arrived at results almost identically the same.[1] We are here still in the sphere of physical science, where facts are arranged by observation, and observation may be checked by facts so as to exclude individual impressions and national prejudice. The classification of vowels and consonants proposed by modern physiologists is, so far as general principles are concerned, exactly the same as the one contained in Sanskrit grammars composed in the fifth century before Christ, and appended to the different collections of the sacred writings of the Brahmans,—the four Vedas. These grammatical treatises, called "Prâtisâkhyas," exist in manuscript only, and have not hitherto been published. The classification established by physiologists, as the result of independent research, would receive the most striking confirmation by a translation of these writings, now more than two thousand years old. But, on their own account also, these phonetic treatises deserve to be published. Their observations are derived from a language (the Vaidik Sanskrit) which at that time was studied by means of oral tradition only, and where, in the absence of a written alphabet, the most minute differences of pronunciation had to be watched by the ear, and to be explained and described to the pupil. The language itself, the Sanskrit of that early period, had suffered less from the influence of phonetic corruption than any tongue from which we can derive our observations; nay, the science of phonetics (Sikshâ), essential to the young theological student (who was not allowed to learn the Veda from MSS.), had been reduced to a more perfect system in the schools of the Brahmans, in the fifth
- ↑ In a very able article by Professor Heise, in Hoefer's Zeitschrift für die Wissenschaft der Sprache, iv. 1. 1853, the following authorities are quoted:—
- Chladni, Über die Hervorbringung der Menschlichen Sprachlaute, in Gilbert's Annalen der Physik. vol. lxxvi. 1824.
- A. J. Ribbeck, Über die Bildung der Sprachlaute. Berlin, 1848.
- K. M. Rapp, Versuch einer Physiologie der Sprache. Stuttgardt, 1836.
- H. E. Bindseil, Abbandlungen zur Allgemeinen Vergleichenden Sprachlehre. Hamburg, 1838
- J. Müller, Elements of Physiology. London, 1842. vol. ii. p. 1044.
- W. Holder, Elements of Speech: an Essay of Inquiry into the natural Production of Letters. London, 1669.—This is one of the earliest and best works on the subject.
An excellent account of the researches of the most distinguished physiologists on the human voice, and the formation of letters, is found in Ellis, "The Alphabet of Nature."—A work full of accurate observations and original thought.
