Vowels And Consonants

A. Mellville Bell of Washington, in hls note on "Syllabic Consonants, " read at the second session of the American Oriental society in this city, said: "What is is a Vowel? Wbat íb a conj sonant? What is a syllable? "A vowel is defiued as a nonfrictional eruission of the voice or of unvooalized breath through an oral channel, with momentarily flxed confignration. Vowels therefore run smoothly into one another by rnerely altering the shape of the oral passage without interrupting it. "A consonant is defined as an interception of tha breath or voice by oral stoppago, or by emiesion through side chaunels or through narrow chinks. The chauge froru one consonant to another thus involves a niotion of the articulating organs, prodncing, with more or less audibility, a puff, aflapor a sibiliation. "The two classes of eioments meetin ee, y, oo, w. A syllable is auy vocal olement uttered with a siugle impulse of voioe. All the vocal eloments in a syllable must be elustered together %vithoat admixture with uonvocals, but auy iiumber of nonvocals may precede or follow tbe vocal cluster without affecting the syllabic unity. "The consonants 1, m, n, when thcy are final after consonants, frequently form syllablea without vowols, as in bottle. "The test of good pronanciation is to give each syllable its owu distinct sound, so that in tho most rapid utterance the ear can trace the boundaries of every syllable. But the syllablo sounds must bo true to customary prouunciation. "The name consonant, if held to imply an element that cannot b e prononnced without a sonant or vowel, would bo a misnomor, and its use should in tliat case bo liscoiitimiod iu scieatifio mcnology. Vowels are the soft and plastic substunee of speech. Consonants aro the articnlations or joints ou whioh vowels and syllables turn Their proper name is, fcherefore, 'articulations, ' not cousonants. "Phonetic eleruents make syllables. Syllables mako words. Words are to be considered as the syllablos of clauses. Clauses must be carefully individualized, for they are tho syllables of sentences. Divide yonr senteuces into their lofjical nnits or clauses, and indícate within the clause-s all their phonetic nnits or syllables, aud yon will fulíill the grand fundamental precepts of delivery. " -