RESPIRATION 283 



appreciate as a definite pitch. This difference of character 

 corresponds to a difference of origin : the vowels are produced by 

 the vibrations of the vocal cords ; the consonants are due to the 

 rushing of the expiratory blast through certain constricted 

 portions of the buccal chamber, where a kind of temporary 

 glottis is established by th'e approximation of its walls. One of 

 these ' positions of articulation ' is the orifice of the lips ; the 

 consonants formed there, such as p and b, are called labials. 

 A second articulation position is between the anterior part of 

 the tongue and the teeth and hard palate. Here are formed 

 the dentals, t, d, etc. The ordinary English r, and the r of the 

 Berwickshire and East Prussian ' burr,' also arise in this position 

 through a vibratory motion of the point of the tongue. The 

 third position of articulation is the narrow strait formed between 

 the posterior portion of the arched tongue and the soft palate. 

 To the consonants arising here the name of gutturals has been 

 given. They include k. g, the Scottish ch, and the uvular German 

 r. The latter is produced by a vibration of the uvula. The 

 aspirated h is a noise set up by the air rushing through a moder- 

 ately wide glottis, and some have therefore included the glottis 

 as a fourth articulation position for consonants. Certain sounds 

 like n, m, and ng, when final (as in pen, dam, ring), although 

 produced at the glottis, are intensified by the resonance of the 

 air in the nose and pharynx, and are sometimes spoken of as 

 nasal consonants. 



As we have said, the vowels are produced by vibrations of the 

 vocal cords, but to what they owe their special timbre or quality 

 has been much discussed. According to the view with which 

 Helmholtz's name is particularly connected this is due to the 

 reinforcement of certain overtones by the resonating cavities, the 

 shape and fundamental tone of which are different for each vowel. 



When a vowel is whispered, the mouth assumes a characteristic 

 shape, and emits the fundamental tone proper to the form and size 

 of the particular ' vowel-cavity,' not as a reinforcement of a tone 

 set up by the vibrations of the vocal cords, but in response to the 

 rush of air through the cavity ; just as a bottle of given shape and 

 size gives out a definite note when the air which it contains is set 

 in vibration, by blowing across its mouth. A whisper, in fact, is 

 speech without voice ; the larynx takes scarcely any part in the 

 production of the sound ; the vocal cords remain apart and com- 

 paratively slack ; and the expiratory blast rushes through without 

 setting them in vibration. 



The fundamental tone of the ' vowel-cavity ' may be found for 

 each -vowel by placing the mouth in the position necessary for 

 uttering it, then bringing tuning-forks of different period in front 

 of it, and noting which of them sets up sympathetic resonance in 

 the air of the mouth, and so causes its sound to be intensified. 

 The fundamental tone is lowest for u (as in lute). Next comes o ; 



