190 ELEMENTARY SOUNDS. 



Emily. You allude to the little doll-like figures that 

 uttered papa but I did not suppose there was any. thing 

 very wonderful in this. 



Dr. B. Mechanicians have considered the imitation 

 of the human voice by mechanical contrivances, as one 

 of the most masterly efforts of art. M. Kemperlin the 

 original inventor of the Automaton Chess Player, suc- 

 ceeded in constructing a figure which would utter a 

 continued sentence, but the manner in which he obtain- 

 ed this result is now not known. 



The elementary sounds which the vocal organs pro- 

 duce are very few in number, not more than twenty, and 

 some reduce them to ten. These sounds by their vari- 

 ous combinations, make up those compound sounds of 

 which every language is formed. 



Emily. In the same manner, I suppose, that seven 

 notes in music are made capable of expressing every 

 variety of harmony that has been, or can be made. 



Dr. B. In our own language, the elementary sounds 

 amount to twenty-four, though some of them are but 

 slight modifications of others. The vowels, a, e, i, o, u, 

 are formed by the chink of the glottis alone ; the gut- 

 tural, k, ch, q, g, h, are formed in the throat, which is 

 assisted in some degree by the chink of the glottis ; the 

 nasal, as m, n, are formed near the nasal fossae ; the 

 lingual, as /, r, chiefly by the tongue ; the labial, as 

 b,p,f,v, w, by the lips 5 and dental, as c, t, z, d, by 

 the teeth. 



The voice of speech, like the natural voice, consists 

 of sounds not easily appreciated ; that is, not easily re- 

 duced to a definite scale, as are the sounds of the voice 

 of song. 



Emily But do not the various inflections of the 

 voice set down by writers on elocution, show that some- 

 thing of this kind may be done ? 



Dr. B. It is true, they do, but in a very imperfect 

 way. Singing, like speech, is the effect of a state of 

 society, and supposes the existence of hearing and intel- 



