6 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL. 66 



that they are released through the mouth positions of* the correspond- 

 ing spirants into which they immediately merge. It has been cus- 

 tomary to write them with two letters, as if they were compound 

 sounds. Were sufficient characters available, it would be better to 

 make use of a single symbol. For practical reasons it is recommended 

 that the following combinations be used : 



Velar gy qx or kx qx' or kx' 



5. Semivowels. — Closely associated with the bilabial and palatal 

 spirants are two sounds produced with less evident agitation of the 

 approximated surfaces. These are the semivowels, w and 3;. They 

 are frequently voiceless, when a small capital y may be used and an 

 italic zv, since small capital is not sufficiently distinct from lower 

 case w. 



6. Trills. — At various points where the mouth passage is con- 

 stricted a mouth part may be bodily vibrated. When the tip of the 

 tongue is turned up toward the palate and allowed to vibrate in a 

 current of air, r-like sounds are produced. The tip of the velum, 

 the uvula, may be caused to vibrate in a similar manner, resulting in 

 the uvular r heard in some parts of Germany and France. The 

 following symbols are recommended : tongue tip, sonant r; surd R 

 (small capital) ; uvular, sonant ;■; surd R. 



The surd velar r is hardly to be distinguished from the surd velar 

 spirant, since the uvula may vibrate in the surd spirant also. 



7. Laterals. — The consonant sounds so far discussed are occa- 

 sioned by the release of stops, or by narrow passages in the middle 

 line in the mouth. There are other sounds made at the side of the 

 mouth between the teeth and the edge of the tongue. Thebest known 

 is an / sound found in English and all European languages. It is a 

 sonant and is given a part of its quality at least by a movement of the 

 side of the tongue similar to that of the tip of the tongue in the 

 r sounds. 



In many of the American languages there are lateral spirants made 

 between the side of the tongue and the upper teeth. The spirant 

 quality is pronounced only when surd. The sonant spirants approxi- 

 mate the " liquid " or trilled / of EngHsh. These lateral spirants 



