110 TRANSACTIONS OF THE 



Diphthongs : The speaker maintained that there were 

 gradations among the diphthongs according to the 

 sounds given to the components which would con- 

 siderably increase the number given by Major Powell. 

 For example, besides the ai (mine) there may be di, 

 and besides au there may be both du and eu, which 

 last is more nearly the common pronunciation of the 

 ow in down, the example given by him, and which 

 is quite distinct from the German au as in haus. Only 

 broad-spoken people give this sound in English. 

 There are also gradations between the ai and the di 

 as exemplified by the German eu, heute, and au, hciuser. 

 On the Coniinent the chief distinction is in the de- 

 gree to which the two sounds are kept separate. In 

 Italian and Spanish the combination in au is not re- 

 garded as a diphthong, the two letters constituting as 

 many syllables. 



Consonants: Mr. Ward next proceeded to remark upon 

 certain of the consonants. The German b and p, k 

 and g, as also to some extent s, t, and d, he regarded as 

 synthetic. The Germans simply take no account, in 

 pronouncing these letters, of the distinction between 

 surd and sonant, they do not know in speaking 

 whether they vocalize them or not. This exemplifies 

 a principle which students of language should under- 

 stand, viz., that in some languages there are processes 

 ignored in utterance. Another example of this is found 

 in the cockney pronunciation of h, where it does not 

 belong and omitting it where it should be heard. 

 It is simply ignored and whether a word receives an 

 aspiration or not depends upon rhetorical rather than 

 orthographical considerations. 



There is no line of demarkation between the aspi- 

 rate and the guttural. Several steps of this interval 

 are filled by the Spanish j, g, and x, and by the two 

 sounds of the German ch. 



