e words _come_ and _rhymed_ in an isolated independent form. But this
fact, although it settles the point in etymology, leaves it as it was in
phonetics; since it in nowise follows, that, because the c in the _simple_
word _come_ is exclusively attached to the letter that succeeds, it is, in
the _compound_ word _become_, exclusively attached to it also.

To the following point of structure in the consonantal sounds the reader's
attention is particularly directed.

1. Let the vowel a (as in _fate_) be sounded.--2. Let it be followed by the
consonant p, so as to form the syllable _[=a]p_. To form the sound of p, it
will be found that the lips close on the sound of a, and arrest it. Now, if
the lips be left to themselves they will not _remain_ closed on the sound,
but will open again; in a slight degree indeed, but in a degree sufficient
to cause a kind of vibration, or, at any rate, to allow an escape of the
remainder of the current of breath by which the sound was originally
formed. To re-open in a slight degree is the natural tendency of the lips
in the case exhibited above.

Now, by an effort, let this tendency to re-open be counteracted. Let the
remaining current of breath be cut short. We have, then, only this, viz.,
so much of the syllable _[=a]p_ as can be formed by the _closure_ of the
lips. All that portion of it that is caused by their re-opening is
deficient. The resulting sound seems truncated, cut short, or incomplete.
It is the sound of p, _minus_ the remnant of breath. All of the sound p
that is now left is formed, not by the _escape_ of the breath, but by the
_arrest_ of it.

The p in [=a]p is a _final_ sound. With initial sounds the case is
different. Let the lips be _closed_, and let an attempt be made to form the
syllable pa by suddenly opening them. The sound appears incomplete; but its
incompleteness is at the _beginning_ of the sound, and not at the end of
it. In the natural course of things there would have been a current of
breath _preceding_, and this current would have given a vibration, now
wanting. All the sound that is formed here is formed, not by the _arrest_
of breath, but by the _escape_ of it.

I feel that this account of the mechanism of the apparently simple sound p,
labours under all the difficulties that attend the _description_ of a
sound; and for this reason I again request the reader to satisfy himself
either of its truth or of its inaccuracy, before he proceeds to the
conclusi