VOCAL IMITATION. lOI 



In seesazv or zigzag, the contrast is apparent because it is 

 in the one word. But in the -specimens of the third list, 

 the contrast is not so apparent because generally but one of 

 the words compared is in conscious use at any given time. 

 We seem to speak of jiggling without any reference to the 

 fact that other things are joggling. Yet when these other 

 things 2iX^ joggling, we so describe them. Both words are in 

 the linguistic storehouse of the speaker, and he chooses the 

 appropriate one in any given case because there is a contrast 

 between them, unconscioush' appreciated, b^' which jiggle is 

 associated with a quicker, lighter movement of an object than 

 joggle. This contrast and association becomes apparent when 

 our attention is called simultaneously to jig, jog or Jlip, jlop. 



This contrast, moreover, is alread_v familiar to students of 

 those languages which, in comparison with such as ours, may 

 be called vocalic, such as Italian and Spanish, wherein the 

 vowels are full and the consonants weak. The diminutive 

 and augmentative additions to words in these languages, as 

 Spanish Iwmbreeico or Iwmbreeillo, from hombre , compared with 

 hombrachon or hombrojiazo , illustrate the play of this phonetic 

 principle. The diminutive endings contain i (pronounced e 

 ox } ) or f (pronounced e ) as iea, ella, ela, ztiela, while the 

 augmentative endings contain o, a and a, as on, acJion, azo, ote. 

 In English, however, the consonants and not the vowels form 

 the distinctive characteristics of a word. They are more 

 numerous and more forcibly uttered than in Spanish or 

 Italian. Yet the arrangement of the present examples shows 

 that even with us the correspondence of vowel and mass is 

 active and potent in giving significance to our words. Our 

 present attention, however, is directed to this as an element of 

 English speech only, and therefore the argument is not aided 

 here, as it might be, b}' illustrations from foreign tongues. 

 That it exists in them is simply suggested by the foregoing 

 reference to Spanish forms in order to show that what we here 

 find in English is perhaps more apparent in other languages 

 where the speaker dwells more strongly on vowels in uttering 



