infully. It is true the
Sclavic languages make use of many consonants, but their connection is
generally sonorous, sometimes pleasant to the ear, and scarcely ever
entirely discordant, even when the combinations are more striking than
agreeable. The quality of the sounds is rich, full, and varied. They
are not straitened and contracted as if produced in a narrow medium, but
extending through a considerable register, range through a variety of
intonations. The letter L, almost impossible for those to pronounce, who
have not acquired the pronunciation in their infancy, has nothing harsh
in its sound. The ear receives from it an impression similar to that
which is made upon the fingers by the touch of a thick woolen velvet,
rough, but at the same time, yielding. The union of jarring consonants
being rare, and the assonances easily multiplied, the same comparison
might be employed to the ensemble of the effect produced by these idioms
upon foreigners. Many words occur in Polish which imitate the sound
of the thing designated by them. The frequent repetition of CH, (h
aspirated,) of SZ, (CH in French,) of RZ, of CZ, so frightful to a
profane eye, have however nothing barbaric in their sounds, being
pronounced nearly like GEAI, and TCHE, and greatly facilitate imitations
of the sense by the sound. The word DZWIEK, (read DZWIINQUE,) meaning
sound, offers a characteristic example of this; it would be difficult to
find a word which would reproduce more accurately the sensation which a
diapason makes upon the ear. Among the consonants accumulated in groups,
producing very different sounds, sometimes metallic, sometimes buzzing,
hissing or rumbling, many diphthongs and vowels are mingled, which
sometimes become slightly nasal, the A and E being sounded as ON and IN,
(in French,) when they are accompanied by a cedilla. In juxtaposition
with the E, (TSE,) which is pronounced with great softness, sometimes C,
(TSIE,) the accented S is almost warbled. The Z has three sounds: the
Z, (JAIS,) the Z, (ZED,) and the Z, (ZIED). The Y forms a vowel of a
muffled tone, which, as the L, cannot be represented by any equivalent
sound in French, and which like it gives a variety of ineffable shades
to the language. These fine and light elements enable the Polish women
to assume a lingering and singing accent, which they usually transport
into other tongues. When the subjects are serious or melancholy, after
such recitatives or improvised lamentation