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THE 
 
 Basic Law 
 
 -OP- 
 
 Vocal Utterance 
 
 — BY — 
 
 EMII^ SUTRO 
 
 New 
 108 East 16th 
 EDGAR S. WERNER 
 
 1894 
 

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 Copyright 
 
 1894 
 
 By EMIL SUTRO 
 
 OF Edgar S. Werner, 108 East 16th Street, New York, 
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THE BASIC LA^W 
 
 OF 
 
 VOCAL UTTERANCE 
 
 PRELIMINARY REMARKS. 
 
 T T is not without a fetTiiig of trepidation that 
 ^ I venture to write for publication on a 
 subject with which so many eminent scientists 
 have battled. 
 
 But I have a message to deliver, entrusted to 
 me l)y the highest authority, that of nature 
 itself, and I shall not shrink back from deliver- 
 ing it on account of a deficiency of information 
 on some of the sul)jects intimately connected 
 there\inth. 
 
 For the same reason, however, T cannot claim 
 
 tliat all my observations are likely to be in strict 
 (7^ 
 
VOCAL UTTERANCE. 
 
 conformity with established scientific facts, or 
 supposed facts. I state only that which I think 
 is the case, judging by the most conscientious, 
 careful, and long-continued personal obser- 
 vations. 
 
 Had I called scientists to my aid, I might, in 
 some instances, have been more correct, but 
 would have lost my originality, which I claim 
 for all my observations throughout. These 
 observations, on the other hand, I firmly believe 
 will open up new avenues in various directions 
 for scientific research. 
 
 As far as the voice is concerned, they will 
 mark an epoch in history. A new science will 
 thereby be inaugurated, which will clear up 
 the mystery which has surrounded it, and 
 place its phenomena on a scientific basis. 
 
 This publication, in the first instance, is a 
 simple recital of my experience in attempting 
 to master, and in finally succeeding in master- 
 ing, the pronunciation of the English language. 
 
 I have carefully noted, step by step, how I 
 drew gradually nearer to, and finally arrived at, 
 this result. I have shown the way I have gone. 
 
PRELIMINARY REMARKS. 9 
 
 in language free from technicalities, so that all 
 may be al)le to follow and arrive at the same 
 result. 
 
 It sounds strange to relate, however, that on 
 my way to apparently so simple an end, I 
 should have encountered mines, tilled with the 
 most precious material ever found, for the 
 knowledge of voice-production in general. This 
 material revealed to me the hidden mechanism 
 of the voice, not only of man's voice, but of 
 the voice in general. 
 
 I can scarcely call it a discovery, for it was 
 more in the nature of a revelation, that that 
 should have come to me for which scientists of 
 all civilized countries and of all ages have been 
 searcliing in vain. 
 
 I was twenty years of age when I first came 
 to this country, — an age at which the organs of 
 speech have taken such positive shape for the 
 production of the sounds of one's native tongue 
 that it is difficult, nay, as I have since learned, 
 next to impossible to dislodge them, and to 
 produce to perfectifin those of the tongue of 
 another country. 
 
10 
 
 VOCAL UTTERANCE. 
 
 Being possessed of a fair book knowledge of 
 the English language, I was also ambitious of 
 learning to speak it precisely in the same man- 
 ner that native born persons speak it. This idea 
 took possession of me to such an extent that 
 scarcely a day passed on which it was not 
 uppermost in my mind. 
 
 How many years, from that time forward, 
 I labored, trying to divest myself of my German 
 accent in speaking English, I cannot tell, but 
 there were a great many. Again and again I 
 thought I had succeeded ; and again and again 
 always getting a better insight, I found I w^as 
 still far from my cherished aim. 
 
 This continued till within some seven or eiglit 
 years ago, when it suddenly daw^ned on my all 
 but despairing mind that that which I had 
 attempted w^as impossible of accomplishment. 
 I became convinced tliat there were physical 
 obstacles in the way, which it was not in my 
 power to overcome. 
 
 With this knowledge once firmly settled, I 
 abandoned my previous method of attempting 
 to learn by imitation, which, by the bye, has 
 
PRELIMINARY REMARKS. 11 
 
 been everybody's method since time immemorial 
 and, as far as I know, is everybody's metliod to 
 this day, and commenced to learn by analyza- 
 tion. I tried to resolve the English language, 
 as far as its pronunciation was concerned, into 
 its component parts, and by thus dissecting it 
 ascertain liow it was put together. 
 
 I cannot say that this thought was with me 
 at first. But this is what it came to, after be- 
 ginning with finding certain difficulties and 
 overcoming them. Then overcoming more dif- 
 ficulties till, in the end, all the obstacles that 
 had been in my way were removed, and I could 
 produce perfect English speech. To be able to 
 overcome these difficulties it was, of course, 
 nev'ossary to understand them. This was no easy 
 task. It took years of thought and close obser- 
 vation before I could say I had come to tlie 
 bottom of them. 
 
 I undei-stood, as already remarked, English 
 quite well before I came to this c<nintry, as far 
 as reading and writing it went; and, in the 
 course of time, I had also learned to s})eak it 
 quite fluently. This hwwhdye^ however, was 
 
12 
 
 VOCAL UTTERANCE. 
 
 in my way, as it is in the way of all foreigners 
 who understand the written language. The 
 latter is always before their mind's eye, which 
 makes their pronunciation so painfully exact 
 and, therefore, so studiously incorrect. 
 
 Now, however, I commenced to learn speak- 
 ing it over again ; this time as a child does its 
 mother-tongue. As I watched this child's prog- 
 ress I noticed each step, from the first help- 
 less tottering of its limbs to their gradual 
 growth in strength, till at last by their aid it 
 could walk. 
 
 All studies in connection with the voice have 
 been of a twofold nature : (1) To gain a knowl- 
 edge of the instrument from which it emanates ; 
 and (2) to understand the nature of the result, 
 the musical qualities of the voice. Very few, 
 however, have made it their object to ascertain 
 by what means the voice is evolved from its 
 instrument. Unless we know how we play on 
 our instrument, know what mechanical means 
 are applied to draw sound from it, we cannot 
 expect to better our mode of playing. All can 
 play by gift of nature. But the question is, how 
 
PRELIMINARY REMARKS. 13 
 
 are they playing V The knowledge of the con- 
 struction of the instrument, the larynx, on the 
 one hand, and of the musical qualities of the 
 voice, on the other, will not assist us in 
 producing better results. It will not assist a 
 foreigner in acquiring the correct speech of 
 another land. It will not assist the teacher 
 of elocution or of singing in developing his 
 pupil's speech or song. It will not correct 
 radical faults of enunciation, nor will it help the 
 deaf and dumb in their struggles for expression, 
 beyond their crude sounds of inharmonious 
 sjieech. 
 
 Most works heretofore written do not contain 
 much that one can take hold of and bend to 
 one's will, so as to improve one's speech, song, 
 or vocal utterance of any kind. Yet the will 
 can do so nmch for us, if we only know just 
 what we want it to do for us. It has been 
 vouchsafe*! to me, by getting a better insight 
 into the mechanical process by which speech is 
 produced, to be able to show how im])r(jve- 
 ments and g(x>d results can be obtained in a 
 practical manner. 
 
VOCAL UTTERANCE. 
 
 The observations I have made, beyond all 
 others, are in connection with the air we use for 
 s^^eech ; and with the movements of the tongue, 
 the j^romoter and regulator of speech. Hence 
 tlie word language, from lingua, tongue. 
 
 For years I have watched this delicate piece 
 of meclianism, whicli is so constructed that it 
 works without apparent effort, noise or fric- 
 tion. The person in whose body it exists, and 
 by whose will it is set in motion, is scarcely 
 aware that there is any action at all, although it 
 is making countless noiseless movements within 
 him. It is ever ready to do the bidding of its 
 master, the mind ; and its fatigue must be great, 
 indeed, or its illness severe, before it will show 
 any sign of disobedience. 
 
 I looked into the workshop of the mouth to 
 ascertain why, after its machinery had enabled 
 me successfully to produce German speech, it so 
 obstinately refused to lend its aid in doing the 
 same for me in the production of English s})eech. 
 The impediments I had encountered, and which 
 I was trying to overcome, were now of the 
 greatest aid to me; inasmuch as they enabled 
 
PRELIMINARY REMARKS. 15 
 
 me to feel my way along the lines in which 
 this delicate yet most lively piece of mechanism, 
 the tongue, was moving. I could not liave done 
 this for my own language, nor could the native 
 born of any country have done it for his. It 
 was by makmg a comparative study of mine 
 with a foreign tongue alone which enabled me 
 to accomplish this. 
 
 There being no difficulties to overcome, the 
 machinery moves witli sucli perfection for one's 
 own language that its movements, partly on ac- 
 count uf tlieir rapidity, partly because they are 
 involuntary, cannot be watched. They liave 
 been working thus from our infancy, and, being 
 liidden within the inner recess of our mouth, do 
 not offer us an opportunity of observing tliem. 
 
 My tongue, however, was overweighted. It 
 halted, and made an effort, when it tried to pro- 
 duce these, to it, strange and abnormal sounds. 
 This gave me the opportunity of watching it, 
 and finding out by what means it finally suc- 
 ceeded in pro<lucing these sounds. No phy- 
 sician, leaning his ear against the brea^st of his 
 patient, ever listened more intently than I 
 
16 
 
 VOCAL UTTERANCE. 
 
 listened to the sounds of my voice. Witli an 
 acute ear for sounds, and knowing just what 
 was expected of nie, I never stopped trying till, 
 in guiding my tongue, now hither, now thither, 
 I finally hit upon the correct sound. 
 
 While I uo not know, to-day, how my tongue 
 moves, .except by induction, for German speech, 
 I know precisely what movements it makes for 
 the production of English sounds. 
 
 My advantage has been in this, that I could 
 watch tlie machinery while it was in motion; 
 whereas others have observed what there was to 
 observe while it was standing still. By ex- 
 perimenting upon the larynx of the dead, or by 
 thrusting an instrument into that of the living, 
 how can it be expected -that any reliable move- 
 ments should have been observed ? For it is 
 action, action all the time that is doing the 
 work. So many agents have to cooperate in the 
 living body to produce correct results that the 
 default of any one of them will .suffice in neu- 
 tralizing the j^roper action of the rest. 
 
 It is by watching the obstructed action of our 
 organs that we can expect to be able to obtaiu 
 
PRELIMINARY REMARKS. 17 
 
 correct results. I feel satisfied, that with ex- 
 treme care and watchfulness the same as I have 
 exercise<l in connection with our organs of 
 speech, correct results can often be obtained 
 where now vivisection is resorted to. 
 
 I do not by any means wish to sa}^, however, 
 that I consider my work to be complete. The 
 light by the aid of which I have obtained a 
 glimpse of the silent workshop in which the 
 tongue is moving has been Imt a dim one at 
 best, yet it has revealed enough to show the 
 way ; and those better prepared, by their scien- 
 tific and musical knowledge, can now pursue it 
 on furtlier toward greater perfection. 
 
 I have been both my teacher and my scholar, 
 and there never has been a more patient 
 teacher or a more industrious scholar. During 
 long and tedious rides in the street-cars which I 
 was daily obliged to make, this scholar was my 
 constant companion. During the silent hours of 
 the night when sleep would not come, he was 
 lying awake with me, listening to me, and try- 
 ing to obey my most dictatorial commands. I 
 have been pleased with his industry and his 
 
18 
 
 VOCAL UTTERANCE. 
 
 progress, and that is saying a great deal, for 
 I am a most exacting taskmaster. 
 
 It is tliis advantage that my metliod lias, tliat 
 the principle, once understood, we can carry 
 an entire dictionary with us in our heads, and 
 be constantly learning the pronunciation of the 
 words, at any time and upon every occasion. 
 We can practice singing in the same way, not 
 aloud, but in an undertone sufficiently distinct, 
 however, to make us feel whether we are correct 
 or not. 
 
 Mine is the natural method of learning to 
 speak a language ; others are by imitation only. 
 Where a solid foundation is wanting, there can- 
 not be a satisfactory edifice. Mine is the solid 
 foundation ; that of others, a very unsatisfactory 
 structure without foundation in principle. 
 
 German-English dictionaries generally use 
 German characters to give the English pro- 
 nunciation. This is very misleading, there being 
 no equivalent for German sounds in tlie English 
 language, as they are different both in their 
 origin and in their nature. 
 
 Anyone in the least acquainted with the 
 
PRELIMINARY REMARKS. 19 
 
 true pronunciation will know that the same 
 is far from behig correct, "when hot is rep- 
 resented by ''hat;" wlien pale is spelled 
 ''pehl;" village, "villedsch;" her, "horr;" 
 busy, ' * bizsi ; ' ' clotl les, ' ' kloss ; ' ' whose, 
 ' ' huss ; ' ' whole, ' * hohl ; ' ' voice, ' ' vauzs ; ' ' 
 who, "huh;" wrestle, "ross'l;" German, 
 ' ' dschorman ; ' ' suggest, ' ' sogdschesst ; ' ' anx- 
 ious, " ahnkschoss ; " etc. 
 
 But why continue when it is impossible ex- 
 actly to render one word, even the simplest, by 
 any sign or letter in the Geraian language ? 
 
 I have taken the preceding at random from 
 a key to the correct pronunciation of English, 
 contained in one of the best guides in existence, 
 and but lately published. Others are worse; 
 some of thorn actually bordering on the ridic- 
 ulous. Still the above rendering probably 
 conies as near to the solution aimed at as the 
 German language is capable of. In this or a 
 similar manner Germans and other foreigners 
 are taught to pronounce English wherever their 
 countrymen teach it, and it is rare that, outside 
 
)CAL UTTERANCE. 
 
 of tlie countries in which Enghsh is spoken, 
 anyone else teaches it. 
 
 Everyone who has been taught to speak Eng- 
 lish in this imitative manner must again unlearn 
 it, before he can begin to speak it correctly. 
 Teachers, above all, should study these funda- 
 mental principles, and possess themselves of an 
 "English tongue," without which it is im- 
 possible to teach the correct pronunciation. 
 
 Germans learning English wdth a German 
 tongue, must twist their tongues into all manner 
 of unnatural shapes while attempting to pro- 
 duce these, to them, strange and almormal 
 sounds. A language to be well spoken must be 
 spoken w^th ease, in a natural manner, and 
 without an effort, and this can be done only 
 when the same mechanical means are employed 
 that are used by native-born persons. 
 
 It will 1)0 ol)jected that it is just my system 
 which requires one's tongue to be twisted in an 
 unnatural manner. I can only reply that, if 
 this is so, it is not done at haphazard, but ac- 
 cording to principles, and for the purpose of 
 briufirins: about correct results. Once accom- 
 
PRELIMINARY REMARKS. 21 
 
 plislied, it soon becomes natural and requires no 
 further effort. AVitli a child whose organs of 
 speech are still plastic, no effort is re(pured to 
 speak a foreign language. Its instinct will lead 
 it into the right path at once, and its organs of 
 sjKjech otter no obstacles that cannot be readily 
 overcome. These organs, once having assumed 
 shape in a deiinite direction, however, largely 
 dictated by habit, it becomes a matter of con- 
 siderable difficulty to give them shape in an- 
 other direction. This is greatly aggravated in 
 case of a default of the knowledge of the action 
 really required of them. This knowledge I pro- 
 jx)8e to su])ply, having made a careful study of 
 the mechanical means emjiloyed in producing 
 both the German and the English languages. 
 
 While my studies have "been confined to these 
 languages, there is no reason to doubt but simi- 
 lar i-esults nn'ght be obtained in respect to any 
 other language. So that, in the end, the pro- 
 nunciation of all languages could be taught ac- 
 cording to the natural method. It is easier for 
 an English-speaking j)erson, however, to learn 
 German than it is for a German to learn Euir- 
 
VOCAL UTTERANCE. 
 
 lish ; if it were but for the reason that each 
 letter in German represents a given sound, 
 while English vowel sounds, as represented by 
 letters, are a very uncertain quantity, indeed. 
 
 The mechanical difficulties a German has to 
 overcome in speaking English, an English- 
 speaking person, of course, must acquire in 
 order to enable him to speak German correctly. 
 
 Understanding the mechanical requirements 
 for the correct pronunciation of English, I have 
 carefully applied them to my sjjeech; and I 
 seriously doubt whether there ever has been 
 another j^erson who has learned to speak a lan- 
 guage in a similar manner to tliat in wliich I 
 have learned to speak English. 
 
 Our native tongue is part and parcel of our 
 being. It is so intangible that we cannot grasp 
 it and lay hold of it for the purpose of dissect- 
 ini^ it. What I have done for the Enoflish lan- 
 guage, therefore, I never could have done for 
 my own. 
 
 It is not without* reason, therefore, that 
 people are named for the language they speak : 
 Germans, Erenchmen, Englislnnen, Dutchmen, 
 
PRELIMINARY REMARKS. 
 
 etc. They retain this cognomen even after they 
 have left the country of tlieir birth and have 
 become citizens of another. Their language is 
 synonymous with their being, and they cannot 
 dispossess themselves of it and possess them- 
 selves of another to the same perfect degree, 
 any more than they can change the features of 
 their face. 
 
 Even after my system shall be perfectly 
 understood, it will be given to but comparatively 
 few to leani to speak a foreign tongue with the 
 same perfect ease that they do their own. It is 
 no more likely, then, that the popular fancy, 
 that English will some day become the language 
 of the world, will be realized, than that Ethio- 
 pians or MongoHans will eventually become 
 identiiied with the Caucasian race. 
 
 Before closing these remarks and entering 
 upon my theme proper, I beg to be permitted 
 to say that I have been obliged so frequently to 
 use tlie terms ''English-speaking people," or 
 ''Englishmen," and "Americans," to which, 
 to l>e quite correct, should be added "Cana- 
 dians, " " Australasians, " " East Indians, ' ' etc. , 
 
u 
 
 VOCAL UTTERANCE. 
 
 that I have substituted therefor the word ' ' An- 
 gUcans," as representative of people who speak 
 the Enghsh language. This word I shall make 
 use of hereafter. 
 
 I also want to saj that, regarding the pro- 
 nunciation of the English language or pecu- 
 liarities connected therewith, I have reference 
 only to the manner in which it is spoken in this 
 country. 
 
 Unless the German language is specially 
 mentioned, every remark has reference to the 
 English language only. I also beg to say, 
 that whatever merit, or demerit also, may belong 
 to the contents of this publication, they are 
 originally mine, having consulted no person, or 
 work, in connection therewith. It was only 
 after my system had assumed the shape in w^hich 
 it apj)ears now, that I looked up some of the 
 authorities; but I have not found that anyone 
 has pursued the same course of studies that I 
 have. 
 
 If there are repetitions in this little book, I 
 must be forgiven for them. They are not in- 
 serted to swell its volume, but to make my 
 
PRELIMINARY REMARKS. 25 
 
 meaning more clear. Tliey are not repetitions, 
 however, ,in a literal sense ; but, like the facets 
 of a diamond, which show its value from idiffer- 
 ent -points of view, or like the photograph of 
 a beloved face which has l)een taken from various 
 standpoints, each giving the same general 
 features — they throw light on my subject from 
 different sides, revealing, I hope, new features 
 and new points of interest in every instance. 
 
 Finally, I want to add to w^hat I have already 
 said in the beginning, that this is not a scientific 
 book in the strict sense of the word. I am a 
 simple citizen, and not only give my experience 
 and whatever knowledge I may possess, but also 
 take the reader into my confidence in regard to 
 my suppositions, my thoughts, and my feelings 
 even in the most unscientific and unconventional 
 manner. 
 
 As I owe no debt to anyone, except to those 
 who may take the trouble to read this book, I 
 hope they will forgive me for the manner in 
 which I urn dealing with my subject, and with 
 them ; and I also hope that I shall not be held 
 t<^ account too strictly f<>r any faults of fact or of 
 judgment. 
 
BREATHING. 
 
 T T lias always been believed, and, so far as I 
 
 ■*- know, it is still generally believed, that the 
 
 air, or ' ' breath, ' ' we use for onr speech is drawn 
 
 from our lungs ; that the air we inhale into our 
 
 lungs through our nose or mouth, during the 
 
 act of expiration furnishes the motive power for 
 
 our speech. 
 
 I have ascertained that breathing through the 
 
 nose, for the purpose of supplying our lungs 
 
 with life-giving air, or occasionally through the 
 
 mouth for the same purpose, is a distinctly 
 
 different proceeding from the one by which our 
 
 organs of speech ai-e furnished with air for the 
 
 production of sound. Breathing for speech is 
 
 carried on through our raouth while we are i7i 
 
 the act of speaking. Even for nasal sounds we 
 
 draw on the breath inhaled through the mouth, 
 
 and do not interfere with that which is inhaled 
 
 through the nose, all of which goes to supply 
 
 our lungs. 
 
 (20) 
 
BREATHING. 37 
 
 If tins were not the case, the vital function 
 of supplying our lungs with fresh air would be 
 constantly interfered with, through our speech. 
 The same would cause a pause, be it ever so 
 short, in expiration; consequently, a similar 
 pause would arise between the previous and the 
 next inspiration. Breathing, in consequence, 
 during speech would be a very unreliable factor. 
 
 There is no connection between tlie two, how- 
 ever, each performing its function without any 
 reference to the other, and without interfering 
 with each other. 
 
 It seems strange, yet it is no doubt true, that 
 while we are in the act of speaking breathing 
 through the nose is carried on as regularly as it 
 is in our sleep. While the act of breathing for 
 nur lungs is regular and measured, generally 
 long drawn out, breathing for speech is irregu- 
 lar, generally short, and is subject to the re- 
 (luirements of all the whims and fancies of 
 language. 
 
 In breathing for siKjech we take in just enough 
 air fur the productitni of any one given sound. 
 If there is to be an emphasis, an additional vol- 
 
38 VOCAL UTTERANCE. 
 
 uiiie of air is absorbed to produce this emphasis. 
 If a sound is to be spoken low, the vohinie of 
 air will be correspondingly small. 
 
 It appears to me that the air we use for speech 
 never enters our lungs; but, being inhaled and 
 exlialed, respectively, for the special purpose of 
 producing sound only, it simply supplies the 
 organs of speech Avith the necessary air to pro- 
 duce sound, the same volume of air inhaled for 
 speech being also exhaled for this purpose. 
 
 In breathing for the lungs, in like manner, 
 the same volume of air which is inhaled into the 
 same is also exlialed from the same. In teach- 
 ing correct breathing for speech or song, there- 
 fore, care nmst be taken to do so for the breath 
 we inhale through the mouth for the production 
 of sound, and not for that which we inspire for 
 the lungs. 
 
 It is popularly believed that speech is carried 
 on by a continuous ' ' stream ' ' of air coming 
 from the lungs ; or that a large volume is inhaled 
 into the lungs and kept tliere as a reservoir, 
 from which to draw for speech or song. If it 
 stream," and ])art of it were used for 
 
BREATHING. 29 
 
 speech, causing a disturl)ance in respiration, how 
 could there be a ''constant" stream? The 
 inspiration, as well as the expiration, would be 
 a "perturbed" stream, at best. If it were a 
 "reservoir" holding enough air to carry one 
 througli a speech or a song, the lungs would 
 soon l>e in a sorry plight for want of fresh air, 
 {IS tliat which remains in the " reservoir " after 
 the first few notes would be deprived of its 
 oxygen, and the speaker or singer would drop 
 down dead before he could finish his speech or 
 song. 
 
 If, on the other liand, one should stop every 
 time the necessity arose for replenishing "it" 
 with fresh air, there would be constant internip- 
 tion in our utterances, and no continue<l flow of 
 sound would be possible. That which is ex- 
 haled for s])cech, consequently, must have been 
 j)reviously inhaled for speech, and for that ]>ur- 
 ix>se only. The same as that which is exhaled 
 from our lungs must have been previously in 
 haled into our lungs, and for their benefit only. 
 
 It does riot seem reasonable, furthermore, to 
 suppose that the air. after having been deprived 
 
30 VOCAL UTTERANCE. 
 
 of its main component part, should be used in 
 its vitiated form to produce sound. Kor does 
 it seem reasonable that it should not be expelled 
 from the body, after having thus been nsed in 
 the shortest time, or in the most direct manner 
 possible. 
 
 How tlie two streams of air are kept separate, 
 wliile using one and the same channel, is to be 
 explained in this manner : that the air we use 
 for speech, having a greater velocity than that 
 which we inhale into our lungs, its rapidity of 
 motion enables it to pass the other ''bodily," 
 without interfering with it or being interfered 
 with by it. Its motion must, of necessity, be 
 rapid to enable it to produce sound. Even for 
 the production of the weakest sounds, its ra- 
 pidity is greater than that which with a sluggish 
 motion is inhaled and exhaled respectively for 
 the lungs. The air we use for speech is of that 
 same meteoric kind that sparks are when we 
 stir the fire in a grate. It bears the same rela- 
 tion to the air we breathe for our lungs that 
 these sparks do to the iira Their velocity and 
 density are far greater, while their duration is 
 
BREATHING. 
 
 31 
 
 Imt for the inoinent. Even with these air- 
 sparks, liowever, there is a difference as to these 
 qnahties, — velocity, vohime, and duration, — the 
 same being regulated by those which we desire 
 the sounds we are about to produce to possess. 
 The voice may be likened to a string-instru- 
 ment. Others have, perhaps, more accurately, 
 in some respects, likened it to a reed-instru- 
 ment; but a string- instrument will better illus- 
 trate my idea. The separate streams of air we 
 ins])ire and expire respectively for the produc- 
 tion of sounds are, in many respects, of the same 
 order that strings are in a string-instrument. 
 They differ in thickness and in length ; and 
 the waves of air they set in motion differ in 
 volume and rapidity. Some of them reach down 
 as far as it is ])ossible for them to reacli, while 
 some are of medium and others of short length. 
 Hence we say, sounds come from the stomach, 
 the breast, or the head ; each expression repre- 
 senting a different length of string of air or of 
 sound. But they are not positive, nor stationary. 
 They come and they go ; they lengthen and they 
 shorten ; they swell to mighty dimensions, or 
 
VOCAL UTTERANCE. 
 
 thej disappear altogether; not suddenly, but 
 slowly and bj degrees, as their ruler, the mind, 
 may command. 
 
 As the master of a musical instrument repre- 
 sents his emotions by the sounds he draws from 
 its strings, so will the singer or the speaker 
 draw the music lingering in his soul out of 
 these living strings. Through them others speak 
 to our hearts, or in other moods overpower us 
 with grief, or fill us w^itli anger. At times the 
 '* strings" suddenly contract, at other times 
 they expand almost ready to burst. Sometimes, 
 they are filled with a soft, elastic fluid, and 
 again they may be as dry as a cinder. They are 
 suspended from our hearts and our souls, wliose 
 throbbings, longings and thoughts they interpret 
 to ourselves and to others. 
 
 After giving an account of these air or sound 
 strings or cords, the question still remains to 
 be answered : How do they originate ? What 
 gives these streams of air this power, this velo- 
 city with which, by forcing their way through 
 narrowed passages, they produce sound ? Wliat 
 is the power which enables birds and insects to 
 
BREATHING. 33 
 
 produce sounds apparently far beyond their 
 physical strength ? 
 
 The answer is, that the sounds do not originate 
 within ourselves, but beyond us. They have 
 their origin in the air which surrounds all 
 beings, — man, birds and insects. 
 
 By creating a vacuum in the air-channels, 
 through expiration, the exterior air is forcibly 
 drawn into them. By our muids working on 
 our will-power, the latter, by the aid of said 
 vacuum, creates a draught, an. exterior stream of 
 air which is set in motion tow^ard the oral cavity. 
 This exterior draught possesses akeady in a man- 
 ner the necessary qualifications for the produc- 
 tion of the sound which the singer's or speaker's 
 mind intended to create. 
 
 In ordinary speech this is a proceeding which 
 is altogether automatic ; but in speech produced 
 artistically, such as oratory, or song, especially 
 in the latter, the mind anticipates the result. 
 
 It is inspiration, therefore, which gives the 
 first impetus to sound, which is its creator, the 
 cause ; expiration is but the efi;ect, the result. 
 We must teach how to inspire correctly ; correct 
 
34 
 
 VOCAL UTTERANCE. 
 
 expiration will then follow as a matter of course. 
 
 It is in the great realm of air outside of the 
 body where this force is created, not in the 
 lungs, nor by a stream emanatijig therefrom, 
 nor an accumulation of air therein. 
 
 There is, however, such a thing as air being 
 ' ' held ' ' to give us the power of imparting 
 additional force to sounds. 
 
 My assertion in the beginning of this chapter, 
 ' ' that the expired breath for speech equals the 
 inspired breath for the same," will naturally 
 provoke the question : How, then, is it that, 
 after using our organs of speech for any length 
 of time, we have to pause for breath, we are 
 ' ' short of breath ? ' ' The explanation is, that 
 the greater volume of sound being originated by 
 the outgoing voice, it is more than likely that 
 we fail to inhale quite a sufficiency of air to 
 produce with proper effect all the outgoing 
 sounds we desire. 
 
 For this insufficiency we draw on the air 
 which is ' ' held ' ' in the air-channels for this 
 very purpose. When this air which is '^lield" 
 becomes exhausted, or nearly so, we take in at 
 
BREATHING. 35 
 
 one gulp sufficient to supply the same again. 
 This is the only ''reservoir," and it but needs 
 to be replenished at long intervals. It is quite 
 possible, however (and I greatly incline to 
 believe this to be so), that a person who breathes 
 correctly (which very few ^^ersons do) might go 
 on speaking or singing forever without " taking 
 breath ; ' ' the only bar to his doing so arising 
 from a fatigue of the muscles whicli move las'* 
 tongue. 
 
 I have not in the preceding touched upon the 
 action of the diaphragm, nor sliall I attempt to 
 do so now, except in saying that it does for 
 speech what our lungs do for respiration, for 
 the preservation of life. It forms a very im- 
 portant part of the machinery which expands 
 and contracts for the admission and emission of 
 air and sound resj^ectively. It acts in con 
 junction with the motions of the upper and 
 lower jaws and of the tongue. 
 
 For inspiration the upper jaw rises, together 
 with the soft-palate and the uvula, ])ut the 
 tongue falls, and so does the diaphragm. This 
 produces an extension of the upper cavity of the 
 
36 
 
 VOCAL UTTERANCE. 
 
 mouth, iij^ward and downward, and of tlie air- 
 receptacles of the chest and stomach. 
 
 For expiration the lower jaw falls, Avhile the 
 tongue rises, increasing the size of the lower 
 portion of the cavity of the mouth in both direc- 
 tions. The diajDhragm rises, forcing out the au' 
 by contracting the receptacles which con- 
 tained it. 
 
 All these actions are subject to great varia- 
 tions in connection with the special sound which 
 is to be emitted. They may be slow or rapid, 
 as to time ; narrow or full, as to space ; or there 
 may be a combination of these actions. For 
 instance, slow, yet narrow ; quick, yet full ; or 
 slowly extending, quickly contracting ; the action 
 of the diaphragm being of a multifarious nature 
 in bringing about these changes. 
 
 All this is regulated, in the first instance, 1)y 
 the sound we expect to create, and the maimer 
 in which w^e inhale for such sound. The object 
 of all these actions is to create various openings, 
 or to contract others, through which air can be 
 forced to create sound; all these parts being 
 those of a wind-instrument, and all these actions 
 
BREATHING. 87 
 
 means to bring these parts into such relation to 
 each other as to create the widest range of open- 
 ings and sounds, respectively, by passing various 
 streams of air through the same. 
 
 Looking at the matter, herein before men- 
 tioned, from a mere mechanical or physical 
 standpoint, * ' that two streams of air may pass 
 each other in the same cliannel without inter- 
 fering with each other, provided that there is 
 a material difference in their velocity," I have 
 mentioned it without reserve, although I am 
 inclined to think that it is a discovery of no 
 mean importance. It has already been estab- 
 lished that two streams of the electric fluid can 
 pass each other over the same wire without 
 intei-fering with each other; and so can two 
 streams of air through the same oriiice, as illus- 
 trated by the air we use for speech and by the 
 air we inhale for the lungs. This may lead to 
 the constniction of a new order of wind instru- 
 ments, possessing different scales of sounds 
 which can be played at the same time, or it may 
 1k' utilizcfl ill otluM- directions. 
 
HOW DO WE SPEAK ? 
 
 '' I ^ HE manner in v^hich we hreaihe for speech 
 is hy raising and lowering the tongue. 
 
 For eacli sound we utter the tongue must be 
 once raised and once lowered, at least. These 
 movements follow each other in regular rotation, 
 the tongue being raised, then lowered, then 
 raised again, although they are sometimes of so 
 slight a nature that they scarcely can be per- 
 ceived. They never cease during the continua- 
 tion of speech ; and with each one of them the 
 air IS either admitted or emitted. 
 
 These motions of the tongue are accompanied 
 by corresponding motions of the lips, which, 
 while we are speaking, seem to be in a constant 
 quiver. The motions of the lips are apparently 
 without regularity ; though the same as the 
 tongue's they in reality change from the upper 
 to the lower with never-failing regularity. The 
 movement is now of the lower lip, then of the 
 
 upper, and again of the lower, etc., though it 
 
 (38) 
 
HOW DO WE SPEAK f 39 
 
 is not often of the same period of time. As the 
 tongue is raised, there is a movement of the 
 lower lip ; as it is lowered, there is one of the 
 upper lip. 
 
 These movements of the lips <;orrespond with 
 the movements of the jaws, which again super- 
 induce those of the tongue. They are some- 
 times short, scarcely showing the teeth; some- 
 times so as to show an entire row of teeth; 
 either the upper or lower, in accordance with 
 the requirements of the sound which is being 
 uttered. 
 
 J*ar English speech the tongue is lowered for 
 inspiration j it is raised for expiration. 
 
 While lowered, the air streams in over its 
 surface; while raised, it streams out from ?/7?- 
 derneath the same, sound following in the wake 
 of each stream of air. 
 
 For German speech the precise reverse action 
 takes place : The tongue is lowered for expira- 
 tion ; it is raised for insjnration. 
 
 This fact, that the opposite action obtains fo^ 
 German speech to that which obtains fur Eng- 
 lish s]>eech, has given me the key to the entii'e 
 
40 
 
 VOCAL UTTERANCE. 
 
 situation. Had tliey been corresponding, I 
 never would have made any discovery. It was 
 due to the fact, that they are not corresponding, 
 that it was so difficult, nay, impossible for me 
 to produce correct English sounds. 
 
 This remarkable fact, that English speech is 
 carried on by a process of inspirations and ex- 
 pirations the precise reverse of that which fur- 
 nishes the vehicle for German speech, offers 
 food for reflection in many directions. Such 
 questions will arise as. Has this always been the 
 manner in which these insular people have 
 spoken ? If not, at what period in their history 
 was this change brought about ? And what 
 wrought it ? As all the nationalities comprising 
 the British empire to-day breathe for speech in 
 the same manner, it will be asked if it was 
 the Celts, liomans, Anglo-Saxons, or Normans 
 that caused it ? Some one of these peoples, or 
 some one previous to these, must have exercised 
 so powerful and far-reaching an influence as to 
 compel future generations of various nationalities 
 to change their current of speech ; and, in so 
 doing, create one homogeneous language. 
 
HOW DO WE SPEAK? 
 
 41 
 
 What other 2)eople besides the English speak 
 in this manner ? Which is the most natural and 
 easiest way of breathing, the German or the 
 English way ? 
 
 Germans exhale their speech, Anglicans in- 
 hale theirs. German speech comes direct from 
 the throat, while English speech pursues an in- 
 direct course. After being inhaled over the 
 surface of the tongue, it is exhaled from under- 
 neath the same. In so doing, its main sound, 
 as it does for all languages, takes the same 
 direction which the expired air takes. 
 
 Every sound we hear being in reality com- 
 posed of at least tw^o sounds, the first part of 
 any one sound, if it is an Anglican who utters 
 it, follows the air inspired for the same, and is 
 hoard by reverberation outwardly. The second 
 j)art, its main sound, is expired, and follows in 
 the wake of the air which makes its exit from 
 underneath the tongue. 
 
 Witli German speech precisely the reverse 
 action takes place. The air is inhaled beneath 
 the slightly raised tongue; it is exhaled from 
 the throat over tlic t<>nirue. 
 
42 VOCAL UTTERANCE. 
 
 All studies connected witli the voice, and all 
 teaching in regard to the correct use of tlie 
 same, have been at all times exclusively in con- 
 nection with the expired breath. It is of greater 
 importance, however, to know how to inspire 
 correctly than to know how to expire correctly. 
 Correct expiration must, of necessity, follow 
 correct inspiration, while the reverse is by no 
 means necessarily the case. 
 
 ^ 
 
 %^ 
 
THE DUAL NATURE OF THE 
 VOICE. 
 
 nr^HE voice has always been spoken of as a 
 unit, a stream of sounds, and it is quite 
 possible that no one has ever thought that it 
 might not be a unit, a thing by itself, but a 
 composite. Yet •such in reality it is. 
 
 There are two voices, separate and distinct, 
 which in speaking or singing blend into one and 
 seemingly are one. I call them by different 
 names, each name being characteristic of some 
 especial quality ; and I shall use any of these 
 expressions as occasion may seem to require. 
 They are : 
 
 The interior and the exterior. 
 
 The upper and the lower. 
 
 The first and the second (in succession), 
 
 Tlie ingoing and the outgoing. 
 
 The inhaled and the exhaled, 
 
 The initial and the final, 
 
 The rising and the falling, 
 (43) 
 
44 
 
 VOCAL UTTERANCE. 
 
 The advancing and the retiring. 
 
 The two voices are so distinctly different that 
 they forever follow their own separate chan- 
 nels. The one is forever flowing from within 
 outwardly ; the other, from without inwardly ; 
 the channel of the one being over and above 
 the tongue, that of the other under and be- 
 neath the same. This latter, w^hose sound for 
 English speech goes out from under the tongue, 
 and for German speech goes in underneath the 
 same, has not before been noticed by anyone. 
 
 "While speaking, the voice is ever moving in 
 a circle ; the English rising voice coming out 
 from beneath the tongue, and receding back 
 over and above the same ; ' the German rising 
 voice coming out from above the tongue, and 
 receding back underneath the same. The two 
 streams follow each other in such rapid suc- 
 cession that they appear as a unit. The one 
 is the complement of the other, and they fit 
 into each other so closely as to appear as one. 
 
 Every voice we hear, from murmuring to 
 singing, from moaning to laughing, from the 
 first cry of the new born to the last word spoken 
 
THE DUAL NATURE OF THE VOICE. 45 
 
 by the dying, follows this imnuitable law. But 
 it is not man's law alone. It is the law of 
 nature, from the singing of the bird to the 
 roaring of the lion, from the humn:ing of the 
 insect to the neighing of the liorse, and the 
 barking of the dog. There is always the upper 
 and the lower, the rising and the falling voice, 
 following each other and blending into one. 
 
 Does it not always seem strange that from one 
 and the same instrument sounds should emerge 
 so distinctly different in theh* character, and so 
 far apart in the musical scale, yet so closely fol- 
 lowing upon and blending into one another, each 
 sound, at the same time, standing distinctly by 
 itself ? All this is executed in so diminutive a 
 space, and by artists who never had any in- 
 struction in the use of their instrument! 
 
 Besides the wonder of the production of the 
 sounds, there is the wonder of their clearness 
 and distinctness. How is it that the vibration 
 of the previous sound does not mingle with 
 that of the one following on the sounding-board 
 of the oral cavity ? I can throw some light on 
 this subject, and shall do so later on. 
 
46 
 
 VOCAL UTTERANCE. 
 
 The musical rhythm of tlie language, its rise 
 and fall, and ever changing modulation, are ex- 
 plained by the two voices. 
 
 It appears to me that the manner in which 
 birds sing, English j^eople speak, judging by 
 the swelling of their throats, the movements of 
 their tongue, and the perfect ease with which 
 they produce their song. The English voice 
 appears to be confined to the head, and does not 
 seem to come from lower depths as the German 
 voice does. Hence the purity of English sounds ; 
 while German sounds, coming from lower 
 depths, lack this purity to a remarkable degree, 
 and are accompanied by noises, attributed by 
 Germans, both as regards the consonant as well 
 as the vowel sounds, to some imperfection in the 
 construction of the oral cavity as an instrument 
 to permit the air to pass through freely. These 
 places, against which, they say, the air in its 
 passage strikes, are supposed to be productive of 
 sounds independent of their proper musical 
 sounds, and are, therefore, properly termed 
 
 noises. 
 
 Foreigners speaking English carry these noises 
 
THE DUAL NATURE OF THE VOICE. 47 
 
 with tlieiu into their pronunciation of the Eng- 
 lish language ; and it is this more than anything 
 else which gives to their speech a ' ' foreign ' ' 
 sound, more especially an '' offensive" foreign 
 sound. The assumption, that the construction 
 of the oral cavity is not perfect for the eniission 
 of pure German sounds, however, is not correct. 
 The obstacle they encounter is the German 
 tongue, which does not move ' ' out of the way ' ' 
 of the sounds, and hinders them in their free 
 eniission, causing the noises spoken of. It is less 
 active than the English tongue, which performs 
 any number of gymnastic exercises to assist the 
 sound in coming forth clear and unobstructed. 
 The movements of the tongue for German 
 speech, though apparently slower, produce sound 
 faster than those made by the English tongue, 
 as they are of a slighter nature, and can, there- 
 fore, be carried out much cpiicker. Germans, 
 consequently, s])eak faster than Anglicans do. 
 
THE NEW VOCAL CORD. 
 
 A FTER many years groping in the dark, 
 getting but the faint glimmer of a light 
 here and there, the first real illumination came 
 to me while I was at Chicago during the prog- 
 ress of the World's Fair. It came to me as a 
 revelation, imparting to me the knowledge of a 
 second voice. 
 
 After having, uj^on continued, careful inves- 
 tigation, become convinced of the correctness of 
 my observation of the existence of this second 
 voice, and of its location as emanating from 
 beneath the tongue, the question constantly 
 arose : By what means is this second, or lower, 
 voice j)roduced ? What did nature mean by 
 giving to it such a circuitous route ? How can 
 its sounds find their way through this conduit, 
 originating, as they do, in the vocal cords of the 
 larynx, and yet come to the surface clear and 
 undefiled ? 
 
 Here was a puzzle which, for want of a 
 
 (48) 
 
THE NEW VOCAL CORD. 49 
 
 proper explanation, threatened to set at nouglit 
 with others, at least, all that had with me be- 
 come positive and undoubted facts. 
 
 The solution to this mystery came to me while 
 I was traveling. For the purpose of guarding 
 against all possible personal contingencies, and a 
 consequent loss of what had been intrusted to 
 me, I sent an account of my discovery home in 
 a letter, which is now before me. I prefer to 
 give an account of this discovery in the precise 
 words as then transmitted. This letter was dated 
 at Louisville, Ky., October 13, 1893, and the 
 following is an extract from the same : 
 
 * ' I scarcely think that I overrate the im- 
 portance of my discovery, in view of the 
 fact that our speech is our most comprehen- 
 sive gift; and that no discovery, heretofore 
 made, of the nature of any of our faculties 
 comes within the scope of our will to control as 
 speech does. 
 
 '' While still abed on the morning of Tuesday 
 last, at the Southern Hotel, St. Louis, my 
 thoughts, as they have so often done of late, 
 reverted back to this theme. Wliile I was con- 
 vinced that the sounds of the rising voice, in 
 English speech, tend from below the tongue 
 outward, 1 could not fathom the wisdom wliich 
 
^ 
 
 VOCAL UTTERANCE. 
 
 made the outgoing voice pursue so tortuous a 
 channel ; the air coming from the tliroat, thus 
 forcing its way around the sides of the tongue 
 and beneath it toward the teeth, while the 
 tongue's tip is uplifted. Still less could I 
 understand how clear, unmuffled' sounds can 
 thus be produced, the vocal cords being hidden 
 behind so many obstructions ; until it suddenly 
 dawned on me that that very peculiar, lip-like 
 
 formation in the low^er 
 
 jaw. 
 
 close to the front 
 
 part of the root of the tongue, was another 
 vocal cord — the vocal cord, to the outgoing 
 voice, for English speech. 
 
 "Watch it, and see how it trembles and 
 quivers with life and emotion while you speak ; 
 how it is eloquent witli feeling. Since I have 
 discovered its use, it has become painful to me 
 to look at it, so expressive is it of our soul-life. 
 A synopsis of our entire being, almost, seems 
 to be concentrated there. 
 
 ' ' Mystery of mysteries, that that wlii^li has 
 been exposed to view at all times, which has been 
 with the notes of speech and song 
 and 
 
 sounding 
 
 forever, 
 
 never 
 
 IS 
 
 thus 
 
 sounding now 
 
 should have 
 
 been understood, nor even been noticed, 
 by anyone. 
 
 For English speech it is tlie main instrument 
 of sound, while for German speech the vocal 
 cords hidden w^ithin tlie inner recesses of the 
 throat are the ones giving life to their most 
 important sounds. 
 
 " In view of those developments, is it to be 
 wondered at that German speech sliould appear 
 
THE NEW VOCAL CORD. 51 
 
 {IS coining full from the throat, while English 
 speech appears to he coming from the head? The 
 head of a German, while speaking, is full of action, 
 as if assisting the sounds to come forward. The 
 head of an Anglican is iirmly set on his shoul- 
 ders, with the sound simply streaming out, and 
 without any sign of assistance ; hence, gesticu- 
 lation,^ vivacity of the muscles of the face, often 
 assisted by the hands and arms even, of the 
 speaker, in the former case, and stolidity, dig- 
 nity, and reserve in the actions of the latter. 
 
 " The existence of the lower voice reveals the 
 fact that there is a circular movement of aii- for 
 the production of speech. With Anglicans, the 
 air streams into the mouth, over the tongue, 
 and thence into the larynx with the falling 
 voice, and streams out again from beneath the 
 tongue with the rising voice. With Germans, 
 the same proceeding takes place in a reverse 
 order. ' ' 
 
 These are tlie main contents of my Louisville 
 letter. 
 
 To these remarks I must add that, while I 
 attributed to the lip-like formation in the lower 
 jaw the entire production of the lower voice, 
 I have since ascertained that it is but a part of 
 the instmment ; its other part being the frenu- 
 lum, the cord which connects the tongue witli 
 the lower jaw, which is extended or contracted, 
 
VOCAL UTTERANCE. 
 
 in conformity with the movements of the 
 tongue, and the sounds to be emitted. It 
 forms the exact centre of the mouth, and of 
 the lip-like formation beneath the tongue, 
 which it traverses and divides into two equal 
 parts. 
 
 The air coming from botli sides around the 
 root of the tongue, strikes against the sides of 
 the fraenulum, when extended; or against its 
 ridge, when relaxed; and coming together in 
 front of it produces sound. In conformity with 
 the string being fully spanned, or it being in 
 a greater or minor state of relaxation, the air, 
 in striking it, will give forth various sounds. 
 
 All changes to which the inner lip is sub- 
 jected the outer lip is subjected to, likewise. 
 It assumes the same shapes and positions. It 
 is now raised, then depressed; it moves for- 
 ward, then backward. At times it is full and 
 round, replete with blood and life; at others, 
 it is contracted, and shows a slirunken, and 
 pointed or ragged outline. The former usually 
 obtains during inspiration, the latter during ex- 
 piration. Together witli tlie tongue, whose 
 
THE NEW VOCAL CORD. SS 
 
 lower front or tip usually rests upon it, some- 
 times concealing it altogether, tlien retiring, 
 showing it in part, and retiring still further, 
 showing it completely, and the space of the 
 lower jaw w^liich it encloses, it presents to all 
 appearances another month within our mouth. 
 This impression is heightened when the tongue 
 rests upon the inner lip, thereby presenting a 
 similar appearance to the upper lip resting upon 
 the lower. 
 
 Owing to this striking similarity, and not 
 knowing by what name it is known in the phys- 
 iological or medical world, if, indeed, it has a 
 name, I call it the ''replica," being almost a 
 repetition, "by the hand of the same master," 
 of the mouth itself. 
 
 Not knowing, either, what the "inner lip," 
 or "new" vocal cord, may be called, I have 
 named it the ' * vocal lip. ' ' 
 
 As the replica, then, is apt to adopt the cor- 
 rect shape for the proper production of sounds, 
 it will be well to watch our lips to see that 
 they assume the same shape. Only when they 
 do will a sound be emitted in its entire purity ; 
 
54 
 
 VOCAL UTTERANCE. 
 
 it being of prime necessity for .the outer rim of 
 the orifice of the mouth to liave tlie correct 
 shape, if it is to produce correct sounds. The 
 tongue, wliile it is resting upon or with its tip 
 moving along the rim of the vocal lip, acts in a 
 somewhat similar manner to that in which our 
 upper lip acts in relation to our lower lip. That 
 is, it creates openings of various shapes and 
 sizes. Through these openings the air is forced, 
 producing various sounds. 
 
 At other times, when the tip of the tongue 
 rests, within the replica, pressing with its point 
 hard down upon its bottom, upon being sud- 
 denly raised it creates an explosion as for k, 
 or, by a weaker pressure, as for g. Again, by 
 rolling along its surface, it produces the sound 
 of r, etc. , etc. 
 
 The vocal lip moves backward for expired 
 sounds, while the tongue's tip is raised; it 
 moves forward for inspired sounds, while the 
 tongue's tip rests upon it. It takes the opposite 
 directi(m to that which the tip of the tongue 
 takes, the latter moving backward for inspired 
 and forward for expired sounds. 
 
THE NEW VOCAL CORD. 
 
 55 
 
 Tlicse are some of the outlines connected 
 with the replica and the vocal lip. It is quite 
 a study, and time must be had for its full de- 
 velopment. 
 
 What inference may be drawn from a study 
 of the replica and the vocal lip as regards the 
 sounds produced by the vocal cord of the 
 larynx, I can only surmise. I presume, how- 
 ever, that we shall now be able to arrive at a 
 better estimate of its true nature. 
 
 It appears to me as if the new school which 
 is likely to arise from these investigations will 
 have to base its technical teaching largely upon 
 a study of the aspect of the replica and the 
 vocal li}) in a general, and the changes to which 
 they are subjected in a special, sense. 
 
 It is not difficult for anyone to produce a 
 pure sound when one makes a special effort to 
 do so, but to produce pure sounds in connection 
 with other sounds, and to do so habitually, must 
 be the aim of the scholar and of the teacher. 
 To accom])lish this, the shape assumed by the 
 lips, and the manner in which the teeth ap- 
 proach each other, must be closely watched. As 
 
56 
 
 VOCAL UTTERANCE. 
 
 tliey are but a copy of the shape of the replica 
 and the vocal lij), anyone can become his own 
 teacher. 
 
 This will be easy in comparison with many of 
 the systems now in vogue, explaining the pro- 
 duction of sounds ; most of them being too elab- 
 orate in their description, and too difficult of 
 comprehension, for the ordinary scholar. 
 
 In contemplating the lower jaw as an instru- 
 ment to jDroduce sound, in comparison with the 
 upper, or with the roof of the mouth, we can 
 perceive why it is that the English tongue is 
 capable of producing such a vastly greater 
 variety of sounds than the German. It is a 
 small but wonderfully constructed instrument, 
 with its numerous knots, ligaments, elevations 
 and depressions. Its ridges and indentures are 
 subject to continuous changes, accommodating 
 themselves to such shapes as are required of 
 them to produce different sounds. 
 
 The upper jaw with its plainly vaulted roof, 
 on the other hand, does not j^ossess these quali- 
 fications, and is only fitted for the reproduction 
 of those elementary sounds which have their 
 
THE NEW VOCAL CORD. OT 
 
 origin in the vocal cord of the larynx. Hence, 
 while Oernian vowels have but one distinct 
 sound, there are numerous variations for Eng- 
 lish vowel sounds. 
 
 If the roof of the mouth, however, is looked 
 upon as the sounding-l)oard for all sounds, 
 which in all likelihood it is, the sounds pro- 
 duced by the "new" vocal cord, as well as 
 those of the ''old," are deflected from the 
 same. It will be more nearly correct, therefore, 
 to assume that the '' new " vocal cord produces 
 those parts of sounds which are so peculiarly 
 characteristic of the English tongue, while the 
 " old " produces those also known to other 
 tongues ; the two blending into each other for 
 all the sounds of the English tongue. 
 
 Steamships, nowadays, often carry a double 
 engine, both engines being used while the ship 
 is speeding along. The main object for having 
 two, however, is for the purpose of enabling 
 the ship to continue on its voyage, in case one 
 should be disabled ; each engine being the pro- 
 peller of a separate nidder. 
 
 Nature has made the same provision for our 
 
58 
 
 VOCAL UTTERANCE. 
 
 seeing, hearing, smelling, breathing, thinking 
 apparatus, etc. We likewise have two arms, two 
 hands, two legs, etc. ; always one in reserve, in 
 case the other should be disabled. And so we 
 have two voices for speaking. 
 
 We do not use our two voices, however, just 
 at one and the same time, but in succession. 
 The upper, always first ; the lower, following 
 close upon it ; as we must inspire before we can 
 expire. Tliey follow so close one upon the 
 other as to appear as one. This is for the Eng- 
 lish voice, of course ; the order for the German 
 voice being the reverse. 
 
 Do we hear, see, smell, breathe, etc. , also in 
 this fashion, one ear, eye, lung, etc., always 
 first, and the other following closely upon it ? 
 
 There is no difiiculty hearing the two voices. 
 Any English vowel sound, slowly spoken, will 
 clearly reveal them. The personal pronoun 
 " I, " for instance, composed of the two sounds 
 a and e — a as in " father " and ^ as in '^ is " — 
 will bring them out very clearly. The first 
 part of this sound, appears hollow, being spoken 
 
THE NEW VOCAL CORD, 69 
 
 by the falling voice, while its last part is ring- 
 ing, being spoken by the rising voice. 
 
 There is not only a difference in the sound, 
 but also in the inflection between the first and 
 the second part of this sound ; so much so, that 
 they might appear to be spoken by two different 
 persons in quick succession. The German sound 
 "Ei" ("egg") shows precisely the reverse 
 order. It is first loud and then soft. 
 
 The same difference obtains with the rest of 
 the vowels. It is very marked in the first 
 letter of the alphabet, when standing by itself. 
 Its first part is a as in ' ' have, ' ' its second more 
 of an ^, as in " is. ' ' The a being spoken by 
 the upper, has a subdued sound ; while the <?, 
 being spoken by the lower voice, sounds clear. 
 O sounds like o-ah^ etc. 
 
 -m.^- 
 
EMPHASIS. 
 
 A N American gentleman who had been to 
 "*• Berlin spoke to me about the enthusiasm 
 
 prevailing there for the Emperor (the old Em- 
 peror). At the same time, said he, ' ' they had 
 so nmch respect for the old gentleman that, 
 even while cheering him, they did not allow 
 their voices to come out full, as ours do when 
 we cry ' hurrah ; ' but theirs had a hollow 
 sound, as if they had got drowned before they 
 got fairly through with their cheering. ' ' While 
 his observation, as such, was doubtless correct, 
 the cause he attributed to it, of course, was not 
 correct. In crying ' ' hurrah, ' ' the last part of 
 the vowel a, in German, is spoken with the 
 retiring voice, and, therefore, sounds hollow; 
 while the same sound, in English, is pronounced 
 by the advancing voice, and when prolonged, 
 as it is in crying "hurrah," it sounds loud and 
 ringing. 
 
 This also makes the English voice preeminently 
 
 (60) 
 
EMPHASIS. 
 
 61 
 
 the voice of command. The last consonant or 
 consonants are generally dropped, and the last 
 vowel comes out clear and ringing. It sounds 
 like a tnimpet-blast, first hollow and then loud, 
 being produced in a similar maimer. On the 
 other hand, and for the opposite reason, the 
 German voice is more soulful, being better mod- 
 ulated ; the fall of the voice following its rise, 
 instead of the rise its fall, as in English. In a 
 German serenade, or lullaby, the sound is sub- 
 dued, gradually and slowly dying out with the 
 falling voice. The same, when attempted by 
 English voices, can never be carried out with 
 the same effect. 
 
 In view of these facts, it does not appear to 
 me' possible for foreign singing-masters to teach 
 singing to American or English pupils success- 
 fully; the voice of the teacher differing from 
 that of his pupil by natural production, their 
 voices take a different direction, and can never 
 come together on the same plane. Hence, the 
 constant complaints of fine voices having been 
 ruined by the method of such and such a master. 
 His method has proven all right with his Italian 
 
62 VOCAL UTTERANCE. 
 
 scholars, when teaching them singing at home ; 
 or with his German scliolars, when the teacher 
 is a German. What, then, is the trouble -with 
 these "English" pupils? Neither teacher .nor 
 scholars ever knew, and thej have been at a loss 
 for an explanation. 
 
 .— ^^— 
 
TRACHEA AND CESOPHAGUS. 
 
 A FTER giving an account of the nature of 
 the two voices, or of our dual voice as 
 it miglit more properly l)e termed, and having 
 also previously described tlie process of breath- 
 ing for speech in a general sense, I can now 
 proceed to explain liow we breathe for the same 
 in a specific sense. 
 
 For English speech we inspire tlirough tlie 
 windpipe, creating the falHng voice, and ex- 
 ])ire througli the gullet, creating the rising 
 voice ; for German speech this order is reversed. 
 
 This again establishes the rotation of the air, 
 or sound, the same as it obtains in other re- 
 spects regarding the voice. 
 
 All of us are in the habit of speaking at 
 meals. While we are eating, might not the 
 epiglottis be nun'n likely to be able to do its 
 duty in covering up the windpipe, during the 
 time that we either expire or inspire, than it 
 could if it were ol)liged to do so during both 
 
 iiis])i?-ati()]i ;m<] (>\])ir;itioii ? We would come 
 
 ((;:5) 
 
64 VOCAL UTTERANCE, 
 
 far more frequently, near choking if both 
 streams of air had to pass through the trachea. 
 In a sudden coughing lit, or while sneezing, 
 when we are in the act of eating, food is ex- 
 pelled. Besides, what is it that causes one's 
 breath to be "tainted," when the stomach is 
 out of order ? If it came from the lungs, how 
 could the stomach affect it ? 
 
 It will be admitted that breathing for our 
 lungs never stops, that it goes on forever in 
 its regular method, while life lasts. Such 
 sudden spasms as sneezing, gaping, coughing, 
 laughing, — all would seriously interfere with 
 the act of breathing for our lungs, if entirely 
 carried on through the trachea. This is obviated 
 by one part originating in the channel of the 
 gullet ; and the other, in that of the windpipe 
 the same as other regular sounds do. A sudden 
 inspiration through the windpipe always pre- 
 cedes these acts; while the act itself, by an 
 equally sudden expiration, is carried on through 
 the gullet. This relieves the windpipe to a 
 great extent, and permits the act of breathing 
 
TRACHEA AND CESOPHAOUS. 65 
 
 to be prosecuted without serious interference by 
 these outbursts. 
 
 My. iiiial conviction, therefore, is, as already 
 stated, that for English speecli we inliale through 
 the trachea, and exhale through the oesophagus, 
 from which the air passes directly beneath the 
 tongue into the lower jaw. 
 
 For German speech we inhale through the 
 gullet, the air passing in underneath the tongue, 
 and exhale through the windpipe. In this man- 
 ner, for English speech, the vocal cords are 
 passed first inwardly, and the vocal "lip,'' 
 last, outwardly. While for German speecli the 
 vocal lip is passed first, and tlie vocal cord last. 
 This fully explains the phenomena of the voice, 
 and the tendency of the sound in both instances. 
 
 •'IKwIII^ 
 
THE CIRCULATION OF SOUND- 
 CIRCLES. 
 
 \'X T'E say, our tongue slips up and down, 
 backward and forward. In saying so, 
 we state that which seetns to be the case, and, 
 in a measure, really is the case. As a matter 
 of fact, it is stating" but a part of the tongue's 
 movements. To fully state what the tongue 
 does will be giving an account of one of the 
 most interesting observations I have made. 
 
 The tongue does not move in the oral cavity 
 by slipping up or down, backward or forward ; 
 but its movements are in the shape of circles, 
 and it never moves in any other way. These 
 circles are described by the tongue's tip. They 
 are not complete circles, however, but segments 
 of circles only. The tip of the tongue, in de- 
 scribing then), goes as far as it is able to go, the 
 remainiiig part of the circle for its completion 
 being left to the imagination. 
 
 All movements, in fact, connected with 
 
 speech are circular in their nature. The air 
 (66) 
 
THE CIRCULATION OF SOUND— CIRCLES. 67 
 
 for speech moves in circles, the sound .which it 
 prtxhices lias the Siinie tendency; and so have 
 the movements of the tongue, in causing the 
 admission and emission of air, and iii connecting 
 the two voices. 
 
 The tongue, in an Englisli mouth, makes so 
 many movements, and carries them out with 
 such velocity, that the oral cavity, while we are 
 speaking, seems to be completely tilled with the 
 same. In view of this fact, it had long been a 
 riddle to me to know how English sounds could 
 find their way through this maze of movements 
 of the tongue, and come to the surface with so 
 nmch distinctness and clearness. The move- 
 ments of the tongue in circles will explaiu it; 
 these movements being made for the very pur- 
 pose of assisting sounds to come out clearly. 
 
 I3efore any sound is uttered, the air is drawn 
 into the oral cavity by a previous expiration, 
 causing a vacuum. The air, thereby attracted, 
 is drawn into this vacuum by a swinging mo- 
 tion, and strikes the tongue obliquely at its tip. 
 We can distinctly feel this. There is a draught of 
 air passing over the tip of the tongue with every 
 
68 
 
 VOCAL UTTERANCE. 
 
 inspired sound, wliicli has a cooling effect, in 
 drying up its moisture. For every German in- 
 spired sound we can feel the same effect, heneath 
 the tongue. The air then follows along the sur- 
 face of the tongue into the larynx. To aid the 
 air in being thus absorbed, the tongue's tip 
 points downward, while the upper jaw and teeth 
 and the upper lij) are raised. Then follows the 
 second movement for expiration, by the raising 
 of the tongue with its tip pointing uj)w^ard. In 
 so doing the air and the sound are expired from 
 beneath it, while the lower jaw and teeth and 
 the low^er lip are depressed. 
 
 These two movements are repeated once more 
 for the same sound, making four niovements for 
 each sound, or six, more properly sj^eaking, as 
 explained further on. It is not a simple lowering 
 or raising of the tongue's tip, however. After 
 inspiration, its tip is, in reality, raised to the 
 roof of the mouth. It then conies down with a 
 graceful movement inwardly, describing a circle, 
 until its tip reaches the upper row of teeth. 
 Here the sound is emitted through an opening 
 formed between the tongue's lower side and the 
 
THE CIRCULATION OF SOUND— CIRCLES. G9 
 
 lower row of tcetli. It now moves up again to 
 the roof of tlie mouth, from wlience it comes 
 down, with another circular movement, out- 
 wardly this time, until it reaches the lower row 
 of teeth. Here inspiration takes place through 
 an opening formed between the surface of the 
 tongue and the upj>er row of teeth. After this, 
 tliere is another expiration for the same sound 
 
 The movement, which brings the tongue for- 
 ward for expiration, is s}nonjmous with the 
 slipping forward of the tongue; the second 
 movement, which brings it down for inspira- 
 tion, appears to us to be simply the slipping 
 back of the tongue. For all sounds of the upper 
 voice, consequently, the tongue slips back, while 
 for all those of the lower it slips forward. 
 
 The fact is, nature does not work like a black- 
 smith, but by gentle movements, graceful curves, 
 and the most artistic touches, it attains its re- 
 sult*. Yet, withal, it moves so swiftly that we 
 can scarcely follow its movements. 
 
 Xor does nature deal in solids, but rather in 
 cMinixmnds. Where we imagine tliere is one 
 thing, there may be Inindreds. Thus we hear a 
 
70 
 
 VOCAL UTTERANCE. 
 
 sound, and say it is such and such a note, or such 
 and such a letter. Yet there are many sounds 
 to make up this one sound, and in the j^rocess of 
 its production more subtle factors enter then we 
 shAll ever gain a knowledge of. 
 
 The tongue performs the work of converting 
 the air into sound, ,l)y sending it in different 
 directions in the oral cavity. It fans it, sweeps 
 it togetlier, so as to mass it in one spot, or whips 
 it into submission, in accordance with the sounds 
 to be produced. In doing this, it makes inces- 
 sant motions, apparently of an indescribable and 
 wilful nature. In reality they are all circular 
 in shape and move in the graceful manner here- 
 tofore described. 
 
 An English tongue hangs loosely in the 
 mouth, as loosely almost as does a tongue sus- 
 pended in a bell. It is ready at any moment 
 to obey the command of its bellringer, the mind. 
 A German tongue, on the other hand, rests on 
 the floor of the mouth, and touches it or some 
 portion of the oral cavity even during the forma- 
 tion and enunciation of the vowel sounds. Tlie 
 English tongue, in so doing, is completely 
 
THE CIRCULATION OF SOUND— CIRCLES. 71 
 
 withdrawn from any contact with the oral cavity. 
 This touch of tlie tongue against the teetli, or 
 otlicr ])arts of the mouth, is the cause of the 
 noise always accompanying German vowel 
 Sounds, of which the English voice is absolutely 
 free. 
 
 During the act of speaking, the tongue's tip, 
 while swinging with a circular motion, now up, 
 then down, always returns to the soft-palate. 
 Tliere is a point of the soft-palate which must 
 1)0 touched by the tongue's tip every time a new 
 sound is to 1)0 evoked, so as to stop the vibra- 
 tion of the previous sound, on this, the sounding- 
 board of the oral cavity. If this were not done, 
 there would be an endless intermingling and 
 confusion of sounds, and none would ever be 
 heard to stand clearl}' and distinctly by them- 
 selves. 
 
 The centre, around which the circles revolve, 
 is the opening to the throat. The tongue's 
 principal aim, in swinging up and down, is for 
 the purpose of giving to the air free egress 
 and ingress from and into this opening. The 
 swingings of the tongue, consequently, mean 
 
72 
 
 VOCAL UTTERANCE. 
 
 breathings; it swings np for expiration and 
 down for inspiration, each breathing being ac- 
 companied by a sound. In swinging down, by 
 an outward movement, the tip of the tongue 
 stops below the lower teeth to permit the air 
 to enter above it. In swinging up, by an inner 
 motion, it stops above the upper teeth to let the 
 air out from beneath it. 
 
 The circles, wliicli the tongue describes, as 
 far as flieir circumference is concerned, are de- 
 termined by the sound which is to be produced. 
 It is larger or smaller in accordance with the 
 force which it is necessary to employ to pro- 
 duce such sound. 
 
 This last remark does not have reference, 
 however, to the stopping of the previous sound 
 on the sounding-board of the oral cavity, but to 
 a second tap of tlie tip of the tongue, given to 
 this sounding-board, either the soft or the hard- 
 palate, immediately following the first tap. This 
 tap is applied to various parts of tlie palate for 
 the enunciation of the different consonant 
 sounds. Tlie greater the power the sound is to 
 have, the higher up must be the touch, and the 
 
THE CIRCULATION OF SOUND— CIRCLES. 73 
 
 greater must be the force with which it is 
 applied. And so will be the circle larger or 
 smaller ; and it w^ll be executed with greater or 
 less force and rapidity, in accordance with the 
 sound which is to be evoked. 
 
 This greater or less force is also shared in by 
 the air, wdiich is l)eing inhaled for the same 
 sound. The higher the touch, and the greater 
 tlie circle, the larger will be the opening 
 thereby created in the cavity of the mouth, 
 and in the same relation thereto will be the cur- 
 rent of air absorbed for such sound. 
 
 In likening our apparatus to produce sound 
 to a string-instrument, I have compared the 
 air or nerve-channels, through which or along- 
 side of which the air-sparks we inhale for sjioech 
 travel, to the strings of this instrument. 
 
 In touching a certain spot of the hard or soft- 
 palate with the tip of our tongue, with the in- 
 tention of producing a certain sound, especially 
 a consonant sound, we open this cord, whot^o 
 sound-nerve has its ending here for this sound. 
 
 It is astonishing with what certainty the tip 
 of the tongue touches these spots from which it 
 
74 
 
 VOCAL UrrERANCE. 
 
 expects to draw tliese sounds. If it should toucli 
 tlie wrong spot hy ever so little, the cord will 
 not respond, and the sound will not he heard, 
 or we may hear a false sound, not the one we 
 expected to hear. 
 
 How the cords are " touched " for the vowel 
 sounds, I cannot imagine, as there is no touch. 
 They are simply the children of our imagina- 
 tion hecome real, they are the product of our 
 w^ll. We " will " a certain vowel to sound, and 
 the vocal cord or lip opens up tlie nerve-string 
 with which it is connected. The cords for the 
 vowel sounds all centre and have their ending iii 
 the vocalcord and lip, and their sound is pro- 
 longed, in conformity with our will, or our 
 muscular ability to breathe for it. 
 
 
DEFECTIVE SPEECH. 
 
 ''T^IIE circles wliicli the tongue describes 
 ^ are the proper gauge for speecli. For 
 Englisli speech tliey are large, and English to 
 be well spoken must, therefore, be slowly 
 spoken ; much slower, at least, than German 
 is. It is very difficult for a person to speak 
 English fast and yet form his circles to perfec- 
 tion, good speech being synonyinous with a 
 perfect chain of circles. 
 
 When a person speaks too fast for melodious 
 utterance, we should say that his circles are too 
 small; when his speech is shiggish, that they are 
 too loose; when he stutters, that his circles are 
 broken ; when his sj^ech is rough and unmannerly, 
 that they are out of shape or in bad shape; when 
 he speaks in a high tone of voice, that his circles 
 are raised up too high, locally ; when in a low 
 tone, that they incline too far down ; when he 
 speaks distinctly, that they are complete ; when 
 he speaks with expression, tliat they are vigor- 
 ous; when he s|Hiak8 melodiously, that they are 
 (75) 
 
76 VOCAL UTTERANCE. 
 
 of • tlie best material ; and when lie speaks with 
 feeling, that they are elastic, that they widen and 
 contract. 
 
 /When I say that stnttering is synonymous 
 with the circles being broken, I mean that there is 
 a lack of continuity in speech. This is caused hj the 
 two voices not following close upon each other, 
 not chiming into each other. The upper voice 
 utters a sound, but the lower is slow in resj)ond- 
 ing. The tongue fails to complete its circle for 
 it. Or the tip of the tongue may not hit the 
 proper place in tlie roof of the mouth for such 
 sound, and thus not describe the correct circle. 
 
 The circles become deranged, in the first in- 
 stance, through excitement in the nervous air- 
 channels, superinduced by a latent though 
 ever present fear of breaking down. If this 
 fear could be completely allayed, there would 
 not, in all probability, be any stuttering that could 
 easily not be cured. As the circles represent 
 breathings, by endeavoring to breathe correctly 
 for speech this nervous excitement will be 
 allayed, and the circles will become full and 
 equable. 
 
DEFECTIVE SPEECH. 
 
 rt 
 
 Tliere should be no trouble in correcting such 
 faults, provided the stutterer can be made to 
 understand what he is required to do. He must 
 begin by speaking slowly and deliberately, con- 
 stantly watching his mode of breathing and his 
 circles; and as soon as he breaks down, he must 
 repeat the sound until he can do so with perfect 
 ease. 
 
 I was a stutterer, or, at least, a very defec- 
 tive speaker of the English language. If I have 
 succeeded, by certain rules strictly applied to 
 my speech, in curing myself of these defects, is 
 it not likely that the same rules applied to the 
 defective speech of others will also cure them of 
 their defects ? 
 
EXTENSION AND CONTRACTION 
 OF THE ORAL CAVITY. 
 
 I ^HE Englisli tongue liangs loosely in the 
 inoutli. The air circulates freely around 
 it. Nature has made its house, the oral cavity, 
 a certain size, but the speaker increases it by 
 now raising tlie roof, and then depressing the 
 cellar. The roof is raised for inspiration, tlie 
 cellar is depressed for expiration. When the 
 tongue is properly balanced, between the air 
 streaming in over it, and coming out from be- 
 neath it, the sounds of speech or song will 
 flow unrestrainedly from the mouth, where the 
 two streams meet. 
 
 During the act of inspiration nature provides 
 
 for a free ingress of the air into the oral cavity 
 
 l)y raising the upper lip, the soft-palate and tlie 
 
 uvula. The body of the tongue rests in the 
 
 lower jaw, and is confined within the bed formed 
 
 by the lower teeth. The tongue's tip points 
 
 downward, and its surface, within its confined 
 
 position, is slightly convex. 
 (78) 
 
THE ORAL CAVITY. 
 
 79 
 
 All this is clianged iiii mediately for expira- 
 tion. The soft-palate and the uvula faH, assum- 
 ing their natural position, so does the upper 
 lip ; but the lower cavity now asserts its rights. 
 The lower lip is drawn down, the chin is squared 
 and extended downward and outward, and in so 
 doing the bottom of the mouth is depressed. 
 This increases the size of the lower cavity to a 
 considerable extent. 
 
 The tongue's tip which for inspiration had 
 made a circular movement outwardly, from the 
 roof down, and was then confined together with 
 its body within the bed formed by the lower 
 row of teeth, is now raised, by swinging upward, 
 immediately to come down ag-ain, liowever, first, 
 \)\ an inner motion, and then by an upper, 
 until it reaches the upper row of teeth. During 
 tliis latter motion the entire bodv of tiie tonsrue 
 is lifted up, its sides are spread out, and over- 
 lap both rows of teetli, wdiile its surface as- 
 sumes a slightly raised sliape. It looks, to all 
 appearances, like a mushroom with its thickset 
 root and spreading roof. The latter is raised up 
 
80 VOCAL UTTERANCE. 
 
 bejond the opening to the throat, bringing the 
 same completely beneath its shelter. 
 
 The ligament which connects the body of the 
 tongue at its root with the throat, and grows 
 some distance down the throat, is lifted up to- 
 gether with the body of the tongue. While in 
 this position it is narrowed down to such an ex- 
 tent as to leave the ojjening to the throat free 
 and uncovered on both sides. Through these 
 oj)enings the air finds its way out beneath the 
 raised sides of the tongue. 
 
 The entire lower portion of the mouth being 
 depressed and extended, the air streams from 
 underneath both sides of the raised tongue into 
 the front part of this extended opening, after 
 having first formed a unison at the fraenulum, 
 and having produced sound by its aid and that^ 
 of the vocal lip. 
 
 All this extensive proceeding is gone through 
 with for every sound that is uttered, nay, for 
 every half of such sound. As for the otlier 
 half, the upper j)ortion of the oral cavity under- 
 goes similar changes ; the former being for the 
 
THE ORAL CAVITY. 81 
 
 expired portion of such sound, tlie latter for the 
 inspired. 
 
 It appears to me — and I am well convinced 
 tliat tliis observation is correct, — that all 
 breathing through the mouth, whether for 
 speech or otherwise, is carried on in tlie same 
 manner as just now described. For its verifica- 
 tii)n it will ])ut be necessary to watch the tongue 
 of a dog on a hot summer daj, while it is partly 
 hanging out of his mouth. The heat has to 
 some extent dried up the fluid in his mouth, and 
 he is panting for breath. The air finds its way 
 freely into his mouth over and above the 
 tongue, hut his expiration labors under diflS- 
 culties; and yon can readily observe his expired 
 breath lifting up his tongue at regular intervals 
 from underneath the same, while it ir. making 
 its exit from his mouth. 
 
 It is, however, quite possible that dogs in- 
 spire from underneath the tongue, and expire 
 from above it. In that case, his panting would 
 arise from his difliculty in inspimtion. This, in 
 fact, appears to be the most likely. His tongue, 
 overlapping his teeth, would make the entrance 
 
83 VOCAL UTTERANCE. 
 
 of the air into his moutli a rather difficult pro- 
 ceeding; lience his efforts in giving it admission. 
 
 There being three inspirations and three ex- 
 pirations for every vowel sound that is uttered, 
 the two movements just described follow each 
 other in an incredibly short space of time. 
 Their rapidity, of course, de]3ends upon the 
 rapidity of the speech w^hicli is being uttered. 
 
 The rise and fall of the tongue is identical 
 with the rise and fall of the voice. The tongue 
 rises to make room beneath it, for the exit of 
 the rising voice ; it falls to increase the room 
 above it, for tlie entrance of the falling voice. 
 
 It goes without saying that all this takes place 
 for the German language in the reverse order. 
 
 While circles, described by the tongue for 
 English speech, are large — the rising voice 
 having its birth in the lower cavity and, there- 
 fore, requiring a great extension of room there- 
 in — the circles for German speech are much 
 smaller. Expiration taking place direct from 
 the tliroat, there is no necessity for a greatly in- 
 creased space. Nor is the tongue brought into 
 requisition to the same extent as in English, as 
 
THE ORAL CAVITY. 88 
 
 a vehicle to assist in forming sound. Hence, for 
 German speech the tongue is required to be 
 making but comparatively few movements, 
 whicli, apparently, scarcely remove it from its 
 normal position. I say "apparently," for, 
 while these movements are scarcely to be 
 noticed, they are of the same ofd^r as those 
 made by an English tongue, only greatly modi- 
 fied in measure and rapidity of execution. 
 
 German sounds, consequently, are not as clear 
 and as positive as English sounds, though they 
 are louder, especially tlie vowel sounds, in 
 coming direct from the throat; the clearness 
 of expired English sounds being partly due to 
 the trumpet-shai>ed funnel through which they 
 j)ass. 
 
 All there is of harmony and melodious sound 
 in sj>eech or song is produced by the gradual 
 dissolution of the upper voice into the lower. 
 The rising voice produces a positive sound, a 
 mould out (►f one ])iece, as it were. The con- 
 timious How of the voice, after the production 
 of this sound, gradually melting into the falling 
 voice, adds harmony to the same, as illustrated 
 
84 VOCAL UTTERANCE. 
 
 by tlie German voice. Tlie falling voice gradu- 
 ally advancing into the rising voice, gives its 
 melody to English sound. 
 
 All tlirongli German speech and, of course, 
 sono^, there is a rise and a fall ; alkthrou^h 
 English speech and song there is a fall and rise 
 of the voice. 
 
 This is beautifully and signiiicantly expressed 
 in German in the words : 
 
 Das I Heben und | Sinken der | Stimme, 
 which takes the opposite direction in English 
 in saying : 
 
 The voice | in its rise | and its fall. 
 This is a very interesting subject, but I can- 
 not at present elaborate upon \t I will only 
 call attention to the fact, which is an outcome 
 of this condition, that we find tlu^. long syllable, 
 as a rule, at the end of each line of English 
 poetry; while German poetry admits of both 
 endings with equal felicity, the short as well 
 as the long; the latter l)eing, in reality, not 
 abruptly so, but tapering off in a subdued tone 
 with tlie short again. 
 
THE MAN WITHOUT A LARYNX. 
 
 A T the gathering of elocutionists recently 
 had ill Philadelphia, a member of the 
 medical faculty spoke of a man whose larynx it 
 had become necessary to remove in order to save 
 his life. It was a delicate and no doubt very 
 skilful oj^eration successfully performed. Part 
 of the operation consisted in attaching the man's 
 windpipe to his throat, into which an opening 
 had been made. This opening was closed arti- 
 ficially, but in such a manner that he could 
 freelv breathe throuojh the same. 
 
 The entire apparatus by whose aid speech is 
 produced having been destroyed, there w^as great 
 surprise wdien, sometime after the operation, the 
 man suddenly commenced to speak. His voice, 
 however, was not what it had been ; it had lost 
 its elasticity, its cadence. It was all of a mono- 
 tone, with rather a hoarse, hollow sound, and 
 made the impression of being pushed out rather 
 than flowing out freely and of its own accord. 
 
 Still it was cpiite natural, and he could even 
 (85) 
 
«6 VOCAL UTTERANCE. 
 
 sing, ill a way. It was also distinct, and quite 
 audible at a moderate distance. 
 
 When lie spoke, his tongue was almost con- 
 tinually raised. This phenomenon was a great 
 puzzle, there being no way in which to explain 
 it, until our doctor noticed that some kind of a 
 cartilage had been formed on one side in the 
 throat, and the air, by retroaction, in some way 
 caused this cartilage to vibrate. Nature liad thus 
 kindly provided him, in a new place, with a 
 "new vocal cord," and "this it was which gave 
 the man his voice. ' ' 
 
 As if an excrescence, any stick almost, could 
 replace the vocal cords of the larynx, the won- 
 derful, the incomparable! You might just as 
 soon exj^ect a man's power of vision to be re- 
 stored, in being replaced by an outgrow^th on 
 his face, having an outward appearance some- 
 what similar to his lost eye. 
 
 It would not well l)e possible to find a strong- 
 er vindication and a more perfect proof of the 
 correctness of what I have ascertained, than this 
 doctor's recital of this case. 
 
 Tlie man's inspired voice, supposing him to 
 
THE MAN WITHOUT A LARYNX. 87 
 
 have been an American, was gone, and there 
 was nothing left to him but liis expired voice. 
 All there was that could liave enabled him to 
 speak from his throat had been destroyed. 
 
 Yet there was a voice, not the one which was 
 dead, but another, a strange, new voice. Some 
 miracle had to be wrought, to explain it, and so 
 they discovered the cartilage, which came very 
 opportune, just at this time ! 
 
 We know better, however. The voice with 
 which he spoke was the one hidden underneath 
 his tongue. The latter he could not help hut con- 
 tinually ' ' raise ' ' to let his voice out. All 
 that part of his mouth which was above his 
 tongue was inactive ; his inspired voice being 
 lost, there was nothing for it to do. All there 
 was of activity was in that beneath his tongue. 
 
 His voice was sustained by the expired air, 
 which came from his gullet, and which, in 
 making its way out from beneath the tongue, 
 made the man's replica and vocal lip, which 
 were in a perfect state of preservation, resound 
 with the sounds of speech and song. They 
 
88 VOCAL UTTERANCE. 
 
 spoke, yet with that monotone wliich character- 
 izes the tones of the single voice. 
 
 The cadence was wanting, the intonation, the 
 rise and the fall of the voice, which can only be 
 produced by a gradual sinking of the tones of 
 the one voice into the other, or by a gradual 
 rising of the sounds of the one voice out of the 
 other. The man spoke with the sounds of the 
 rising voice only, if he was an Anglican, which 
 I suppose he was, having been deprived, by its 
 destruction, of the voice which produces the 
 falling sounds. 
 
THE SOUND REPRESENTED BY 
 THE LETTER R. 
 
 T HAVE heretofore spoken of sounds in gen- 
 eral, nor do I propose in this treatise to 
 enter fully into tlie details of the production of 
 each individual sound. 
 
 What I liave ascertained about consonant 
 sounds I will illustrate by making a thorough 
 analysis of the production of the sound r. In 
 so doing, I shall have to repeat things already 
 mentioned. It will serve, however, to give a 
 better general idea of the nature of the produc- 
 tion of the consonant sounds. 
 
 For years I had been a martyr to this sound, 
 the greatest foe known to the helpless foreigner 
 wrestling with tlie English tongue. After all 
 the rest of the sounds had surrendered, the r 
 stood out by itself, holding the fort and hurling 
 defiance at me. 
 
 All I would say was readily understood ex- 
 cept words containing this unconquerable sound. 
 (89) 
 
90 
 
 VOCAL UTTERANCE. 
 
 This was the case more particularly with words 
 in which the /• was preceded by o, ou, «, h, p 
 or ii (as ^'), or in which it was succeeded by oo^ 
 0, ou^ etc., as '^orange," ''organ," "origin," 
 •order," "store," "core," "lore," "rose," 
 
 lonie. 
 
 " brown," 
 
 price, 
 
 ' ' row, " " Home, " " room, " " rook, ' ' 
 
 "crook," "crank," "crow," "court," "cry," 
 
 "broil," "brass," 
 
 ' ' proof, " " print, 
 
 "scrape," "roar," "brewer," "brine," 
 
 "breeze," "chord," "cur," "word," "world," 
 
 " "brook," "Brooklyn," 
 
 ' art. 
 
 liurt, 
 
 part," etc. 
 
 They were niy sworn enemies, and I hated 
 them most cordially. Whenever they occurred, 
 I tried to get out of the scrape l)y substituting 
 some other word, if I could possibly find one. 
 
 To this sound's obstinacy, however, I am in- 
 debted for my final victory over all tlie sounds. 
 In finally yielding, not to my superior general- 
 ship, but to my never ceasing pertinacity, I 
 starved it into submission. In so doing, it left 
 to me, as my booty, its secret, which it shared 
 with the rest of the sounds, and which they had 
 kept inviolate together ever since man first 
 
SOUND REPRESENTED BY LETTER R. 91 
 
 uttered an articulate sound — their secret of the 
 dual voice. 
 
 1 had become surfeited ^vith hearing and 
 seemg-at the great Chicago Fair, having been 
 there for months. After my family had left, 
 and beinir obliijed to remain there some time 
 lontrer, I retired to the extreme other end of 
 the city. There, in the solitude of Lincoln 
 Park, I took uj) my study of vocal sounds once 
 more, and, retiring completely withm myself, 
 this secret came to me. 
 
 Under my incessant endeavors to produce 
 the English 7^ sound, my voice at last ''split" 
 in two. I distinctly felt the separation. Each 
 part became a living thing by itself; one part 
 producing an /• which rolled over my tongue 
 back into the larynx, while the other was send- 
 ing an /• to the surface from icnderneath my 
 tongue. 
 
 It frightened me. I felt that something un- 
 usual had happened. I repeated these sounds, 
 and then stood before the fact, that I had be- 
 come a participant with nature in one of its 
 great secrets — that I was the first man to whom 
 
92 
 
 VOCAL UTTERANCE. 
 
 this secret liad been entrusted. The past seemed 
 to be suddenly opened, and over its dark bhie 
 waters there was one ray of Hght, which came 
 straight to nie. This was tlie vision I had at 
 the time. 
 
 I felt awed, and more oppressed than elated, 
 having become burdened with a great responsi- 
 bility. Of all the tongues that have ever, spoken, 
 and of all which are speaking to-day, no man 
 ever knew how they were speaking. 
 
 AYhat I found out about the letter r cannot be 
 said in a few words. It represents two sounds, 
 materially differing in the manner of their pro- 
 duction. The one is the product of the inner, 
 the other, of the outer voice, or the voice pro- 
 duced by inspiration and by expiration respec- 
 tively. These sounds follow each other in sucli 
 quick succession that they a})pear as one. 
 
 The first, produced by inspiration, requires 
 that the tip of the tongue shall iirst touch the 
 highest part of the roof of the mouth it can 
 reach. With an outward movement, that is, 
 with the tip of the tongue pointing toward th«j 
 lips, it then comes down to the root of the 
 
SOUND REPRESENTED BY LETTER R. 93 
 
 lower teeth. After this, witli a vibratory move- 
 ment, it rolls inwardly over the soft part of- the 
 lower jaw until it reaches the enclosure of the 
 replica in whose boundary it momentarily rests, 
 while still continuing to vibrate. 
 
 By this movement the tongue's back is grad- 
 ually raised until it comes in contact with the 
 soft-palate. A vacuum having been created by 
 expiration previous to this movement, the air 
 streams inwardly through the temporary open- 
 ings created by said vibrations between the 
 liack of the tongue and the soft-palate, and pro- 
 duces the sound of the /• of the falling voice. 
 
 This sound, though created by an inward flow 
 of air, becomes audible by reverberation over 
 the surface of the tongue outwardly. In car- 
 rying out this movement, tfie tongue is con- 
 tracted and drawn away from the teeth. 
 
 1 want to call esj^ecial attention to this, as the 
 tongue with aU sounds of the expired voice pre- 
 sents a similar appearance. 
 
 To produce the r of the expired voice, the 
 tongue's tip releases its hold on the replica, slips 
 up to tlie roof of the mouth, which it touches a 
 
94 
 
 VOCAL UTTERANCE. 
 
 second time, and tlien coming down by an inner 
 movement — tliat is, pointing toward the tliroat 
 —it again rises upward until it reaches the same 
 spot of the soft-palate which it had touched be- 
 fore, and against which it vibrates. 
 
 While making this movement, the tongue's 
 body is raised and its surface flattened out, 
 spreading its sides over the teeth of the lower 
 jaw^ on both sides. The air, meanwhile, being 
 expired from beneath the sides and the front of 
 the tongue, while its tip is vibrating against the 
 soft-j)alate, causes a thrilling sound to be heard 
 issuing from beneath the tongue, which is the r 
 of the rising voice. 
 
 The lifting up of the body of the tongue, 
 while its tip reaches forward and upward, takes 
 place for all sounds of the expired voice. 
 
 The tip of the tongue, consequently, touches 
 the roof of the mouth three times in producing 
 the r sound. All these laovements beina: re- 
 peated once over again to complete this sound, 
 this touch is really made six times. This is 
 equal to three inspirations and three expirations 
 for every r sound which is ever produced. 
 
SOUND REPRESENTED BY LETTER R. 95 
 
 The r sound as we hear it, or even when we 
 do not hear it (as with some speakers it is merely 
 an inspiration and an expiration of tlie air, being 
 devoid of tlie thrill produced by tlie touch), is 
 always produced by a combination, or, more 
 strictly speaking, by a succession of tttese two 
 movements. The r of the upper voice is pro- 
 duced first, that of the lower immediately after- 
 ward, the two running together and producing 
 one continuous sound. 
 
 When the /• sound is heard to roll continually, 
 as it does with some speakers, the two move- 
 ments here described are repeated a number of 
 times in close succession. It is done by a suc- 
 cession of inspirations and expirations carried out 
 in this manner, ])()ssibly ecpialling sixty, every 
 time they pronoum-e this sound. 
 
 These two movements, the first for inspiration 
 the latter for expiration, are in a similar manner 
 carried out for all sounds, the entire scale there- 
 of, as previously mentioned. 
 
 This is the secret of the letter r of the English 
 language^ which, after solving, gave me the key 
 
VOCAL UTTERANCE. 
 
 to the entire situation, as all sonnds are produce J 
 
 in a similar manner. 
 
 * 
 
 It seems scarcely possible that all these move- 
 ments should be carried out during the short 
 space of time in which this sound is pronounced." 
 
 This is not all, however, for there are other 
 movements of the tongue, connected with it, of 
 which I shall speak at length when I come to 
 the vowel sounds. 
 
 Yet man's nature is so alert that the scholar, 
 after going through these evolutions several 
 times, will find that he can execute them quite 
 rapidly, and that they will soon l)ecome auto- 
 matic with him. 
 
 I have ilhistrated the production of the 7' 
 sound so minutely in order to sliow the (jeneral 
 manner of the production of sounds. For the 
 sounds of the upper, the iidialed voice, the tip 
 of the tongue always rests momentarily near or 
 at some point back of the lower teeth, to permit 
 the air to flow freely inwardly over the tongue's 
 surface. For those of the lower, or exhaled 
 voice, the tongue's tip rests momentarily against 
 the upper teeth, or at some point beyond them, 
 
SOUND REPRESENTED BY LETTER R. 97 
 
 to permit the air to flow freely out from be- 
 neath the toDgue. 
 
 I still \N'aiit to call attention to the shape of 
 the movements herein mentioned. For the in- 
 spired sound, the tongue's tip moves in a half 
 circle, pointing outwardly; for the expired 
 sounds, it moves in a half circle, pointing in- 
 wardly. These two segments form one com- 
 plete circle. 
 
CONSONANTS. 
 
 /^"^ONSOKANTS i^roper are noises, produced 
 by certain well-known, mechanical de- 
 vices. We cannot take a noise and attach to it 
 another noise, any more than we can take a 
 bead and attach to it another bead. It takes a 
 string, run through tlie beads, to bind them to- 
 gether. The string which binds the consonants 
 together in speech and makes them cohesive, 
 and speech itself coherent, are the vowels. 
 Where several consonants follow close one upon 
 another, we must run in our string of vowels 
 to bind them together. 
 
 The nature of the vowels is as opposite to 
 that of tlie consonants as soul is to body. They 
 permeate the matter of the consonants and sur- 
 round it ; they uplift it, and carry it along. 
 
 Consonants have been divided into two clas- 
 ses : (1) the nmtes, J, p^ d^ ^, c (as 1c) and g 
 hard ; and (2) the semi- vowels comprising all the 
 other consonant sounds. 
 
 The above are all the nmtes there are, ac- 
 
CONSONANTS. 99 
 
 cording tu my idea; others, liuwever, have 
 named more than those. 
 
 The semi-vowels, /, m, w, /•, are also called 
 liquids. 
 
 1 have made the observation that the mute 
 sounds never follow each other in close succes- 
 sion in one and the same syllable. They rarely, 
 in fact, follow close upon one another in any 
 word, even in such a way that one ends a syl- 
 lable and the other begins a new one. They are 
 inanimate, and can' only be carried along on the 
 wings of a vowel, either in its pure shape or in 
 the shape of a semi-vowel. 
 
 The voiced consonants, or semi-vowels, are a 
 combination of a noise and a musical sound; 
 the latter consisting, in the vowel, of the 
 syllal)le to which said consonant belongs. It 
 precedes them, succeeds them, and even splits 
 them in two, inserting itself between the two 
 parts. 
 
 While the nmtes are produced by mechanical 
 means only, the organs of tlie voice being 
 closed, the semi-vowels are voiced sounds. The 
 voice is thrown into them and pervades them. 
 
100 
 
 VOCAL UTTERANCE. 
 
 We cannot pronounce any consonant, however, 
 unless it is preceded by a vowel ; that is to say, 
 the vowel need not precede it bodily. There 
 may be as many as three consonants ahead of it, 
 still it becomes necessary to sound the vowel 
 first, in an undertone at least, before we can 
 begin to pronounce the first consonant, the 
 vowels being the tie connecting all speech. 
 Without them the consonants could not be 
 moved, they would be inert. 
 
 Consonants and vowels are so intimately con- 
 nected and interwoven that they cannot be 
 treated separately when their construction is 
 being considered. I shall, therefore, proceed 
 now with the medianical construction only of 
 the consonant sounds. I do not j^i'opose, how- 
 ever, to do so in detail, but shall give a full 
 account of the representative sounds only. 
 
 K. 
 
 ^is not greatly dissimilar in its construction 
 to r. For the inspired sound the tip of the 
 tongue takes a very firm hold on the bottom of 
 the inner mouth, whereby its b^ck is raised close 
 
CONSONANTS. 101 
 
 up to the soft-palate. Just previous to tliat 
 tliere is a complete expiration ; the throat is 
 closed, and a vacuum is created in the air-chan- 
 nels. The tip of the tongue, hy suddenly re- 
 linquishing its hold on the replica, causes an 
 oi)ening to be made between the raised back of 
 the tongue and the soft-palate, through which 
 the air is forced, producing the k sound of the 
 inspired voice. 
 
 For the expired sound, the throat is again 
 closed, this time, however, to keep the inspired 
 air in confinement. 
 
 By the tip of the tongue relinquishing its hold 
 on the replica, as just stated, and then taking 
 a firm hold against the highest point of the soft- 
 palate which it can reach, the confined air, upon 
 the tongue's tip suddenly releavsing this hold, 
 streams out from beneath the sides of the 
 tongue into the replica. This sudden movement 
 causes the explosion whose result is the forma- 
 tion of the expired k sound. 
 
 Upper and lower k follow each other in such 
 quick succession that they appear as one sound. 
 
 AVhat is most remarkable in this connection is 
 
VOCAL UTTERANCE. 
 
 tlie fact, that, while the manner in which thej 
 are produced varies considerably in its detail, 
 the result should be so similar that the most at- 
 tentive ear cannot detect any difference between 
 them. The same remark may be applied to r, 
 and all the i-est of the consonants. 
 
 For k the touch of the tip of the tongue ap- 
 pears to be even higher than for ?\ and the circles 
 the tongue describes are, in consequence, larger. 
 
 G (hard). 
 
 G as in " good," is a modification of k. The 
 tongue's tip does not press so hard against the 
 bottom of the replica or the soft-palate either. 
 Its pressure, therefore, when released, does not 
 produce so strong an explosion, either for the 
 inspired or the expired g sound. 
 
 a. 
 
 Q is the same sound as k, followed l)y u. 
 
 X. 
 ^is also the same as k, followed by s. 
 
CONSONANTS. 103 
 
 B. 
 
 Jj touches the hard-palate, comes down to tne 
 roots of the lower teeth ; the lips are pressed to- 
 gether all along the line, which pressure, being 
 released, results in an explosion. This is for 
 the inspired sound. For the expired sound, the 
 same proceeding takes place, with the only dif- 
 ference that the tip of the tongue rests against 
 the root of the upper teeth. The circles, which 
 the tongue describes, are but moderately large. 
 
 For p the same proceeding is gone through 
 with as for h, only with increased vigor of 
 movements. The latter are more rapid, the lips 
 are pressed more firmly together, the tongue's 
 tip reaches up higher, touching the soft-palate, 
 and again lower down pressing against the bot- 
 tom of the replica so as to create a larger space 
 of confined air which, when released, causes a 
 greater explosion through the suddenly parted 
 lips than for b. The circles, of course, are 
 also larger. 
 
104 
 
 VOCAL UTTERANCE. 
 
 M, the same as h and />, is a lip-sound. The 
 tip of the tongue slightly touches first the upper 
 edge of the lower teeth for the inspired, then 
 the lower edge of the upper teeth for the ex- 
 pired sound. With each touch of the teeth the 
 lips, which have been rather firmly closed all 
 along the line, are released, not suddenly as for 
 h and p, but with a slower movement. The 
 sound comes through the nose. The circles are 
 about the same as for h. 
 
 N. 
 
 JV is produced in a similar manner to 77i. The 
 difference is that the teeth are closed, where the 
 lips were in the former case. The sound comes 
 through the nose. The circles are larger than 
 for m. 
 
 D. 
 
 D is produced by the tip of the tongue and 
 the teeth ; the former touches the lower teeth 
 first, then the upper. Tlie tongue's tip describes 
 but a small circle. 
 
CONSONANTS. 105 
 
 T. 
 
 y is produced by the tip of the tongue and 
 the teeth, the same as d. The former touches 
 the root of the hjwer teeth first, then that of the 
 upper. The toucli is higher up and lower down 
 than for d, and is far more distinct. It is of 
 shorter duration than for d, being quicker and 
 more decided. 
 
 Th (sharp). 
 
 Th sharp, as in ''tliorn," "three," etc., is 
 produced by the tongue's tip passing through 
 the almost closed teeth. While in this position 
 it first touches the lower teeth, then the upper, 
 oscillating between them. The air passing 
 through this narrow aperture, first inwardly 
 then outwardly, with a quick movement, pro- 
 duces the well-known sound of sharp th. 
 
 Alth.ough the tongue appears to be con- 
 tinuously inserted between the teeth, during the 
 production of this sound, it really disappears 
 between these movements. During this dis- 
 appearance it describes a circular movement in 
 the oral cavity, by which the sound, which is 
 
106 
 
 VOCAL UTTERANCE. 
 
 inhaled, is connected with that wliich is exhaled. 
 Tlie sound, which also appears to be continuous, 
 is really interrupted, likewise, for a moment, 
 during which this circular movement is being 
 carried out. 
 
 Th (soft). 
 
 For th, as in ''the," "that," ''though," 
 etc., the same movements are gone througli 
 with as for sharp t/i, but the teeth are further 
 apart, the tongue's tip does not pass so far in 
 between them, and the circles are smaller. The 
 lips are not so far apart, nor are the teeth shown 
 as much as for sharp th. 
 
 The movements of the lips can be closely 
 watched for sharp th. The upper lip is with- 
 drawn first, then the h^wer, next the upper, and 
 finally tlie lower again. This is assuming that 
 the sound is repeated twice, whicli, in fact, it is 
 every time it is pronounced. 
 
 The th sound comes next to tliat of /•, in the dif- 
 ficulty of its execution by foreigners. The same 
 being unknown to other European languages 
 except the Spanish, it is a great stumbling-block 
 
CONSONANTS. 107 
 
 to the foreign tongue. Yet its execution is not 
 any more difficult than that of almost any otlier 
 consonant. The trouble is that its mode of pro- 
 duction has heretofore never been accurately 
 described. 
 
 P. 
 
 i^, for its inspired sound, is produced by the 
 lower lip reaching up to the upper teeth. AVhile 
 the tongue's tip touches the lower teeth, the air 
 is drawn in above the tongue through a slight 
 opening between the lower lip and the upper 
 teeth. For its expired sound the tip of the 
 tongue touches the upper teeth, the air being 
 forced out between the raised lip and the lower 
 side of the tongue. 
 
 V. 
 
 Fis produced in the same manner as/*. The 
 difference consists in lip and teeth meeting less 
 closely, and the tip of the tongue touching the 
 teeth more lightly. The air is not set in such 
 quick motion, and the sound is produced with 
 less force. 
 
108 VOCAL UTTERANCE. 
 
 The circles for v are, of course, smaller tlian 
 they are for/* 
 
 S. 
 
 S is produced by tlie teeth coming close to- 
 gether, the tip of the tongue first touching the 
 lower and then the upper teeth near their edge, 
 the air being first inspired and then expired with 
 a hissing sound. 
 
 C. 
 
 O is the same as s, only carried out with less 
 force throughout, and the tongue's tip not 
 touching the teeth near their edge but at their 
 roots. 
 
 z. 
 
 Z is a still milder way of going through the 
 same performance. All the movements are 
 carried out in the softest manner possible, and 
 the tongue's tip touching the gums of the teeth 
 instead of their edge as for s, or their roots as 
 for G. 
 
 L. 
 
 For I the tip of the tongue vibrates between 
 
CONSONANTS. 109 
 
 the upj)er and lower teeth, which come pretty 
 close together. Each vibration means one in- 
 spiration and one expiration. Eacli vibration, 
 of course, also stands for one circle up and one 
 down, which the tongue describes through the 
 oral cavity, the circles being large. 
 
 H. 
 
 /Tis equal to a quick inspiration followed by 
 a strong and long contiiuied expiration. There 
 is an expiration, however, preceding the inspira- 
 tion, so as to insure a full volume of air being 
 inspired, which in turn again insures the strong 
 expiration, which carries the sound. The cir- 
 cles are large. 
 
 Y. 
 
 There is a great similarity between y and A, 
 both behig produced by strong aspirations only, 
 and without any touch, the same as the vowels. 
 The difference is that for h all the avenues are 
 kept wide open, while for y they are drawn close 
 together, leaving but a narrow channel for the 
 air to pass through. Again, for h there is an ex- 
 
110 
 
 VOCAL UTTERANCE. 
 
 piration, an inspiration and an expiration, while 
 for y there is an inspiration, an expiration and an 
 inspiration. The stress is on the expiration for A, 
 and on the inspiration for y, making the former 
 an expired and the latter an inspired sound. 
 For the inspired y sound, the body of the tongue 
 closely approaches the roof of the mouth, while 
 for the expired sound it comes very near to the 
 floor of the mouth, the air jjressing through these 
 narrow openings, first inwardly, and then out- 
 wardly. 
 
 G (soft). 
 
 G in ''George," "gipsy," etc., is composed 
 of d and y, with the air-channels still more 
 closely compressed, however, than for y alone. 
 
 W. 
 
 TF", double u, or, more strictly speaking, 
 double 6>, is composed of these vowels, oo, com- 
 bined with an open v, the vowel sound vibrating 
 through this consonant making it an open sound 
 very much like a vowel. 
 
 This attempt at a description of the consonant 
 
CONSONANTS. Ill 
 
 sounds is only correct in a general sense ; nor is 
 it a full description, in any sense. There are 
 many consonants, which are not represented by 
 the sign of a letter, and whose existence can 
 only be made clear to the eye, by showing them 
 up in their combination with other sounds. 
 These varieties I shall not attempt to describe. 
 Incomplete, however, as this description of the 
 construction of the consonant sounds may be, 
 it probably comes nearer to the facts than any 
 that has yet been attempted. 
 
 Besides, the relationship existing between 
 consonants and vowels is so close that it is diffi- 
 cult to separate the one from the other. This 
 relationship I shall endeavor to describe more 
 minutely, when I shall reach the vowel sounds. 
 
 Then there is the important question of the 
 iitipettis given to the different consonants. There 
 are those whose impetus is toward inspiration, 
 those wliose impetus is toward expiration, and 
 those which vary lietween the two. 
 
 I have found that the impetus of consonants 
 whose j)rincipal sound is i)roduced by a strong 
 impact of the tip of the tongue with the replica, 
 
112 
 
 VOCAL UTTERANCE. 
 
 causing an explosion above the tongue, as liard 
 g^ Tc^ qio^ a?, ^', y, hard c^ and r^ are mainly in- 
 spired as the tongue first rises, and tlien falls 
 for them. Those whose main sound is produced 
 by impact of the tip of the tongue with the roof 
 of the mouth, as/*, Z, n, jt>, ^, «, all of which re- 
 quire more or less compression, and a propor- 
 tionate explosion of air beneath the tongue, are 
 mainly outgoing sounds, asthe tongue first falls 
 and then rises for tliem. That is, their main 
 sound is expired, Avhile in the former case it 
 is inspired. The impact of the tip of the 
 tongue with the lower gum means the rising of 
 the back of the tongue, creating a narrow pas- 
 sage between the latter and the soft-palate, 
 through which the air streams inwardly, while 
 an impact of the tip of the tongue with the roof 
 of the mouth means a conjpression downward, 
 creating a narrow passage between the lower 
 side of the tongue and the lower gum, through 
 which the air passes outwardly. 
 
 There now remain the consonants 5, d^ m, ^', 
 
 These are of a medium calibre. Their sound 
 
CONSONANTS. 113 
 
 is neither distinctly ingoing nor outgoing, ]jiit it 
 varies according to tlieir position. As a rule, 
 wlien they are initial sounds, it is ingoing, when 
 they are final, it is outgoing. 
 
 In this connection I have also made the fol- 
 lowing observation : "We say : h, c, d, </, p, t, 
 v, s. Again we say : /, Z, ?/i, n, s, a?, h. In 
 the first instance, the vowel sound e follows, 
 while in the last it precedes the sound of the 
 consonant. 
 
 The same order obtains with the alphabets of 
 most civilized tongues. There must be a deep 
 significance in this. We could not reverse this 
 order of things, and say : ih, tc, id, ig, ip, it, 
 iv, iz^ nor could we say: fe, le, me, ne, se, 
 without making an effort in doing so. The rea- 
 son is, that the mos^ natural way of speaking is 
 by inspiration, followed by expiration; the 
 vowel sound at the end in the first instance, and 
 at the beginning in the second, securing this re- 
 sult. 
 
 When we say : h, c, d, etc. , tne long e is an 
 outgoing sound. This makes the consonant sound 
 preceding it ingoing. While, when we say : 
 
114 
 
 VOCAL UTTERANCE. 
 
 y, I, 7?i, n, etc., tlie e preceding the consonant 
 is ingoing, being short and inhaled ; this makes 
 the consonant following outgoing. 
 
 In speaking of the impetus of a sound being 
 ingoing or outgoing, I must still remark that 
 the same is identical with the last manner of 
 breathing for such sound ; that is, while there 
 are three inspirations and three expirations as a 
 minimum for such sound, the last one of these 
 six, or twelve, or eighteen, carries with it the 
 sound proper and is prolonged in so doing. If 
 this last breathing is ingoing, then the sound is 
 ingoing; if it is outgoing, then the sound is 
 outgoing. 
 
 No sound can be uttered all by itself as 
 either ingoing or outgoing. The ingoing sound 
 must be accompanied by an outgoing sound, 
 though ever so weak, and the outgoing must be 
 accompanied by an ingoing, though ever so 
 weak; the weakness of the one giving an im- 
 petus to the other. It gives the otlier an op- 
 portunity to gather strength, and be produced 
 with full force. 
 
 The "ethics" of sound, if I may be permitted 
 
^f^iVLHSiTY 
 
 or 
 
 'S^ronH^ 
 
 CONSONANTS. 115 
 
 to use such an expression, demand tliat inspira- 
 tion and expiration for vowels should follow one 
 another in such a manner as to enable them to 
 embrace the consonants with ease, and to carry 
 them along with a graceful movement. 
 
 This is what is called the cadence, the rhyth- 
 mical modulation of the voice. It is, therefore, 
 necessary that consonants should follow one an- 
 other in such a manner that these ''ethics" can 
 be successfully earned out. 
 
 An ingoing consonant should follow one that 
 is outgoing, and vice versa ; and a mute should 
 always be embraced between two semi- vowels, 
 or two vowels, or a semi- vowel and a vowel. 
 Persons, whose style is good, or who write good 
 poetry, follow this nile instinctively. Those 
 who write a bad or hard style, sin against it con- 
 tinually. 
 
 The fact is, that each word by itself, with 
 very rare exceptions, is constructed in strict con- 
 fonnity with this rule. It is by joining one 
 word on to another, not in harmony therewith 
 — that is, (me for which "we do not breathe in 
 proper se^pience with the preceding or succeeding 
 
116 
 
 VOCAL UTTERANCE. 
 
 one — that the most flagrant sins against style or 
 rhythm are committed. 
 
 Tlie law underlying it all is the one which 
 makes breatliing for speech easy. As soon as 
 there is a demand made on the voice for eitlier 
 too many expirations or too many inspirations 
 following each other in close succession, and 
 without giving tlie speaker an opportunity to 
 recuperate his breath — that is, to bring it back 
 to an equilibrium by restoring the air, which was 
 '^ held " at the proper time and place — the voice 
 l>ecomes strained, and thus loses its power for 
 uttering rhythmical sounds. This "proper time 
 and ])lace" is at the end of a sentence. 
 
 While Helinholtz has given to the world 
 valid reasons for the necessity of musical sounds 
 following one another in certain scales and in- 
 tervals, to produce harmony in music, no one 
 has, as yet, touched upon the reasons why vocal 
 sounds should follow one another in a given 
 order, to produce music in speech or song. 
 
 There is a very important point in connection 
 with consonant sounds which I omitted to men- 
 tion before. The tip of the tongue, to which 
 
CONSONANTS. ' 117 
 
 is assigned as important a rule in the production 
 of sound iis there is to tlie tip of the lingers for 
 the sensation of feeling, assumes different 
 shapes for the production of various sounds. 
 As a rule, these shapes, for the production of 
 English sounds, are far more positive than they 
 are for German sounds. For the latter, it 
 touches the oral cavity, or the lower gum, but 
 lightly, and does not assume such decided shapes 
 that they could be readily described. To pro- 
 duce correct English speech, this state of indif- 
 ference is changed into one of decided energy. 
 To produce the k sound, it comes to a sharp 
 point, something like the toes of a dancer, when 
 resting her entire body on the same. After this 
 shape has been assumed, it ^^ kicks" the Hoor 
 of the mouth for inspiratioii and agjiin its roof 
 for expiration, with a <piick but very positive 
 movement. 
 
 For r, although it retains this 8haj>e, it is 
 more relaxed, and trails along the roof of the 
 mouth for expirntioii. aiul along its floor for in- 
 spiration. 
 
 For / the tongue's tip is less rigid still, and 
 
118 
 
 VOCAL UTTERANCE. 
 
 its shape is somewhat bent ; for the lower sound, 
 it is bent upward ; for the upper, downward. 
 
 For 771 it is bent down for both sounds, while 
 its entire front takes a lirni hold in the ring of 
 the palate for the expired sound, and again in 
 that of the lower gum for the inspired sound. 
 
 The same shape of the tip of the tongue pre- 
 vails for n, t, jp. 
 
 The less strain tliere is on a sound, the more 
 relaxed will be the tip of the tongue. Tins is a 
 point to which foreigners must pay attention, if 
 they want to produce English sounds with that 
 energy wliich is so characteristic of them. 
 
 The main reason for the various shapes 
 assumed by the tip of the tongue is to enable 
 the front of the tongue to become firmly sealed 
 against the wall of the oral cavity, and thus to 
 create an air-tight compartment previous to an 
 explosion of air for sounds which are to be loud 
 and positive. For weaker sounds, this hold is 
 more or less relaxed. 
 
SOUND AND NERVES. 
 
 T^OES this impact, of which I have just 
 ^^ spoken, not mean more, however, than 
 simply a mechanical action to concentrate the air 
 above or beneath the tongue's tip, which, upon 
 being released, creates an explosion? Would 
 that and the other mechanical actions of which 
 I have spoken suffice in bringing about all the 
 shadings of the consonant sounds? 
 
 And who would seriously want to say that 
 these sounds are, in reality, nothing but noises, 
 that there is no soul in them ? 
 
 Is it necessary to give examples? Every word 
 spoken with an emphasis will show to the con- 
 trary. For is there nothing in the th or n in 
 *Hhunder," when used as an exclamation of 
 surprise or impatience? or in the Z of " love," 
 when addressing your bride, etc. ? 
 
 While I concede to the vowels the first place 
 in conveying the meaning of our soul, the con- 
 sonants are by no means devoid of such mean- 
 ing. 
 
 (119) 
 
120 
 
 VOCAL UTTERANCE. 
 
 I have heretofore spoken of tlie '' air-chan- 
 nels" into which, by mechanical means, the 
 ''air-sparks," as I call them, are drawn — those 
 swift, meteoric currents of air which produce 
 sound — not only sounds, so called, as repre- 
 sented by a note or a letter, but all the rami- 
 fications of sounds connected with each of these 
 sounds. Ea^i ramification represents one of 
 these sparks, purposely inspired, or expired for 
 the same. Their action is so swift, and, at the 
 same time, so irregular, that it would be neces- 
 sary to invent a new mode of counting time, 
 should we be called upon to give an account 
 of it. 
 
 Just what the air-passages are, into which the 
 air-sparks are drawn, or from which they 
 emerge, I cannot say, nor how the air reaches 
 them through the trachea or the oesophagus. I 
 am of the opinion, however, that they are dif- 
 fused throughout a large area of our body, the 
 same almost as the nerves are. They stand in 
 intimate relation to the latter. Thus only can 
 we account for the emotional nature of our 
 voice. 
 
SOUND AND NERVES. 181 
 
 They are 7ierves which become audible .^ when 
 tlie air they contain is set in motion, or, more 
 pro]>erly speaking, perhaps, when a stream of 
 air is passed through the;n. This might be 
 modified again by saying that there are nerves 
 through whose action a particular air-channel is 
 expanded or contracted. These nerves, while so 
 acting, at the same time impart to the sound, 
 thereby created, its spiritual, emotional char- 
 acter. 
 
 There are knots in which these sound-nerves 
 centre, and it is not impossible that one of these 
 may be located between the eyes, where it is 
 supposed by many that the "voice comes from." 
 
 There are other knots, but I am not yet pre- 
 pared to speak of them with sufficient intel- 
 ligence. 
 
 The ' 'air-channels and nerves' ' are of so sub- 
 tle a nature that their very existence has so far 
 eluded the close scrutiny of investigators. It 
 seems, though, as if the nerves which carry the 
 intelligence, and those which enable us to hear, 
 come to a focus at the tip of the tongue, from 
 which, as messengers from the brain and the ear, 
 
122 
 
 VOCAL UTTERANCE. 
 
 they impart tlieir missives by imj^act to certain 
 points of the palate, whispering to them what 
 
 mg 
 
 they must do. The instant the tip of the 
 touches these points, the nerves 
 carry out tliese commands. 
 
 All this relates to the consonant sounds. But 
 how about the vowels ? There being no impact, 
 how is the intelligence imparted for them ? I 
 cannot even venture to guess. That the nerves 
 for them centre in the vocal cord and lip, I feel 
 well assured ; and I can only assume, in default 
 of any mechanical action, that there are agents 
 at work even subtler than the nerves which act 
 as mediators between them and the mind, as 
 well as our power of hearing. 
 
 While we draw the air into the air-channels 
 mechanically, it is not tlience converted into 
 sound without the interference of the sound- 
 nerves, which give character to the sound, as, 
 of course, no mere mechanical action would be 
 able to do. 
 
 It is a great mistake, therefore, when speak- 
 ing of the voice, to say : "It is simply a musical 
 instrument like a7iy other. " " Simple, ' ' in- 
 
SOUND AND NERVES. 128 
 
 deed ! Eveu niecliai)icHlly speaking, it is not 
 one but a dozen instruments fused into one, and 
 possessbig the main qualities of all these. When 
 it comes to the higher qualities, however, those 
 imparted to it by the soul, we stand, as ever, be- 
 fore an inscrutable mystery. 
 
 Our attempts at creating sounds by musical 
 instruments, though these sounds may be pleasing 
 to our ear (so is a painted landscape to our eye) 
 as compared with the voice, are but of a crude 
 nature, both as to the manner of their produc- 
 tion and as to the product itself, even though 
 from a mere artistic standpoint they may reach 
 the highest point of excellence. 
 
 I am not as yet prepared to enter the field in 
 explanation of the vowel sounds, and their rela- 
 tion to the construction of the consonant sounds, 
 with sufficient intelligence to do so at the 
 present moment. I am already in possession of a 
 good deal of material, however, as a basis for 
 such an exposition, and I shall endeavor to bring 
 it into shape, as soon as I shall be able to do so. 
 Meantime, I liave thought it best to publish 
 what I liHve already written out, having waited 
 
124 
 
 VOCAL UTTERANCE. 
 
 a great many years before I tliuiiglit I liad suf- 
 ficient light on tlie subject to venture out 
 witli it. 
 
 This, I trust, will be of some benefit, though 
 there is still much to be said, which is of im- 
 portance to the better understanding and devel- 
 opment of the voice. 
 
 In this connection I beg to mention with 
 grateful acknowledgment that Mr. Edgar S. 
 Werner, from the very beginning of my ac- 
 quaintance with him, has listened to the recital 
 of my investigations with the most appreciative 
 kindness. It is also with his advice and consent, 
 that I have postponed the publication of the 
 rest of my investigations until they shall have 
 attained a more perfect shape than they have at 
 the time of this writing. 
 
^^t ^^T TWE LAST PATE 
 
 rr^ OF 25 CKNTS 
 
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 OVERDUE. 
 
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