Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 64.djvu/271

Rh changed to o, and if the lips are still further contracted the o will be changed to u. The remaining vowels a (as in 'hate'), e and i are made from the fundamental a above described, by contracting and shortening the passage between the tongue and the roof of the mouth and palate. If we would suppose that the passage from the vocal cords to the lips were a tube, then we could say that in u the passage was the longest and in i the shortest, and the o, a and e sounds intermediate between these in the order stated. In these and in the examples which follow, it would be well for the reader to test the methods described, which would do much to make this subject more easily understood.

The consonants, as their name implies, can not be sounded alone but simply modify the vowel sounds. This may be done by the lips (labial), the teeth (dental), the tongue (lingual), the palate (palatal) or by allowing the air to pass through the nostrils (nasal). The simplest are the labial sounds (m, b, p, f, v, w), and these are therefore, the first learned in infancy, as 'mama,' 'papa,' etc. In sounding the vowel a, we first contract the lips and then allow the air to escape by opening them, the slight explosive sound forms 'ba,' and if this effort is made stronger, it becomes 'pa.' In the dental sounds (t, d, s, etc.), the emission of the vowel is made by the teeth and tip of the tongue, and in the palatal (k, g, c, etc.), by means of the middle or posterior portion of the tongue and the middle or posterior portion of the palate. In this position are formed the so-called 'guttural' sounds of the German (ich, doch, etc.) which forms one of the characteristics of this language.

In the above described consonant sounds, the emission of air through the nostrils has been prevented by the soft palate being brought against the back of the throat. In the nasal sounds (n, ng), however, the air is allowed to pass through the nostrils by relaxing the soft palate. If the nostril be closed when 'ing,' for instance, is to be pronounced, the sound will not issue unless the air be allowed to pass through the nostrils. In some cases, the nasal sound is given to words to which it does not belong, this giving a peculiar nasality of tone easily recognized. In the French, there are normally the 'nasal vowels' (in, en, on) characteristic of this language.

In addition to the above, we have the aspirate, represented by the letter h. In this, a partial expiration is first allowed to pass between the vocal cords before they are approximated to form the vowel, in this way changing the a to ha and o to ho. This sound is pronounced very distinctly in the German language, less so in the English, being