180 S,. Porter on the Vowel Elements in Speech. 
belong to the @ group, but, to which degree, wig opportunities 
have not been such as to enable me to determin 
It is to be remarked that the open-depressed degree suits in all 
cases with long quantity, and thus, in every group except. the 
first (a), is liable to appear as a substitute for the close degree, 
weet is naturally long in all but the first group, while the 
mply open degree (No. 3) is, with the same exception, the one 
fea of all fitted for ee quantity 
Ill. THe o VowrELs.—The palato- -lingual passage is extended 
one step further, to a higher point along the velum palati; and, 
in direction, is inclined still more highly upward; the velum 
palati itself is higher and more arched. As the back- jonas is 
thus raised, the fore-part will vet rise also, Like a 
the preceding group, the tongue will naturally be erased 
more or less according to the degree of closeness. 
The close and open or middle o correspond to the long and 
short o in most of the languages of Europe; thus we have 0 
close and long in our note, open and short in not. There is, 
however, in the Italian and some other tongues, especially the 
Danish and wedish, a distinction of so-called open and close 
not identical with this ; and to confound that with this would 
e a serious mistake. ‘The Italian close o (o chiuso, stretto) is 
described by Dietz, A. J. Ellis, and others, as nearer to the w 
(rude, full). The Italian open 0, Ss gio largo,) probably lies a 
little on the other side of our o and nearer to the d. The dis- 
tinction, which holds alike in the long a the short vowels— 
croce, bocea (close), modo, dotto (open), —is at this day a nicety 
of pronunciation not generally recognized or regarded except in 
the purest style of the language as spoken by native Italians. 
Degree 1.— Vowel 0%. Note, old, over, &c., that is, the “long 0”; 
French, tréne, dter, repos, clos, dé épéat, pivot, au, eau, Ke. ; ‘Ger- 
man, Ofen, lobt, Mond, &e. 
The English "long o” is almost always diphthongal, or com- 
pound, taking a vanish in another vowel, which is commonly of 
the w group (full, food); as plainly appears in hoe, bow, no, bowl, 
owe, low, &c. Followed by r, as in board, store, gore, oar, roar, 
the vanish is a labial vowel of the d é group (but, err, Fr. eu). 
In spoke, broke, over, also, on uickly uttered, the vanish, if 
any, is imperceptibly slight. nglish as spoken by foreigners, 
the long o without the coat in accordance with their own 
v 
open eusy pies 3) of eg grou 
Vowel 0’. Sometimes heard oa an improper mode of pro- 
nouncing the long o in English, —with the vanish, but without 
aes Ph = 
