72
VOWELS.
just described. Like them, they fall into two classes,
the (ou) and the (au) type, according as the first element
is regarded as a rounded or an unrounded vowel. Just
as there is a broad (ai)-like form of (eifh), so the regular
(pm) varies as (oiu) and ([oiu), which last has very much
the effect of (au), so that (noiu) = ( no/ seems really to pass
into (nam)a. It is, however, difficult to distinguish be¬
tween (oi) with its rounding reduced to a minimum and
(ai) pronounced, as it often is in English, with half-closed
mouth.
The first element of the (au) type is often represented
by a mixed vowel, as in the E. how (hashoh).
It will be noticed that the glide-vowel of the (au) type
is simply the neutral vowel rounded, just as that of the E.
(oi)-diphthong is the unrounded (eh). The German au in
‘ haus/ has, according to Sievers, (o) for its glide — (haos)
or (haos)E In (oni) there is generally no change at all
in the tongue position, the lips being simply narrowed
as for (u). The second element is then the wide form of
the Scandinavian (o)c. There may, however, occasionally
be also a slight raising of the tongue as well.
Of diphthongs of the (iu) type, whose first element is a
front-vowel, there are no certain examples. The nearest
approach is the American diphthong in ‘ new/ which
Mr. Bell writes (my). These diphthongs, in which the
glide is simply the vowel rounded, of which the G. (ao) =
au is also an example, form, strictly speaking, a class by
themselves.
a
In the pronunciation of those who seem to make ‘ no into
4 now ’ the first element of ‘ ow ’ becomes distinctly (ae), so that the
two diphthongs are kept perfectly distinct.
* Perhaps rather (haos) ? c See § 43.
c