1098 SPEECH. [Boon in. 



of L, for instance in the Welsh II, the noise is not accompanied 

 by laryngeal vibrations. 



R is also allied to the above in so far as it too needs voice, 

 and is based on laryngeal vibrations. But these vibrations are 

 modified in a special way ; they are rendered intermittent by 

 vibratory movements started in some part of the passage, there 

 being different kinds of R according as the interruption takes 

 place at the tongue, or at the fauces. The common R is produced 

 by the vibrations of the point of the tongue raised against the 

 front of the hard palate, and the guttural R by the vibrations of 

 the uvula against the root of the tongue. In the feeble English 

 R there appear to be no vibrations ; the vowel chamber is simply 

 narrowed in front by the tip of the tongue. 



It will be observed that L and the common R resemble each 

 other to a considerable extent in the position of the tongue ; the 

 chief difference is that in L the tongue is not itself the subject 

 of muscular movement, and the vibrations are produced by the 

 friction of the expiratory blast through the narrow channel, 

 whereas in R the vibratory interruptions are produced by the 

 movements of the tongue. If in pronouncing L the tongue is 

 suddenly set in movement, or in pronouncing R the tongue is 

 suddenly arrested in its movements while in approximation to 

 the palate, the one consonant is changed into the other ; and, as 

 is well known, certain persons, for instance the Chinese, are apt 

 to use the one instead of the other. 



The explosives differ according to the part where the inter- 

 ruption takes place ; and in each kind of interruption the sound 

 is different and receives a different name according as voice is 

 used or no. P is uttered when the lips, being first closed and an 

 expiratory blast driven against them, are suddenly opened. Dur- 

 ing this act no voice is uttered. If voice is uttered the P becomes 

 JB. These are labial explosives. In T, the interruption which is 

 suddenly removed is caused by the application of the tongue to 

 the front part of the hard palate in the case of the English, to 

 the teeth in the case of most other languages ; it is called a 

 dental explosive, dental being used in the wide meaning stated 

 above. With T, there is no voice ; if voice be added the sound 

 becomes D. Since P differs from B, and T from D, only in the 

 absence or presence of voice, the removal or addition of voice 

 will at once convert in each case the one consonant into the 

 other ; and by certain nations P and B are used the one for the 

 other, as are also T and D. 



It will be observed that B and D, both with voice, have cer- 

 tain relations to M and N respectively. In B and M the action 

 is labial, in D and N dental, voice being present in all; the dif- 

 ference is that in M and N, the action consists in the establish- 

 ment of an obstruction in the buccal passage, in B and D in 

 the sudden removal of an obstruction. If there be, as in nasal 



