1094 SPEECH. [Book hi. 



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 O 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 

 developed 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 for- 

 wards 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 

 prominent. 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 b, and while the 

 laryngeal sound with its fundamental and partial tones is pass- 

 ing through it, reinforces and renders loud the tone 6, occurring 

 as a constituent of the whole sound. And similarly with the 

 other vowels. In fact vowel sounds are musical sounds in which 

 a particular constituent tone is reinforced and rendered loud out 

 of proportion to the other tones ; in the case of some vowels two 

 tones are so reinforced. The tone thus reinforced is generally a 

 partial tone, but may be the fundamental tone. When the vowel 

 is sung or spoken in notes of different pitch the particular par- 

 tial tone which is reinforced will occupy different positions in 

 the series of partial tones ; it may be the first, second, third or 

 other partial tone according to the pitch of the fundamental 

 tone. 



That the vowel chamber does act in this way as a resonator 



