60 TRANSACTIONS OF THE 



In classifying the vowels we are to look to the positions and mo- 

 tions of the organs. The scheme of Mr. A. M. Bell assigns to 

 each vowel a distinct palato-lingual position, to which may be 

 superadded a labial or a nasal modification. It divides the vowels, 

 "horizontally," into "back," "front," and "mixed," as the place 

 of closest constriction falls on the soft or on the hard palate or in 

 some sort between the two. These it subdivides, "vertically" (so 

 described with questionable propriety, the subdivision being as 

 truly horizontal as the main division), into "high," "mid," and 

 "low." High-back : pool. Mid-back: most. Low-back: saw. 

 High-front: see. Mid-front: cte(Fr.). Low-front: their. High- 

 mixed : earth. Mid-mixed : gab? (Ger.) Low-mixed : bird. 

 These are the "primary" of Mr. Bell and the "narrow" of Mr. 

 Henry Sweet ; and for each there is a corresponding "wide : ' ' — e. g. 

 narrow : peel, etc, their ; wide : p/11, p^t, that. Labials are called 

 "round;" thus, pool is high-back-narrow-round. Mr. Bell ex- 

 plains the wide by an expansion of the pharynx ; Mr. Sweet, by a 

 depression of the upper surface of the tongue. In this Prof. Porter 

 agrees substantially with Mr. Sweet ; but, instead of two, he would, 

 for nearly all the vowels, mark four degrees, which he would call 

 dose, half-open, open, and open-depressed. Thus, the / half-open, as 

 Frenchmen, Germans, and Scotchmen pronounce hit, is, sick, posi- 

 tion, &c. The open depressed, a drawling, dialectic pronunciation 

 of the short stopped vowels, i, e, a, and others; or, sometimes, 

 properly used for emphasis; a natural concomitant of nasalization; 

 also, the initial of some diphthongs, a depressed degree of the open 

 u, in but, being the initial of our long i. 



Prof. Porter would make only a two-fold instead of the three-fold 

 subdivision of the "mixed," and would place in this class the 

 French eu in most cases, and the German o in at least many cases, 

 and not among the "front" as a labialized e, as do Messrs. Bell 

 and Sweet ; and would place here the u in up, but, instead of among 

 the " back " vowels. 



Concerning the Italian a, the a in father, ask, pass, etc., Prof. 



