22 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [bull. 40 



closure is made without a full breath going out, and simply by com- 

 pressing the air slightly in the space behind the closure, a break is 

 very liable to originate between the stop and the following sound of 

 the word. Such a hiatus in the word is indicated by an apos- 

 trophe ('). It seems likely that, where such a hiatus occurs fol- 

 lowing a vowel, it is generally due to a closing of the glottis. 



Most of the phenomena here described may also occur with the 

 spirants and nasals, which, however, do not seem to differ so much 

 in regard to strength; wliile the character of the outgoing breath, 

 the voicing and the breaking-off , show traits similar to those observed 

 among the stops. 



All the stops may be changed into nasals by letting the air escape 

 through the nose while the closure is continued. In this manner 

 originate our n and m. The nasal opening may also differ in width, 

 and the stricture of the upper nares may produce semi-nasalized 

 consonants. 



In the spirant sounds before described, the escape of the air is along 

 the middle line of the palate. There are a number of other sounds in 

 which the air escapes laterally. These are represented by our I. 

 They also may vary considerably, according to the place and form 

 of the opening through which the air escapes and the form of closure 

 of the mouth. 



It seems that the peculiar timbre of some of the consonants depends 

 also upon the resonance of the oral opening. This seems to be 

 particularly the case in regard to the t and ]c sounds. In pronouncing 

 the t sounds, one of the essential characteristics seems to be that the 

 posterior part of the mouth is open, while the anterior portion of the 

 mouth is filled by the tongue. In the Jc series, on the other hand, 

 the posterior portion of the mouth is filled by the tongue, while 

 the anterior portion remains open. Sounds produced with both the 

 posterior and anterior portion of the mouth open partake of the 

 character of both the Ic and t series.^ 



Two of the vowels show a close affiliation to consonants of the 

 continuant series. These are i and u, owing largely to the fact that 

 in i the position of the tongue is very nearly a stricture in the anterior 

 portion of the mouth, while in u the position of the lips is quite near 

 to a stricture. Thus originate the semi-vowels y and w. The last 

 sound that must be mentioned is the free breathing Ti, which, in its 



1 See P. W. Schmidt, Anthropos, II, 834. 



