If the voice thus produced comes out through the mouth held well open, a class of sounds is formed which we call vowel sounds.
But if the voice is held back or obstructed by the palate, tongue, teeth, or lips, one kind of the sounds called consonant sounds is made. If the breath is driven out without voice, and is held back by these same parts of the mouth, the other kind of consonant sounds is formed.
The written word is made up of characters, or letters, which represent to the eye these sounds that address the ear.
You are now prepared to understand us when we say that +vowels+ are the +letters+ that stand for the +open sounds+ of the +voice+, and that +consonants+ are the +letters+ that stand for the sounds made by the +obstructed voice+ and the +obstructed breath+.
The alphabet of a language is a complete list of its letters. A perfect alphabet would have one letter for each sound, and only one.
Our alphabet is imperfect in at least these three ways:—
1. Some of the letters are superfluous; c stands for the sound of s or of k, as in city and can; q has the sound of k, as in quit; and x that of ks, gz, or z, as in expel, exist, and Xenophon.
2. Combinations of letters sometimes represent single sounds; as, th in thine, th in thin, ng in sing, and sh in shut.
3. Some letters stand each for many sounds. Twenty-three letters represent over forty sounds. Every vowel does more than single duty; e stands for two sounds, as in mete and met; i for two, as in pine and pin; o for three, as in note, not, and move; u for four, as in tube, tub, full, and fur; a for six, as in fate, fat, far, fall, fast, and fare.
W is a vowel when it unites with a preceding vowel to represent a vowel sound, and y is a vowel when it has the sound of i, as in now, by, boy, newly. W and y are consonants at the beginning of a word or syllable.