| Group III. | ||||
| | Soft. | H aup t (German) | ||
| High-German. | G. B. D. | H aup tD rei (German„). | ||
| 2nd Position.—Group I. | Aspirate. | Θ υγάτηρ (Greek). | ||
| „II. | Soft. | D auhtar (Gothic). D ochter (Scotch). | ||
| „III. | Hard. | T ochter (German). | ||
| 3rd Position.—Group I. | Soft. | Fa g us (Latin). Fa g usD uo (Latin„). | ||
| „II. | Hard. | Bo c (Anglo-Saxon). | ||
| Beech (English). | ||||
| Bo k a (Gothic). | ||||
| Bo k aT wai (Gothic„). | ||||
| T wo (English). | ||||
| „III. | Aspirate. | Bu ch (German). | ||
| Bu chZ wei (German„). |
We should not expect too much of this law, for it applies merely to a few consonants, and even here there are many exceptions. High-German has been, for instance, immensely influence by Low-German, and has accordingly often changed its original hard lip mute p for b. The Celt regularly reverses the process. This latter must itself have been very imperfectly individualised before the great break-up of the common stock. The law, indeed, is very imperfect as regards German, not only in the lip, but also in the guttural series. In the middle or dental potion, however, the groups are clearly distinguished. Each tongue has, in these respects, as in others, developed on its own lines, and produced idiosyncrasies due to the most powerful agent in linguistic variation—dialectic growth. Of far more value are the laws regulating the internal development of each language, and all that gives it character and individuality. The consonants are but the hard unyielding bones of a word; the vowels, on the other hand, body forth those subtler influences of tone, accent, and quantity that form the cover of flesh, complexion, and feature, differentiating the individual, the tribe, and the nation. True progress in philology lies in a mastery of phonetics as applied to the vowel-system of a language, and especially of its dialects.
