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far the most accurate observer and analyzer in the field of phonetics. Other works by R. von Raumer,1 F. H. du Bois-Reymond, Lepsius, Thausing, may be consulted with advantage in their respective spheres. The physiological works which I found most useful and intelligible to a reader not specially engaged in these studies were, Müller's "Handbook tion of all languages, written or unwritten, to one uniform system of writing, with numerous examples, adapted to the use of Phoneticians, Philologists, Etymologists, Ethnographists, Travellers, and Missionaries. In lieu of a second edition of the Alphabet of Nature. London, 1848. 8vo. pp. xvi. 276. Printed entirely in a Phonetic character, with illustrations in twenty-seven languages, and specimens of various founts of Phonetic type. The Ethnical Alphabet was also published as a separate tract. English Phonetics; containing an original systematization of broken sounds, a complete explanation of the Reading Reform Alphabet, and a new universal Latinic Alphabet for Philologists and Travellers. London, 1854. 8vo. pp. 16. Universal Writing and Printing with Ordinary Letters, for the use of Missionaries, Comparative Philologists, Linguists, and Phonologists (Edinburgh and London, 1856, 4to. pp. 22), containing a complete Digraphic, Travellers' Digraphic, and Latinic Alphabets (of which the two first were published separately), with examples in nine languages, and a comparative table of the Digraphic, Latinic, suggested Panethnic, Prof. Max Müller's Missionary, and Dr. Lepsins's Linguistic Alphabets. A Plea for Phonetic Spelling; ; or, the Necessity of Orthographic Reform. London, 8vo. First edition, 1844, pp. 40. Second edition, 1848, pp. 180, with an Appendix, showing the inconsistencies of hetéric orthography, and the present geographical extent of the writing and printing reform. Third edition, with an Appendix, containing the above tables remodelled, an account of existing Phonetic alphabets, and an elaborate Inquiry into the Variations in English Pronunciation during the last Three Centuries, has been in the press in America since 1860, but has been stopped by the civil war. The whole text, pp. 151, has been printed.

1 Gesammelte Sprachwissenschaftliche Schriften, von Rudolph von Raumer. Frankfort, 1863. (Chiefly on classical and Teutonic languages.)

2 Kadmus, oder Allgemeine Alphabetik, von F. H. du Bois-Reymond. Berlin, 1862. (Containing papers published as early as 1811, and full of ingenious and original observations.)

8 Lepsius, Standard Alphabet, second edition, 1863. (On the subject in general, but particularly useful for African languages.)

4 Das Natürliche Lautsystem der Menschlichen Sprache, von Dr. M. Thausing. Leipzig, 1863. (With special reference to the teaching of deaf and dumb persons.)

of Physiology," Brücke's "Grundzüge der Physiologie und Systematik der Sprachlaute" (Wien, 1856), Funke's "Lehrbuch der Physiologie," and Czermak's articles in the "Sitzungsberichte der K. K. Akademie der Wissenschaften zu Wien."

Among works on mathematics and acoustics, I have consulted Sir John Herschel's "Treatise on Sound," in the " Encyclopædia Metropolitana"; Professor Willis's paper "On the Vowel Sound and on Reed Organ-Pipes," read before the Cambridge Physiological Society in 1828 and 1829; but chiefly Professor Helmholtz's classical work, "Die Lehre von den Tonempfindungen " (Braunschweig, 1863), a work giving the results of the most minute scientific researches in a clear, classical, and truly popular form, so seldom to be found in German books.

I ought not to omit to mention here the valuable services rendered by those who, for nearly twenty years, have been laboring in England to turn the results of scientific research to practical use, in devising and propagating a new system of "Brief Writing and True Spelling," best known under the name of the Phonetic Reform. I am far from underrating the difficulties that stand in the way of such a reform, and I am not so sanguine as to indulge in any hopes of seeing it carried for the next three or four generations. But I feel convinced of the truth and reasonableness of the principles on which that reform rests, and as the innate regard for truth and reason, however dormant or timid at times, has always proved irresistible in the end, enabling men to part with all they hold most dear and sacred, whether corn-laws, or Stuart dynas

ties, or Papal legates, or heathen idols, I doubt not but that the effete and corrupt orthography will follow in their train. Nations have before now changed their numerical figures, their letters, their chronology, their weights and measures; and though Mr. Pitman may not live to see the results of his persevering and disinterested exertions, it requires no prophetic power to perceive that what at present is pooh-poohed by the many will make its way in the end, unless met by arguments stronger than those hitherto levelled at the "Fonetic Nuz." One argument which might be supposed to weigh with the student of language, viz., the obscuration of the etymological structure of words, I cannot consider very formidable. The pronunciation of languages changes according to fixed laws, the spelling has changed in the most arbitrary manner, so that if our spelling followed the pronunciation of words, it would in reality be of greater help to the critical student of language than the present uncertain and unscientific mode of writing.

Although considerable progress has thus been made in the analysis of the human voice, the diffi culties inherent in the subject have been increased rather than diminished by the profound and laborious researches carried on independently by physiologists, students of acoustics, and philologists. The human voice opens a field of observation in which these three distinct sciences meet. The substance of speech or sound has to be analyzed by the mathematician and the experimental philosopher; the organs or instruments of speech have to be examined by the anatomist; and the history of speech, the actual varieties of sound which have become

typified in language, fall to the province of the student of language. Under these circumstances it is absolutely necessary that students should coöperate in order to bring these scattered researches to a successful termination, and I take this opportunity of expressing my obligation to Dr. Rolleston, our indefatigable Professor of Physiology, Mr. G. Griffith, Deputy-Professor of Experimental Philosophy, Mr. A. J. Ellis, and others, for their kindness in helping me through difficulties which, but for their assistance, I should not have been able to overcome without much loss of time.

What can seem simpler than the A B C, and yet what is more difficult when we come to examine it? Where do we find an exact definition of vowel and consonant, and how they differ from each other? The vowels, we are told, are simple emissions of the voice, the consonants cannot be articulated except with the assistance of vowels. If this were so, letters such as s, f, r, could not be classed as consonants, for there is no difficulty in pronouncing these without the assistance of a vowel. Again, what is the difference between a, i, u? What is the difference between a tenuis and media, a difference almost incomprehensible to certain races; for instance, the Mohawks and the inhabitants of Saxony? Has any philosopher given as yet an intelligible definition of the difference between whispering, speaking, singing? Let us begin, then, with the beginning, and give some definitions of the words we shall have to use hereafter.

What we hear may be divided, first of all, into Noises and Sounds. Noises, such as the rustling of leaves, the jarring of doors, or the clap of thunder,

are produced by irregular impulses imparted to the air. Sounds, such as we hear from tuning-forks, strings, flutes, organ-pipes, are produced by regular periodical (isochronous) vibrations of elastic air. That sound, musical sound, or tone in its simplest form, is produced by tension, and ceases after the sounding body has recovered from that tension, seems to have been vaguely known to the early framers of language, for the Greek tonos, tone, is derived from a root tan, meaning to extend. Pythag oras 1 knew more than this. He knew that when chords of the same quality and the same tension are to sound a fundamental note, its octave, its fifth, and its fourth, their respective lengths must be like 1 to 2, 2 to 3, and 3 to 4.

When we hear a single note, the impression we I receive seems very simple, yet it is in reality very complicated. We can distinguish in each note1. Its strength or loudness.

2. Its height or pitch.

3. Its quality, or, as it is sometimes called, timbre; in German Tonfarbe, i. e. color of tone.

Strength or loudness depends upon the amplitude of the excursions of the vibrating particles of air which produce the wave.

Height or pitch depends on the length of time that each particle requires to perform an excursion, i. e. on the number of vibrations executed in a given time. If, for instance, the pendulum of a clock, which oscillates once in each second, were to mark smaller portions of time, it would cause musical sounds to be heard. Sixteen double oscillations in

1 Helmholtz, Einleitung, p. 2.

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