lO ON THE ORTHOGRAPHY 



articulated, the breath be forced with an effort through 

 the lips, we form an af pirate, more or lefs harm in 

 proportion to the force exerted. When, in pronoun- 

 cing the fimple vowel, we open our lips wider, we ex- 

 press a found completely articulated, which moft na- 

 tions have agreed to place the Jirft in their fymbolical 

 fyftems : by opening them wider (till, with the corners 

 of them a little drawn back, we give birth to the fecond 

 of the Roman vowels; and by a large aperture, with a 

 farther inflexion of the lips, and a higher elevation of 

 the tongue, we utter the third of them. By purfing up 

 our lips in the leaft degree, we convert the fimple ele- 

 ment into another found, of the fame nature with the 

 jirji vowel, and eafily confounded with it in a broad 

 pronunciation : when this new found is lengthened, it 

 approaches very nearly to the Jourth vowel, which we 

 form by a bolder and ftronger rotundity of the mouth : 

 a farther contraction of it produces the fifth vowel, 

 which, in its elongation, almoft clofes the lips, a fmall 

 paffage only being left for the breath. Thefeareall fhort 

 vowels : and if an Italian were to read the words an inno- 

 cent bull, he would give the found of each correfponding 

 longvowel,asin the monofyllables of his own language, 

 fd,fi,fo\ fe,fii. Between thefe ten vowels are number- 

 lefs gradations, and nice inflexions, which ufe only can 

 teach; and, by the compofition of them all, might be 

 formed an hundred diphthongs, and a thoufand triph- 

 thongs ; many of which are found in Italian, and were 

 probably articulated by the Greeks; but we have only 

 occafion in this tracl for two diphthongs, which are com- 

 pounded of the firfl vowel with the third, and with the 

 fifth, and fhould be expreffed by their conftituent let- 

 ters. As to thofe vocal compounds which begin with 

 the third and fifth fhort vowels, they are generally, and 

 not inconveniently, rendered by diftinct characters, 

 which are improperly arranged among the confonants. 

 The tongue, which alfifts in forming fome of the vowels, 

 is the principal inltrument in articulating two liquid 

 founds, which have fomething of a local nature : one 



by 



