PHCENIX 



PHONETICS 



139 



a long and serious argument by a fellow of an 

 Oxford college in 1840 in favour of the existence of 

 the phoenix, see Notes and Queries for 22d Decem- 

 ber 1882, p. 481. He followed Clement, Tertul- 

 lian, Epiphanius, and other church fathers. 



l'li<rni\. See DATE PALM, and PALMS. 



Phoenix Park. See DUBLIN. 



I'llirnixville, a borough of Pennsylvania, on 

 the Schuylkill River, 28 miles by mil N\V. of Phila- 

 delphia. Here are the extensive works of the 

 Phoenix Iron Company and the Phoenix Bridge 

 Company, which together employ 2400 men. Other 

 manufactures are cotton goods, stockings, shirts, 

 needles, pottery, &c. Pop. (1900) 9196. 



I'llolas. a genus of marine Inning bivalves, of 

 the family Pholndidie. The shell is thin but hard, 

 gapes at both ends, and has accessory valves. The 

 two principal valves are beset with inequalities, 

 producing a rasp-like structure. Chiefly by means 

 of the foot, bat in a manner incompletely under- 

 stood, these boring molluscs make cylindrical holes 

 in the rocks or in wood. Over thirty living species 

 are known e.g. the common Pnolas aactylus, 



A piece of rock bored by Pholas. 



popularly known as the jridilixk, and the datolo fit 

 i/i"i of the Italian markets. It is used both for 

 food and bait. The allied .genus Pholadidea is also 

 represented on British coasts, and so is the wood- 

 iKirinx Xvlophaga. To the family Pholadidte also 

 belongs tlie ship worm, or Teredo (q.v.). See also 

 BORING-ANIMALS. 



I'llOIH'tlrs. tlie -rielire of. till- SOlHlds of tile 



voiee. These are produced by air sent from the 

 lungs through the windpipe, where it may or may 

 in. i -,-t in vibration two elastic membranes in the 

 larynx, called the ' vocal cords,' producing 'voice' 

 in the lirst case, and otherwise a wind rush called 

 'flatus.' After passing the larynx the voice or 

 Mains enters the mouth ( the cavity of which, vari- 

 ously modified by the tongue or lips, affects the 

 .sound by its 'resonance'), or else the nose (when 

 the entrance to the same from the throat is not 

 blocked by tin; pressure of the uvula against the 

 back of the pharynx, greatly modifying the sound 

 by the vibration of the complicated membranes 

 which line the nasal passages), or else lioth (as in 

 the French nasal vowels). See VOICE, and the 

 illustration of pharynx, uvula, &c. at DIGESTION. 

 I'roperly speaking, phonetics comprehends the ex- 

 amination of many sounds which are not used 

 in any language, and very different selections have 



been made by different nations. Here attention is 

 confined to those used in 'received' (as opposed to 

 'dialectal') English, and a few other European 

 languages. 



As the sounds of speech are essentially differen- 

 tiated by the variously shaped cavities of the 

 mouth, two kinds must be carefully distinguished 

 ' fixed sounds,' where the cavities remain unchanged 

 during utterance; and 'glides,' where the forms of 

 the cavities are constantly changing during utter- 

 ante. These glides necessarily occur in passing 

 from one fixed position to another, and very often 

 the fixed position is not used for the production of 

 a fixed speech-sound, but merely for the beginning 

 or end of a gliding sound. Thus, in pat, tak (italics 

 always indicating systematic writing), the a repre- 

 sents a certain fixed sound known as a ' vowel,' but 

 the j, t, k represent only h'xed positions which have 

 absolutely no accompanying sound, and merely 

 l>egin or end the (unwritten) glides on to and from 

 the vowel. Hence they were called 'con-sonants' 

 or ' with sounders,' inasmuch as they mounded with 

 the vowel but not alone. The term ' consonant ' 

 has,.however, now a much more extended meaning, 

 and the above jj, t, k are distinguished as 'mutes.' 

 On the other hand, b, d, g, in bad, bag, have voice- 

 sounds of their own, though very brief and im- 

 perfect, and commence and finish the same glides 

 as before, but they are also called consonants, and 

 are distinguished as sonants.' Again s, sh, in 

 sash, have distinct hisses of their own, which can 

 be continued any length of time, but also deter- 

 mine glides on to and from , and are still called 

 consonants, being distinguished as 'hisses.' Simi 

 larly th a.n&f, in theef, ' thief,' are hisses and deter- 

 mine glides on to and from ef. But in dhai them, 

 'they thieve,' the dh, v are 'buzzes' which can 

 also be continued indefinitely, but have a harsh, 

 grating sound, and when in the pause (but not 

 otherwise) easily lose their voice and end in hisses, 

 as hiz eizn, 'his eyes.' The consonants nearest to 

 vowels are the so-called ' liquids ' viz. the two 

 ' flaps,' central r and lateral /, and the three nasals 

 m, it, ng in roa'ring, lol'ing, sum, sun, mini/. 

 These are so very vowel-like that they can be 

 actually sung upon, especially the three nasals 

 which produce 'hums.' 



It would seem to be an easy task to discover at 

 least all the fixed sounds or positions capable of 

 being produced by the organs of speech, and then, 

 noting each by a symbol, leave the glides to form 

 their connection. But it is not so; and had the 

 invention of letters had to depend upon that dis- 

 covery, we should still have been illiterate. Actu- 

 ally signs were invented for whole words, and then 

 used for the sounds with which they commenced. 

 All was very rough and rude, and the characters 

 chosen coulif not have been readily altered, even 

 bud tin; requisite knowledge existed. Hence in all 

 languages, and notably in English and French, 

 though the intention of writing was to recall the 

 sound, the word symbol could not be readily ana- 

 lysed into representatives of the component sounds, 

 till it came to pass for the above two languages 

 that a word seen and not heard could not be 

 uttered, and a word heard and not seen could not 

 be written. Hence arose in many minds the idea 

 of recasting orthography by strict analysis of the 

 sounds i.e. on a phonetic basis and to print 

 books in accordance with the new conception, in 

 order to teach reading, at least in the first instance, 

 to children and foreigners. These attempts are 

 popularly spoken of as 'phonetics,' but they are 

 only a practical and very small branch of it, to 

 which it is not necessary to allude further. Some 

 of these alphabets are adapted for the scientific 

 expression of speech-sounds, and,among them that 

 here printed in italic letters and called ' Glossic," 



