This articulative action, giving sibilation to a stream of voice, produces Z.

If, from the position S, the point of the tongue be drawn inwards, so as to remove the seat of articulation further back on the tongue and palate, and at the same time enlarge the aperture for the breath, the sound of Sh will be produced. The change from S to Sh is analogous to that already noticed, from the First Labial Continuous formation to the semi-whistle Wh; for Sh, too, is a semi-whistling sound: a further enlargement of the aperture of either element produces a labial or lingual WHISTLE.

This articulation modifying voice produces the sound of the letter Z in azure, which, as the vocal form of Sh, may be conveniently represented by Zh. This is the sound of the letter J in French.

If the middle of the tongue be now approximated to the palate, at a point intermediate to Sh, and the Third Continuous formation (Ch, Ger.), it will be in the position for the articulation of Y, as heard (without voice) in hue, hew, &c., and (with voice) in you, use, cue, pew, tune, duke, &c. This is almost the position for the vowel e:-y, (vocal) prolonged, gives the sound of a contracted e, -the vowel being slightly depraved in quality by the audible rustling of the breath over the too closely approximated tongue.

Another set of articulations,-if they are worthy of the name,may be produced by so loosely approximating the organs that a sufficiently strong current of air will cause them to vibrate and Aap against each other.

When the back of the tongue and soft palate are thus loosely approximated, the relaxed edges of the latter, and especially its narrow prolongation, the uvula, are easily thrown into vibration against the tongue, and the Northumbrian burr is produced. When the fore-part of the tongue,-similarly relaxed,—is laid along the edge of the palatal arch, a smart stroke of the breath will set it in vibration, and the rough R, as heard in Scotland, and in most of the continental languages, will result. This sort of articulation may be performed, too, by the lips.

If they lie loosely together, a strong breath will produce upon them the barbarous effect of a vibration, or flapping, precisely analogous to that of the burr and rough R. This sound, fortunately, is not heard in any language with which we are acquainted. Probably its absence, while the two other-kindred sounds—are common, results from the greater difficulty of producing the labial vibration; as the force of the breath is dissipated in the mouth before it reaches the lips.

R is called the canine, or dog's letter; but the name is strictly applicable only to the burr, which is precisely the same in mechanism as the snarl of a cur. There is not much dignity, however, in this mode of articulation by any organism, though the lengthened R (not the burr) may be expressive enough in some words, as in the "rude rolling of a rebel drum.”

The polishers of continental language might do well to imitate the English in their treatment of this cur-related sound, and, as Macbeth did physic, throw it to the dogs."

THIRD MODE OF ARTICULATIVE ACTION.

Another, and the last variety of articulative action, consists in partial contact of the organs, so that the breath finds no central passage, and consequently escapes by lateral apertures.

There is no element formed in this way by the root of the tongue and soft palate: the nature of the organs does not admit of this mode of articulation.

The fore-part of the tongue applied to the palate, with lateral apertures free, produces L. This articulation is always vocal in English, but, in Welsh, the breath form is a very common element -represented by . The voice channels of the English L are so open that there is no vibratory effect created by the passage of the breath. The sound is as pure as that of any vowel,* and, but for the action necessary to complete the element, it would be classed among the vowels. Its fluency of combination with other articulations has given it (with n, m, ng,) the name of liquid.

*All the vowel sounds may be produced with the tongue on the palate, as in L. The lateral apertures can be sufficiently modified to form every shade of sound, from e to ah; and, with the aid of the lips, from ah to oo; and the intermediate varieties of vowel sound can also be very correctly imitated without removing the point of the tongue from the palate. There is even very little peculiarity in the vowels-singly produced-by this mechanism.

A form of L with contracted apertures, and, consequently, with a rustling sound produced by the passage of the breath between the sides of the tongue and the back-teeth, occurs in Gaelic; and probably in other aspirated languages. We have met with this formation among individual peculiarities as a substitute for that of S and Z, to which it bears a very rude resemblance.

The tip of the tongue applied to the inner surface of the upper teeth, with contracted lateral apertures for the passage of the breath between the tongue and teeth, gives the formation of th, as heard (without voice) in thin, and (with voice) in then.

The middle of the lower lip applied to the edge of the upper front-teeth, with contracted lateral apertures, for the passage of the breath between the lip and teeth, gives the formation of F, —which, with voice added, becomes V.

The works already quoted from,* which state P to be formed by a "slight compression of the anterior part of the lips," make the formation of F to consist in "compression of the whole lips, and a forcible breath." Certainly the writer never could have pronounced his own Ps, or fashioned his own Fs, consistently with this theory. Strange that people will not appeal to their own mouths, or to any well-formed mouth, if their own are not so, to test the correctness of descriptions, before copying, thus, the careless and conflicting testimony of books.

We have now given the formation of thirty-seven elements of articulation, the product of only seventeen actions of the mouth,or, including the movement of the soft palate in the nasal sounds, as a separate action,-the product altogether of eighteen actions of the organs of articulation. The following table exhibits them in the order in which we have described them.

Note. The three nasals, M, N, and Ng, though orally obstructive, are in effect continuous, and may be ranked with those elements that have partial contact. They are here placed on the same line with the obstructives, to show that their oral mechanism is the same.

Of these thirty-seven articulations, twenty-four (twelve actions) are elements of English speech. One of these, however, (No. 12, voice) the rough R-is used only for purposes of effect and imitative expression.

We shall now range the English articulations in the order of their formation; beginning with those that are formed farthest within the mouth, and proceeding outwards to the labial articulations.

1st Mode.

We have elsewhere shown (page 12) the defective way in which these twenty-four articulations are represented by our alphabet. The alphabet contains almost characters enough; for it has 21 letters to represent this class of elements: but of these, two-namely, C and Q-are altogether redundant; and two more -namely, J and X-are marks of combinations, and not simple elements; so that we have, in reality, only seventeen appropriate characters by which to write all our articulations. With what irregularity these letters are used in the notation of our language will be seen in a subsequent chapter.

The following extract is marked to show the primary distinction between BREATH and VOICE ARTICULATIONS. The articulations which have a GLOTTAL, as well as an ORAL audibility, are printed in italics. Those not so printed are breath articulations,—that is, they have an ORAL audibility alone. In reading this illustration, the voice should be given as purely and distinctly as possible.