1861.] 339 [Consonantal Diphtliongs. 



&c. In compound words we, moreoverj find in English slit in icasli- 

 tub, and^ in half-pay. The only instance in the English language 

 where two fluid consonants of the same consonantal series are pro- 

 nounced consecutively, is tlis in clotlies, &c., and also in loathsome. 



§ 19. The third kind of consonantal diphthongs is produced by 

 pronouncing consecutively consonants pertaining to different ar- 

 ticulating stations. As regards the combinations of this kind in 

 general, it must be repeated that it is a matter of impossibility to 

 pronoiyice consecutively, in one syllable, consonants formed of mute 

 and of sonorous breath. Thus, combinations like avt, ahth, agt, ags, 

 apd, asd, ashd, asg, &c., as has been observed by Dr. Latham in his 

 ^^ Elementary English Grammar," § 44, are incapable of being pro- 

 nounced, and, in order to be pronounced, one of the sounds must 

 change its charaster, and so accommodate itself to the other. This 

 is especially illustrated by the contracted preterits and participles, 

 where d is pronounced like t after consonants formed of mute breath, 

 and like d, after consonants formed of sonorous breath and the semi- 

 vowels, e. g. it is pronounced like t in faced, reached, stuffed, laughed, 

 triumphed, croaked, cracked, houghed, reaped, nipped, piqued, 

 missed, wished, earthed, betrothed, fixed. It is pronounced as d in 

 daubed, judged, hugged, thronged, sealed, filled, aimed, crammed, 

 pained, planned, feared, marred, soothed, loved, dozed, buzzed (see 

 Goold Brown, '' Grammar of English Grammars," page 157, Obs. 

 6). Still, in compound words, when we pronounce them in detached 

 syllables, it is possible to pronounce hard and soft consonants in suc- 

 cession, e. g., backbite, catgut, football, fig-tree, hogpen, handcuff] 

 jackdaw, lapdog, nightgoiun, wood-pile, ko,. But when these words 

 are pronounced hurriedly, the first of these consonants is invariably 

 accommodated to the second. In order to understand the manner in 

 which the hard and also the soft consonants of the different classes 

 combine, we have first minutely to examine again the process of their 

 formation. The breath issuing from the wind-pipe can be checked 

 in the mouth in three different stations. The first stoppage is caused 

 by the middle of the tongue, the second by its tip, and the third by 

 the lips. From the guttural to the dental station, there is an unin- 

 terrupted passage, because the stoppage of both is caused by the 

 same member, viz., the tongue ; but the labial station is separated 

 from the dental by a sort of chasm. If, now, we take into considera- 

 tion that two operations contribute to the pronunciation of the hard 

 and soft consonants, viz., those of closing and of opening the articu- 

 lating stations — which two operations can be separated in speech — 



