we have the following illustrations of "GRIMM's law," from a comparison of the Latin, English, and German.

1. The Latin c (=k) becomes h (for kh) in English and German. Latin calamus; English halm; German halm. Latin cannabis; English hemp; German hanf. Latin centum; English hundred; German hundert.

2. The Latin h (for kh) becomes g in English and German. Lat. hædus; Eng. goat; Germ. geiss. Lat. hostis; Eng. guest; Germ gast.

3. The Latin g becomes k or c in English and German. Lat. gena; Eng. chin; Germ. kinn. Lat. granum; Eng. corn and kernel; Germ. corn and kern.

4. The Latin t becomes th in English and d in German. Lat. tonitru; Eng. thunder; Germ. donner. Lat. tres; Eng. three Germ. drei.

5. The Latin or Greek th becomes d in English and t in German. Gr. thugater; Eng. daughter; Germ. tochter. Gr. ther; Eng. deer; Germ. thier.

6. The Latin d becomes t in English and z in German. Lat. decem; Eng. ten; Germ. zehn. Lat. dens; Eng. tooth; Germ. zahn.

7. The Latin p becomes f in English, and for v in German. Lat. pater; Eng. father; Germ. vater. Gr. pente; Eng. five; Germ. funf.

8. The Latin f becomes b in English and German. Lat. fagus; Eng. beech; Germ. buche. Lat. flos; Eng. bloom; Germ. blume. 9. The Latin b becomes p in English and ƒ in German. Lat. cannabis; Eng. hemp; Germ. hanf.

All these examples, excepting the very last one, have respect to the initial sound of the word, where these principles exert their power freely; but in the middle or end of a word, these principles are often affected by euphonic laws, arising from the accumulation of consonants.

Sometimes two of these changes are illustrated in the same word; as, 1. Lat. claudus; Eng. halt. See Nos. 1 and 6.-2. Lat. caput ; Anglo-Saxon heafod. See Nos. 1 and 7.-3. Lat. cannabis; Eng. hemp. See Nos. 1 and 9.-4. Lat. hædus; Eng. goat. See Nos. 2 and 6.-5. Eng. third; Germ. dritte. See Nos. 4 and 5.-6. Lat. istud; Eng. that; Germ. das. See Nos. 4 and 6.-7. Lat. trudo; Eng. thrust. See Nos. 4 and 6.-8. Gr. theggo; Eng. duck. See Nos. 5 and 3.-9. Eng. deep; Germ. tief. See Nos. 5 and 9. -10. Eng. tide; Germ. zeit. See Nos. 6 and 5.-11. Lat. pater; Eng. father. See Nos. 7 and 4.-12. Lat. piscis; Eng. fish. See

Nos. 7 and 1.-13. Lat. frango; Eng. break.-14. Lat. frater; Eng. brother. See Nos. 8 and 4.

VOWEL CHANGES.

§ 163. 1. There is a play of vowels in the collateral Teutonic roots, especially in those that are formed by onomatopeia; as, gloom, gleam; juggle, gaggle, and giggle; cluck, clack, click; croak, crack,

creak.

2. There is a play of vowels in Teutonic words formed by reduplication, one of the more simple and mechanical processes in the formation of language; as, chit-chat, ding-dong, zig-zag, whim-wham. This mode of forming words, consisting in a mechanical repetition of the same sound, is naturally adapted to express (1.) The continuous flow of conversation; as, chit-chat, tittle-tattle; (2.) Other constant and repeated sounds; as, ding-dong, tick-tack; (3.) Certain oscillatory motions; as, zig-zag, see-saw; (4.) Certain mental fluctuations; as, whim-wham, knick-knacks; (5.) Some miscellaneous things involving the idea of repetition; as, mish-mash, slip-slop.

3. There is a play of vowels or diphthongs in the formation of the past tense and of the past participle in the ancient and strong inflection of Teutonic verbs, which is seen, however, to much better advantage in the kindred dialects than in the English language; as, pres. break, past brake, part. broken; pres. sing, past sang, part. sung; pres. give, past gave, part. given; pres. slay, past slew, part. slain ; pres. drive, past drove, part. driven.

4. There is a play of vowels in the derivation of nouns from Teutonic verbs; as, band and bond from to bind; bat and bate from to beat; cake from to cook; dole from to deal; doom from to deem; share and shire from to shear.

5. There is an attenuation or precession of vowels in certain formof Teutonic words.

ative processes

a. In the formation of verbs from nouns; as, to bleed, from blood (compare Anglo-Saxon bledan, from blod); to breed, from brood (compare German brüten, from brut); to feed, from food (compare AngloSaxon fedan, from fod). b. In the formation of verbs from other verbs, and having a factitive or causative sense; as, to bait, from to bite (compare Anglo-Saxon batan, from bitan); to fell, from to fall; to lay, from to lie (compare Anglo-Saxon lecgan, from licgan); to set, from to sit. c. In the formation of adjectives from substantives; as, English, from Angle (compare Anglo-Saxon Englisc, from Angle). d. In the formation of abstract substantives from adjectives, by means of the suffix th; as, breadth, from broad; length, from long. e. In the formation of certain diminutives; as, bundle, from bond; gosling, from goose; kitten, from cat.

M

6. There is an attenuation or precession of vowels in certain inflectionary processes. a. In the formation of some plural nouns; as, goose, plur. geese (compare Anglo-Saxon gos, plur. ges); tooth, plur. teeth (compare Anglo-Saxon toth, plur. teth). b. In the comparison of adjectives; as, old, elder, eldest; Anglo-Saxon eald, yldre, yldest.

THE COMPARATIVE EUPHONY OF THE ENGLISH LAN

GUAGE.

§ 164. The English language, as compared with the Classical and the Romanic languages, is deficient in vowel sounds. This will appear evident, not only from hearing the spoken language, but also from the comparative number of vowel characters on the printed page. Complaints have been made that our language is harsh and coarse in its phonology, owing to this accumulation of consonantal elements, and the deficiency of vowel sounds, especially in the termination of words. Thus Lord Byron compliments the Italian in comparison with our own:

"I love the language, that soft bastard Latin,

Which melts like kisses from a female mouth,
And sounds as if it should be writ on satin
With syllables that breathe of the sweet South,
And gentle liquids gliding all so pat in

That not a single accent seems uncouth,

Like our harsh Northern, whistling, grunting guttural,
Which we are obliged to hiss, and spit, and sputter all.”
Beppo, stanza xliv.

In contrast to this, it has been said that "Servian song resembles the tone of the violin; Old Slavonian, that of the organ; Polish, that of the guitar. The Old Slavonian, in its Psalms, sounds like the loud rush of the mountain stream; the Polish, like the bubbling and sparkling of a fountain; and the Servian, like the quiet murmuring of a streamlet in a valley."

The ancient accent, consisting as it did of musical tones, must have contributed to the euphony of the Classical languages in comparison with the English accent, which consists of stress. In singing, the vowel sounds are made prominent; in speaking, the consonantal sounds. In singing, the sound rises and falls to other grades in the scale without a continuous slide of the voice, and is called the discrete sound. In speaking, the sound

ascends and descends in the scale, from one pitch to another, by a continuous slide, and is called concrete sound. The Classic nations seem, in their accent, to have united the two modes of pronouncing words.

PLAN FOR REMEDYING THE DEFECT.

§ 165. To remedy the alleged defect, PINKERTON, under the assumed name of ROBERT HERON, declares that our language wants 8000 vowel terminations in comparison with the Greek. Here is a specimen of the manner in which he would supply them: "When I waz ato Grand Cairo, I picked up several Orientala manuscripta, whica I have' still by me. Among othera, I met with one' intitulen Thea Viziona of Mirza, whica I have read ove' with great pleasure'. I intend to give' ito to the publico, when I have no other entertainmenta fo them, ando shall begin with the first, whica I have' translaten wordo fo wordo az followeth." The final s in all plurals is turned into a. E is to be given to all substantives in y, as beaute', bounte'; and to be pronounced in finals, as fame', grace'. I is to be given to all adjectives in y, as healthi, weari. O is given to all substantives ending in harsh consonants, as eggo, capo, facto.

For a more full account of this absurd and impracticable scheme, see Cambridge Philological Museum, page 649, vol. i.

While changes like these are impossible, and are to be deprecated if they were possible, still, changes are to be expected in the orthographical forms of the language of a nation, just as there are in the ideas which are expressed by that language. These changes should not be left to be settled by chance or by caprice, but by the judicious application of the principles of Orthography.

It ought, however, in justice to be added, that while the English is inferior to some languages in its euphony, it is superior to many. Indeed, many languages, in the accumulation of consonantal elements, and in their harsh guttural tones, resemble some of the languages in the north of Europe, characterized by Julian as being like the scream of birds and the cries of wild beasts.

CAUSES OF DIVERSITY IN EUPHONY.

§ 166. "Professor WILLIS, of Cambridge, in the course of some most ingenious experiments upon the organization and condition of the human larynx, came upon the law which regulated the pronunciation of the vowels. He found this to be partly in proportion to the size of the opening of the pipe, partly to the force with which air is propelled through it; and by the adaptation of a tremulous artificial larynx to the pipe of an organ, he produced the several vowels at will. Now, bearing in mind the difference between the living organ and the dead one, the susceptibility of the former to dilatation and compression, from the effects not only of the human will, but also of cold, of denser or thinner currents of air, but, above all, of the influence which the general state of the body must have upon every part of it, we are furnished at once with the necessary hypothesis, viz., that climate, and the local position, on which climate much depends, are the main agencies in producing the original variations of dialect. Once produced, tradition perpetuates them, with subsequent modifications proportionate to the change in the original condition, the migration to localities of a different character, the congregation into towns, the cutting down of forests, the cultivation of the soil, by which the prevalent degrees of cold, and the very direction of the currents of air, are in no small degree altered. It is clear that the same influence will apply to all such consonants as can be in any way affected by the greater or less tension of the organs, consequently, above all, to the gutturals; next, to the palatals, which may be defined by the position of the tongue; least of all to the labials, and generally to the liquids also, though these may be more or less strongly pronounced by different peoples.

"In reviewing the principal languages of the ancient and the modern world, where the migrations of those that spoke them can be traced with certainty, we are struck with the fact that the dwellers in chains of mountains, or in the elevated plains of hilly districts, strongly affect broad vowels and guttural consonants."-J. M. KEMBLE, vol. ii., Phil. Soc., p. 122.

"The mountaineer and the inhabitant of the sea-coast must often have had to struggle with the contending winds and waves to make themselves heard, and would naturally acquire a louder and more vehement tone than those whose happier lot it was to enjoy the calm of the still, sequestered vale.

"The organs of speech are differently framed by nature in different climates and countries; and even in the same countries, some