analogous to our a, 

 o, and even to our i, which are not diphthongs, but such is the 

 flexibility of our vocal organs, and so fixed is the habit of rapid 



