ie = i to ow, as _grind_, _ground_. ow to i = ei, as _mouse_, _mice_; _cow_, _kine_. ink to augh, as _drink_, _draught_. ing to ough, as _bring_, _brought_. y (formerly g), to ough, as _buy_, _bought_. igh = ei to ough, as _fight_, _fought_. eek to ough, as _seek_, _sought_. It must be noticed that the list above is far from being an exhaustive one. The expression too of the changes undergone has been rendered difficult on account of the imperfection of our orthography. The whole section has been written in illustration of the meaning of the word _permutation_, rather than for any specific object in grammar. * * * * * CHAPTER V. ON THE FORMATION OF SYLLABLES. § 135. In respect to the formation of syllables, I am aware of no more than one point that requires any especial consideration. In certain words, of more than one syllable, it is difficult to say to which syllable an intervening consonant belongs. For instance, does the v in _river_, and the e in _fever_, belong to the first or the second syllable? Are the words to be divided thus, _ri-ver_, _fe-ver_? or thus, _riv-er_, _feve-r_? The solution of the question lies by no means on the surface. In the first place, the case is capable of being viewed in two points of view--an etymological and a phonetic one. That the c and r in _become_, _berhymed_, &c., belong to the second syllable, we determine at once by taking the words to pieces; whereby we get the 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 _āp_. 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.