d ' 



VOICE AND SPEECH. 571 



they be closed, the air which is held there vibrates with the air 

 issuing through the oral cavity and gives the voice a nasal tone. 



The human voice can assume two different registers. The one 

 is strong and sonorous and accompanied with vibrations of the 

 thoracic wall (chest-voice). The other is weak, without resonance, 

 and of higher pitch (head-voice, or falsetto). 



Ventriloquy, which by practice can reach great perfection, con- 

 sists only in the possibility of changing the register of the voice. 

 The name derived its origin from the erroneous interpretation of it 

 by the ancients. They claimed that the ventriloquists spoke from 

 the stomach. The performer is able to conduct dialogues in which 

 two persons appear to take part. 



Speech. If man had the faculty of making only sounds with 

 the larynx, his vocal organ would not differ greatly from ordinary 

 musical instruments. The voice in such a case would but serve to 

 make others aware of his presence and to call them for the various 

 wants of life, just as happens in animals and in the child itself when 

 just born. 



But man is endowed with an important means by which he can 

 communicate to his fellows the state of his mind. It forms one of 

 man's noblest characteristics, a distinctive one. 



The infant at first expresses the state of his mind by cries, 

 accompanied by gestures. Then little by little it learns and tries to 

 imitate those sounds which the parents always make corresponding 

 to given objects and persons. It pronounces them without under- 

 standing their meaning. In later years it learns of the correspon- 

 ence of given sounds to given objects and ideas. 



Speech is articulate voice. It is an ensemble of sounds and 

 noises harmonized by the will and co-ordinated by a particular cor- 

 o-motor nervous center. Its aim is to make known to the listener 

 present state of mind of the speaker as well as recollections of 

 past and tendencies toward the future. 



VOWELS AND CONSONANTS. Speech is composed of two ele- 

 nts, namely: vowels and consonants. The former consist of 

 nds generated in the larynx and slightly modified in the pharynx 

 d mouth-cavity. The consonants result from noises variously pro- 

 by the obstacles encountered by the air in its passage through 

 e pharynx and mouth-cavity. Vowels are produced in the larynx, 

 arynx, and mouth ; consonants not in the larynx, but in the mouth. 

 The vowels are produced by the different form of the cavity of 

 e pharynx and mouth during the expiration of air through them. 



I JH 



:: 



