VOICE AND SPEECH 439 



vowel-tones is his reluctance to make the effort required for 

 the holding of any tone. In his mouth virile, self-reliant 

 vowels are replaced by emasculated diphthongs, which collapse 

 as they present themselves to the ear. It costs trouble to fix 

 the mouth-chamber before a vowel is sounded and to hold 

 it steady until it is finished. Ah slides down through 

 ai to ee ; i slips into ee. " Cow " becomes Tcyow ; " you," 

 ye-u-ow ; " cart," kyart. And just as the effort needed for 

 the filling of the vowels is shirked, so also is grudged the 

 expenditure of an accessory blast for their aspiration. 



When a vowel is whispered, although the vocal cords do not 

 vibrate, the blast passing through the resonating chambers 

 produces the overtones characteristic of the vowel. Anyone 

 who feels his own larynx while he sings, to the same note, the 

 various vowels between oo and ee he may please himself as 

 to the number of ai, eu, and u vowels he interposes between 

 these two extremes will recognize that it is pulled farther 

 and farther upwards by the muscles which surround it. The 

 cavity of the mouth is at the same time made shorter and 

 broader for each succeeding vowel. Singing the several vowels 

 before a piano, and at the same time striking various keys, it 

 is felt in the mouth that the resonance of that chamber is 

 reinforced by certain selected notes. Certain tuning-forks, 

 when sounded in front of the mouth shaped for a vowel, ring 

 out more loudly, because the mouth cavity resonates to their 

 prime tones. The overtones of the vowels can be analysed in 

 this way. Conversely, by sounding simultaneously an appro- 

 priate selection of tuning-forks, each with the right degree of 

 force, the overtones of a vowel can be synthesised. Thus if 

 whilst one tuning-fork is sounding B x b (Bb above middle C), 

 two others be added giving B 2 b (loud) and F 3 (soft), the com- 

 posite sound resembles the vowel o. If to these same three 

 forks, with F 3 sounding more strongly, B 3 b and a loud D 4 be 

 added, the sound changes to ah. 



The organ of voice is a combination of a reed-pipe with 

 resonating chambers, the shape of which can be changed at 

 will. The quality characteristic of a vowel is given to it by 

 adding to the note produced in the larynx sounds due to the 

 resonance of the throat and mouth. On the assumption (not 

 allowed by all authorities) that, since the resonating chambers 



