Page:Proposals for a missionary alphabet; submitted to the Alphabetical Conferences held at the residence of Chevalier Bunsen in January 1854 (IA cu31924100210388).pdf/28

 i, and w into u, become ri, li, or re and le. At least these sounds ri and li, approach as near to the original value of the Indian vowels as with our alphabet we can express it. According to their origin, they may be described as r and I opened and vocalised.

If we attempt in singing to pronounce no particular vowel, we still hear the vowel-sound of the Italian a. This vowel expresses the quality of the musical vibrations emitted from the human larynx and naturally modified by a reverberation of the palate. But if we arrest the vibrations before they pass the guttural point of contact - if, either in a whispered or a vocalised shape, we emit the voice without allowing it to strike against any part of the mouth we hear the unmodified and primitive sound as in but, bird, lull. It is the sound which, in Professor Willis's experiments, "seems to be the natural vowel of the reed," or, according to Mr. Ellis, "the voice in its least modified form." We hear it also if we take the larynx of a dead body, and blow through it while compressing the chordæ vocales.

In these experiments it is impossible to distinguish more than one sound; and most people admit but one unmodified vowel in English. According to Sir John Herschell, there is no difference in the vowels of the words spurt, assert, dirt, virtue, dove, double, blood. Mr. Ellis considers the u in cur as the corresponding long vowel. Other writers, however, as Sheridan and Smart, distinguish between the sounds of bird and work, of whirl'd and world; and in some languages this difference requires to be expressed. It is a very delicate difference, but may be accounted for by a slight palatal and labial pressure, by which this obscure sound is affected after having escaped the guttural reverberation.

In English almost every vowel is liable to be absorbed by this obscure sound; as beggar, offer, bird, work, but. It is sometimes pronounced between two consonants, though not expressed in writing; as el-m, mar-sh, schis-m, rhyth-m. Here it is the breath inherent in continuous consonants. In French it is the e muet, as in entendre, Londres. In German it is doubtful whether the same sound exists at all, though I think it may be beard occasionally in such words as lcher, leben.