For they are either pronounced successively, and may be produced at pleasure, as g. ch. s. f. v.

Or are suddainly shot forth; which upon that score I call them explosive, as k. c. q. t. d. b. p.

Or else being Compounded out of two foregoing ones, their number is diverse in divers Nations; the Germans have two; viz. x. and z.

To this Division, in which I have had respect chiefly to the nature, and manner of pronouncing the Letters, may not impertinently be added, that those Letters are formed mostly in three Regions of the Mouth, viz. in the bottom, or Throat; in the middle, or in the Palate and Teeth; and lastly, in the utmost part thereof, or in the Lips:  Hence it is, from every one of their Classes almost, are three sorts; one Guttural, another Dental, and a third Labial; but of these, more hereafter.

I will here prevent the Readers who may object to me in the following Chapter, that this my Doctrin will be always lame, because all Deaf Persons, whom we would teach by the Tongue, Lips, _&c._ will never by their Sight attain unto these motions:  But, besides that the Sight doth not give place to the Hearing, as to a quick sensibility, I affirm, that there is no need thereof, if once they have made but any Progress; for even we our selves do very often not hear in Pronunciation those Letters which I call Consonants, but we collect them from the Vowels and Semi-vowels, commixed together with them:  No Man, for Example, shall so pronounce b. g. or d. as that he may be heard at a hundred Paces distant.  And this seems to me to be the principal reason why we can most rarely pronounce or repeat at the first blush, any word spoken in a foreign Language.

But before I shall unfold the nature, and manner of forming the Letters in special, I judged that it was not here to be omitted, how that as all the Letters, yea also, and the Vowels them-selves, cannot by any means be pronounced, as they are a Simple Breath, and not sonorous; for when we, for Example, do whisper somewhat to one in his Ear, so the Consonants also, excepting those which I call Explosive, may be pronounced vocally, or with the Voice conjoyned; and there are Nations which pronounce thus, as the French do their z. and their v.

I shall now treat of the Letters especially, and will examine them so, as both the absolute Simplicity of the German Letters may be manifested; and other Nations, from their Mode of Formation, may learn, how they ought to pronounce them; upon this account also, I shall add how improperly some Nations do render the same Letters in their own Language.  Now in this Explication I shall observe the same order as I did in the Division of them, where readily it will appear, that Voice and Breath are according to a triple Region of the Mouth, triply figured or formed spontaneously.