446 



VOICE. 



[CHAP. xxxi. 



contracted to a minimum, and the latter increased to its largest 

 size, 



The sounds just enumerated are the vowel sounds of continental 

 languages, and they can all be prolonged for a time limited only 

 by the passage of the air through the vocal apparatus. The Eng- 

 lish i may be looked upon as a diphthongal sound, and like the 

 true diphthongs cannot be prolonged like a continued vowel sound. 

 The diphthongal sounds appear to be produced by causing one par- 

 ticular vowel sound to pass into another with a considerable degree 

 of rapidity thus, ou is formed by the transition of the a in far 

 to the oo in cool. 



In the pronunciation of consonants, the soft palate, the tongue 

 and lips more especially, take part ; and in order to produce many 

 of the sounds, it is necessary that the air should be forced through 

 the passages suddenly, and often with a considerable degree of 

 force, while others can be produced as continuous sounds like the 

 vowels; hence the divisions into explosive and continuous conso- 

 nants. 



The former class includes the 6, p, d, t, g, k, the latter, the 

 v, f, I, m, n, r, the sibilant consonants s and #, and the Greek 

 6 (theta) th, which like sh, is a perfectly simple sound, and might 

 be represented by one letter. The manner in which these sounds 

 are produced by the alteration of the position of the organs con- 

 cerned in the production of speech can be studied by every one in 

 his own person ; but for a full description of the position of the 

 several parts concerned in producing them, the reader is referred 

 to the works enumerated at the end of the present chapter. 



For information upon subjects treated of in the present chapter, the 

 student is referred to the following works : Dissertatio de Loquela, 1700; 

 Rev. Mr. Willis in the "Cambridge Philosophical Transactions," vol. iv., 1832; 

 Lauth, "Mem.de 1' Academic Royale deMedecine," 1835; J. Miiller, " Elements 

 of Physiology," translated by Dr. Baly; Articles, "Larynx" and "Voice," by 

 Mr. Bishop, in the Cyclopeodia of Anatomy and Physiology. 



