Page:Proposals for a missionary alphabet; submitted to the Alphabetical Conferences held at the residence of Chevalier Bunsen in January 1854 (IA cu31924100210388).pdf/16

 the corresponding flat s, the common German s. Exactly the same grammatical process applied to the labial flatus changes "life" into "live," i. e. the sharp labial flatus into the flat.

Some languages, as, for instance, Sanskrit, acknowledge none hut sharp sibilants; and a media followed by a flatus is changed in Sanskrit into a tenuis.

If, in the three organs, a full contact takes place and the vocal breathing is stopped, not abruptly, but in the same manner as with the sonant letters, and if afterwards the vocal breathing be emitted, not through the mouth, but through the nose, we get the three full nasal consonants n., n, and m, for the guttural, dental, and labial series. A speaking-machine leaves no doubt as to the manner in which a tenuis may be changed into a narisonant letter. "M," as Professor Wheatstone says, "was heard on opening two small tubes representing the nostrils, placed between the wind-chest and the mouth, while the front of the mouth was stopped as for p."

In most cases the peculiar character of the nasal is determined by the consonant immediately following. In "ink," the n is necessarily guttural; and if we try to pronounce it as a dental or labial, we have to stop after the n, and the transition to the guttural k becomes so awkward that, even in words like to "in-cur," most people pronounce the n like a guttural. No language, as far as I know, is fond of such incongruities as a guttural n. followed by any but guttural consonants, and they generally sacrifice etymology to euphony. In English we cannot pronounce em-ty, and therefore we pronounce and write emp-ty. In the Uraon-Kol language, which is a Tamulian dialect, "enan" is I, and the possessive prefix is "in," my. But in the Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal we find "im-bas," my father; but "ing-kos," my child. Cicero alludes to the same where he speaks of the n adulterinum. He says, that "cum nobis" was pronounced like "cun nobis."

At the end of words and syllables, however, the three nasal sounds, guttural, dental, or labial, may occur independently; and as it is necessary to distinguish a final m from a final n (, bonum), it will be advisable also to do the same for a final guttural nasal, as the French