, while _e_ has the same sound in words like _there, their,_ and
_where_; (New Englan{d} g people give _a_ the short sound in such words
as _care,_ etc., and pronounce _there_ and _where_ with the short sound
of _a,_ while _their_ is pronounced with the short sound of _e_:
this is not the best usage, however);
in _pass, class, command, laugh,_ etc., we have a sound of a between
Italian _a_ and short _a_ (indicated by a single dot over the _a_),
though most Americans pronounce it as short, and most English give the
Italian sound: the correct pronunciation is between these two.
The Sounds of the Consonants. We have already seen that there are two
classes of consonant sounds, those which have a voice sound, as _b,_
called _sonant,_ and those which are mere breath sounds, like _p,_
called _surds_ or aspirates. The chief difference between _b_ and _p_
is that one has the voice sound and the other has not. Most of the
other consonants also stand in pairs. We may say that the sonant
consonant and its corresponding surd are the hard and soft forms of
the same sound. The following table contains also simple consonant
sounds represented by two letters:
_Sonant Surd_
b p
d t
v f
g (hard) k
j ch
z s
th (in _thine_) th (in _thin_)
zh (or z as in _azure_) sh
w
y
l
m
n
r h
If we go down this list from the top to the bottom, we see that _b_ is the
most closed sound, while _h_ is the most slight and open, and the others
are graded in between (though not precisely as arranged above).
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