VOICE, SONG AND SPEECH. 



267 



changed to 0, and if the lips are still further contracted the will be 

 changed to u. The remaining vowels a (as in 'hate'), e and i are 

 made from the fundamental a above described, by contracting and 

 shortening the passage between the tongue and the roof of the mouth 

 and palate. If we would suppose that the passage from the vocal cords 

 to the lips were a tube, then we could say that in u the passage was 

 the longest and in i the shortest, and the 0, a and e sounds intermediate 

 between these in the order stated. In these and in the examples which 

 follow, it would be well for the reader to test the methods described, 

 which would do much to make this subject more easily understood. 



The consonants, as their name implies, can not be sounded alone 

 but simply modify the vowel sounds. This may be done by the lips 

 (labial), the teeth (dental), the tongue (lingual), the palate (palatal) 

 or by allowing the air to pass through the nos- 

 trils (nasal). The simplest are the labial 

 sounds (m, b, p, f, v, w), and these are there- 

 fore, the first learned in infancy, as 'mama,' 

 'papa,' etc. In sounding the vowel a, we first 

 contract the lips and then allow the air to escape 

 by opening them, the slight explosive sound 

 forms 'ba,' and if this effort is made stronger, 

 it becomes 'pa.' In the dental sounds (t, d, s, 

 etc.), the emission of the vowel is made by the 

 teeth and tip of the tongue, and in the palatal 

 (h, g, c, etc.), by means of the middle or pos- 

 terior portion of the tongue and the middle or 

 posterior portion of the palate. In this posi- 

 tion are formed the so-called 'guttural' sounds of the German (icli, 

 dock, etc.) which forms one of the characteristics of this language. 



In the above described consonant sounds, the emission of air 

 through the nostrils has been prevented by the soft palate being brought 

 against the back of the throat. In the nasal sounds (n, ng), however, 

 the air is allowed to pass through the nostrils by relaxing the soft 

 palate. If the nostril be closed when 'ing,' for instance, is to be pro- 

 nounced, the sound will not issue unless the air be allowed to pass 

 through the nostrils. In some cases, the nasal sound is given to words 

 to which it does not belong, this giving a peculiar nasality of tone 

 easily recognized. In the French, there are normally the 'nasal vow- 

 els' (in, en, on) characteristic of this language. 



In addition to the above, we have the aspirate, represented by the 

 letter h. In this, a partial expiration is first allowed to pass between 

 the vocal cords before they are approximated to form the vowel, in this 

 way changing the a to 'ha' and to 'ho.' This sound is pronounced 

 very distinctly in the German language, less so in the English, being 



Fig. 7. Diagram OF Vocal 

 Apparatus During Pro- 

 nunciation OF THE Nasal 

 Sound 'n' (Guttman). 



