1825. 
P, differ scarcely perceptibly in labial 
action and position: the latter of each 
of these pairs of consonants being the 
tnutes_ of the liquid and semiliquid that 
. precede, and the ‘difference, of course, 
depending on the flow of tune from the 
larynx, or percussion of unvocalized 
breath. M and W depend for their dis- 
tinction (which in good speaking, is, in- 
deed, very conspicuous) upon restrain- 
ing the vibrating air withm the mouth 
for the former, so as to produce a cor- 
responding vibration, not only of the 
lips and jaw, but of the jaw and nos- 
trils; and by impelling it forward with 
@ progressive protrusion of the lips for 
the latter. 
The Germans, and some other fo- 
reigners, have an intermediate sound 
between the V and our legitimate con- 
sonant, or liquid, W; which seems to 
be formed, by bringing the lower lip 
and upper teéth into the position in 
which the V should be formed, and at 
the same time suffering the upper lip to 
close upon both.}. The same may be 
behind them, on opening the lips, the 
mute consonant P begins a syllable. If 
the lips be closed suddenly during the pas- 
sage of a current of air through them, the 
air becomes condensed in the mouth be- . 
hind them, and the mute consonant P ter- 
minates a syllable.” —Darwin. 
’ This description is accurate as far as it 
goes; but very little examination will be 
necessary to prove that whether the letter 
P begin or end a syllable, the elementary 
sound is never complete till the lips are 
opened again, either with a simple percus- 
sion of breath, or the vocalized flow of 
some vowel or liquid element. This is 
equally true of the other mutes ; and non- 
attention to this circumstance is the cause 
of that indistinctness often observable in 
the pronunciation of the closing syllable of 
sentences that happen to terminate with 
p, t, ork: as, also, in careless and unmu- 
sical utterance, where the termination is 
in the semi-liquids d, b, hard g, &c. 
+ ““ W of the Germans. If the lips be 
ror eres: as in forming the letter 
, arid air from the mouth be forced be- 
tween them, the W sibilant is produced ; 
as pronotinced by the Germans, and some 
of the inferior people of London.” Dr. 
Darwin might have added, and by almost 
all the yple, of whatever condition, in 
Portsmouth, and several other seaport 
towns: a circumstance, by the way, which 
would enable the attentive observer to dis- 
cover the real source of many of the cor- 
ruptions of what is usually called the base 
cockney : which is, in reality, a dissonant 
hash of ‘Ouflandish and provincial pronun- 
ciations, concentrated in the capital by the 
perpetual i influx of an uneducated popula- 
The Anatomy of Speech: 
307 
said of the base cockney; or what, at 
the court end of the town, we call the 
whitechapel vulgar. The orators in this 
dialect, using this intermediate unatigli- 
cised element (which is too much like a 
V to stand in the place of a W, and too 
much like a W to stand in the place of 
V) for both, we are apt to suppose (er- 
roneously, I believe, in the generality of 
instances) that they actually transmute 
them, and say “ wery good vine,” and 
“vill you make a wow ;” though, in fact, 
they pronounce in general (with some 
exceptions, perhaps, among the very 
grossest of the vulgar) neither» nor # 
in either instance. 
VI. THE NOSTRILS. NG is an 
anomaly, and one of those single ele- 
ments of the English language, for 
which we have no single or appropriate 
symbol in our alphabet.* It is a pure 
nasal 
tion from every part of the nation, and 
from the maritime parts in particular. 
If in the place of ‘ common W,” the 
words “initial W of our language,’’ be* 
substituted (for as a terminative, and in 
the middle of words, the W is a vowel, 
similar to that which we sometimes repre- 
sent by oo, and sometimes by ough), and if, 
intead of sonisibilant we say liquid, the fol- 
lowing would be a correct definition : 
“Jf in the above situation of the lips, a 
sound be produced in the mouth (larynx), 
as in the letter B, and the sonorous air be 
forced between them, the sonisibilant let- 
ter W is produced, which is the. common 
W of our language.” —Darwin. 
The formation of M is thus described 
by Dr. Darwin :—*“ In the above situation 
of the lips (as in the formation of B and P), 
if a sound is produced through the nostrils, 
which sound is terminated in narisonance, 
the nasal letter M is formed; the sound 
of which may be lengthened:in pronuncia- 
tion, like those of the vowels.” But it is 
evident, that not the nostrils only, but the 
chin, lips, and parts of the cheeks also, 
will be found in a state of sonorous vibra- 
tion during the pronunciation of the M. 
. * “ NG, in. the words long and hing, is 
a simple sound, like the French 2, and 
wants a new character ;’’ which Dr. Dar- 
win proposes to supply thus ~. In the for- 
mation of this element, also, the Dr. ad-: 
vises that * the point of the tongue be re 
tracted, and applied to the middle ‘of the 
palate.’”’ But it matters not whether it be 
the point or the middle of the tongue that 
intercepts the current of sonorous airin th 
mouth, and diyerts it to the nestrils, The 
sound NG, or, as Dr. D. marks it, ws, 
may be as well produced with the apex; of 
the tongue at the base of the lower tee 
as in the position described: in my Own 
individual instance assuredly:wuch better. 
2R2 sicriseaaineiaata! 3 
