512 VOICE AND SPEECH. 



two simple sounds :f,v,r, I, p, t, k, b, d, m, and n, are generally 

 constant in their signification. The simple sounds represented by 

 two characters are sh, th (in think), th (in the], and ng (in song). The 

 single characters representing more than one sound are s (in sea, 

 his, sure, and vision); 2 (in zany and azure); g (in gay and George). 

 The redundant letters are, c (having the sound either of s or k) ; 

 q (k followed by the eleventh vowel) ; j (compounded of d and 

 the second pronunciation of the z, the same as the g in George); 

 and x (standing for ks, or z). Y, as generally pronounced, and 

 iv, are not consonants ; the first represents the 5th, and the second 

 the llth vowel of the table, when immediately succeeded by 

 another vowel. 



The consonants will be best compared by articulating them all, 

 uniformly preceded or followed by the same vowel ; asje, she, se, 

 the, pe, te, ke, &c. or ef, esh, es, eth, ep, et, ek, &c. 



It is by no means improbable that the progress of modern art 

 may present us at some future time with mechanical substitutes 

 for orators and preachers. For, putting aside the magic heads of 

 Albert the Great and Roger Bacon, Kratzenstein actually con- 

 structed an instrument to produce the vowels *, and De Kempelin 

 has published a full account of his celebrated speaking machine 

 which perfectly imitated the human voice. k The celebrated 

 French mechanician, the Abbe Mical, also made two heads of 

 brass which pronounced very distinctly entire phrases ; .these 

 heads were colossal, and their voices were powerful and sonorous. 

 The French government refusing, it is said, in 1782, to purchase 

 these automata, the unfortunate and too sensitive inventor, in a 

 paroxysm of despair, destroyed these masterpieces of scientific 

 ingenuit}'. More recently, Mr. Willis of Cambridge has pub- 

 lished a very interesting essay on the vowel sounds, in which he 

 describes an instrument for producing them, and at the same 

 time explaining their physical causes. My excellent and highly 

 distinguished friend Professor Wheatstone, to whom the analysis 

 of the elementary sounds I have above given is due, and whose 

 valuable assistance in this section, as well as those on vision and 

 hearing, I am proud to acknowledge, has also made many ex- 

 periments illustrating the mechanism of speech, and succeeded 

 in reconstructing and improving De Kempelin's machine. 



' Observations sur la Physique, par Rosier, Supplement, 1782. p. 758. 

 k Ueber den Mectanismus der Menschlicken Sprache. Vienna, 1791. 



