Part 16 (2/2)
Let Dr Webster, or any defender of his spelling, try it He never nao discarded the term _Double-u_; and is not yet tired of his experiment with ”_oo_;” but thinks still to make the vowel sound of this letter its na; has no authority for it but his own; and is, most certainly, reprehensible for the _innovation_[92] If W is to be naht to _name itself_, as other vowels do, and not to take _two Oes_ for its written name Who that knohat it is, to na _w_ by double _o_? That it is possible for an ingeniousthe letters,instance, but froements of literary instruction, there is at the outset in the hornbook, _the pretence to represent elementary sounds_ by syllables composed of two or more elements; as, _Be, Kay, Zed, Double-u_, and _Aitch_ These words are used in infancy, and through life, as _si If the definition of a _consonant_ was ht suggest pity for the pedagogue, but should not et the realities of nature”--_Dr Push, on the Philosophy of the Huation to come from such a source If I bid a boy spell the word _why_, he says, ”Double-u, Aitch, Wy, _hwi_;” and knows that he has spelled and pronounced the word correctly But if he conceives that the five syllables which form the three words, _Double-u_, and _Aitch_, and _Wy_, are the three si the word _why_, it is not because the hornbook, or the teacher of the hornbook, ever reat philosophers, he is capable of s Suppose he should take it into his head to follow Dr Webster's books, and to say, ”Oo, he, ye, _hwi_;” who, but these doctors, would i was supported either by ”the realities of nature,” or by the authority of custom? I shall retain both the old ”definition of a consonant,” and the usual na the contemptuous pity it may excite in the minds of _such_ critics
II CLassES OF THE LETTERS
The letters are divided into two general classes, _vowels_ and _consonants_
A _vowel_ is a letter which forms a perfect sound when uttered alone; as, _a, e, o_
A _consonant_ is a letter which cannot be perfectly uttered till joined to a vowel; as, _b, c, d_[93]
The vowels are _a, e, i, o, u_, and sometimes _w_ and _y_ All the other letters are consonants
_W_ or _y_ is called a consonant when it precedes a vowel heard in the same syllable; as in _wine, twine, whine; ye, yet, youth_: in all other cases, these letters are vowels; as in _Yssel, Ystadt, yttria; newly, dewy, eyebrow_
CLassES OF CONSONANTS
The consonants are divided, with respect to their powers, into _semivowels_ and _mutes_
A _semivowel_ is a consonant which can be imperfectly sounded without a vowel, so that at the end of a syllable its sound may be protracted; as, _l, n, z_, in _al, an, az_
A _mute_ is a consonant which cannot be sounded at all without a vowel, and which at the end of a syllable suddenly stops the breath; as, _k, p, t_, in _ak, ap, at_
The semivowels are, _f, h, j, l, _ soft: but _w_ or _y_ at the end of a syllable, is a vowel; and the sound of _c, f, g, h, j, s_, or _x_, can be protracted only as an _aspirate_, or strong breath
Four of the semivowels,--_l, m, n_, and _r_,--are termed _liquids_, on account of the fluency of their sounds; and four others,--_v, w, y_, and _z_,--are likewise ht;--_b, d, k, p, q, t_, and _c_ and _g_ hard: three of these,--_k, q_, and _c_ hard,--sound exactly alike: _b, d_, and _g_ hard, stop the voice less suddenly than the rest
OBSERVATIONS
OBS 1--The foregoing division of the letters is of very great antiquity, and, in respect to its principal features sanctioned by almost universal authority; yet if we examine it minutely, either with reference to the various opinions of the learned, or with regard to the essential differences as of which it speaks, it will not perhaps be found in all respects indisputably certain It will however be of use, as a basis for so the attention of the learner to the manner in which he utters the sounds of the letters A knowledge of about three dozen different elementary sounds is i these sounds with distinctness, and of adapting thee is used, constitutes perfection of utterance Had we a perfect alphabet, consisting of one symbol, and only one, for each ele, freed from silent letters, and precisely adjusted to the most correct pronunciation of words; the process of learning to read would doubtless be greatly facilitated And yet any attee short of the introduction of so, would be both unwise and impracticable
It would involve our laws and literature in utter confusion, because pronunciation is the least perraphy of words were confor would, in many instances, be soon lost We es as they are, and to make the best use we can of our present imperfect system of alphabetic characters; and we may be the better satisfied to do this, because the deficiencies and redundancies of this alphabet are not yet so well ascertained, as to make it certain what a perfect one would be
OBS 2--In order to have a right understanding of the letters, it is necessary to enumerate, as accurately as we can, the elee; and to attend carefully to the manner in which these sounds are enunciated, as well as to the characters by which they are represented
The most unconcerned observer cannot but perceive that there are certain differences in the sounds, as well as in the shapes, of the letters; and yet under what heads they ought severally to be classed, or how many of them will fall under some particular name, it may occasionally puzzle a philosopher to tell The student must consider what is proposed or asked, use his own senses, and judge for himself With our lower-case alphabet before hi letters, and which the short ones; so let him learn by his own ear, which are the vowels, and which, the consonants The processes are alike simple; and, if he be neither blind nor deaf, he can do both about equally well Thus he may know for a certainty, that _a_ is a short letter, and _b_ a long one; the former a vowel, the latter a consonant: and so of others Yet as heletter or a short one, so he may be puzzled to say whether _w_ and _y_, as heard in _we_ and _ye_, are vowels or consonants: but neither of these difficulties should impair his confidence in any of his other decisions If he attain by observation and practice a clear and perfect pronunciation of the letters, he will be able to class them for himself with as much accuracy as he will find in books
OBS 3--Grareed that every letter is either a vowel or a consonant; and also that there are a the latter some semivowels, some mutes, some aspirates, some liquids, some sharps, some flats, some labials, some dentals, some nasals, so the letters which belong to these several classes, they disagree so much as to make it no easy matter to ascertain what particular classification is best supported by their authority I have adopted what I conceive to be the best authorized, and at the saible He that dislikes the scheme, may do better, if he can But let him with modesty determine what sort of discoveries may render our ancient authorities questionable Aristotle, three hundred and thirty years before Christ, divided the Greek letters into _vowels, semivowels_, and _mutes_, and declared that no syllable could be formed without a vowel In the opinion of soe, to detect the fallacy of this But I would fain believe that the Stagirite knehat he was saying, as did Dr
James Rush, when, in 1827, he declared the doctrine of vowels and consonants to be ”a misrepresentation” The latter philosopher resolves the letters into ”_tonics, subtonics_, and _atonics_;” and avers that ”consonants alone may form syllables” Indeed, I cannot but think the ancient doctrine better For, to say that ”consonants alone may form syllables,” is as much as to say that consonants are not consonants, but vowels! To be consistent, the attempters of this reformation should never speak of vowels or consonants, see the terms inappropriate, and the classification absurd They should therefore adhere strictly to their ”tonics, subtonics, and atonics;” which classes, though apparently the same as vowels, semivowels, and mutes, are better adapted to their new and peculiar division of these elee and philosophy at once, they may make what they will of either!
OBS 4--So the former to be equivalent to _oo_, and the latter to _i_ or _e_ Dr Lowth says, ”_Y_ is always a vowel,” and ”_W_ is either a vowel or a diphthong”
Dr Webster supposes _w_ to be always ”a vowel, a si of words, _y_ is called an _articulation_ or _consonant_, and _with soue in close contact with the lower part of the palate, and nearly in the position to which the close _g_ brings it”--_Ahtland, Johnson, Walker, Murray, Worcester, and others, in considering both of them sometimes vowels and so of words in English, because their sounds take the article _a_, and not _an_, before them; as, _a wall, a yard_, and not, _an wall, an yard_ But _oo_ or the sound of _e_, requires _an_, and not _a_; as, _an eel, an oozy bog_[94] At the end of a syllable we know they are vowels; but at the beginning, they are so squeezed in their pronunciation, as to follow a voithout any hiatus, or difficulty of utterance; as, ”_O worthy youth! so young, so wise!_”
OBS 5--Murray's rule, ”_W_ and _y_ are consonants when they begin a word or syllable, but in every other situation they are vowels,” which is found in Coersoll's, Fisk's Hart's, Hiley's, Alger's, Bullions's, Pond's, S Putnarammars, is favourable to my doctrine, but too badly conceived to be quoted here as authority It _undesignedly_ makes _w_ a consonant in _wine_, and a vowel in _twine_; and _y_ a consonant when it _forms_ a syllable, as in _dewy_: for a letter that _forins” it