CHAP. vn. J SOME SPECIAL MECHANISMS. 335 



speaking, of each vowel the vowel chamber is moulded into a par- 

 ticular shape. Taking the most common vowels U, O, A, E, I 

 pronounced in the way in which most nations pronounce them and 

 so corresponding to our oo, o, broad a (a/t), e as in bet, and ee, we 

 find the following. 



In U the vowel chamber is large with a narrow opening atrtrre 

 mouth. The larynx is depressed, or at least not raised above the 

 position of rest, the tongue is flattened, especially in front, and the 

 lips are protruded so as to reduce the mouth to a narrow round 

 opening. The form of the vowel chamber, with a wide pharyngeal 

 and a narrow buccal orifice, may be compared to that of a round 

 flask without a neck. In A, the mouth is opened wide, the larynx 

 is somewhat raised, the tongue flattened and at the same time 

 driven somewhat backwards towards the hind wall of the pharynx, 

 so that the entrance from the pharynx to the larynx is narrowed. 

 The vowel chamber thus assumes a form which may be compared 

 to that of a funnel, the wide end being at the mouth and the 

 narrow end at the larynx. In the shape is intermediate between 

 that of U and that of A, the exact shape depending on the kind of 

 O which is being uttered. 



In I the shape is very different. The larynx is raised and the 

 tongue is carried forwards and upwards in such a way that it 

 touches the teeth and the hard palate at the sides and nearly so 

 in the middle leaving only a narrow canal in the middle line. At 

 the same time the lips instead of being protruded are drawn back 

 and the soft palate is raised high up. In this way there is deve- 

 loped above the larynx a relatively large pharyngeal space which 

 communicates with the exterior by a narrow canal ; the form of the 

 vowel chamber may now be compared to that of a round flask with 

 a long narrow neck. In E, and the other vowels between A and 

 I, the shape of the resonance is correspondingly intermediate ; in 

 passing from A to I, the tongue is brought forwards and upwards, 

 the buccal orifice narrowed and the larynx raised. 



In each of the above cases what we have called the vowel 

 chamber acts as a resonance chamber ; that is to say in each 

 case, owing to the shape of the cavity (in relation to the nature 

 of its walls), the air in the chamber is more readily thrown into 

 vibrations by certain tones than by others, and when a sound 

 containing those particular tones is sounded into the chamber, 

 those particular tones are reinforced and rendered loud and promi- 

 nent. The shape of the vowel chamber in uttering U is such 

 that the cavity acts as a resonator towards a particular tone, 

 namely, the bass /, or more probably the bass &, and while the 

 laryngeal sound with its fundamental and partial tones is passing 

 through it, reinforces and renders loud the tone b, occurring as a 

 constituent of the whole sound. And similarly with the other 

 vowels. In fact vowel sounds are musical sounds in which a par- 

 ticular constituent tone is reinforced and rendered loud out of 



