CHAPTER III.

GENESIS OF ENGLISH VOWEL SOUNDS.

$74. BESIDES the inquiry into the sounds which exist or are developed in the English language, and the inquiry how these sounds are formed by the organs of the human voice, there is another inquiry into the historical origin or genesis of particular English sounds-a subject somewhat new to the English reader.

If we examine, for example, the vowels of our language, we shall find that a, e, i, and u, in an open accented syllable, had originally, in a previous state, a quite different sound, so much so as to make the present names and force given to these vowels quite incorrect. This we shall illustrate by a full discussion concerning the vowel a, leaving it to the reader to apply analogous reasoning to the other vowels named.

A recent writer makes the following observations: "The power of a in the English language is at least four-fold, as in the words father, call, tame, and hat. The first of these sounds is that which generally prevails in other languages. The modified pronunciation of the vowel in tame is partly due to the vowel e at the end of the word; in call, and similar forms, the peculiarity arises from the letter 7; so that the only true sounds of the vowel are perhaps the long sound in father and the short one in hat."-The Penny Cyclopædia, 1833, art. a.

Grammarians have experienced not a little difficulty in determining the fundamental and leading sound of the vowel a in English, especially as its uses are thought to be so various, and so different from its uses in other languages.

The older grammarians, as Ben Jonson and James Greenwood, appear to give the first place to the short sound of a in mixed syllables; as, hat, path, plant; although even in these examples there exist slight diversities of sound. In selecting the short sound they are right. But modern writers generally content themselves with enumerating the different

sounds, assigning the first place to that which they suppose implied in the name of the vowel, or the long sound of a in paper. These persons, I apprehend, are in error; for, in the first place, the proper sound of a vowel is its short sound; and, secondly, how the other sounds of a can be derived from the sound ay or eh, these writers have not attempted to explain. R. Nares, in his English Orthoëpy, calls the sound of a in father, path, plant, irregular, as if these words had once been differently pronounced. The writer in the Penny Cyclopædia seems to have some presentiment of the truth.

The present state of comparative philology enables us, it is believed, to give a more philosophic and exact view of the subject than has usually been given. If the doctrine on this subject can be simplified and conformed to the historic fact, it is certainly important for the interest of science that it should be done.

We shall endeavor, then, to establish the following proposition that the fundamental and leading sound of a in English is ah. By this we do not mean to deny that a, under the tone in an open syllable, as in paper, is properly and correctly pronounced ay, nor that a, when slurred over, as in collar, is properly and correctly pronounced like an obscure u. But we do contend that the original, proper, and only true sound of a, when unaffected by any extraneous influence, is ah. My arguments are the following:

1. This is the sound of the vowel in Hebrew, Greek, Latin, and in all the languages on the Continent of Europe. The ancestors of the English must have brought it with them from the Continent. How this vowel should lose at once its original type of sound, and acquire that of ay or aw, has not been explained.

2. This sound, or something extremely similar, is the actual sound in all close syllables; as, crab, hat, path, plant, &c. These constitute the majority of cases of its use.

3. This is the actual sound in unaccented open syllables; as, America, Malaga. These constitute a large proportion of the cases of the use of a in an open syllable.

4. This sound is implied or involved in the sound of a in an open accented syllable, as paper, which is properly a

strengthening of the sound ah. Now there exist different modes of strengthening a vowel sound; viz., (1.) By increasing the stress or force of the breath in the same time, which is our conception of accent; (2.) By prolonging the same sound, which is our conception of long quantity; and, (3.) By adding ih instead of ah, by what is called the precession of vowels. See Crosby's Greek Grammar, p. 17. This last mode applies in the case before us, and brings the accented open a under our next category.

5. This sound is implied or involved in the diphthong at or ay, in main, may, the sound of which is made up by the commingling of the sounds ah and ih. Compare the French palais and modern Greek mousais, where this diphthong has the same sound. Indeed, that the Continental e (pronounced ay) is formed by the union or commixtion of the sounds ah and ih, is now the opinion of the most celebrated philologists on the Continent of Europe.-See Christ. Spect. for 1838, p. 591. Why i should be added to a letter having already the sound of the diphthong it is difficult to explain.

6. This sound is implied or involved in words ending in e mute; as, mane, tame. Words written with e mute once had an additional syllable, and often exhibit it in Old English poetry. The mute e, the last vestige of such syllable, was retained in the writing to prevent the final consonant from combining with the preceding vowel in a mixed syllable, and thus making the vowel short. This final e in its evanescent state becomes equivalent in sound to ih, the most slender of all the vowels, and thus modifies the sound of the preceding ah, as under the last head. This historical explanation of the mute e in English must commend itself to every mind.

7. This sound, or something very similar, is involved in the sound of the diphthong ua or wa, in quart, water, wasp, where the sound of the vowel a is evidently modified by the preceding vowel u or w. The sound ay, on the contrary, lies too remote from aw; compare waiter.

8. This sound, or something very similar, is involved in the sound of the digraph al, in always, also, &c., where the sound of the vowel a is evidently modified by the following semi-vowell. The sound ay, on the contrary, lies too remote from aw.

H

9. The sound of ah prolonged is found in the digraph ar, in art, hart, &c., which presents no difficulty.

10. The name of the vowel a (which is written a, and pronounced ay, because the vowel stands in an open syllable, and, forming a monosyllable, has the tone) has no concern with the sound of the vowel. Nobody confounds the name of w or y with their sound or phonetic import.

If these views are correct, we have succeeded in bringing the English a into harmony with the Continental a, and in freeing our language from the imputation of a great anomaly in this respect. It is true, however, that the diphthongs and digraphs, perfect and imperfect, will need to be treated with more care by the next generation of grammarians.

GENESIS OF ENGLISH CONSONANT SOUNDS.

§ 75. If we examine the consonant sounds of the English language, we shall find in many cases that they originated from sounds quite different. Even the same alphabetical sound may often be traced to different sources. This may be exemplified by the letter s, which in dispossesses, an English word of Latin origin, but having a Teutonic termination, occurs six times.

1. The first s in the word dispossesses, or the s in the Latin prefix dis, is an original s. This will appear if we compare the Latin prefix dis with the Gothic tvis, "apart;" both connected with the Sanscrit dwis, Greek dis, Old English tvies, English twice, all having the same meaning as the English twice.

2. The second s, or the s in the Latin prefix pos, is derived or formed from an original t, which here assimilates itself to the following s. This will appear if we compare the Latin prefix pot (in pono for pot-sino, porrigo for pot-rigo, possideo for pot-sideo) with the Sanscrit prati, Pali pati, Greek proti (whence pros), Doric poti, all signifying "unto."

3. The third s, or the first s in sess, is original and radical. This will appear if we compare the Latin vsed in sedeo with the Sanscrit sad, Greek ✔hed, Gothic sit in sitan, English sit, all having the same import.

4. The fourth s, or the second s in sess, stands for an original and radical d (see the forms of the root under No. 3, above), which, before a t, has been changed into s, by an euphonic law of the Latin language'; compare claudo, claustrum; caedo, caestus; comedo, comestus; sedeo, sestum, whence sessum.

5. The fifth s, or the last s in sess, is an original t (compare the Latin tum, the termination of the supine or ancient infinitive, with the Sanscrit tum, the termination of the infinitive in that language), which has here, by an euphonic law of the Latin language, assimilated itself to the preceding s; compare fodio, fostum, fossum; cedo, cestum, cessum; sedeo, sestum, sessum.

6. The sixth s, or the s in the Teutonic termination es, the sign of the third person singular in the present indicative, was originally t (compare the Sanscrit damnati, Doric damnati, Latin domat, all signifying "he subdues"), but subsequently the (compare the Gothic farith, Anglo-Saxon færth, old English fareth, all signifying "he goes"), in accordance with the famous dialectic law of Grimm, from which last our s is immediately derived.

This s for th seems to have first exhibited itself in some specimens of what Hickes calls Dano-Saxon.-See Hickes, Gramm. Anglo-Sax., p. 96; James Greenwood, Engl. Gram., p. 133.

CHAPTER IV.

EUPHONY.

§76. Euphony, as opposed to cacophony, is that quality of sound by which it strikes the ear agreeably. As the ear, the organ by which we apprehend language, is in this respect the vestibule of the soul, it must be important whether a sound excites the ear, and of course the soul, pleasantly or unpleasantly.

Although euphony is a quality of sound, and seems to re