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A Chinese musical instrument, consisting of resonant stones or metal plates, arranged according to their tones in a frame of wood, and struck with a hammer.

L is the twelfth letter of the English alphabet, and a vocal consonant. It is usually called a semivowel or liquid. Its form and value are from the Greek, through the Latin, the form of the Greek letter being from the Phoenician, and the ultimate origin prob. Egyptian. Etymologically, it is most closely related to r an…

Articulated, as a consonant, mainly by the lips, as b, p, m, w.

The regular changes which the primitive Indo-European stops, or mute consonants, underwent in the Teutonic languages, probably as early as the 3d century b. c. , often called the first Lautverschiebung, sound shifting, or consonant shifting. (b) A somewhat similar set of changes taking place in the High German dialects…

ologist Jacob Grimm) of certain regular changes which the primitive Indo-European mute consonants, so-called (most plainly seen in Sanskrit and, with some changes, in Greek and Latin), have undergone in the Teutonic languages. Examples: Skr. bhatr, L. frater, E. brother, G. bruder; L. tres, E. three, G. drei, Skr. go,…

Applied to certain mute consonants, as p, k, and t. (or Gr. p, k, t.). W. E. Jelf.

A consonant sound formed by the aid of the tongue; -- a term especially applied to certain articulations (as those of t, d, th, and n) and to the letters denoting them.

M, the thirteenth letter of the English alphabet, is a vocal consonant, and from the manner of its formation, is called the labio- nasal consonant. See Guide to Pronunciation, §§ 178-180, 242.

One of the sonant mutes b, d, g (b, d, g), in Greek, or of their equivalents in other languages, so named as intermediate between the tenues, p, t, k (p, t, k), and the aspiratæ (aspirates) f, th, x (ph or f, th, ch). Also called middle mute, or medial, and sometimes soft mute.

Applied to certain consonants having a "liquid" or softened sound; e.g., in French, l or ll and gn (like the lli in million and ni in minion); in Italian, gl and gn; in Spanish, ll and ñ; in Portuguese, lh and nh.

oral passage, the voice thus issuing (wholly or partially) through the nose, as in the consonants m, n, ng (see Guide to Pronunciation, §§ 20, 208); characterized by resonance in the nasal passage; as, a nasal vowel; a nasal utterance. Nasal bones (Anat.), two bones of the skull, in front of the frontals. -- Nasal ind…

Conformed to the order, laws, or actual facts, of nature; consonant to the methods of nature; according to the stated course of things, or in accordance with the laws which govern events, feelings, etc.; not exceptional or violent; legitimate; normal; regular; as, the natural consequence of crime; a natural death. What…

A nonvocal consonant.

Hard; harsh; rugged; rough; intractable. "Obdurate consonants." Swift.

Uttered, as a consonant, with the oral passage simply narrowed without closure, as in uttering s.

To fill too full; to crowd. Our language is overcharged with consonants. Addison.

the sixteenth letter of the English alphabet, is a nonvocal consonant whose form and value come from the Latin, into which language the letter was brought, through the ancient Greek, from the Phonician, its probable origin being Egyptian. Etymologically P is most closely related to b, f, and v; as hobble, hopple; fathe…

an be made to produce a visible trace or record of itself. It consists essentially of a resonant vessel, usually of paraboloidal form, closed at one end by a flexible membrane. A stylus attached to some point of the membrane records the movements of the latter, as it vibrates, upon a moving cylinder or plate.…

by, voice; vocalized; -- said of all the vowels and the semivowels, also of the vocal or sonant consonants g, d, b, l, r, v, z, etc.

Of a single, simple sound or tone; -- said of some vowels and the unaspirated consonants. Pure-impure, completely or totally impure. "The inhabitants were pure-impure pagans." Fuller. -- Pure blue. (Chem.) See Methylene blue, under Methylene. -- Pure chemistry. See under Chemistry. -- Pure mathematics, that portion…