S. Porter on the Vowel Elements in Speech. 173 
pharynx in all the ne was observed by Prof. Leon Vaisse, 
of Paris; and it was regar y him as giving them that — 
= eer or quality in ads they differ from the conso- 
nan fy view is that the whole vowel-tube is eenctrinds in 
saincia this general — by the very same action which 
gives distinctive character o each several vo 
4. After the vocal neni has passed the palato- lingual pas- 
sage, it has still to traverse a further portion of the oral cavity ; i 
and in every case the sound will be in some degree modified o 
colored according to the disposition of those anterior parts ; buy 
except in the proper labials, the effect will not amount to a 
change in the essential character of the vowel. The mouth 
even be tensely drawn close to the teeth, very much as in the 
open of the labials, and still leave so predominant the 
saaeusel character given by the palato-lingual passage, that we 
recognize the modification only as a di erent resonance given to 
the same vowel. In the word hutl, for example, we should by 
such means give to the vowel a more full and sonorous qual 
me who read this may need, at the outset, to be dis- 
with quality, or character as respects articulation. 
observed then, that no amount of mere prolongation will change, 
for instance, the so-called short sig in full, a fet into the 
corresponding long in fool, pool, rule, food ; nor will any process 
of curtailment convert the latter into the former. This is but 
an example of what is true universally of the vowels in the 
English, and to a greater or less degree in all languages. The 
tendency to variation of quality when a vowel is lengthened or 
shortened, is natural and universal. 
Philologists have been accustomed to define the difference of 
long and short, in the vowels, as one of duration merely; but 
i”) 
cr 
[1 
—to treat the distinction as one of fundamental importance in | 
* See the article, Parote (Physiologie et Sans bere the pen of Prof. : 
Vaisse, in the Supplement nt to the Encyclopédie Moderne of the MM. Didot. : 
Am. Jour. Sc1.—Sxrconp Serres, Vou. XLII, No. 125,—Sepr., 1866. 
23 mes 
