1. Palatals as Modifications of Gutturals.

But the place of contact of the gutturals may be pushed forward so far as to lie no longer in the throat, but in the palate. This change has taken place in almost all languages. Latin "cantus" is still "canto" in Italian, but in English "chant." In the same manner, the guttural tenuis in the Latin "vocs" (vox) has been softened in Sanskrit into the sound of the English ch, at least where it is followed by certain letters. Thus we have:

"vachmi," I speak,
but "vakshi," thou speakest,
"vakti," he speaks.

The same applies to the media. Latin "largus" is Italian "largo," page 12 but English "large." The Latin guttural media g in "jungo" is softened in Sanskrit into the sound of the English j. We have Sanskrit "yuga," Latin "jugum;" but in the verb we have:

yunaj + mi, I join.
yunak + shi, thou joinest.
yunak + ti, he joins.

The identity of many words in Latin and Sanskrit becomes palpable at once, if, instead of writing this modified guttural, or, as we may now call it, palatal sound, by a new type, we write it by a modified k. Sansk. "chatvar," or as some write "tschatwar," does not look like "quatuor;" but Lithuanian "keturi" and Sanskrit "katvar" speak for themselves. Sanskrit "cha" or "tscha" does not look like Latin "que;" but Greek "kε" and Sanskrit "ka" assert their relationship without disguise. Although, therefore, we are forced to admit the palatals, as a separate class, side by side with the gutturals, because most languages retain both sets and use them for distinct etymological and grammatical purposes, still it will be well to remember that the palatals are more nearly related to the gutturals than to any other class, and that in most languages the two are still interchangeable.

That the pronunciation of the palatals may vary again, like that of the gutturals, requires no explanation. Some people imagine they perceive a difference between the English palatal in "church," and the Italian palatal in "cielo," and they maintain that no Englishman can properly pronounce the Italian palatal. If so, it only proves what was said before, that slight modifications like these do never co-exist in the same language; that English has but one, and Italian but one palatal, though the two may slightly differ. But even if we invented a special letter to represent the Italian palatal, no one except an Italian would be able to pronounce it, not even for his life, as the French failed in "ceci" and "ciceri" at the time of the Sicilian Vespers. All consonants, therefore, which are no longer gutturals, and not yet dentals, should be called palatals. That palatals have again a tendency to become dentals, may be seen from words like "" instead of "katvaras" or "keturi."

Frequently the pronunciation of the palatals becomes so broad that they seem, and in some cases really arc, double consonants. Some people pronounce "church " (kirk) as if it were written "tchurtch." If this pronunciation becomes sanctioned, and we have to deal with a language which has as yet no historical orthography, it must be left to the ear of the missionary to determine whether he hears distinctly two consonants, or one only though pronounced rather fully and broadly. If he hears distinctly the two sounds t + ch, or t+sh, he should write both, particularly if in the same language there exists another series of letters with the simple palatal sound. This is the case, for instance, in Tibetan and its numerous dialects. If, therefore, the missionary has to deal with a Bhotîya dialect, which has not yet been fixed by the Tibetan alphabet, the simple palatals should be kept distinct from the compound palatals, tsh, dsh, &c. In the literary language of Tibet, where the Sanskrit alphabet has been adopted, an artificial distinction has been introduced, and the compound sounds, usually transcribed as tsh, tshh, and dsh, are distinguished by a diacritical mark at the top from the simple palatals, the sound of which is described as like the English ch in church, and j in join. How this artificial distinction should be rendered in transliteration, will have to be considered under III. b. If we have once the palatal tenuis, the same modifications as those described above give us the palatal media, the two aspiratæ, the nasal, the semi-vowel, and the sibilant.

The sound of the tenuis is given in the English "church;" of the media, in "to join." The semi-vowel we have in the pronunciation of "yea." The nasal again hardly exists by itself, but only if followed by palatals. We have it in "inch" and "injure." Where the Spaniards use an ñ, they write a double by a simple sound; for the sound is the nasal followed by the corresponding semi-vowel, ny. The French express the same sound in a different manner. The French "besogne," if it occurred in an African language, would have to be expressed by the missionary as "bezonye."

As to the palatal flatus or sibilant, we must distinguish again between its sharp and flat sound. The sharp sound is heard in "sharp," or French "chose." The flat sound is less known in English, but of frequent occurrence in French; such as "je," and "joli," very page 14 different from the English "jolly." It is a sound of frequent occurrence in African languages. ^* The difference between the hard and soft palatal flatus may best be illustrated by a reference to the modern languages of Europe. A guttural tenuis in Latin becomes a palatal tenuis in English, and a palatal sibilant in French; cantus, the chant, le chant. Here the initial sibilant in French is a tenuis or asper like the English sh in "she." A guttural media in Latin becomes a palatal media in English, and a palatal sibilant in French; elegia, the elegy, l'élégie. Here the sibilant sound of the French g is the same as in "genou" or "je;" it is the soft palatal sibilant, sometimes expressed in English by s, as in erasure and pleasure.

It should be remarked, however, that the proper, and not yet assibilated sound of the palatal flatus asper is not the French ch as heard in "Chine," but rather the German ch in "China," "mädchen," "ich," " könig." Both sounds are palatal according to our definition of this term; but the German might be called the simple, the French the assibilated palatal flatus. Ellis calls the former the "whispered guttural sibilant," and remarks that it is generally preceded by a vowel of the i class. The corresponding "spoken consonant" or the flatus lenis, was discovered by Ellis in such words as "kön'ge."

2. Linguals as Modifications of Dentals.

While the pure dental is produced by bringing the tip of the tongue straight against the teeth, a peculiarly modified and rather obtuse consonantal sound is formed if the tongue is curled back till its tip is at the root, and the dome of the mouth then struck with its back or under-surface. The consonants produced by this peculiar process differ from the dentals, both by their place and by their instrument, and it has been common in languages where these peculiar consonants occur to call them "linguals." Although this name is not quite distinct, the tongue being the agent in the palatals and dentals as well as in these linguals, still it is preferable to another name which has also been applied to them, Cerebrals a

^* See the Rev. Dr. Krapf's "Outline of the Elements of the Kisuáheh Language:" Tübingen, 1850, page 23.

page 15 mere mistranslation of the Sanskrit name "Murddhanya." ^* These linguals vary again in the degree of obtuseness imparted to them in different dialects, and which evades graphical representation. All letters that cease to be pure dentals by shifting the point of contact backward from the teeth, must be considered as linguals; and many languages, Semitic as well as Arian, use them for distinct etymological purposes. As with the palatals, we have with the linguals also a complete set of modified consonants. The lingual tenuis, tenuis aspirata, media, media aspirata, and nasal have no corresponding sounds in English, because, as we shall see, the English organ has modified the dental sounds by a forward and not by a backward movement. The semi-vowel is the lingual r, produced by a vibration of the curled tongue in which the Italians and Scotch excel, and which we find it difficult to imitate. The English and the German r become mostly guttural, while, on the contrary, the Semitic guttural semi-vowel, 'hain, takes frequently the sound of a guttural r. It might be advisable to distinguish between a guttural and a lingual r; but most organs can only pronounce either the one or the other, and the two therefore seldom co-exist in the same dialect.

The lingual sibilant is a sound peculiar to the Sanskrit; and as, particularly in modern Indian dialects, it interchanges with the guttural tenuis aspirata, its pronunciation must have partaken of a certain guttural flatus.

There is a peculiarity in the pronunciation of the dental tenuis aspirata and media aspirata, which, though it exists but in few languages, deserves to be noticed here. In most of the spoken idioms of Europe, although a distinction is made in writing, there is hardly any

^* "Murddhanya," being derived from "murddhan," head or top, was a technical name given to these letters, because their place was the top or highest point in the dome of the palate, the of the Greeks. The proper translation would have been "Cacuminals." "Cerebrals " is wrong in every respect; for no letter is pronounced by means of the brain, nor docs "murddhan" mean brain. It is not advisable to retain this name, even as a technical term, after it has been proved to owe its origin to a mere mistranslation. It is a word which has given rise to confused ideas on the nature of the lingual letters, and which ought therefore to be discarded from philological treatises, though the mistranslation and its cause have hitherto failed to attract the observation of either Sanskrit or comparative grammarians

page 16 difference in the pronunciation of t and th, or d and dh. The German "thun," to do, the French " théologie," are pronounced as if they were written "tun," " téologie." In the Low German and Scandinavian dialects, however, the aspiration of the t and d (according to Grimm's law, an organic aspiration) has been preserved to a certain extent, only the consonantal contact by which they are produced takes place no longer between the tongue and the inside of the teeth, but is pushed forward so as to lie really between the tongue and the edge of the teeth. This position of the organs produces the two well-known continuous sounds of th, in "think" and "though." There is a distinct Runic letter to express them, and in later MSS. a graphical distinction is introduced between and đ, tenuis and media. The difference between the tenuis and media is brought out most distinctly by the same experiment which was tried for f and v. (page 7.). We have the tenuis in "breath," but it is changed into media in "to breathe."

We may consider these two sounds as dialectical varieties of the real th and dh, which existed in Sanskrit, but which, like most aspirated sonant and surd consonants, have since become extinct. To many people the pronunciation of the English th is an impossibility; and in no dialect, except perhaps the Irish, does the English pronunciation of the th coexist with the pure and simple pronunciation of th and dh. Still, as their sound is very characteristic, it might be desirable to mark it also in writing, so that even those who do not know the peculiar accent and pronunciation of a language, should be able to distinguish by the eye the English sound of the th from the usual th and dh.

The principal consonantal sounds, without any regard as yet to their graphic representation, may now be classified and defined as follows. Where possible, the approximate sound is indicated by English words.