VOICE AND SPEECH* 511 



Observations. Sound, 1. The lower lip presses on the upper 

 teeth, but allows the air to escape between them ; a similar sound 

 is produced by allowing the breath to pass through the lips when 

 nearly closed. 2, 3, 4-, 5. These sounds may be considered as 

 the continuation of the first series of vowel sounds ; for, by placing 

 the mouth in the position for e (5.), and continuing to elevate the 

 back part of the tongue, and, at the same time, to curl its tip, 

 these sounds will be successively produced. 6,7, 8. These sounds 

 diiFer from the preceding four, inasmuch as that the back part 

 of the tongue does not approximate to the palate ; the mouth being 

 placed for the second vowel, the front of the tongue is elevated 

 so as to touch the palate just above the teeth ; for the r, the 

 point is drawn back, so as to allow the air to escape ; and for the 

 /, the point is firmly pressed against the palate, and the breath 

 escapes by the two sides; for the / (inn7/e), the air escapes with 

 more difficulty. 9. These are used in the Gaelic and German, 

 but not in English. ]0, 11, 12. These sounds are produced by 

 the forcible escape of the breath, or voice, after a complete 

 obstruction by the lips or tongue. The obstruction by the lips 

 gives p> or b; that by the front of the tongue above the upper 

 teeth, i, or d ; and that by the back of the tongue against the 

 palate, k, or g ; these different articulations may therefore be 

 distinguished as Labial, Dental, and Palatal. When the sound 

 escapes through the nostrils it becomes continuous; the wz, w, and 

 ng are therefore not explosives. 



The alphabetic characters, invented as visual and permanent 

 representations of the articulations of speech, are very inadequate 

 to effect the purpose intended. In the English language there 

 are but five characters to indicate all the varieties of the vowels, 

 viz. #, e, , 0, u-. Of these, one only is pronourrced, when uncom- 

 bined, as a pure vowel ; this is e, the 5th sound in the table 

 of vowels: the other four are diphthongs or combinations of two 

 vowels ; a is the 4th and 5th ; i is the 3d and 5th ; o is the 6th 

 and llth; and u is the 5th and llth. When constituting parts 

 of syllables, the same character represents many different vowel 

 sounds. 



The consonantal characters are not quite so arbitrary, though 

 among these there are some simple sounds expressed by two let- 

 ters, and others which have no character to denote them ; and on 

 the other hand there are several redundant letters representing 



M M" 



