QUALITATIVE ANALYSIS. 45 



(the cavity tone being approximately the octave of the glottal tone) for 

 [i] rise and then fall in amplitude. There are two maxima of amplitude 

 in this vowel; it is therefore an intensity diphthong as well as a quality 

 one. The vibrations of [i] pass rather abruptly into the weaker ones 

 for [1], Hne 3. The [1] is followed by an extremely short [i], which includes 

 seven groups of vibrations. Then follows the plain line for [t], after 

 which comes the rather long vowel [a], line 4, followed by the weak vibra- 

 tions for the final [1], line 4. As a phonetic spelling for this case we 

 might use [lital], where the smallness of the [i] indicates its weakness. 

 The vibrations of the [1] pass into those of [ai] in " eye," line 4, without 

 break. The form of the vibration for the first part resembles that in the 

 [ai] of "my." The last part is cjuite different from those of the other 

 [ai]s; the vibrations come in groups of five and are weak. My ear is 

 unable to decide what the second element in the ordinarily spoken "I," 

 " my," " die," etc., sounds Uke; it may be [i], [i], or [e]. No help is obtained 

 by exaggerating the pronunciation of a certain speaker; in conversation 

 he may speak otherwise. The curves on this plate show that the last 

 parts of "my" and "I" are similar to each other, also those of "eye "and 

 "die" to each other, but that the two types are different. In default of any 

 means of decision with only these two plates I have indicated both types 

 by [i]; further work in vowel analysis will show which sounds are most 

 like [i], which like [i] and which like [e], — or perhaps that some of them 

 are still different; the final decisions can be quickly and definitely made 

 as soon as the sound can be acoustically reproduced from its curve and 

 prolonged by the apparatus described at the close of this chapter. The 

 [ai] in " eye" has one of the characteristic marks of an initial vowel, namely, 

 the rise from a small amplitude; the other one — the rise from low pitch — ■ 

 is lacking, as would be expected from the fact that [1] passes without break 

 into [a] whereby the glottis would hardly make any sudden jump in the 

 pitch of its tone. The pitch of [ai] remains constant for a while and steadily 

 falls; such a fall is characteristic at the end of a phrase. It is to be noted 

 that there is not a break in the curve or in the action of the glottis except 

 at [t], and that even here very weak vibrations appear. " With my little 

 eye" is a single speech unit, the result of a single thought. A grammatical 

 analysis into preposition, possessive pronoun, adjective, and noun has 

 nothing whatever to do with what was said; the speaker had an impulse- 

 perhaps a mental picture of a sparrow with his little eye — and expressed 

 it as readily and as automatically by " with my little eye," as in another 

 case he would have done by any other words or even a single sound asso- 

 ciated to the picture. There was no separation into two or more ideas, 



