nto the Hollow of the _Mouth_: Now
the _Voice_ is forced to go that way, either when it flows to the
_Lips_ shut close, and rebounding from thence, is formed into [_m_;]
or when the _Tip of the Tongue_ is so applied to the roof of the
Mouth, and to the upper _Teeth_, the _Voice_ is made to rebound
through the _Nostrils_, and so [_n_] becomes formed; or lastly, when
together with the hinder part of the _Tongue_, the _Voice_ being
applied to the _Roof_, is so straitned that there is no Egress left
open for it, but through the _Nose_, and so [_n_] is formed; which is
a Sound, which hath no peculiar Character in any Language, as I know
of, yet it differs no less from the rest of the _Nasals_, (_k_) is
divers from (_t_) or (_p_,) if any one desires to try this by himself,
let him endeavour to pronounce; having his _Nose_ held close with his
Fingers, one of these three Letters, and he will not be able to do it.
Or else these _Semivowels_ are _Orall_, which are indeed such as are
pronounced thro' the _Mouth_, but not so freely as are the _Genuin
Vowels_, and they be two, (_l_) and (_r;_) (_l_) is formed when the
_Tongue_ is so applied to the _Roof_, and the upper _Teeth_, that the
_Voice_ cannot, but by a small Thred, as it were, get forth by the
Sides of the _Tongue_; for if you compress the _Cheeks_ to the
_Grinders_, you stop up the Passage of the _Voice_, and it will be
very difficult for you to pronounce this _Letter_, (_r_,) is a _Voice_
fluctuating with great swiftness, and is formed, when the more movable
part of the _Tongue_ does in the twinkling of an Eye, oftentimes
strike upon the _Roof of the Mouth_, and as often is drawn back again
from it; for thus the _Voice_ formed in the _Throat_, in its
pronouncing, flows and ebbs back again, and is uttered, as it were by
_Leaps_. Hence it is, that they, whose _Tongues_ be too heavy and
moist, and less voluble, will never pronounce this Letter, whether
they can Hear, or are Deaf.
Now there still remains the _Consonants_, or the Letters, which are
formed out of an unsounding or mute _Breath_; yet, out of which, some
of the _Semi-vowels_ may be made, as _g. ch. s. f. v._
As the _Voice_ is the common matter of the _Consonants_, the sharper
part of which is (_h_) which is the most simple of them all, and out
of which diversly figurated, the rest of them are framed: And they are
either the _Sibilants_, which are formed out of _Breath_, which is
somewhat compressed or strait
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