PROCEEDINGS OF THE POLYTECHNIC ASSOCIATION. 603 



this subject, in The American Journal of Science and Art occu- 

 pying nearly forty pages, in which he has successfully systema- 

 tized that before known, and has presented certain new relations 

 which seem to harmonize the apparently conflicting statements of 

 other writers. The novelty in this sj^stem is that it assigns to dif- 

 ferent places, and thus ranges under separate groups, vowels 

 which have been commonly viewed as diftering merely in degree 

 of openness. This is ingeniously illustrated by a diagram of 

 palato-lingual positions. This table of simple vowel elements 

 embraces in nine groups, many modifications of vowels, as heard 

 in some of the modern languages. The following principles are 

 the key to the S3'stem : 



I. All the vowels are articulated primarily between the tongue 

 and palate. Some of them, those usually called labials [old, ooze, 

 all^ cGc.) are further modified by the action of the lips. All are 

 thus palato-liuguals simply, or else labio-palato-linguals, and the 

 latter consists of a palato-lingual part, capable of being employed 

 by itself, and of a labial part which is dependant on and super- 

 added to the other. 



II. The articulation is eflected as between the tongue and palate 

 in the following manner : The organs are so disposed, and the 

 muscles of the tongue with those also of the soft palate, so put 

 into action as to make a firm tube or passage fitted for the rever- 

 berance of the sound which comes from the larynx. This passage 

 so differs for all the vowels as to modify the sound in a particular 

 manner for each — the cases excepted, of course, in which the same 

 palato-lingual articulation makes two distinct vowels as used with 

 or without the labial modification. The labial modification is 

 effected by a firm contraction, and more or less protrusion of the 

 lips, together with a right tension of the cheeks, so as to cause a 

 further reverberation of sound, and thus give the vowel a different 

 character to the ear; the sound is reverberated through two pas- 

 sages or cavities instead of one. 



III. The vowels — labial and non-labial — arc assorted into groups 

 according as the palato-lingual passage extends more of less for- 

 ward. The passage is either just at the throat, or is extended and 

 lengthened 'by joining the lateral margins of the tongue to the 

 sides of the palate, till finally the tube, so formed, reaches quite 

 forward under the dome of the hard-palate, and nearly to the tip 

 of the tongue. For the anterior groups the place is more pre- 



