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PHONETIC ANALYSIS.

The method of phonetic analysis is very simple.

EXAMPLE.

"There is, right at the west side of Itaille."

Here the first phonetic element is that represented by th in thine (No. 24, p. 60), a sonant. Its proper signification is demonstrative. [Give examples.] The next phonetic element is that represented by a in at (No. 6, p. 59), a vowel sound, shortened from the sound of a in arm. It is somewhat unpleasant to the ear, suggesting the cries of infants and some animals. [Give examples.] The next phonetic element is that represented by r in run (No. 40, p. 61). It is a rough liquid sound, naturally symbolical of rattling noise and interrupted notions. [Give examples.]

The next phonetic element is that represented by i in wit (No. 2, p. 59), a vowel sound. Being, perhaps, the shortest and slightest in the language, its use is very extensive to express littleness and to form diminutives. [Give examples.] The next phonetic element is that represented by z in zeal (No. 32, p. 61), a sonant. This sound is largely onomatopoetic, or imitative. [Give examples.]

N. B.-Let the student complete this analysis, and take further exercises, until he becomes perfectly familiar with the sounds and their primary significance, so far as ascertained.

NOTE. The teacher will do well to direct the student's attention at this stage to the different theories of the origin of language, and particularly to the interjectional and the onomatopoetic. On this subject consult the lectures of Whitney, Max Müller, and G. P. Marsh, and the various treatises on Rhetoric. See Excursus in Prof. F. L. O. Roehrig's Shortest Road to German, pp. 217, 218, etc. Give examples of the power of sound to echo sense. Discriminate carefully between what is satisfactorily established, and what is merely fanciful. Assign themes to be investigated and written upon.

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(From an

original picture in the collection of the Right Honorable the Earl of Kinnoul.)

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