The approximation of the flattened point of the tongue to the front of the Month, as to leave a narrow central passage between the tongue and the upper gum, forms the sound represented by S; and by Z when the breath is vocalized.
The elevation of the tip of the tongue towards the rim of the palatal arch causes ft degree of vibration of the edge of the tongue, and consequent asperation of the breath, proportioned to the degree of elevation, which is the English sound of the letter H. [It final, or before a consonant, has little or no asperation, but has almost the pure sono rousness of a vowel, as in err, earn, etc. The roughly trilled Scotch or Spanish It is formed by the quivering of the whole fore-part of the tongue as it is laxly approximated to the palate.] The approximation of the lower to the upper lip, so as to leave a central aperture for the breath, produces, with vocalized breath, the sound of W initial, as in woo. The sound of tv resembles that of the vowel oo, but with a more contracted aperture. The same position, with voiceless breath, forms the element represented, for lack of an alphabetic character, by,the digraph TV& The remaining varieties of English articulate sounds are formed by forcing the breath through lateral apertures, instead of one central aperture.
When the fore-part of the tongue is spread against the front of the palate, and vocalized breath passes laterally over the middle of the tongue, the sound of L is heard. [The same position of the tongue forms, with voiceless breath, the sound of Ll in lArelsh. The English L, as heard before ft ( = yoo) is modified by convexity of the back-part of the tongue towards its position for Y, forming the sound which is repre sented in Smart's dictionary by L', as in lure, pronounced Vow.. A peculiar Gaelia variety of L is formed by raising the back-part of the tongue to the soft palate, and passing the voice laterally over the root of the tongue.] When the tip of the tongue is applied to the upper teeth (or the gum). and tlie breath is emitted laterally over the point of the tongue, the sound •of the digraph Ylt ac iu thin is heard; and, with vocalized breath, the sound of Tit in then—neither of whick elements is represented in our alphabet.
When the middle of the lower lip is applied. to the edge of the upper teeth, and the breath is emitted laterally between the teeth and the lip, the sound represented by F is produced; and, with vocalized breath, the sound of V.
Liquids.—The voice is so little intercepted in passing through the nostrils (forming m, n, or ng), and through the wide apertures of L, and also of R when not initial in a syllable, that the sound has almost the pure sonorousness of a vowel; and these elements have received the name of liquids, to designate their property of syllabically combining with voiceless consonants—seeming to flow into and to be absorbed by them, and losing much of their natural quantity as vocal sounds; as in lamp, temse, tent, sense, tenth, ink ( = ingk), etc.; milk, spilt, help, self, else, Welsh, health, etc.; hark, heart, harp, serf, earth, harsh, horse, etc. The characteristic effect of the liquids will be best perceived by con trasting such words as temse and Thames, hence and hens, else and ells, curse and curs— in which the normal influence of vocal consonants on subsequent elements is manifested in the vocalizing of the sibilant in the second word of each pair From this review of the physiological varieties of articulate sounds, it will be evi dent that our alphabet of 20 letters is very imperfect, both by redundancy and defi ciency. (1.) The same sounds are represented by more than one letter; as C, K, and Q; C and S; G and J. (2.) The same letter represents more than one sound; as C, which is sometimes K, and sometimes S; G, which is sometimes the vocalized form of K, and sometimes J; N, which is sometimes N, and sometimes ny; S, which is some times S, and sometimes Z; and Y, which is sometimes a consonant (when initial), and some times a vowel, sounded like the letter I. (3.) Single letters are used to represent articulate Compounds; as G and J, which are sounded d,sh [the voiceless form of J is repre sented by ch, as in chair]; U, which is sounded yoo; and X, which is sounded ks, and sometimes gz. (4.) The alphabet contains no characters for six of our undoubted con sonant elements—viz., Wh, Th(in), Th(en), Sh, Zh, Ng. (5.) Each vowel-letter repre sents many sound; and the lack of seven characters to denote the excess of our vowel sounds over the number of our vowel-letters is supplied by about sixty combinations of two or of three letters, so that the original phonetic character of the alphabet is almost entirely lost in the confusion of our orthography.