560 VOICE AND SPEECH. 



The most important theory of the mechanism of the head-voice has been proposed by 

 Mrs. Seiler. After long and patient effort, she was able to expose the glottis during the 

 production of these notes, when it was found that the vocal chords were firmly approxi- 

 mated posteriorly, leaving an oval opening, with vibrating edges, involving only one-half 

 or one-third of the vocal ligaments. This orifice contracted progressively with the higher 

 notes. This peculiar division of the vocal ligaments is due, according to Mrs. Seiler, to 

 the action of a muscular bundle, called the internal thyro-arytenoid, upon little cartilages 

 (the cuneiform) extending forward from the arytenoid cartilage, in the substance of the 

 vocal ligaments, as far as the middle of the glottis. 



With proper cultivation, the transition from the middle register to the head-voice in 

 the female may be effected almost imperceptibly, thereby increasing the compass from 

 three to six notes, and even more ; and in the male the same may be accomplished with- 

 out difficulty, particularly in tenors. There can be hardly any doubt of the fact that the 

 naso-pharyngeal space is chiefly concerned in the resonance that takes place in head- 

 notes, though its actual demonstration is very difficult. The distinction between the 

 head and the chest notes is fully as marked in the male as in the female ; but it must be 

 remembered that one of the great ends to be accomplished in the cultivation of the human 

 voice is to make the three registers pass into each other so that they shall appear as one. 



Mechanism of Speech. 



Articulate language consists in a conventional series of sounds made for the purpose 

 of conveying certain ideas. There being no universal language, we must confine our 

 description of the faculty of speech to the mode of production of the language in which 

 this work is written. Language, as it is naturally acquired, is purely imitative and does 

 not involve of necessity the construction of an alphabet, with its combinations into 

 syllables, words, and sentences ; but, as civilization has advanced, we have been taught 

 to associate certain differences in the accuracy and elegance with which ideas are 

 expressed, with the degree of development and cultivation of the intellectual faculties. 

 Philologists have long since established a certain standard varying, to some extent, it is 

 true, with usage and the advance of knowledge, but still sufficiently definite by which 

 the correctness of modes of expression is measured. We do not propose to discuss the 

 science of language, or to consider, in this connection, at least, the peculiar mental opera- 

 tions concerned in the expression of ideas, but to take our own tongue as we find it, and 

 describe briefly the mechanism of the production of the most important articulate sounds. 



Almost every language is imperfect, as far as an exact correspondence between its 

 sounds and written characters is concerned. Our own language is full of incongruities 

 in spelling, such as silent letters and arbitrary and unmeaning variations in pronuncia- 

 tion ; but these do not belong to the subject of physiology. There are, however, certain 

 natural divisions of the sounds as expressed by the letters of the alphabet. 



Vowels. Certain articulate sounds are called vowel, or vocal, from the fact that they 

 are produced by the vocal chords and are but slightly modified as they pass out of the 

 mouth. The true vowels, a, e, i, o, w, can all be sounded alone and may be prolonged 

 in expiration. These are the sounds chiefly employed in singing. The differences in 

 their characters are produced by changes in the position of the tongue, mouth, and lips. 

 The vowel-sounds are necessary to the formation of a syllable, and, although they are 

 generally modified in speech by consonants, each one may, of itself, form a syllable or a 

 word. In the construction of syllables and words, the vowels have many different quali- 

 ties, the chief differences being as they are made long or short. In addition to the modi- 

 fications in the vowel-sounds by consonants, two or three may be combined so as to be 

 pronounced by a single vocal effort, when they are called respectively, diphthongs and 

 triphthongs. In the proper diphthongs, as oi, in voice, the two vowels are sounded. In 



