1861.1 299 [Vowels. 



formation of the vowels and their relationship to one another, but, by 

 its means, we can also describe the minutest shades of these five 

 fundamental vowel forms which are noticed in the various languages, 

 and, finally, we are enabled also to represent by it in a satisfactory 

 manner the genesis of the diphthongs. 



[Kem. 2. — The experiments of Dr. Czermack concerning the tension 

 of the velum pcdati during the pronunciation of the several vowels, 

 alluded to in the previous article, have been published in the Trans- 

 actions of the Imperial Academy at Vienna, March 12, 1857, page 

 6. They consist in Dr. Czerniack's introducing through his nose a 

 very ingenious lever, in such a manner that one end of it bent in a 

 certain way and with a little wax around it, rested on the velum pa- 

 lati, while the other end extended through the nose, and was fixed 

 in such a manner as to indicate the least raotion of the velum. By 

 means of this lever Dr. Czermack found that the velum palad for 

 each vowel assumes a different position, or at least a different form. 

 Afterwards he had water injected through his nose, with his head 

 bent backward, and in pronouncing a in father he found that the 

 water was scarcely held back at all by the velum, while in pronounc- 

 ing i in machine he could easily retain it for some time, and likewise 

 in pronouncing ii and o; but in pronouncing e in ed(je the water was 

 again held back with a greater difficulty. These results obtained by 

 the injection of the water tallied exactly with those obtained by the 

 lever. Dr. Czermack's conclusions from his experiments are these : 

 " The velum palati has for each vowel not only a definite declination 

 or arcuation, but most probably its tension also is varied, so that its 

 modulus of elasticity becomes changed; thus the shutting of the 

 nasal cavity in some vowels seems to be much more close and firm 

 than in others." This affection of the velum palati by the pronun- 

 ciation of the different vowels, goes very far to prove that in the pro- 

 duction of the vowels the sonorous breath becomes modulated or 

 deflected by different angles of the pharyngal cavity. 



In addition to these experiments on the velum palati, Dr. Czer- 

 mack has also made some very highly interesting experiments on the 

 production of the human voice in the glottis, by means of Garcia's 

 laryngal speculum. His results, after having first appeared in the 

 Transactions of the Imperial Academy, have afterwards been pub- 

 lished separately in a monograph, entitled, " Der Kehlkopfspiegel," 

 &c., to which I refer the reader.] 



§ 5. The five vowel-sounds specified in the diagram above, viz., a 

 in father, e in edge, i in machine, it in rude, and o in hole, are the 



