Tafel.] 290 [October. 



other, I developed a system of ray own, both of the vowels and conso- 

 nants, and by means of it endeavored to explain the subject of English 

 pronunciation. This system was elaborated by myself without the 

 assistance of any work on phonology, but on comparing it with the 

 results of others, and especially with those of Dr. Briicke, I was glad 

 to find that it coincided with the latter in all important particulars. 

 In the following dissertation I shall retain my own phraseology and 

 diagrams, which I do not find it necessary to alter, on comparing them 

 with the results of others. Wherever my own views differ materially 

 from the above authorities, or whenever I advance any new state- 

 ments, and also when I wish to substantiate my own theories by 

 the experiments of others, in accompanying remarks, I shall enter 

 more fully into the subject. 



CHAPTER I. 



ON ARTICULATE SOUNDS IN GENERAL. 



§3. In language we distinguish three classes of ar^i'c?(/a^e sounds, 

 viz., the vowels, semi-vowels, and consonants. 



1. The voiceh have this particular quality, that they can be 

 sounded loudly and continuously, and that in the formation of words 

 they may possibly do without consonants, as in J, a, ai/e, &c., but 

 the consonants never without the vowels. The vowels are emphati- 

 cally the souls of words, while the consonants and semi-vowels are 

 their bodies or skeletons. 



2. The semi-voweh, viz., »*, /, m, ??, partake of the nature both of 

 the vowels and of the consonants ; like the vowels they can be sounded 

 loudly and continuously, but like the consonants they ordinarily do 

 not form any words without the enlivening presence of the vowels. 

 In some languages they are even used in the place of vowels, as in 

 the Slavonic languages and the Sanscrit, or they represent entire syl- 

 lables, as in the English language (see at the close of Chapter VIII). 



3. The consonants are mute, and can scarcely be heard, unless 

 they are either preceded or followed by vowels; some consonants 

 can be prolonged like the vowels and semi-vowels, but they are not 

 sonorous, as / and s ; and in case they are sonorous, as (h in fJice, 

 V and z, there arc still other reasons excluding them from the semi- 

 vowels (see § 11). 



