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Aspirate   Listen
noun
Aspirate  n.  
1.
A sound consisting of, or characterized by, a breath like the sound of h; the breathing h or a character representing such a sound; an aspirated sound.
2.
A mark of aspiration used in Greek; the asper, or rough breathing.
3.
An elementary sound produced by the breath alone; a surd, or nonvocal consonant; as, f, th in thin, etc.






Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48








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"Aspirate" Quotes from Famous Books



... has been described by foreigners as the most unfit for singing. Greater calumny has never been uttered. I contend for just the opposite: That English is the very best language for an artistic singer to use, for it contains the greatest variety of vocal and aspirate elements, which afford an artistic singer the strongest, most natural and expressive means of dramatic reality. The English language has all the pure vowels and vocal consonants of the Italian; and, besides, ...
— The Voice - Its Production, Care and Preservation • Frank E. Miller

... materially changed within the past few years. The first step to be taken is to convey a knowledge of the powers of the consonants and sounds of the vowels. Formerly, this was done by what was called the "imitation method." The letter H was usually the point of attack, the aspirate being the simplest of all the powers of the letters. The teacher, holding up the hand of the pupil, makes the aspirate by breathing upon his palm. This is soon imitated, and thus a starting-point is gained. The feeling produced upon the hand is the method of giving him an idea of the ...
— Lippincott's Magazine of Popular Literature and Science, April, 1876. • Various

... famous town in Persian Mesopotamia which however is spelt with the lesser aspirate. See p. 144. The Geographical works of Sdik-i-Ispahni, London Oriental Transl. Fund, 1882. Hamdan (with the greater aspirate) and Hamdun mean only the member masculine, which may be a delicate piece of chaff for ...
— The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night, Volume 9 • Richard F. Burton

... with such anatomical reasons as dismissed the manciple (for the time) learned and happy. Some do spell it yet perversely, aitch bone, from a fanciful resemblance between its shape, and that of the aspirate so denominated. I had almost forgotten Mingay with the iron hand—but he was somewhat later. He had lost his right hand by some accident, and supplied it with a grappling hook, which he wielded with a tolerable adroitness. I detected the substitute, before I was ...
— The Works of Charles and Mary Lamb, Volume 2 • Charles Lamb

... Andalusians aspirate the s, and pronounce it like the soft c and the z, which Spaniards pronounce like the English th. An Andalusian may always be recognised by the way in which ...
— Carmen • Prosper Merimee

... conveyance of speech. The number of these vocables varies from between 800 and 900 in Cantonese to no more than 420 in the vernacular of Peking. This scanty number, however, is eked out by interposing an aspirate between certain initial consonants and the vowel, so that for instance p'u is distinguished from pu. The latter is pronounced with little or no emission of breath, the "p" approximating the farther north one goes (e.g. at Niuchwang) more ...
— Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 6, Slice 2 - "Chicago, University of" to "Chiton" • Various

... properly be placed merely in short lines, producing a not uncommon form; but the presence in all the others of one line-mostly the second in the verse" (stanza?)—"which flows continuously, with only an aspirate pause in the middle, like that before the short line in the Sapphic Adonic, while the fifth has at the middle pause no similarity of sound with any part besides, gives the versification an entirely different effect. We could wish the capacities of our noble language in ...
— The Works of Edgar Allan Poe - Volume 5 (of 5) of the Raven Edition • Edgar Allan Poe

... Garcia in most of his published works, although the testimony of many of his pupils, notably Mme. Marchesi, is that Garcia used the glottic stroke very little in actual instruction.) Second, the aspirate (h as in have), which is generally condemned. Third, the approximation of the vocal cords at the precise instant the breath blast strikes them. This latter mode of attack is advocated by Browne and Behnke, who call it the "slide of the glottis." It must be observed ...
— The Psychology of Singing - A Rational Method of Voice Culture Based on a Scientific Analysis of All Systems, Ancient and Modern • David C. Taylor

... and Readers, Lecturers, Actors. Theatrical Amateurs, and all who wish to speak well and effectively in Public or Private. By CHARLES HARTLEY. Contents: Cultivation of the Speaking Voice, Management of the Voice, Pausing, Taking Breath, Pitch, Articulation, Pronunciation, The Aspirate, The Letter E, Emphasis, Tone, Movement, Feeling and Passion, Verse, Scriptural Reading, Stammering and ...
— Country Walks of a Naturalist with His Children • W. Houghton

... sometimes ff and sometimes only f or v in European translations because some languages, such as English, have strong syllabic accents (stresses), while others, as French, have none. Again, he points out that the surd aspirate h is heard in some languages, but is hardly audible in others. Most Europeans tend to leave it ...
— All About Coffee • William H. Ukers

... origin as follows:—A Fanti man from the country between Secondee (Sekondi), or Fort Orange, and Shamah (Chamah), at the mouth of the Bosom Prah, when driven out by war, first founded 'Kabeku,' near the present place of that name. His sons built Bein, or Behin, [Footnote: The aspirate is hardly audible. Captain Brackenbury, generally so careful, manages to confound Bein and Benin.] meaning a 'strong man,' and Atabo, in Fanti ataba, the name of a tree with a reddish-yellow fruit. The latter was paramount till late years, when ...
— To The Gold Coast for Gold, Vol. II - A Personal Narrative • Richard Francis Burton and Verney Lovett Cameron

... them to the decision of the ear, and they will be instantly approved.—What is the reason? Your ear will inform you they have an easier sound; and every language must submit to gratify the ear. I myself, because our ancestors never admitted the aspirate, unless where a syllable began with a vowel, used to say pulcros, Cetegos, triumpos, and Cartaginem: but some time afterwards, though not very soon, when this grammatical accuracy was wrested from me by the censure of the ear, I resigned ...
— Cicero's Brutus or History of Famous Orators; also His Orator, or Accomplished Speaker. • Marcus Tullius Cicero

... been yet, but there is no reason at all why it should not be. There is arising even now a standard of good English to which many dialects and many influences are contributing. From the Highlanders and the Irish, for example, the English of the South are learning the possibilities of the aspirate h and wh, which latter had entirely and the former very largely dropped out of use among them a hundred years ago. The drawling speech of Wessex and New England—for the main features of what people call Yankee intonation are ...
— Mankind in the Making • H. G. Wells

... of schemes in this management. The ladies had a moment for counsel over a music-book, for Arabella was about to do duty at the piano. During a pause, Mr. Pole lifting his white waistcoat with the effort, sent a word abroad, loudly and heartily, regardless of its guardian aspirate, like a bold-faced hoyden flying from her chaperon. They had dreaded it. They loved their father, but declined to think his grammar parental. Hushing together, they agreed that it had been a false move to invite ...
— The Shaving of Shagpat • George Meredith

... so? Because they will say that that sound is the most agreeable one to them; and an oration ought to consult that which gives pleasure to the ears. Moreover, I myself, as I knew that our ancestors spoke so as never to use an aspirate except before a vowel, used to speak in this way: pulcros, Cetegos, triumpos, Cartaginem; when at last, and after a long time, the truth was forced upon me by the admonition of my own ears, I yielded to the people the right of settling the rule of speaking; and was contented to reserve ...
— The Orations of Marcus Tullius Cicero, Volume 4 • Cicero

... hope she isn't vulgar!' said Emmeline to herself. 'I don't like the bat—I don't. And that sunshade with the immense handle.' From the top of the stairs she heard a clear, unaffected voice: 'Mrs. Mumford at home?' Yes, the aspirate was sounded—thank goodness! ...
— The Paying Guest • George Gissing

... my dear: but remember to read very distinctly; make proper pauses; fall your voice at a period, and begin the next sentence in rather a higher tone; aspirate the H, excepting in such words as hour, honour, heiress, and a few others where it is silent: and above all, avoid a monotonous manner of reading, for nothing can be more unpleasant to those who are listening to you, than to hear a tale, however interesting in itself, read on in ...
— A Week of Instruction and Amusement, • Mrs. Harley

... bear to see you lying there. The"—she paused against an effort, then took the aspirate in a masterly rush— "the house is not the same ...
— Once Aboard The Lugger • Arthur Stuart-Menteth Hutchinson

... Saunr or Saonr. The addition of 'a' at the end of the word sometimes expresses contempt, and Savar becomes Savara as Chamar is corrupted into Chamra. In the Uriya country 'v' is changed into 'b' and an aspirate is interpolated, and thus Savara became Sabra or Sahara, as Gaur has become Gahra. The word Sahara, Mr. Crooke remarks, [631] has excited speculation as to its derivation from Arabic, in which Sahara means a wilderness; and the name of the Savars has accordingly been ...
— The Tribes and Castes of the Central Provinces of India - Volume IV of IV - Kumhar-Yemkala • R.V. Russell

... doubtful exception[145]—Roman capitals, of a ruder, and hence perhaps later, type than those cut on the Cat-stane; but the letters MV in TVMVLO are tied together in exactly the same way on the two stones. The omission of the aspirate in (H)OC, as seen on the Cat-stane, is by no means rare. The so-called bilingual, or Latin and Ogham, inscribed stone at Llanfechan, Wales, has upon it the Latin legend TRENACATVS IC JACET FILIVS MAGLAGNI—the aspirate ...
— Archaeological Essays, Vol. 1 • James Y. Simpson

... degree of freedom in language for a loyal people; they call themselves "Halligonians." This title, however, is sometimes pronounced "'Alligonians," by the more rigid, as a mark of respect to the old country. But innovation has been at work even here, for the majority of Her Majesty's subjects aspirate the letter H. Alas for innovation! who knows to what results this trifling error may lead? When Mirabeau went to the French court without buckles in his shoes, the barriers of etiquette were broken down, and the Swiss ...
— Acadia - or, A Month with the Blue Noses • Frederic S. Cozzens

... I may observe that the plain called by the Greeks Esdraelon, as a corruption of Jezreel, is that named "Megiddo" in Old Testament Scripture. In the New Testament it bears the prefix of the Hebrew word Har (mountain) minus the aspirate, being written in Greek, and so becomes "Armageddon" in the ...
— Byeways in Palestine • James Finn

... to the combinations of consonants employed, kh has the gutteral sound of the ch in the Scottish word loch, and gh is like a rather rough or coarse aspirate. ...
— Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, No. CCCXXIX. - March, 1843, Vol. LIII. • Various

... of business is in town; somewhere near Sackville Street. Vulgarity had marked him for her own at an early age. She had set her mark indelibly on his speech, his manners, and his habits. When ten years old he had learned to aspirate his initial vowels; when twelve he had mastered the whole theory and practice of eating cheese with his knife; at seventeen his mind was saturated with ribald music of the ...
— Twenty-One Days in India; and, the Teapot Series • George Robert Aberigh-Mackay

... bodies may be introduced voluntarily and in great numbers by the insane. Hysterical individuals may assert the presence of a foreign body, or may even volitionally swallow or aspirate objects. It is a mistake to do a bronchoscopy in order to cure by suggestion the delusion of foreign body presence. Such ...
— Bronchoscopy and Esophagoscopy - A Manual of Peroral Endoscopy and Laryngeal Surgery • Chevalier Jackson

... articles in this author's little holiday-book have appeared at some time or other in the D.T., and do not suffer any D.T.rioration by being bound up together in this shilling volume. It tells of a visit to Hayling, where he picked up health, strength, and an aspirate, when he went there ailing; he tells of Suffolk, where a branch of the Great Punchian Family is settled, known as The Suffolk Punches; he prattles of Honeymoon Land, where he met the man with seven wives, each of whom had a cat, and ...
— Punch, or the London Charivari, Vol. 103, September 3, 1892 • Various

... indifferently Occleve and Hoccleve. Harnett is the same as Arnett, for Arnold, Ewens and Heavens are both from Ewan, and Heaven is an imitative form of Evan. In Hoskins, from the medieval Osekin, a dim. of some Anglo-Saxon name such as Oswald (Chapter VII), the aspirate has definitely prevailed. The Devonshire name Hexter is for Exeter, Arbuckle is a corruption of Harbottle, in Northumberland. The Old French name Ancel appears as both Ansell and Hansell, and Earnshaw exists side by side with Hearnshaw ...
— The Romance of Names • Ernest Weekley

... and pivish," said he, mixing the two vowels which (with the aspirate) were his only trouble with our tongue. "It is great grif to me to see her growing so unlike her ...
— Dead Men Tell No Tales • E. W. Hornung

... at a Kanthunda village on the western side of a mountain called Phunze (the h being an aspirate only). Many villages are planted round its base, but in front, that is, westwards, we have plains, and there the villages are as numerous: mostly they are within half a mile of each other, and few are a mile from other hamlets. Each village has a clump of trees around ...
— The Last Journals of David Livingstone, in Central Africa, from 1865 to His Death, Volume I (of 2), 1866-1868 • David Livingstone

... pronounced by the Spaniards with a strong aspirate, the x and j having the same force. The vowel d, the queen of letters, reigns supreme in Spain; it is a relic of the old Moorish language. Everyone knows that the Arabic abounds in d's, and perhaps the ...
— The Memoires of Casanova, Complete • Jacques Casanova de Seingalt

... of Ku-. The 16th, Pa-, prefix is one of the most puzzling in its distribution and its phonetic changes. A very large number of the Bantu languages in the north, east and west have a dislike to the consonant P, which they frequently transmute into an aspirate (H), or soften into V, W, or F, or simply drop out. There is too much evidence in favour of this prefix having been originally Pa- or Mpa-pa to enable us to give it any other form in ...
— Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 3, Part 1, Slice 3 - "Banks" to "Bassoon" • Various

... to Hoxford gives the aspirate still He cruelly denies to 'Ighgate 'Ill; Yet deems in diction he can ape the "Swell," And "git the 'ang of it" exceeding well. Doubtless his sire, the 'atter, and his mother, The hupper 'ousemaid, so addressed each other; For spite of all that wrangling ...
— Punch, Or The London Charivari, Vol. 101, December 19, 1891 • Various

... miller) he may! Tom has been a sailor—a coal heaver—and some other genteel profession, before he took to the cestus. Tom has been in action at sea, and is now only three-and-thirty. A great man! has a wife and a mistress, and conversations well—bating some sad omissions and misapplications of the aspirate. Tom is an old friend of mine; I have seen some of his best battles in my nonage. He is now a publican, and, I fear, a sinner;—for Mrs. * * is on alimony, and * *'s daughter lives with the champion. This * * told me,—Tom, having an opinion of my morals, passed her off as a legal spouse. ...
— Life of Lord Byron, Vol. II - With His Letters and Journals • Thomas Moore

... taken from that opening and lifting up of the lips when his voice is uttered. Thus all the names of the mutes besides one have an Alpha, as it were a light to assist their blindness; for Pi alone wants it, and Phi and Chi are only Pi and Kappa with an aspirate. ...
— Essays and Miscellanies - The Complete Works Volume 3 • Plutarch

... Xagua, Aramana, Arabo, Hazoa, Macorix, Caicoa, Guiagua, Baguanimabo, and the rugged mountains of Haiti. Let us remark in this connection that there are no aspirates pronounced in Hispaniola, as amongst the Latin peoples. In the first place, in all their words the aspirate produces the effect of a consonant, and is more prolonged than the consonant f, amongst us. Nor is it pronounced by pressing the under lip against the upper teeth. On the contrary the mouth is opened wide, ha, he, hi, ho, hu. I know that the Jews ...
— De Orbe Novo, Volume 1 (of 2) - The Eight Decades of Peter Martyr D'Anghera • Trans. by Francis Augustus MacNutt

... and syllables received from those who spake before them, neglecting the eternal covenant of everlasting salvation received from Thee. Insomuch, that a teacher or learner of the hereditary laws of pronunciation will more offend men by speaking without the aspirate, of a "uman being," in despite of the laws of grammar, than if he, a "human being," hate a "human being" in despite of Thine. As if any enemy could be more hurtful than the hatred with which he is incensed against him; or could wound more deeply ...
— The Confessions of Saint Augustine • Saint Augustine

... The aspirate quality, or whisper, is very effective when well handled, and the book gives a few exercises for practice's sake. Try whispering a few of them, if you are sure that you are alone in the room. You will sound very ...
— Love Conquers All • Robert C. Benchley

... much tiom. As many as tiom, kiom. As much as tiom, kiom. Asp aspido. Asparagus asparago. Aspect vidigxo. Aspect (phase) fazo. Aspen tremolo. Asperse kalumnii. Asphalte asfalto. Asphyxia asfiksio. Aspirate elspiri. Aspirant aspiranto. Aspiration (breathing) elspiro—ado. Aspiration (aim, intention) celo. Aspire celi. Ass azeno. Assail ataki. Assailant atakanto. Assassin mortiganto. Assault atako. Assay provo. Assemble kunveni, kunvoki. ...
— English-Esperanto Dictionary • John Charles O'Connor and Charles Frederic Hayes

... observe that there is not, to the best of my remembrance, one vowel gaping on another for want of a caesura in this whole poem. But where a vowel ends a word the next begins either with a consonant or what is its equivalent; for our w and h aspirate, and our diphthongs, are plainly such. The greatest latitude I take is in the letter y when it concludes a word and the first syllable of the next begins with a vowel. Neither need I have called this a latitude, which is only ...
— Discourses on Satire and Epic Poetry • John Dryden

... frequently represents H., e.g., Cormos Hormuz; Camadi probably Hamadi; Caagiu probably Hochau; Cacianfu Hochangfu, and so on. This is perhaps attributable to Rusticiano's Tuscan ear. A true Pisan will absolutely contort his features in the intensity of his efforts to aspirate sufficiently the letter C. Filippo Villani, speaking of the famous Aguto (Sir J. Hawkwood), says his name in English was ...
— The Travels of Marco Polo Volume 1 • Marco Polo and Rustichello of Pisa

... always as in get. h gutturalized aspirate. k as in English. w always as initial w in English, win, wan. ng as ...
— The Medicinal Plants of the Philippines • T. H. Pardo de Tavera

... worked together at road-making and draining the marshes. Some of the Danes fled in their ships, but very many remained and became citizens of the country. The Danish names are still recognizable. Names beginning with the aspirate, say Herbert, Hulett, Hubbard, Hubbs, Harold, Hancock, are Danish, and are the cause of that beautiful muddling of the "H" that still perplexes the British tongue, the rule governing which is to put it on where it is not needed and leave it off where it is. The Danes ...
— Little Journeys To The Homes Of Great Teachers • Elbert Hubbard

... April 20th we were to take up the line of trenches held by the Sixteenth. The Germans still continued to shell Ypres, (which is pronounced Ep-r-r, E as in fee, two syllable r-r, the R sounded the Scotch way with a burr aspirate). ...
— The Red Watch - With the First Canadian Division in Flanders • J. A. Currie

... the one with the other. But, in the first place, Himilco's report was certainly not written in Greek, but in Phoenician, and Avienus seems merely to have translated that report. Moreover, the word iepa begins with a very strong aspirate, equivalent to a consonant, while there are few vowels softer in any language than the first in Erin or Ierne. Heeren does not attempt such an explanation, but concedes that the Carthaginians, ...
— Irish Race in the Past and the Present • Aug. J. Thebaud

... 'er, all over?" demanded Struthers, forgetting her place and her position and even her aspirate in the excitement of the moment. But I handed back the paper without comment. For a day, however, Lady Allie has ...
— The Prairie Mother • Arthur Stringer

... people but the native peons about them, and, above all, no plantation where birds could be seen. They were typical English people of the lower middle class, who read no books and conversed, with considerable misuse of the aspirate, about nothing but their own and their neighbours' affairs. Physically Mr. Blake was a very big man, being six feet three in height and powerfully built. He had a round ruddy face, clean-shaved except for a pair of side-whiskers, and pale-blue shallow eyes. He ...
— Far Away and Long Ago • W. H. Hudson

... dictionary I have not found it guilty of many new ones.[20] For examples of homophones due to our 'standard' speech one might take first the 20 wh- words (given on page 14) which have lost their aspirate, and with them the 9 wr- words: next the 36 words in table iv and note, which have lost their trilled R: and then the 41 words from table vi on page 15; and that would start us with some 100 words, the confusion of which is due to our Southern English ...
— Society for Pure English, Tract 2, on English Homophones • Robert Bridges

... character of its situation rather than from the name of its founder: for in the ancient language, and among the Aeolians who had their origin in Boeotia, a small hill is called tebas without the aspirate; and in the Sabine country, where Pelasgians from Greece settled, they still have the same locution: witness that hill called Tebae which stands in the Sabine country on the via Salaria not far from the mile stone of Reate. At first agriculture was conducted ...
— Roman Farm Management - The Treatises Of Cato And Varro • Marcus Porcius Cato

... words in the English language, in which h is written, but not pronounced, are words derived from Latin through the French; but of these, many in English retain the aspirate, though in French nearly all lose it. The exceptions collected by E. H. satisfactorily prove that we do not follow the French rule implicitly. They indeed carry the non-aspiration farther than to words of Latin derivation. They omit the ...
— Notes and Queries, Number 208, October 22, 1853 • Various

... sir," said the butler. Only in moments of intense excitement did Dumber misplace or leave out the aspirate. "You're to come with me at once to Mr. ...
— The Hill - A Romance of Friendship • Horace Annesley Vachell

... "Alas! Alas!" which, by the by, no one ever says. "Awah," like "Yauh," is now a woman's word although used by Al-Hariri (Assembly of Basrah) and so Al-awwahone who cries from grief "Awah." A favourite conversational form is "Yehh" with the aspirate exasperated, but it is an expression of astonishment rather than sorrow. It enters into Europe ...
— The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night, Volume 2 • Richard F. Burton

... Jewdwine's opinion) a trifle too demonstrative in its hospitality to vagrant impressions. The Junior Journalists may have been a little hard on him. On the whole, he left you dubious until the moment when, from pure nervousness, his speech went wild, even suffering that slight elision of the aspirate observed by some of them. But then, he had a voice of such singular musical felicity that it charmed you ...
— The Divine Fire • May Sinclair

... voice to good purpose, the choirmaster's words were clearly to be heard throughout the building, and it was on the subject of articulation and emphasis, and the like, that he was speaking; now and then throwing in an extra aspirate in the energy of that enthusiasm without which teaching is ...
— Jackanapes, Daddy Darwin's Dovecot and Other Stories • Juliana Horatio Ewing

... exchanged arise roars of laughter, not such as could come from the slender gullets of puny Mexicans, nor men of the Spanish race. Nor does it resemble the savage cachinnation of the Comanche Indians. Its rough aspirate, and rude, but hearty, tone could only proceed ...
— The Lone Ranche • Captain Mayne Reid

... d and g have a medial sound, approximating the sounds of t and k respectively. The other letters are pronounced in regular accordance with the alphabet of the Bureau of Ethnology. The language abounds in nasal and aspirate sounds, the most difficult of the latter being the aspirate 'l, which to one familiar only with English ...
— The Sacred Formulas of the Cherokees • James Mooney

... sound, noise, strain; accent, twang, intonation, tone; cadence; sonorousness &c. adj.; audibility; resonance &c. 408; voice &c. 580; aspirate; ideophone[obs3]; rough breathing. [Science, of sound] acoustics; phonics, phonetics, phonology, phonography[obs3]; diacoustics[obs3], diaphonics[obs3]; phonetism[obs3]. V. produce sound; sound, make a noise; give out sound, emit sound; resound &c. ...
— Roget's Thesaurus

... And as the hurried aspirate was uttered, the boy came running silently out of the darkness, with his hand raised ...
— In the Pecos Country • Edward Sylvester Ellis (AKA Lieutenant R.H. Jayne)

... of dialectic variety. We know in the Aryan languages the constant play between gutturals, dentals, and labials (quinque, Sk. panca, pente, ol. pempe, Goth. fimf). We know the dialectic interchange of Aspirate, Media, and Tenuis, which, from the very beginning, has imparted to the principal channels of Aryan speech their individual character (treis, Goth. threis, High German drei).[25] If this and much more could happen within the dialectic limits of one more or less settled ...
— Chips from a German Workshop - Volume IV - Essays chiefly on the Science of Language • Max Muller

... Corteho, with an aspirate, according to the Arabesque guttural. It means what there is as yet no precise name for in England, though the practice is as common as in any tramontane ...
— The Works of Lord Byron, Volume 4 • Lord Byron

... similarity in pronunciation (for we can have no other guide), as strongly marks one common original. Once more; we learn from Le Gobien, that the Marianne people call their chiefs Chamorris, or Chamoris. And by softening the aspirate Ch into T, and the harshness of r into l (of which the vocabularies of the different islands give us repeated instances), we have the Tamole of the Caroline Islands, and the Tamolao, or ...
— A General History and Collection of Voyages and Travels, Volume 16 • Robert Kerr

... that I kept, and now received with authority, my old name; though the clerk prefixed an aspirate to it, and indulged in two syllables only. But the ancient parson knew its meaning, and looked at me with curiosity; yet, being a gentleman of the old school, put ...
— Erema - My Father's Sin • R. D. Blackmore

... which might have been attached to an old cottage in Surrey or Devonshire. There were cabbage-roses, pinks, columbines, sweet-williams, laburnums, and honey-suckle—all prized because they were the flowers of Old England. The people everywhere speak the language with remarkable purity. The aspirate is rarely misplaced, unless by a recent immigrant. The misuse of the aspirate is, indeed, a peculiar part of the birthright of an Englishman. No one ever yet heard it from the poorest or most illiterate class in the United States. In Australia, says Mr. Froude, 'no provincialism has yet ...
— The Quarterly Review, Volume 162, No. 324, April, 1886 • Various

... their speech was concerned, thanks to association with Harriet, Jennie and Harry were as perfect little cockneys as ever ignored an aspirate. ...
— Paste Jewels • John Kendrick Bangs

... use of the word light. For the king hated all witticisms, and punning especially. And besides he could not tell whether the queen meant light-haired or light-heired; for why might she not aspirate her vowels when ...
— Adela Cathcart, Vol. 1 • George MacDonald

... treatment of solecism and barbarism in grammar corresponded to that of fallacies in logic. With regard to the alphabet it is worth noting that the Stoics recognised seven vowels and six mutes. This is more correct than our way of talking of nine mutes, since the aspirate consonants are plainly not mute. There were, according to the Stoics, five parts of speech—name, appellative, verb, conjunction, article. 'Name' meant a proper name, and ...
— A Little Book of Stoicism • St George Stock

... this wonderful silver moon reveals even their slightest gestures; for their white robes and black cloaks stand sharply out against the monotonous rose of the desert. At times they call to one another in a harsh, aspirate tongue, and then go off at a run, noiselessly, barefooted, with burnous flying, like moths in the night. They lie in wait for the parties of tourists who arrive from time to time. For the great symbols, during the hundreds ...
— Egypt (La Mort De Philae) • Pierre Loti

... inscription from Pompeii shows some of the peculiarities of popular pronunciation. In ortu we see the same difficulty in knowing when to sound the aspirate which the cockney Englishman has. The silence of the final -m, and the reduction of ae to e are also interesting. Presta mi sinceru (sincerum): si te amet que (quae) custodit ortu ...
— The Common People of Ancient Rome - Studies of Roman Life and Literature • Frank Frost Abbott

... 50 c.c. of the normal solution of acid, place them in the receiver, and dilute with an equal volume of water. Run in through the pipette (by opening the clip) 20 c.c. of a strong solution of soda, boil until the ammonia has passed over, and then aspirate a current of air through the apparatus. Disconnect the receiver, and tint its contents with methyl orange. Titrate the residual acid with a semi-normal solution of alkali. Divide the c.c. of the "alkali" solution used by 2, and deduct from the ...
— A Textbook of Assaying: For the Use of Those Connected with Mines. • Cornelius Beringer and John Jacob Beringer

... the choir; yet they have the Gregorian music at their finger ends, and pronounce the Latin so correctly that I could follow the meaning as they sang. The pronunciation was odd and nasal, the singing hurried and staccato. "In saecula saeculoho-horum," they went, with a vigorous aspirate to every additional syllable. I have never seen faces more vividly lit up with joy than the faces of these Indian singers. It was to them not only the worship of God, nor an act by which they recalled and commemorated better days, ...
— Across The Plains • Robert Louis Stevenson

... costers ever were. They were of a plinth-like bigness up and down, and their kind, plain, common faces were all topped with narrow-brimmed sailor-hats, mostly black. In their jargoning hardly an aspirate was in its right place, but they looked as if their hearts were, and if no word came from their lips with its true quality, but with that curious soft London slur or twist, they doubtless spoke a ...
— London Films • W.D. Howells

... and boxes and set them down upon the pavement, while her aunt haggled with the driver in a spirited manner; the man went off, grumbling at the meanness of a "couple o' Hirishers," but Eily, not understanding the English manner of using the aspirate, was blissfully unconscious of ...
— The Empire Annual for Girls, 1911 • Various

... shibboleths of beliefs non-essentials as well as essentials enter, the former to the latter in the proportion of two to one. It is not surprising, therefore, that Garrison's essentials proved unequal to the test set up by sectarianism, inasmuch as his spiritual life dropped the aspirate of the non-essentials of religious forms ...
— William Lloyd Garrison - The Abolitionist • Archibald H. Grimke

... used to float the voice. On classifying these wordless songs, we discover that those which are expressive of the gentle emotions have flowing, breathing vocables, but, where warlike feelings dominate the song, the vocables are aspirate and explosive. In this determinate use of vocables we happen upon what seems to represent the most primitive attempt yet discovered to give intellectual definition in verbal form to an emotion voiced in rhythm ...
— Indian Story and Song - from North America • Alice C. Fletcher



Words linked to "Aspirate" :   draw out, remove, aspirator, suck out, take away, take, breathe in, draw in, inspire, withdraw, aspiration, enounce



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