1 2 1 6 ON VOCAL SO UNDS. 



Konig l has given a different evaluation of the pitch of vowel 

 sounds thus : — 



Vowels . 



Tone 



No. of vibs. 



Fig. 431. — Pitch of vowels according to Kijnig. 



Donders, 2 who was the first to observe that the cavity of the mouth 

 for different vowels is tuned to different pitches, gave U as f v as d u 

 A as b'\), (like u in tugh) as g 2 , U (like u in lane, Fr.), as a", E, as c'"£ 

 and /as/'". 



Again, we may sing a vowel on a scale and still recognise the vowel 

 in each note. Thus, if we sing a, or o, or i, on a scale beginning with c, 

 the ear catches the sound of a, or o, or i, in each note. Such tones as 

 we have described are termed vowels, or we might call them vowel tones. 



Other sounds associated with peculiar conditions of the buccal cavity, 

 and which may be strengthened by the laryngeal sound, are those known 

 as consonants. These may be labials, as F, V, or P, Unguals, as S, T, 

 D, and gutturals, as J, K, or G, Ger. The physical nature of consonantal 

 sounds has not yet been sufficiently investigated. We shall first pro- 

 ceed to discuss the nature of vowel tones, more especially with the view 

 of determining the cause of quality of vowel tone, and the reason why a 

 vowel tone always appears to have the same quality, whatever may 

 be the pitch of the note on which it is sung. 



Theories of vowel tones. — The investigation of vowel tones may be 

 considered to date from the experiments of Willis 3 about 1829, who imi- 

 tated the larynx by means of a reed, above which he placed a resonating 

 cavity, and his conclusions are very similar to those put forward by 

 Hermann at the present day. About 1837, Wheatstone 4 made certain 

 further observations, and advanced a theory, and in later times the 

 subject has been studied by Donders, Helmholtz, Konig, Hermann, and 

 many others. 



The invention of the tinfoil phonograph by Edison in 1877, and the 

 improvement of the instrument by the labours of Edison, Graham Bell, and 

 others, in more recent years (until we now possess, in the wax-cylinder 

 phonograph, a far better mechanism), have led to the re-investigation of 

 the whole question of vowel tone by Fleeming Jenkin, Ewing, Hermann, 

 Pipping, Boeke, Lloyd, M'Kendrick, and others. The difficulties in the 

 way of accounting for some of the phenomena of vowel tones will be 

 appreciated when we state that these and other competent observers 



1 Compt. rend. Acad. d. sc, Paris, 1870, tome lxx. p. 931 ; also " Quelques experiences 

 d'acoustiqne," 1882, p. 47. 



- "De physiologie der spraakklanken," 1870, S. 9. 



3 Cambridge Phil. Trans., 1829, vol. iii. p. 231 ; also Ann. d. Phys. u. Chcin., Leipzig, 

 Bd. xxiv. S. 397. 



4 Westminster Review, Oct. 1837. 



