VOICE AND SPEECH. 



509 



TABLE OF VOWELS. 



The above table exhibits all the most usually pronounced vowel 

 sounds, but practised ears might distinguish others intermediate 

 in each series. When these vowels are sounded, the soft palate 

 is raised so as to prevent the voice from issuing through the nasal 

 channels; when, on the contrary, the soft palate is depressed, 

 the partial escape of the breath through the nostrils modifies all 

 the preceding sounds in a very evident manner. To distinguish 

 these two modes of articulating the vowel sounds, we may adopt 

 Dr. Darwin's terms, orisonant and narisonant vowels. 



Consonants may be divided into continuous (sometimes called 

 liquids or semi-vowels) and explosive. For the latter, the breath 

 or voice is stopped in its passage through the mouth ; for the 

 former, it is allowed a free passage, though the apertures are 

 more narrowed than for the vowels. 



But the most comprehensive and important division of these 

 articulations is into aspirates and sonants ; the modifications of 

 the breath being meant by the former term, and those of the voice 

 by the latter. In ordinary speaking these are mingled together to 

 form the elementary syllables of language. The aspirates, or 

 sounds indicated by the characters p,/, sk, s, th (in Ming), t, 

 k, II (Welsh), differ from the sonants, or those represented by 



h This vowel is much used by the Irish in pronouncing such syllables as bate 

 fait, &c ., for our English words beat, faith, &c. 



