178 S. Porter on the Vowel Elements in Speech. 
ince VITL. 
é1:—Fr. bonté, cité, j’az, aim 
é? :—guinea, valey, pose sien and (vulgar) America; Fr. cette, telle, 
, aime , Maiso 
3 :—Ger. denn, Be tis sorchiane ne &e. 
* :—Swedish long é, as in 
Group IX, 
#1:—machine, field, eat, eve, deep; Fr. avis, lire, amie; Ger. Mine, mr, wider. 
ail:__Fr, ruse, Grue: Ger. aber, Schiiler. 
22 :—divine, vehicle, mitegate, mandarin: the vanish of name, hail, &e., 
also of ice, my, &e., eh of oil, boy, &c.; Fr. ami, fiddle, fier, 
hn Ger. mit, bitten, n cht. 
#2!:__Fr, une, rude; Ger. Glick, tri Initial of union, view. 
13 :—pin, hit, sin, wall. 
a# ;—Draw wing = pin, wall, &c.; initial in a Yankee pron. of do, rude, 
h, &. 
Physiological Analysis of the Vowel Elements. 
I. THe a VoweEts.—For these, the place of articulation is 
between the root of the tongue and the extremity of the soft- 
palate, that is, at the throat. That no part of the tongue but 
the root is essentially concerned in the articulation, may be 
easily ascertained: for the tongue can be variously rolled and 
a without materially marring the vowel sound. The 
tongue may lie loose upon the floor of the ribet except that 
the whole will sepsis so participate in the movement of the 
root portion as to be somewhat raised in the close vowel. 
There are no labiale i in this group. 
Degree1.— Vowel a'. This, the quite es vowel of the group, 
is proper in such words as ‘staff, graft, ask, last, chant. 
(Princ. of peri + 990, 6.) Itis the slodah i a in sa Pretielt as in la, 
a strong tendency to pass into d° (cat),—the natu- 
ral position ret the tongue and also that of the soft-palate being 
nearly the same for both, —but the two sounds are to be clearly 
discriminated. 
2.— Vowel a?. The proper Italian a, and the ordinary 
a in Pieuch, as établir, malade. In English, the Italian a, as we 
call it, in father, arm, &e., is variously heard, but this form is to 
regarded as the more elegant i in most cases 
Degree 3.— Vowel a*. The open or broad a in French, as éme,* 
bas, erdee, ee when under the circumflex. 
—Vowel a*. The open French a may by some be 
at ate in this form, that is, with the utmost depression of 
the root of the tongue. So, also, the broad Low German a, an 
the Scotch broad a, in man, &c., ‘though more commonly as 4‘. 
* Principles of Pronunciation, prefixed to the new edition (1864) of Webster's 
Dictionary. 
