46

We distinctly hear the spiritus lenis, like a slight bubble, if we listen to the pronunciation of any initial vowel, as in old, art, ache, ear, or if we pronounce 'my hand,' as it is pronounced by vulgar people, 'my 'and.' According to some physiologists, and according to nearly all grammarians, this initial noise can be so far subdued as to become evanescent, and we all imagine that we can pronounce an initial the name of daru, all they meant to indicate by it was the roughness of the breathing, and this the Romans rendered very properly by spiritus asper. In veûpa Viλov, therefore, we have really no more than a negative definition of another breath which is free from roughness, and this the Romans understood so well that they did not translate яveμa óv by spiritus tenuis, but by spiritus lenis. The adjective cλóv is likewise used in a merely negative sense in έ ψιλόν and i ψιλόν. The natural meaning, therefore, of this term would seem to be a breath which is not rough, and in this sense I apply it to the sonant breath as just described. If the spiritus lenis in Greek had been what Professor Czermak asserts was, it is strange that it should not have been ranged among the ǎowva d. But these are questions which, at this distance of time, it is impossible to answer positively. What is of importance to us is this, that it is possible to define the following four letters, the non-sonant glottal breath, the sonant glottal breath, the glottal non-sonant check, and the glottal sonant check. But though we can define these four letters, the three last are apt to run into each other in actual use. Nor is this to be wondered at, considering that in the glottal series the organs which check the breath are the same as those which impart to it its sonant nature. The change of simple breath (') into simple voice (') implied a check of the forth-rushing breath, which, initially, might easily be mistaken for the check that constitutes the explosive tenuis; nor would it be easy, in spite of the most hair-splitting definitions, to distinguish the sound of the glottal explosive media from that of the glottal sonant breath. Brücke doubts whether the glottal sonant breath can be ranged as a distinct letter. Sonant consonants,' he says (p. 85) 'spring from non-sonant consonants simply by means of narrowing the glottis till it produces a sound; and if this is done with the h, the result must be the pure tone of the voice without any additional rustle.' In strict logic this is true, but in actual language we neither get a perfectly pure(), nor a perfectly pure ('), and the slightest trace of hoarseness would give to the () and to the (") their peculiar consonantal body.

it

46 Brücke, p. 9.

vowel quite pure." Yet I believe the Greeks were right in admitting the spiritus lenis as inherent in all initial vowels that have not the spiritus asper; and the laryngoscope clearly shows in all initial vowels a continuous narrowing of the vocal chords, quite distinct from the narrowing and sudden opening that takes place in the pronunciation of the h.

There is another very important distinction be tween spiritus asper and lenis. It is impossible, except by means of a trick, to sing the spiritus asper, that is to say, to make the breath which produces it, sonant. If we try to sing ha, the tone does not come out till the h is over. We might as well try to whistle and to sing at the same time.48 The reason of this is clear. If the breath that is to produce his to become a tone, it must be checked by the vocal chords, but the very nature of h consists in the noise of the breath rushing forth unchecked from the lungs to the outer air. The spiritus lenis, on the contrary, can be sounded, because, in pronouncing it, more or less distinctly, the breath is checked near the vocal chords, and can there be intoned.

The distinction which, with regard to the first breathing or spiritus, is commonly called asper and

"Brücke, p. 85. If in pronouncing the spiritus asper the glottis be narrowed, we hear the pure tone of the voice without any additional noise.' The noise, however, is quite perceptible, particularly in the to clandestina.

** See R. von Raumer, Gesammelte Schriften, p. 371, note. Johannes Müller says, The only continua which is quite mute and cannot be accompanied by the tone or the humming of the voice, is the A, the aspirate. If one attempts to pronounce the h loud, with the tone of the chordae vocales, the humming of the voice is not synchronous with the h, but follows it, and the aspiration vanishes as soon as the air is changed into tones by the chorda vocales.'

lenis, is the same which, in other letters, is known by the names of hard and soft, surd and sonant, tenuis and media.19 The peculiar character meant to be described by these terms, and the manner in which it is produced are the same throughout. The authors of the Prâtisâkhyas knew what has been confirmed by the laryngoscope, that, in pronouncing tenues, hard or surd letters, the glottis is open, while, in proFig. 11.

Fig. 12.

nouncing media, soft or sonant letters, the glottis is closed. In the first class of letters, the vocal chords are simply neutral; in the second, they are so close that, though not set to vibrate periodically, they produce a hum, or what has been called a fricative noise (Reibungsgeräusch). Anticipating the dis

Czermak, Physiologische Vorträge, p. 120: Die Reibungslaute zerfallen genau so wie die Verschlusslaute in weiche oder tönende, bei denen das Stimmritzengeräusch oder der laute Stimmton mitlautet-und in harte oder tonlose, bei denen der Kehlkopf absolut still ist,'

tinction between k, t, p, and g, d, b, I may quote here the description given by Professor Helmholtz of the general causes which produce their distinction.

The series of the media, b, d, g,' he says, 'differs from that of the tenues, p, t, k, by this, that for the former the glottis is, at the time of consonantal opening, sufficiently narrowed to enable it to sound, or at least to produce the noise of the vox clandestina, or whisper, while it is wide open with the tenues," and therefore unable to sound.'

Mediæ are therefore accompanied by the tone of the voice, and this may even, when they begin a syllable, set in a moment before, and when they end a syllable, continue a moment after the opening of the mouth, because some air may be driven into the closed cavity of the mouth and support the sound of the vocal chords in the larynx.'

'Because of the narrowed glottis, the rush of the air is more moderate, the noise of the air less sharp than with the tenues, which are pronounced with the glottis wide open, so that a great mass of air may rush forth at once from the chest.'1

We now return to an examination of the various modifications of the breath, in their double character of hard and soft, or surd and sonant. The simple

so See Lepsius, Die Arabischen Sprachlaute, p. 108, line 1.

S1 This distinction is very lucidly described by R. von Raumer, Gesammelte Schriften, p. 444. He calls the hard letters flate, blown the soft letters halate, breathed. He observes that breathed letters, though always sonant in English, are not so in other languages, and therefore divides the breathed consonants, physiologically, into two classes, sonant and non-sonant. This distinction, however, is apt to mislead, and is of no importance in reducing languages to writing. Se also Investigations into the Laws of English Orthography and Pronun ciation, by Prof. R. L. Tafel. New York, 1862.

breathing in its double character of surd and sonant, can be modified in eight different ways by interposing certain barriers or gates formed by the tongue, the soft and hard palate, the teeth, and the lips.

If, instead of allowing the breath to escape freely from the lungs to the lips, we hem it in by a barrier formed by lifting the tongue against the uvula, we get the sound of ch, as heard in the German ach or the Scotch loch.52 If, on the contrary, we slightly

check the breath as it reaches that barrier, we get the sound which is heard when the g in the German word Tage is not pronounced as a media, but as a semiVowel, Tage.

A second barrier is formed by bringing the tongue

52 The same sound occurs in some of the Dayak dialects of Borneo. See Surat Peminyuh Daya Sarawak, Reading Book for Land and Hill Dayaks, in the Sentah dialect. Singapore, 1862. Printed at the Mission Press.