Page:Proposals for a missionary alphabet; submitted to the Alphabetical Conferences held at the residence of Chevalier Bunsen in January 1854 (IA cu31924100210388).pdf/14

 organs, and the voice is slightly stopped or compressed as it reaches the point of contact, the consonants are called half-consonants or semi-vowels. They are sonant like the media, owing to the process of their formation here described (h, l, w).

At the end of words and before a tenuis the semi-vowels are frequently pronounced as a flatus, or they become evanescent. the Dutch 'dag,' we have the nearest approach to a guttural semivowel. If a Saxon pronounces the same word, he changes the d into t, and the guttural semi-vowel into the guttural flatus asper, like ch in 'loch.' In other parts of Germany, the final guttural is sounded as a media or as tenuis, while in the English 'day' the guttural semi-vowel has become evanescent. The same applies to French "sou" instead of "sol," and "vaut " instead of "valet." In Sanskrit no semi-vowel is tolerated at the end of words or before a tenuis.

Professor Wheatstone's researches prove that a distinguishing mark of the semi-vowels consists in their having no corresponding mutes. This applies not only to y, r, l, but also to w and h. It should be remarked, however, that, in the guttural and palatal series, the semi-vowel and flatus lenis can hardly be distinguished except in theory.

If there is no contact at all, and the breath passes between the two organs without being stopped, still not without giving rise to a certain friction on passing that point of contact where guttural, dental, and labial consonants are formed, we get the three sibilants, or the "winds," as they are more properly called by Hindu grammarians. These are, the pure breathing, without even a guttural modification, commonly called spiritus asper and lenis; the thick guttural flatus, as heard in "loch;" the sharp and soft s for the dentals; and the sharp and soft f for the labials. The sibilants or flatus are distinguished from all other consonants by this, that with them a breathing is really emitted, while the consonants are only so many stops which preclude the emission of vocal sound. A candle applied to the mouth will at once show the difference between the labial flatus asper, as in "find," and the consonantal stops, such as p, b, or even the labial semi-vowel, as heard in "wind." In this respect