1825.] 
For the Monthly Magazine. 
Mr. Tuetwatw’s Lecturt on the Srruc- 
ture and Orricrs of the ENuncta- 
tive Oréans, and the Formation of 
LireraL ELEMENTS. 
Distinction of Voice and Enunciation— 
Vocal Organs alone could not produce 
Speech—Perfection of these in Singing 
Birds, §c.— General. Confusion of 
Language in this respect — Itard’s 
“ Savage of Aveyron.’ Enunciative 
Organs defined—Sub-division of Active 
and Passive Organs. Definition and 
Offices of the Organs, and Anatomy of 
. the Elementary Sounds of the English 
' Language. The Tongue—its Struc- 
ture ‘and Offices. The Gums—The 
Teeth—Lingua-Palatial and Lingua- 
Dental Sounds. The Uvula—Gutiu- 
val Elements—Formation and Quali- 
ties of the Elements —G hard, and K ; 
Prosodial Observations ; extensible and 
non-extensible Consonants. The Lips: 
peculiar Siructure and Sensibility of 
these in the Human Subject ; Impor- 
tant Consequences — Massive Insen- 
sibility of the Lips of Inferior Ani- 
mals—Imperfect Mimicry. of Loqua- 
cious Birds, Anatomy of the English 
Vowels—Labial Consonants. 
I, COMPLICATION OF SPEECH: 
—Speech is a phenomenon so. familiar 
to us, and the process of its attainment 
has begua so early, that we are seldom 
led to analize it, or inquire into the 
nature.of the actions, or the complica- 
tion of the organs by which it is pro- 
duced. Add to which, the space of 
time usually occupied by the pronuncia- 
tion of its distinguishable parts is so 
small (about three syllables in  or- 
dinary discourse being pronounced in 
aisecond), that the mind seems scarcely 
to have time to detect its component 
nature, or resolve it into its actual ele- 
ments. | But» if,; instead of hastily re- 
garding syllables as) simple efforts of 
utterance, we proceed to analysis from 
the first impulses of ‘aspiration to the 
final production of verbal utterance, we 
shall’ soon discover a degree of compli- 
cation in these supposed simple im- 
pulses, that will remove, at once, all 
our astonishment at the difficulty which 
is sometimes’ found in the attainment, 
Thus; for ‘example, the syllable MAN, 
whenwell pronounced, comes upon the 
ear in‘such @ state of uninterrupted en- 
tireness, that it is generally regarded 
and received as a simple constantaneous 
impression. A moment’s recollection 
The Anatomy of Speech. 5 
will, however, enable xis to discover that 
neither the impulse nor the impression 
is simple or constantaneous ; that it is 
composed of three elements, m—a—n,* 
melted. into, and mingling with each 
other, it is true, like the prismatic co- 
lours of the rainbow, at their initial 
and terminative extremities, but each of 
them capable of a separate duration, and 
demanding, under whatever combina- 
tion, during some part of their con- 
tinuity, a full and unmingled contra- 
distinctness and identity. , 
Formation or Simpte ELEMENTS.— 
But this is not all: each one of these 
elements requires for its pronunciation 
a complication of constantaneous ac- 
tions; and produces upon the ear a 
complicated, though constantaneous 
impression. Thus, for example, each 
of them requires, in the first instance, 
a certain modification of the outflowing 
breath, by the action of the respiratory 
organs; which, however, of themselves 
(though a necessary basis of both) can 
produce neither enunciation nor cog- 
nizable sound. To this, therefore, 
must be added a certain consentaneous 
action of the larynx (properly so called), 
which, without the co-action of the 
respiratory organs, could produce no 
audible effect; but which, with suclr 
co-operation, is competent to the pro- 
duction of a murmuring sound: whick 
is, however, still incompetent to the 
purposes of syllabic or enunciative ex- 
pression, without the superaddition of 
that specifie action of the cartilages 
surrounding 
* Here, as in so many other instances,, 
we have to lament the inadequacy of gra- 
phic language, to the full illustration of the 
principles of this science. The enunciative 
elements have no other symbols, and can 
haye no other, than the forms of the letters 
by which they are arbitrarily represented ; 
and, unfortunately, from our absurd me- 
thods of initiating youth into the rudiments: 
of literature, these letters are known, i 
their individual state, not by their elemental 
sounds, but only by their names; and if 
the reader should, in the present instance, 
pronounce these separated letters, by their 
nominal indications, instead of their elemen- 
tal sounds, the demonstration will be im- 
perfect : em—ay—en, do not spell man, but 
emayen: not one syllable, but three. Con- 
sidering the manner in which the alphabet, 
the first initiatory, and all the spelling les- 
sons aré taught, instead of its being extra- 
ordinary that nineteen people out of every 
twenty should read so badly as they do,— 
the only wonder is, that children ever learn 
at all either to read or spell. : 
