A CONSONANT requires the aid of a vowel in order to make a syllable.

'Pa' is a syllable; but p' represents merely a tight closing of the lips.

The power of a letter must be distinguished from its name. Take the word go. Let the sign ▲ indicate the taking away of o. Then gɅ cannot be pronounced. We may call it 'jee.' That is its name. But that does not express its power as used in the word go.

CONSONANTS are divided into the following classes :—

LIQUIDS: 1, m, n, r.

LABIALS: p, b, f, v, w.

DENTALS: d, t, 1, n, j, s, z; also the following letters, as sometimes used:

c, sounded as in face, or as in discérn, or as in social; g, sounded as in gem; r, sounded as in rose.

GUTTURALS: h, k, q, y; also the following letters, as sometimes used :— c, sounded as in call; g, sounded as in go; r, sounded as in work.

h is distinctly called the aspirate, and is otherwise called a weak guttural.

=

=

=

CONSONANTS have been thus classified with respect to the organs of speech. In Latin, labium lip; dens tooth; guttur throat. The four letters 1, m, n, r, are called Liquids,' because their sounds readily unite with others. The letters having whispering or hissing sounds (s, z, j, with c and g, when used as dentals) are called Sibilants.'

*2 THE SPOKEN ALPHABET.

The series of elementary sounds heard when English is correctly spoken, contains twelve vowels, four diphthongs, five labials, ten dentals, six gutturals, and four liquids. All these forty-one sounds are heard when the following seventeen words are correctly pronounced :-march, move, note, push, bud, vain, fear, wall, size, treasure, joy, thing, than, cube, get, house, yonder.

The preceding seventeen words contain the forty-one sounds noticed in the following analysis:

Four sounds of a are heard in the words '

'pale,' 'call.'

Two sounds of e are heard in 'met' and 'feet.'

The sound of the vowel i is heard in 'tin.'

map,'' ah!'

Three sounds of o are heard in 'not,' 'note,'' move.'
Two sounds of u are heard in 'cup' and 'pull.'

The sounds of four diphthongs are heard in the words 'eye,' 'boy,' 'ewe,' 'house.'

The sounds of the four liquid consonants are heard in the words 'lane,'' man,' ‘name,'' rose.'

The sounds of the five labial consonants are heard, as initials, in the words 'pin,' 'bee,' 'fan,'' vain,' 'win.'

The sounds of two dentals, t and d, are heard, without sibilation, in the words 'tin' and 'din.'

The sounds of three sibilant dentals are heard as initials in the words 'jest,' 'sin,' ' zeal.'

The sharp sound of the aspirated sibilant ch is heard in 'chest.' This sound is represented by the single letter c in the Italian words 'violoncello' and 'vermicelli.' The same sound is represented by the single letter t in the word 'question.'

The sharp sound of the aspirated sibilant sh is heard in 'shall.' This sound is represented by c in social;' by s in 'mansion;' by t in 'partial;' and by ch in 'charlatan.'

The flat sound of the aspirated sibilant zh is represented by z in the word 'azure.' The same sound is represented by s in 'úsual,' ' méasure,' 'pléasure,' and 'tréasure.'

Two sounds of the aspirated dental th are heard in the words 'thin' and 'thine.' The former is called sharp and the latter flat.

96

The sounds of five gutturals-g, k, y, n, and r—are heard in the words 'go,' 'kind,' youth,' 'long,'' work.' [n and have other sounds, and are therefore also classed with liquids.] The sound of the aspirate (or weak guttural) h is heard in 'here!'

The results of the preceding analysis are concisely given in the appended table.

In English the Spoken Alphabet contains:—

4 sounds of a in 'map,' 'ah,'' pale,' 'call'

2 sounds of e in 'met,' ' feet'

The sound of i in 'tin'

3 sounds of o in 'not,' 'note,' 'move'

2 sounds of u in 'cup,' 'pull'

4 diphthongs in 'eye,'

4 liquids: 1, m, n, r

boy,'' ewe,'' hour'

5 labials in pin," bee,' fan,' vain,' 'win'

2 dentals in 'tin' and' din

6 sibilant dentals in sin,' zeal,' 'shall,' 'azure,' 'chest,' 'jest' 2 lisping dental sounds: th in think' and th in 'that'

5 gutturals in 'kind,' 'youth,' 'go,' 'long,' 'work' The aspirate, h, or weak guttural .

Total

42132 +452

If the obscure sound of u in 'cur' must be counted, then

there are forty-two sounds in English.

SHARP AND FLAT SOUNDS.-Two Consonants, one sharp, the

other flat, coming together, cannot be pronounced in one syllable. Both must be sharp or both must be flat. Hence these three rules are deduced :

a.- -When a noun ends with a flat consonant, the sound of s, in the possessive case, is changed into the sound of z, as in the example 'the stag's antlers.' The letter z is seldom seen, but is often pronounced.

b. The same change takes place in forming the plural of a noun ending with a flat consonant. Ex.: flags. If we pronounced the s sharp, we should say 'flax.'

C.- -When a verb ends with a sharp consonant, the ending ed, in the past, if contracted (as 'd), is pronounced as t. Ex.: 'bless'd ’= 'blest ;' ‘cross'd '=' crost.'

In the following table, the sharp sounds of consonants are placed in contrast with the flat :

Vowels. Each of the short vowels-a, e, i, o, u, y—has a corresponding long vowel.

y had, at first, a sound like u, but afterwards served as a substitute for i.

Consonants.-The LIQUIDS-1, m, n, r—are sounded as in

M.E.

LABIALS.-It seems probable that f, placed between vowels, had in some words the sound of v in M.E. A half-consonant sound of w (final) is supposed to have approached the sound of v in M.E.

DENTALS.- often represents sharp th (heard in 'thin'). often represents the flat th (heard in 'thine'). Of these two forms for our modern th, the first (p) serves mostly as an initial; the second mostly as a mediate or a final letter. Ex.: pencan ('to think '); mirð (='mirth '). But the two letters are often used indifferently in E.I. MSS. A careless way of writing þ gave rise to the use of 'ye' as a substitute forthe.'

GUTTURALS. -α= = k (as in 'kind').

g, as an initial, is guttural, even before the vowels e and i, as it still remains in 'get' and 'give.' When placed between any two of the vowels æ, e, i, y, the guttural sound of g is weakened, and approaches the sound of y in 'ye.' A weakened sound of g is in E.II. often represented by the letter 3.

h initial is aspirated, as in 'hand.'

cg in sound guttural gg.

=

ch in E.II. takes the place of c in First English, and has the dental sound of ch in 'church.'

In cs the c remains guttural.

CW = qu. Ex.: cwellan = 'to quell.'

sc = sk (as in 'askew’).

*3. FAULTS OF THE WRITTEN ALPHABET

There are only five vowels in the printed alphabet, but the English Language has twelve distinct vowel-sounds.

More than twenty apparent diphthongs are used in writing English, while the spoken language has only four true diphthongs.

The want of harmony between words written and words spoken is as noticeable in the consonants as in the vowels. TWO CONSONANTS are often used to represent the sound of

TWO CONSONANTS are often placed together to represent a peculiar sound not expressed by a single letter. Ex.:

x consists of two letters written as one, and is equivalent to ks or to gz. In fox the x = - ks. In exert the x = gz.

q has no sound distinct from that of k; c, in many words, is sounded as s, and in others as k. The soft (or dental) sound of g in 'gem' is the sound of j in 'jest.'

*4. SYLLABLES.

A syllable may consist of one vowel, or of one diphthong; or may be formed by connecting a vowel or a diphthong with a consonant, or with several consonants. Ex.: 'a,' 'eye,' 'am,' 'our,' ' land,' 'joint.'

In every case the syllable-either simple or complex in its sound-is produced by one impulse of the voice.

The sounds of letters collected in a syllable are often modified by their union. Ex.: s in 'flags' is not pronounced like s in 'stacks.' [See 2, on 'Sharp and Flat Sounds.'] The following words are often used in writing of syllables and accentuation ::

four or more syllables.

Penúltimate, the second syllable, as counted from the end of a word.

Antepenultimate, the third syllable, as counted from the end of a word.

*5. ACCENT.

The stress laid on one syllable in a word, to give unity to the word, is called the Accent.

ENGLISH Contains, besides its store of original words, many Roman words-some taken from Norman-French, and others from Latin.