CHAP, vii.] SOME SPECIAL MECHANISMS. 339 



the rush of air through these narrow spaces which added to the 

 voice produces the sound we distinguish as L. In certain forms of 

 L, for instance in the Welsh II, the noise is not accompanied by 

 laryngeal vibrations. 



R is also allied to the above in so far as it too needs voice, 

 and is based on laryngeal vibrations. But these vibrations are 

 modified in a special way; they are rendered intermittent by 

 vibratory movements started in some part of the passage, there 

 being different kinds of R according as the interruption takes 

 place at the tongue, or at the fauces. The common R is produced 

 by the vibrations of the point of the tongue raised against the 

 front of the hard palate, and the guttural R by the vibrations of 

 the uvula against the root of the tongue. In the feeble English R 

 there appear to be no vibrations ; the vowel chamber is simply 

 narrowed in front by the tip of the tongue 



It will be observed that L and the common R resemble each 

 other to a considerable extent in the position of the tongue ; the 

 ehief difference is that in L the tongue is not itself the subject 

 of muscular movement, and the vibrations are produced by the 

 friction of the expiratory blast through the narrow channel, whereas 

 in R the vibratory interruptions are produced by the movements 

 of the tongue. If in pronouncing L the tongue is suddenly set 

 in movement, or in pronouncing R the tongue is suddenly arrested 

 in its movements while in approximation to the palate, the one 

 consonant is changed into the other; and, as is well known, certain 

 persons, for instance the Chinese, are apt to use the one instead of 

 the other. 



The explosives differ according to the part where the inter- 

 ruption takes place ; and in each kind of interruption the sound 

 is different and receives a different name according as voice is used 

 or no. P is uttered when the lips, being first closed and an 

 expiratory blast driven against them, are suddenly opened. 

 During this act no voice is uttered. If voice is uttered the P 

 becomes B. These are labial explosives. In T, the interruption 

 which is suddenly removed is caused by the application of the 

 tongue to the front part of the hard palate in the case of the 

 English, to the teeth in the case of most other languages ; it is 

 called a dental explosive, dental being used in the wide meaning 

 stated above. With T, there is no voice ; if voice be added the sound 

 becomes D. Since P differs from B, and T from D, only in the 

 absence or presence of voice ? the removal or addition of voice will 

 at once convert in each case the one consonant into the other , 

 and by certain nations P and B are used the one for the other, as 

 are also T and D. 



It will be observed that B and D, both with voice, have certain 

 relations to M and N respectively. In B and M the action is 

 labial, in D and N dental, voice being present in all ; the 

 difference is that in M and N, the action consists in the establish- 



