OF ARTICULATE SOUNDS. 939 



in a narrow current of air forced between the tongue itself and the palate. HI. 

 The sounds of the third class are scarcely to be termed consonants, since they 

 are merely aspirations caused by an increased force of breath. These are A, 

 and the guttural ch l of most foreign languages (the Greek *). The first is a 

 simple aspiration ; the second an aspiration modified by the elevation of the 

 tongue, causing a slight obstruction to the passage of air, and an increased 

 resonance in the back of the mouth. This sound would become either g or k, 

 if the tongue, whilst it is being produced, were carried up to touch the palate. 3 



942. These distinctions come to be of much importance, when we apply 

 ourselves to the treatment of defects of articulation. Great as is the number 

 of muscles employed in the production of definite vocal sounds, the number is 

 much greater for those of articulate language ; and the varieties of combination 

 which we are continually forming unconsciously to ourselves, would not be sus- 

 pected, without a minute analysis of the separate actions. Thus, in uttering 

 the explosive sounds, we check the passage of air through the posterior nares, 

 in the very act of articulating the letter; and yet this important movement 

 commonly passes unobserved. We must regard the power of forming the seve- 

 ral articulate sounds which have been adverted to, and their simple combina- 

 tions, as so far resulting from intuition, that it can in general be more readily 

 acquired by early practice than other actions of the same complexity ; but we 

 find that among different Races of Men, there exist tendencies to the production 

 of different sounds, which, though doubtless influenced in great degree by early- 

 habit (since we find that children, when first learning to speak, form their 

 habits of vocalization in great degree in accordance with the examples amidst 

 which thev are placed), are certainly also dependent in part upon congenital con- 

 stitution, as we often see in the case of children among ourselves, who grow up 

 with certain peculiarities of pronunciation of which they do not seem able to 

 divest themselves. It is, however, in the want of power to combine the dif- 

 ferent muscular actions concerned in vocalization, that the defect termed Stam- 

 mering essentially consists. 



943. Many theories regarding the nature of Stammering have been proposed; 

 and there can be little doubt that the impediment may be attributed to a great 

 variety of exciting causes. A disordered action of the nervous centres must, 

 however, be regarded as the proximate cause; though this may be (to use the 

 language of Dr. M. Hall) either of centric or of excentric origin that is, it may 

 result from a morbid condition of the ganglionic centre, or from an abnormal 

 impression conveyed through its afferent nerves. When of centric origin (and 

 this is probably the most general case), the phenomena of Stammering and 

 Chorea have a close analogy to each other; in fact stammering is frequently 

 one of the modes in which the disordered condition of the nervous system in 

 Chorea manifests itself. It is in the pronunciation of the Consonants of the 

 explosive class, that the stammerer experiences the greatest difficulty. The 

 total interruption to the breath which they occasion frequently becomes quite 

 spasmodic; and the whole frame is thrown into the most distressing semi-con- 

 vulsive movement, until relieved by expiration. 3 In the pronunciation of the 

 continuous Consonants of the first class, the stammerer usually prolongs them, 

 by a spasmodic continuance of the same action; and there is, in consequence, 

 an impeded, but not a suspended respiration. The same is the case with the I 

 and r in the second class. In pronouncing the m and n, on the other hand, as 

 well as the aspirates and vowels, it is sometimes observed that the stammerer 



1 The English ch is merely a combination of t with sh ; thus chime might be spelt tshime. 



2 The general classification proposed by Dr. M. Hall has been here adopted, with some 

 modification as to the details. 



8 By Dr. Arnott this interruption is represented as taking place in the larynx ; that such 

 is not usually the case, the Author believes that a little attention to the ordinary phenomena 

 of voice will satisfactorily prove. 



