ALPHABETICAL SOUNDS. In connection with the subject of the Hebrew and Greek alphabets, we may be allowed to enter on some considerations which are seldom duly developed in the grammars of either language; and which will besides throw some light on the Greek spelling of Hebrew names.
Let us first request the reader to bestow a little study on the following table of consonants.
The names annexed to the left-hand of the rows are not perfectly satisfactory. To Labial' no objection can be made. Neither Dental' nor Palatal' fitly describes the second row, in which the sounds are produced by contact (more or less slight and momentary) of the tongue with the teeth, gums, or palate; while the third row, on the con trary, does not need contact. The term Guttural' is apt, improperly, to give the idea of a roughness which does not exist in k and g. The soft palatal sounds of x, 7, ch, cannot be named absolutely Palatals,' without confounding them with those of the row above. The word Aspirate' (or breath ing) has in English been generally appropriated to a rough' breathing; and it is against our usage to conceive of the liquid y as a breathing at all Those consonants are called explosive on which the voice cannot dwell when they terminate a word; as 0, ak, ad. At their end a rebound of the organs takes place, giving the sound of an ob scure vowel ; as appi for ap: for if this final sound be withheld, but half of the consonant is enunciated. The Latins, following the Greeks, called these Mutes.' On the contrary, we name those con tinuous the sound of which can be indefinitely pro longed, as aff . assss .. .
For the names thin and full, others say sharp and flat ; or hard and soft ; or surd and sonant ; or whispering and vocal. It would appear that in whispering the two are merged in one ; for instance, p cannot be distinguished from b, nor z from s. Yet the ' Aspirates' (or fourth row) will not strictly bear this test.
By the Greek letters 0, 1, x, 7, we understand the sounds given to them by the modern Greeks ; in which 0 = English th in thin; I = English th in that; x= German or Irish ch; 7 = Dutch g.
To conceive of the last sound, when we know that of x, it is only requisite to consider that the following proportion strictly holds :—g (hard) : k : : 7 : X• At the same time, 'y and x have a double pronun ciation, rougher and smoother, as ch in German has. When their roughness is much exaggerated, they give the Arabic sounds • (kha) and c (ghain), which last is the consonant gh heard in gargling. As for the softer sounds, when their softness is exaggerated, the x passes through the softest German ch into a mere y; while the 7 is gradually merged in the soft imperfect r of ]ispers, and finally in w.
But the fourth row, or the ' Aspirates,' yet more urgently need explanation to an Englishman. The explosive aspirates come under the general head of what is called the Soft Breathing in Greek grammar (although 3,/ in the Arab mouth is far enough from soft), while the continuous aspirates are Rough Breathings. Moreover, r is a fuller and stronger tst, just as n is a fuller and stronger M ; and although the relation does not seem to be precisely that of b:p, or d:t, it is close enough to justify our tabular arrangement. As for n, it is rather softer than our English h: and M, or hh, is the Irish h, a wheezing sound. The consonant N is the hiatus heard between the vowels in the Greek word I77Le, and 3 is the same sound exaggerated by a compres sion of the throat. The last is, in short, a jerking hiatus, such as a stuttering man often prefixes to a vowel-sound, when with effort he at length utters it. That N, are explosive, and 1, n, continuous, is evident on trial. It is also clear that the hiatus N readily softens itself into the liquid y. Just so, for the namet•:',99rin (Illah'lat el) the Sept. reads MaXsXcsX, where the e before )X is in fact meant for an English y. On this ground we have put y into the fourth row.