MECHAXISM OF SPEECH. 513 



registers pass into each other so that they shall appear as 

 one. 1 



Mechanism of Speech. 



Articulate language consists in a conventional series of 

 sounds made for the purpose of conveying certain ideas. 

 There being no universal language, we must confine our 

 description of the faculty of speech to the mode of produc- 

 tion of the language in which this work is written. Lan- 

 guage, as it is naturally acquired, is purely imitative, 

 and does not involve of necessity the construction of an 

 alphabet, with its combinations into syllables, words, and 

 sentences ; but as civilization has advanced, we have been 

 taught to associate certain differences in the accuracy and 

 elegance with which ideas are expressed, with the degree of 

 development and cultivation of the intellectual faculties. 

 Philologists have long since established a certain standard, 

 varying, to some extent, it is true, with usage and the 

 advance of knowledge, but still sufficiently definite, by 

 which the correctness of modes of expression is measured. 

 We do not propose to discuss the science of language, or to 

 consider, in this connection, at least, the peculiar mental 

 operations concerned in the expression of ideas, but to take 

 our own tongue as we find it, and describe briefly the 

 mechanism of the production of the most important articu- 

 late sounds. 



Almost every language is imperfect, as far as an exact 

 correspondence between its sounds and written characters is 

 concerned. Our own language is full of incongruities in 

 spelling, such as silent letters and arbitrary and unmeaning 



1 In studying the mechanism of the voice in singing, we have received great 

 assistance in many practical points from Mme. Parepa-Rosa, to whose remark- 

 able power as a vocalist we have already alluded, and Sig. A. Bendelari, of this 

 city, the eminent singing-master. These distinguished artists, thoroughly 

 skilled both in the science as well as the art of music, have elucidated several 

 difficult questions, by their practical knowledge of the art of blending and modi- 

 fying the different vocal registers. 

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