Many more Particulars concerning the _Voice_ might yet further be inquired into, such as, how it is, that every one may be known by his _Voice_? How that _Sound_, which in Singing is called _Quavering_, or _Trilling_, by a peculiarity, is excited, &c, But seeing that these things do not properly respect the nature of the _Voice_, I, for Brevities sake, do omit them.
_Expounding the Nature of the_ Letters, _and the manner how they are formed_.
Hitherto we have treated concerning the _Voice_ and _Breath_, and of the manner of the formation of both of them, in general; now let us see how the said _Voice_ and _Breath_ are, as a fit Matter for them, framed into such or such _Letters_; for the _Voice_ and _Breath_ are alone the material part of _Letters_, but the form of them is to be sought out from the various Configurations of those hollow Channels, thorough which they pass; _Letters_ therefore, not as they be certain Characters, but as they are Pronounced or Spoken, are the _Voice_ and _Breath_, diversly Figured by the Instruments ordained for the Speech.
But here we must be pre-admonished concerning the _Letters_; that there is a great Latitude almost amongst them all, and that one and the same Character is not pronounced by one and the same Configuration of the Mouth, yea, in one and the same Language; thus [_a_] and [_e_] sometimes are sounded open, and sometimes close; also [_o_] hath its own Latitude, so as many other Letters also may have; yea, as many as are the divers Modes, by which the _Voice_ and _Breath_ can be Figured, by the Organs of Speech; but the most easie, only, and the most Conspicuous are received by all Nations, whose number never almost exceedeth Twenty four, and have certain Characters annexed to them: But seeing that these Characters are not every where pronounced alike, yea, one and the same Letter sometimes is variously sounded by one and the same People, therefore I have made choice of the _German Letters_, which are of my Mother-Tongue, and the most _Simple_ of all Letters, to be examined in this place: in as much as they are for the most part sounded every where alike, their _Vowels_ are very _Simple_, and agreeable to the nature of the thing, the _Diphthongs_ compounded of them, do retain the Nature of their compounding _Vowels_, because they are always heard pronounced in them, otherwise, than as it is in most other Languages, which they stile living ones; for sometimes they make their _Diphthongs_ out of the most _Simple Vowels_, as are [_au_] [_ou_] [_ai_] amongst the _French_, and [_oe_] and [_eu_] amongst the _Dutch_, or else they have such improper _Diphthongs_, that scarce either of their compounding _Vowels_ can be heard, such are [_oi_] of the _French_, and [_uy_] of the _Dutch_, not to mention more Examples, or else they are variously sounded according to their various Placings, so as if I were to teach some Deaf _French-man_, I would from the beginning teach him, not the _French_, but the _German Letters_, or else he would be plainly confounded. Nor is the state of the _Consonants_ in better case for the Pronunciation of some of them, is so very different, that there are scarce two Nations, which pronounce the Character [_g_] after the same manner.