1861.] 337 [Consonantal Diphthongs. 



diphthongs, and to specify those combinations where two consonants 

 combine with each other, and where they refuse doing so. 



^h.Q first kind of consonantal diphthongs is obtained when the hard 

 consonants are followed by the breathing sound h. By this means we 

 get what may be called the hard consonants aspirated. The pure aspi- 

 rates, i. e. such where the letter h is distinctly pronounced, do not occur 

 in the Enghsh language, except in compound words, as in uphold, short- 

 hand, workhouse, &q. But, as has been mentioned above, when the 

 hard consonants are initial and final, they always become more or less 

 aspirated. The breathing sound h combines so very intimately with 

 the hard consonants, even when joined to them by composition, that 

 their combination can scarcely be regarded as a consonantal diphthong; 

 but with the soft consonants, at least with the English kind, it does 

 not combine at all, because the sound of the voice with which these 

 consonants are pronounced, excludes the mute breathing sound h. So if 

 in abhor, madhouse, or log-house, we wish to sound the letters h, d, 

 or (/ distinctly, we must pronounce these words slowly, and separate 

 their two constituent members. In conversation, we generally obvi- 

 ate this difficulty by pronouncing the letters h, d, g like p, f, h. In 

 combinations of the fluid consonants with h, also, the two words by 

 which they are brought into juxtaposition require to be sounded se- 

 parately, as in off-hand, race-horse, flesh-hooh, heath-hen, stave-head, 

 &c. ', for if we endeavor to pronounce them closely together, the 

 letter h is absorbed by the preceding fluid consonants. 



§ 18. The second kind of consonantal diphthongs is produced when 

 the members of the same consonantal series are pronounced consecu- 

 tively. The hard and soft consonants of the same series cannot be thus 

 combined on account of their sameness, and, also, because the En- 

 glish hard consonants are pronounced with mute, and the English 

 soft consonants with sonorous breath ; and it is a matter of impos- 

 sibility to pronounce consecutively consonants formed of mute and 

 of sonorous breath. In case they do come together by composition, 

 whenever the hard consonant precedes, it is assimilated to the fol- 

 lowing soft, as in cupboard, claphoard, raspberry, blackguard, &c., 

 which are pronounced as if they were spelt cubboard, clabboard, 

 rasberry, blaggard ; and when the soft consonant precedes, the word 

 is pronounced in two detached syllables, as in sub-poena, head-tie, 

 hand-tree, land-tax, dog-kennel; or when they are pronounced hur- 

 riedly the preceding soft is assimilated to the succeeding hard conso- 

 nant. Next to the aspirates the most intimate conjunction between 

 two consonants is obtained when the hard and soft are followed by 



