508 VOICE AND SPEECH. 



supporting his existence independently, enjoys the prerogative 

 of reason and language; and following, by their means, his 

 social destination, is enabled to form, as it were, and manifest 

 his ideas, and to communicate his wants to others, by the organs 

 of speech." 



The elements of which all the spoken languages of mankind 

 are composed consist of the modifications given sometimes to 

 the breath, and at other times to the voice, during their passage 

 through the cavity of the mouth ; these modifications are prin- 

 cipally effected by the altered positions of the lips and tongue 

 with respect to the fixed parts of the containing cavity. 



The classification of these articulations into vowels and con- 

 sonants has been generally recognised. 



The vowels are formed by the voice, modified, but not inter- 

 rupted, by the varied positions of the tongue and lips. Their 

 differences depend on the various proportions between the aper- 

 ture of the lips and the internal cavity of the mouth, alterable by 

 the different elevations of the tongue. The vowel aw (as pro- 

 nounced long in all, and short in got) is formed by augmenting 

 the internal cavity by the greatest possible depression of the 

 dorsum of the tongue, and, at the same time, enlarging the se- 

 paration of the lips. Departing from this sound there are two 

 series. In one the external aperture remains open, and the 

 internal cavity gradually diminishes by the successive alter- 

 ations of the tongue ; in the other the positions of the tongue 

 are successively the same as in the first series, but the aperture 

 of the lips is diminished. The approximation of the lips produces 

 a more sensible effect as the inner cavity is more enlarged ; hence 

 two modifications of the first sounds of the second series are 

 easily recognised, whilst only one variety of the others is readily 

 appreciable, as will be shown in the following table.? Each of 

 these vowels may be long or short, according to the duration of 

 its sound in a syllable. 



Understanding, (book ii. p. 27.) on the authority of Prince Maurice, and believes 

 it too, of an old parrot that held a rational conversation. 



8 For the more open sounds, the jaws are generally more separated ; but this 

 is not indispensable. 



