ANALYTIC ORTHOGRAPHY. 293 
dental or basi-dental; seize to what may be called the sigmal contact (from the Greek let- 
ter, and from opis a hissing,) for s has more affinity with ¢ than with sh, which, with zh, 
belong to the palatal contact. The guttural contact is formed by the back part of the 
tongue and palate, asin young, cag. The vowels in pique, vein, are guttural vowels. The 
glottal contact seems to be formed at the glottis, asin oe. There are several glottal con- 
sonants in Hebrew and Arabic. The epiglottis is passive, without muscles, and it is not 
an organ of speech, as some have asserted. 
159. The fundamental elements are the (Latin) vowels U, A, f, and the consonants (mutes) 
P, T, Cay, corresponding to the lips, palate and throat, or to the outer, middle and inner parts 
of the mouth. When the contacts are half open, a series of intermediate consonant sounds 
result, which may be called liquids. These three kinds are related as represented in the 
diagram, the affinities running vertically, and the analogies horizontally, but as P, T, are 
equally close, and as A is much more open—more of a vowel than U—the affinity between 
A and L or BR is much less than between U and V, still greater is the distance from A to T, 
compared with U to P. 
Vowels U A I 
Liquids Vv L J 
Mutes iE T Cay 
160. The primary vowels, in natural order are 
OU A EL or IEA OU, 
and in forming them mechanically, if a tube of a certain length produces U, it must be 
shortened for O, and so on to I, which requires to be shortened the most. A is the type 
of the vowels—the natural vowel—and the most agreeable of the whole. Closing the or- 
gans from A towards the throat, E and I will be formed: if towards the lips, O and U. 
161. Two complementary vowels are wanted to occupy the spaces on each side of A, 
which are greater than those between OU, and between HI. These are awe, between A 
and O, (formed on Faber’s speaking machine by touching the O and A keys simultane- 
ously,) and wrn on the throat side, between A and H, from the latter of which it is more 
commonly derived. Some, on the faith of mechanical experiments, locate urn between 
O and U, thus making it a labial—a view which would vitiate philological deductions. 
Mr. Ellis would prefer at between A and H. 
162. The secondary vowels are modifications of the primary and complementary ones, 
formed by a different aperture, and commonly, but not necessarily short. They occur 
long, whilst the primaries may become short and abrupt, or staccatoed. Any vowel is 
here considered secondary whose place is between those already named, as bit, bet, bat, 
bot, but, full. If naught and not differed only in length, the two would constitute but 
