Conchology

“ It is an interesting chapter in English phonology to trace the tortuous course of a given sound, say a, through its various mutations from the Anglo-Saxon period down to the present time. Our vowels, especially, have changed and interchanged to an extent which is simply astonishing. The average scholar who has not made a special study of our English language has absolutely no conception of the radical nature and vast extent of the change and development [Pg 18] of English sounds. Take as an illustration our vowel e. ”

“ All that the vocal organs can do is to supply the skeleton into which the mind breathes the breath of life. Unmeaning sounds do not constitute language: until a signification has been put into them, the sounds that have been described and analyzed are no better than the singing of the birds, the stirring of the trees, or even the dead utterances of a machine. Phonology, like anatomy, deals only with the dry bones which have yet to be clothed upon with living flesh. ”

“ We can hardly exaggerate the effect of a consonant, unless it be "s" or "f," and such diphthongs as "ch" and "sh." Nevertheless, the final consonant of a word or syllable must never be heard unless the very end of the value of the note is reached on the vowel-sound. ”

“ The vowel sound is so intimately linked with the consonant—the con-sonant, implying this intimate relation in its very name—that it seemed extremely difficult to give it individual recognition. To set off the mere labial beginning of the sound by itself, and to recognize it as an all-essential element of phonation, was the feat at which human intelligence so long balked. The germ of great things lay in that analysis. It was a process of simplification, and all art development is from the complex to the simple. ”

“ Strictly speaking Phonetic Laws have no exceptions: that is to say, a phonetic change affects equally the same sound in all words existing in the language at the time, provided that the sound is under the same conditions in all the words. ”

“ Unfortunately these analyses have discovered far too few of the principles entering the syntheses which we call words. For after all, it is the synthesis that clears the understanding; and it is the analysis, too often, that clouds it. Thus far, no study of isolated sounds seems to promise an explanation of the sound-flux which, in passing through cerebral processes, enters the mind as a word. The important elements of a word are not more marked in its sound than in its quality of registration through the organs of hearing. ”

“ When the tongue is at rest and the lips are not moved during the passage of Voice through the mouth, the result is a colourless or “neutral” vowel, very common in unaccented syllables in English, e.g. in the second syllable of such words as suitable, different, memory. This vowel is conveniently denoted by ə, a symbol called ‘schwa,’ from the name of the sound in Hebrew.
§ 30. The vowels are the simplest kind of Sonants. By a Sonant we mean a sound which can by itself be pronounced as a syllable. By a Consonant we mean a sound which cannot be heard unless it is combined with a Sonant. ”

“ Evolution of sounds.—Let there be a language where there is no such a sound as that of z, but where there is the sound of s. The sound of z may be evolved under (amongst others) the following conditions. 1. Let there be a number of words ending in the flat mutes; as slab, stag, stud, &c. 2. Let a certain form (the plural number or the genitive case) be formed by the addition of is or es; as slabis, stages, studes, &c. 3. Let the tendency that words have to contract eject the intermediate vowel, e or i, so that the s of the inflexion (a sharp mute) and the b, d, g, &c. ”

“ We ask now, does the suggested derivation accord with the known Phonetic Laws of the language concerned? Or, if it seems to make an exception to any one of them, can the reason for such an exception be found, for instance, in the influence of Analogy? Or, if it involves our recognising a new Phonetic Law, are there any forms which would contradict the new Law and for which no explanation can be found? For example, it was once supposed that the forms of the Latin Passive contained the word sē; amor ‘I am loved’ was derived from “amo sē.” ”

“ The vocal organs, on the other hand, through which thought becomes realized in speech, are subject to all the conditions of the material world. The utterance of each articulate sound and its relations to another are conditioned and defined by the physical constitution of man, by the circumstances in which he finds himself, and by measurable laws of sound. The outward form of language, the flesh-garment, as it were, in which thought clothes itself, falls entirely into the domain of physiology and acoustics. ”

“ Through its power to bind flowing action into solid form, the life-ether is related to the sound-ether in the same way as the articulated word formed by human speaking is related to the mere musical tone. The latter by itself is as it were fluid. In human speech this fluidity is represented by the vowels. With a language consisting only of vowels man would be able to express feelings, but not thoughts. To let the word as carrier of thought arise out of sound, human speech possesses the consonants, which represent the solid element in it. ”

“ A short vowel sound followed by a double consonantal sound, usually makes a long quantity; [24] so also does a long vowel like y in beauty, before a consonant. The metrical accents, which often differ from the prosaic, mostly fall upon the heavy sounds; which must also be prolonged in reading, and never slurred or lightened, unless to help out a bad verse. In our language the groupings of the consonants furnish a great number of spondaic feet, and give the language, especially its more ancient forms, as in the verse of Milton and the prose of Lord Bacon, a grand and solemn character. ”

“ A word, a sentence, a grammatical form, consists of two elements, one, the articulate utterance, the other, the signification or thought which the utterance symbolizes. Sound and sense are the two factors which make up speech, and it is, therefore, in respect of both sound and sense that our comparisons have to be made. Comparative philology divides itself into phonology and sematology, to which, perhaps, we may also add morphology. Phonology is the science of sounds, sematology the science of meanings, and morphology the science of grammatical forms. ”

“ Where the current of air is only modified by receiving a vibration from the tongue we get the Liquids, r when the tip of the tongue is vibrated, and l when the sides of the tongue are vibrated; to produce l the front of the tongue is generally set fast against the teeth or palate. Eng. and Lat. r and l are both made with Voice. In modern English the Vibration of r has become very weak, and at the end of a syllable it is hardly heard at all unless a vowel follows. ”

“ The pitches of the breath consonants are absolutely fixed in each individual pronunciation, while those of spoken vowels can be varied indefinitely within the compass of each voice by tightening the vocal chords in various ways and shortening their vibrating portions· the tighter and shorter the vibrating body, the quicker its vibrations, and the higher the tone. But when a vowel is whispered or breathed nothing is heard but the resonance of the con figurative passages, especially in the mouth, and the pitches of these resonant cavities are as fixed as those of the breath consonants ”

“ Does any one seriously think that by photographing vocal sounds, or passing a mirror down his throat and watching the movements of the vocal cords, he will observe anything that will lead him to an intimate knowledge of nature's subtle process by which vocal sounds are produced? As well look at the face of a clock and see its hands move, and then say you have arrived at a knowledge of the hidden intricate mechanism of the works of the clock. The mechanism of the instrument of the voice is a thousand times more intricate than that of a clock. ”

“ The discoverer of Universology, first settling and establishing the fact that the Elements of Sound in Speech are the natural Phonetic Types, equal in number to the inventory of the Primitive Rational Conceptions of the Human Mind, is then enabled to work the new discovery backward, and, by the aid of the classifications which Nature herself has clearly introduced among these Sounds (into Vowels, Consonants, Liquids, etc.) , to arrive at a classification of all the Primitive Rational Conceptions, which cannot fail to be completely satisfactory and final. ”

“ When e or i is followed by another vowel in the same syllable, c is sh, as in oceanic. In a few words c is z, as in sacrifice. C before a, o, u or a consonant represents the k sound, as in call, cold, culminate, climax. ”

“ The conditions which approximate most closely to our present, perfect, future and imperative are marked either by aspiration of the initial or by one of the five prefix consonants according to the rules of euphony, and the whole looks like a former system thrown into confusion and disorder by phonetic decay. ”

“ Phonology deals with the outward and physical, that which, can be weighed and measured, and imitated by mechanical contrivances; sematology belongs to the inward and the spiritual—to that realm of thought, in short, which can only be examined in so far as it makes itself accessible to the inspection of the [143] senses, and submits itself to the action of physical laws. Thought seems infinite, manifold, and free, determining and determined by itself. Like the wind, it “bloweth where it listeth;” we hear “the sound thereof, but cannot tell whence it cometh and whither it goeth.” ”

“ After a time men discovered that all the sounds of the human voice were really decomposable into a very few and that all human speech, consisting as it does of combinations of these sounds, could be represented by combinations of simple phonograms each of which should represent neither an idea nor a syllable but one of the primary sounds. ”

“ A safer way of putting the theory of a natural origin of language is to postulate the original utterance of ideas in what may be called self-expressive sounds, without defining closely whether their expression lay in emotional tone, imitative noise, contrast of accent or vowel or consonant, or other phonetic quality. ”

“ We have long known that imitations of sound exist in greater or lesser numbers in every language, and how far they can reach has probably never been shown in such detail as by myself.49 But that our Aryan tongues, and also the Semitic, and all others that have been studied scientifically, originated from roots, is now generally known and recognised. That these roots may in remote times have contained an element of imitation, we may readily concede, for it is really self-evident; only we should not from the beginning bar our way by conceiving them as mere imitations of sound. ”

“ The next step is to analyse its formation. Let the student, for instance, compare the two consonants in such a word as five by isolating and lengthening them till he can both hear and feel the voice-vibration in the second one. In the same way let him learn to feel the changes in the position of the tongue and lips in passing from one vowel to another. When the native sounds have been thoroughly studied in this way, the learner will proceed to foreign sounds, deducing each new sound from those which are already familiar to him. ”

“ Each syllable and monosyllabic word is called a concrete, and it is with the concrete in all its various possibilities of utterance that voice culture has mainly to do.
The intervals traversed by the voice in uttering the concrete are very variable. Using the musical scale for reference it may be said that in ordinary speech they are generally of but one, or, at most, two notes. In animated discourse or passionate utterance the intervals may be greater. For illustration, let the pronoun "I" be uttered in a tone of interrogative surprise; a concrete with a rising interval will be the result. ”

“ It only needs to be pointed out here that phonetic change plays a necessary part in the structural development of language, by integrating compound words through fusion and loss of identity of their component parts, and, what is of yet more importance, by converting them into forms, through disguise of identity of one of the parts and its phonetic subordination to the other part. ”

“ The science of significations enables us to retain the spiritual unity of a tongue despite the confusion wrought by phonetic and morphologic changes. Age-old traditions of language which have acquired a subconscious status are not confused with the elements of speech that grow out of conscious imitation. ”

“ Combinations of two or more consonants: a. A consonant followed by ll or r goes with the l or r. Thus pū'-blǐ-cǔs, ǎ'-grī. Exception. Prepositional compounds of this nature, as also ll and rr, follow rule b. Thus ǎb'-lǔ-ō, ǎb-rǔm'-pō, ǐl-lě, fěr'-rǔm. b. In all other combinations of consonants the first consonant goes with the preceding vowel. [4] Thus mǎg'-nǔs, ě-gěs'-tās, vǐc-tō'-rǐ-ǎ, hǒs'-pěs, ǎn'-nǔs, sǔ-bāc'-tǔs. 3. The last syllable of a word is called the ul'-ti-ma; the one next to the last, the pe-nult; the one before the penult, the an'-te-pe-nult'.
EXERCISE
10. ”

“ The growth of all synthetic language illustrates the aggregation of accessory sounds about the primitive root-sound, while the common tendency to the insertion of consonants shows their addition to the primitive vowels. ”

“ In the medial position between vowels and voiced consonants it has the sound of v; e.g., hlāford, ofer, sealfian, ǣfre.
Note.—In compounds like ā-fyrhtan, of-lystan, etc., f is strictly not in the medial position, and has therefore its usual sound.
(d) g has two values. (1) It almost always represents a voiced spirant, which is either guttural, or palatal (like g in German sagen, or like y in English you) , according to its pronunciation with guttural or with palatal vowels. (2) It is pronounced like g in English go only when doubled, as in frogga, frog ”