(1) The Letter
is an indivisible sound of a particular kind, one that may become a
factor in an intelligible sound. Indivisible sounds are uttered by the
brutes also, but no one of these is a Letter in our sense of the term.
These elementary sounds are either vowels, semivowels, or mutes. A
vowel is a Letter having an audible sound without the addition of
another Letter. A semivowel, one having an audible sound by the
addition of another Letter; e.g. S and R. A mute, one having no sound
at all by itself, but becoming audible by an addition, that of one of
the Letters which have a sound of some sort of their own; e.g. D and
G. The Letters differ in various ways: as produced by different
conformations or in different regions of the mouth; as aspirated, not
aspirated, or sometimes one and sometimes the other; as long, short,
or of variable quantity; and further as having an acute.g.ave, or
intermediate accent.
The details of these matters we mubt leave to the metricians. (2) A
Syllable is a nonsignificant composite sound, made up of a mute and a
Letter having a sound (a vowel or semivowel); for GR, without an A, is
just as much a Syllable as GRA, with an A.
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