VARIETIES OF VOCAL TONES. 619 



The office of the ventricles of the larynx is evidently to 

 afford a free space for the vibrations of the lips of the 

 glottis ; they may be compared with the cavity at the 

 commencement of the mouth-piece of trumpets, which 

 allows the free vibration of the lips. 



SPEECH. 



Besides the musical tones formed in the larynx, a great 

 number of other sounds can be produced in the vocal tubes, 

 between the glottis and the external apertures of the air- 

 passages, the combination of which sounds into different 

 groups to designate objects, properties, actions, etc., con- 

 stitutes language. The languages do not employ all the 

 sounds which can be produced in this manner, the com- 

 bination of some with others being often difficult. Those 

 sounds which are easy of combination enter, for the most 

 part, into the formation of the greater number of lan- 

 guages. Each language contains a certain number of 

 such sounds, but in no one are all brought together. On 

 the contrary, different languages are characterised by the 

 prevalence in them of certain classes of these sounds, while 

 others are less frequent or altogether absent. 



The sounds produced in speech, or articulate sounds, are 

 commonly divided into vowels and consonants ; the distinc- 

 tion between which is, that the sounds for the former are 

 generated by the larynx, while those for the latter are pro- 

 duced by interruption of the current of air in some part of 

 the air-passages above the larynx. The term consonant 

 has been given to these because several of them are not 

 properly sounded, except consonantly with a vowel. Thus, 

 if it be attempted to pronounce aloud the consonants b, d, 

 and g, or their modifications, p, t, k, the intonation only 

 follows them in their combination with a vowel. 



To recognize the essential properties of the articulate 

 sounds, we must, according to Miiller, first examine them, 

 as they are produced in whispering, and then investigate 



