1861.] 315 [Diphthongs. 



Latham, in his '' Elementary English Grammar/' § 38, holds that 

 the diphthongs are formed by the union of a vowel, and the semi- 

 vowels [or rather vowel-consonants] w and y. It is true, that when 

 some of the diphthongs are pronounced by themselves, or at the close 

 of a word, as in hoio or high, a slight consonant breathing is heard, 

 as in the vowel-consonants lo and y. But of this we do not perceive 

 the least trace when they are pronounced in the middle of a word, 

 as in gout or height. This consonant breathing, moreover, is only 

 heard in those diphthongs which terminate in i and ll, and it is not 

 heard at all in those which end in c or 0, as in pie and how. This 

 circumstance we adduce as another proof of the distinction which 

 exists between the two kinds of diphthongs. 



With regard to the particular process in which the two vowels are 

 blended into a diphthong, Dr. Latham makes the following remarks 

 in his work on "The English Language,'^ § 89 • " The nature of 

 the modification that the component parts of a diphthong undergo, 

 has yet to he determined, although it is certain there is one. If it 

 were not so, the articulation would be double, not compound." Con- 

 cerning this modification, Dr. Briicke says in his answer to Prof. 

 Kudelka, page 30 : ''During the process of the formation of the diph- 

 thongs, the resonance of the vowel in the cavity of the mouth, in 

 passing from the first to the second members, is continually changing. 

 Thus in the pronunciation of a\i [English, ou or oio], the resonance 

 of the vowel, in the cavity of the mouth, passes through a series of 

 intermediate sounds, which, according to my system of notation, I 

 might represent by the signs a, a°, o, o, w, but, inasmuch as the 

 parts of the mouth are continually changing, none of these vowels 

 are distinctly expressed. Hence the great diversity of opinions en- 

 tertained with regard to the proper spelling of the diphthongs; hence, 

 also, the necessity of pronouncing a diphthong very slowly, or to sing 

 it, in order to detect their first and second members/' 



R. von Raumer (Ueber deutsche Rechtsdreibung, page 62) notices 

 two modes of forming a diphthong. The first consists in pronouncing 

 each of the two vowels distinctly in succession, without marking the 

 intermediate sounds. By laying the stress only on the first vowel, 

 we are enabled to pronounce both of these vowels in one syllable, but 

 they are merely conjunctions of two vowels, and cannot be called diph- 

 thongs. This is the mode in which the diphthongs are pronounced in 

 the Italian and Spanish languages. In the second mode, the transi- 

 tion of the first vowel into the second is not effected instantaneously, 

 but gradually ; and during the whole period in which the position of 



