QUANTITATIVE ANALYSIS: APPARATUS, METHODS. 



69 



to irregularity in adjusting the glottal lips. The variaticrs in irregularity 

 are personal characteristics of the speakers. 



In this connection it may be interesting to report an observation on 

 German initial vowels. A number of records were made of the glottal puffs 

 during a recitation of "Ein Fichtenbaum." With 

 one of the persons, a native of Lower Bavaria, 29 

 years of age, the initial vowels always showed unusual 

 irregularity in the first few puffs; a specimen melody 

 plot is given in figure 64. No such great irregularity 

 was noticed in the records of the other persons. The 

 glottal action in German initial vowels, however, is 

 quite different from the American action; the glottal 

 lips are closed tightly together across the larynx, shut- 

 ting off the air completely before any vibration occurs, 

 presumably before there is any rise in the breath pres- 

 sure; the muscles of the glottal hps are then tensed, 

 and the vowel starts usually with full height of pitch 

 and nearly full intensity. In this particular person 

 the action was irregular. Why? The answer depends 

 on the nature of the glottal action. One might sup- 

 pose that in the German initial vowel the glottal lips 

 stopped the breath until it gained sufficient pressure 

 to burst through and set them in vibration. Such an 

 action would, in my opinion, be too crude for the 

 accuracy of speech. The closure of the glottis can be 

 assumed to occur by action of the constrictor muscles, 

 mainly the transverse arytenoids; when the vibrations 

 are to be begun the muscles are relaxed to the requi- 

 site degree. In watching the glottis with the Iar>'ngo- 

 scope while Germans say [a] we can see the glottal hps 

 come together before vibration; in one case I have seen 

 the two lips strike so tightly together that a ridge was 

 formed for a moment along the edge of each before 

 the relaxation occurred. 



In this way the study of initial vowels may be 

 pursued to determine the manner in which pitch and 

 intensity act as elements of expression, with the varia- 

 tions for different persons, different emotions, different languages, etc. 



The method of studying a complete melody plot will now be illustrated 

 by two examples. As established in my previously published researches 

 on speech melody, the fundamental form for the American sentence is the 



100 



eo 



60 



so 



m 



10 20 30 40 so 



FlQ. 64, —Melody plot. 

 Beginning of [ai] "ein." 

 Brunner. 



