Tafel.] 328 [October. 



language into another^ the presumption being that these changes are 

 brought about according to the degree of affinity existing between the 

 several sounds ; but the materials for a synopsis of their constituent 

 elements are furnished by physiological researches. Physiology can- 

 not decide the question as to the relations of the consonants, as little 

 as philology can give us a clue to their formation ; therefore, in order 

 to construct a consonant system exhibiting both the relations and the 

 component elements of the several consonants, physiology and phi- 

 lology must combine, the former furnishing the materials and the 

 latter arranging them into a proper form. These preliminary remarks 

 are necessary to enable me to discuss the differences between my own 

 scheme and those of R. von Raumer and Dr. Briicke. 



The schemes of Dr. Briicke and B. von Baumer give us a syn- 

 opsis of what each considers to be the elements of the several conso- 

 nants, — they are merely physiological schemes. In my own scheme 

 I undertake to supply their deficiencies and to arrange the consonants 

 into true philological order. The nature of the deficiencies supplied, 

 appears on a comparison of my scheme with that of the others. As 

 regards the true relations of the several consonants in each station, 

 comparative philology recognizes three degrees of solidity among 

 them, which I call hard, soft, and Jiu id. These three degrees, this 

 science proves to have been changed, in the course of time, in such 

 a manner that the fluid consonants were made soft, the soft hard, 

 and the hard fluid ; this has been instanced above, and it has, more- 

 over, been stated that the relations existing between the hard, soft, 

 and fluid consonants are the same as between the points of a circle. 

 I can, therefore, present my scheme of consonants, also, in the fol- 

 lowing diagram : 



The philological arrangement 

 diff"ers from the physiological in 

 this respect, that the former makes 

 a separate degree of the soft con- 

 sonants, while the latter classes 

 them with the hard consonants 

 under one head, and while com- 

 parative philology teaches that 

 the breathed and blown fluid con- 

 sonants together constitute one 

 degree, and that both are related to the hard and soft consonants in 

 a like manner, the physiologists are inclined to maintain that the 



