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This was the vowel system of the Anglo-Saxon language, as it is mainly that of the languages of Europe, namely, five vowels varied in quantity, as long or short and open or close. But in addition to these five vowel elements, the Anglo-Saxon seems to have had a modification of the vowel a which was represented by ae, as in faer, fare; also of the i, sometimes represented by y, as mýs, mice.

Out of this system have arisen a number of vowel-modifications which originated doubtless at first with individuals from inaccurate hearing, from careless articulation, or from proper principles of euphony, founded either in agreeable effect on the ear or in easy enunciation. Such modifications beginning thus, and then spreading into families, neighborhoods, and larger communities, finally become the accepted alphabetic sounds of the language. The AngloSaxon had, as already observed, a modification of the a which came to be represented by ae, as faer, fare; and of i represented by y and also by i accented, as mys, mice; líf, life. Besides this modification of the primitive vowel a, there has been developed in English by precession the a sound heard in fate; and by recession the a sound, long in all and short and close in what. From the primitive u or oo has been developed the u sound in but; of which element it may be remarked in passing, that being formed farthest back and consequently having the least sensible modification of all the vowels, it is easily substituted for any one of the other vowels in unaccented syllables. Thus, before r, each of the primitive vowels tends to pass into this sound. The long sound of the i in pin is no longer represented by i as formerly, except in some words from the French, as in caprice, and in words where it is represented by ie, as field, shield, A.-S. fild, scild; but generally and characteristically by e, as in beetle, hear, A.-S. bitel, hiran and heran, while the old sound of the i has generally passed into the vowel sound heard in life, time, A.-S. lif, tima. The

primitive vowel e in pen when long is now rarely represented by this character; we sometimes hear it, however, in some provincialisms, as in peas, beans, there, neither, pronounced nearly as if written paze, bains, thayer, nayther. It should be borne in mind, however, that the vowel elements are characterized as unstable. Different peoples, the same people in different ages, different provinces, different neighborhoods, different individuals, utter what is generally recognized as the same element with slightly varying modifications. This element, represented by the character e, once probably uttered in the same way, has come in the progress of time to be so diversely modified that the character by itself no longer indicates the exact sound intended to be represented by it.

Two of the vowels, the u or oo and the i in pin, when preceding other vowels, as already intimated, show a strong tendency to become consonantized, that is, to be modified by a partial contact of the articulating organs - by a partial occlusion. The Anglo-Saxon generally, but not uniformly, represented the consonantized u by a doubled u, a w, as cwic and cuic, quick; cwellan and cuellan, to kill, to quell. It also consonantized the i in pin, as ierd, yard; iung, young; and even the initial e before a vowel as Eadward, eow, you, were pronounced Yadward, yow. That the w and y are more correctly to be treated as vowel elements appears not only from the fact that they have sprung from primitive vowels u and i, but also that the essential vowel character is not destroyed, but is only slightly modified by the occlusion of the organs. The w may be perfectly formed without any coöperation of the lips. These two elements have a rank between the so-called semivowels / and r and the unmodified vowels.

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There are two aphthongal vowels h and wh - both being formed without necessary occlusion of the organs and both being without voice. The wh is the aphthongal cognate of the oo or w, § 20 (1). It may not be far out of the way

to regard the h as the aphthongal cognate of the protean vowel heard in but, fir, etc.1

The vowels are the most uncertain and most unstable of

the alphabetic elements. The consonants form the permanent skeleton and frame-work of the word, and give it its character. The vowels are often not written, as in the Semitic languages. They are left to be made out from the consonants and the sense. The Slavonic dialects, likewise, have few vowels, and we find such written forms as smrt, and the dissyllable wjtr. The vowels accordingly change most easily in the progress of language. This is abundantly exemplified in the transformations from the Anglo-Saxon into English. Thus, the A.-S. ae has changed in different words, into every vowel of our sys tem, as in aecer, acre; aelmesse, alms; aet, at; aell, all; aeg, egg; aefen, even; aeh, eye; Aenglisc, English (pronounced Inglish); aef, of; aec, oak; aen, one. So we find A.-S. a changing to different vowels, as bacan, bake; banc, bank; aldor or ealdor, elder; agan, own; feallan, fall; colian, cool. Likewise the A.-S. e, as dear, dare; death, death (once also written deeth); bed, bed; beor, beer; beorth, birth; flede, flood. The A.-S. i, also, as birian, bury; blind, blind; blis, bliss; flis, fleece; bietl and bytel, beetle; bien and bean, bean; iw, ewe; birce, birch; iong and iung, young; iagul, gargle. The A.-S. o, moreover, as crop, crop; cofa, cove; boc, book; col, cool; blod, blood; moder, mother; mont and munt, mount. And lastly the A.-S. u, as bux, box; luf, love; duru, door; murnan, mourn; mul, mule; mus, mouse; burigan, bury.

It is remarkable that while the vowel sounds evince this 1 In 1843 there appeared in the Biblical Repository, a quarterly periodical published in New York, a systematic view of English Phonology, embracing substantially the views presented in the text. A number of years after, Dr. Brücke of Vienna published a system of Phonology presenting the same distinction between vowels and consonants, and arranging the vowel elements in the same order. This order, thus independently arrived at, would seem to be sufficiently established to require its adoptiva in all methodical expositions of the alphabetic elements.

mutability when under the accent and between consonants, they show great constancy at the end of unaccented syllables. Thus the old A.-S. sound is retained in a-way, Nor-na, bu-ri-al, bet-o-ny. This peculiarity gives a law of pronunciation to the modern English. The e, however, forms an exception. The law is this: The vowels a, i, and o at the end of unaccented syllables have the primitive sounds respectively of a in father, i in pit, and o in note, but short and close. If they stand at the end of accented syllables, the first two take the derived sounds respectively, of a in fate, and of i in pine.

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§ 15. The consonant system of a language may be conceived of as developed from one of extreme simplicity, in which only such elements appear as require a perfect occlusion of the breath by the three articulating organs, the palate, the tongue, and the lips. Although it is not probable that language ever began thus, exclusively with these three classes of elements, for other elements as well or better imitate natural sounds, and may therefore reasonably be supposed to have been first used, as indeed the onomatopoetic theory of language seems to imply; still for purposes of study it may be more convenient to ground the classification on the inherent characteristics of the elements than on the chronological order of their introduction, especially as we have no history of this succession of appearance. We may accordingly recognize the perfect palatal, lingual, and labial consonants, in the formation of which the organs perfectly cut off the breath in its passage forward, as constituting the basis of the consonantsystem in language.

These perfect consonant-elements are phthongal or aphthongal.

The perfect phthongal consonants are of two classes: (1.) Those in which the vocalized breath passes forward only to the barrier of the occluding organs and is vibrated on them so as to receive their peculiar quality, as g, d, b,

called pures; and (2.) Those in which the vocalized breath vibrated on these organs is allowed to pass backward through the nostrils, as ng, n, and m, called nasals.

The perfect aphthongal consonants have no vocality, in themselves, but as combined with other elements they affect the continuous sound which is given forth while the utterance passes from them or to them, to or from the ele ments with which they are combined. Only thus relatively and in combination have they any character as elements of language. They are k, t, and p. They have been called check-sounds; also mutes in the narrower sense, — this name in its wider use embracing with this also the other two classes of perfect consonants mentioned.

From the nature of the case, these are the only possible perfect consonants, as there are only three sets of articulating organs by which the breath can be properly occluded in its passage forwards.

They are of all the consonants the farthest removed in their nature from the vowels; and hence, from being at the greatest contrast, the combinations of these elements with the vowels are the most agreeable to the ear.

They occur in almost all languages; and are the most fixed and determinate in their character of all the alphabetic elements. If in the progress of language they change, the changes are under the most easily determined principles, and are most regular and uniform.

They form a complete system by themselves; as we have

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On this basis of the nine perfect consonants, we have built up two other systems of imperfect consonants, the general characteristic of both of which is that the organs in forming them but partially occlude the breath.

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