Page:Proposals for a missionary alphabet; submitted to the Alphabetical Conferences held at the residence of Chevalier Bunsen in January 1854 (IA cu31924100210388).pdf/22

 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."

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