Lectures on the science of language: First and second series . the final letters. These idiosyncrasies, however, are quite inadequateto explain \vhy the Latin coquo should, in Greek,appear as peptj. Latin is not deficient in labial, norGreelc in guttural sounds. Nor could we honestlysay that the gutturals in Latin were graduallyground down to labials in Greek. Such forms aredialectic varieties, and it is, I believe, of the greatestimportance, for the purposes of accurate reasoning,that these dialectic varieties should be kept distinct,as much as possible, from phonetic corruptions. Isay, as mu
Lectures on the science of language: First and second series . the final letters. These idiosyncrasies, however, are quite inadequateto explain \vhy the Latin coquo should, in Greek,appear as peptj. Latin is not deficient in labial, norGreelc in guttural sounds. Nor could we honestlysay that the gutturals in Latin were graduallyground down to labials in Greek. Such forms aredialectic varieties, and it is, I believe, of the greatestimportance, for the purposes of accurate reasoning,that these dialectic varieties should be kept distinct,as much as possible, from phonetic corruptions. Isay, as much as possible, for in some cases I know itis difficult to draw a line between the two. Physio-logically speaking, I should say that the phoneticcorruptions are always the result of musculareffeminacy, . though itmay happen, as in thecase of thunder, that lazy people take themost pains: All casesof phonetic corruptioncan be clearly repre-sented by anatomicaldiagrams. Thus the Lat-in clam,are requires com-plete contact betweenroot of tonsfue and soft Fig. 28. palate, which contact • This diagram was drawn by Professor Eichard Owen. 200 PHONETIC PECULIARITIES. merged by sudden transition into the dental positionof the tongue with a vibration of its lateral Italian this lateral vibration of the tongue isdropped, or rather is replaced by the slightest pos-sible approach of the tongue towards the palate,which follows almost involuntarily on the openingof the guttural contact, producing chiamare, insteadof clamare. The Spaniard slurs over the initialguttural contact altogether ; he thinks he has pro-nounced it, though his tongue has never risen, andhe glides at once into the I vibration, the openingof which is followed by the satne sticky soundwhich we observed in Italian. What applies tothe Romance applies equally to the Teutonic lan-guages. The old Saxons said cniht, cnif, and , the guttural contact is slnrred over, and weonly hear knight, knife, knee. The old S
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