Tafel.j 326 [October. 



lating stations, accordingly as they are either firmly or lightly closed, 

 or left ajar. In the first instance the hard consonants are produced, 

 in the second the soft, and in the third the fluid. As regards the 

 modifications o^ the air itself, it can either be ejected from the lungs 

 as a blow or as a breathing. When the air is blown out from the 

 lungs we obtain the hard consonants and the hlown fluid consonants, 

 and when it is breathed out the soft consonants and the breathed fluid 

 consonants. In blowing, the glottis is wide open, but in breathing 

 it has a tendency to contract. Nor is the glottis the only part of the 

 vocal tube which has a tendency to contract in breathing. The 

 radical diiference between blowing and breathing is this : In blowing, 

 all the apertures, from the inmost parts of the lungs to the mouth 

 itself, are stretched open, and the air is suddenly ejected by a con- 

 traction of the muscles of the chest; but in breathing there is no 

 such forcible opening of the organs, but they are left in their usual 

 state, and the air is gradually and almost insensibly expressed. In 

 blowing we notice a distinct effort made towards opening the organs 

 of speech, but in breathing the only tendency which we notice in the 

 organs is that of being left alone. While in blowing, therefore, the 

 glottis is stretched wide open, so as not to interfere in the slightest 

 degree with the rushing out of the air; in common breathing, although 

 the glottis is still open, it nevertheless has more of a tendency to con- 

 tract, and thus of preserving its original quiet state; and thus while 

 by an intensified blowing the glottis is stretched more and more open, 

 this being the original tendency of a blow, by an intensified breathing 

 the glottis is more and more closed, this being the original tendency 

 of a breathing. In the motion of the air which is called blowing, 

 there are indefinite degrees of rapidity; when it is reduced to its 

 minimum degree of rapidity, so as to resemble a breathing, we obtain 

 by it the German soft consonants, which are the non-sonant soft con- 

 sonants. In breathing, also, we notice various degrees of velocity; 

 in common breathing, when the current of air moves slowly from the 

 lungs, the glottis does not vibrate, and the breathing is mute; but 

 when it moves more rapidly the slight noise is produced which is 

 lieard in the whispering language, and when the speed of the current 

 is still more increased the glottis begins to vibrate and the breathing 

 is made sonant, as in sighing, singing, speaking. When the soft con- 

 sonants are pronounced with sonant breathing we obtain the English 

 or the sonant soft consonants ; when we pronounce the fluid conso- 

 nants with the slight noise of the whispering language, we produce 

 the non-sonant, breathed fluid consonants, and when wc pronounce 



