culation or jointings of the tongue and upper teeth or gums, and are termed dentals or tooth-letters.

The consonants e (hard), g (hard), k, q, represent the articulation of the lower part of the tongue and upper part of the palate, and are termed palatals or palate-letters.

The consonants s and z "represent" the position of the end of the tongue near the upper teeth, and when pronounced the breath issues or is driven out between the tongue and teeth, with a hissing sound, and they are hence called sibilants, or hissing letters.

The letter c before e, i, y, is equivalent to s.

с

The letter r is uttered with a vibration of the end of the tongue near the upper teeth. At the beginning of a word or syllable, two vibrations are always sufficient, and more are unnecessary, thus row is equivalent to rrow. At the end of a syllable, there is only one vibration as in far, farther. One is called the smooth or untrilled r, the other the vibratory or trilled r. The former may sometimes be trilled, when a word beginning with a vowel follows it e.g., "your enemies," where the r of your glides into the next word, and becomes, as it were, the first letter of the syllable.

In the dental hissing consonant s, too strong a use of the sibilant should be avoided, unless the passage is of so nervous a character as to require it, as in the following:

"See the snakes that they rear,

How they hiss in their hair,

And the sparkles that flash from their eyes."

x

It should be avoided also in such words as anxietyexample, Xavier, Xenophon, where the dental buzzing consonant z supplies its place; the a here being equivalent to gz, whilst in the word vex it is equivalent to ks. Sh has two sounds, one with the hissing sound, as in shall, show; the other with the buzzing sound as in measure, pleasure. Sometimes at sound is prefixed to that of sh, as in chair = tshair; charity

stsharity. A d sound is likewise prefixed to that of zh, as in soldier soldzher; suggest = sudzhest. Observe, however, that grandeur, and education are pronounced as they are spelt.

The p and b sounds are alike, except one is explosive, the other continuous. The same may be said of k and q, also of t and d.

The pure labial w, at the beginning of words and syllables, is generally reckoned among the consonants, and is attended with a certain explosive effort.

The sound of y, or the maxillar consonant frequently occurs where the letter itself does not, as in the sound of u in feudal, duty, Tuesday, ewe, news, pronounced f-yeu-dal, d-yew-ty, T-yews-day, yew, n-yews. The letter u, as in use, which has the y sound, is subject to very incorrect articulation, especially by some of the inhabitants of London

and the eastern counties. For instance, pronouncing feudal, &c., as given above, they say foodal, dooty, Toos-day, &c. The y sound is given by forcibly placing the sides of the tongue against the back gums of the upper jaw, as in ye, yell, youth. But in the following words the maxillar articulation must be dropt-lute, lewd, lucid, luminous.

The letter h is not, properly speaking, a consonant, but merely a breathing. It should not be given with too great a force, for this habit will only prove an impediment in the discourse, and sometimes, through over-exertion, will cause the following word, if it likewise begin with h, to be mispronounced.*

The sound of ng† is a simple, not a double, sound. It requires particular accuracy in its articulation. In Lancashire and some other parts of England, they make the articulation too close in words ending with ing, and pronounce thing as if it were spelt think. In the south, on the contrary, they frequently omit the sound of ng, and substitute n instead, and vice versa. Thus, they say singin for singing, diggins for diggings, mounting for mountain, or mountain for mounting. If a person happens to be afflicted with a very severe cold, this “consonant "

* Exercises on the aspirate, and, indeed, upon all the consonant and vowel sounds, are of extreme utility.-See Exercises in the Appendix.

"Ng," says Dr. Latham, "is no true consonant, but a vowel of a peculiar character, i. e., a nasal vowel formed by the passage of air through the nostrils instead of the lips."

sound cannot be pronounced at all: instead of singing, one would have to say siggig.

The sounds of th in thin, and of th in thine, differ to the ear, but to the eye seem the same. They also appear to be double or compound. This is not the case; they are simple single sounds, and not the sounds of t followed by h, as the spelling would lead us to imagine. The Anglo-Saxon alphabet has two distinct signs for these sounds.

Double consonants in English are rare, for in the words pitted, stabbing, massy, &c., there is no real reduplication of t, b, and s; and between pitted and pitied, there is only a difference in spelling, none in pronunciation. In the following compound words we have true specimens of doubled consonants, where the root ends, and the affix begins with the same letter.

n is doubled in unnatural, innate, oneness,

The practice of the following consonant combinations is an excellent means of acquiring a full and distinct enunciation of the more difficult letters. In pronouncing each word, let the first letter only of the combination be sounded; then, the first and second; then, the first, second, and third, and so on. Thus, Pro-b, Pro-b'd, Pro-b'd'st.

* Vide Latham, p. 152-5. .

DEFECTS AND IMPEDIMENTS.

DEFECTS IN ARTICULATION.-One of the most. common defects in articulation is too slightly sounding the unaccented vowels. There is often an obscure sound given to the letter u, which confounds it with vowels of a very different kind. Thus-singular, regular, and particular are often pronounced as if written sing-e-lar, reg-e-lar, and par-tick-e-lar. The first e in event, the first o in opinion, opposed, and the i in sensible, terrible, &c., are apt to go into an obscure sound.

Another great defect in articulation is sinking the sound of the final consonants. Thus the little word and is frequently pronounced like an: e. g. men an money, instead of men and money. Interests is often pronounced as if written interess, mists as if miss, worldly as if wordly, and so on.

Hesitation, again, or stammering, so common amongst young persons, may sometimes arise from