AND PRONUNCIATION. 



subject of articulation, it may not be uninstructive to 

 the youthful reader to consider briefly the nature of the 

 voice and the different organs of speech. 



Sound is generally attributed to the undulations of 

 the air caused by some tremulous body ; these undula- 

 tions being received into the ear, are conveyed by the 

 auditory nerve to the brain. The lungs, which are two 

 spungy and vascular organs situated in the lateral part 

 of the thorax or chest, are the principal cause both of 

 respiration and of the voice. When we make an inspira- 

 tion, or draw our breath, they become distended, and by 

 their natural inclination to contract, they expel the air 

 through the windpipe. As soon as this expulsion or 

 expiration, as it is called, is completed, the air again 

 rushes in, and is again expelled as before. The upper 

 end of the windpipe is called the larynx, the superior 

 opening of which, called the glottis, is the chief instru- 

 ment in producing the voice. There are a great many 

 muscles attached to the larynx, and their use is to move 

 that organ either upwards or downwards, backwards or 

 forwards. The size of the larynx varies according to 

 age and sex ; it is small in children and women, greater 

 in young men, and still larger in adults. By means of 

 the contractile power of the glottis, through the agency 

 of the muscles, when the breath is forced through it, it 

 causes a vibration so as to produce sound. 



The intensity of the voice, like that of other sounds, 

 depends on the extent of the vibrations ; and the more 

 voluminous the larynx is, the more considerable will be 

 those vibrations. A strong person, therefore, with a 

 capacious larynx, has generally a powerful voice. 

 Children and women, whose larynxes are comparatively 

 small, have a weaker voice. The sounds which the 

 human larynx is capable of producing are very nu- 

 merous, but how they are produced is not exactly 

 known. The larynx is raised in forming acute sounds, 

 and lowered in forming grave sounds ; the vocal tube 

 being shortened in the first case, and lengthened in the 

 second. In breathing or whispering no sound is pro- 

 duced, because the opening is too wide, and the vocal 

 chord too relaxed. The expression of the voice, its 

 B 2 



