OF ARTICULATE SOUNDS. 859 



funnel-like tube, and obtained the different sounds by covering its wide 

 opening to a greater or less extent. This last experiment has been repeated 

 by Mr. Willis ; who has also found that the vowel sounds might be imitated, 

 by drawing out a long straight tube from the reed. In this experiment he 

 arrived at a curious result: with a tube of a certain length, the series of 

 vowels, i, e, a, o, u, was obtained by gradually drawing it out ; but if the 

 length was increased to a certain point, a further gradual increase would 

 produce the same sequence in an inverted order, u, o, a, e, i; a still further 

 increase would produce a return to the first scale, and so on. When the 

 pitch of the reed was high, and the pipe short, it was found that the vowels 

 o and u could not be distinctly formed, the proper tone being injured by 

 the elongation of the pipe necessary to produce them ; and this, Mr. Willis 

 remarks, is exactly the case in the Human voice, most singers being unable 

 to pronounce u and o upon their highest notes. 



TOG. The most natural primary division of the Consonants,. is into those 

 which require a total stoppage of the breath at the moment previous to their 

 being pronounced, and which, therefore, cannot be prolonged ; and those in 

 pronouncing which the interruption is partial, and which can, like the vowel 

 sounds, be prolonged ad libitum. The former have received the designation 

 of explosive; and the latter of continuous. In pronouncing the explosive 

 consonants, the posterior uares are completely closed, so that the exit of air 

 through the nose is altogether prevented ; and the current may be checked 

 in the mouth in three ways, by the approximation of the lips, by the 

 approximation of the point of the tongue to the front of the palate, and 

 by the approximation of the middle of the tongue to the arch of the palate. 

 In the first of these modes we pronounce the letters b and p ; in the second 

 d and t ; in the third, the hard g and k. The difference between b, d, and g, 

 on the one hand, and p, t, and k, 1 on the other, seems to depend on this, 

 that in the former group the approximating surfaces are larger, and the 

 breath is sent through them more strongly at the moment of opening than 

 in the latter. The continuous consonants may be again subdivided, accord- 

 ing to the degree of freedom with which the air is allowed to make its exit, 

 and the compression which it consequently experiences. I. The first class 

 includes those in which no passage of air takes place through the nose, and 

 in which the parts of the mouth that produce the sound are nearly approxi- 

 mated together, so that the compression is considerable. This is the case 

 with v and/, which are produced by approximating the upper incisors to the 

 lower lip, and which stand in nearly the same relation to each other as that 

 which exists between d and t, or b and p. The sibilant sounds, z and s, also 

 stand in a similar relation to each other; they are produced by the passage 

 of air between the point of the tongue and the front of the palate, the teeth 

 being at the same time nearly closed. The simple sound sh is formed by 

 narrowing the channel between the dorsum of the tongue and the palate; 

 the former being elevated towards the latter through a considerable part of 

 its length. If, in sounding s, we raise the point of the tongue a very little, 

 so as to touch the palate, the sound of t is evolved ; and in the same manner 

 d is produced from z. This class also includes the th ; which, being a per- 

 fectly simple sound, ought to be expressed by a single letter, as in Greek, 

 instead of by tw 7 o, whose combination does not really produce anything like 

 it. For producing this sound, the point of the tongue is applied to the back 

 of the incisors, or to the front of the palate, as in sounding t; 2 but whilst 



1 For the sake of proper comparison', this letter should be sounded not as kny but 

 key. 



' Hence it is easy to understand the substitution of t or d, for the English ih, by 

 foreigners. 



