boas] 



HANDBOOK OF AMERICAN INDIAN LANGUAGES 



23 



most characteristic form, is produced by the expiration of the breath 

 with all the articulating organs at rest. 



In tabular form we obtain thus the following series of the most 

 important consonantic sounds: 



Semi-vowels y, w. Breath, 'h. Hiatus '. 



The vocalic tinge of consonants is expressed by superior vowels 

 following them : "^ e i o u_ The series of affricatives which begin with 

 a stop and end with a continued sound have been omitted from this 

 table. 



It will be noticed that in the preceding table the same symbols are 

 used in several columns. This is done, because, ordinarily, only one, 

 or at most two, series of these groups occur in one language, so that 

 these differences can be expressed in each special case by diacritical 

 marks. Attempts have been made by other authors to give a general 

 system of sound representation. For any particular language, these 

 are liable to become cumbersome, and are therefore not used in the 

 sketches contained in this volume. 



Unconsciousness of Phonetic JElements 



In the preceding pages we have briefly discussed the results of an 

 analysis of the phonetic elements of human speech. It must, how- 

 ever, be remembered that the single sound as such has no independent 

 existence, that it never enters into the consciousness of the speaker, 

 but that it exists only as a part of a sound-complex which conveys a 

 deiuiite meaning. This ^yi\\ be easily recognized, if we consider for 

 a moment grammatical forms in the English language in which the 

 modification of the idea is expressed by a single sound. In the word 



