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Show 8 INTRODUCTION TO THE STUDY OF INDIAN LANGUAGES. the expelled air in the nose. But if the same nasal ringing is made while the mouth- organs are in a position which produces a vowel ( part of the breath being driven through the mouth, as in ordinary vowel utterance, but a part also into or through the nose), the result is a vowel with a nasal twang or tone added to it or a " nasal vowel." The French, for example, has four nasal vowels, as in en, vin, on, un. Whenever such are found in an Indian language, they may be written with the proper sign for just that vowel- sound which is given, and with the addition of a " superior" n to indicate the nasality. Thus, the four French sounds would be represented thus: * » *• *> & en, vin, on, un. SPIRANTS. But there are other pairs of surd and sonant rounds ( without nasal correspondents). Thus, for example, the / of fife and the v of valve stand related in this way, t h e / being made by an expulsion of pure breath, and the v of intoned or sonant breath, through the same position of the mouth- organs. In English, this position is a pressing of the upper teeth upon the lower lip; but some languages leave out the teeth altogether, and produce very nearly the same sounds between the edges of the two lips alone. In any language it would be well to look sharply to see whether its / o r v, or both, are of the one kind or the other. The tt- sound in our words thin and truth, and that in then and with, are related in the same way, one being surd and the other sonant Although they are simple sounds in English, they are represented by a u digraph," but this method cannot be used in Indian languages, for the component parts of the " digraph" are needed for their own proper purposes, as these sounds frequently come together in the same order, and in English the same " digraph " is used for both sounds, which will not do. It is proposed to use for the surd ( the th as in thin) the f, and for the sonant ( the th in then) the character j . The sounds last described may be called " spirants." The/ and v are labial, and the g and ^ are lingual, although each pair brings in an addi- |
