5. With regard to the euphoniousness of the Egyptian vowels there is an interesting passage in Demetr. de Eloc. § 71: “In Egypt the priests, when singing hymns in praise of the gods, employ the seven vowels, which they utter in due succession; and the sound of these letters is so euphonious that men listen to it in preference to flute and lyre.”
9. σπαδονίζει: see Gloss., s.v.
10. For the effect of the a sound in Latin cp. Cic. Tusc. Disp. ii. 9. 22 “haec dextra Lernam taetram, mactata excetra, | placavit: haec bicorporem afflixit manum: | Erymanthiam haec vastificam abiecit beluam: | haec e Tartarea tenebrica abstractum plaga | tricipitem eduxit Hydra generatum canem” (a translation of Soph. Trach. 1094-99).
11. Cp. Le Bourg. Gent. ii. 4 “la voix A se forme en ouvrant fort la bouche”; and the rest of Molière’s comic phonetics furnish similar points of coincidence with this chapter of Dionysius.
12. “The position of the tongue has to be inferred from the presumed direction of the breath, on which many other writers besides Dionysius have laid stress; for A probably the tongue was depressed, so as to allow the breath to enter the mouth freely, and the sound was either a in ‘father,’ or, with a still more depressed tongue, the French a in ‘passer,’ which is a common Scotch pronunciation of the vowel a,” A. J. E.
13. “The description which Dionysius gives of the production of η and of ε is unfortunately not of such a kind that we can with any certainty infer the distinction of an open or closed sound,” Blass Pronunciation of Ancient Greek p. 36 (Purton’s translation).
14. The καί introduces a specification which is parallel to those which follow κάτω.
15. For the effect of the o sound (notwithstanding any differences in the two languages) cp. Cic. Cat. iv. init. “video, patres conscripti, in me omnium vestra ora atque oculos conversos. video, vos non solum de vestro ac reipublicae, verum etiam, si id depulsum sit, de meo periculo esse sollicitos.” And in Greek, the Homeric lines quoted on [154] 23, [156] 4 infra.—The question whether ω = ‘open’ or ‘closed’ o depends upon what position of the lips Dionysius’ description is taken to indicate.
17. ἧττον, ‘less,’ might mean inferior either in quality of tone or in the degree of opening of the mouth (A. J. E.).
τὸ ῡ: this vowel can, as in Aristoph. Plut. 895, be so pronounced as to convey the sensations of a sycophant in the presence of roasted meats:—