ELOCUTIONARY DRILL. 183 



back, mixed; high, middle, low ; round, etc. For purposes of illustra- 

 tion he uses diagrams. I doubt whether any one knows better than 

 Mr. Bell that the lips, cheeks, tongue, hard and soft palates concern- 

 ■ed in vocalization, differ both in size and shape in different per.sons ; 

 and that vowel positions which may suit one man may not, in minute 

 particulars, be absolute for all. His directions are given generally, 

 are easy of application and are subject to correction by the ear. 

 ■*' Visible speech " was a great step forwards not only in phonetics but 

 in the understanding of our language. 



But how do the sounds differ between themselves 1 Helmholtz 

 ■expei'imented fully on the question, and has been followed by Koenig. 

 They take the common European vowels and tind the number of 

 single vibrations they contain. This is for TJ 448, O 896, A 1792, 

 E 3584, I 7168 ; so that, counting on the chart from left to right, you 

 have a series of ascending octaves. Dr. Koenig has prepared a tuning 

 fork for each vowel and adjusted a resonator to each. If you take 

 fork A bow and apply it to the resonating chamber, you receive the 

 tone of the Italian A ; so with the others respectively. Here, then 

 is a scientific basis for vowel classification, in which the personal 

 ■equation is almost eliminated. 



But though these sounds be used in French, Italian, German and 

 other languages, have we them in English'? Mr. Palsgrave 

 says they lingered in the South of England till about 1500. If it be 

 asked, do our vowel-names correspond with these sounds, the answer, 

 with one exception, must be. No. Our language is peculiar. It is 

 like a stately ship built of wrecks. Scandanavian, Danish, Norman 

 conquests are embedded in it. Our spelling is a complex form which 

 crept upon us from the south, and was made to represent another 

 complex form or mass of complex forms which prevailed in more 

 northern portions of England. Mr. Oliphant throws much light on 

 the subject and shows how our vowels waged among themselves an 

 internecine war before 1500. Thus 



i takes the place of ae, e, ea, oe, ge, iht, w, y ; 



a " " " ae, e, ea, oe, ge, i, o, y ; 



e " " " a, ae, ea, eo, eow, i, ia, o, w, y ; 



" " " a, aw, ae, ao, e, ea, eaw, eo, i, w, ow ; 



" " a, ae, eo, eow, e, i, o, oi, w, we, y ; 



(" Old and Middle English 



u 



