THE VOWELS. THE TONGUE IN SPEECH. 241 



the teeth, the lips, and the throat, are the parts by which 

 most of the letters are formed. To these Fournie adds the 

 palate for some of them, and the glottis for the 7z, which, 

 until recently, was classed among the gutturals. It is un- 

 necessary to remark that in the study of the vowels in their 

 relation to the mechanism of articulate sounds, the laryngo- 

 scope has given invaluable aid. 



The manner of forming the vowels differs from that of the 

 consonants in this respect : the parts which co-operate in the 

 formation of the vowels must be fixed during the utterance 

 of the vowel, while the articulation of the consonants is 

 effected by a movement of the parts essential to their forma- 

 tion. Thus "/," is enunciated by suddenly opening the lips 

 which have been previously closed; and in the same way 

 the other consonants are pronounced by some movement; 

 and this movement is in accordance with the disposition of the 

 parts necessary to the utterance of the vowel which precedes 

 or follows the consonant. 



Of all the parts which serve for the articulation of sounds, 

 the tongue is the one which plays the principal part, and 

 therefore it gives its name to the whole group of modulations 

 of the voice which constitute language, or as we sometimes 

 say, a tongue. And yet observation teaches us that the 

 volume of the tongue may be greatly diminished, or may 

 even exist only in a rudimentary state, without its being im- 

 possible to speak. 



De Jussieu relates that he saw a girl fifteen years old, in 

 Lisbon, who was born without a tongue, and yet she spoke so 

 distinctly as not to excite the slightest suspicion of the ab- 

 sence of that organ. 



The Transactions of the Royal Society of London (1742) 

 contain a report of the commission which was appointed to 

 investigate a case of a similar nature. It was a woman 

 who had not the slightest vestige of a tongue, but who could, 

 notwithstanding, drink, eat, and speak as well and as dis- 

 tinctly as any one, and even articulate the words in singing. 

 Other instances have been known where individuals, after 

 losing a portion of the tongue by accident or disease, have 

 again been able to speak after a longer or shorter time. 



lo 



