304 ANALYTIC ORTHOGRAPHY. 
CHAPTER IX. 
PHASES OF WORDS. 
Copious even to excess, as is the literary labor of our age, and ever seeking new topics, new methods of verifying old 
ones; there are yet subjects to be found, either not touched upon at all, or scantily and incidentally treated, without due 
regard to their proper value. In the great domain of natural history and the physical sciences, the rapid growth of 
knowledge, and its subjection to new laws and generalisations, have created the need of fresh divisions in every part; of 
altered nomenclature, and partieular treatises on topics, the increasing importance of which compels this separation.— 
Edinburgh Review. 
202. The elements thus far discussed afford sufficient material for an elucidation of the 
mode of their employment in speech, and the causes which influence the physiognomy of 
words. Several chapters will now be devoted to the phonetic and etymologic subject of 
the Phases of Words. There are four phases of words—WMetathesis, or transposition; Epén- 
thesis, or increase; L’cthesis, or elision; and Andthesis, or mutation. 
METATHESIS. 
2035. Rapidity of utterance requires that in pronouncing the sequents LA, LI, PL-, PR., 
the cavity of the mouth must be set for A, I, before the L is formed, and the tongue be 
placed for L, R, before the P is formed, as in saying pl-ay, ta-bl; pr-ay, ta-pr. This may 
cause the elements to be displaced, that which should be last getting the first place, by a 
physical process. This is partially recognised in Sanscrit orthography, where tig (to strike) 
is written with the vowel character preceding that for ¢, as if itg, but read tig. 
204. The mental image of a word being a whole, and its broken elements and syllables 
a succession of parts, these may be confounded in the emission by a mental process—an 
accident of a kind which sometimes happens in writing. We adopt the mark (x) used 
by Dr. Tschirschnitz* to indicate metathesis. The following are examples: Ang. brid, a 
bird; acsian and ascian, to ask; Eng. dial. gers, grass. 
Croatian, strok krap mleko brada. 
x x x x 
English, stork carp milk beard. 
EPENTHESIS. 
205. Epenthesis is the lengthening of a word, as by the use of affixes, whether prefixes 
or suffixes. Ne-ar is an old comparative meaning more nigh, but the suffix being forgotten, 
the word acquired a positive sense, with a double comparative in ne-ar-er. In old high 
German, sacc-lin-chin is a double diminutive of sack; and esel-in-chi-l-in may be a triple 
* Natirkunde der cprichlaute darstellend das wérterreich der deiitschen rprache nach lauten und begriffen 
nattirwissenschaftlich begriindet und geordnet. Breslau, 1841. 300 pp. 8vo. 
