160 Scientific Proceedings, Royal Dublin Society. 
But if a vowel follows, the combination is imperfect, and the s 
becomes separated by the pre-pause of the hard consonant, as in 
spe; ste, ske. 
Li Sa OS FO 
When combinations are made by placing hard consonants be- 
fore s, the action last mentioned is reversed ; thus 
pst, ksi, tshi or chi, 
BOSON 
form combinations. 
But in ips, its, tks, 
pS, its, tks, 
the result shows the negative action of the hard consonant with 
the positive action of s combined to some extent with the pre- 
ceding consonant re-action. 
There are also triple compounds, as U.fth in twelfth; to which 
may be added the plural s, making a quadruple compound. 
Twelfths is a difficult word to pronounce clearly, and the dia- 
gram indicates a division, showing /f as the negative action, and 
ths in the re-action. 
Twelf-ths. Twelfths. 
The word strengths, which has nominally eight consonants and 
one vowel, is phonetically 
str. -e- ng.th.s. 
that is—two triple compound consonants, one beginning and the 
other ending with s. 
The diagram of this word is 
PAGING 
s treng ths. 
showing s separate at the beginning and ths as the re-action at 
the end, and “treng” forming a central syllable. 
