28 

 WEDNESDAY, APRIL 15th, 1896. 



THE MUSICAL NATURE OF SPEECH, 



BY 



Me. MAETIN L. ROUSE. 



Through investigations began in 1881 (in which year he dis- 

 covered the whispering scales) Mr. Rouse said that he had first 

 discriminated sixteen simple vowel sounds, of which eight were 

 long, free, or full, and eight shoi-t, checked, or slender (each free 

 sound having a checked one closely resembling it) these being 

 heard respectively in the two rows of words 



hoom, mode, dawn, pard, burn, age, dil (Fr.), keen, and 



bush, mot (Fr.), dot, patte (Fr.), but, etch, dut (Fr.), kit. 



But criticisms made when he read a paper on the subject 

 before the Philological Society in 1889, have led him to see that 

 the vowels of the first series msiy be shortened or checked, and 

 those of the second series lengthened or set free, without making 

 the first series identical with the second. If a sharp consonant 

 be written after the sounded vowels in every word of the first 

 row, we find every free vowel sound checked, without 

 becoming the same as the corresponding sound in the second 

 series ; and if a flat consonant be written after the vowels in 

 every word of the second row, we find every checked sound set 

 free, without changing into the cognate ^sound of the first series, 

 or into the cognate sound as modified by the reverse process. 



Thus we get four series of vowels as heard in the four 

 following rows of English and French words (those in italics 

 being the French ones) ; — 



I. ^ Shude " mode ^gnawed * large * curd ^ laid J du ^heed 

 II. ^ Shoot ^ mote » naught * larch ^ curt « late ^ dut 1 heat 

 III. 5 Should £ mode E nod ± plage I cud ^L-d I sud "hid 

 IV. 1 Soot iimot £not t place 1 cut 1 let Lsiit Ihit 



And we may distinguish these series as the free full, the 

 checked full, the free slender, and the checked slender, respec- 

 tively. In all French monosyllables wherein e is the only written 

 yowel and bears no written accent (as in de, se, and gue for 

 instance) it has the checked full sound ^, and when the English 

 word dog is uttered contemptuously, its slender vowel is often set 

 free and prolonged without its turning into the au sound of 

 naught or of gnawed. 



