from Arabia, delighting the gods with his fragrance and rising from the sinking flames of the morning glow, was enough to suggest most of the traits materialized in the classical pictures of the phoenix. That the benu is the prototype of the phoenix is further confirmed by the fact that the former word in Egyptian means also “palm-tree,” just as the latter does in Greek. The very various periods named make it probable that the periodical return of the phoenix belongs only to vulgar legend, materializing what the priests knew to be symbolic. Of the birds of the heron family the gorgeous colours and plumed head spoken of by Pliny and others would be least inappropriate to the purple heron (Ardea purpurea), with which, or with the allied Ardea cinerea, it has been identified by Lepsius and Peters (Alteste Texte des Todtenbuchs, 1867, p. 51). But the golden and purple hues described by Herodotus may be the colours of sunrise rather than the actual hues of the purple heron. How Herodotus came to think that the bird was like an eagle is quite unexplained; perhaps this is merely a slip of memory.
Many commentators still understand the word חוֹלִ, chōl, in Job xxix 18 (A.V. “sand”) of the phoenix. This interpretation is perhaps as old as the (original) Septuagint, and is current with the later Jews. Among the Arabs the story of the phoenix was confused with that of the salamander; and the samand or samandal (Damiri, ii. 36 seq) is represented sometimes as a quadruped, sometimes as a bird. It was firmly believed in, for the incombustible cloths woven of flexible asbestos were popularly thought to be made of its hair or plumage, and were themselves called by the same name (cf. Yaqut i. 529, and Dozy, s.v.). The ʽankā (Pers sīmurgh), a stupendous bird like the roc (rukh) of Marco Polo and the Arabian Nights, also borrows some features of the phoenix. According to Kazwīnī (i. 420) it lives 1700 years, and when a young bird is hatched the parent of opposite sex burns itself alive. In the book of Kalila and Dimna the sīmūr or ʽankā is the king of birds, the Indian garūda, on whom Vishnu rides.
PHOENIX, the capital of Arizona, U S.A., and the county-seat of Maricopa county, situated on the Salt river, in the south central part of the state. Pop. (1890), 3152; (1900), 5544 (935 being foreign-born and 148 negroes); (1910) 11,134. It is served by the Arizona Eastern and the Santa Fé, Prescott & Phoenix railways, the former connecting at Maricopa (35 m. distant) with the Southern Pacific and the latter connecting at Ash Fork, near Prescott (194 m. distant), with the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fé. The city is a popular winter and health resort, with a fine dry climate. The city is the see of a Protestant Episcopal bishopric. About 3 m. north of the city is the Phoenix (non-reservation) boarding-school for Indians, supported by the United States government, with an average attendance of about 700 pupils. The city lies in a great Plain, in the centre of a region of pastures, gardens and orchards, the largest and most beautiful farming district of Arizona, irrigated with water stored by the great Roosevelt dam (about 70 m. north-east of Phoenix). Local interests are almost entirely in agriculture, stock-raising and fruit-growing. In the surrounding region are several large ostrich farms and a small exhibition ranch. Phoenix was settled in 1870, became the county-seat on the organization of Maricopa county in 1871, was incorporated in 1881, and became the capital of Arizona in 1889.
PHOENIX ISLANDS, a group of eight small islands in the Pacific Ocean, about 3° S, and 172° W., belonging to Great Britain. They have a land area about 16 sq. m. and a population of 60. Their names are Phoenix, Gardner (Kemin), Hull, Sydney, Birnie, Enderbury, Canton (Mary) and McKean. To the north-west of the group (between the equator and 1° N.) lie two more islets—Baker and Howland. The islands were annexed by Great Britain in 1889–1892.
PHOENIXVILLE, a borough of Chester county, Pennsylvania, U.S.A., on the Schuylkill river at the mouth of French Creek, about 28 m. north-west of Philadelphia. Pop. (1890), 8514; (1900), 9196, of whom 2221 were foreign-born and 278 were negroes, (1910 census), 10,743. It is served by the Pennsylvania (Schuylkill division) and the Philadelphia & Reading railways, and by electric railway to Spring City (pop. in 1910, 2880), 5 m. north-west of Phoenixville on the Schuylkill. Phoenixville is chiefly a manufacturing borough. Its blast-furnaces and iron mills were long among the largest in the country, and the manufacture of steel is still the borough's predominant industry. Phoenixville was settled in 1732, and was incorporated in 1849.
PHONETICS (Gr. φωνή, voice), the science of speech-sounds and the art of pronunciation. In its widest sense it is the “science of voice,” dealing not only with articulate, but also with the inarticulate sounds of animals as well as men. The originally synonymous term, “phonology,” is now restricted to the history and theory of sound-changes. The most obvious of the practical applications of phonetics is to the acquisition of a correct pronunciation of foreign languages. But its applications to the study of the native language are not less important: it is only by the help of phonetics that it is possible to deal effectively with vulgarisms and provincialisms of pronunciation and secure uniformity of speech; and it is only on a phonetic basis that the deaf and dumb can be taught articulate speech. From a more theoretical point of view phonetics is, in the first place, the science of linguistic observation. Without phonetic training the dialectologist, and the missionary who is confronted with a hitherto unwritten language, can neither observe fully nor record accurately the phenomena with which they have to deal. These investigations have greatly widened the scope of the science of language. The modern philologist no longer despises colloquial and illiterate forms of speech. On the contrary, he considers that in them the life and growth of language is seen more clearly than in dead literary languages, on whose study the science of comparative philology was at first exclusively built up. It was not till philologists began to ask what were the real facts underlying the comparisons of the written words in Sanskrit, Greek, Latin, and the other Indo-European languages, embodied in such generalizations as Grimm’s Law, that “letter-science” developed into “sound-science” (phonology). The rise and decay of inflexions, and the development of grammatical forms generally, are, from the formal point of view, mainly phonetic problems; and phonetics enters more or less into every department of historical and comparative grammar.
Methods of Study and Investigation.—Phonetics is the science of speech-sounds. But sounds may be considered from two opposite points of view—the organic and the acoustic. From the organic point of view a sound is the result of certain actions and positions of the organs of speech, as when we define f as a lip-teeth (dento-labial) consonant. This is the point of view of the speaker of a language. To the hearer, on the other hand, f is not a lip-teeth, but a hiss consonant similar to that denoted by th. This is the acoustic point of view. Theoretically, the organic study of phonetics is a branch of anatomy and physiology: that part of these sciences which deals with the organs of speech (see Mouth) and their functions (see Voice), while, from the opposite point of view, the study of phonetics is based on that branch of physical science known as acoustics (see Sound), together with the anatomy and physiology of the organs of Hearing (q.v).
Unfortunately, this basis is still imperfect. The principles of acoustics are well established, and we know much about the anatomy of the ear. But how the ear transmits to the brain the impression of sound is still a mystery. Again, although the mechanism of the vowel is clear enough, there is still no generally received acoustic theory of its formation. In fact, from the physical science point of view there is as yet no science of phonetics.
The real function of phonetics is philological and literary. The only sound basis of a theoretical knowledge of phonetics is the practical mastery of a limited number of sounds—that is to say, of the sounds which are already familiar to the learner in his own language. It is evident that the more familiar a sound is, the easier it is to gain insight into its mechanism and to recognize it when heard. It is indispensable to cultivate both the organic and the acoustic sense. These processes we are continually carrying out in ordinary conversation. All, therefore, that we have to do in dealing with native sounds is to develop this unconscious organic and acoustic sense into a conscious and analytic one. The first step is to learn to isolate each sound: to
