222 Proceedings of Royal Society of Edinburgh. [sess. 
vestigation. It is impossible to talk accurately about speech-sounds 
without using an accurate set of symbols. In the following table 
the symbols j), b , m, f, v, s, z, t, d , n , h, w , and h , are used in their 
ordinary values. For the rest the following are keywords : 0 , 
thin ; <T, then ; f she ; 3, azure ; j, ye ; g, go ; rj, sing ; hw, what ; 
X, Sc. loch ; x, Sc. licht. They are taken chiefly from the alphabet 
used by the Association Internationale Phonetique. The inverted 
a stands for untrilled r. 
Locality of Constriction. 
Fricative. 
Plosive. 
Nasal. 
Spirate. 
Toned or w. 
Spirate. 
Toned or w. 
Spirate. 
Toned or w. 
Lip to lip, ..... 
V 
b 
m 
Lower lip to upper teeth, 
/ 
V 
Point and blade of tongue to upper teeth, . 
0 
& 
Pore-blade to fore-gums, and teeth to 
teeth, ..... 
s 
z 
Whole blade to after-gums, and teeth to 
teeth, ..... 
I 
3 
Point of tongue to gums (alveolars), 
u, 
t 
d 
n 
Front of dorsum of tongue to hard palate, . 
X 
j 
Back ,, ,, soft ,, 
X 
Tc 
9 
V 
The “nd lip to lip, } simultaneously, . 
hw 
w 
In various places, .... 
h 
Only two English consonants fail to fall into the above scheme 
of classification, namely, l and trilled r. They both belong to the 
sixth line of the table, but they find no place in the columns, 
because they are not strictly either fricative, plosive, or nasal. 
I. The Spirate Fricatives. 
/• 
In so complex a matter it is important to begin from the 
simplest examples. The simplest class will be found to be the 
spirate fricatives ; and one of the simplest of this class is /. The 
conditions of the production of / are (1) closure of naves , (2) larynx 
freely open and breathing, (3) a non-frictional passage between 
