6. There is an attenuation or precession of vowels in certain inflectionary processes. a. In the formation of some plural nouns; as, goose, plur. geese (compare Anglo-Saxon gos, plur. ges); tooth, plur. teeth (compare Anglo-Saxon toth, plur. teth). b. In the comparison of adjectives; as, old, elder, eldest; Anglo-Saxon eald, yldre, yldest.

THE COMPARATIVE EUPHONY OF THE ENGLISH LAN

GUAGE.

§ 164. The English language, as compared with the Classical and the Romanic languages, is deficient in vowel sounds. This will appear evident, not only from hearing the spoken language, but also from the comparative number of vowel characters on the printed page. Complaints have been made that our language is harsh and coarse in its phonology, owing to this accumulation of consonantal elements, and the deficiency of vowel sounds, especially in the termination of words. Thus Lord Byron compliments the Italian in comparison with our own:

"I love the language, that soft bastard Latin,

Which melts like kisses from a female mouth,
And sounds as if it should be writ on satin
With syllables that breathe of the sweet South,
And gentle liquids gliding all so pat in

That not a single accent seems uncouth,

Like our harsh Northern, whistling, grunting guttural,
Which we are obliged to hiss, and spit, and sputter all.”
Beppo, stanza xliv.

In contrast to this, it has been said that "Servian song re sembles the tone of the violin; Old Slavonian, that of the organ; Polish, that of the guitar. The Old Slavonian, in its Psalms, sounds like the loud rush of the mountain stream; the Polish, like the bubbling and sparkling of a fountain; and the Servian, like the quiet murmuring of a streamlet in a valley."

The ancient accent, consisting as it did of musical tones, must have contributed to the euphony of the Classical languages in comparison with the English accent, which consists of stress. In singing, the vowel sounds are made prominent; in speaking, the consonantal sounds. In singing, the sound rises and falls to other grades in the scale without a continuous slide of the voice, and is called the discrete sound. In speaking, the sound

ascends and descends in the scale, from one pitch to another, by a continuous slide, and is called concrete sound. The Classic nations seem, in their accent, to have united the two modes of pronouncing words.

PLAN FOR REMEDYING THE DEFECT.

§ 165. To remedy the alleged defect, PINKERTON, under the assumed name of ROBERT HERON, declares that our language wants 8000 vowel terminations in comparison with the Greek. Here is a specimen of the manner in which he would supply them: “When I waz ato Grand Cairo, I picked up several Orientala manuscripta, whica I have' still by me. Among othera, I met with one' intitulen Thea Viziona of Mirza, whica I have read ove' with great pleasure'. I intend to give it to the publico, when I have no other entertainmenta fo them, ando shail begin with the first, whica I have' translaten wordo fo wordo az followeth." The final s in all plurals is turned into a. E is to be given to all substantives in y, as beaute', bounte'; and to be pronounced in finals, as fame', grace'. I is to be given to all adjectives in y, as healthi, weari. O is given to all substantives ending in harsh consonants, as eggo, capo, facto.

For a more full account of this absurd and impracticable scheme, see Cambridge Philological Museum, page 649, vol. i.

While changes like these are impossible, and are to be deprecated if they were possible, still, changes are to be expected in the orthographical forms of the language of a nation, just as there are in the ideas which are expressed by that language. These changes should not be left to be settled by chance or by aprice, but by the judicious application of the principles of Orthography.

It ought, however, in justice to be added, that while the English is inferior to some languages in its euphony, it is superior to many. Indeed, many languages, in the accumulation of consonantal elements, and in their harsh guttural tones, resemble some of the languages in the north of Europe, characterized by Julian as being like the scream of birds and the cries of wild beasts.

CAUSES OF DIVERSITY IN EUPHONY.

§ 166. "Professor WILLIS, of Cambridge, in the course of some most ingenious experiments upon the organization and condition of the human larynx, came upon the law which regulated the pronunciation of the vowels. He found this to be partly in proportion to the size of the opening of the pipe, partly to the force with which air is propelled through it; and by the adaptation of a tremulous artificial larynx to the pipe of an organ, he produced the several vowels at will. Now, bearing in mind the difference between the living organ and the dead one, the susceptibility of the former to dilatation and compression, from the effects not only of the human will, but also of cold, of denser or thinner currents of air, but, above all, of the influence which the general state of the body must have upon every part of it, we are furnished at once with the necessary hypothesis, viz., that climate, and the local position, on which climate much depends, are the main agencies in producing the original variations of dialect. Once produced, tradition perpetuates them, with subsequent modifications proportionate to the change in the original condition, the migration to localities of a different character, the congregation into towns, the cutting down of forests, the cultivation of the soil, by which the prevalent degrees of cold, and the very direction of the currents of air, are in no small degree altered. It is clear that the same influence will apply to all such consonants as can be in any way affected by the greater or less tension of the organs, consequently, above all, to the gutturals; next, to the palatals, which may be defined by the position of the tongue; least of all to the labials, and generally to the liquids also, though these may be more or less strongly pronounced by different peoples.

"In reviewing the principal languages of the ancient and the mod. ern world, where the migrations of those that spoke them can be traced with certainty, we are struck with the fact that the dwellers in chains of mountains, or in the elevated plains of hilly districts, strongly affect broad vowels and guttural consonants."-J. M. KEMBLE, vol. ii., Phil. Soc., p. 122.

"The mountaineer and the inhabitant of the sea-coast must often have had to struggle with the contending winds and waves to make themselves heard, and would naturally acquire a louder and more vehement tone than those whose happier lot it was to enjoy the calm of the still, sequestered vale.

"The organs of speech are differently framed by nature in different climates and countries; and even in the same countries, some

men pronounce their words broader, softer, harder, quicker, or slower than others, and some are unable to pronounce this or that letter. These accidents, by example and imitation, bring on a change of vowels and consonants, whence a language becomes unlike what it was at first." See preface to BOUCHER's Dictionary.

QUESTIONS UNDER CHAPTER VI.

1. What is euphony?

2. Upon what does euphony depend?

3. Upon what does ease of utterance depend?

4. Mention two faults in this connection.

5. What are euphonic figures?

6. Mention the two kinds of euphonic figures.

7. Give the definition and an example of each figure.

8. Are the principles of euphony the same in all languages?

9. How can you show that they are not the same by a reference to the Romanic languages?

10. What can you say of GRIMM's law?

11. How does the English language compare with the Classical and Romanic languages in the number of its vowel sounds?

12. What effect had the ancient accent upon the euphony of the Classical languages?

13. What general causes operate to produce a diversity in the euphony of different languages?

14. Describe Krofessor WILLIS's experiment.

J

CHAPTER VII.

THE NATURAL SIGNIFICANCY OF ARTICULATE
SOUNDS.

§ 167. The natural significance of sounds, although it has hitherto been exhibited imperfectly, and only in distant surmises, is now beginning to be regarded as one of the deepest and most important doctrines in philology. It is considered as an established fact that every articulate sound has naturally a specific import. For, in order to the existence of language, it is not enough that man has the organs of speech, that he has sensations and ideas, and that he has a desire to communicate them to others, but it is also necessary that sounds should have a natural adaptedness to express the particular sensations and ideas.

Although existing languages exhibit, as it were, only partial fragments and mutilated ruins of the ancient tongues once spoken on our earth, yet the principle for which we contend is still sufficiently evident in them, more especially in the popular dialects, and in the terms employed for describing sensible objects, operations, and relations. In innumerable cases, where the relation is the same, the same sound has been chosen, to speak algebraically, as the exponent of that relation.

It must, however, be remarked, that the natural significancy of sounds is, for the most part, a matter of feeling, and can not be exhibited in nice logical distinctions. Instruction on this subject can only furnish hints, which may awaken attention to the life and energy which pervade language, and give a general idea of the import of sounds.

Some of our best poets have been highly commended for adapting the sound to the sense. Surely this would not be possible unless there were some correlation between sound and sense.

The vowel constitutes the life and soul of a word, the consonant its body or form. The vowel is more fleeting and changeable, yet not entirely arbitrary.

In examining the import of the different vowel and consonant sounds, we shall endeavor to follow the order of their development. Hence we begin with the vowels.