1825.) 
word intermediate, and the words pursue, 
worthy, world, &¢e.)is best formed by a 
slight jar-of; the sideredge of the: tongue 
against the: side|.gums 5) or! it! maybe 
formed by aomore’ delicate touch’ upon 
the front gums; according ‘to the: facili- 
ties arising out of its’ necessary combi- 
nation with the preceding or succeeding 
element. Hcgirat : 
The third, or terminative R (as in 
your, pures far; sir, her, &c.) is a lmgua 
guttural; and. formed :by >the jarring of 
the back part of the tongue against the 
avila: ylinwisa 
The, word; nememberer, properly pro- 
‘nounced, exemplifies the triple ele- 
mentary power of this ambiguous cha- 
racter. 
_ «L, A gliding feathery touch from the 
point of the tongue against the gums, 
while a. vOcalized impulse is given to 
the, breath. from the. larynx, produces 
the sound belonging to the letter L— 
the most tunable, perhaps, of all the ele- 
ments of spoken language.} 
Y. A slight pressure of the sides of 
the upswoln tongue against the upper 
side gums, near the front of the mouth, 
the apex being at the same time in con- 
tact with the roots of the lower teeth, 
and the teeth themselves being slightly 
opened,{ produces (during a similar 
impulse of the voice) the initial, or con- 
sonant Y.9 
* Of the varieties of element represented 
by this individual letter, Dr. D. takes no 
sort of notice, but simply states, that “If 
the point of the tongue be pressed to the 
fore part of the palate, as in forming the 
letters T, D,; N, S, Z, and air be pushed 
‘Wetween, $o as to proditce continued sound, 
the letter R is formed.” Even the accu- 
rate Walker'has not defined or discrimi- 
nated’ the thrééfold power. or elementary 
20 paras of the letter r. It is one of 
#he Rarshnesses ‘of Scottish and of, Irish 
sg et to confound this discrimina- 
in, and pronourice in all cases the initial 
7 Only ;''as it is ‘One of the still more offen- 
five peculiaritiés of the Northumbrian bur, 
to Pronounce only, the guttural or termina- 
tive’: Or, in fact, to pronounce no 7 at all.* 
we: aa ‘Tf the retracted tongue be appressed 
to’ the middle of the palate, as m forming 
the letters K, Ga, NG, SH, J French, 
aid ait be’ pushed oyer its edges, so as to 
produce coritinued sound, the letter L is 
formed.”—Darwin. _'The reader may bring 
thie two' anatomical definitions to the test 
of experiment. 
+ "Phis opening of the jaw is not indis- 
perisabile’ to the formition of the element ; 
but it i$) ‘in many states of conformation, 
at Yeast, Convenient and desirable. 
§ The initial, or consonant Y— That 
‘The Anatomy of Speech. 
115 
Z. The slight contact of a flatter 
surface against the upper gums, the 
) apex 
both this letter andthe? W, when used 
initially, ‘in ‘all: but a base! cockney,\‘or a 
jfuint affected pronunciation, have the, ge~ 
nuine) power of) the liquid eonsonant, I 
haye always been convinced, notwithstand- 
ing all that has been, said.to the contrary. 
The following disquisition on, the subject 
will be found in the fourth section of the 
first edition of Mitford’s Essay upon the 
Harmony of Language (p.. 46-7). “ It 
was mentioned, in treating of the vowels, 
that’ w and y have, as proper vowels, no 
other power than is possessed by u and 2. 
They have, however, at the beginning of 
syllables something very peculiar; and 
many grammarians have ranked their 
power, in that situation, among consonant 
sounds. The Bishop of Oxford, in his 
grammar, insists, on the contrary, that 
they have every property of a vowel, and 
not one of a consonant. We must cer- 
tainly, in a great measure, admit the learned 
Bishop’s assertion, that Ee-oo and oo-ill, 
pronounced slowly, are each two distinct 
syllables; but with a quick utterance they 
become precisely you, will, and are each 
one syllable only. But Mr. S, Johnson 
inclines to rank the initial w and y among - 
consonants, because ‘they follow vowels 
without any hiatus, or difficulty of utter- 
ance, as frosty winter, rosy youth.’- ence 
we never add z to the indefinite article be- 
fore words beginning with y and w, but 
say a youth, a woman. We may observe 
farther, that, notwithstanding the extreme 
slightness of their vowel sound, these let- 
ters delay the voice in its progress to the 
succeeding vowel as much as any conso- 
nant: and they have something in their 
sound incompatible with a succeeding con- 
sonant: a vowel must follow. It is gene- 
rally agreed among the learned, that the 
Latin v, and the Aolic digamma were no 
other than our w, and they were always, in 
yerse at least, esteemed consonants. In 
the same manner our w and y seem to af- 
fect quantity merely as consonants, and, 
therefore, to all poetical purposes, which 
is all we have to consider here, are con- 
sonants.” 
To the reasons here advanced’ may be 
added, that the sounds given to the Y and 
W, as initials, cannot be produced without 
contact and vibration of the enunciative 
organs: that is to say, without pressure of 
the lips as preparatory for the W, and of the 
tongue against the gams, &c., as described 
in the text for the Y. 
Dr. Darwin ranks the initial W among 
the sonisibilant consonants ; though what 
sibilancy has to do with the utterance of 
it, I cannot perceive: but his definition of 
the initial Y appears to be particularly unsa~ 
tisfactory. 4 
“Y, when it begins a word, as in youth. 
Q2 If 
