s. 230. In all the words above the change of sound has been brought about by the grammatical inflection of the word wherein it occurs. This is the case with the words _life_ and _live_, and with all the rest. With the German word _leben_, compared with the corresponding word _live_, in English, the change is similar. It is brought about, however, not by a grammatical inflection, but by a difference of time, and by a difference of place. This indicates the distinction between the permutation of letters and the transition of letters. In dealing with permutations, we compare different parts of speech; in dealing with transitions, we compare different languages, or different stages of a single language. * * * * * {161} CHAPTER V. ON THE FORMATION OF SYLLABLES. s. 231. 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 _v_ 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_, _fev-er_? 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 follows it, 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 {162} 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.