OF ARTICULATE SOUNDS. 937 



far ; the a of fate, corresponding to the e of French ; and the a of fall, which 

 should be really represented by au. This last is a simple sound, though com- 

 monly reckoned as a diphthong. In Kempelen's scale, the oral orifice required 

 to produce it would be about 3, and the size of the buccal cavity 4. 1 On the 

 other hand, the sound of the English i cannot, like that of a true vowel, be 

 prolonged ad libitum; it is in fact a sort of diphthong, resulting from the transi- 

 tion from a peculiar indefinite murmur to the sound of e, which takes its place 

 when we attempt to continue it. The sound oy or oi, as in oil, is a good ex- 

 ample of the true diphthong ; being produced by the transition from au to e. 

 In the same manner, the diphthong ou, which is the same with ow in owl, is 

 produced in the rapid transition from the broad a of ah, to the oo of cool. 

 Much discussion has taken place as to the true character of?/, when it commences 

 a word, as in yet, yawl, &c. ; some having maintained that it is a consonant (for 

 the very unsatisfactory reason, that we are in the habit of employing a rather 

 than an, when we desire to prefix the indefinite article to such words), whilst 

 others regard it as a peculiar vowel. A slight attention to the position of tite 

 vocal organs during its pronunciation makes it very clear that its sound in such 

 words really corresponds with that of the long (English) e ; the pronunciation 

 of the word yawl being the same as that of eaul, when the first sound is not 

 prolonged, but rapidly transformed into the second. The sound of the letter 

 w, moreover, is really of the vowel character, being formed in the rapid tran- 

 sition from oo to the succeeding vowel ; thus wall might be spelt ooall. Many 

 similar difficulties might be removed, and the conformity between spoken and 

 written language might be greatly increased (so as to render far more easy the 

 acquirement of the former from the latter), by due attention to the state of the 

 vocal organs in the production of the simple sounds. 



940. It is not very difficult to produce a tolerably good artificial imitation 

 of the Vowel sounds. This was accomplished by Kempelen, by means of an 

 India-rubber ball, with an orifice at each end, of which the lower one was at- 

 tached to a reed : by modifying the form of the ball, the different vowels could 

 be sounded during the action of the reed. He also employed a short funnel- 

 like tube, and obtained the different sounds by covering its wide opening to a 

 greater or less extent. This last experiment has been repeated by Mr. Willis ; 

 who has also found that the vowel sounds might be imitated by drawing out a long 

 straight tube from the reed. In this experiment he arrived at a curious result: 

 with a tube of a certain length, the series of vowels, i, e, a, o, u, was obtained, 

 by gradually drawing it out ; but, if the length was increased to a certain point, 

 a further gradual increase would produce the same sequence in an inverted 

 order, u, o, a, e, i ; a still further increase would produce a return to the first 

 scale, and so on. When the pitch of the reed was high, and the pipe short, it 

 was found that the vowels o and u could not be distinctly formed the proper 

 tone being injured by the elongation of the pipe necessary to produce them ; and 

 this, Mr. Willis remarks, is exactly the case in the Human voice, most singers 

 being unable to pronounce u and o upon their highest notes. 



941. The most natural primary division of the Consonants is into those which 

 require a total stoppage of the breath at the moment previous to their being 

 pronounced, and which, therefore, cannot be prolonged ; and those in pronounc- 

 ing which the interruption is partial, and which can, like the vowel sounds, be 



1 The mode of making a determination of this kind may here be given, for the sake of 

 example. If the broad a be sounded, the mouth and fauces being opened wide, and we 

 contract the oral orifice by degrees, at the same time slightly elevating the point of the 

 tongue, we gradually come to the sound of au; by still further contracting the orifice, and 

 again depressing the tongue, we form oo. On the other hand, in sounding e, the tongue is 

 raised nearly to the roof of the mouth ; if it be depressed, without the position of the lip<s 

 being altered, au is given. 



