312 S. Porter on the Vowel Elements in Speech. 
The point we have in hand,—that of direct transition from 
one vowel-group to another,—will be best illustrated by taking 
into view, etymologically, the ancestral and allied tongues along with 
the English, and adverting also to existing dialectic variations,— 
with this proviso, however, that the precise process of change 
cannot always be determined as direct rather than indirect and 
circuitous. 
A.-S. f6t, Eng. foot; again, Sans. dant-as, Lat. dent-is, Gr. 60évt-os, 
A.-S. tédh, Eng. tooth; Sans. ashtan, A.-S. eahta, Eng. eight, 
Lat. octo, G na 5 
knee, Gr. 7évv; Sans. matri, Lat. mater, Gr. mjtyo, A.-S. modor, 
Eng. mother (6), Ger. mutter; Sans. mas, Gr, snjvy, A.-S. mona, 
Be OF . . S A 
bdén 
(0), 
other for the a in almighty, and the o in Lord, of, for, from, &c.; and employs ¢ for 
conceived, dead, Jesus, Amen, heaven, earth, &¢.,—that is, for a sound which, when 
long, did not differ greatly, if at all, from the “long a” of our time. Reference to 
such, " : Eng’ 
ge, first series, Lect. xxii. Ihave not overlooked the noteworthy, but in 
conclusive, « Memoranda” of Mr. R. G. White, appended to vol. xii of his edition 
_ For the earlier period referred to above, Ihave depended mainly upon Palsgrave, 
—— t de la Langue Francaise, the reprint by Genin, Paris, 1852 (1530 
the original); for the other and later, my statements accord with those of Wilkins 
and Wallis. See also Atlantic Monthly, vol. iii, pp. 255, 6 (in the article on Whites 
2 coe 1, Aine note: 
P J 
* 
