Phonetics,

Phonetics, the science of the sounds of the voice. These are produced by air sent from the lungs through the windpipe, where it may or may not set in vibration two elastic membranes in the larynx, called the 'vocal cords,' producing 'voice' in the first case, and otherwise a wind-rush called 'flatus.' After passing the larynx the voice or flatus enters the mouth (the cavity of which, variously modified by the tongue or lips, affects the sound by its 'resonance'), or else the nose (when the entrance to the same from the throat is not blocked by the pressure of the uvula against the back of the pharynx, greatly modifying the sound by the vibration of the complicated membranes which line the nasal passages), or else both (as in the French nasal vowels). See VOICE, and the illustration of pharynx, uvula, &c. at DIGESTION. Properly speaking, phonetics comprehends the examination of many sounds which are not used in any language, and very different selections have been made by different nations. Here attention is confined to those used in 'received' (as opposed to 'dialectal') English, and a few other European languages.

As the sounds of speech are essentially differentiated by the variously shaped cavities of the mouth, two kinds must be carefully distinguished—'fixed sounds,' where the cavities remain unchanged during utterance; and 'glides,' where the forms of the cavities are constantly changing during utterance. These glides necessarily occur in passing from one fixed position to another, and very often the fixed position is not used for the production of a fixed speech-sound, but merely for the beginning or end of a gliding sound. Thus, in pat, tak (italics always indicating systematic writing), the a represents a certain fixed sound known as a 'vowel,' but the p, t, k represent only fixed positions which have absolutely no accompanying sound, and merely begin or end the (unwritten) glides on to and from the vowel. Hence they were called 'con-sonants' or 'with-sounders,' inasmuch as they sounded with the vowel but not alone. The term 'consonant' has, however, now a much more extended meaning, and the above p, t, k are distinguished as 'mutes.' On the other hand, b, d, g, in bad, bag, have voice-sounds of their own, though very brief and imperfect, and commence and finish the same glides as before, but they are also called consonants, and are distinguished as 'sonants.' Again s, sh, in sash, have distinct hisses of their own, which can be continued any length of time, but also determine glides on to and from a, and are still called consonants, being distinguished as 'hisses.' Similarly th and f, in thief, 'thief,' are hisses and determine glides on to and from ee. But in dhai thee, 'they thieve,' the dh, v are 'buzzes' which can also be continued indefinitely, but have a harsh, grating sound, and when in the pause (but not otherwise) easily lose their voice and end in hisses, as hiz eiz, 'his eyes.' The consonants nearest to vowels are the so-called 'liquids'—viz. the two 'flaps,' central r and lateral l, and the three nasals m, n, ng in roaring, loving, sun, sun, sung. These are so very vowel-like that they can be actually sung upon, especially the three nasals which produce 'hums.'

It would seem to be an easy task to discover at least all the fixed sounds or positions capable of being produced by the organs of speech, and then, noting each by a symbol, leave the glides to form their connection. But it is not so; and had the invention of letters had to depend upon that discovery, we should still have been illiterate. Actually signs were invented for whole words, and then used for the sounds with which they commenced. All was very rough and rude, and the characters chosen could not have been readily altered, even had the requisite knowledge existed. Hence in all languages, and notably in English and French, though the intention of writing was to recall the sound, the word-symbol could not be readily analysed into representatives of the component sounds, till it came to pass for the above two languages that a word seen and not heard could not be uttered, and a word heard and not seen could not be written. Hence arose in many minds the idea of recasting orthography by strict analysis of the sounds—i.e. on a phonetic basis—and to print books in accordance with the new conception, in order to teach reading, at least in the first instance, to children and foreigners. These attempts are popularly spoken of as 'phonetics,' but they are only a practical and very small branch of it, to which it is not necessary to allude further. Some of these alphabets are adapted for the scientific expression of speech-sounds, and among them that here printed in italic letters and called 'Glossic,' which will now be briefly explained and then considered somewhat in detail. The ordinary spelling is given in roman letters, the Glossic below it in italics.

1. 1. Long stressed vowels—
   beat, bait, baa, bought, boat, boot.
   beet, bait, baa, bau't, boat, boot.
   With vanishes— bai'yt, bo'ut.
2. 2. Short stressed vowels—
   knit, net, gnat, knot, nut, nook.
   nit, net, nat, not, nut, nuok.
3. 3. Short unstressed vowels—
   merry, parental, influence, follow.
   mer't, püren'tül, in'flooüns, fol'oa.
4. 4. Vowel diphthongs, unanalysed—
   file, foil, foul, fuel.
   feil, foil, foul, feu'il.
5. 5. Aspirate—
   hay, behave, mishap.
   hai', bi-hai'v, mis-hap.
6. 6. Mutes and sonants—
   pea bee toe doe cape gape.
   pee bee, too' doa; kai'p gai'p.
7. 7. Hisses and Buzzes—
   whey way feel veal thin then.
   whai' wai', fee'l vee'l, thin' dhen',
   seal zeal rush rouge hue you.
   see'l zee'l rush' roo'zh, yhoo' yoo'.
8. 8. Fiaps—
   ear-ring hearing gull struggle.
   ee'ü-ring' hee'üring, gul' strug'l.
9. 9. Nasals—
   sum chasm pun open sung hunger.
   sun kaz'm, pun' oa'pn, sung' hung'gü.
10. 10. Consonantal diphthongs, unanalysed—
    chest fetch jest judge.
    ches't fech', jes't, juj'.

Observe that long vowels under the stress have a turned period (') after them, and that short vowels under the stress have a turned period after the following consonant. Unstressed short vowels are not particularly indicated here, otherwise than by the stress being marked on some other vowel, except in the case of ü.

The above scheme suffices for received English, but a few more signs, hereafter assigned, are required for some sounds in received German, Italian, Spanish, and French.

The difference between consonants and vowels is only one of degree. Both have their own special resonance cavities through which flatus, whisper, or voice can pass. But the vowel cavities are best adapted to allow the passage of clear smooth voice, capable of being sung upon with a good quality of tone, and the consonants are more adapted for 'hisses,' or that peculiar mixture of flatus and voice known as 'buzzes.' The 'whisper' proper is a middle kind of sound for which the vocal cords are not brought perfectly close, but close enough to allow the extreme edges of the cords to vibrate as the breath passes, so that a mixture of obstructed flatus and imperfect voice results. Let any one pronounce the above keywords in lines 1 to 4 of the short key in a loud 'stage whisper,' and he will sufficiently seize the effect, which need not be further alluded to, except to draw attention to the difference between whisper and flatus, for the last of which the 'glottis,' or tongue-shaped cavity between the vocal cords, is as widely open as possible, and the sound is pro- duced only by the wind-rush. The reader should try to speak line 1 of the short key with flatus.

The shapes of the resonant cavities of the mouth suitable for vowel-sounds have been analysed by Mr Melville Bell for his 'Visible Speech' into nine kinds according as the back, middle, or tip of the tongue is high, mid, or low, reckoned from the lower jaw to the palate, the mouth in each case being wide open, and the nasal passages closed. Each of these nine can be modified by more or less closing the lips (called 'rounding'), doubling the former number. Again, each of these eighteen vowels may be either narrow or wide. The best phonetists are not yet agreed respecting the cause of this distinction, but its reality is certain, and may be readily perceived by comparing narrow beet with wide bit, narrow bait with wide bet, narrow nau't with broad not, narrow poo'l with wide puol, 'pull.' By this means thirty-six vowels are obtained, which again can be varied in different ways. English has only twelve different vowels under the stress as shown in lines 1 and 2, and only four need be noticed when unstressed as shown in line 3. But this is a large number. Other languages have generally fewer, and this makes English so difficult for foreigners to pronounce. A few of the foreign vowels, however, present similar difficulties to Englishmen, among which are the following:

ee short, as distinct from i in Fr. (French) and It. (Italian).
ae long in Fr. baet, 'bête'; Ger. (German) güshpraek'y'kü, 'Gespräche.'
aa short in Ger. maan, 'Mann'; It. aan'noa, 'anno.'
ah long and short, Fr. pah, 'pas,' a broad sound between aa and au, but not rounded.
ao long and short or middle length, between oa and au, Fr. nao'r, 'nord'; Ger. haol'ts, 'Holz.' Also used by older speakers in English as mao'ü; now usually mau'ü, 'more.'
eo narrow in Fr. peo, 'peu'; Ger. Geotü, 'Goethe,' a narrow ai without vanish, spoken with the lips rounded as for oa.
oe wide, Fr. voe'v, 'veuve'; Gr. Bock'ü, 'Böcke,' a wide e, spoken with the lips rounded as for oa.
ue long and short, Fr. aafue, 'affüt,' uet, 'hutte'; Ger. ue'bür, 'über,' uep'iky'h, 'üppig,' a broad i (or, as Dr Sweet thinks, a narrow ee), with lips rounded as for oo.

aen' in vaen', 'vin,' an attempt to say ae or a with the nasal passages fully open.
aan' or ahn' in saan' or sahn', 'sans,' an attempt to say aa or ah with the nasal passages fully open.
oan' or aon' in boan' or baon', 'bon,' an attempt to say oa or aon with the nasal passages fully open.
oen' or un' in oakoen', 'aucun,' an attempt to say oen or un with the nasal passages fully open.

When two different vowels glide into each other they form a diphthong. Line 4 of the short key shows the four principal diphthongs purposely noted by arbitrary instead of systematic signs. If we wished to represent their analysis we should write fuyl, foyl, fuwl, fyoo'il, where the y and w are used to show very short unstressed i, and uo, which form the second element of the first three, the first element being short but stressed. In the cases of 'way,' 'know,' and similar words, especially in the pause, it is very usual in the south of England to let the voice glide off to a y and w sound known as the 'vanish,' but then the first element is long, as wai'y, noa'w. There are, however, a number of 'murmur diphthongs' where the second element is the murmur ü, into which the flap r degenerates (in London, not in Scotland), as shown for ü in line 8 of the short key, or in the four usual cases—ee'ü or i'ü, 'ear;' e'ü 'air;' ao'ü or au'ü, 'oar;' poo'ü or puo'ü, 'poor.' The r, however, revives if a vowel follows, as hee'ü, hee'üring, 'hear, hearing;' pao'ü, pao'üring, 'pour, pouring;' or pau'ü, pau'üring, more commonly in London.

The mode in which a vowel begins to sound is called a 'glottid,' because it depends upon the opening of the glottis. If the vocal cords are quite close and ready to act, as they should always be in singing, the vowel-sound commences immediately on the breath reaching the larynx, and this is called the 'clear' glottid. If the closure of the glottis be exaggerated, so that the vowel comes out with a kind of explosion, the result is the 'catch' glottid, written (;) in discussions. This is common before all vowels beginning words or compound parts of words in German, as ;aay'nü, ;er'in'üruong, 'eine Erinnerung.'

On the other hand, if the glottis is not quite closed at first, but closes gradually as the breath passes, we have first a slight escape of flatus, followed by a slight whisper, and then by the vowel itself. This forms the 'gradual' glottid, which is not uncommon, especially in passing from a hiss to a vowel, as in see; and even from a mute to a vowel, to distinguish more clearly mutes from sonants, as pee from bee. As a general rule none of these three glottids need be marked, though the 'gradual' may be distinguished in phonetic discussions by (°), as pee, p°ee. A similar effect called the 'recoil' occurs after mutes in the pause, and may be written in the same way in discussions; compare pop° with pop'gun, not pop°gun. An exaggeration of this (°) often occurs in the so-called 'aspirate' or 'rough breathing,' which essentially consists of a jerked emission of breath, whether voice or flatus, and the exertion of jerking out a vowel often introduces a strong flatus through the vowel position. Both are represented by h (or, when not initial, to prevent confusion, by -h), but in discussions the latter may be represented by h°, as hot, h°ot.

The consonants which have positions that gradually diminish in the power of allowing distinct voice to pass from the nasal liquids, as m, through the lateral liquid l, the flap r, the buzzes, as z, and hisses, as s, to the sonants, as d, and the mutes, as p, may be arranged either as in the short key or by the parts of the vocal organs which form the passage (putting, however, the mutes first as most marked by absolute stoppage of voice) as in the table, where capitals refer to the short key, and the other letters are explained afterwards.

TABLE OF CONSONANTS.

ADDITIONAL CONSONANTS.

Col. 2. f', v' are f, v without touching the teeth, and of these v' is the regular German 'w.' Both occur in modern Greek and Hungarian.

Col. 5. t', d', v', n' are the common continental forms of our t, d, l, n, the tip of the tongue being brought more forward, so as to lie fully against the gums. The first two occur dialectally sometimes before r, but are not received. They need not be distinguished from t, d, l, n, except in discussions.

Col. 6. sh' zh' are sh zh pronounced without the hollow at the back of the tongue, which is more in the ee-position. But the distinction need not be made except in discussions. lh, nh are the flated voiceless forms of l, n. The first occurs unilaterally in the Welsh 'll,' and the latter dialectally in English for initial 'kn' in 'know.'

Col. 8. ly', ny' are attempts to pronounce l and n at the same time as y, and hence are different from ly, ny in milyün, minyün, 'million, minion,' where the y follows. They occur as 'gl, gn' in Italian 'figlio, segno,' fee'ly'oa, sai'ny'oa, and Spanish 'll, ñ.' The ly', although still written as 'ill' in French, has of late been replaced in speech by simple y, but ny' remains as 'gn;' thus, 'sillon, signer,' siyoan', simy'ai.

Col. 10. ky', gy' are attempts to utter k, g at the same time as y, and used to be heard (may still occasionally be heard), as in 'cart guard,' ky'aa't gy'aa'd, and similar words. ky'h, gy'h are the hissed and buzzed forms of ky', gy' in German zee'ky'h zee'gy'hü, 'siech siege;' but ky'h gy'h are considered by some (even German) phonetists as the same as yh, y; thus, zee'yh, zee'yi.

Col. 11. kh, gh are the hissed and buzzed forms of k, g, in German zaakh'ü zaaghü, 'sache sage,' and kh occurs also in

Scotland. It is the Spanish 'j,' sometimes 'x' or 'g,' before 'e, i,' as ee'kho, keekhao'te, khee'fe, 'hijo, Quixote, gefe (jefe).' 'rh, 'r are flaps made with the uvula instead of the tip of the tongue; 'r is common in Northumberland, in north France, and in north Germany, where also 'rh is found in the pause, as in 'rik'y'h't'ü'rh, 'richter.'

Col. 12. kw, gw arise from an attempt to utter w at the same time as k, g, and kw'h, gw'h are the corresponding hiss and buzz in German t'aawkw'h'ün, t'aawgw'h'ün, 'tauchen, taugen.'

This table is of course very incomplete, but it will serve as a framework for introducing other consonantal sounds. The glides of all these consonants to and from all the vowels should be carefully studied in actual words, but cannot be considered here.

Speech consists of sentences, and it is only by careful analysis that these are separated into words, syllables, glides, and fixed sounds, so that the letters which represent the last only, and have here been treated first, are determined with much difficulty among the mass of sound heard. Any one who attempts to write an unknown language from pure dictation, without seeing its usual writing (if it have one), will feel this immediately. And from this mass of sound to disentangle the words, as they are usually separated, is still more difficult.

An attempt has been made by Dr Sweet for English (Elementarbuch des gesprochenen Englisch, Leip. 1886, and Primer of Spoken English, Oxford, 1890), and by M. Paul Passy for French (Les Sons du Français and Le Français parle, both 1889), to write exactly what is spoken, dividing the words, or sometimes only dividing the breath-groups, and a study of these books will show the difficulty of the problem. The Existing Phonology of English Dialects (1889), by the late Dr Ellis, the writer of this article, shows an attempt to write all English dialects, practically previously unwritten, and mostly from pure dictation, and very difficult it was found, the alphabet here given being quite insufficient for the purpose. For a fuller account of phonetics, reference may be made to his Speech in Song (1878), in which this alphabet is used. See also the articles in this work on ALPHABET, GRIMM'S LAW, LETTERS, SHORTHAND, VISIBLE SPEECH, VOICE.

To show the nature of phonetic writing, this rapid sketch of the subject may be concluded with a rough attempt to write received English in the educated colloquial form used in London (not in Scotland).

Egzaa'mpl ùv Foanet'ik Spel'ing.

Aa'ü-faa'dhü, ei-m-shoo'ü, dhiit-dhat' new-braa'neh ùv-ou'ü Jau'jez fai'vrit wuod'bei'n, wich-iz groa'ing ni'ü-dhü poa'st not-faa' früm-dhü nawth wau'l'ü-dhü gaa'dn, must-bi-sai'f-tü-mezh'ür übout too'-fee't, au-mo'ür, in-lengthh tü-dai'y, ünales' sum mishap'-iz ükuring aur-it-üz-sud'ni lo'st-its eu'zhooü v'itül en'ji; für ei'-v ke'ürfuoli übzuv'd-its rai't üv in'krees ev'üri-wee'k dhis muan'th, ün-noa'ed-it dou'n ak'euretti on-eu'ü-sla'i't, ün-ei-noa'w it-üz-ekspi'üriunst noa've'üriai'shün, ba'ring wans, deu'üring-ü despüretti üno'ing in tüvül üv-kva'ld, po'üring rai'n.

In ordinary orthography,

Example of Phonetic Spelling.

Ah! father, I am sure, that that new branch of our George's favourite woodbine, which is growing near the post not far from the north wall of the garden, must be safe to measure about two feet, or more, in length to-day, unless some mishap is occurring or it has suddenly lost its usual vital energy; for I have carefully observed its rate of increase every week this month, and noted it down accurately on your slate, and I know it has experienced no variation, barring once, during a desperately annoying interval of cold, pouring rain.