Page:Collier's Cyclopedia of Commercial and Social Information.djvu/20

8 , and represent the sounds produced when the voice is interrupted by the voluntary action of the throat, tongue, palate, nose, teeth, and lips. Our vowel sounds differ from those of all other languages of Europe; one of the sounds which we express by a, they express by e; where we write e, they write i; where we use i, they employ, ei; and our u corresponds with their ew. The natural series of vowel sounds, expressed in letters of our alphabet, is

The combinations of vowel sounds, called diphthongs and triphthongs, such as ae, ai, au, ei, ie, oe, oi, ou, eau, &c., express the intermediate sounds of this series, but they also do not correspond with those of the other European languages. 4. Consonants are divided into three orders, Mutes, Sibilants and Liquids; and these are further subdivided according to the organs employed in giving utterance to them. Thus the mutes are classified first as Smooth or Aspirated, and next in the following manner; the sounds for which we have no symbols being inserted in their proper places:—

The ch here is the terminal sound of the Scotch word "loch;" and the gh, that of the Irish word "lough." The letter h finds no place in this scheme, because it is, in fact, nothing but a sign of the transmission of the breath called "aspiration," and not of a sound at all. The sibilants may be classified thus:—

And the liquids may be arranged in this manner:

The letter x represents the sounds of ks, gs, and sometimes of z. 5. Of the sounds expressed by the composition of various letters, both vowels and consonants, nothing more can be said, than that some of them are identical with sounds treated of above; and others are compounded of such sounds. Thus the sound of the word buoy is identical with that of boy; and in "adhesive," the sound d is pronounced distinctly, and followed by the aspirate, or hard breathing h

With the History of our Tongue, which follows this Grammar, the subject is illustrated so as to show the relation of the English language to other languages, which have formerly existed, or are spoken at the present day. Here only the "internal relations" of words are regarded; and the sole purpose is the illustration of the manner in which, from the radical words, wherein may be traced the ethnological connections of the English race, other words have in various ways been formed by the natural vitality and power of the language. 7. Radical words (called by etymologists "roots," simply) are either nouns, verbs, adjectives, or pronouns; expressive of common things, conditions, actions, &c., &c. Primary Derivatives are constructed by slight changes in the vowel sounds, or in the consonants or in both; and are sometimes designated "stems." Secondary Derivatives are formed by means of prefixes and affixes, from both roots and primary derivatives, Ex.—