SUBANU PHONETICS AND COMPOSITION MEMBERS. 61 
nasals are of the class of consonants denominated sonant—that is to 
say, the sound is produced just before the closure is applied to the 
vibrant column. 
It will be understood that no consonant is a sound in itself; it is 
only a modulant of the sonorous vibrating medium which, without such 
modulant, would produce no more than a vocalic sound. The nasals 
are therefore terminal of the sound. This is readily seen in what we 
know as mumbling, a name in which the use of the labial nasal plainly 
appears. With the lips wholly closed we find it possible to hear our- 
selves say “‘um-um,’’ but we find it wholly impossible to produce that 
primitive consonant in the closed mouth if we attempt it in the initial 
position as “‘mu-mu.”’ 
The lingual nasal n is also a common property of most speech. It 
is frequently subject to mutation along the vertical column of the pos- 
sibilities of tongue positioning within the buccal cavity; less frequently 
it tends to undergo an exchange with the palatal nasal; but in the main 
we are justified in regarding it as among the more permanent posses- 
sions of speech equipment. 
The palatal nasal ng is in a marked degree less general and less 
permanent. To many languages it is missing; few of those which pos- 
sess it can employ it in the initial position. We may see this in our own 
speech. We find a marked difficulty in using it as an initial when we 
attempt to acquire facility in languages which employ it at the begin- 
ning of words. Even in the final position it is subject to alteration 
along two distinct lines. In Oxford English of the present time speakers 
who profess their good taste say “‘comin’”’ and “‘goin’”’ and the like in 
the common present participle termination. Those who employ this 
manner of speech write the words, when they wish to indicate their 
pronunciation, as ‘‘comin’”’ and “‘goin’’’ and would describe the event 
as dropping the g. This is an absurd misconception of the mutation 
which takes place; in ng there is no g to drop except in so far as to the 
eye we use n and g in juxtaposition to serve as the symbol of a simple 
consonant which in the scientific alphabet and in any other reasonable 
alphabetic system is represented by a single character. What really 
happens is this: the palate, a peculiarly blunt and coarse organ of speech, 
being insufficiently under the fine control needed to give its nasal the 
true value, the more facile tongue is employed instead and we thus find 
nin the place ofng. The second mutation, a peculiarly vulgar error, is 
based upon the same inability to adjust the palate to its true position 
for this modulant. After taking the proper position at the beginning 
of the sound the palate glides into its ultimate position, which is more 
easily held. The fesult is that instead of a clear ng we have a double 
sound in which the nasal serves but as preface to the mute, ng termin- 
ated by g as a sonant, ng terminated by kasasurd. This is found in 
several of the vulgar dialects of England and is beginning to find a place 
