150 Table of words formed by a single vowel sound.

concerned. The tongue is a very little drawn back in the mouth, and the surface of its root is a little depressed,so as to prevent its touching the soft palate, (the hanging fleshy curtain, at the back of the palate ;)—the larynx is also a little depressed, and a guttural flat sound is produced in it, and emitted through the above mechanism.

Make the Deaf child observe the slight retraction of the tongue, the space between the upper surface of its root and the soft palate, and the slight descent of the larynx,—the guttural sound produced in it, -and its emission through the mouth.

As this vowel sound never occurs singly, in English, no word or ideal meaning can be connected with it.

We have now gone through the seven simple vowel mechanisms, in the order in which they will probably be most easily observed, known, and imitated by the pupil. We may, therefore, now replace them in their natural and correct order, and affix to each the words or ideas, for which they happen to stand in English, when existing singly in our pronunciation, though not always singly in our way of writing these words.

The order of the exercises in Table II. on page 79, will be found to answer very well for practising the Deaf and Dumb, in the sounds of the pure vowels, and of preparing them for uniting them into diphthongs. We must, however remember, that they should be taught the meaning of each vowel sound, that hap pens to be a real word, as above explained.

On the short, and also the irregular simple vowel sounds. 151

. Having thus made him pronounce each of the pure vowel sounds, as they occur long, we may easily lead him to pronounce each of them short. It is very easy, to make him understand, what we wish him to do, as to slowness or quickness of pronunciation, strength or weakness of voice, by a little ingenuity. If we extend our right arm and its fore-finger and draw it slow across through the air, from left to right, he will easily see, that we mean a slow, long continued emission of vocal sound;-if we move our finger quickly, through the same space, he will understand a quick short emission of vocal sound. If we press his finger gently, between our finger and thumb, he will understand a gentle production of voice;-if we press it strongly, he will understand a strong voice. We may also make a quick strong pressure, or a quick gentle pressure;-a long continued strong pressure, or a long continued gentle pressure. In this way he will soon come to understand the difference of vowels, as to length or shortness, and also as to being accented, or unaccented.

These preparatory steps are necessary, to facilitate his learning the diphthongs and triphthongs, in whose composition shortened vowel sounds form an essential ingredient. But first we must explain two or three other vowel sounds.

If the reader will turn to the Tables on page 77, and their illustrations on pages 76,77, he will find, that there are three vowel sounds marked, in addition to the above explained seven, viz:-those marked 2, 3, and 74. As to 7, or the sound of—eu,—in the French word-f,eu,-(fire,) it may be entirely omitted, in the instruction of the Deaf and Dumb in this country, as no such sound exists in English. But it will be well here, before teaching the diphthongs, to make him understand the other two vowel sounds, viz:-24,or the sound of―ea,-in-bread,-or-e-in-bred,—and 31⁄2, or the sound of-a,-in the sound given to the latter a -in-papa, by its pronunciation in England. The mechanism of the short vowel sound 24,or-ea-in-bread,

152

On diphthongs and triphthongs.

-is very little different from the mechanism of 2, or long -ai, in-air,-b,ay,-except that the tongue is a little nearer the palate in the former, than in the latter, and the vocal sound in the larynx is a little more bass and guttural. The mechanism of the vowel sound 34,or—a,—in -papa,-is very little different from that of-ua,-inb,aa,--except that the tongue is a little nearer to the palate in the latter, than in the former sound, which is, in fact, in some measure intermediate between-aa,—and -awe. But in practice, it will be found, that as the vowel sound 2, or-ea, never occurs long or accented in English, the Deaf and Dumb will pronounce it very correctly, if taught to consider it, as the shortened, sound of 2,viz: of-ai, and that the nice distinction,between the Italian sound of-a,which the English give to the final-a,-in-papa,-and the sound which they, as well as the Irish speakers of English, give to-aa,—in -b,aa,―need not be much dwelt on, with the Deaf and Dumb.

In Table VIII. on page 99, we have already seen a diagram of all the diphthongs, that can be formed with the seven pure vowel sounds; but the only diphthongs or triphthongs, that it is necessary to teach to the Deaf and Dumb, are those contained in Table IX. on page 100, as they are the only ones, that occur in English. They are as follow

DIVISION 1, DIPHTHONGS.

DIVISION 2, TRIPHTHONGS.

--------|---; |00,0

o,ou,ee; oo,awe,ee;

-----;-,-,-; | -,-,-; \ee, ou,ee;

00, ee;

00, ai ;

00, aa;

oo, ou;

00, awe;

00, owe;

Diphthongal words and those formed by the consonants-y, and-w. 153

Of all these, the only ones that occur as words,are—1st -ui, ee ;-in the word-aye, (ever) which we must explain to the Deaf and Dumb child, to mean unending time, forward, or in future, by pointing forward with our right fore-finger, and then pushing out our arm forward to its full length, and then drawing our left fore finger up along our right arm from its fore-finger to its shoulder, to signify long,-such being the signs they use for this idea-we must then point in the same way backward, and look backward, and use the same pantomime, to indicate everlasting duration past.2nd. The diphthong-aa,ee;-as it occurs in the worday, (yes,) which is easily explained to mean an assent, by the nod of the head forward. 3rd. The diphthong-ou, ee; occurs in the pronoun-I, (myself,) and is easily explained, by pointing to our own breast with our right fore-finger, and making him do the same, with his own fore-finger to his breast. 4th. The same diphthong also occurs as the substantive-Eye, and is easily explained, by pointing to and touching our-eye. The combinations of vowels into diphthongs, therefore, that happen to be real words, are as follow:--No other diphthong happens to be a word, in English.

ai, ee; in-aye; aa, ee; in-ay: | ou, ee; in—I, and in-Eye.

The diphthongs, therefore, that should at first most carefully be taught, are those which oftenest occur, and also those which constitute real words,as just now explained, of which latter, however, the combination-ai, ee;-is not of much moment, as it occurs only once in English,viz: in the word-aye, (ever) and even that word is more usually pronounced like-ai alone. We should also dwell much on the diphthong-ou, 00;-as it occurs in the words-now,-plough, &c. and on the diphthong-awe, ee;-as it occurs in the words-boy, -noise, &c.

There is one remark, which applies to all the diphthongs that begin with-ce, which are as follows; —ee, ai;—ee, aa;—ee, ou;—ee, awe ;—ee, owe;—ee, oo; -or that begin with—oo,—viz ::-00, ee;-00, ai ;-00,

154 What order should be followed, in teaching the consonants?

aa;-oo, ou;—oo, awe;—oo, owe; which is this, that we are not, in pronouncing them, to confound the former with the syllables, or words, that begin with y, consonant, as-y,ee; (ye)-y,ai; (yea)-y,aa;-you;-y, awe; (yaw)—y,owe;—y,00; (yew, you, ewe,)—nor the latter, with those that begin with w, consonant, as-w,ee; (we, wee,)-w,ai; (way, wey, weigh,)-wua ;-w,ou; — w, awe-w,owe; (wo)-w,oo; (woo.)-We must, in the above diphthongs, pronounce the initial-ce, distinctly-as a vowel sound, made by the voice, and not as a mere aspirated jerk of the breath, which constitutes-y, consonant; and we must pronounce the initial-oo, distinctly, as a vowel sound, made by the voice, and not as a mere aspirated jerk of the breath, which constitutes the consonant—w.— None of the numerous diphthongs, beginning with— ee, or with—oo, happen to constitute words, whereas, many of the syllables-formed with initial-y, consonant, or initial-w, consonant, as appears by the above list, do constitute real words.-They are not, however, to be taught here, as we shall recur to them at a future

time.

No triphthong in English, constitutes a real wordThe Tables VIII and IX. therefore in pages 99 and 100, and the Table given above (p. 152,) will enable the Teacher to exercise his pupil sufficiently, in all the double or triple vowel sounds, that do not form, when alone, real words.

Having thus taught him the simple, and double, and triple vowel sounds, we now come to the consonants, and we of course commence with those, that are most easily learned, as being most obvious, and proceed gradually to those, which are more difficult. For this reason, we begin with the letters, which are formed by the lips, and then proceed to those formed with the lips and teeth, next to those formed with the tongue and teeth, and so on, until we end with those, formed by the root of the tongue, and the soft palate. But before directing his attention to each letter, or set of letters, formed by each of these organs, we should