SHORT MONOPHTHONG VOWELS IN COMBINATION WITH ARTICULATIONS OF THE

organs of speech. be read line by line, across all the columns,—that the ear may be vowel, should be read consecutively—that is, the table should frequently will be a useful exercise both for the ear and the the Three Varieties of Vowel Quantity. To read over this table ing Table shows each class of Articulations in combination with The whole of the combinations with each

enabled to trace the quantitative gradations.

3rd Class.

eesh eeb eed eeg eev

LONG MONOPHTHONG VOWELS IN COMBINATION WITH ARTICULATIONS OF THE
1st Class.
2nd Class.
eep eet eek eef eeth ees

4th Class.

5th Class.

eeth eez

eezh eel

eem

een

af ath alf

as

ahv

ahm

We are now shown the essential differences of quantity in the muple elements of speech. There are others which arise from the Come:sation of LETTERS into SYLLABLES, and SYLLABLES into And first-What is a syllable? We have no non-vocal pilates; voice, therefore, is the first requisite and the syllabic voice weny be either confined to one letter, or distributed among several etters. The cowel part of a syllable may consist of two elements, -forming either a closing diphthong, as aye, owe, eye, hoy, how, &c., or an opening diphthong, as ear, air, ore, your, &c. If such words as fire, our, &c., which contain three vowel elements,—a elosing diphthong followed by the open sound er,—be considered wwwwwyllables, then the vowel part of a syllable might be said to contain a triphthong; but, when these words are fully pronounced, they are undoubtedly dissyllables, and perfect rhymes to higher, poner, &c., which are never reckoned monosyllabie words.

In colloquial speech, fire, higher, our, power, and all words of this formation, are frequently contracted into one syllabic impulse; bert this is by a slurring of the vowels, so that the close elements

A and so are not formed at all; the first combination ire (7-1-8) i converted into ah-air (7-4-8) or (7-5-8); and the second combination over (7 13-8) is converted into ah-ore (7-11-8). From our account of the formation of these vowels (page 26), it will be found that the mouth undergoes very little increase or diminution of zowel aperture in these combinations; and consequently they may de néfered with such smooth indefiniteness as to blend into din donerose wtterance, and so form but a monosyllable. Indeed, Min #siin of the possible shadings of vowel-sound between ah and 4 stk and on, or conversely, might, we conceive, be flowingly cended into a monosyllabic utterance; but no return from the port to an opening one, or conversely, could take jland #emoué destroying the monosyllabic effect.*

u ile sonallant and undervalued work,-" The Philosophy of the dimp de o the comerete function of the voice which alone constiMust the sounusse function, is meant that tapering quality of coule de fiering visherd from the eren tenor of the sounds of song. ipada malam spaliona mowever, have reference, not to roared ferma» རྒྱབནི॰ A magking sounds thus taper, acutely or granuly, anal, Bus simula mumegin, for a definite time, one musical note. Pombal sonmango amp womever, be continued through more than come #bugbug, jeg-ons, pray-est, high-est, show-v, Še a top splakhs face words? Is it not the necessary open.aug on for the mat kardi, yfter the dosing diphthong which precedes in *

We have said that the syllabic voice may be either confined to one letter, or distributed among several. Thus :-Before and after the vowel may be placed a continuous vocal articulation. Let

3

us select, for an example, the vowel ai, to which let us add an initial and final Liquid; thus, lai n. This is still one syllable, and we may prefix and affix to it an Obstructive,-thus, bl ai nd. A Continuous Voice Articulation might still be added before and after though we have not in English any initial continuous voice articulation followed by an obstructive :—this would give us the monosyllable zbl ai ndzh. An Obstructive might yet be added before and after this combination, without destroying the unity of the syllable, thus, dzblaindzhd. This barbarous-looking word is not so foreign to our language as at first sight it may appear. With the exception of the initial dz, the combination is a perfectly English one. We have the final combination complete in such words as cringed, changed, bulged, &c.

The organs slide from point to point in these clustered articulations, and there is no openness in the sounds. The open continuous elements (liquids), it will be observed, are immediately before and after the vowel. They could not be elsewhere without creating other syllables-because for them the voice has a vowelopenness and purity. Thus and n often of themselves make syllables in English utterance,-though not in orthography,—as in middle, bidden, bible, even, fasten, thistle, &c.*

The liquid 7 may be prefixed to either of the other liquids in the same syllable. Thus we still write ln and lm, though we no longer pronounce the former, and only in a few words the latter; but neither of the other liquids (which are nasals) can be uttered before l in one syllable. The reason is, that the nasals shut the mouth, and are, therefore, before 1, which opens a free oral passage, the same as the obstructives B, D, G. We might then insert l before the n in the illustrative word we have given, and so

* Our orthographic practice refuses to acknowledge any syllable that has not a vowel letter; so when we write a vowel with the liquid, as in these words, the syllabic effect of the liquid is not disputed; but if, as in spasm, rhythm, &c. we write no vowel, then, though the syllabic sound is the very same, we do not acknowledge the syllable. We grant that listen lis-n is a dissyllable; but, with strange-ignorant inconsistency, exclude rhyth-m from the same class, and call it a monosyllable. Either they are both monosyllables or both dissyllables, for their elements of sound are, letter for letter, of the same class.

The Liquids,—or, as their functions in syllables would rather require them to be called, transparent letters,—before a single final articulation, give the next degree of quantity greater than that of the single articulation: double articulations are the next longer then liquids before double articulations; then treble articulations; next liquids before treble articulations, and so on. But

:

as the articulations are not all of the same duration, their combinations present a great many slighter differences of quantity. The Liquids are so thin a veil before Breath Articulations that they hardly for an instant intercept our view of the adjoining letter ;-before Voice Articulations they become more massive, and two liquids are the longest double articulations in the language.

Let the student prefix a vowel to the combinations in the following tables-long or short, but the same vowel throughout-and let him read them in the order in which we have arranged them, and he will be able to trace the nice gradations which connect by no less than twenty-one steps, the English extremes of voiceless combinations—sick and sixths; and by eighteen, the vocal combinations in hid and hinged.

TERMINATIONAL SYLLABIC COMBINATIONS OF BREATH ARTICULATIONS.

Note.-The letter C, signifies CONTINUOUS ; [(Cl.) close; (Op.) open;] and O, OBSTRUCTIVE,―-referring to our classification of the Articulations at page 11.