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I  Cornell  University  Library 

j    P  221. S43 

'    Elements  of  experimental  phonetics 


3   1924  026  451   967 


Cornell  University 
Library 


The  original  of  tiiis  book  is  in 
tine  Cornell  University  Library. 

There  are  no  known  copyright  restrictions  in 
the  United  States  on  the  use  of  the  text. 


http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924026451967 


gale  05icentenntal  f^utilication0 

THE    ELEMENTS   OF 
EXPERIMENTAL   PHONETICS 


gale  'Bicentennial  faublicationjs 

JVith  the  approval  of  the  President  and  Fellows 
of  Tale  University,  a  series  of  volumes  has  been 
prepared  by  a  number  of  the  Professors  and  In- 
structors, to  be  issued  in  connection  with  the 
Bicentennial  Anniversary,  as  a  partial  indica- 
tion of  the  character  of  the  studies  in  which  the 
University  teachers  are  engaged. 

This   series    of  volumes    is    respectfully   dedicated  to 


THE  ELEMENTS  OF 
EXPERIMENTAL  PHONETICS 


-/; 


BY 


EDWARD  WHEELER  SCRIPTURE 


W/T/f  THREE  HUNDRED  AND  FORTY-EIGHT  ILLUSTRATIONS 
AND    TWENTY-SIX  PLATES 


NEW  YORK:  CHARLES   SCRIBNER'S   SONS 

LONDON :    EDWARD   ARNOLD 

1902 


Copyright,  WOS, 
By  Yale    University 


Published  July,  igo2 


W} 


UNIVERSITY   PRESS   •    JOHN   WILSON 
AND   SON    •     CAMBRIDGE,    U.S.A. 


PREFACE 

This  book  is  an  attempt  to  collect  the  most  valuable 
experimental  data  concerning  the  voice  in  song  and  speech. 
I  believe  that  the  science  of  phonetics  cannot  be  confined 
to  a  study  of  the  physics  and  physiology  of  speech  sounds, 
and  that  the  problems  of  speech  perception,  of  the  psychology 
of  language,  of  rhythm  and  verse,  etc.,  can  all  be  treated  by 
experimental  methods  and  must  be  included. 

The  book  owes  much  to  many  friends.  Prof.  Hanns 
Oertel  (philology,  Yale  Univ.),  Prof.  J.  Gbddbs  (modern 
languages,  Boston  Univ.),  Prof.  E.  C.  Sanfoed  (psychology, 
Clark  Univ.),  Prof.  W.  H.  Burnham  (pedagogy,  Clark  Univ.) 
and  Dr.  F.  M.  Josselyn  (experimental  phonetics,  Boston 
Univ.)  have  made  many  suggestions  that  were  incorporated 
into  Part  II.  Prof.  H.  L.  Swain  (laryngology,  Yale  Univ.), 
Prof.  H.  B.  Ferris  (anatomy,  Yale  Univ.)  and  Mr.  C.  C. 
Clarke  (French,  Yale  Univ.)  have  aided  in  Part  III.  Dr. 
Jonathan  Weight  (laryngology,  Brooklyn)  has  furnished 
many  valuable  suggestions  for  the  chapters  on  the  larynx. 
Prof.  C.  H.  Graisidgbnt  (Romance  languages.  Harvard 
Univ.),  Prof.  A.  M.  Elliott  (editor  of  Mod.  Lang.  Notes, 
Johns  Hopkins  Univ.),  Prof.  E.  S.  Dana  (editor  of  Amer. 
Journ.  Sci.,  Yale  Univ.)  and  Dr.  T.  R.  French  (laryn- 
gology, Brooklyn)  have  permitted  me  to  use  blocks  from 
their  publications.  Prof.  E.  B.  Barker  (translator  of 
Spalteholtz's   anatomy,  Chicago  Univ.)  consented  to  the 


viii  PREFACE 

reproduction  of  some  plates.  W.  B.  Saunders  (publisher 
of  the  Amer.  Textbook  of  Physiology)  furnished  electro- 
types for  Figs.  51  to  56,  and  Ginn  &  Co.  (publishers, 
Boston)  those  for  Plates  XVII  to  XXVI.  Many  of  the 
illustrations  in  this  book  are  to  be  credited  to  the  Studies  from 
the  Yale  Psychological  Laboratory,  Vols.  VII  and  X. 

My  deepest  obligation  is  to  Mr.  E.  H.  Ttjttlb  (Yale 
Univ.).  His  wide  acquaintance  with  the  phonetics  of  vari- 
ous languages  has  enriched  the  book  with  many  examples. 
During  the  preparation  of  the  manuscript  and  the  correction 
of  the  proof  I  have  relied  constantly  on  his  technical  knowl- 
edge and  rare  critical  skill. 


E.  W.  SCEIPTURE. 


Yale  TJniversitt, 
New  Haven,  Conn.,  April,  1902. 


CONTENTS 


Part  I.     CURVES   OF   SPP^ECH 

Chapter  Page 

I.    Vibratory  Movement       .          .     .          1 

II.    Phonautograph  Curves  and  Manometric  Flames  .  17 

III.  Phonograph  Records  ....  32 

IV.  Gramophone  Records .              .....'  52 

V.    Immediate  Analysis  op  Speech  Curves  .              .  62 

VI.    Harmonic  Analysis      .    .                                          .     .  72 

Part  II.     PERCEPTION   OF   SPEECH 

VII.    The  Organ  of  Hearing                                   ....  76 

VIII.    Perception  of  Sounds          ...  89 

IX.    Perception  of  Speech  Elements          .         .          .  113 

X.    Speech  Ideas  .     .              ....              .  126 

XI.    Association  of  Ideas 135 

XII.    Habits  of  Association    ...          .         ....  152 

XIII.  Special  Associations  in  Speech  .     .              .  163 

XIV.  Formation  of  Speech  Associations           175 

Part  III.     PRODUCTION   OF   SPEECH 


97 


XV.  Voluntary  Action  and  the  Graphic  Method     .     .  18 

XVI.  Breathing        .               .     .                    .               .     .  21 

XVII.    Vocal  Organs 229 

XVIII.  Structure  and  Observation  of  the  Larynx           .  239 

XIX.  Action  of  the  Larynx  .              .              .     .  251 

XX.  Tones  of  the  Vocal  Cavities     .     .                   .          .  281 

XXI.  Tongue    Contacts  :     Methods    of    Palatograph y  ;                / 

American,  Irish  and  Hungarian  Records  .     .     .  296     V 


1 


X  CONTENTS 

Chapter  Pagb 

XXII.  Tongue  Contacts  :  German  Records  .                        308 

\  XXIII.  Tongue  Contacts:  French  and  Italian  Records     312 

^  XXIV.  Tongue  Positions  and  Movements  ....              325 

XXV.  Pharynx,  Nose,  Velum,  Lips  and  Jaw                   .     338 

XXVI.  Simultaneous  and  Successive  Speech  Movemknts     357 

^- XXVII.    Vocal  Control .     .  .379 

Part  IV.     FACTORS   OF   SPEECH 

399 
432 
446 
462 
...  472 

488 
503 
506 
517 
XXXVII.    Speech  Rhythm  .  537 

APPENDICES 

Appendix    I.    Fourier  Analysis       ...  .     .  561 

"  II.    Studies  of  Speech  Curves  575 

"         III.    Free  Rhythmic  Action  ...  .     602 

Additions  and  Corrections      .  ...  607 

List  op  Phonetic  Symbols  .     .  .  ...  608 

Musical  Notation    .  2  o /ace  610 

Index       .     .  611 

Plates 


XXVIII. 

Vowels    .                   ... 

XXIX. 

Liquids  and  Consonants 

,    XXX. 

Sound  Fusion       .     . 

^  XXXI. 

Progressive  Change    . 

XXXII. 

Melody        .     . 

XXXIII. 

Duration          .              .     . 

XXXIV. 

Loudness           .     .     . 

XXXV. 

Accent    .... 

XXXVI. 

Auditory  and  Motor  Rhythm 

LIST   OF   ILLUSTEATIOI^S 

Figure  Page 

1.  Vibrating  particle 1 

2.  Sinusoid  vibration ....  3 

3.  Propagation  of  vibration 5 

4.  Frictional  sinusoid 6 

5.  Magnetic  vibrator 7 

6.  Apparatus  for  recording  vibrations,  drum,  motor,  resistance      .     .  8 

7.  Continuous-paper  drum     .     .           8 

8.  Lantern  recorder .     .  9 

9.  Countershaft  for  reducing  speed , 10 

10.  Countershaft  for  reducing  speed      .     .          .          10 

11.  Countershaft  for  reducing  speed .10 

12.  Countershaft  for  reducing  speed .11 

13.  Diagram  of  connections  for  experiments  with  magnetic  vibrator    .  11 

14.  Record  from  magnetic  vibrator 13 

15.  Spherical  resonator  (Kcenig) ...  14 

16.  Adjustable  resonator  (Kcenig) 14 

17.  Electric  fork  (after  IZimmermann) 15 

18.  Manometric-flame  apparatus  (Kcenig)     ...          .          ...  25 

19.  Manometric  flames,  vowels  (Kcenig)  ....               ....  26 

20.  Manometric  flames,  m  and  n  (Kcenig)     ...                    .     .  27 

21.  Manometric  flame,  r  (Kcenig) .     .  28 

22.  Manometric     capsule     with    oxygen    cylinder     (Nichols     and 

Merritt) ■ 28 

23.  Apparatus  for  photographing  manometric  flames  (Nichols  and 

Merritt) 29 

24.  Manometric  flame,  o    .     .     .     . 29 

25.  Phonograph  (Edison)           .     .     .     .     ^^.     .     .     .          .     .  32 

26.  Phonograph  (Edison) 33 

27.  Phonograph  recorder  (Edison)      ....          33 

28.  Phonograph  knife  cutting  cylinder     ....          ...  34 

29.  Phonograph  record  (Boeke)     .          34 

30.  Phonograph  reproducer  (Edison)       .          ....          ...  34 

31.  Hermann's  curves  of  lotg  German  vowels .  40 


xii  LIST  OF  ILLUSTRATIONS 

Figure  Page 

32.  Hermann's  curves  of  short  German  vowels 41 

33.  Hkrmann's  curves  of  consonants 42 

34.  Phonograph  tracer  (Beviek) 49 

35.  Bevier's  curve  of  a 50 

36.  Gramophone  recorder 52 

37.  Gramophone  disc     .     .           54 

38.  Gramophone  reproducer 54 

39.  Gramophone .     .  55 

40.  Gramophone  tracer  (first  model)     .     .           56 

41.  Gramophone  tracer  (tracing  lever)      ...           57 

42.  Gramophone  tracer  (second  model) 60 

43.  Gramophone  curves  tested          .          .     .          61 

44.  Curve  of  pitch  for  o  in  '  saw  him '  .     .     .           66 

45.  Compounding  of  sinusoids  2  :  3    ...           67 

46.  Compounding  of  sinusoids  1  :  2 67 

47.  Compounding  of  fork  vibrations  (Kcenig) 68 

48.  Synthetic  vibrator 70 

49.  Curve  with  12  ordinates  drawn  ....                74 

50.  Harmonic  plot .           .     .  75 

51.  General  structure  of  ear  (Quajn) 76 

52.  Middle  ear  (Testut)  ...           .     .           .                77 

53.  Scheme  of  labyrinth  (Testut)       .                                   ....  79 

54.  Bonework  of  cochlea  (Testut)      .                         ,          ....  80 

55.  Section  through  canal  of  cochlea  (Testut)  ...          ....  80 

56.  Terminal  organs  in  cochlea  (Testut) 81 

57.  Speech  centers  in  cortex  of  cerebrum 83 

58.  Scheme  of  functional  connections  of  speech  centers 87 

59.  Siren  with  electrical  connections     ....           90 

60.  Pfeil  marker  (Langendorfp)          .     .                91 

61.  Deprbz  marker  (Verdin) 92 

62.  Contact  wheel 93 

63.  Variator  (Stern) 102 

64.  Audiometer    ....'. 110 

65.  Pendulum  chronoscope 153 

66.  Voice  key 155 

67.  Diagram  to  illustrate  lapses  (Meringer  and  Mayer)    .          .     .  165 

68.  Stimulation  and  record  of  muscle .     .  189 

69.  Curve  of  muscular  contraction .     .           .  189 

70.  Scheme  of  brain  structure  (after  Auzoux)   .     .           ...           .  193 

71.  Tambours  and  clockwork  recording  drum 195 

72.  Recording  tambour  (Marey,  Verdin) 196 

73.  Recording  tambour  (Carpentier,  Verdin)     .          ....  196 

74.  Rectification  of  tambour  records  (Langendorfk) 197 


LIST   OF  ILLUSTRATIONS  xiii 

FiGUEB  Page 

75.  Adjustment  of  recording  point  to  drum  (Langendorff)      .     .  198 

76.  Records  of  pulls 201 

77.  Record  of  constant  effort    ...                    202 

78.  Record  of  pulls  with  increasing  haste 204 

79.  Apparatus  for  measuring  reaction  time      .     .           206 

80.  Scheme  of  lamp  battery      .     .          209 

81.  Four-socket  lamp  battery   ...          210 

82.  Caliper  spirometer  (Beut) 214 

83.  Belt  tambour  spirometer  (Verdin) 215 

84.  Records  of  abdominal  breathings           .     .  216 

85.  Records  of  mouth  breaths 217 

86.  Records  of  mouth  breaths  in  recitation .  218 

87.  Records   of    mouth    breaths    in   different    expressions  of    du 

(Vietok) .     .  218 

88.  Nasal  olives  (Rousselot)           .     .          219 

89.  Vocal  tambour  (Rousselot)       .          219 

90.  Breath  recorder  (Gad) ...  220 

91.  Nose  and  mouth  breaths  (Goldschbider) 224 

92.  Manometer  (Roy)     ...                225 

93.  Vocal  organs  (Testut)     .           .     .           .                ....  230 

94.  Muscles  of  the  face,  superficial  layer  (Testut) 231 

95.  Muscles  of  the  face,  deeper  layer  (Testut)  .               ...  231 

96.  Muscles  of  the  lips  (Spalteholtz)     .           .                ...  232 

97.  Muscles  around  the  pharynx  (Testut)     .     .               .          .  233 

98.  Muscles  of  the  tongue,  superficial  layer  (Testut)  ....  234 

99.  Muscles  of  the  tongue,  deeper  layer  (Testut)    .          .  235 

100.  Section  across  the  tongue  (Spalteholtz)     .          .          .  236 

101.  Muscles  of  pharynx  (Testut)     ....                    .          .     .  237 

102.  Thyroid  and  circoid  cartilages,  front  view  (Spalteholtz)  .  239 

103.  Thyroid  and  circoid  cartilages,  side  view  (Spalteholtz)     .     .  239 

104.  Laryngeal  cartilages  with  vocal  bands  relaxed     ....          .  240 

105.  Laryngeal  cartilages  with  vocal  bands  stretched           ....  240 

106.  Horizontal  section  across  larynx  (after  Spalteholtz)    .     .     .  240 

107.  Side  view  of  larynx  (Testut)     ...          241 

108.  Front  view  of  larynx  (Testut)                 ,  241 

109.  Rear  view  of  larynx  (Testut)    ....          242 

110.  Side  view  of  larynx  with  portion  of  thyroid  cartilage  displaced 

(Testut)    ....               242 

111.  Vertical  transverse  section  of  larynx  (Spalteholtz)  .     .          .  243 

112.  Vertical  transverse  section  of  one  side  of  larynx  (Spalteholtz)  244 

113.  Diagrams  showing  various  adjustments  of  the  glottis  ....  245 

114.  Laryngoscope  equipment .  247 

115.  LTse  of  laryngoscope  (Stokk) 248 


xiv  LIST  OF  ILLUSTRATIONS 

Figure  Page 

116.  Glottis  during  respiration  (French) 251 

117.  A  glottis  in  singing/"!  (French) .     .  252 

118.  A  glottis  in  singing  gi  (French)          252 

119.  A  glottis  in  singing /'(  (French) 253 

120.  A  glottis  in  singing  cP  (French) 253 

121.  A  glottis  in  singing  e^  (French) 254 

122.  Membrane  pipe .  258 

123.  Action  of  vocal  bands  (Mtjsehold) 259 

124.  Laryngeal  recorder  (Rousselot) 267 

125.  Flame  figure,  unison  (Hensen) 269 

126.  Flame  figure,  octave  (Hensen)  .          269 

127.  Flame  figure,  duodecime  (Hensen) 270 

128.  Flame  figure,  fifth  (Hensen) 270 

129.  Flame  figure,  fourth  (Hensen) 270 

130.  Flame  figure,  third  (Hensen) 270 

131.  View  of  larynx,  breathy  tone  (Curtis)     ........  274 

132.  View  of  larynx,  breathy  tone  (Curtis) 274 

133.  Larynx  in  whispering  (Czermak) 274 

134.  Map  of  roof  of  mouth  (Lenz) 296 

135.  Sagittal  map  of  mouth  cavity  (Lenz) 297 

136.  Artificial  palate  (Kingsley) 298 

137.  Palatogram  (Kingsley)    ...          299 

138-150.  Palatograms  of  American  sounds  (Kingsley) 303 

151-167.  Palatograms  of  Hungarian  sounds  (Balassa)      ....  306 

168-172.  Palatograms  of  German  sounds  (GRiJTZNER) 308 

173-183.  Palatograms  of  German  sounds  (Vietor) 310 

184-205.  Palatograms  of  Parisian  sounds  (Rousselot)      .     .     .  313 

206-215.  Palatograms  of  Rousselot's  sounds  (Rousselot)    .     .     .  319 
216-240.  Palatograms  of  Italian  sounds  (Josselyn)  .     .           .       323,  324 

241.  Atkinson's  tongue  curve  (Laclotte)     ....          ...  330 

242.  Tongue  explorer  (Atkinson) .  .  .331 

243.  Tongue  explorer,  details  (Atkinson)        331 

244.  Tongue  positions  (Atkinson)     .     .               332 

245.  Exploratory  bulbs  (Rousselot)      .                         ....  333 

246.  Tongue  movement  in  dido,  tito  (Josselyn)  .               ...  333 

247.  Tongue  movement  in  a  (Josselyn)                333 

248.  Tongue  movement  in  e  (Josselyn) 334 

249.  Tongue  movement  in  o  and  u  (Josselyn) 334 

250.  Tongue  movement  in  i  (Josselyn) 334 

251.  Tongue  movement  in  ini  (Josselyn) 334 

252.  Tongue  movement  in  popolo  (Josselyn)      .     .          ....  335 

253.  Geniohyoid  tambour  (Rousselot) 335 

254-259.  Tongue  movements  (Rousselot) 336 


LIST   OF  ILLUSTRATIONS  xv 

Figure  Page 

260-266.  Velum  movements  (Weeks)      ...           345 

267-273.  Nose  and  mouth  records  (Josselyn) 347-351 

274-277.  Pharyngeal  arches  in  four  French  vowels  (Thudichum)    .  352 

278.  Lip  and  breath  recorder  (Rocsselot) 354 

279.  Records  from  breath  and  cords  in  French  and  German  pa,  ba 

(Rotjsselot) ....  357 

280.  Records  from  breath  and  cords  in  American  paet,  baed  (Rous- 

selot) 358 

281-283.  Records   from   nose,  cords,  lips   in  apa,  aba,  ama  (RosA- 

pelly) 358 

284.  Record  of  mparltelbje"  (Rousselot) 359 

285.  Record  of  tuna^pjur  (Rousselot) 361 

286.  Record  of  mapovfoem  (Rousselot) 361 

287.  Record  of  Voivylnalelnalopnm  (Rousselot) 362 

288.  Record  of  totale  (Josselyn) 365 

289.  Record  of  slita  (Josselyn)    ...               366 

290.  Record  of  riordinare  (Josselyn)  .          366 

291.  Record  of  atjene  (Josselyn) 367 

292.  Record  of  mowoder  (Zwaardemaker) .  371 

293.  Record  of  mudsr  (Zwaardemaker)  .     .          371 

294.  Tongue  positions  (Laclotte) 372 

296.  Record  of  ^ouKoXos  (Laclotte) 373 

296.  Record  of  */3ou7ro'Xos  (Laclotte)         374 

297.  Record  of  aiTToXoj  (Laclotte)   ....                374 

298.  Record  of  apa  (Rousselot)  .                         375 

299.  Record  of  apa  (Rousselot) 375 

800.  Sagittal  diagram  for  s  (Zund-Burguet) 394 

301.  Sagittal  diagram  for  s  (Zijnd-Burguet)            394 

302.  Tongue  director  (Ztjnd-Burguet) 395 

303.  Sagittal  diagram  for  s  (ZiJND-BuRGNET)        395 

304.  Double  tongue  tambour  (Meunier) 397 

305.  Tambour  indicators  (Meunier) 397 

306.  Artificial  larynx  and  resonator 418 

307-323.  Lenz's  diagrams 435 

324.  Curve  of  speech  energy  in  a  phrase 448 

325-333.  Curves  of  melody  in  German  vowels   ....  .      475,  477 

334.  Melody  of  a  French  phrase 477 

335.  Melody  in  French  phrases 479 

336.  Voice  records 509 

337.  Curves  of  breath  pressure  in  Lithuanian  and  Lettic     ....  514 
338-343.  Forms  of  rhythm 519,520 

344.  Record  of  arhythmic  action .  524 

345.  Results  of  arhythmic  action    ....                .     .                .     .  524 


xvi  LIST   OF  ILLUSTRATIONS 

PlGUKE  PAGB 

346.  Noiseless  key             629 

347.  Apparatus  for  experiments  on  rliythm 530 

348.  Harmonic  plot            572 

349.  Rondet's  abacus      .           .     .           .  572 

350.  Curve  of  ai 676 

351.  Vibrations  in  ai         .... 577 

352.  Vibrations  in  ai 578 

363.   Curve  of  dai 582 

354.  Vibrations  in  dai       ...           .           683 

355.  Curve  of  dai               ....                     .     .                     ...  584 

356.  Curve  of  lai      ...  685 

357.  C\xv^i%oi  Who  HI  he  tie  parson  1  .  .  .  .590 

358.  Modulation  of  parson                                                                          .  595 

359.  Modulation  of  parson     .                            ......  595 

360.  Curve  of  difficulty  in  free  rhythmic  action      .                ....  605 

Plates  I-II.     Curves  from  Cock  Robin. 
Plates  III-XI.     Curves  from  Rip  Van  Winkle's  Toast. 
Plates  XII-XIII.     Melody  of  Rip  Van  Winkle's  Toast. 
Plate  XIV.     Curves  of  frequency  in  rhythmic  sounds  (Miyake). 
Plate  XV.     Curves  of  frequency  for  some  sounds  in  Cock  Robin. 
Plate  XVI.     Curves  of  intensity  for  some  sounds  in  Cock  Robin. 
Plates  XVII-XXVI.     Tongue  and  lip  positions  in  German  and  English 
sounds  (Geandgent). 


THE  ELEMENTS  OF  EXPERIMENTAL 
PHONETICS 


THE 

ELEMENTS  OF  EXPERIMENTAL  PHONETICS 

PART   I 

CUEVES   OF  SPEECH 

CHAPTER   I 

VIBEATOEY  MOVEMEKT 

ViBEATOEY  movement  can  be  most  conveniently  studied 
by  considering  the  motion  of  a  single  particle  under  certain 
hypotlietical  conditions.  Suppose  a  particle  to  be  drawn  to  its 
position  of  equilibrium  0  (Fig.  1)  by  some  force  that 
increases  as  the  particle  is  moved  from  0.  When  dis- 
placed from  this  position '  in  the  direction  +  I^  by  a 
momentary  blow,  it  will  move  a  certain  distance  with 
steadily  decreasing  speed  until  it  comes  to  rest,  and 
then  on  account  of  the  force  acting  toward  0  will 
return  to  its  starting-point.  In  doing  this  it  will 
have  acquired  a  velocity  that  will  drive  it  bej'-ond  the 
original  position  toward—!^  This  movement  will  be  -^^^  j 
opposed  by  the  tendency  toward  the  position  of  equi- 
librium, and  the  particle  will  be  again  stopped  and  drawn 
back,  whereby  it  will  gain  new  momentum  and  will  pass  the 
point  0  again,  but  in  the  opposite  direction.  At  0  it  will 
again  have  its  maximum  velocity.  The  momentum  with 
which  it  passes  0  will  carry  it  toward  +  Y  and  the  move- 
ment will  begin  over  again.  It  will  thus  continue  to  oscil- 
late across  its  center  of  equilibrium. 

Since  the  distance  y  of  the  particle  above  or  below  the 
center  of  equilibrium  varies  with  the  time  t,  it  is  said  to  be 
a  function  of  t;  this  is  indicated  by  the  expression  y  =f(ty 

1 


-Y 


2  CURVES  OF  SPEECH 

If  the  center  of  equilibrium  in  Fig.  1  is  supposed  to  travel 
from  left  to  right  at  a  definite  rate,  it  will  describe  a  straight 
line  representing  the  time  that  has  elapsed.  The  oscillating 
particle  will  describe  a  wave-line  showing  its  position  at  each 
moment.  The  shape  of  the  wave  and  the  form  of  the  function 
will  depend  on  the  nature  of  the  force  acting  on  the  particle. 

The  attraction  of  a  particle  to  its  position  of  equilibrium 
may  vary  directly  as  its  distance  from  that  position.  If  we 
make  the  additional  suppositions  that  the  actual  movement 
is  small  and  that  there  are  no  forces  of  viscosity  or  friction 
tending  to  dissipate  the  energy,  it  is  not  difficult  to  get  an 
expression  for  the  movement. 

Let  t/  be  the  position  of  the  particle  at  any  moment  t ;  then, 
on  the  suppositions  made,  the  equation  of  movement  can  be 
shown  to  be 

•    o     t 
y=a.sm  Stt-, 

where  a  is  the  amplitude,  or  the  maximum  value  assumed  by 
y,  and  T  is  the  periodic  time,  or  the  time  required  for  y  to 
pass  through  one  complete  set  of  its  values.  A  vibration  of 
this  kind  is  said  to  be  '  harmonic '  or  '  sinusoidal ; '  a  curve 
expressing  it  is  called  a  'sinusoid.'  When  the  vibrating 
particle  moves  without  being  affected  by  external  forces,  its 
period  T is  said  to  be  its  'period  of  free  vibration,'  or  its 
'  natural  period.' 


t 

lo 

li 

a. 

2  a. 
11  X 

sin  q 

20  sin  5 

t 

lo 

II 

a. 

00    SI, 

II  X 

siny 

20  sin  g 

0.00 

0.0 

0° 

0.00 

0.0 

0.55 

1.1 

198° 

—  0.31 

-6.2 

0.05 

0.1 

18 

+  0.31 

+  6.2 

0.60 

1.2 

216 

-0.59 

-11.8 

0.10 

0.2 

36 

+  0.59 

+  11.8 

0.65 

1.3 

234 

-0.81 

-16.2 

0.1.5 

0.3 

54 

+  0.81 

+  16.2 

0.70 

1.4 

252 

-  0.95 

-19.0 

0.20 

0.4 

72 

+  0.95 

+  19.0 

0.75 

1.5 

270 

-1.00 

-20.0 

0.2.5 

0.5 

90 

+  1.00 

+  20.0 

0.80 

1.6 

288 

-0.95 

-19.0 

0.30 

0.6 

108 

+  0.95 

+  19.0 

0.85 

1.7 

306 

-0.81 

-16.2 

0.35 

0.7 

126 

+  0.81 

+  16.2 

0.90 

1.8 

324 

-0.59 

-11.8 

0.40 

0.8 

144 

+  0.59 

+  11.8 

0.95 

1.9 

342 

-0.31 

-6.2 

0.45 

0.9 

162 

+  0.31 

+  6.2 

1.00 

2.0 

360 

0.00 

0.0 

0.50 

1.0 

180 

0.00 

0.0 

VIBRATORY  MOVEMENT  6 

t 
As  an  example  we  may  take  the  curve  y  —'2>(i  sin  27rQ-F ; 

here  the  amplitude  is  20""  and  the  period  0.5^     To  express 
this  as  a  curve  vs^e  calculate  the  foregoing  table. 

The  curve  may  be  conveniently  di-awn  by  plotting  on 
millimeter  paper.  On  a  heavy  horizontal  line  a  convenient 
distance  is  chosen  to  indicate  0.10^.  For  example,  let  60"" 
=  1.00s  whence  3""  =  0.05%  6""  =  0.10%  etc.  For  y 
the  most  convenient  arrangement  is  to  let  1""  on  the  paper 
represent  1""  of  amplitude.  At  a;  =  0  a  point  is  placed  on 
the  line  for  y  —0.  At  a;  =  3""  (representing  t  —  0.05^)  a 
point  is  placed  just  above  y  =  6""  (representing  y  =  6.2""). 
In  a  similar  manner  the  points  of  the  curve  indicated  in  the 
table  are  marked  on  the  paper  and  they  are  then  joined  by  a 
smooth  line.  The  curve  evidently  continues  to  repeat  the 
same  form,  and  further  waves  can  be  plotted  directly  from 
the  same  table ;  the  result  will  be  a  curve  like  that  shown 
half-size  in  Fig.  2. 


Fig.  2. 


The  curve  crosses  the  horizontal  axis  whenever  y  =  0,  that 
is,  wherever   sin  27ry  =  0;  this  occurs  for  sin  0°,  sin  180°, 

sin  360°,  etc.,  that  is  (since  it  =  180°),  for  sin  0°,  sin  tt,  sin  2m; 
etc.,  or  at  the  moments  t  =  0,  t  =  \T,t  ^  T,  etc.  The  curve 
will  be  at  its  maximum  or  minimum  for  sin  90°,  sin  270°, 

etc.,  that  is,  for  sin^,  sin  -^ ,  etc.,  or  at  the  moments 
t  =  ^T,  t  =  ^T,  etc. 


4  CURVES  .OF  SPEECH 

The  sine  vibration  is  also   expressed   by  «/  =  « ■  sin  27rnt 

where  w  =  — -  is  the  frequency,  or  the  number  of  vibrations  in 

the  unit  time.  The  relation  between  T  and  n  is  readily  un- 
derstood by  considering  that  when  the  particle  makes  a 
complete  vibration  in  ^  =  0.01",  it  must  make  n  =  100 
vibrations  in  one  second. 

It  is  also  useful  to  know  that  the  vibration  may  be  ex- 
pressed by 

■  ^A 

y^=a. sm  y  —t , 

^  771 

where  s  is  the  amount  of  the  central  force  and  m  the  mass  of 
the  particle.     The  period  of  the  vibration  is  thus 

s 
the  period  varies  directly  as  the  square  root  of  the  mass  of 
the  particle  and  inversely  as  the  square  root  of  the  strength 
of  the  central  force. 

The  condition  of  movement  of  the  particle  at  any  moment 
is  called  its  phase.  Two  vibrations  are  in  the  same  phase 
when  the  particles  are  at  the  same  stage  of  the  movement  at 
the  same  time.  In  the  .case  of  the  sinusoid  curve  the  phases 
are  repeated  at  intervals  of  27r  (Fig.  2). 

It  is  evident  that  the  particle  is  moving  with  its  least 

velocity    at    the    moment    it    changes    its    direction ;    that 

,     .       .  TT      Stt 

IS,   its   velocity   is    zero    at     „,    -^,   etc.     It  moves  with 

its  greatest  velocity  as  it  passes  its  center  of  equilibrium, 
that  is,  at  multiples  of  tt.  The  moment  of  greatest  elonga- 
tion is  thus  the  moment  of  least  velocity,  and  the  moment 
of  no  elongation  is  that  of  greatest  velocity. 

The  vibration  of  a  particle  of  air  is  communicated  to  the 
neighboring  particles  and  the  disturbance  travels  in  dry  air 
at  the  rate  of  330.7™  per  second  at  the  sea-level  pressure 
of  760"™  and  a  temperature  of  0°  C.  The  successive 
particles  in  a  line  of  propagation  will  be  in  different  phases 


VIBRATORY  MOVEMENT  5 

of  movement  at  any  given  moment  (Fig.  3)  ;    the  distance 
between  two  particles  in  the  same  phase  is   known  as  the 


Fig.  3. 

wave-length.  The  wave-length  I  can  be  found  from  the 
period  Thy  the  known  relation  Z  =  330.7 T,  and  from  the 
frequency  n  by 

330.7 
n 
The  wave-lengths  are  directly  proportional  to  the  periods 
and  inversely  proportional  to  the  frequencies.  Thus, 
the  wave-length  of  a  vibration  with  the  period  0.01',  or  the 
frequency  100,  is  I  =  330.7°'  x  0.01  =  3.307%  and  that 
of  a  vibration  with  the  period  0.02^,  or  the  frequency  50, 
is  I  =  330.7'"  X  0.02  =  6.614°'. 

A  material  point  set  in  motion  under  the  circumstances 
described  above  would  Continue  to  vibrate  indefinitely  about 
its  position  of  equilibrium  if  there  were  no  forces  of  a  dissi- 
pative  character  to  be  overcome.  There  are,  however,  always 
forces  of  this  character  which  modify  the  movement ;  such 
forces  can  be  grouped  under  the  term  friction. 

The  effect  of  friction  is  to  reduce  the  motion  of  the  particle 
so  that  instead  of  vibrating  indefinitely  it  gradually  comes 
to  rest.  The  simplest  supposition  in  regard  to  friction  is 
that  its  force  is  proportional  to  the  velocity  of  the  moving 
particle.  This  supposition  is  in  general  well  adapted  to  the 
cases  of  actual  experience.  On  this  supposition  it  can  be 
shown  that  the  amplitude  of  the  vibration  will  steadily  de- 
crease at  a  rate  expressed  by  dividing  the  initial  amplitude 
by  the  factor  e*'  where  e  is  the  number  2.71828,  k  the  factor 
of  friction,  and  t  the   elapsed  time.     The  amplitude  at  any 

moment  t  will  thus  be  --  or  a  .  e~*',  and  the  curve  of  vibra- 


tion will  be 


y  —  a  .  e  *'.  sin  27r-— -  , 


O  CURVES   OF  SPEECH 

where  y  is  the  displacement  of  the  point  at  the  moment 
t,  a  the  amplitude,  e  the  constant  2.71828,  k  a  factor 
depending  on  the  relation  between  the  mass  of  the  point  and 
the  amount  of  the  friction,  and  T^  the  period  under  the  given 
circumstances.  The  period  T^.  depends  only  in  a  very  slight 
degree  on  the  friction,  and  for  nearly  all  purposes  it  can 
be  regarded  as  the  same  as  the  period  without  friction ;  that 
is,  in  general  we  may  use  I'  (p.  2  )  for  T^ ,  and  we  thus  have 

y  =  a.  e~''* .  sin  27r— 

as  the  expression  for  the  movement  when  friction  is  present. 
The  amplitude  a  is  subjected  to  a  steady  decrease  by  the  divisor 

e*' ,  for  in  the  expression  a .  e~^*-  =  ^  the  amplitude  will  have 

its  greatest  value  only  when  A;  =  0  or  when  there  is  no  fric- 
tion. Any  friction  will  give  a  positive  value  to  Ic  and  this 
will  reduce  the  value  of  a.  When  there  is  friction  the 
value  of  e*'  will  increase  proportionately  as  time  elapses; 
thus  a  will  be  steadily  reduced.     A  vibration  with  decreasing 


Fjg.  4. 

amplitude  is  shown  in  Fig.  4 ;  the  line  along  the  tops  of  the 
waves  indicates  the  decrease  according  to  the  divisor  e*'. 

A  model  comprising  a  light  flat  wooden  bob  suspended 
between  two  springs  is  of  value  in  illustrating  the  laws  of 
vibration.  The  bob  is  moved  to  one  side  and  then  released  ; 
it  executes  vibrations  of  a  definite  period  with  slowly  decreas- 
ing amplitude.  The  effect  of  the  mass  of  the  particle  can  be 
shown  by  adding  lead  weights  to  the  bob  and  the  effect  of  the 
amount  of  the  central  force  by  increasing  the  tension  of  the 
springs.     A  pair  of  light  mica  or  cardboard  vanes,  adjustable 


VIBRATORY  MOVEMENT 


7 


at  various  angles  to  the  direction  of  movement,  render  the 
model  available  for  illustrating  the  effects  of  friction. 

Many  of  the  phenomena  of  vibrating  bodies  can  be  accu- 
rately studied  in  the  action  of  vibrating  springs  or  reeds.  A 
steel  spring  B  (Fig.  5)  clamped  tightly  in  a  small  vise  D  on 
the  frame  IJ  bears  at  its  end  a  recording  point  N  of  thin 
steel  ribbon.  The  frame  also  carries  an  adjustable  electro- 
magnet M  clamped  in  place  by  L  and  a  felt  damper  G  ad- 
justed as  desired  by  the  clamps  F  and  H  with  their  rod  E. 


Fig.  5. 


The  rod  A  is  placed  in  a  supporting  standard  (Fig.  6)  which 
is  so  adjusted  that  the  recording  point  rests  against  the  sur- 
face of  a  smoked  drum. 

One  of  the  most  useful  forms  of  a  smoked  drum  is  that 
shown  in  Fig.  6.  It  is  a  light  cylinder  of  metal  with  an  axle 
made  so  as  to  receive  any  of  a  set  of  pulleys  or  gears.  A 
sheet  of  glazed  paper  of  the  correct  size  to  fit  the  drum  re- 
ceives a  little  paste  along  one  edge  ;  it  is  stretched  smoothly 
around  the  drum  and  the  paste-edge  is  lapped  over.  A  gas 
flame  is  then  held  close  under  it  while  the  drum,  with  its 
axle  horizontal,  is  rotated  against  the  direction  of  the  flame ; 


8 


CURVES  OF  SPEECH 


in  this  way  an  even  coating  of  soot  is  deposited  all  over  the 
surface  (light  brown  for  ordinary  work,  black  for  reproducing 
curves  by  photography). 


Pig.  6. 

Several  of  these  drums  may  be  smoked  and  kept  ready  for 
use.  Long  strips  of  paper  may  be  used  over  two  drums.  The 
continuous-paper  drum  shown  in  Fig.  7  is  suitable  for  very 
long  records.  Two  plates  DE  are  held  together  by  cross- 
rods.  At  any  points  on  the  edges  of  these  plates  metal  shafts 
may  be  clamped,  and  two  drums  A,B  with  hollow  axles 
placed  on  them.  A  band  of  paper  CC  is  fastened  evenly 
around  the  drums  and  tightened  after  the  paste  is  dry  by  ad- 


FiG.  7. 


justing  one  of  the  shafts ;  it  is  then  smoked  as  usual.  To 
rotate  the  drums  a  loose  pulley  may  be  placed  on  one  of  the 
shafts  before  or  after  the  drum  is  on  the  support ;  this  pulley 


VIBRATORY  MOVEMENT  9 

has  a  spring  that  catches  one  of  the  spokes  of  the  drum. 
The  drums  may  be  used  horizontally  as  in  Fig.  7 ;  or  vertically 
by  tipping  the  pair  of  plates  on  their  edges. 

Graphic  records  may  also  be  made  on  a  rotating  glass  wheel, 
smoked  over  a  candle  flame.  One  form  of  such,  a  wheel, 
shown  in  Fig.  8,  is  adapted  for  use  with  a  projection  lantern. 


Fig.  8. 

The  shaft  of  the  glass  wheel  W  is  connected  to  the  pulley 
shaft  >S'  by  the  bevel  gear  Q;  the  belt  from  the  pulley  P 
passes  to  the  motor.  The  legs  AA  are  adjusted  to  fit  over 
the  projection  lantern  in  a  manner  to  bring  the  lower  part  of 
the  glass  wheel  just  in  front  of  the  condenser.  The  tracings 
appear  on  the  screen  as  they  are  made  while  the  apparatus 
itself  can  be  seen  through  the  smoked  surface. 


10 


CURVES   OF  SPEECH 


i 


Tig.  9. 


The  drum  is  rotated  by  a  small  electric  motor  whose  speed 
is  regulated  by  an  appropriate  resistance ;  Fig.  6  shows  both 

a  lamp  resistance  for  large 
I gJA  changes  in  speed  and  an  ad- 

justable wire  resistance  for 
smaller  changes.  A  clock- 
work motor  may  also  be 
used. 

An  adjustable  counter- 
shaft fastened  to  the  base 
of  the  motor  allows  the 
speed  to  be  reduced  in 
transmission.  For  very  high 
speeds  the  belt  from  a  pul- 
ley on  the  drum  runs  directly  to  a  small  pulley  on  the  motor 
axle.  For  more  moderate  speeds  the  countershaft  is  used 
with  a  spur  gear  A  on  the  motor  axle  and  another  B  on  the 
countershaft  (Fig.  9);  the  pulley  C  on 
the  countershaft  runs  at  a  lower  speed 
on  account  of  the  reduction  AB.  For 
very  low  speeds  a  worm  W  is  placed  on 
the  motor  axle  and  a  worm  gear  F  or  a 
spur  gear  on  the  countershaft  (Fig.  10). 
When  the  drum  is  used  with  its  axis' 
horizontal,  a  spur  gear  S  (Fig.  11)  may,  if  preferred,  be  placed 
on  its  axle  and  made  to  connect  with  a  spur  gear  T  of  any 
desired  size  on  the  countershaft,  which  is  run  by  a  worm  W  on 
the  motor  axle.  For  very  low  speeds 
the  spur  gear  S  (Fig.  12)  is  run  by  a 
worm  X  on  the  countershaft,  which  is 
turned  by  the  worm  gear  V  in  con- 
nection with  the  worm  W  on  the  motor 
axle.  A  collection  of  various  sizes  of 
pulleys  and  gears  makes  it  possible  to 
get  almost  any  speed  desired ;  the  finer 
gradations  are  accomplished  by  the  resistances  and  by  slightly 
pressing  or  loosening  the  motor  brushes  against  the  commutator. 


Fig.  10. 


Fig.  11. 


VIBRATORY  MOVEMENT 


11 


These  types  of  recording  apparatus  are  of  constant  use  in 
the  most  varied  forms  of  phonetic  work  — the  drums  for 
investigation  and  laboratory  practice,  the  glass  recorder  for 
class-demonstrations. 

A  blow  on  the  spring  B  (Fig.  5)  will  cause  it  to  draw  a 
sinusoidal  line   on   the   drum;  the  waves,   however,   slowly 
decrease  in  amplitude  owing 
to  loss  of  energy  by  friction 
(p.  5).     A  quicker  decrease 
due  to  additional  damping 
can  be  obtained  by  placing 
the  surface  of  the  felt  dam- 
per ((r,  Pig.  5)  more  or  less 
tightly  against  its  edge.     A 
curve    of   vibrations    dying 
away  by  friction  due  to  damping  was  shown  in  Fig.  4 ;  it  was 
made  by  the  damped  spring  struck  by  a  blow. 

A  vibratory  body  may  receive  a  series  of  impulses.  The 
results  of   different  natural  periods  of  the  vibratory  point, 


Fig.  12. 


Fig.  13. 


of  frictional  factors,  of  various  strengths  of  impulse  and  of 
different  intervals  of  repetition,  can  be  studied  by  means 
of  the  vibrating  spring.     A  series  of  impulses  may  be  imparted 


12  CURVES   OF  SPEECH 

to  the  spring  B  (Fig.  5)  by  brief  electric  currents  sent 
through  the  magnet  M.  In  a  study  of  the  action  of  such 
impulses  on  a  spring  these  impulses  were  obtained  and  re- 
corded in  the  following  way.  A  hard  rubber  contact  wheel 
C  (Fig.  13)  carried  on  its  rim  two  pieces  of  metal  £B'.  A 
pair  of  copper  brushes  H  bearing  against  the  rim  were  the 
poles  of  a  circuit  through  the  magnet  M  (Fig.  5),  indicated 
by  /  in  Fig.  13.  As  £  or  £'  passed  across  H,  it  closed  the 
circuit  and  sent  a  magnetic  impulse  to  the  spring.  This 
had  the  effect  of  a  sharp  blow.  The  strength  of  the  blow 
could  be  readily  adjusted  by  varying  the  current  or  dis- 
placing the  magnet  M.  As  it  was  desirable  to  have  an 
indication  of  the  exact  moment  at  which  the  impulse  was  sent 
to  the  spring,  a  spark  coil  was  made  to  register  directly  on 
the  line  drawn  by  the  vibrating  point.  A  pair  of  copper 
brushes  G  formed  the  poles  of  a  circuit  through  the  primary 
coil  i''  of  a  spark  coil,  whose  secondary  coil  £  was  connected 
by  the  wires  G  to  the  metallic  spring  and  the  base  of  the  re- 
cording drum.  A  condenser  D  was  connected  around  the 
break  at  O.  Whenever  a  metal  piece  £  or  £'  passed  under 
the  brushes  C,  the  circuit  was  closed.  With  an  appropriate 
adjustment  of  the  current,  a  spark  passed  from  the  record- 
ing point  through  the  paper  to  the  drum,  removing  the 
smoke  and  making  a  white  dot  when  the  circuit  was  closed 
and  also  when  it  was  broken.  The  two  pairs  of  brushes  were 
so  adjusted  that  the  sparks  registered  exactly  the  moments 
at  which  the  impulses  were  sent  through  the  magnet  and 
those  at  which  they  ceased. 

A  record  of  an  experiment  in  which  the  contact  wheel  was 
revolved  with  steadily  increasing  rapidity  is  reproduced  in 
Fig.  14.  The  waves  were  drawn  by  the  point  iV  (Fig.  5) ; 
the  pairs  of  dots  marked  the  beginning  and  end  of  each 
impulse.  The  figure  shows  that  each  impulse  started  a 
vibration  which  died  away  by  friction.  If  one  impulse  fol- 
lowed the  preceding  one  before  the  vibration  was  entirely 
gone,  its  effect  was  increased  or  diminished  according  as  the 
phase  of  movement  in  which  it  occurred  was  the  same  as  or 


VIBRATORY  MOVEMENT  13 

opposed  to  the  movement  started  by  the  impulse.  When  the 
impulses  occurred  quite  close,  together  and  at  exactly  the  right 
phases,  the  summation  of  effects  made  the  vibrations  very 
strong.  In  all  such  cases  an  increase  occurred  in  amplitude 
whenever  the  period  t  of  the  impulses  became  a  multiple  of 
the  natural  period  T  of  the  spring.  In  all  cases  the 
spring  vibrated  with  the  period  T;  only  the  amplitude  was 
affected  by  the  variations  of  t. 


Fig.  u. 

The  condition  of  equal  lengths  of  impulse  could  not  be 
illustrated  with  the  arrangement  just  described,  as  the  con- 
tacts through  B  and  B'  (Fig.  13)  lasted  a  constant  fraction  of 
a  revolution  and  the  length  of  the  impulse  decreased  propor- 
tionately as  the  speed  of  revolution  increased.  The  impulses 
_  were  weaker  as  they  came  faster.  Nevertheless  the  increase 
in  amplitude  whenever  t  was  a  multiple  of  I' appears  strikingly 
in  Fig.  14.  This  increase  in  amplitude  for  harmonic  relations 
(that  is,  according  to  the  simple  ratios,  1:2:3:  etc.)  between 
a  natural  period  and  impressed  force  is  known  as  '  resonance.' 

Resonance  decreases  with  increase  in  damping,  with  devia- 
tion from  a  harmonic  relation  and  with  distance  apart  in  the 
harmonic  series. 

The  principles  of  resonance  are  of  considerable  importance. 
Some  of  them  can  be  readily  illustrated  by  the  use  of  acous- 


14 


CURVES  OF  SPEECH 


Fig.  15'. 


tical  resonators.  The  spherical  resonator  (Fig.  15)  is  a  hollow- 
globe  of  glass  or  brass  with  a  small  opening  arranged  to  fit 
the  ear  and  a  larger  one  to  receive  the 
vibrations  of  the  air.  When  the  reso- 
nator is  placed  in  the  ear,  it  will  be  heard 
to  respond  loudly  whenever  a  certain 
tone  occurs  in  its  neighborhood.  This 
tone  is  approximately  the  same  as  that 
found,  by  tapping  or  blowing,  to  be  its 
natural  tone.  The  adjustable  resonator 
(Fig.  16)  can  be  made  to  answer  to  any  tone  within  its' 
limits.  Resonators  respond  not  only  to  vibrations  of  their 
own  period  but  in  less  degrees  also  to  those  of  longer  periods 
in  the  harmonic  series.  They  respond  slightly  or  not  at  all 
to  vibrations  not  in  this  series.  The  natural  period  of  a  reso- 
nator depends  on  its  volume.  The  shape  of  the  cavity  is  of 
little  influence.  The  size  and  shape  of  the  opening  are  of  great 
effect.  The  resonance  period  of  a  bottle  is  altered  by  filling 
it  with  water ;  it  does  not  change  when  the  bottle  is  tipped, 
but  does  change  with  any  change  of  the  size  of  the  opening. 
The  resonance  period  of  the  mouth  in  speech  probably  de- 
pends mainly  on  the  size  of  the  cavity  and  on  the  size  and 
shape  of  the  labial,  lingual  and  nasal  apertures. 

Owing  to  the  unavoidable  presence  of  friction  all  vibratory 
bodies  execute  movements  of  decreasing  amplitude  unless  the 


Fig.  16. 


loss  of  energy  is  replaced.  For  vibrating  springs  this  may  be 
conveniently  accomplished  by  having  the  spring  regulate  a 
series  of  magnetic  impulses  sent  to  it ;  this  is  the  principle  of 


VIBRATORY  MOVEMENT  15 

the  constantly  used  self-interrupting  electric  fork.  One  of 
the  many  forms  is  shown  in  Fig.  17.  The  fork  AA  is  held 
in  the  block  C  by  a  nut  R  on  its  stem.  The  block  6<  is  on  a 
rod  attached  to  the  clamp  D  by  which  it  can  be  adjusted  on  any 
rod  F.  An  electric  current  is  brought  to  the  binding  post  B 
connected  with  the  magnet  coil  M;  it  passes  from  the  magnet 
to  the  platinum  disc  P,  from  which  it  goes  by  a  small  piece  of 
platinum  wire  to  the  prong  A  and  from  another  binding  post 
at  Gr  or  elsewhere  on  the  base  of  the  fork  back  to  the  battery. 
The  current  passing  through  the  coil  M  makes  it  magnetic, 
and  the  prongs  AA   are    drawn   inward.      This  movement 


Fig.  17. 

breaks  the  circuit  at  F,  the  magnetism  ceases,  the  prongs  fly 
back,  the  circuit  is  again  made,  etc.  Owing  to  self-induction 
in  the  circuit  the  passing  of  the  current  through  the  magnet 
is  slightly  retarded  when  the  contact  is  made  at  Pas  the  prong 
flies  outward,  and  is  somewhat  prolonged  when  it  is  broken 
at  F  as  the  prong  flies  inward.  The  pull  of  the  magnet  in- 
ward is  therefore  somewhat  longer  when  the  prong  is  moving 
in  the  direction  of  the  pull  than  when  it  is  moving  against 
it;  this  furnishes  the  extra  energy  required  to  compensate 
the  loss  by  friction  and  keep  the  fork  vibrating  indefinitely.^ 
When  the  point  F  is  placed  on  the  recording  drum,  it  draws 
a  sinusoidal  curve  (Fig.  2)  whose  wave-length  corresponds  to 

1  Rayleigh,  Theory  of  Sound,  §  64,  2d  ed.,  London,  1894 ;  Dvorak,  Ueber 
rerschiedene  Arten  selbstthdtiger  Stromunterbrecher  und  deren  Verwendung,  Zt.  f.  In- 
strumentenk.,  1891  XI 423 ;  Zusatz  zu  der  Mittheilung, '  Ueber  versch.  Arten  selbstth. 
Stromunterbrecher,'  Zt.  Instrumentenk.,  1892  XII 197. 


16  CURVES   OF  SPEECH 

the  period  of  the  fork.  The  period  is  lengthened  by  a  rise  in 
temperature,  but  for  the  usual  room-temperatures  the  differ- 
ences are  small.  Increased  pressure  of  N  against  P  very 
slightly  shortens  the  period.  The  friction  of  the  point  B  on 
the  record  surface  reduces  the  amplitude  but  does  not  appre- 
ciably affect  the  period  (p.  6). 

References 

For  an  elementary  summary  of  the  phenomena  of  vibration :  Tyndall, 
Sound,  5th  ed.,  Loudon,  1893;  Muller-Pouillet-Pfaundler,  Lehrbuch 
d.  Physik,  I,  Braunschweig,  1886.  For  the  mathematical  treatment  of 
vibrations  :  Kayleigh,  Theory  of  Sound,  London,  1894 ;  Helmholtz, 
Math.  Prinoipien  d.  Akustik,  Leipzig,  1898.  For  the  deduction  of  the 
sinusoid:  Tait  and  Steele,  Dynamics  of  a  Particle,  §  88,  London, 
1878;  Winkelmann,  Handbuch  d.  Physik,  I  692,  Breslau,  1891 ;  and  the 
usual  works  on  dynamics.  For  apparatus  to  illustrate  vibrations  and 
wave-movement:  Frick,  Physikalische  Technik,  I  566,  Braunschweig, 
1890;  Wbinhold,  Physikalische  Demonstrationen,  3.  Aufl.,  219,  Leipzig, 
1899  ;  MiJLLER-PouiLLET-PFAUNDLER,  Lehrbuch  d.  Physik,  1 625,  Braun- 
schweig, 1886.  For  the  technique  of  smoke  records  :  Langendorff, 
Physiologische  Graphik,  Leipzig-Wien,  1891;  Scripture,  New  Psycho- 
logy, Ch.  V,  London,  1897;  New  apparatus  and  methods,  Stud.  Yale  Psych. 
Lab.,  1896  IV  76 ;  Elementary  course  in  psychological  measurements,  same, 
108,  113. 

For  millimeter  paper :  Kayer,  Paris ;  Keuffel  &  Esser,  New 
York.  For  vibration  model  and  recording  drums  :  Chicago  Labora- 
tory Supply  Co.,  Chicago.  For  recording  drums  and  electric  forks  : 
Zimmermann,  Leipzig;  Petzold,  Leipzig;  Heele,  Berlin;  Verdin, 
Paris;  SocriT:^  genevoise,  Geneve.  For  forks  with  certificates  of  ac- 
curacy from  the  Physikalisch-Teehnische  Reichsanstalt  in  Berlin  :  Edel- 
MANN,  Miinchen;  and  the  other  German  makers.  For  resonators  and 
electric  forks :  Kcenig,  Paris.  For  resistances,  switches,  and  other  elec- 
trical appliances  for  lamp  circuits :  Siemens  &  Halske,  Berlin  ;  All- 
GEMEiNE  Elektricitats-Gesellschaft,  Berlin ;  Voigt  &  Hafner, 
Bockenheim-Frankf  urt  a/M.  For  small  motors  and  Lalande  batteries  : 
Edison  Manufacturing  Co.,  Orange,  N.  J. 


CHAPTER   II 

PHONATJTOGKAPH  CTJEVBS  AND  MANOMBTEIC  FLAMES 

The  first  attempt  at  recording  speech  was  made  by  Scott 
in  1856.  Scott  was  a  proof-reader;  noticing  a  picture  of 
the  ear  in  the  proof-sheets  of  a  text-book  of  physics,  he  be- 
lieved that  he  could  get  a  record  of  speech  by  imitating  the 
structure  of  the  ear.^  In  Scott's  phonautograph  a  large  par- 
abolic receiving  trumpet  carried  at  its  end  a  thin  membrane 
whose  movement  caused  a  small  recording  lever  to  write  upon 
the  smoked  surface  of  a  cylindrical  drum.  The  sounds  of 
the  voice  passing  down  the  receiver  agitated  the  membrane  and 
caused  the  lever  to  draw  the  speech  curve  on  the  drum.  The 
instrument  as  improved  by  Kcenig  was  used  by  Dondeks 
and  others.^  It  is  the  prototype  of  the  later  machines  that 
make  speech  records  by  registering  the  vibrations  of  a  dia- 
phragm on  a  moving  surface  by  means  of  a  lever. 

The  logograph  of  Baelow  consisted  of  a  trumpet  or  mouth- 
piece ending  in  a  thin  membrane  of  rubber.  A  thin  lever  of 
aluminum  carrying  a  point  dipped  in  color  wrote  the  speech 
curves  on  a  band  of  paper.^ 

1  Scott,  Inscription  automatique  des  sons  de  I'air  au  moyen  d'une  oreille 
artificielle,  1861  ;  Phonautographe,  Annales  du  Conservatoire  des  Arts  et  Metiers, 
Oct.  1864;  Phonautographe  et  fixation  graphique  de  la  voix.  Cosmos,  1839  XIV 
314 ;  LiPPiCH,  Studien  iiber  d.  Phonautographen  von  Scott,  Sitzb.  d.  Wien.  Akad., 
Math.-naturw.  Kl.,  1864  L  (II.  Abth.)  397. 

2  Bonders,  Ueber  d.  Natur  der  Vokale,  Arch.  f.  d.  hoUand.  Beitrage  z.  Natur- 
u.  Heilk.,  1858  I  157  ;  Zar  Klangfarbe  der  Vokale,  Arch.  f.  d.  holland.  Beitrage  z. 
Natur-  u.  Heilk.,  1861  III  446  ;  Zur  Klangfarbe  der  Vokale,  Ann.  d.  Phys.  u.  Chem., 
1864  CXXIII  527;  De  physiologie  der  spraakklanken,  Utrecht,  1870;  Schwan 
tindPringsheim,  Derfranzbsische  Accent,  Arch,  f .  d.  Stadium  d.  neueren  Sprachen, 
1890  LXXXV  203. 

2  Barlow,  On  the  pneumatic  action  which  accompanies  the  articulation  of  sounds 

2 


18  CURVES   OF  SPEECH 

An  improved  phonautograph  was  used  by  Schneebeli  ;  ^  it 
carried  two  points,  one  fixed  to  aid  in  comparison  and  the 
other  moving  with  tlie  membrane.  The  inscription  was  made 
on  a  strip  of  glass  covered  with  a  light  coating  of  smoke  and 
drawn  on  a  carriage  rapidly  in  front  of  the  recording  points. 
The  tracings  were  measured  with  the  aid  of  micrometric 
screws.  Schneebeli  gave  a  number  of  the  characteristic 
curves  of  the  vowels.  Various  similar  methods  have  been 
employed  with  constantly  better  results.  The  ear  drum  has 
been  used  for  the  membrane  by  C.  Blake.^  Preece  and 
Steoh  used  a  thin  membrane  of  rubber  stretched  by  a  cone 
of  paper.  The  cone  was  made  to  move  a  fine  glass  tube  sup- 
plied with  an  aniline  ink,  the  record  being  taken  on  a  band 
of  paper.^ 

Hensen's  *  phonautograph  consisted  of  a  membrane  of  gold- 
beater's skin  in  a  conical  form  produced  by  molding  it  over 
a  shape  while  moist  and  allowing  it  to  dry  before  removal. 
A  single  light  lever  attached  to  the  center  of  the  membrane 
carried  a  fine  glass  thread  as  a  recording  point.  It  wrote  the 
curve  on  a  thinly  smoked  strip  of  glass.  The  curves  were 
studied  with  a  microscope. 

Wendelee's  curves,^  obtained  with  Hensen's  phonauto- 
graph, were  observed  through  a  microscope  and  copied  by  hand. 

bi/  the  human  voice,  as  exhibited  by  a  recording  instrument,  Proc.  Roy.  Soc.  Lond. 
1874  XXII  277  ;  On  the  articulation  of  the  human  voice  as  illustrated  by  the  logo- 
graph,  Proc.  Roy.  Soc.  Dublin,  1880  N.  S.  II  153. 

1  Schneebeli,  Experiences  avec  le  phonautographe.  Arch,  des  Sciences  phys.  et 
nat.  de  Geneve,  1878  (Nouvelle  pe'riode)  LXIV  79  ;  Sur  la  the'orie  du  timbre  et 
parliculierement  des  voyelles.  Arch,  des  Sciences  phys.  et  uat.  de  Geneve,  1879  (III. 
periode)  I  149. 

2  Blake,  The  use  of  the  membrana  tympani  as  a  phonautograph  and  logograph 
Archives  of  Ophthal.  and  Otol.,  1876  V  No.  1. 

3  Pkeece  and  Stroh,  Studies  in  acoustics,  Proc.  Roy.  Soc.  Lond.,  1879 
XXVIII  358. 

*  Hensen,  Ueber  die  Schrift  von  Schallbewegungen,  Zt.  Biol.,  1887  XXIII  29]  ■ 
first  described  by  Griitzner,  Physiologic  d.  Stimme  u.  Sprache,  187,  Hermann's 
Handb.  d.  Physiol.,  I.  Bd.,  II  Theil,  Leipzig,  1879. 

^  Wendeler,  Ein  Versuch  d.  Schallbewegung  einiger  Consonanten  u.  anderer 
Gerdusche  mit  d.  Hensen'schen  Sprachzeichner  graphisch  darzustellen,  Diss.  Kiel 
1886  ;  also  in  Zt.  f.  Biol.,  1887  XXIII  303. 


PHONAUTOGRAPH  CURVES  19 

'  The  curve  of  r  was  found  to  consist  of  small  vibrations 
with  rather  regular  fluctuations  of  amplitude  having  long 
periods ;  the  resemblance  to  the  familiar  curves  of  two  tones 
forming  beats  suggested  the  term  '  pseudobeats '  for  the 
fluctuations  of  intensity  observed  in  the  r-curves.  The  curves 
of  r  were  similar  to  those  afterwards  obtained  by  Hermann 
(see  Chap.  Ill  below).  The  terminal  portions  of  r  were 
thought  to  resemble  the  curves  of  the  adjacent  vowels ;  the 
r  was  defined  as  a  rhythmically  repeated  weakening  of  the 
vowel  sound  of  the  syllable  to  which  the  r  belonged. 

Wendeler  also  noted  the  vowel-like  character  of  the 
curves  of  1,  m  and  n.  The  vibrations  in  a  vowel  curve  were 
observed  not  to  remain  constant  in  form  but  to  undergo 
gradual  changes  ;  these  he  attributed  to  changes  in  the  pitch 
of  the  resonance  tone,  assuming  that  the  cord  tone  remained 
constant.  This  view  is  inadequate.  These  changes  should 
be  attributed  rather  to  the  changes  in  the  relations  among  the 
various  resonance  tones  and  the  cord  tone ;  they  appear  in 
all  vowel  curves  and  indicate  that  a  vowel  sound  never  re- 
mains constant.  I  believe  it  is  safe  to  say  that  a  vowel 
cannot  be  treated  as  a  sound  whose  character  is  the  same 
throughout  its  duration.  The  various  component  tones  are 
continually  changing  both  in  pitch  and  intensity,  and  it  is 
highly  probable  that  every  typical  vowel  has  typical  forms 
of  change,  and  that  these  forms  of  change  are  as  important 
characteristics  as  the  pitches  and  intensities  of  the  component 
tones. 

Martens,-'  with  curves  obtained  by  Hensen's  phonauto- 
graph,  observed  and  charted  the  changes  in  the  cord  tone  in 
speech.  The  cord  tone  is  continually  changing,  and  it  may 
be  said  that  a  vowel  is  not  spoken  on  a  tone  of  a  cer- 
tain pitch  but  on  a  slide  that  may  be  quite  extensive  and 
complicated. 

Martens,  like  Wendeler,  observed  gradual  changes  in 
the  form  of  the  vowel  curve ;  but  he  attributed  them  to  the 

1  Maktens,  Ueber  das  Verhalten  von  Vohalen  und  Diphthongen  in  gesprochenen 
Worten,  Diss.,  Kiel,  1888 ;  also  in  Zt.  f.  Biol.,  1889  XXV  289. 


20  CURVES   OF  SPEECH 

changes  in  the  cord  tone.  As  stated  above,  the  changes  are 
due  to  the  changes  in  the  relations  between  the  various  tones 
of  the  vowel. 

Curves  of  the  German  diphthongs  au  and  ai  showed  grad- 
ual changes  extending  throughout  the  sound.  Such  curves 
show  that  the  diphthong  recorded  is  not  to  be  considered  as 
the  sum  of  two  sounds  united  by  a  glide  but  as  one  sound  of 
a  changing  character,  y  It  is  undoubtedly  true  that  in  ai,  for 
example,  various  stages  in  the  development  of  the  first  por- 
tion might  be  picked  out  that  resemble  various  forms  of  the 
a-sound,  and  that  similarly  various  forms  of  the  i-sound 
might  be  picked  out  at  various  moments  in  the  later  por- 
tion; possibly  resemblances  to  even  other  sounds  could  be 
found  at  various  moments.  The  attempt  to  lump  the  whole 
effect  into  two  portions  leads  to  conflicting  opinions,  of  which 
all  are  partly,  and  none  completely,  correct.  Diphthongs  of 
this  character  differ  from  long  vowels  only  in  undergoing 
somewhat  more  change.  The  long  vowels  themselves  are 
not  constant ;  a  sharp  division  between  diphthongs  of  this 
kind  and  long  vowels  cannot  be  made.  The  tendency  of 
long  vowels  to  diphthongize  is  a  familiar  phenomenon  ^  that 
has  made  some  of  them,  like  o  and  e,  as  strongly  dipthongal 
as  au  and  ai  in  Southern  English.^  The  unification  of  the 
elements  of  a  diphthong  may  go  so  far  that  it  becomes,  in  the 
history  of  the  sound,  a  long  vowel;  it  depends  on  circum- 
stances ^  just  what  portion  of  the  diphthong  will  remain 
as  the  fundamental  portion  of  the  vowel. 

An  improvement  was  made  in  Hensen's  recorder  by  Pip- 
ping, 'who  replaced  the  glass  thread  by  a  small  diamond 
which  scratched  the  curve  directly  on  the  glass  strip.  With 
this  instrument  Pipping  has  made  a  series  of  investigations, 
chiefly  on  the  vowels.*  The  curves  on  the  glass  strip  were 
measured  with  a  microscope  and  analyzed. 

1  Sweet,  History  of  English  Sounds,  §  63,  Oxford,  1888. 

2  SOAMES,  Introduction  to  Phonetics,  §  87,  London,  1899. 
^  Sweet,  as  before,  §§  70,  71. 

*  Pipping,  Oni  Uangfdrgen  hos  sjunga  vokaler,  Diss.,  Helsingfors,  1890;  also 


PHONAUTOGRAPH  CURVES 


21 


The  curves  of  the  Swedish  vowels  sung  and  spoken  by 
Pipping  were  found  ^  to  contain  resonance  tones  that  lay 
for  a  at  about  g^  and  c^;  for  e^  (Swedish  close  e)  about/^ 
/3«  and  e*« ;  for  i  about  d?-,  c**  and  /*»  ;  for  o  about  / ;  for 
u  about  cP-  to  /I  and  about  <F ;  for  y  about  cl^  and  e* ;  for  o 
(a)  about  b^ ;  for .  e^  (a)  about  g'^  and  f^ ;  for  ccj  (close  6) 
about  /I  and  g^ ;  for  oBj  (open  6)  about  e^  and  d^* .  In  musi- 
cal notation  these  results  are  : 


-OJf_ 


^: 


62  OBj  CE2 


The  Finnish  vowels  ^  found  in  the  words  'Aamu,'  '^erik,' 
'vMsas,'  'taloon,'  'kitMsi,'  'p«/y,'  'saa,'  and  'Toolo'  were  all 
sung  on  g'^  by  two  tenor-barytones,  one  bass-barytone  and  two 
bass  voices,  also  all  on  c"  and  on  5'~-'*,  and  e  again  on  g'^  by 
one  of  the  bass  voices.  A  registration  of  words  spoken  by  one 
of  the  tenor-barytone  voices  included  '  satama,'  '  saadaan,' 
'kuopio,'  'houreet,'  etc. 

The  eight  vowels  sung  on  g~^^  showed  a  maximum  reso- 
nance near  ^"S  or  c^-  Since  the  Swedish  vowels  i,  y  and  a 
tested  by  resonators  (p.  14 )  also  showed  a  maximum  reso- 
nance neare^   and  the  eight  German  vowels  of  Hermann 

as  Zur  Klangfarbe  d.  gesungenen  Volcale ;  Untersuchung  mit  Hensen's  Sprachzeich- 
ner,  Zt.  f.  Biol.,  1890  XXVII  1 ;  Nachtrap  zur  Klangfarbe  der  gesungenen  Volcale 
Zt.  f.  Biol.,  1890  XXVII  433  ;  Om  Hensen's  fonautograf  som  ett  hjalpmedel  fOr 
sprakvetenskapen,  Helsingfors,  1890  ;  Fonautografiska  studier,  Knlandska  Bidrag, 
till  Svensk  Sprak-  och  Folklifsforskning,  99,  (Helsingfors,  1894)  ;  Zur  Lehre 
V.  d.  Vokalklangen,  Zt.  f.  Biol.,  1895  XXXI  524;  Veher  d.  Theorie  d.  Vokale, 
Acta  Societatis  Scientiarum  Fennicae  (Helsingfors),  1894  XX  No.  11  ;  Zur 
Phonetik  d.  Jinn.  Sprache,  Unters.  mit  Hensen's  Sprachzeichner,  Ij/lem.  de  la  Soc. 
finno-ougrienne,  XIV,  Helsingfors,  1899. 

1  Pipping,  as  before,  Zt.  f.  Biol,  XXXI. 

2  Pipping,  as  before,  Me'm.  Soc.  flnno-ougrienne. 


22 


CURVES  OF  SPEECH 


(Chap.  Ill)  gave  like  results,  Pipping  concluded  that  this  reso- 
nance tone  must  arise  from  some  portion  of  the  acoustical 
apparatus  not  influenced  by  the  movements  for  the  different 
vowels.  This  constant  resonance  was  attributed  by  Pipping  to 
the  chest  cavity.  Since  the  tones  to  which  the  chest  resonates 
best  in  a  male  adult  are  nearly  an  octave  below  c^  and  since 
the  capacity  of  the  chest  cavity  is  continually  changing  during 
respiration,  this  supposition  can  hardly  be  accepted ;  the  res- 
onance may  preferably  be  attributed  to  the  trachea  which  is  of 
a  fairly  constant  capacity  with  an  aperture  adapted  to  such 
a  tone. 

Pipping's  computations  and  interpretations  of  the  Fin- 
nish vowels  gave  three  resonances,  which  he  attributed  to  the 
chest,  throat  and  mouth  in  the  order  of  rising  pitch  as 
shown  in  the  accompanying  table  (a  [y]  indicates  a  when 
followed  by  y~). 


Chest 

Throat 

Mouth 

a     (a)    sung  by  bass  voice 

gn 

61  -  c2 

c3 

62   (a)       '■ 

'* 

6= 

O       (0)         " 

ji» 

a2_c3 

oe    (0)       ■' 

" 

e3 

ei    (e)       " 

." 

p~rt 

n     (m)       " 

about  q'''% 

p~an 

y    (y)     " 

P  -/"« 

i     (i)       " 

^3_^3J 

Chest 

Throat 

Mouth 

a     (a)   spokeu 

by  tenor-barytone 

rfi 

p-r-i 

rf3  _  s%^ 

62    («)     ^      " 

"              " 

dn  -  e2 

Pt-g" 

62    (aW)    " 

pt 

9^ 

O       (0)            " 

6lJt  -  c2 

a2-c3 

oe    (6-)         " 

U                              li. 

61  -c2 

9^-gH 

ei   (e)         " 

a>% 

a3-63 

U    («)    ,     " 

et                     if 

about  rfi 

g2  -  62 

y  to)      " 

tt                     (t 

" 

^     ao 

i    (0       " 

(t 

a 

an  -  c4 

PHONA  UTOGRAPII  CUR  VES 


23 


In  musical  notation  the  results  are : 

t        -P-        E        t 


i 


i 


E 


ta 


m 


^ ^—  "JL       T        X- 1: i:: ^ 

I  I'     I  I  L    J  I  L     L  I  L    I  I  fc-    I  IL.    I  II.     }  II.     I 


Ba9S 


If: 


i^r 


-:t- 


t         t 


f:       £ 
^ 


^^ 


=«hi 


e2[y]        o  oe 

Tenok-Bakytone 


The  vowels  sung  by  one  of  the  bass  voices  N  and  the 
vowels  spoken  by  one  of  the  tenor-barytones  E  —  as  given  in 
the  list  above  —  '  form  in  a  way  the  extremes  between  which 
the  other  investigated  sounds  lie.  Trustworthy  exceptions 
are  almost  exclusively  the  e2-sounds  of  W  and  L.  The  e^  of 
W  has  a  throat  resonance  /^*  which  otherwise  occurs  only 
in  62  [y].  The  e^  of  L  has  a  still  lower  mouth  resonance,  d^*, 
than  that  of  N,  e^.  The  mouth  resonance  in  u  of  J.  appears 
to  lie  below  the  lowest  step  otherwise  found,  f^  \  perhaps  this 
is  also  the  case  in  u  of  W. 

'  As  long  as  we  confine  ourselves  to  one  individual  and  do 
not  compare  sung  vowels  with  spoken  ones,  the  vowels  may 
be  easily  distinguished  by  their  resonance  tones.  But  when 
we  consider  sung  and  spoken  vowels  of  different  persons,  the 
variations  become  considerable,  so  that  the  ranges  of  fluctua- 
tion of  different  vowel  resonances  not  seldom  overlap.  The 
i  of  iV  has  a  mouth  resonance  that  is  not  only  deeper  than 
the  i  resonance  of  U  but  is  in  fact  deeper  than  his  y  reso- 
nances. Since  the  vowels  i  and  y  belong  to  the  same  group 
in  respect  to  throat  resonance,  we  may  ask  in  what  they  are 
to  be  distinguished  from  each  other.  The  vowels  oe  and  e 
cannot  be  confused  with  y  and  i  on  account  of  the  higher 


24  CURVES   OF  SPEECH 

throat  resonance,  but  how  does  it  happen  that  the  mouth  reso- 
nance of  e  with  iVlies  lower  than  the  resonance  of  oe  with 
U  ?  Can  the  resonances  of  a  sink  to  c^  and  e^  (iV)  without 
the  vowel  changing  into  an  o  ? '  Pipping's  answer  is  that 
the  vowels  that  are  designated  by  the  same  name  are  really  a 
group  differing  considerably  from  each  other.  Thus,  the  a  of 
a  bass  voice  at  a  low  pitch  resembles  an  o.  Again,  according 
to  Pipping,  the  pitch  of  the  maximum  resonance  tone  is  not 
the  only  essential  to  the  character  of  a  vowel ;  the  range 
through  which  the  mouth  can  resonate  to  the  impulses  from 
the  cords  is  a  special  characteristic  of  each  vowel. 

Pipping  found  that  in  the  word  '  houreet '  the  number  of 
flaps  of  the  r  was  always  3,  and  in  '  kiura '  2 ;  in  '  houreet ' 
the  resonance  tone  e^  during  the  r  differed  from  the  preceding 
ff^  for  the  u  and  the  following  g^  for  the  i ;  in  '  kiuru '  the 
resonance  tone  during  the  r  was  lower  than  that  for  the  pre- 
ceding and  the  following  u.  The  r  in  these  cases  seems  to 
have  been  different  from  that  of  Wendeleb  (p.  19).  In  the 
word  '  keihaita '  there  was  no  interruption  of  the  cord  vibra- 
tions at  the  time  of  the  h;  it  was  thus  a  sonant  h,  corre- 
sponding probably  to  the  soiiant  h  of  the  Sanskrit  grammarians 
and  of  later  observers  ^  and  seemingly  related  to  the  usual  whis- 
per sound  which  has  been  shown  to  possess  a  slight  degree 
of  sonancy.^' 

The  hindrances  due  to  the  inertia  of  material  levers  and  to 
the  friction  of  a  recording  point  were  avoided  by  E.  W.  Blake, 
who  attached  a  mirror  to  a  telephone  plate  in  such  a  way  that 
a  beam  of  light  was  deflected  by  each  movement.  A  ray  of 
light  from  a  heliostat  was  reflected  through  lenses  upon  a 
photographic  plate  moving  with  a  constant  velocity.  The 
sound  wave  recorded  a  line  on  the  plate.^  Rigollot  and 
Chavanon  covered  the  wider  end  of  a  paraboloid  with  a 
very  thin  membrane  of  collodion,  to  the  center  of  which  was 

1  Meyer,  Beitrage  zur  deutschen  Metril;  numbers  13  and  15  of  Tofel,  Neuere 
Spraclien,  1899  VI  1 ;  Metek,  Stimmhaftes  H,  Neuere  Spracheu,  1900  VIII  261. 

2  Olivier,  De  la  voix  chuchote'e,  La  Parole,  1899  I  20. 

^  Blake,  A  method  of  recording  articulate  vibrations  ly  means  of  photographu 
Amer.  Jour.  Sci.,  1878  XVI  55  ;  also  in  Nature,  1878  XVIII  338. 


PHONAUTOGRAPH  CURVES 


25 


fixed  a  small  mirror  working  on  an  axis  of  fine  thread.^  The 
ray  of  light  was  thrown  on  a  rotating  mirror  and  observed 
on  a  screen.  Lebedeff  substituted  a  membrane  of  cork  in 
a  similar  apparatus.^ 

Samojloff^  used  a  phonautograph  with  a  1"™  thick  cork 
membrane  to  which  a  lever  with  a  mirror  was  attached.  The 
deflections  of  the  mirror  were  recorded  by  a  ray  of  light  fall- 


FlG.  18. 

ing  on  a  photographic  plate.  The  characteristic  tones  of  the 
vowels  (Russian)  were  found  to  vary  from  a^  to  g^  for  a,  h^  to  d^ 
for  o,  c^  to  g^  and  c^  to  e^  for  u,  h^  (?)  to  (P  (?)  and  V  to  d^  for 
e,  ci  (?)  to  g^  (?),  and  finally  e^  (?)  to  e^  (?)  and  cZ*  to  e*  for  i. 
A  modification  of  the  phonautograph  idea  is  found  in  the 
magnetic  and  carbon  transmitters  of  the  telephone  and  in  the 
various  voice  keys.     These  are  used  mainly  for  determining 

1  RiGOLtOT  ET  Chavanon,  Projection  des  ph^nomenes  acoustiques,  Journal  de 
physique,  1883  (2)  II  553. 

2  Lebedeff,  Journal  d.  russ.  physik.-chem.  Qes.,  1 894  XXVI 290,  mentioned  by 
Samojlopf,  Zur  Vokal/rage,  Arch.  f.  d.  ges.  Physiol.  (Pfiiiger),  1899  LXXVIII  4. 

"  Samojlofp,    Zur    Vokalfrage,   Arch.   f.    d.   ges.   Physiol.    (Pfiiiger),   1899 
LXXVIII  1, 27  ;  Graphische  JDarstellung  d.  Vokale,  Physiologiste  Russe,  1900 II 62. 


26 


CURVES   OF  SPEECH 


the   tone  from  the  vocal  cords;  accounts  will   be  found  in 
future  chapters. 

The  manometric  flame  method  was  devised  by  Kceitig.^ 

'The  vowel  is  sung  or  spoken  into  a  trumpet  leading  to  a 

small  box  known  as  the  '  manometric  capsule.'     This  box  is 

divided  in  two  parts  by  a  thin  rubber  membrane.    The  details 

of  its  construction  are  shown  in  Fig.  18  A.     One  part  is  a 


!^^M  '(MIMMi  MMk  MiM  ^M 
MMA  '^Mk  MMk  'USM  ^ttl 
'MMiiM  ^/iA/yi  4iSi4,iiii  MMid  ^^^fefej 
i$i$,^  dddLMm  i$Si0d  %MMM  ^MM^: 
jkMM.  ^M^  'iMdsdi  (jiMkiL  §MMi 
§MMMi^  d^kA  SSM  'udlMdhM  MMiii 


Fig.  19. 

tight  chamber  through  which  illuminating  gas  is  flowing ;  the 
gas  is  lighted  at  the  end  of  the  small  jet.  As  the  sound  waves 
descend  they  strike  the  rubber  membrane,  set  it  in  vibration 
and  thus  produce  movements  of  the  gas  analogous  to  those  of 
the  air  in  the  sound  waves.  The  vibrations  of  the  flame  can  be 
seen  when  the  eye  is  suddenly  moved  sidewise ;  owing  to  the 
lag  of  sensation  the  image  remains  in  the  eye  and  the  succes- 
sive vibrations  appear  simultaneous.     They  are  conveniently 

1  KoENiG,  Die  manometrischen  Flammen,  Ann.  d.  Phys.  u.  Chem.,  1872  CXLVI 
161;  Quelques  experiences  d'acoustique,  56,  Paris,  1882. 


MANOMETRIC  FLAMES  27 

studied,  like  other  vibrating  bodies,  by  means  of  revolving 
mirrors ;  the  best  form  is  a  cube  with  mirrors  on  four  sides  set 
in  rotation  by  a  handle  (Fig.  18  M).  The  curves  of  the  five 
French  vowels  obtained  with  this  apparatus  and  carefully 
drawn  by  Kcenig  are  shown  in  Fig.  19.  The  pictures  of 
m  and  n  (no  difference  detected)  are  given  in  Fig.  20. 
The  picture  of  r  is  given  in  Fig.  21. 


Tig.  20. 

The  manometric  flames  can  be  photographed  ^  by  selecting 
the  right  composition  of  the  illuminating  gas.  Cyanogen  gas 
has  been  used.  A  mixture  of  hydrogen  (or  ordinary  illumi- 
nating gas)  and  acetylene  burning  in  a  chamber  of  oxygen 
gives  brilliant  flames.^     The  first  two  gases  are  mixed  in  a 

1  Stein,  in  Maret,  La  methode  graphlque,  647 ;  Doumer,  Mesure  de  la 
hauteur  des  sons  par  lesjlammes  manometriques,  C.  r.  Acad.  Sci.  Paris,  1886  CIV 
340  ;  Hitudes  du  timbre  des  sons,  par  la  methode  des  flammes  manometriques,  C.  r. 
Acad.  Sci.  Paris,  1887  CV  222  ;  Des  voyelles  dont  le  caractere  est  tres  aigu,  C.  r. 
Acad.  Sci.  Paris,  1887  CV  1247  ;  Hallock,  Photography  of  manometric  flames. 
Physical  Eeview,  1895  II  305  ;  Marage,  Studes  des  voyelles  par  la  photograpkie  ■ 
■des  flammes  manometriques,  Bull,  de  I'Acad.  de  Med.,  1897  XXXVIII  476. 

^  Mekritt,  On  a  method  of  photographing  the  manometric  flame,  with  applications 
to  the  study  of  the  vowel  A,  Physical  Review,  1893  I  166^;  Nichols  and  Merritt, 
Photography  of  manometric  flames,  Physical  Eeview,  1898  VII  93. 


28 


CURVES   OF  SPEECH 


Fig.  21. 


i^ 


tank  and  supplied  to  the  capsule  M  by  the  tube  (?,  Fig.  22. 
The   jet  AA,  with  a  platinum   tip  B,  is  fixed  in   an  outer 

tube  T  which  re- 
ceives oxygen  at  0. 
The  flame  F  thus 
burns  in  an  atmos- 
phere of  oxygen  with 
a  strongly  actinic 
light.  The  image 
of  the  flame  is  fo- 
cused on  a  photo- 
graphic plate  in  a 
camera.  When  this  plate  is  moved  rapidly  sidewise,  the 
flame  traces  a  curve  showing  its  vibrations.  Mbeeitt's  re- 
sults with  a  number  of  records  of  the  vowel  a 
sung  by  different  voices  on  different  notes, 
varying  from  a  frequency  of  102  with  a  bass 
voice  to  667  with  a  soprano,  showed  a  reso- 
nance tone  averaging  736,  practically  inde- 
pendent of  the  pitch  of  the  voice. 

In  the  experiments  by  NiOHOLS  and  Merkitt  the  image 
of   the  flame  was   focused   upon   a  sensitive   celluloid   film 

mounted  on  a  wheel  D  with 
a  circumference  of  nearly 
1™  inside  a  light-tight  box 
(Fig.  23).  The  wheel  was 
rotated  at  a  surface  speed 
of  1"  in  a  second.  The  vi- 
brations of  the  gas  flame  F 
were  thus  photographed  on 
the  film.  The  curves  may 
be  reproduced  by  a  photo- 
gravure process ;  as  the 
reproductions  sometimes 
shrink,  the  measurements 
should  be  made  in  the  original  films.  I  have  found  it  con- 
venient to  print  the  curve  on  blue  prussiate  paper,  trace  the 


Fig.  22 


MANOMETRW  FLAMES 


29 


outline  in  Chinese  ink  and  clear  off  the  blue  color  by  washing- 
soda.     Fig.  24  shows  o  of  bo  reproduced  in  this  way. 

Nagel  and  SamojlofpI  used  the  ear  in  the  head  of  a 
freshly  killed  animal  as  a  manometric  capsule.   '  The  gas  was 


\ 

\ 

/ 

/ 

1 

I 

\ 

\ 

\ 

\ 

/ 

KiG.  23. 

passed  through  the  Eustachian  tube  into  the  middle  ear  and 
out  through  a  hole  in  the  bone ;  it  burned  in  a  small  flame  at 
the  end  of  a  platinum  point.  The  tympanic  membrane  formed 
the  membrane  between  the  two  compartments.  On  speak- 
ing into  the  outer  ear  the  sound  waves  agitated  the  tympanic 
membrane,  and  this  caused  the  flame  to  vibrate  exactly  as  in 
the  usual  manometric  capsule.  The  flames  have  been  photo- 
graphed.2 


Fig.  24. 

In  concluding  this  chapter  it  is  necessary  to  consider  a 
few  facts  that  concern  all  speech-recording  machines. 

Records  on  such  machines  have  certain  advantages  over 
those  obtained  by  instruments  attached  to  the  speaker,  as  the 
vocal  organs  act  with  less  interference.  When  speaking 
into  a  machine,  a  person  may  depart  to  a  certain  extent  from 

1  Nagel  tjnd  Samojloff,  Einige  Versuche  ii.  d.  Uebertrayung  v.  Schallschwing- 
ungen  aufd.  Mittelohr,  Arch.  f..Anat.  u.  Physiol.  (Physiol.  Abth.),  1898,  50.5. 

2  Samojloff,  Zur  Vokalfrage,  Arch.  f.  d.  ges.  Physiol.  (Pfliiger),  1899 
LXXVIII,  Tafel  I. 


30  CURVES   OF  SPEECH 

his  conversational  voice  unless  the  records  are  made  with  the 
proper  precautions.  It  is  highly  desirable  to  have  no  one  in 
the  room  except  the  experimenter  and  the  subject,  as  a 
person,  even  in  ordinary  conversation,  has  a  tendency  to 
speak  somewhat  differently  when  he  feels  himself  observed. 
With  some  informal  conversation  beforehand,  almost  any 
person  can  be  so  put  at  his  ease  that  when  he  turns  to 
speak  into  the  phonautograph  or  phonograph  he  feels  quite 
at  home  and  does  not  change  his  voice  in  any  way.  Much 
experience  with  the  phonograph  has  shown  that  it  requires 
only  a  little  knack  to  put  people  at  ease  with  the  machine 
and  lead  them  not  to  think  of  it.  The  result  may  be  com- 
pared to  that  of  the  views  of  a  kineto-camera  (cinematograph) 
taken  when  the  person  is  not  thinking  about  it.  An  un- 
skilful or  nervous  experimenter  may  get  results  to  be  com- 
pared rather  with  the  usual  photograph;  still,  even  such 
results  give  the  fundamental  facts  in  good  approximation  to 
the  truth.  With  the  latest  form  of  gramophone  apparatus, 
records  can  be  made  while  the  subject  is  unconscious  of  the 
fact. 

It  is  sometimes  said  that  the  speech  machines  do  not 
faithfully  record  the  vibrations  of  the  air;  this  is  true  to 
a  certain  extent.  Tlie  speaking-tube  and  the  diaphragm 
reinforce  or  weaken  some  of  the  tones,  but  the  influence  is 
chiefly  on  the  very  high  ones.  The  modification  of  the 
finer  details  has  been  studied  in  a  series  of  curves  of  the  same 
sound  made  with  different  diaphragms. ^  The  friction  of  the 
recording  point  greatly  reduces  the  size  of  the  vibrations 
and  modifies  them  chiefly  by  rounding  off  the  corners.  The 
inertia  of  the  recording  levers  also  has  some  influence. 
Just  how  much  detail  has  been  lost  and  just  how  much  dis- 
tortion has  occurred  cannot  be  known  with  machines  of  the 
phonautograph  type  because  the  records  cannot  be  turned 
back  into  speech.  It  is  in  any  case  a  question  of  the  degree 
of  approximation,  which  is  to  be  discussed  and  specified  as 

1  Hermann,  Phonophotographische.  Untersuchungen,  I.,  Arch.  f.  d.  ges.  Physiol. 
(Pfluger),  1889  XLV  582. 


MANOMETRIC  FLAMES  31 

in  all  scientific  work.  No  measurements  can  ever  be  exact; 
the  progress  in  accuracy  consists  in  increasing  the  degree  of 
approximation.  The  degree  of  approximation  in  the  Hensbn 
phonautograph'  is  far  greater  than  in  that  of  Scott  ;  that  of 
the  manometric  flame  is  still  unknown.  In  any  case  it  is  a 
matter  of  scientific  detail,  and  the  remark  sometimes  made 
to  the  effect '  that  most  of  the  characteristics  of  a  speech  curve 
may  be  due  to  the  apparatus '  shows  a  lack  of  comprehension 
of  instrumental  methods  equalled  only  by  that  of  a  critic 
who  supposes  the  phonograph  to  be  able  mysteriously  to  add 
the  very  strongest  tones  to  a  record  and — practically — ^to 
be  able  to  change  a  vocal  solo  into  an  orchestral  performance. 
The  student  of  experimental  phonetics  should  endeavor  to 
learn  the  degree  of  accuracy  in  the  action  of  each  part  and 
of  the  whole  apparatus  and  should  ever  bear  in  mind 
that  it  is  a  machine  whose  every  action  is  a  matter  of 
mechanics. 

Repeeences 

For  the  Scott  phonautograph  and  for  mauometrio  flame  apparatus : 
KcENiG,  Paris.  For  the  Hensen  phonautograph :  Zwickert  (care  of 
Prof.  Dr.  V.  Hensen),  Kiel. 


CHAPTER   III 

PHONOGRAPH  EECOEDS 

The  original  machine  for  reproducing  speech  seems  to  have 
been  the  phonograph  of  Edison.^  The  tin-foil  phonograph  was 
afterwards  superseded  by  the  wax-cylinder  form  (Figs.  25,  26). 
When  a  person  talks  into  the  speaking-tube  of  the  phono- 
graph, the  air  vibrations  from  the  mouth  are  hindered  from 
spreading  and  are  conducted  along  the 
tube  to  the  recorder  at  the  further 
end.  In  the  recorder  (Fig.  27)  they 
pass  down  the  channel  E  to  the  thin 
diaphragm  of  glass  A  held  in  the 
frame  F  between  thin  rings  of  rubber 
J.  This  diaphragm  follows  the  pres- 
sure by  bending  and  possibly  in  some 
cases  by  moving  as  a  whole  also.  A 
metal  head  D  cemented  to  the  center 
of  the  diaphragm  transfers  the  vibra- 
tory movement  by  means  of  the  link 
G  to  the  lever  B  which  ends  in  the 
sapphire  recording  knife  K.  The  recording  knife  cuts  a 
groove  in  a  surface  of  a  special  wax  composition.  The  ac- 
tion of  the  sapphire  knife  in  cutting  the  surface  of  the  cylin- 
der is  shown  in  Fig.  28.  The  depth  of  this  groove  depends 
on  the  vibrations  of  the  diaphragm.  A  portion  of  the  groove 
of  the  vowel  a  in  the  Dutch  word  'daar'  by  Boeke^  is 
shown  in  Fig.  29.  The  vibrations  should  never  be  so  o-reat 
as  to  remove  the  knife  entirely  from  the  wax.     The  work  of 

1  Patent  of  November,  1877. 

2  BoEKE,  Mikroskopische  Phonogrammstudien,  Arch.  f.d.  ges.  Physiol.  (Pflugerl 
1891  L297.  ' 


PHONOGRAPH  RECORDS 


33 


cutting  the  wax  naturally  modifies  the  movement  of  the 
knife.  With  the  best  wax  composition  this  modification  con- 
sists almost  entirely  in  a  reduction  of  amplitude. 


Fig.  i:ti. 

To  reproduce  the  sound  the  recorder  is  replaced  by  a  repro- 
ducer (Fig.  30)  which  has  a  round  sapphire  point  instead  of  the 
sapphire  knife,  but  which  is  otherwise  closely  like  the 
recorder  in  structure. 

The  rotation  of  the  cylinder  causes  the  round  point  to 
follow  the  rise  and  fall  of  the  groove,  whereby  it  repeats  the 
movement  of  the  recording  knife.  The  glass  diaphragm 
connected  to  the  reproducing  point 
is  set  in  vibration  and  arouses  air  vi- 
brations similar  to  the  original  ones  in 
the  spoken  sounds. 

The  changes  of  the  cylinder  under 
the  fluctuations  of  temperature  are  so 
great  that  the  reproducer  must  have 
considerable  sideplay  in  order  that  the 
stylus  may  keep  in  the  groove.  The  usual  relation  between 
the  size  of  the  cutting  edge  of  the  recording  sapphire,  1™™, 
and  the  diameter  of  the  spherical  reproducing  sapphire,  0.9™™, 
has  been  shown  to  be  the  most  favorable  one.^ 

The  accuracy  with  which  the  phonograph  reproduces   the 

^  Hermann,  Forlgesetzte  Untersuchmgen  liber  die  Konsonanten,  Arch.  f.  d.  ges. 
Physiol.  (Pfluger),  1900  LXXXIII  6. 


Fig.  27. 


34 


CURVES   OF  SPEECH 


original  sound  depends  on  a  series  of  factors  tha;t  need  care- 
ful consideration. 

In  the  first  place  the  sound  may  be  modified  by  the  speak- 
ing-tube.     A  narrow  cylindrical  tube  with   perfectly  hard 


Fig.  29. 


Fig.  28. 

walls  will  conduct  the  vibrations  practically  unchanged  in 
character,  except  when  harmonic — or  resonance  —  relations 
(p.  14)  occur  between  the  natural  period  (p.  2)  of  the  tube 
and  the  periods  of  the  voice  vibrations  ;  a  very  short  tube  has 

such  relations  only  to  the  high 
partials  of  the  voice.  Most 
voice  records  are  made  with  a 
flexible  mohair  tube.  A  soft- 
walled  tube  is  unfavorable  to  the  reflection  of  very  high 
tones ;  this  is  possibly  the  reason  why  some  voice  records 
seem  '  muffled ; '  in  such  a  case  a  metal  horn,  conical  or 
flaring,  may  be  tried,  the  best  one  being  a  perfectly  conical 
horn  20  to  26  inches  long  and  not  more  than  6  inches  across 
the  end.  The  speaking-tube  is  a  necessity  as  the  vibrations 
of  the  diaphragm  would  otherwise  be  too  weak. 

The  glass  diaphragm  of  the  recorder  is 
from  0.003  in.  to  0.009  in.  in  thickness 
(0.08°™  to  0.23"'").  The  thinner  the  dia- 
phragm, the  more  sensitive  it  is.  A  loud 
voice  makes  the  diaphragm  execute  such 
great  excursions  that  the  recording  knife 
leaves  the  wax  at  times ;  this  results  in  a  rattling  sound, 
or  'blast,'  when  the  record  is  reproduced.  Some  voices 
produce  rattling  records  with  a  certain  diaphragm,  but 
not  with  a  thicker   one  or  a  thinner   one.     If  the  rubber 


Fig.  30. 


PHONOGRAPH  RECORDS  35 

washers  become  hardened,  the  vibration  of  the  diaphragm 
will  be  hindered.  The  washers  should  not  be  pressed  too 
tightly  or  too  loosely -by  the  screw  ring  /  (Fig.  27);  in 
the  former  case  the  diaphragm  will  lose  sensitiveness,  in 
the  latter  it  will  rattle.  If  the  metal  head  D  is  not  firmly 
fixed,  the  record  will  give  a  dull,  raspy  sound.  To  re- 
move this  head  from  a  diaphragm,  allow  one  drop  of 
water  to  remain  upon  it  for  ten  or  fifteen  minutes,  remove 
the  screw  on  the  edge  and  lift  up  the  weight  G.  If  the 
glass  diaphragm  has  been  broken,  the  metal  head  should 
be  scraped  clean.  Both  head  and  glass  should  be  thoroughly 
cleaned  with  benzine.  To  fasten  the  head  apply  a  very  small 
drop  of  stratena  to  it  and  lower  it  upon  the  diaphragm  ex- 
actly in  the  center ;  if  it  is  found  to  twist  the  link  C  when 
dry,  loosen  the  ring  I  and  turn  the  diaphragm. 

The  best  glass  diaphragms  for  reproducing  are  0.004J, 
0.005,  0.0051  and  0.006  inch  in  thickness.  They  should  be 
of  uniform  thickness.  It  is  well  to  try  several  sizes  when 
first  adjusting  a  phonograph. 

The  sapphire  recording  knife  should  be  handled  with  great 
care  ;  in  order  to  preserve  its  sharp  even  cutting  edge  it 
should  never  come  into  contact  with  any  hard  surface.  It 
should  be  examined  with  a  magnifying  glass,  if  the  records 
seem  to  be  in  any  way  poor. 

A  diaphragm  favors  certain  tones  by  resonance  (p.  30). 
A  diaphragm  whose  lowest  period  of  free  vibration  (p.  2)  is 
very  high  is  able  to  favor  only  the  very  high  partials  of  a 
note.  For  this  reason  a  stiff  or  tightly  stretched  diaphragm 
records  with  greater  accuracy.  The  strong  damping  caused 
by  the  knife  cutting  in  the  wax  eliminates  most  of  the  influ- 
ence of  the  free  period  of  the  diaphragm  in  the  phonograph. 

The  wax  cylinder  is  composed  mainly  of  stearate  of  soda. 
To  make  the  surface  of  the  cylinder  as  smooth  as  possible,  it 
is  shaved  by  runniiig  it  at  a  very  high  rate  of  speed  and  turn- 
ing it  off  by  a  sapphire  shaving  knife.  Chips  and  dust  are 
cleared  off  by  a  camel's  hair  brush.  The  surface  should 
never  be  touched  by  the  finger  or  blown  upon.     Any  rough- 


36  CURVES  OF  SPEECH 

ness  of  the  surface  will  appear  as  a  strong  noise  in  the  record. 
Large  cylinders  take  better  records  than  small  ones  ;  owing 
to  the  greater  speed  at  which  the  surface  travels  under 
the  knife,  the  waves  in  the  groove  are  more  extended  and 
the  sapphire  ball  of  the  reproducer  can  more  readily  follow 
the  finer  fluctuations. 

The  machinery  of  the  phonograph  should  be  well  oiled, 
free  from  dust  and  in  perfect  order,  as  any  noise  from  friction 
transfers  itself  to  the  record.  Records  taken  in  a  perfectly 
bare  room  have  a  loud  resonant  quality;  those  taken  in  a 
room  with  a  few  hangings  are  mellower  but  fainter.  In 
making  a  record  the  speaker  should  stand  or  sit  immediately 
in  front  of  the  instrument  and  should  speak  directly  into  it. 
The  articulation  should  be  distinct  but  natural.  In  the  case 
of  singing,  the  head  should  be  drawn  back  when  very  high  or 
loud  notes  are  sung.  The  speaker  should  be  put  at  ease  as 
much  as  possible  (p.  30). 

The  final  test  of  the  truthfulness  of  a  record  is  made  by 
hearing  it.  The  words  spoken  by  the  machine  represent 
what  is  on  the  record  with  close  approximation.  When  a 
record  is  found  that  speaks  clearly  in  a  natural  voice,  it  can 
be  trusted  for  what  it  says,  since  it  cannot  say  anything  more 
than  is  on  it  and  cannot  improve  its  own  tracing.  The 
speech  represented  by  a  tracing  from  a  record  is  the  speech 
of  the  record  itself.  How  nearly  this  reproduces  the  original 
speech  can  only  be  determined  by  comparing  it  by  the  ear 
with  the  words  of  the  original  speaker.  By  skilful  manip- 
ulation records  can  be  made  whose  speech  cannot  be  distin- 
guished from  that  of  a  living  person  except  by  their  weakness 
and  by  the  scratching  noise  due  to  the  friction  of  the  tracing 
point  in  the  groove.  Curves  correctly  traced  from  such  a 
record  give  exactly  the  curve  of  the  speech  spoken  into  it. 

From  the  known  velocity  of  rotation  of  the  cylinder,  lengths 
on  the  surface  can  be  translated  into  time.  The  rotations 
may  be  counted  for  a  number  of  seconds.  For  m  rotations 
in  n  seconds  the  time  of  one  rotation  is  T=  n/m  seconds. 
For   a  diameter  of   d   millimeters   the   circumference  is  ird 


PHONOGRAPH  RECORDS  37 

(tt  =  3.1416).  The  time  represented  by  l""-"  is  Tjird.  Thus,  if 
the  cylinder  rotates  122  times  in  60  seconds,  T=  0.49',  a  figure 
that  is  accurate  owing  to  the  long  time  during  which  the  rota- 
tion was  counted.  With  an  outside  diameter  —  measured  by 
calipers  —  of  53°™  the  circumference  (use  table  for  ttc?)  is 
53  X  3.1416  =  229.3363°'"'-     The  time  represented  by  1°™  cir- 

0  49 
cumference  is  then       '^       =  0.0021',  a  figure  that  for  a  good 

phonograph  is  generally  reliable  to  half  a  thousandth  of  a  sec- 
ond when  the  spring  is  kept  at  about  the  same  tension  or  the 
motor  is  run  by  a  tested  storage  battery.  The  constancy  of  the 
speed  can  be  roughly  tested  by  sounding  into  the  recorder  from 
time  to  time  the  note  of  some  musical  instrument  of  known 
pitch,  for  example,  a  telephone  connected  with  an  electric  fork. 

The  tracings  on  the  phonograph  have  been  observed  through 
^  microscope  and  sketched.^ 

The  groove  of  a  phonogram  may  be  conveniently  examined  ^ 
by  a  corneal  microscope,  having  a  side  illuminating  tube  that 
concentrates  the  light  of  a  small  incandescent  lamp  on  the  rec- 
ord.     Measurements  may  be  made  by  an  ocular  micrometer. 

Measurements  of  phonograph  tracings  have  been  made 
by  BoEKE.^  The  widths  of  the  grooves  were  measured  by  a 
microscope  with  an  ocular  micrometer;  the  shape  of  the 
cutting  surface  of  the  recording  sapphire  being  known,  the 
depths  could  be  at  once  calculated. 

The  records  on  the  phonograph  cylinder  may  be  enlarged 
by  amplifying  levers  recording  on  a  smoked  drum.* 

1  Marichelle,  La  parole  d'aprfes  le  trace  du  phonographe,  Paris,  1897; 
Mariohelle  et  Hemardingee  ;  Etudes  des  sons  de  la  parole  par  le  phono- 
graphe, C.  r.  Acad.  Sci,  Paris,  1897  CXXXV  884;  Gelle,  L'audition,  Paris,  1897. 

2  Meyer,  Zur  Tonhewegung  d.  Volcals,  Nenere  Sprachen,  1897  IV,  Beiblatt. 

^  Boeke,  Mededeeling  omtrent  onderzoehingen  van  klinkerindrushels  op  de  was- 
rollen  van  Edison's  verheterden  fonograaf,  De  natuur,  1890,  July;  Mikroslcopische 
Phonogrammstudien,  Arch.  f.  d.  gas.  Physiol.  (Pfliiger),  1891  L  297  ;  Mikroskopische 
Phonogrammstudien,  Arch.  f.  d.  ges.  Physiol.  (Pfliiger),  1899  LXXVI  497; 
M'Kendrick  and  Gray,  On  vocdl  sounds,  Schaefer's  Text  Book  of  Physiology, 
II  1227,  1229,  London,  1900. 

*  Mayer,  Edison's  talking  machine.  Nature,  1878  XVII  469;  FiCK,  Zur 
Phonographik,  Beitrage  zur  Physiologie  Ludwig  gewidmet,  23,  Leipzig,  1887; 


38  CURVES  OF  SPEECH 

Highly  accurate  tracings  of  phonograph  records  have  been 
made  by  Heemann.i  The  desired  record  is  made  on  the 
phonograph  and  tested  by  reproducing.  Owing  to  the 
changes  of  the  wax  with  the  temperature,  the  tracing  must 
begin  immediately;  to  keep  the  centering  the  wax  must 
not  be  removed  from  or  displaced  on  the  metal  barrel.  In 
place  of  the  reproducer  a  system  of  levers  is  so  brought 
to  bear  that  a  fine  glass  knob  travels  in  the  record  and  de- 
flects a  mirror  with  every  movement.  For  consonants  three 
successive  levers  are  used,  for  vowels  only  two  levers.  It 
is  well  to  have  the  bearings  jeweled. 

Above  the  system  of  levers  a  weak  convex  lens  is  fastened 
with  its  center  exactly  over  the  mirror.     The  phonograph  is 

Jenkin  and  Ewing,  The  phonograph,  and  vowel  theories.  Nature,  1878  XVIII  167, 
340,  394  ;  On  the  harmonic  analysis  of  certain  vowel  sounds,  Trans.  Roy.  §oc.  Edinb., 
1878  XXVIII  745  ;  Lahk,  Die  Grassmann'sche  Vokaltheorie  im  Lichte  des  Experi- 
ments, Diss.,  Jena,  1885 ;  also  in  Ann.  d.  Phys.  u.  Chem.,  1886  XXVII  94 ; 
Wagner,  Ueber  d.  Verwendung  d.  Griitzner-Marey' schen  Apparats  u.  d.  Phono- 
graphen  zur  phonetisclien  Untersuchungen,  Thonet.  Studien,  1 890  IV  68 ;  M'Ken- 
DKiCK,  On  the  tone  and  curves  of  the  phonograph,  Jour.  Anat.  and  Physiol.,  1896 
XXIX  583  ;  M'Kendrick,  Murkay  and  Winoate,  Committee  report  on  the 
physiol,  application  of  the  phonograph  and  on  the  form  of  the  voice  curves  hy  the  in- 
strument, Kept.  Brit.  Ass.  Adv.  Sci.,  1896  669  ;  M'Kendrick,  Observations  on  the 
phonograph.  Trans.  Roy.  Soc.  Ediu.,  1897  XXXVIII  765;  Demonstration  of  an 
improved  phonograph  recorder,  Fioc.  TS,oy.  Soc.  Edin.,  1896-97  XXI  194;  Sound 
and  Speech  Waves  as  revealed  by  the  Phonograph,  London,  1897  ;  M'Kendrick 
AND  Gray,  On  Vocal  Sounds,  Schaefer's  Text  Book  of  Physiology,  II  1229, 
London,   1900. 

1  Hermann,  Phonophotographische  Untersuchungen,  I.,  Arch.  f.  d.  ges.  Physiol. 
(Pfliiger),  1889  XLV  582;  Ueber  d.  Verhalten  d.  Vokale  am  neuen  Edison'schen 
Phonographen,  Arch.  f.  d.  ges.  Physiol.  (Pfliiger),  1890  XL VII  42 ;  Phonophoto- 
graphische Untersuchungen,  II.,  Arch.  f.  d.  ges.  Physiol.  (Pfliiger),  1890  XL VII 
44;  Phonophotographische  Untersuchungen,  III.,  Arch,  f .  d.  ges.  Physiol.  (Pfliiger), 
1890  XL VII  347  ;  Eemerkungen  zur  VoJcalfrage,  Arch.  f.  d.  ges.  Physiol.  (Pfliiger), 
1890  XLVIII  181,  543  ;  Phonophotographische  Untersuchungen,  IV.,  Untersuchungen 
mittels  des  neuen  Edison'schen  Phonographen,  Arch.  f.  d.  ges.  Physiol.  (Pfliiger)  1893 
LIII  1 ;  Hermann  und  Matthias,  Phonophotographische  Mittheilungen,  V.,  Die 
Kurven  d.  Konsonanten,  Arch.  f.  d.  ges.  Physiol.  (Pfliiger),  1894  LVIII  255; 
Hermann,  Phonophotographische  Untersuchungen,  VI.,  Nachtrag  zur  Untersuchung 
der  Vohalkurven,  Arch.  f.  d.  ges.  Physiol.  (Pfliiger),  1894  LVIII  264-  Weitere 
Untersuchungen  ii.  d.  Wesen  d.  Vokale,  Arch.  f.  d.  ges.  Physiol.  (Pfliiger),  1895 
LXI  169 ;  Fortgesetzte  Untersuchungen  iiber  die  Konsonanten,  Arch.  f.  d.  gei. 
Physiol.  (Pfliiger),  1900  LXXXIII  1 ;  Ueber  d.  Zerlegung  von  Kurven  in  harmon- 
ische  Partialschwingungen,  Arch.  f.  d.  ges.  Physiol.  (Pfliiger),  1900  LXXXIII  33. 


PHONOGRAPH  RECORDS  39 

tipped  till  the  mirror  is  vertical.  A  vertical  slit  in  front  of 
an  arc  lamp  permits  a  ray  to  strike  the  mirror  and  be  re- 
flected so  that  its  image,  obtained  by  means  of  the  lens,  falls 
across  a  horizontal  slit  in  the  recording  box.  As  the  mirror 
is  deflected  back  and  forth  sidewise,  the  vertical  beam  of 
light  swings  along  the  horizontal  slit,  so  that  the  eye  on  the 
opposite  side  sees  a  bright  point  vibrating  along  a  horizontal 
line.  Inside  the  light-tight  recording  box  a  cylindrical 
drum  is  arranged  to  rotate  on  a  horizontal  axis  so  that 
sensitive  paper  on  its  surface  receives  the  point  of  light. 
As  the  phonograph  and  the  drum  are  set  in  motion,  the  point 
of  light  traces  the  speech  curve  upon  the  sensitive  paper. 
The  result  is  developed  in  the  usual  photographic  manner. 

Since  the  curve  on  the  phonograph  cylinder  and  the  set  of 
levers  travel  axially,  the  point  of  light  would  soon  fall 
one  side  of  the  horizontal  slit ;  to  avoid  this  the  phonograph  is 
placed  on  rails  and  slowly  moved  sidewise  by  the  hand. 

Curves  of  the  German  vowels  sung  by  Hermann  (born  in 
Berlin,  1838)  are  given  in  Figs.  31  and  32.  .  The  vowel  is 
indicated  by  the  phonetic  letter  and  the  note  (physical  scale) 
by  the  letter  in  parentheses. 

Analyses  of  the  curves  show  that  they  are  composed  of 
several  tones ;  that  in  most  vowels  (a,  o,  o,  .  .  .  )  there 
is  no  sinusoid  (p.  2)  corresponding  to  the  tone  on  which  the 
vowel  is  sung ;  that  in  all  there  are  one  or  more  frictional 
sinusoids  (p.  6)  which  remain  constant  for  each  vowel  regardless 
of  the  tone  on  which  it  is  sung  ;  that  in  some  cases  (i,  y,  .  .  .) 
the  vowel  shows  a  sinusoid  for  the  tone  on  which  it  is  sung, 
the  other  vibrations  having  no  relation  to  its  period. 

The  tone  of  constant  pitch  for  each  vowel  —  independent 
of  the  tone  on  which  it  is  sung  —  is  termed  by  Hermann  its 
'  formant.' 

The  cord  tone  itself  is  seen  in  the  Aibrations  for  i  and  y,  but 
otherwise  seldom  appears  in  the  vowels.  It  seems  evident 
that  in  most  cases  the  cords  act  by  emitting  a  series  of  more 
or  less  sudden  explosions  that  set  the  air  in  the  resonance 
cavities  in  free    oscillation.      The  periodical  changes  from 


40  CURVES  OF  SPEECH 

strong  to  weak  in  these  oscillations  produce  the  cord  tone 
as  heard,  just  as  a  series  of  sharp  noises  from  a  card  held 


Fig.  31. 


against  a  toothed  wheel  or  puffs  from  a  siren  will  produce  a 
note.      The  groups  of   similar    vibrations    indicate   separate 


PHONOGRAPH  RECORDS  41 

puffs  from  the  cords.  Thus  the  curve  a  (c")  in  Fig.  31  shows 
three  groups  of  vibrations  that  represent  the  free  vibra- 
tions of  the  resonance  cavity,  each  aroused  by  a  puff  from 
the  cords.  That  there  is  no  sinusoid  for  the  cord  tone  in 
most  of  the  vowels  does  not  mean  that  the  phonograph  is 
'  deaf  to  the  cord  tone,'  as  has  been  absurdly  stated,  for  the 
phonograph  will  speak  the  vowel  on  that  tone ;  but  it  does 


mean  that  the  cord  tone  from  the  human  mouth  is  not  pro- 
duced by  a  sinusoid  vibratory  movement  but  by  a  series  of  puffs. 
The  series  of  puffs  act  on  the  air  in  the  resonance  cavity  just  as 
the  series  of  magnetic  impulses  act  on  a  spring  (p.  11).  The 
curves  of  some  vowels  (o,  e,  oe  .  .  .)   seem  to  indicate  that 


4:2 


CURVES  OF  SPEECH 


the  puffs  occur  with  an  explosive  abruptness  quite  like 
that  of  the  magnetic  impulses  (Fig.  14) ;  those  of  other  vowels 
(a)  indicate  puffs  with  more  gradual  beginnings,  while  still 
others  (i,  y)  indicate  puffs  of  so  gradual  rise  and  fall  of  in- 
tensity that  the  curve  of  explosion  is  like  a  distorted  sinusoid. 


Fig.  33. 

The  short  vowels  in  an,  en,  etc.,  alter  their  tones  as  they 
are  about  to  change  into  the  following  consonants.  The  ex- 
planation is,  I  suggest,  that  the  mouth  starts  on  its  movements 
from  the  vowel  position  to  the  consonant  position  before  the 
vowel  ends. 

The  so-called  '  short'  vowels  are  in  ordinary  German  gen- 
erally not  briefer  '  long  '  vowels,  but  are  really  other  sounds, 
as  appears  clearly  in  Hermann's  curves  (Fig.  32).  The  short 
e  in  '  Helm '  is  much  more  like  e^  (a)  than  like  Cj.  In 
fact  no  difference  could  be  heard  in  pronouncing  '  Halm  *  and 
'Helm.'      Short  o  in  'Wort'  resembles  long  o  much  more 


PHONOGRAPH  RECORDS  43 

than  long  o.  Short  i  as  in  '  Bild '  appears  quite  different 
from  long  i.  Essential  differences  are  also  found  between  long 
and  short  u,  ce  (6'),  y  (ii).  Short  ce  (6')  can  be  heard  to 
resemble  a  form  of  long  ce  not  usual  in  Germany  but  very- 
common  in  France.  The  short  a  differs  least  from  the  long 
a,  but  with  some  persons  it  can  be  heard  to  somewhat  re- 
semble 0  or  ae. 

Hermann's  curves  show  that  the  cord  tone  is  not  constant 
but  continually  fluctuating  to  a  slight  degree ;  similar  minute 
fluctuation  will  also  probably  be  found  in  the  resonance 
tones  if  they  are  studied. 

With  a  triple  recording  lever  working  in  jeweled  bearings 
Hermann  has  obtained  highly  magnified  curves  of  several 
consonants  (Fig.  33). 

The  1  curve  resembles  that  for  short  i  with  no  intervals  of 
weakening  or  cessation  of  the  vibrations  (pseudobeats,  p.  19). 
At  the  point  where  a  vowel  borders  on  1  there  is  regularly  a 
weakening  or  a  pause ;  in  very  rapid  speech  this  does  not 
occur.  The  shortest  1,  occurring  in  'AUallal,'  lasted  0.075^ 
to  0.100°.  The  main  vibration  of  the  1  has  sharp  points  at 
the  extremes  of  oscillation  with  one  extra  oscillation  on  the 
ascending  portion.  Aside  from  this  extra  oscillation  the 
curve  bears  some  resemblance  to  the  curve  given  by  Kcenig  ^ 
for  the  series  of  partial  tones  1,  2,  3,  4,  5,  6,  7,  8  with  the 
respective  amplitudes  1,  J,  I,  },  ^^,  ^,  ^-g,  y|^  but  without 
difference  of  phase.  An  excessive  amplitude  given  to  the 
second  partial  would  perhaps  produce  the  form  seen  in 
the  1.  If  this  should  happen,  the  curve  of  the  1  might 
be  interpreted  to  indicate  a  cord  action  producing  such 
a  set  of  partials.  The  first  partial,  or  fundamental  (that 
is,  the  cord  tone)  appears  strongly  in  1.  On  this  main  vi- 
bration there  appear  regular  small  sharply  pointed  oscil- 
lations with  a  constant  period  independent  of  the  note  on 
which  the  1  is  sung;  these  represent  the  resonance  tone 
of  the  mouth  cavity.  It  shows  no  influence  of  a  preceding 
or  following  vowel.  The  characteristic  resonance  tone  of 
1  Kcenig,  Quelques  experiences  d'acoustique,  228,  Paris,  1882. 


44  CURVES  OF  SPEECH 

the  1  lies  near  f^.  The  cord  tone  with  its  octave  is  promi- 
nent in  1. 

The  main  fluctuations  in  the  curve  of  m  resemble  some- 
what those  of  1  but  do  not  have  the  extra  oscillation  from  the 
second  partial  and  do  have  a  slightly  different  incline.  The 
resemblance  to  Kcenig's  curve  of  the  series  of  partials  of 
decreasing  amplitude  and  of  identical  phase  as  given  above 
is  a  fairly  close  one ;  it  would  be  rather  close  to  that  of  the 
same  series  with  slight  differences  of  phase.  The  small  vibra- 
tions  arise  from  the  resonance  of  the  mouth  cavity.  Har- 
monic analysis  of  the  curves  of  m  sung  on  the  note  6°  indicates 
a  verj^  strong  first  partial,  or  fundamental  (cord  tone),  a 
strong  fourth  or  fifth  partial  at  e^  to  ^^*  and  a  strong  eighth 
or  ninth  partial  at  e^  — /^*  and  not  a  geometric  decrease  in 
amplitude.  The  constant  resonance  tone  has  a  pitch  of 
h^  to  c** .     The  cord  tone  (without  its  octave)  is  prominent. 

The  curve  of  n  appears  to  closely  resemble  that  of  m. 
Harmonic  analysis  shows  that  the  first  partial,  or  fundamen- 
tal, is  relatively  not  so  strong  and  that  the  fourth  or  fifth 
partial  is  much  stronger  than  for  m,  while  the  eighth  or  ninth 
partial  and  the  resonance  tone  are  the  same  as  in  m.  The 
cord  tone  (without  its  octave)  is  prominent. 

The  depressions  in  amplitude  (pseudobeats)  need  not  be 
numerous  in  the  middle  of  a  word  in  order  to  produce  the  r- 
effect.  The  depression  often  becomes  complete,  showing 
complete  interruption  of  the  sound.  The  characteristic  form 
of  the  vibrations  during  the  r  remains  the  same  and  is  in- 
dependent of  the  degree  of  depression.  The  form  of  the  r- 
vibration  may  be  one  peculiar  to  the  r  and  not  derived  from 
the  preceding  vowel.  A  vowel  tinge  can,  however,  be  pur- 
posely given  to  the  r.  The  vibrations  between  a  vowel  and  an 
r  show  intermediate  forms  that  indicate  the  change.  In  rapid 
speech  the  r  may  perhaps  partake  largely  of  the  vowel-sounds 
bounding  it.  The  characteristic  tone  for  the  lingual  r  of  two 
German  voices  lies  at  6^,  that  for  the  uvular  r  of  Hermann 
at  about /^.  All  Hermann's  rs  were  continuous  rolled  so- 
nants, no  records  of  unrolled  or  of  surd  rs  having  been  mada 


PHONOGRAPH  RECORDS  45 

With  p,  t  and  k  the  durations  of  the  silence  and  the  follow- 
ing explosion  vary.  In  the  cases  where  the  explosive  noise  is 
lacking  (p  followed  by  m  and  sometimes  by  n,  or  t  followed 
by  m  or  n)  the  phonograph  curves  show  no  record  during 
the  speaking  of  these  consonants,  and  Hermann's  conclu- 
sions concern  only  the  full  consonants  with  explosions.  Their 
chief  characteristic  is  the  long  period  of  silence ;  this  was 
never  less  than  O.lS  very  seldom  less  than  0.2'  in  ordinary 
speecli,  and  generally  about  0.3=  to  0.4=  for  p  and  a  trifle 
longer  for  t  and  k.  In  groups  like  pipip,  papap  and 
tetet  without  special  stress  on  either  syllable,  the  pause 
after  the  second  vowel  is  much  longer  than  after  the  first 
one.  The  time  is  lengthened  unconsciously  when  stress  is 
given  to  the  consonant.  The  explosion  of  these  consonants 
is  recorded  as  a  "noise  curve,  irregular  in  its  vibrations,  and 
also  often  as  a  strong  excursion  due  to  the  increased  air 
pressure. 

The  record  of  increased  pressure  is  more  marked  for  p  than 
for  t  and  k.  The  pressure  curve  is  very  steep,  the  explosion 
being  very  sharp  for  p  and  less  sharp  for  t  and  k ;  it  is  also 
longest  for  p  (0.03'  to  0.1').  The  explosion  is  not  necessary  to 
the  hearing  of  these  consonants ;  in  several  cases  there  was  no 
record  of  an  explosion  in  the  phonograph  and  yet  the  sounds 
of  p,  t  and  k  were  heard  from  it  as  well  as  usual.  Just  what 
makes  the  acoustic  distinction  between  these  sounds  in  such  a 
case  Hermann  does  not  suggest ;  it  is  presumably  the  noise 
made  by  the  breath  as  the  closure  is  formed,  since  this  will 
differ  for  each  kind  of  closure. '  At  the  end  of  a  syllable 
before  a  pause  the  noise  curve  is  more  prominent  than  before 
a  vowel.  The  small  vibrations  during  some  of  the  occlusions 
suggest  that  sometimes  the  closure  is  not  perfect  and  that 
they  have  a  slight  breathiness. 

In  the  case  of  p  the  following  vowel  usually  occurs  imme- 
diately after  the  explosive  noise ;  the  noise  curve  and  the 
vowel  curve  often  begin  on  the  line  of  recovery  from  the 
explosion ;  this  may,  I  suggest,  be  due  to  the  fact  that  the  ex- 
plosion of  the  p  has  pressed  the  glass  diaphragm  so  far  inward 


46  CURVES  OF  SPEECH 

that  its  inertia  prevents  its  recovery  as  a  whole  before  it 
vibrates  for  the  vowel.  Regularly  in  t  and  k  and  occasion- 
ally in  p  there  is  a  very  short  silent  period  between  the  noise 
and  the  vowel.  This  second  silent  period  varies  according 
to  the  vowel,  being  shorter  in  ka  than  in  kl  although  in  ki  it 
is  less  than  0.02^  Apparently,  I  may  suggest,  the  mouth  organs 
require  more  time  to  change  from  the  t  and  k  positions  to  a 
vowel  position  than  from  the  p  position,  and  the  time  varies 
with  the  resemblance  between  the  consonant  position  and  the 
vowel  position. 

The  noise  curves  of  the  explosions  are  very  irregular,  yet 
they  show  certain  periodic  prominences  that  presumably  cause 
tones  to  be  heard.  For  Hermann's  voice  the  tones  were 
near  «•'  or  oP-  for  p,  near  /^  for  k  and  near  /^*  (in  one  case 
63)  for  t. 

In  the  case  of  two  successive  stops  or  occlusives  as  in  atka 
a  considerable  silent  interval  occurs  between  them,  —  in  one 
case  about  0.15^ 

The  curve  for  Hermann's  x  (^^^  ^s  in  acK)  shows  vibra- 
tions often  as  strong  as  those  of  vowels.  In  many  cases  the 
entire  long  x,  curve  consists  of  almost  regular  equidistant 
points  whose  amplitude,  however,  rises  and  falls.  The  fre- 
quency of  these  vibrations  lies  near  1000,  or  5^  — (i^*.  At 
many  places  more  frequent  vibrations  (near  1300,  or  e^—f^') 
are  mixed  with  the  others.  The  fluctuations  of  amplitude 
occur  often  at  fairly  regular  periods  of  about  200  a  second ; 
these  oscillations  sometimes  appear  to  have  a  periodic  altera- 
tion in  strength  occurring  about  30  to  40  times  a  second.  In 
the  latter  case  the  curve  bears  a  resemblance  to  the  r-curve, 
as  might  be  expected  from  a  certain  resemblance  between 
X  and  uvular  r. 

The  curve  for  s  shows  very  fine  sharp  oscillations,  the 
frequency  varying  between  d^  and  /*  but  chiefly  around  b^. 
Sometimes  these  fine  oscillations  are  superimposed  on  coarser 
ones  with  a  frequency  of  about  600. 

The  fainter  s  curve  resembles  most  that  of  s,  with  a  fre- 
quency   mainly  between  g^  and  6^,  but  also  sometimes  be- 


PHONOGRAPH  RECORDS  47 

tween  V^  und  dH.  The  finest  oscillations  (BOOO  frequency,  or 
(/■')  are  also  here  often  superimposed  on  coarser  ones  (600 
frequency). 

The  curves  for  c  (ch  as  in  icK)  show  intermitting  groups  of 
rather  large  pointed  oscillations  (about  750-800  frequency, 
in  one  case  456)  with  still  finer  oscillations  upon  them  (various 
frequencies:  1100,  #«;  2280,  #  ;  2736,  J^. 

The  curve  of  f,  when  spoken  very  energetically,  usually 
shows  a  very  definite  periodicity  (from  150  to  250  frequency), 
arising  from  the  tone  produced  by  the  vibration  of  the 
lips  or  of  the  lower  lip  against  the  upper  teeth.  In  the 
ordinary  f  this  periodicity  is  lacking ;  the  curve  is  composed 
of  coarse  and  fine  oscillations  in  which  frequencies  of  1300  to 
1500  iP-g^)  and  of  1700  to  2000  (a^-c^')  can  be  occasion- 
ally picked  out.  Many  details  have  probably  been  lost  in 
these  curves ;  the  very  high  tones  have  probably  been  entirely 
lost. 

In  the  curves  of  p,  v,  z,  z  (as  in  '  Lo^is ')  and  j  (as  in 
'  Jahr  ')  the  cord  tone  appears  distinctly.  The  curves  for  p 
and  V  vary  greatly.  Being  spoken  with  the  two  lips  only,  p 
produces  a  curve  closely  resembling  that  of  u  with  fine  zig- 
zags superimposed.  The  ordinary  v  with  the  upper  teeth  on 
the  loAver  lip  produces  a  curve  that  varies  essentially  from 
the  sinusoid,  rising  more  rapidly  and  falling  more  slowly, 
with  superimposed  zigzags  of  rather  irregular  period  but  of 
an  average  frequency  generally  that  of  c*  —  c?*  but  not  seldom 
that  of/3*  — a^*.  These  two  tones  agree  closely  with  those 
of  the  similar  sound  f.  The  curve  of  z  shows  the  cord  tone 
with  superimposed  zigzags  whose  mean  frequency  is  about 
a^*  and  c*  —  e*.  A  still  higher  tone  is  probably  present  also. 
The  curve  for  z  is  similar  to  that  for  z  with  tones  of  a^#  —  h^ 
and  c**  —f*.  The  curve  for  j  likewise  shows  the  cord  tone  ; 
the  zigzags  represent  tones  between  c*  and  e*,  the  same  as 
those  of  the  vowel  i.  When  followed  by  a  vowel,  the  j 
always  becomes  i  before  the  vowel  begins. 

The  curves  for  b,  d  and  g  show  waves  from  the  cord  vibra- 
tions ;  they  are  weaker  than  those  for  m  and  n.    The  fine  zig- 


48 


CURVES  OF  SPEECH 


zags  on  these  waves  show  frequencies  between  #  and  a^  for  all 
three  sounds.  When  passing  into  a  vowel,  the  b  curve  often 
shows  a  small  pressure  explosion ;  d  and  g  never  do  this. 
When  used  as  final  consonants,  as  in  bib,  did,  gig  (spoken 
distinctly,  and  not  like  p,  t,  k  as  often  in  German),  the 
curves  show  at  the  end  of  the  consonant  regular  vowel  vibra- 
tions that  indicate  lower  cord  tones  for  g  than  for  b  and  d  and  a 
resonance  tone  about  g^  —  a^  for  b  and  g  and  about  b^  —  c^ 
for  d. 

The  following  table  gives  the  resonance-  tones  (formants) 
found  by  Hermann  : 


Sneech  sounds    ^^S'°°  ""^  ^^^^'""^  °^ 
opeecn  sounas        rfisonance  tones 


J^CCl^li 

owuiiu. 

resonance  tones 

"f 

resonance 

tone 

s 

U 

long 

ci-/i 

rf2-e2 

Tl. 

lingual 

62 

O 

c2  -  dn 

'"2. 

uvular 

P 

0 

" 

f.2  -P 

P 

a"  -  «l 

a 

" 

e^-gn 

k 

rfl 

62  (a) 

" 

c2-c2 

m  -  an 

t 

/3  or  63 

ei  (f) 

« 

d^  -  c2 

a^  -  68 

X 

62  -  (/sj 

e3- 

-p 

oe 

" 

.p-9' 

s 

(rf2) 

rf3J 

-f 

y 

" 

a^-b^ 

s 

62  -  rf3J 

93* 

-63 

1 

" 

e*-/* 

9 

61  -  52J 

^3)t 

-/* 

u 

short 

c2     (1) 

f 

/3-c« 

o 

" 

61  -  c2)t 

V 

/3S-</* 

0 

" 

61  -  cH 

z 

a3J 

C*- 

-e* 

a 

" 

c2  -  c2J 

z 

a3f  —  63 

<^'«- 

-r 

62  (S) 

" 

about  c2 

about  e3 

i 

c4-e« 

ei(e) 

" 

ti 

" 

h 

d3_a3 

oe 

Ci 

e3  „  ysj 

d 

rf3_a3 

y 

" 

fH-gn, 

S 

d3-a3 

i 

« 

aH 

b 

(explosion) 

o3  —  a3 

1 

P 

d 

(explosion) 

63  -c* 

m 

ti^-c* 

g 

(explosion) 

j3_aS 

n 

63  -C4 

With  the  understanding  that  there  may  be  considerable 
range  around  a  note,  these  results  may  be  indicated  approxi- 
mately as  follows : 


r  t=  f  r 


eE 


t 


^E: 


^ESEt 


--t=t 


u     o     3     a 

Long 


Short 


PHONOGRAPH  RECORDS 


49 


i 


f,  t  t 
t  t  t 


It 


=t 


^ 


-t^ 


44 


II: 


-r- 
k 


ra 


f: 


t    t 


=E=t 


^    :b    *    :=     t 


-ti- 


-^=^=^ 


I 


ffi: 


s        cfvzzjbd        g      b-ex.  d-ex.  g-ex. 

A  careful  inspection  of  Hermann's  curves  shows  that 
gradual  changes  of  form  occur  even  in  sung  vowels.  The 
interpretation  is  that  which  I  have  already  given  (p.  19), 
namely,  continual  changes 
in  the  relations  among  the 
cord  and  resonance  tones ; 
it  is  undoubtedly  ti'ue  that 
even  in  the  best  singing  the 
voice    does   not   remain    at 


Fig.  34. 

exactly  the  same  pitch  but  fluctuates ;  it  is  probably  also  true 
that  the  resonance  tones  fluctuate  likewise. 

In   some    experiments   by   Bevier,i  the   diaphragm   of  a 

1  Bevier,  The  aroiistic  analysis  of  the  vowels  from  a  phonographic  record,  Phygi- 
cal  Review,  1900  X  193;  Acoustic  analysis  of  the  vowel  A,  Neuere  Sprachen, 
1900  VIII  2,  65. 


50 


CURVES  OF  SPEECH 


phonograph  reproducer  was  removed ;  a  rigid  arm  U  (Fig. 
34)  with  an  adjustable  plane  mirror  F  was  fastened  to  the 
tracing  lever  D ;  a  spring  on  this  arm  held  the  knob  of  the 
reproducer  against  the  furrow  in  the  wax.  A  narrow  beam 
of  light  5"  reflected  from  the  mirror  and  focused  by  the  lens 
J  on  bromide  paper  around  the  drum  IC,  registered  the  speech 
curve  in  great  magnification.  An  improved  form  of  tracing 
mirror  has  just  been  devised  by  Bbviee.     The  sound  was 


Fig.  35. 


recorded  on  the  phonograph ;  it  was  tested  by  reproducing  it, 
and  then  the  above  tracing  apparatus  was  immediately  put  in 
action.  The  curves  of  the  vowel  a  sung  on  different  notes 
by  three  adult  barytone  voices  and  one  child's  soprano  voice 
showed  after  analysis  the  presence  of  the  fundamental  in 
varying  degrees  of  strength,  the  first  and  second  overtones 
very  weak,  a  lower  resonance  tone  averaging  about  675,  or/^ 
(from  575  to  800,  d"^  to  g^^^,  and  a  higher  resonance  tone 
^  averaging  about  1150,  or  d^  (from  1000  to  1300, 

c^  to  e^).      In  musical  notation  these  two  tones 
are   as   indicated.      The  curves  in   Fig.   35  are 
from    three   voices,    A,  B,  D;  the  upper  curve 
is  from  A  on  a,  tone  of  181  frequency,  the  second 
from  B  on  202,  the  third  from  B  on  226,  the  fourth  from  A 
on  226,  the  fifth  from  B  on  226  and  the  sixth  from  D  on 
240. 


4= 


PHONOGRAPH  RECORDS  51 

Maeichblle  1  has  given  a  series  of  drawings  of  the  phono- 
graph grooves  for  the  French  vowels. 

A  new  form  of  speech  machine,  Poulsen's  telegraphone,^ 
may  perhaps  be  available  for  phonetic  purposes.  An  electro- 
lytic phonograph  by  Nernst  and  v.  Lieben  has  recently 
appeared. 

Refekences 

For  phonographs :  Edison  Manuf.  Co.,  Orange,  N.  J. ;  Lioret, 
Paris.    For  Hermann's  lever  systems  :    Valbntinowycks,  Konigsberg. 

1  Marichelle,  La  parole  d'aprfea  le  tracd  du  phonographe,  Paris,  1897. 

2  The  tekgraphone,  Nature,  1901  LXIV  183. 


CHAPTER  IV 

GRAMOPHONE  EECOEDS 


The  gramophone  is  a  development  by  Beelinek  of  the 
idea  contained  in  Scott's  phonautograph  in  combination  with 
the  idea  of  reproducing  the  sound  in  a  special  manner.^ 


Fig.  36. 

One  form  of  the  recorder  with  which  the  air  vibrations  are 
received  is  shown  in  Fig.  36.  It  comprises  a  thin  mica 
diaphragm  held  in  a  frame.  The  sound  waves  coming 
down  the  speaking  tube  set  the  diaphragm  in  motion;  this 
diaphragm  moves  one  arm  of  the  stylus  and  the  point  at  the 

'  The  following  account  is  condensed  from  Scriptuke,  Researches  in  experi- 
mental phonetics  (first  series).  Stud.  Yale  Psych.  Lab.,  1899  VII  7. 


GRAMOPHONE  RECORDS  53 

end  of  the  other  arm  repeats  this  moTement.  Various  modi- 
fications of  this  recorder  are  used  for  various  kinds  of  records. 

The  impression  disc  is  prepared  by  two  methods.  In  one 
method  (Berllnee)  a  highly  burnished  zinc  disc  1 8™  in  di- 
ameter is  flowed  with  a  saturated  solution  of  wax  in  benzine ; 
the  film  of  wax  thus  deposited  is  so  thin  that  the  touch  of  a 
camel's  hair  brush  marks  it  perceptibly.  The  prepared  disc 
is  placed  on  a  revolving  plate  so  that  its  surface  is  touched 
by  the  point  of  the  recording  stylus.  As  the  plate  revolves, 
the  recorder  is  made  to  travel  toward  the  center;  thus  its 
point  cuts  a  spiral  groove  through  the  wax.  The  vibrations  of 
the  point  make  deflections  in  this  groove.  These  deflections  are 
in  the  plane  of  the  surface  of  the  plate  and  not  dug  into  it  as 
in  the  case  of  the  phonograph.  The  record  disc  is  then  placed 
in  an  etching  bath  similar  to  that  used  by  photo-engravers. 
The  part  of  the  zinc  from  which  the  wax  has  been  removed  by 
the  stylus  is  attacked  by  the  acid  and  a  permanent  groove  is 
made.    A  copper  matrix  is  then  made  from  this  by  electrolysis. 

In  still  another  method  (Berliner)  a  glass  plate  is 
clamped  on  an  axis  by  which  it  can  be  rotated.  The  under- 
surface  of  the  disc  is  carefully  polished  and  dried  and  is  then 
covered  with  a  thin  film  of  linseed  oil  by  means  of  a  camel's 
hair  brush.  A  smoky  flame  held  under  the  plate  deposits 
a  fine  layer  of  lamp-black,  thus  forming  an  amorphous  ink 
which  covers  the  glass  in  an  even,  exceedingly  thin  layer. 
The  coating  of  ink  does  not  flow  spontaneously ;  it  requires 
only  a  minute  force  to  trace  a  line  in  it.  The  sound  line  is 
drawn  by  the  point  of  the  recording  stylus  in  a  manner 
similar  to  that  just  described.  Copies  of  the  disc  are  made 
by  placing  it  over  a  sensitized  photographic  plate  and 
proceeding  by  photo-engraving. 

In  a  later  method  (Cheney)  the  point  of  the  recorder 
draws  a  groove  in  the  surface  of  a  viscous  substance,  from 
which  an  electrotype  is  made  as  a  matrix.  The  resistance 
to  the  vibratory  movement  is  very  small  and  the  sound 
is  recorded  with  increased  truthfulness.  Records  by  this 
process  have  been  called  zonophone  records. 


54  CURVES  OF  SPEECH 

The  impression  disc  made  in  any  of  these  ways  is  used  to 
form  a  copper  matrix  by  electrolysis.     This  matrix  contains 

the  sound  line  in  relief.  After 
the  matrix  thus  secured  has  been 
backed  in  order  to  give  it  strength 
and  stability,  its  face  is  protected 
by  a  layer  of  nickel,  which  answers 
the  double  purpose  of  protection 
and  also  of  giving  a  polish  to  the 
final  record.  A  composition  made 
of  a  combination  of  shellac  and 
filler  (the  same  material  from  which 
doorknobs,  billiard  balls,  etc.,  are 
now  being  made  in  large  quantities),  in  the  form  of  a  stiff 
board,  f  of  an  inch  thick,  is  heated  to  the  required  consist- 
ency. The  mold,  which  is  the  exact  size  of  the  matrix,  is  also 
heated,  the  matrix  itself  is  heated,  and  then,  by  a  quick  pro- 
cess, the  matrix  is  thrown  into  the  mold,  the  material  on  top, 
the  face  of  the  die  —  also  heated  —  is  thrown  over  the  whole, 
and  all  is  subjected  to  a  pressure  averaging  about  80,000 
pounds.  Water  is  then  driven  into  the 
press  for  the  purpose  of  cooling  the  mass, 
the  pressure  is  removed,  the  die  opened, 

f^^ra^^B     and  the  completed   record  plate   taken 
m^mM^M'     from  the  matrix.    It  is  a  true  copy  of  the 
Ja^^S^       original  disc.     This  is  the  record  known 
to  commerce ;  it  appears  as  in  Fig.   37. 
„  The  process  is  repeated,  a  single  matrix 

sometimes  producing  2000  or  2500  hard 
records  before  the  wear  is  sufficient  to  interfere  with  its 
efficiency. 

To  reproduce  the  sound,  the  permanent  disc-record  is 
placed  on  a  plate  which  can  be  rotated  by  some  motor  power. 
The  reproducing  sound-box  (Fig.  38)  is  so  arranged  that  the 
point  of  its  stylus  travels  in  the  sound  groove.  The  devia- 
tions in  the  sound  groove  move  the  point  of  the  stylus, 
whereby  a  mica  diaphragm  is  made  to  reproduce  the  sound 


GRAMOPHONE  RECORDS 


55 


waves.  The  reproducing  sound-box  differs  only  in  detail 
from  the  recording  sound-box.  The  operation  is  simply  in 
reverse  order  from  that  of  the  recording  box  —  the  sound, 
when  the  recorder  was  used,  being  conducted  first  through 
the  tube  to  the  diaphragm,  and  thence  communicated  to  the 
needle  point,  whereas,  with  the  reproducing  box,  the  waves 
are  communicated  first  to  the  needle  point,  thence  to  the 
diaphragm,  and  thence  outwardly,  through  the  tube,  to  the 
amplifying  horn.  The  complete  re- 
producing apparatus  is  shown  in 
Fig.  39. 

The  speed  at  which  the  plate  trav- 
els in  the  record-making  machine  is 
about  70  revolutions  a  minute.  This 
stretches  out  the  curves  for  the  speech 
sounds  so  that  the  variations  in  am- 
plitude are  visible  through  the  mi- 
croscope only  in  the  case  of  musical 
sounds  and  vowels.  The  method  of 
direct  reading  by  the  microscope  is 
therefore  not  available.  The  record 
must  be  transcribed  in  such  a  way 
that  the  relation  between  length  and  height,  that  is,  between 
time  and  amplitude,  shall  be  changed.  In  the  method  about 
to  be  described  the  amplitude  was  enlarged. 

In  my  first  transcribing  apparatus  (Fig.  40)  the  gramo- 
phone plate  was  put  on  a  metal  disc  E  similar  to  that  of  the 
original  record-making  machine.  This  disc  was  rotated  at 
a  speed  of  0.1  of  a  revolution  a  minute  by  a  system  of  spur 
and  bevel  clears.  A  miter  gear  a  on  the  axle  of  the  electric 
motor  fitted  into  another  miter  gear  on  the  first  axle  of  the 
speed-reducing  machine  B.  The  first  axle  of  the  reducing 
machine  thus  revolved  at  the  speed  of  the  motor,  which  was 
800  revolutions  per  minute.  The  second  axle  carried  a  large 
spur  gear  with  160  teeth  which  fitted  into  a  small  spur  gear 
with  16  teeth  on  the  first  axle ;  thus  the  second  axle  made 
80  revolutions  per  minute.     In  a  similar  way  gear-transmis- 


Fio.  39. 


56 


CURVES  OF  SPEECH 


sion  to  a  third  axle  reduced  the  speed  to  8  revolutions,  and 
transmission  to  a  fourth  axle  reduced  it  to  0.8  of  a  revolu- 
tion. This  fourth  axle  carried  a  spur  gear  of  20  teeth  which 
fitted  into  the  160  teeth  of  the  final  driving  machine  of  the 
disc,  whose  axle  thus  made  0.1  of  a  revolution  a    minute. 


Fig.  40. 

The  axle  of  the  final  driving  mechanism  carried  on  one 
end  a  tube  C  (Figs.  40,  42)  with  a  slit  in  it.  Within  this 
tube  was  a  rod  l"""  in  diameter  with  a  thread  of  96  turns 
to  the  inch  on  its  surface  ;  it  was  held  by  a  nut  correspond- 
ingly threaded.  A  projection  from  the  rod  fitted  into  the 
.slit  in  the  tube ;  thus  the  rod  was  forced  to  turn  with  the 
tube.  At  the  same  time  the  thread  on  its  surface  forced  it 
to  move  lengthwise  -^  of  an  inch  for  each  revolution.  The 
rod  bore  on  its  end  a  carefully  centered  point  and  just  back 
of  this  point  a  miter  gear.     The  point  pressed  against  the 


GRAMOPHONE  RECORDS 


57 


disc-carriage.  This  carriage  consisted  of  a  bar  of  brass 
running  on  a  pair  of  rails  and  carrying  the  metal  wheel  E. 
The  metal  wheel  rested  on- the  carriage  and  its  axle  projected 
through  it.  As  the  rod  travelled  forward  it  pushed  the 
carriage  ahead  of  it.  At  the  bottom  of  the  axle  there  was 
a  second  miter  gear  D  bearing  against  the  first  one  on  the 
rod ;  this  turned  the  metal-  wheel  in  unison  with  the  rod. 
When  a  gramophone  plate  was  clamped  on  the  wheel  with 
proper  centering,  it  turned  once  in  10  minutes  and  was 
driven  forward  radially  -^-^  of  an  inch  per  revolution.  Thus 
the  speech  curve  on  a  plate  would  travel  steadily  under  a 
fixed  point  from  beginning  to  end. 


Fig.  41. 


Just  above  the  disc  the  amplifying  lever  F  was  adjusted 
so  that  the  soft  steel  point  rested  in  the  sound  groove.  The 
arrangement  is  shown  in  Fig.  41.  The  distance  from  the 
fulcrum  to  the  point  was  22°™.  The  lever  possessed  side 
movement  in  order  to  transcribe  the  curve,  and  vertical  move- 
ment in  order  to  follow  the  changes  in  the  thickness  of  the 
plate.  The  long  arm  of  the  lever  reached  595°"°  beyond  the 
fulcrum.     The  extreme  part  of  it  consisted  of  a  recording 


58  CURVES   OF  SPEECH 

point  of  pendulum  ribbon  3£  (Fig.  40)  152-°°'  long.  This 
point  traced  the  side  movement  on  the  smoked  paper  and 
also  yielded  to  the  up  and  down  fluctuations  without  any 
noticeable  effect  on  the  records.  The  amplification  was  ap- 
proximately 27  times. 

The  centering  of  the  gramophone  plate  was  not  an  easy 
matter.  The  speech  curve  was  made  in  the  form  of  a  spiral 
around  the  center  of  rotation  in  the  original  macliine ;  neither 
the  edge  of  the  rubber  disc  with  the  record  nor  the  hole  in 
its  center  coincided  with  this  center.  To  center  the  spiral 
accurately  on  the  metal  plate  two  methods  could  be  used. 
The  microscope  method  proved  somewhat  the  more  con- 
venient. The  metal  disc  was  moved  away  from  the  point  of 
the  rod.  A  microscope  or  a  large  magnifying  glass  was  fixed 
so  that  it  was  focused  on  the  spiral  groove.  As  the  disc 
was  turned  the  groove  passed  through  the  field  of  vision. 
If  the  plate  was  not  centered,  it  would  move  to  one  side  or 
the  other  during  one  half  a  revolution;  it  was  adjusted  by 
the  fingers  until  the  groove  did  not  appear  to  move  back  and 
forth  with  every  turn,  but  to  maintain  a  steady  side  move- 
ment amounting  to  once  the  width  between  lines  for  one 
revolution.  The  other  method  consisted  in  turning  the  disc 
with  the  recording  point  adjusted  and  noting  the  deviation 
to  one  side  for  one  half  a  revolution.  The  disc  was  then 
moved  radially  until  the  point  marked  one  half  the  deviation. 

The  steel  point  was  pressed  into  the  groove  of  the  plate 
by  means  of  the  rubber  baud  on  the  thread  h ;  the  verticality 
of  the  pressure  was  assured  by  the  plumb  line  C. 

The  record  was  made  on  smoked  paper  moved  by  the 
Baltzae  kymograph  K  with  side  movement  of  the  drum  by 
the  driving  mechanism  G.  To  avoid  jarring  through  the 
floor  the  table  was  at  a  later  date  suspended  from  the  ceiling 
by  springs.  The  jarring  of  the  motor  was  avoided  by  placing 
it  on  sand. 

Of  the  speech  curves  that  were  made  with  this  apparatus 
only  three  sets  have  been  used  in  this  book :  Cock  BoMn, 
Series  I ;  Self  Help,  Series  I ;  Lord's  Prayer,  Series  I. 


GRAMOPHONE  RECORDS  59 

Greater  amplification,  accuracy  and  convenience  have  been 
attained  by  modifications  of  the  preceding  arrangement.  A 
vsrorm  placed  on  the  motor  axle  turns  a  vi^orm  gear  on  the  first 
shaft  of  the  speed-reducing  mechanism.  A  set  of  lamps  of 
various  resistances  modifies  the  speed  of  the  motor.  The 
gramophone  disc  is  rotated  about  once  in  5  hours  when  a 
curve  appears  in  the  tracing,  and  very  much  faster  when 
there  is  no  curve.  As  the  speech  curve  on  a  gramophone 
disc  runs  around  from  100  to  200  times,  requiring  500  to 
1000  hours  of  tracing  at  the  low  speed,  it  is  desirable  to 
save  time  by  running  the  plate  faster  during  pauses. 

The  latest  tracing  apparatus  (Fig.  42)  comprises  a  primary 
lever  FJ  with  a  steel  point  kept  in  the  speech  groove  by 
a  small  weight.  This  lever  is  held  in  a  gimbal  joint  on  the 
block  S  on  the  support  /  over  the  plate  U  just  as  in  the 
original  machine  (Fig.  40).  It  is  connected  with  a  second 
lever  §  by  a  link  and  the  gimbal  joints  L  and  JV.  The  second 
lever,  with  its  fulcrum  at  0  fixed  to  the  support  P,  carries  a 
fine  recording  point  on  an  axle.  The  magnification  by  suc- 
cessive levers  can  be  raised  to  almost  any  amount. 

The  records  are  made  by  a  light  aluminum  point  on  an 
axle  at  the  end  of  the  rod  H;  the  point  writes  on  a  band 
of  smoked  paper  S  about  6  meters  long  stretched  over  two 
drums  (p.  8).  As  the  drums  are  run  by  a  belt  from  the 
same  shaft  that  turns  the  gramophone  disc,  any  changes  in 
the  speed  of  the  motor  affect  the  disc  and  the  record  alike. 
The  gear  wheel  Y  by  which  the  plate  is  driven  and  the 
pulley  X  for  the  belt  to  the  drum  are  shown  in  Fig.  42  on 
the  axle  within  the  barrel  C. 

The  accuracy  with  Which  the  machine  reproduces  the 
vibrations  in  the  groove  on  the  gramophone  plate  may  be 
shown  by  a  comparison  of  repeated  tracings  of  the  same 
curve ;  the  pieces  in  Fig.  43  were  cut  from  different  tracings 
and  were  reproduced  directly  by  photography.  The  tracing 
is  thus  done  with  an  accuracy  indicated  by  the  likeness  of  the 
two  records.  These  differences  are  so  small  as  to  escape 
anything  but  microscopic  measurement.     The  fine  vibrations 


60 


CURVES   OF  SPEECH 


Fig.  42. 


GRAMOPHONE  RECORDS  61 

in  some  of  the  consonants,  which  are  lost  in  the  tracing,  are 
smaller  than  these  differences. 

As  this  machine  can  be  run  continuously  day  and  night 
with  no  supervision  except  for  changing  the  paper,  great 


Fig.  43. 

quantities  of  tracings  can  be  accumulated  in  spite  of  the  low 
speed.  The  entire  tracing  —  with  long  silences  omitted  — 
of  Rip  Van  Winkle's  Toast,  spoken  by  Joseph  Jeffersok,  is 
reproduced  in  plates  at  the  end  of  this  volume. 

The  statements  (p.  29)  concerning  the  accuracy  of  talking- 
machine  records  apply  to  the  gramophone  also. 

Refeeences 

For  gramophones:    National   Gramophone    Corporation,  New 
York.     For  gramophone  tracing  machines :    Psychological  Labor- 
atory OF  Yale  University,  New  Haven,  Conn.    (The  machine  be- 
'  longing  to  Yale  University  will  as  far  as  practicable  be  freely  placed 
at  the  disposal  of  investigators  who  wish  to  have  plates  traced  off.) 


CHAPTER  V 

IMMEDIATE   ANALYSIS    OF    SPEECH   CUE.VES 

A  CUEVE  of  speech  is  at  first  sight  no  more  intelligible 
than  a  line  of  Chinese  ideographs.  The  knowledge  of  the 
speech  sounds  to  which  a  certain  portion  of  a  curve  belongs 
gives  the  general  meaning  of  the  curve  but  affords  little 
information  concerning  its  details.  A  careful  study  of  the 
sound  by  the  ear  reveals  some  of  the  grosser  characters  of 
the  sound,  but  cannot  indicate  any  of  the  finer  details  that 
lie  before  the  eye  in  the  complexities  of  the  curve.  The 
meaning  of  these  details  —  the  very  essentials  of  the  speech 
sounds  —  is  not  apparent  at  first  observation ;  only  by  patient 
and  persistent  unraveling  of  the  tangled  curve  is  an  inkling 
of  it  obtained. 

A  set  of  speech  curves  (Plate  I)  from  the  Oock  Bohin 
record  (p.  58)  will  be  used  to  illustrate  the  first  steps  taken 
in  analysis.  The  curve  reads  from  left  to  right ;  the  itali- 
cized letters  indicate  the  sounds  recorded.^  The  speech 
curves  in  the  figure  would  naturally  run  along  horizontal 
lines.  The  slow  fluctuations  seen  in  the  records  are  due 
to  irregularities  in  feeding  the  gramophone  plate  sidewise. 
They  in  no  way  affect  the  accuracy  of  the  records.  In  mak- 
ing measurements  of  duration,  however,  the  ruler  should 
always  be  horizontal. 

To  interpret  the  details  of  a  sound  the  grouping  of  the 
vibrations  is  first  noticed.  In  a  series  of  groups  of  the  same 
general  form  each  group  may  usually  be  considered  as  arising 
from  one  puff  of  the  vocal  cords.  The  minor  vibrations 
arise  from  the  vibrations  of  the  resonating  cavities  and  from 
the  overtones  of  the  cords. 

1  This  account  is  from  Scripture,  Speech  curoes,  I.,  Mod.  Lang.  Notes,  1901 
XVI  71. 


IMMEDIATE  ANALYSIS  63 

Many  of  the  main  features  of  the  speech  curves  can  be 
obtained  by  inspection  without  measurement;  very  much 
more  can  be  obtained  by  simple  measurements.  Long  dis- 
tances may  be  measured  by  millimeter  scales  ;  the  tenths  of 
a  millimeter  may  be  estimated  by  the  eye.  Finer  measure- 
ments may  be  made  with  a  scale  graduated  in  tenths  of  a 
millimeter ;  the  work  is  done  with  a  watchmaker's  eyeglass, . 
or  under  a  magnifying  glass.  When  the  curves  are  very 
small,  the  measuring  may  be  done  by  a  microscope  with  a 
micrometer  object  table  or  a  micrometer  eye-piece. 

The  calculations  are  all  done  by  books  of  tables  or  with  a 
slide  rule.  The  investigator  should  become  familiar  with 
various  books  containing  extensive  multiplication  tables, 
tables  of  reciprocals,  etc.  A  Chinese  abacus  is  also  very 
convenient  in  adding. 

The  speech  curves  are  frequently  of  such  a  nature  that  the 
period  of  the  cord  tone  may  be  found  by  measuring  the  distance 
between  two  like  points  in  two  successive  groups  of  vibrations. 
The  distance  in  millimeters  is  translated  into  time  accord- 
ing to  the  equation  valid  for  the  tracing.  For  all  the 
curves  in  Plate  I  except  that  of  '  draw  your '  the  relation  is 
l-"""  =  0.0016= ;  for  this  curve  it  is  1°™  =  0.0007^  Thus,  the 
distance  between  the  two  high  points  in  the  last  vibration  in 
the  fourth  line  is  3.2""° ;  at  1""°  for  0.0016»  (use  Zimmee- 
mann's  table  for  16)  ;  this  gives  a  period  of  0.01536=  for  the 
cord  vibrations  at  that  instant.  A  period  of  0.01536'  is 
the  same  as  a  frequency  of  1  ^  0.01536  (use  Baklow  for 
reciprocals)  or  65.1. 

To  illustrate  the  details  a  complete  analysis  will  be  given  of 
the  words  '  saw  him '  which  occur  in  the  phrase  '  Who  saw  him 
die  ? '  The  words  are  run  together  in  speech  on  the  gramo- 
phone so  that  the  result  is  soim  rather  than  sohim,  the  h 
not  being  heard,  and  the  two  vowels  being  fused  like  a 
diphthong.  The  record  shows  no  trace  of  the  s.  The  first 
vibrations  of  the  curve  differ  from  the  rest,  and  show  chang- 
ing relations  between  the  resonance  (or  mouth)  tone  and  the 
cord  tone ;  they  indicate  that  the  cords  have  begun  to  vibrate 


64 


CURVES  OF  SPEECH 


while  the  mouth  is  still  changing  from  the  s  position  to  the 
o  position.  After  this  the  grouping  of  the  vibrations  in 
threes  indicates  a  cord  tone  with  a  resonance  tone  a  duo- 
decime  higher ;  this  general  relation  is  maintained  throughout 
the  diphthong.  That  still  other  resonance  tones  are  present 
is  indicated  by  the  subordinate  modifications  of  the  small 
vibrations.  The  sound  o  increases  slowly  in  intensity,  but  di- 
minishes again  as  it  changes  into  i  (middle  of  first  line).  The 
i  is  quite  strong  but  falls  quickly  as  the  sound  changes  to  m. 
The  m  vibrations  slowly  fade  away.  The  relations  between 
o  and  i  in  this  diphthong  somewhat  resemble  those  between  a 
and  i  in  ai  discussed  in  a  later  chapter ;  they  differ  in  the  fall  of 
amplitude  at  the  end  of  o  before  the  i  begins,  whereby  the  sepa- 
ration of  the  elements  of  the  double  sound  is  slightly  marked. 
The  accompanying  table  shows  the  way  in  which  the 
course  of  the  cord  tone  in  reference  to  pitch  is  calculated.  It 
illustrates  several  important  principles  used  in  computing  and 
interpreting  results. 


A. 
Period  in 

milli- 
meters. 

B. 

Period  in 
seconds. 

C. 
Frequency. 

A. 
Period  in 
milli- 
meters. 

B. 

Period  in 
seconds. 

C. 

Frequency. 

3.8 

0.0061 

167 

4.8 

0.0077 

130 

3.8 

0.0061 

167 

5.0 

0.0080 

125 

3.9 

0.0062 

161 

5.1 

0.0082 

122 

4,0 

0.0064 

156 

5.0 

0.0080 

125 

4.0 

0.0064 

156 

5.1 

0.0082 

122 

2.6 

0.0042 

238 

5.2 

0.0083 

120 

4.2 

0.0067 

149 

5.1 

0.0082 

122 

4.2 

0.0067 

149 

4.7 

0.0075 

133 

4.1 

0.0066 

152 

4.6 

0.0074 

135 

4.0 

0.0064 

156 

4.7 

0.0075 

133 

4.2 

0.0067 

149 

4.8 

0.0077 

130 

4.3 

0.0069 

145 

4.7 

0.0075 

133 

4,3 

0.0069 

145 

4.4 

0.0070 

143 

4.2 

0.0067 

149 

4.5 

0.0072 

139 

4.3 

0.0069 

145 

4.5 

0.0072 

139 

4.3 

0.0069 

145 

4.5 

0.0072 

139 

4.3 

0.0069 

145 

4.7 

0.0075 

133 

4.1 

0.0066 

152 

4.5 

0.0072 

139 

4.2 

0.0067 

149 

4.7 

0.0075 

133 

4.3 

0.0069 

145 

4.5 

0.0072 

139 

4.5 

0.0072 

139 

4.6 

0.0074 

135 

4.5 

0.0072 

139 

4.4 

0.0070, 

143 

4.5 

0.0072 

139 

4.6 

0.0074 

135 

IMMEDIATE  ANALYSIS  65 

The  figures  in  column  A  give  the  distances  in  millimeters 
from  apex  to  apex  of  the  strongest  vibrations  in  the  successive 
groups.  The  measurements  were  made  by  an  assistant  who 
did  not  know  the  nature  of  the  problem  investigated.  It  is 
very  important  to  note  the  following : 

1.  The  determination  of  the  exact  point  to  be  called  the 
apex  may  be  indefinite  to  the  extent  of  one  or  two  tenths  of 
a  millimeter,  owing  (a)  to  the  roundness  of  the  apex,  (J)  to 
the  fact  that  the  apex  is  sometimes  slightly  displaced  by  inter- 
fering resonance  tones. 

2.  The  general  character  of  muscular  action  indicates  that 
the  changes  in  the  voice  proceed  with  some  regularity;  this 
would  indicate  that  the  unusual  figure  2.6  for  the  sixth  period 
does  not  give  the  proper  period  at  that  point  but  shows  some- 
thing else. 

Using  Zimmeemann's  table  for  16,  the  figures  in  column  A 
are  turned  into  time  as  shown  in  column  B.  These  are  the 
lengths  of  successive  periods  in  the  cord  tone.  Using  a  table 
of  reciprocals  (Barlow  or  Zimmermann)  these  are  turned 
into  the  frequencies  as  in  column  C. 

The  curve  of  frequency  is  now  to  be  plotted.  This  is  best 
done  by  supposing  the  speech  curve  to  be  laid  off  along  the 
horizontal  or  JT  axis,  so  that  the  first  vibration  is  at  zero. 
From  zero  the  proper  number  of  millimeters  is  counted  up- 
ward to  indicate  the  frequency  of  the  cord  tone  at  the  start. 
Thus,  if  the  duration  of  the  first  group  is  0.12^,  the  frequency 
will  be  83 ;  if  lOO"™  have  been  assigned  to  each  100  of  fre- 
quency, the  dot  will  be  placed  at  83°"°  above  the  X  axis. 
Above  the  point  on  the  X  axis  at  which  the  second  group 
of  vibrations  would  begin  if  the  curve  were  laid  upon  it,  the 
frequency  of  the  cord  tone  at  this  moment  is  indicated  by  a 
dot  at  the  proper  height.  In  this  manner  a  series  of  dots  is 
obtained,  indicating  the  frequency  of  the  cord  tone  at  a  suc- 
cession of  moments. 

In  the  diagram  of  frequency  the  successive  dots  might  be 
connected  by  straight  lines.  We  probably  come  nearer  to  the 
true  curve  of  frequency  (see  1.  and  2.  above)  by  drawing  a 


66 


CURVES   OF  SPEECH 


smooth  curve  that  evenly  distributes  the  dots  on  either  side. 
This  may  be  done  with  the  free  hand,  by  means  of  draughts- 
man's curves  or  by  a  flexible  rubber  rule;  the  more  general 
reasons  for  this  procedure  may  be  found  in  works  on  the 
methods  of  science  .^  The  curve  of  frequency  of  oi,  plotted 
from  the  table  on  p.  64,  is  shown  in  Fig.  44. 


m 


ISO 


100 


so 


50 


IDli 
Fig.  44. 


ISO 


200 


The  curious  interruption  of  the  regular  course  of  figures  in 
the  table  by  2.6  arises  from  the  fact  that  the  series  of  the 
strongest  vibrations  used  to  mark  off  the  groups  is  replaced 
at  this  point  by  a  series  arising  from  one  of  the  weaker  vibra- 
tions. In  the  first  part  of  the  curve  there  is  some  vibration , 
of  a  changing  character  that  causes  a  change  in  the  moment 
of  strongest  vibration.  The  unusual  figure  indicates  this  latter 
fact  and  not  any  sudden  break  in  the  cord  tone.  A  similar 
occurrence  may  be  seen  in  the  o  of- '  bow '  at  the  middle  of 
line  2  (Plate  I )  and  in  o  of  '  draw '  as  indicated  below. 

The  periods  of  the  smaller,  or  resonance  vibrations  can  fre- 
quently be  obtained  by  direct  measurement.  This  occurs  most 
readily  when  these  vibrations  are  of  a  simple  form  or  of  a 
pitch  much  higher  than  the  cord  tone.  The  result  becomes 
more  accurate  when  several  successive  resonance  vibrations 
1  Jevons,  Principles  of  Science,  Chap.  XXII. 


IMMEDIATE  ANALYSIS 


67 


Fig.  45. 


can  be  measured  together.  When  the  resonance  vibrations 
are  simple  in  form  and  a  place  in  the  curve  can  be  found 
where  a  number  of  them  exactly  fill  out  a  group  period,  the 
length  of  the  group  period  divided  by  the  number  of  vibra- 
tions will  give  the  length  of  the  resonance  period. 

At  the  beginning  of  the  record  of  soim  (the  '  glide '  from 
s  to  o)  the  smaller  vibrations  show  a  period  of  0.0032'  or  a 
frequency  of  313.  This  resonance 
tone  quickly  changes  to  one  of 
0.0024^  period,  or  417  frequency.  It 
remains  at  this  figure  throughout 
most  of  its  course  but  becomes 
0.0028'  or  357,  toward  the  end  of  o. 
During  the  i  it  is  0.0032'. 

The  other   curves  in   Plate  I  are 
described  in  Appendix  II. 

The  analysis  of  speech  curves  might  be  greatly  facilitated 
by  an  inspection  of  curves  produced  by  compounding  vibra- 
tions of  known  characters. 

Vibrations  of  any  character  may  be  compounded  by  tabu- 
lating them  or  by  plotting  them  separately,  adding  the  results 
and  plotting  the  sums.  The 
synthesis  of  sinusoid  curves  of 
the  same  amplitude  and  the 
same  phase  at  the  start  but  of 
the  periods  y  and  1 7  is  shown 
in  Fig.  45.  The  ordinates  of 
the  constituent  curves  1  and  2 
are  added  at  each  moment  to 
give  the  ordinate  of  the  result- 
ant 3  /  thus,  m"n"  =  mn  +  m'n', 
p"q"  =pq  +  p'q'  (^p'q'  having  a 
negative  value),  etc.  A  syn- 
thesis of  two  vibrations  of  the 
periods  Tand  ^T  with  the  same 
amplitude  a  and  with  the  phase  differences  at  the  start  of  0, 
IT,  ^Tand  fTis  shown  in  Fig.  46. 

The  sum  of  two  curves  of  any  kind  with  any  relations  of 


Fig.  46. 


68 


CURVES   OF  SPEECH 


period,  amplitude  and  phase  can  be  drawn  automatically  by 
Pearson's  curve-adder. 

The  composition  of  two  sinusoid  vibrations  can  be  per- 
formed mechanically  by  moving  the  recording  point  of  one 
fork   over  a  smoked  plate  attached  to  another  fork.     The 

arrangement  consists  of 
two  large  forks,  one  fixed 
and  the  other  movable 
in  the  direction  of  its 
axis  by  sliding  its  sup- 
port along  a  guide.  The 
fixed  fork  carries  a  nar- 
row strip  of  thin  glass 
coated  with  soot  or  cov- 
ered with  smoked  paper. 
Both  forks  are  set  in  vi- 
bration and  the  movable 
fork  is  rapidly  drawn 
back.  The  periods  of  the 
forks  can  be  altered  by 
weights.  The  results  of 
the  syntheses  for  several 
relations  of  pitch  ^  are 
shown  in  Fig.  47.  The 
relations  are  indicated 
by  the  figures  at  the  left- 
hand  side.  In  the  first 
line  the  speed  with  which 
the  fork  is  drawn  along 
decreases  from  left  to 
right,  in  the  other  lines 
it  increases. 
To  avoid  the  labor  of  computing  the  synthesis  of  several 
sinusoids  in  a  harmonic  series  (p.  13),  machines  have  been 
devised  to   add   such   vibratory   movements    mechanically .^ 

1  KoLNiG,  Quelques  experiences  d'acoustique,  13,  Paris,  1882. 

2  DoNKiN,  On  an  instrument  for  the  composition  of  two  harmonic  curves^  Proc. 
Koy.   Soc.   Lond.,  1874  XXII  196;   Blake,  A  machine  for   drawing  compound 


Fig.  47. 


IMMEDIATE  ANALYSIS  69 

Only  the  machine  of  Peeece  and  Stroh  has  been  used  to 
imitate  speech  curves.  The  artificial  curves  thus  produced 
can  hardly  be  said  to  bear  any  close  resemblance  to  the  actual 
vowel  curves. 

Sinusoids  not  in  a  harmonic  series  may  be  added  by  plot- 
ting, by  the  curve-adder,  by  adjusting  one  of  two  vibrating 
bodies  (second  curve  in  Fig.  47)  or  by  inserting  inharmonic 
discs  into  a  curve-producing  machine. 

It  is  quite  doubtful  if  either  harmonic  or  inharmonic  syn- 
theses of  simple  sinusoids  can  give  close  approximations  to 
speech  curves.  It  is  quite  certain  that  the  component  tones 
in  most  speech  sounds  do  not  belong  to  a  harmonic  series. 
Moreover,  it  is  highly  probable  that  each  component  represents 
a  vibratory  movement  of  a  more  or  less  explosive  character  and 
not  a  harmonic  of  constant  amplitude  ;  its  equation  is  (p.  2) 

y  ^  a  .  e"*'.  sin  Stt-^ 

rather  than  (p.  5) 

y  ^^^  a  .  sm  iTT-pp- 

These  considerations  have  suggested  the  synthesis  of  free 
frictional  sinusoids.  A  free  sinusoid  is  understood  to  ex- 
press the  movement  of  a  body  displaced  by  a  sharp  blow  and 
allowed  to  vibrate  in  its  natural  period ;  its  amplitude  will 
decrease  according  to  the,  amount  of  friction  present.  A 
synthesis  of  two  such  frictional  sinusoids  may  be  accom- 
plished by  the  arrangement  shown  in  Fig.  48.  The  spring  B  is 
the  spring  B  of  Fig.  5  (p.  7).  Upon  it  there  is  placed  the 
slide  V  carrying  the  spring  U  and  another  shde  R  with 
the  electro-magnet  S.  The  movement  of  B  is  recorded  on  a 
smoked  drum  by  the  point  N,  that  of  Uhj  the  point  T.  The 
magnet  ilf  of  the  spring  B  (Fig.  5)  and  *S'  of  the  spring   U 

harmonic  curve^^,  Amer.  .Tour,  of  Otology,  1879  I  81 ;  abstract  in  Nature,  1879  XX 
103  •  Peeece  and  Stroh,  Studies  in  acoustics,  I.  On  the  synthetic  examination 
of  vowel  sounds,  Proc.  Roy.  Soc.  Loud.,  1879  XXVIII  358;  Michei-son  and 
Stratton,  a  new  harmonic   analyzer,  Amer.  Jour.    Sci.,  1898  (4)  V  1. 


70  CURVES   OF  SPEECH 

(Fig.  48)  are  connected  with  the  contact  wheel  A  (Fig.  13). 
When  the  current  passes  through  M  alone,  both  points  iVand 
T  draw  the  curve  of  vibration  for  B  as  in  Fig.  14.  When 
sent  through  S  alone,  the  point  ?  draws  the  curve  of  vibration 
of  U.  In  both  cases  the  vibration  is  a  free  frictional  sinusoid. 
When  the  curve  is  sent  through  both  M  and  S,  the  point  T 
draws  the  curve  of  the  sum  of  the  vibrations  of  B  and  U. 


The  relations  of  period  may  be  altered  by  changing  the  lengths 
of  B  and  V,  those  of  amplitude  by  shifting  the  magnets,  those 
of  damping  by  adjusting  the  dampers.  When  the  curve  drawn 
by  T  is  like  that  found  in  a  speech  curve,  it  can  be  assumed 
that  the  speech  curve  is  the  result  of  two  vibratory  move- 
ments simultaneously  aroused  by  a  sudden  blow,  which  have 
relations  of  pitch,  amplitude  and  damping  like  those  in  the 
springs.  The  sudden  blow  is  the  puff  from  the  cords  heard  in 
the  cord  tone  and  the  two  free  vibrations  are  those  of  the  vocal 
resonance  cavities.  Tables  of  typical  combinations  would  be 
useful.  A  third  sinusoid  might  be  added  by  placing  another 
spring  and  magnet  on  U  in  the  same  way  as  U  and  S  on  B. 
Work  on  these  problems  is  now  in  progress ;  tables  of  curves 
may  be  expected  at  some  future  date. 

References 

For  mathematical  tables ;  Crelle,  Rechentafeln,  Berlin,  1857 ;  First 
English  Edition,  New  York,  1888  ;  Zimmeemann,  Rechentafeln,  Berlin, 
1891 ;  Barlow,  Tables  of  Squares,  Cubes,  Square  Roots,  Cube  Roots, 
Reciprocals  of  all  Integer  Numbers  up  to  lOOOD,  Reprint  Edition,  London, 
1897. 

For  measuring  rules ;  Societe  genevoisb,  Geneva  (specially  adapted 
is   a   'petite    ^chelle   en   argentan    divise    d'un   cotd    en    dixifemes    de 


IMMEDIATE  ANALYSIS  71 

millimetres'  for  20  franca).  For  slide  rules  and  similar  calculating 
instruments  :  Dennbrt  &  Pape,  Altona ;  W.  F.  Stanley,  London  ; 
Beyerlen  &  Co.,  Stuttgart ;  Tavernier-Gbavet,  Paris  ;  Keuffel  & 
EssER,  New  York. 

For  microscopes  with  micrometer  eye-pieces :  Zeiss,  Jena ;  Bausch  & 
Lome,  Rochester,  N.  Y.  For  micrometer  object  tables:  Zimmermann, 
Leipzig.  For  adding  machines:  Felt  &  Tarrant,  New  York  City. 
For  calculating  machines  (most  advantageous  for  multiplication  and 
division)  :  Burkhabdt,  Glashiitte  i/S  ;  Bruckner,  Dresden  ;  Grimme, 
Natalis  &  CiE.,  Braunschweig.    For  the  curve-adder  :  Coeadi,  Zurich. 


CHAPTER   VI 

HARMONIC   AJSIALYSIS 

The  tones  represented  in  a  period  of  a  speech  curve 
may  be  determined  to  a  certain  extent  by  the  harmonic,  or 
Fourier,  analysis. ^ 

The  hypotliesis  on  which  this  analysis  rests  can  be  readily 
illustrated.  A  stretched  string  —  that  of  a  tonometer,  a 
violin,  etc.  —  is  made  to  sound.  The  edge  of  a  piece  of 
blotting  paper,  the  tip  of  the  finger  or  any  narrow  object  is 
then  applied  exactly  to  its  middle  point.  The  main  tone 
of  the  string  ceases  at  once,  but  the  octave  is  heard  to  con- 
tinue. Careful  inspection  shows  that  the  string  has  ceased 
to  vibrate  as  a  whole  but  continues  to  vibrate  in  halves. 
After  the  experiment  has  been  repeated  a  number  of  times, 
the  unaided  ear  can  hear  the  octave  in  addition  to  the  fun- 
damental when  the  string  vibrates  freely.  Similar  results 
occur  when  the  string  is  touched  at  J,  J,  .  .  .  of  its  length. 
The  note  from  the  violin  string  can  thus  be  analyzed  into 
a  series  of  partial  tones  consisting  of  a  fundamental  tone 
and  its  overtones.  It  is  assumed  that  these  partial  tones 
correspond  to  vibrations  of  the  sinusoid  form  (p.  2)  with 
different  periods  and  that  the  complex  tone  of  the  violin  is 
made  up  of  a  sum  of  these  sinusoids.  The  series  of  tones 
thus  found  in  the  complex  tone  from  a  violin  have  periods  in 
the  relations  of  1,  J,  ^,  J,  .  .  .  and  frequencies  in  relations  of 
1,  2,  3,  4,  .  .  .  They  form  a  harmonic  series  (p.  13).  No 
tones  outside  of  the  harmonic  series  can  be  detected. 

The  analysis  of  a  musical  tone  into  such  a  series  of  har- 

1  FouKiER,  Th^orie  analytique  de  la  chaleur,  Ch.  Ill,  Paris,  1822. 


HARMONIC  ANALYSIS  73 

monies  can  be  accomplished  on  the  principle  of  resonance 
(p.  13).  A  resonator  will  respond  loudly  to  a  tone  of  its  own 
pitch.  Resonators  tuned  to  different  tones  are  held  to  the 
ear  in  succession  while  the  tone  is  sounding.  The  periods 
of  the  resonators  that  respond  are  taken  as  giving  with 
fair  approximation  the  periods  of  the  partial  tones  present. 
Spherical  resonators  (Fig.  15)  answer  very  accurately  to  the 
partials ;  when  they  are  used,  the  tone  to  be  tested  is  adjusted 
to  the  pitch  of  one  of  the  set.  Adjustable  resonators  (Fig. 
16)  can  be  accommodated  to  any  tone  ;  they  can  also  indicate 
inharmonic  partials,  that  is,  partials  whose  frequencies  do 
not  stand  in  simple  relations  to  that  of  the  fundamental. 
The  application  of  the  resonators  to  the  ear  requires  the  tone 
to  be  prolonged  unchanged  for  a  long  time,  or  to  be  repeated 
unchanged  if  many  partials  are  to  be  determined.  The 
resonators  may  be  connected  to  manometric  flames  and  may 
be  mounted  in  sets.^ 

Although  an  analysis  by  resonators  is  useful  for  demon- 
stration, it  is  practically  valueless  in  the  study  of  speech 
because  1.  speech  sounds  are  not  constant  long  enough  for 
the  adjustment  of  the  apparatus ;  2.  a  resonator  responds  in 
some  degree  to  other  tones  than  its  own  (p.  14);  3.  the 
harmonic  analysis  of  speech  tones  can  at  best  be  only  an 
approximation. 

When  a  vibration  is  registered  in  the  form  of  a  curve  that 
can  be  accurately  measured,  it  can  be  resolved  into  a  series  of 
harmonics  by  means  of  the  Foueiek  analysis. 

To  apply  this  method  the  heights  of  a  series  of  ordinates 
are  measured  at  equidistant  points  along  a  base  line  paral- 
lel" to  the  axis  of  the  curve.  When  the  records  are  very  large, 
the  base  line  may  be  drawn  directly  on  the  record-sheet  and 
all  the  measurements  made  with  a  ruler  graduated  in  tenths 
of  a  millimeter.  Smaller  records  may  be  enlarged  by  the 
precision-pantograph  of  Coeadi.  A  camera  lengthened  by  a 
wooden  tube  projecting  in  front  and  bearing  a  lens  of  short 
focus  —  for  example,  a  20-diopter  lens  from  an  optician's  test 
1  KoENiG,  Quelques  experiences  d'acoustique,  73,  Fig.  31,  Paris,  1882. 


74 


CURVES   OF  SPEECH 


case  —  may  also  be  used  for  enlarging.  The  lens  is  covered 
with  a  card  containing  a  circular  hole  of  l""^  diameter  to  in- 
crease the  sharpness  of  definition.  The  record  is  placed  in 
front  of  the  lens.  If  desired,  a  photograph  may  be  ob- 
tained in  the  usual  way.  To  simply  trace  off  the  enlarged 
curve,  the  ground  glass  of  the  camera  is  replaced  by  a  sheet 
of  clear  glass  on  which  a  piece  of  tracing  paper  is  laid. 
When  the  record  may  be  cut  out,  a  micrometer  object  table 
under  a  microscope  may  be  used.  A  piece  of  the  tracing  is 
cut  out,  placed  between  glass  plates  and  focused  under  the 
microscope.  The  measuring  is  done  by  micrometer  screws 
that  move  the  curve  horizontally  and  vertically. 


Fig.  49. 

For  the  analysis  of  a  curve  so  many  ordinates  must  be 
measured  that  the  piece  of  curve  cut  off  between  any  two 
ordinates  can  be  considered  as  a  straight  line,  whereby  it  is 
implied  that  no  maxima  or  minima  (no  points  or  turns)  of  the 
curve  lie  between  two  ordinates.  Very  smooth  curves  can  be 
handled  with  only  12  ordinates  ;  these  will  give  the  first  few 
partials  with  fair  accuracy.  A  portion  of  a  speech  curve,  en- 
larged 20  times  by  a  camera,  is  shown  with  12  ordinates  in 
Fig.  49.  More  complicated  curves  require  20,  24,  36  or  40 
ordinates.  The  utility  of  the  method  depends  upon  the 
success  with  which  the  measuring  and  computing  can  be 
kept  within  reasonable  limits  of  time. 

The  measurements  of  the  ordinates,  when  inserted  into 
certain  formulas,  give  values  that  indicate  the  relative  am- 


HARMONIC  ANALYSIS  75 

plitudes  of  the  sinusoids  into  which  the  given  curve  may  be 
analyzed.  An  analysis  of  the  curve  in  Fig.  49  gave  the  rela- 
tive amplitudes  as  indicated  in  Fig.  50. 

On  the  supposition  that  the  original  curve  (Fig.  49)  rep- 
resents a  tone  composed  of  harmonic  partials  the  analysis 
shows   that  the   second   partial   (2, 
Fig.  50)  was  the  predominant  tone, 
that  the  third  and  first  were  much 
weaker  and  the  others  very  weak. 
For  speech"  curves  we  cannot  make 
the  preceding  supposition,   and   the 
results  of  the  analysis  do  not  indicate 
the  presence  of  component  harmonic 
partials,  but  do  indicate  the  presence 
of  tones  in  certain  relations  to  one 
another.      A  tone  that  is  not   har-     I— 
monic  to  the  fundamental  appears  by     '      ^      *      *      *^     * 
the   FoTJKiBK  analysis  to   reinforce  ■^"''  ^°' 

neighboring  harmonics.  The  diagram  in  Fig.  50  thus  seems 
to  indicate  the  presence  of  a  tone  slightly  higher  than  the 
second  partial.  The  Foueier  analysis  is  often  the  only,  way 
of  locating  the  tone  or  tones  in  a  complex,  even  though  they 
do  not  stand  in  harmonic  relations. 

The  preceding  account  is  probably  sufficiently  detailed  for 
an  understanding  of  the  objects  of  the  Fourier  analysis; 
full  instructions  for  performing  the  analysis  will  be  found  in 
an  Appendix. 

The  resolution  of  an  empirically  obtained  speech  curve 
into  a  series  of  harmonics  by  the  Fourier  analysis  seems 
to  have  been  first  performed  by  Schneebeli  (p.  18)  ;  it  was 
used  by  Pipping  (p.  20),  Boeke  (p.  37),  Hermann  (p.  38) 
and  Bevier  (p.  49)  in  obtaining  their  results. 

References 

For  pantographs  and  harmonic  analyzer :  Cokadi,  Zurich.  For  mi- 
crometer object  table  :  Zimmermann,  Leipzig. 


PART   II 

PERCEPTION   OF   SPEECH 


CHAPTER   VII 

THE   ORGAN   OP   HEAEING 


The  auricle  (1  in  Fig.  51)  in  man  is  of  little  aid  in  liear- 
ing  sounds.     It  strengthens  them  slightly  by  reflecting  more 


Fig.  .'51. 


of  the  wave  into  the  ear  canal  (^,  Fig.  51)  ;  it  favors  those 
from  the  front ;  by  resonance  it  modifies  slightly  the  partial 
tones  of  a  complex  sound ;  and  it  favors  the  hissing  tones  of 
sounds  like  s. 


THE   ORGAN  OF  HEARING 


77 


The  vibration  of  the  air  traveling  down  the  external  canal 
(2,  Fig.  51)  reaches  the  ear-drnm,  or  tympanum,  memhrana 
tympani  (3  in  Fig.  51 ;  1  in  Fig.  52).  This  membrane  con- 
sists mainly  of  radiating  fibers  in  the  central  portions  and  of 
circular  fibers  in  the  peripheral  portions  ;  it  thus  has  great 
possibilities  of  adjustment  and  damping.  It  is  of  slightly 
conical  form.     Its  structure  of  radiating  and  circular  fibers, 


Fig.  52. 

its  conical  shape  and  its  damping  by  the  ear-bones  attached 
to  it  (Fig.  52)  permit  it  to  repeat  vibratory  movements  of 
various  pitches  without  reinforcing  any  of  them  greatly  by 
resonance  (p.  13).  At  the  tympanum  the  vibratory  move- 
ment of  the  air  is  transformed  into  vibratory  displacements 
of  the  tympanic  membrane.  Weak  sounds  are  most  favored 
by  the  shape  and  position  of  the  tympanum. 

The  cavity  beyond  the  tympanum  is  known  as  the  middle 
■ear  (3,  Fig.  51).     It  communicates  with  the  pharynx  by  the 


78  PERCEPTION  OF  SPEECH 

Eustachian  tube  (^,  Fig.  51).  The  middle  ear  is  shown 
in  Fig.  52  with  the  cavity  b,  the  ear-bones  2,  5,  7,  the 
tympanum  1,  and  the  oval  window  d  to  the  inner  ear  c. 
The  inner  side  of  the  tympanum  is  attached  to  the  end  of 
a  small  bone,  the  hammer,  or  malleus  (2—3,  Fig.  52),  which 
rotates  on  an  axle  and  thereby  repeats  the  movements  of  the 
tympanum.  The  anvil,  or  incus  (5-6,  Fig.  52),  is  a  small  bone 
fitting  on  the  head  (3,  Fig.  62)  of  the  hammer  and  pivoted  in 
such  a  way  that  its  long  arm  repeats  the  movement  of  the 
handle  of  the  hammer  with  a  somewhat  lessened  amplitude. 
The  stirrup,  or  stapes  (7,  Fig.  52),  attached  to  the  long  arm 
of  the  anvil,  fits  loosely  into  an  oval  opening,  fenestra  ovalis 
(d.  Fig.  52),  between  the  middle  ear  and  the  inner  ear  (c,  Fig. 
52).  It  is  held  in  this  opening  by  a  ligament  running  around 
on  all  sides.  In  repeating  the  movements  of  the  anvil  it  is 
forced  to  twist  because  the  ligament  is  more  tense  on  the  side 
below  than  above.  The  movement  executed  by  the  tym- 
panum and  ear-bones  is  indicated  by  the  white  line  in  Fig. 
52.  The  ear-bones  together  form  a  lever  arrangement  for 
transforming  the  air  vibrations  into  a  movement  of  the  liquid 
behind  the  oval  opening.  As  the  arms  of  the  lever  are  in 
the  relation  of  \^  to  1,  and  as  the  tympanum  is  nearly  twenty 
times  the  size  of  the  oval  opening,  the  movement  is  reduced 
in  amplitude  but  increased  in  energy  to  the  extent  of  1-^-  x  20 
=  30.  The  movements  of  the  stirrup  are  communicated  to  the 
membranous  sac,  or  labyrinth,  of  the  internal  ear. 

Two  muscles  act  upon  the  chain  of  ossicles.  The  tensor 
tympani  from  the  handle  of  the  malleus  (at  4  iii  Fig.  52) 
serves  to  pull  it  inward  (-^  in  Fig.  52)  thereby  stretching  the 
tympanum  and  pushing  the  stirrup  more  strongly  against  the 
internal  ear.  The  former  action  reduces  the  amplitude  of 
the  vibrations  of  the  tympanum  and,  by  shortening  its  period 
of  free  vibration,  makes  it  better  fitted  to  transform  those  of 
various  periods  with  less  resonance-effect.  The  latter  action 
stretches  the  membrane  of  the  oval  window  and  thus  pro- 
duces more  opposition  to  the  movement  of  the  stirrup,  the 
other  bones  and  the  tympanum  ;  the  effect  is  to  reduce  the 


THE   ORGAN  OF  HEARING 


79 


amplitude  of  the  vibratory  movement.  The  stapedius  muscle 
attached  to  the  stirrup  tv^ists  it  in  a  way  to  relieve  the  in- 
ternal ear  from  pressure  and  to  oppose  the  action  of  the  tensor 
tympani.  It  thus  renders  the  tympanum,  the  ear-bones,  and 
the  liquid  of  the  labyrinth  more  sensitive  to  vibrations. 

The   internal  ear  consists  of  a  complicated  membranous 
labyrinth '  (1,  ^,  J,  4-^  Fig.  53)  inclosed  in  a  bone  labyrinth 


Fig.  53. 

(7,  5,  5,  10, 1%').  The  portion  belonging  to  the  cochlea  (Jf) 
is  specifically  concerned  in  hearing ;  the  utricle  (1)  and  saccule 
(^)  are  of  doubtful  function ;  the  semicircular  canals  (one 
shown  at  S")  are  not  concerned  in  hearing. 

The  cochlea  comprises  a  long  canal  (^,  Fig.  53)  wound 
around  a  cone  (Fig.  54)  and  divided  longitudinally  through 
nearly  its  whole  length  by  a  partition  partly  of  bone  and  partly 
of  membrane.  One  portion  of  the  canal  (A  in  Fig.  55)  is 
connected  with  the  oval  opening,  the  other  (5)  with   the 


80 


PERCEPTION  OF  SPEECH 


round  one  (^16,  Fig.  53).     The  bone  division  between  them 
(i,  Fig.  55)  is  continued  across  by  a  membrane,  memhrana 


Fig.  54. 


basilaris  (7),  to  the  opposite  wall.  The  membrane  of  Reiss- 
NBE  (5)  is  stretched  across  the  canal  B.  The  whole  laby- 
rinth is  filled  with  a  liquid.  The  pressure  of  the  stirrup 
on  the  liquid  connected  with  one  side  (A)  of  the  canal  will 


Fig.  5.5. 


press  the  membrane  to  the  other  side  (£') .  The  basilar  mem- 
brane is  composed  of  transverse  bands  of  different  lengths 
and  presumably  of  different  periods  of  free  vibration  (p.  2). 


THE   ORGAN  OF  HEARING  81 

Being  light  in  mass  these  bands  are  readily  set  in  vibration ; 
as  they  are  well  damped,  the  vibrations  quickly  die  away 
on  account  of  friction  (p.  5).  A  diagram  of  one  of  the  bands 
of  the  basilar  membrane  and  its  annexes  is  given  in  Fig.  56. 


5 


&       «0       fl     £  E 

Fig.  56. 


The  band  I  carries  on  it  sets  of  supporting  cells  F  and  E,  the 
rods  of  COETI  A  B,  and  the  hair  cells  D  D' ;  these  last  are 
held  in  place  in  the  membrane  G. 

The  vibratory  movements  of  the  liquid  in  the  cochlea  will 
thus  readily  set  in  motion  those  bands  whose  periods  of  free 
vibration  are  harmonic  to  its  period  or  to  the  period  of  any  of 
its  components.  For  musical  notes  the  action  of  the  mem- 
brane is  thus  somewhat  like  that  of  a  series  of  harmonic 
resonators  responding  to  a  sound  (p.  14).  For  vibrations  of 
the  character  of  voice  curves  a  similar  principle  of  analysis 
by  resonance  may  be  applied.  The  whole  membrane  is  forced 
to  move  very  slightly  in  a  manner  corresponding  to  the  curve 
of  vibration,  but  any  fibers  whose  periods  correspond  to  the 
periods  of  impulses  contained  in  the  original  vibration  will 
be  made  to  vibrate  strongly.^  Each  fiber  of  the  membrane 
carries  on  it  a  set  of  cells  (i)  D',  Fig.  56)  with  hairs  that 
rub  ^  against  a  floating  membrane  (^IP)  when  the  fibers  vibrate. 
This  causes  deformation  of  the  cells  and  irritation  of  the 
nerve  endings  (9,  9',  9"}  around  them.  The  irritation  is 
transmitted  along  the  nerve  fibers  (3,  Fig.  55)  to  the  brain. 
The  number  of  fibers  in  the  membrane,  that  of  the  hair  cells, 

1  Helmholtz,  Lehre  v.  d,  Tonempfindungen,  5.  Aufl.,  235,  Leipzig,  1896. 

2  TER  KniLE,  Die  Uehertragung  d.  Energie  von  d.  Grundmemhran  auf  d.  Haar- 
zellen,  Arch.  f.  d.  ges.  Physiol.  (Pfluger),  1900  LXXIX  146. 

6 


82  PERCEPTION  OF  SPEECH 

and  that  of  the  nerve  fibers  is  greater  than  that  required 
for  the  number  of  tones  that  can  be  distinguished  by  the 
ear.i  Other  theories  of  the  action  of  the  basilar  membrane 
and  the  stimulation  of  the  nerve  endings  have  been  proposed 
but  have  failed  of  general  acceptance. 

A  complicated  vibratory  movement  arriving  in  the  internal 
ear  is  probably  analyzed  into  a  series  of  simultaneous  nerve- 
irritations  that  proceed  to  the  brain.  These  irritations  change 
at  every  instant.  On  the  supposition  (which  may  have 
to  be  modified)  that  the  irritation  passing  along  a  nerve  can 
change  only  in  its  intensity,  all  variations  in  the  vibratory 
movement  of  the  air  result  in  variations  in  the  intensity  and 
number  of  the  nerve  irritations  aroused.  Every  change  in 
the  air-wave  produces  changes  in  these  irritations.  Arriving 
in  the  central  nervous  system  these  irritations  are  combined 
with  others  from  other  parts  of  the  body  and  from  various 
nerve  cells.  The  manner  of  analysis  by  the  nerve  endings  in 
the  internal  ear  is  largely  unknown;  tones  like  those  from 
some  musical  instruments  are  supposed  to  be  analyzed  into  a 
harmonic  series  (p.  72)  on  the  principle  of  resonance.  The 
coriiplicated  vibrations  in  speech  sounds,  especially  in  the 
consonants,  present  difficulties  to  such  a  harmonic  analy- 
sis ;  these  difficulties  may  not  be  fatal  and  the  theory  is 
still  a  plausible  one.  Just  what  happens  to  the  irritations 
when  they  reach  the  central  nervous  system  is  still  entirely 
unknown. 

From  every  sound  the  brain  receives  impulses  of  differ- 
ent strengths  that  arrive  along  different  nerve  fibers.  The 
activities  of  the  brain  cells  connected  with  sensations  of 
sound  bear  no  resemblance  whatever  to  the  physical  vibra- 
tions that  arouse  them,  although  the  two  sets  of  phenom- 
ena are  related  by  definite  laws.  The  sensations  of  sound 
in  consciousness,  moreover,  in  no  way  resemble  the  activities 
of  the  nerve  cells,  although  most  intimately  connected  with 
them. 

1  Snodgkass  and  M'Kendrick,  in  Schaefer's  Textbook  of  Physiology,  II 
1184,  Edinburgh  and  London,  1900. 


THE   ORGAN  OF  HEARING 


83 


The  integrity  of  a  relatively  definite  region  of  the  outer 
layer  (cortex)  of  the  left  cerebral  hemisphere  is  necessary  for 
the  correct  understanding  and  use  of  speech  in  its  usual 
forms. 

The  centers  for  controlling  combinations  of  vocal  move- 
ments in  speech  are  in  the  region  (Broca's  convolution) 
indicated  by  'Motor  words'  in  Fig.  57.  The  centers  for 
memories  of  word-movements  are  mainly  in  the  anterior  por- 
tion of  the  speech  region.  The  region  connected  with  the  hear- 
ing of  sounds  is  in  the  first  temporal  convolution  ('Hearing,' 


Fig.  57. 


Fig.  57),  that  for  the  perception  of  speech  sounds  in  Wer- 
nicke's convolution  ('Auditory  words ').  The  region  for  the 
perception  of  visual  objects  lies  in  the  occipital  lobe  ('  Vision '). 
When  printed  signs  take  on  the  character  of  intelligible  words 
through  association  with  other  speech  elements,  they  probably 
involve  the  activity  of  portions  of  the  brain  in  the  fore  part  of 
the  visual  region  ('Visual  words,' also  J.).  The  region  for 
arm  movements  lies  in  the  middle  portions  of  the  two  central 
convolutions  ('  Arm '),  that  for  the  corresponding  motor 
ideas  probably  near  the  same  place  ('Written  words'). 
Differing   from   those   of   other  activities   the  centers   of 


84  '    PERCEPTION  OF  SPEECH 

speech  all  lie  on  one  side,  on  the  left  in  right-handed  persons, 
although  the  muscles  and  sense  organs  lie  on  both  sides ;  it 
has  been  suggested  that  such  an  arrangement  arises  from  the 
necessity  of  exact  coordination  of  the  movements  and  im- 
pressions from  the  two  sides. 

Four  fundamentally  different  types  of  disturbance  occur  in 
the  brain.  The  more  elementary  ones  appear  as  disturbances 
in  movement  and  sensation  on  one  side  of  the  body,  for 
example,  the  inability  to  move  the  right  arm  as  the  result  of 
a  lesion  in  the  arm  center  on  the  left  side  of  the  brain. 
Another  group  is  characterized  by  the  loss  of  definite, 
complicated  associations  of  movements  and  sensations;  for 
example,  the  inability  to  perform  the  movements  involved 
in  sewing,  drawing,  etc.  A  third  group  involves  the  loss  of 
highly  complicated  associations  like  those  involved  in  speech. 
Finally,  the  distuibance  may  involve  the  most  complicated  of 
all  associations,  such  as  those  of  logical  thought,  language, 
etc. 

The  special  characteristic  of  speech  disturbances  in  the 
surface  of  the  brain  lies  in  injury  to  or  loss  of  the  ability  to  use 
the  common  language  of  expression,  such  as  words,  letters, 
notes  and  other  symbols,  although  the  general  ability  to  use 
ideas  is  not  notably  gone  and  the  action  of  the  ear  and 
vocal  organs  is  not  seriously  injured.  Such  disturbances  are 
generally  grouped  under  the  term  'aphasia.'  The  mildest 
forms  of  aphasia  appear  in  the  difficulty  of  finding  the  correct 
(though  familiar)  word  to  express  an  idea  (this  weakness 
of  word-memory  occurs  regularly  in  old  age,  in  conditions  of 
fatigue,  etc.)  ;  or  in  the  difficulty  of  understanding  spoken  or 
wiitten  words. 

Motor  aphasia,  or  word-dumbness,  is  the  term  applied  to 
a  condition  in  which  the  voluntary  control  of  the  speech 
muscles  is  in  general  fairly  complete  and  the  production  of 
sounds  and  even  of  single  monosyllabic  words  or  syllables 
is  possible,  but  in  which  the  speech  names  for  the  most  com- 
mon things  and  conditions  cannot  be  found  and  used  and  the 
words  heard  by  the  patient  cannot  be  repeated.     It  results 


THE   ORGAN  OF  HEARING  85 

from  injury  to  the  motor  speech  center  ('  Motor  words,' 
Fig.  57). 

Auditory  aphasia,  or  word-deafness,  is  characterized  by  re- 
tention of  hearing  with  loss  of  understanding  of  spoken 
words.  A  word  appears  to  the  patient  as  a  meaningless 
noise  or  a  word  from  an  unintelligible  language.  The  dis- 
turbance is  connected  with  lesions  in  Weknicke's  convolu- 
tion ('  Auditory  words,'  Fig.  57)  ;  it  may  be  due  to  resistances 
in  the  conduction  in  the  brain,  whereby  single  portions  of 
words  do  not  appear  in  consciousness  with  sufficient  rapidity, 
clearness  or  completeness  to  be  grasped,  or  whereby  they  can- 
not be  held  long  enough  in  memory  to  be  united  with  the 
following  ones.  Word-deafness  may  be  chiefly  perceptive  or 
chiefly  associative,  according  as  there  is  difSculty  in  grasping 
the  elements,  or  in  recognizing  them  by  assimilation  to  past 
experiences.  The  understanding  of  words  is  seldom  com- 
pletely lost ;  specially  familiar  words  are  generallj^  still  under- 
stood. The  difficulties  of  conduction  occasion  exchanges  of 
words  (paraphasia).  The  word-deaf  person  gets  the  meaning 
imperfectly  or  not  at  all  of  what  he  hears ;  nevertheless  he 
answers  every  question  with  alacrity  but  quite  inappropri- 
ately. He  has  no  full  consciousness  of  his  errors  and  gener- 
ally shows  indifference  to  them.  His  thoughts  need  not  be  in 
any  wise  incorrect,  but  he  misunderstands  and  misuses  words.^ 

Agraphia  ordinarily  occurs  whenever  motor  aphasia  is 
present ;  it  is  not  known  to  occur  alone.  It  is  characterized 
by  inability  to  write  words,  while  the  other  arm  movements 
are  still  completely  under  control.  It  is  connected  with  defi- 
ciencies in  the  ideas  of  speech  movements  and  speech  sounds, 
and  not  with  special  lesions  of  the  arm  center.  Agraphia 
occurs  regularly  with  auditory  aphasia.  Generally  it  is  a 
word-agraphia,  the  power  to  write  single  letters  being  retained 
though  they  do  not  correspond  to  the  sounds  which  they  are 
supposed  to  indicate.  In  cases  of  complete  auditory  aphasia 
the  hand  makes  only  irregular,  meaningless  strokes  and  signs, 
a  proof  that  the  chief  guidance  of  the  hand  in  writing  is  not 
1  V.  MoNAKOw,  Gehirnpathologie,  523,  Wien,  1897. 


86  PERCEPTION  OF  SPEECH 

from  the  visual  memories  of  the  letters  or  from  the  motor 
memories  and  sensations  of  the  arm  and  hand,  but  from  the 
auditory  ideas  with  which  these  movements  are  connected.^ 

Alexia  is  characterized  by  the  inability  to  understand  words. 
It  is  of  two  forms.  The  one  is  usualty  connected  with  audi- 
tory aphasia;  the  other  arises  independently.  The  former 
results  from  disturbances  in  the  temporal  convolutions  and 
the  gyrus  angularis  (J.  in  Fig.  57),  the  other  from  subcorti- 
cal lesions. 

It  can  be  considered  as  definitely  established  ^  that  the  con- 
trol of  the  individual  muscles  occurs  in  the  spinal  cord  and 
the  pons,  whose  centers  can  operate  them  for  combined  action ; 
that  the  cortical  centers  are  those  of  group  action,  the  sepa- 
rate muscles  being  represented  only  when  they  are  often  used 
singly;  that  the  arrangement  of  the  group  centers  in  the 
cortex  does  not  occur  by  chance  or  in  reference  to  anatomical 
relations  but  according  to  definite,  varied,  fundamental  move- 
ments ;  that  each  form  of  use  of  a  muscle-group  in  this  or 
that  act  is  represented  by  a  different  center.  This  latter  fact 
may  be  illustrated  by  a  case  in  which  injury  to  a  portion  of 
the  cortex  was  followed  by  loss  of  the  ability  to  extend  the 
right  thumb  alone,  while  the  ability  to  do  so  in  combination 
with  other  movements  remained. 

This  principle  of  group  representation  in  the  cortex  pre- 
sumably holds  good  for  speech  volitions  and  speech  percep- 
tions ;  no  other  principle  seems  to  agree  with  the  phenomena 
that  appear  in  disturbances  of  language  functions. 

The  diagram  in  Fig.  58,  a  development  of  one  by  Licht- 
HEiM,^  indicates  the  supposed  functional  connections  of  the 
speech  centers.  Eepetition  of  a  word  heard  involves  the 
transmission  to  the  hearing  center  and  stimulation  of  the  motor 
speech  center  by  the  associating  fibers.  Reading  aloud  in- 
volves the  translation  of  the  visual  words  into  auditory  words 
and  then  into  spoken  words.     It  does  not  occur  by  direct 

1  T.  MotTAKOW,  as  before,  518. 

2  V.  MoNAKOW,  as  before,  382. 

5  LiCHiHEiM,  Ueber  Aphasie,  Deut.  Arch.  f.  klin.  Med.,  1884-85  XXXVI  204. 


THE   ORGAN  OF  HEARING 


87 


connection  between  the  visual  and  motor  speech  centers  ex- 
cept in  the  case  of  the  deaf.  In  spontaneous  writing  the  ideas 
are  first  put  into  speech  form  and  then  translated  into  writing 
movements,  and  are  not  expressed  by  the  arm  directly.  In 
writing  from  dictation  the  perceived  words  first  arouse  the 
center  for  speech  action  and  this  arouses  the  writing  center. 
In  copying  by  sight  there  is  direct  connection  between  the 
reading  center  and  the  writing  center.  Although  used  to 
indicate   the  accepted  theory  of   the  action  of  the  cortical 


'action  """' 


Mision  of 
\JiiiQn 


£ye 


Fig.  58. 


centers,  the  diagram  is  essentially  a  scheme  of  the  mental 
processes  involved;  it  cannot  be  fitted  with  any  closeness 
to  the  actual  brain  action. 

Beyond  this  point  our  knowledge  of  what  occurs  in  the 
brain  is  limited.  A  study  of  the  cases  of  disturbance  of 
the  language  functions  of  mind  has  been  carefully  made 
with  reference  to  brain  action,  and  certain  fundamental  facts 
have  been  established.  The  attempts  of  various  psychologi- 
cal writers  to  state  the  phenomena  of  consciousness  —  parti- 
cularly '  the  marginal  or  fringe  processes  that  are  seldom  if 


88  PERCEPTION  OF  SPEECH 

ever  within  the  scope  of  introspective  observation' — 'in 
neural  terms '  are  pure  figments  of  the  imagination  whose 
hypotheses  are  incompatible  with  the  familiar  facts  of  phj^sio- 
logical  action. 

Systematic  application  of  experimental  methods  to  deter- 
mine the  laws  of  speech  disturbance  has  not  yet  been  exten- 
sively undertaken. 

The  motor  functions  of  the  brain  in  controlling  the  vocal 
organs  will  be  considered  in  detail  in  Chap.  XV. 

Eepeeences 

For  the  anatomy  of  the  ear :  Tbstut,  Traits  d'anatomie  humaine, 
III,  Paris,  1899  ;  Spalteholtz,  Handatlas  dei-  Anatomie  des  Menschen, 
Leipzig,  1901.  For  the  physiology  of  the  ear:  Sewall,  Hearing, 
Howells's  Amer.  Textbook  of  Physiology,  2d  ed.,  Philadelphia,  1900 ; 
Hensen,  Physiologie  des  Gehors,  Hermann's  Handbuch  d.  Physiol.,  Ill 
(2),  Leipzig,  1880 ;  M'Kendrick  and  Gray,  The  ear,  Schaefer's  Text- 
book of  Physiology,  II,  Edinburgh  and  London,  1900.  For  the  mono- 
graph literature  :  v.  Stein,  Die  Lehre  von  den  Funktionen  der  einzelnen 
Theile  des  Ohrlabyrinths,  Jena,  1894  ;  Catalog  of  the  Surgeon-General's 
Library  in  Washington.  For  a  summary  of  the  present  knowledge  of 
the  speech  functions  of  the  brain  :  v.  Monakow,  Gehirnpathologie,  Wien, 
1897.  For  disorders  of  speech  :  Kussmaul,  Die  Storungen  der  Sprache, 
Leipzig,  1877 ;  Gutzmann,  Vorlesungen  iiber  d.  Storungen  der  Sprache, 
Berlin,  1893;  Lif.bmann,  Vorlesungen  ii.  Sprachstbrungen,  Berlin,  1898- 
1900.  For  yearly  bibliograpliies  of  recent  works  on  aphasia:  Zt.  f. 
Psychol,  u.  Physiol,  d.  Sinnesorgane;  Annee  psychologique  ;  Psycholo- 
gical Review  ;  Jahrebericht  ii.  d.  Leistungen  u.  Fortschritte  in  d.  ges. 
Jled.  For  summary  and  literature  concerning  musical  centers :  Lario- 
now,  Ueber  d.  musikalischen  Centren  des  Gehirns,  Arch.  f.  d.  ges.  Physiol. 
(Pfliiger),  1899  LXXVI  608. 

For  models  of  the  ear  :  Montaudon,  Paris.  For  mechanism  to  illus- 
trate the  action  of  the  tympanum  and  ossicles :  Kohl,  Chemnitz  ;  Cam- 
bridge Sci.  Instr.  Co.,  Cambridge,  England. 


CHAPTER  VIII 

PERCEPTION   OF    SOUNDS 

Sounds  are  purely  mental  experiences,  most  of  which  are 
the  results  of  vibratory  movements  reaching  the  ear  through 
the  air.  '  Tone  '  and  '  noise  '  are  the  two  extremes  of  a  men- 
tal arrangement  of  sounds  according  to  likeness.  A  pure  tone 
can  be  obtained  from  a  well  made  tuning  fork ;  a  vowel  sung 
by  a  good  voice  can  be  made  nearly  a  pure  tone  without  ad- 
mixture of  noise ;  a  whispered  vowel  combines  tone  and  noise ; 
f  and  s  are  mainly  noises,  but  nevertheless  resemble  tones 
to  some  extent  and  are  heard  to  vary  in  pitch.  Every  ordi- 
nary sound  appears  to  have  more  or  less  of  each  element  in  it. 

Tones  have  three  necessary  properties :  pitch,  duration,  and 
intensity.  Other  properties  such  as  timbre,  objectivity,  emo- 
tional tinge,  etc.  may  be  added. 

Many  of  the  fundamental  facts  concerning  tones  can  be 
illustrated  by  a  siren.^  In  its  simplest  form  the  siren  consists 
of  a  carefully  balanced  and  trued  disc  with  a  circle  of  holes 
pierced  through  it.  When  such  a  disc  {A,  Fig.  59)  is  rotated 
through  a  jet  of  air  from  a  tube  U,  the  holes  produce  a  series 
of  puffs  at  intervals  depending  on  the  speed  of  the  disc. 
This  disc  may  be  mounted  on  any  rotating  axle  B;  it  is  most 
conveniently  placed  directly  on  the  axle  of  a  small  electric 

1  Cagniard-Latouk,  Sur  la  sirene,  nouvelle  machine,  d'acoustique  destinee  a 
mesurer  les  vibrations  de  I'air  qui  constituent  le  son,  Ann.  de  chim.  et  de  phys., 
1819  XII  167;  Seebbck,  Beobachtungen  iiber  einige  Bedingungen  der  Entstehung 
von  TSnen,  Ann,  d.  Phys.  u.  Chem.,  1841  LIU  417;  Ueber  die  Sirene,  Ann.  d. 
Pliys.  u.  Cliem.,  1843  LX  449  ;  Dove,  Beschreibung  einer  Lochsirenef.  gleichzeitige 
Erregung  mehrerer  TBne,  Ann.  d.  Phys.  u.  Chem.,  1851  LXXII  596;  Helmholtz, 
Lehre  v.  d.  Tonempfindungen,  5.  Aufl.,  269,  Leipzig,  1896, 


90 


PERCEPTION  OF  SPEECH 


motor  Avhose  speed  is  regulated  by  an  appropriate  resistance 
(p.  10).  As  the  speed  of  the  siren  disc  is  increased,  the  pufPs 
come  more  rapidly  and  finally  change  into  a  tone  that  con- 
tinues to  alter  in  its  property  of  pitch. 

Since  a  series  of  puffs,  as  known  mentally,  gradually  changes 
to  a  ton6  of  rising  pitch  as  the  frequency  of  the  puffs  increases, 
we  may  say  that  a  tone  is  composed  of  puffs  and  that  the 
property  of  pitch  depends  on  the  frequency  of  the  puffs.  We 
may  not  be  able  to  detect  the  puffs  in  a  tone  and  the  tone  may 
appear  to  us  as  a  simple  phenomenon,  yet  we  are  quite  justi- 
fied in  considering  it  as  a  compound  of  the  more  elementary 


sensations  termed  puffs.  The  numerical  expression  for  the 
pitch  of  a  tone  may  be  derived  from  the  number  of  puffs  that 
compose  it.  With  a  siren  it  can  be  readily  demonstrated  that 
at  low  frequencies  one  puff  corresponds  to  the  passage  of  one 
hole  before  the  blast  tube ;  this  correspondence  can  be  followed 
as  long  as  the  puffs  can  be  heard  separately.  When  the  puffs 
fuse  into  a  tone,  we  may  assume  that  the  correspondence 
still  remains ;  the  number  of  jets  of  air  a  second  can  thus 
be  taken  as  the  figure  for  the  pitch  of  a  tone.  The  pitch  of  a 
tone  and  the  frequency  of  the  puffs  are  thus  correlated. 

The  property  of  pitch  may  be  varied  by  changing  the  speed 
of  the  disc,  and  making  the  holes  pass  the  jet  at  different 


PERCEPTION  OF  SOUNDS  91 

rates.  With  a  small  number  of  holes  the  pitch  is  said  to  be 
'  low '  or  '  grave ; '  with  a  large  number  it  is  said  to  be  'high ' 
or  '  acute.'  These  terms  are  metaphors,  having  no  physical, 
physiological  or  psychological  meaning  except  what  has  been 
derived  by  association. 

The  property  of  duration  in  a  tone  can  be  illustrated  by 
changing  the  time  during  which  the  tone  is  produced ;  the 
property  of  intensity  by  making  it  louder  or  weaker. 

The  pitch  of  the  tone  from  the  siren  at  any  moment  can  be 
determined  by  placing  on  the  axle  of  the  motor  a  contact  Q 
(Fig.  59)  consisting  of  a  gear  wheel  with  spaces  filled  by 
vulcanized  rubber,  and  adjusting  a  pair  of  copper  brushes 
D  on  its  rim.  A  battery  current  Gr  is  sent  through  the 
brushes,  a  make-key,  IJ,  and  a 
magnetic  marker  iV";  whenever  the 
knob  H  is  pressed,  the  circuit  is 
closed  at  /  and  each  closure  at  D 
will  register  a  check  in  the  line  of 
the  marker-point  N  on  the  drum. 
To  get  a  registration  of  the  time  the 
marker  0  is  connected  to  a  fork  M 
(p.  1 5)  in  such  a  way  that  the  break- 
ing of  the  circuit  at  ^sets  it  vibrat- 
ing. This  can  be  conveniently  done 
by  using  the  key  as  a  shunt  around  „ 

the  marker  in  a  circuit  coming  from 

the  fork.  A  comparison  of  the  checks  in  the  line  from  the 
marker  N  with  the  waves  of  known  frequency  from  the 
marker  0  will  give  the  time  between  contacts  at  the  brushes 
I) ;  from  this  the  speed  of  the  disc  and  the  number  of  puffs 
can  be  readily  calculated. 

The  magnetic  marker  referred  to  appears  in  various  forms. 
The  Pfbil  marker  is  shown  in  Fig.  60.  A  current  passing 
through  the  coils  m  draws  down  the  steel  spring  p  and  causes 
the  lever  A  (only  partly  shown  in  the  figure)  to  record  on 
the  drum.  This  marker  in  connection  with  an  electric  fork 
can  produce  smooth  waves  of   the  sinusoid  form,  which  is 


92  PERCEPTION  OF  SPEECH 

well  adapted  for  time-comparisons ;  by  adjusting  the  weight 
g,  it  may  be  tuned  to  the  harmonic  series  of  which  the  fork- 
period  is  a  member.  The  screw  s  moves  the  cores  of  the 
magnets  to  and  from  the  spring  p  and  thus  regulates  the 
amplitude  of  the  action.  The  side  screws  1 1  are  for  adjust- 
ing the  point  of  h  accurately  on  the  drum.  The  Depeez 
marker  (Fig.  61)  is  a  form  adapted  to  quick  action  on 
account  of  the  light  mass  of  its  armature  V.  The  magnets 
U  U  are  connected  to  the  binding  posts  S  S.  The  armature 
is  held  back  against  the  cone  C  by  the  spring  R,  whose  ten- 
sion is  regulated  by  a  movable  arm  Y.  The  distance  of  the 
armature  from  the  magnet  is  regulated  by  moving  the  cone 
C  axially  by  means  of  the  knob  T.  With  appropriate  adjust- 
ments  of  the  strength  of   the  current,  the  tension   of  the 


Fig.  61. 

spring  and  the  position  of  the  armature,  the  rapidity  of 
action  can  be  made  so  great  that  the  marker  loses  only  a 
few  ten-thousandths  of  a  second  in  responding  to  a  magnetic 
impulse ;  it  may  be  used  to  record  500  impulses  a  second. 
The  marker  is  held  on  a  rod  by  the  screw  P  through  the 
barrel  I) ;  its  stem  is  lengthened  or  shortened  by  the  knob 
Q  moving  the  rack  B  by  means  of  the  pinion  A. 

The  latent  time  of  a  marker  should  be  measured  frequently 
when  it  is  of  importance.  This  is  best  done  by  placing  on 
the  axle  of  the  drum  a  rubber  or  fibroid  wheel  with  a  strip  of 
metal  on  its  edge  around  half  the  circumference;  the  two 
poles  of  the  circuit  are  rested  against  the  wheel  as  indicated 
in  Fig.  62 ;  the  marker  is  placed  in  the  circuit,  its  point 
being  against  the  drum ;  the  drum  is  brought  to  rest  just 
as  the  contact  is  closed,  whereby  a  check  is  made  on 
the  smoked  surface;   the  same  is  done  for  the  point  where 


PERCEPTION  OF  SOUNDS  93 

the  circuit  is  broken.  The  drum  is  now  turned  rapidly;  the 
marker  responds  to  each  make  and  break  by  a  check  on  the 
line  on  the  drum ;  the  distance  between  the  check  made  by 
bringing  the  drum  to  rest  and  that  made  while  it  is  moving 
represents  the  time  lost  by  the  marker;  with  a  time  hue 
(p.  15)  on  the  drum  this  latent  time  can  be  measured.  It  is 
convenient  to  have  such  simple  contact  wheels  with  brushes 
on  all  drums ;  the  determination  of  the  latent  time  then  takes 
only  a  few  moments  before  or  after  the  experiments  are 
made.  In  the  experiment  with  the  siren  this  measurement  is 
not  required. 

The  puff  produced  by  the  siren  is  accompanied  by  consider- 
able noise.  Most  of  this  noise  can  be  avoided  by  using  a 
vibrating  steel  reed.  When  such  a 
reed  is  clamped  in  a  vise,  it  can  be 
set  vibrating  by  the  finger.  When 
its  length  is  adjusted  so  that  its  fre- 
quency is  sufficiently  high,  a  tone  is 
heard.  As  the  length  ia  increased, 
the  tone  begins  to  rumble  and  finally 
breaks  up  into  puffs  of  sound  almost 
entirely  unaccompanied  by  noises. 
Still  clearer  results  may  be  obtained 
by  using  large  tuning  forks  with 
heavy  sliding  weights. 

The  rise  in  pitch  may  be  continuous  between  the  lowest 
and  the  highest  limits.  The  changes  by  steps  as  used  in 
music  are  required  neither  by  the  voice  nor  by  the  ear. 

The  psychophysic  law  for  tones  in  its  simplest  form  as 
given  by  Aristotle^  states  that  a  tone  corresponds  to  the 
vibrations  of  a  body  (the  statements  of  Pythagoras  refer  to 
the  relation  between  the  length  of  a  string  and  the  pitch  of 
a  tone  and  not  to  vibrations).^      The  psychophysic  law  of 

1  Aeistoteles,  Problemata,  XIX  27  ;  De  anima,  II  viii  420. 

2  NiKOMACHOs,  Harm,  introd.,  116  (direct  source  for  the  statements  regard- 
ing Pythagokas)  ;  Bookh,  Philolaos  des  Pythagoreers  Lehren  nebst  Bruch- 
stucken  seines  Werkes,  65,  Berlin,  1819. 


9 J:  PERCEPTION  OF  SPEECH 

pitch  was  first  formulated  by  Galilei  ^  and  Meesenne^: 
the  pitch  of  tones  depends  directly  on  the  frequency  of 
the  impulses. 

Using  siren  discs  with  holes  of  different  shapes  Seebeck 
demonstrated  ^  a  principle  whose  validity  was  long  overlooked 
in  favor  of  an  erroneous  theory  of  vowel  tones.  Seebeck's 
principle  may  be  stated  thus :  a  puff  recurring  with  a  con- 
stant period  produces  a  tone  whose  pitch  is  given  by  that 
period  independently  of  the  character  of  the  puff  and  of  the 
portion  of  the  period  occupied  by  it.  The  experiment  has 
been  repeated  in  various  developments.  A  strong  tuning 
fork  may  be  held  close  behind  a  rotating  disc  with  large  holes 
so  that  the  tone  is  heard  only  when  a  hole  passes  the  fork.* 
The  intermittent  tone  gives  a  series  of  puffs  whose  frequency 
is  that  of  the  holes  passing  the  fork.  When  the  boles  pass 
rapidly  enough,  the  puffs  are  heard  as  a  tone  of  a  pitch  corre- 
sponding to  the  number  of  holes  passing  in  a  second.  The 
tone  of  the  fork  and  that  of  the  series  of  holes  are  thus  heard 
simultaneously.  When  regular  groups  of  holes  are  filled 
(or  omitted)  in  a  siren  disc,  the  changes  between  tone  and 
silence  likewise  produce  two  tones,  one  with  a  pitch  corre- 
sponding to  the  frequency  of  the  holes  within  a  group  and 
another  to  the  frequency  of  the  group.^  Similar  experiments 
may  be  readily  made  with  a  card  or  paper  cone  held  against 
the  teeth  of  a  gear  wheel.     The  intermissions  are  produced 

1  Galilei,  Discorsi  e  dimostrazioni  matematiche,  Leida,  1638. 

"  Meksenne,  Harmonie  universelle  (Harmonicorum  libri  XII),  Paris,  1636; 
Govi,  Su  un'  antica  dimostrazione  del  numero  delle  vihrazione  che  corrispondono  ad 
un  suono  data  delta  scala  musicale,  Rend.  Ace.  di  Napoli,  1886  XXV  106  (refers  to 
Mersenne)  ;  Tatlok,  De  inventione  centri  osciUationis,  Phil.  Trans.  Eoyal  Soc. 
Lond.,  1713,  XXVIII  11;  Methodus  incrementorum,  London,  1715;  Eulek, 
Tentameri  novae  theoriae  musicae,  Petropoli,  1739. 

'  Sebbeck,  Ueber  die  Erzeugung  von  Tonen  durch  getrennte  Eindrilcke,  mit 
Beziehung  auf  d.  Definition  des  Tones,  Ann.  d.  Phys.  u.  Chem.,  1844  LXIII 
368. 

^  KcENiG,  Ueber  den  Zusammenhlang  zweier  Tone,  Ann.  d.  Phys.  u.  Chem., 
1876  CLVII  231  ;  Quelques  experiences  d'acoustique,  139,  Paris,  1882. 

*  Des'sert,  Akustisch-physiotogische  Untersuchungen,  Arch.  f.  Ohrenheilk.,  1886- 
87  XXIV  171. 


PERCEPTION  OF  SOUNDS  95 

by  filling  some  of  the  teeth  with  wax.i  The  tone  whose 
pitch  corresponds  to  the  frequency  of  intermission  is  always 
the  loudest  although  the  tone  whose  pitch  is  that  of  the 
number  of  blows  of  the  teeth  on  the  card  may  be  also 
heard.  When  a  tone  through  a  telephone  is  regularly  inter- 
rupted by  breaking  the  secondary  circuit,  the  interruption 
tone  appears  also.^  The  fundamental  law  demonstrated  by 
the  preceding  experiments  may  be  thus  stated :  every  periodic 
change  within  certain  limits  of  frequency  is  perceived  by  the 
sense  of  hearing  as  a  tone. 

Out  of  tones  regarded  as  simple,  other  tones,  or  notes,  can 
be  built  up.  "When  two  tones  are  sounded  by  blowing  on 
two  series  of  holes  of  widely  different  frequencies  in  tbe 
siren  disc,  the  result  appears  different  from  either  tone  heard 
separately.  To  the  uneducated  ear  this  tone  appears  just  as 
simple  as  the  others  though  quite  different  in  its  character. 
It  may,  however,  be  regarded  as  a  complex  or  compound 
tone  composed  of  two  simpler  tones,  just  as  each  of  these 
simpler  tones  is  to  be  regarded  as  composed  of  puffs. 

The  character  of  a  compound  tone  varies  with  the  relations 
of  pitch  and  intensity  among  its  components.  When  the 
components  are  of  approximately  equal  intensity  and  when 
they  have  certain  simple  relations  of  pitch,  they  are  called 
'  chords ; '  thus,  three  tones  of  nearly  equal  intensity  in  the 
relations  of  2  :  3  :  5  form  a  major  chord.  The  chords  can  be 
demonstrated  by  a  siren  disc  with  several  series  of  holes,  in 
the  desired  numerical  relations,  blown  by  several  jets.  A  few 
of  the  simple  tones  in  compound  ones  can  frequently  be  picked 
out  by  listening  for  them.  The  notes  of  a  chord  may  appear 
simple  to  the  unaccustomed  ear,  but  the  musician  can  by 
attention  separate  them. 

"When  the  components  have  certain  simple  relations  of 
pitch  such  as  1:2:3:4:5...  and  the  lowest  tone  is 

1  Hermantst,  Phonophotographische  Untersuchmgen,  III.,  Arch.  f.  d.  ges. 
Physiol.  (Pfluger),  1890  XL VII  386. 

2  ZwAARDEMAKBR,  Ueber  IntermiitenztSne,  Arch.  f.  Anat.  u.  Physiol.  (Physiol. 
Abth.),  1900,  Supplementband,  60. 


96  PERCEPTION  OF  SPEECH 

much  stronger  than  the  others,  the  compound  tone  is  said  to 
be  '  complex,'  or  to  be  composed  of  a  '  fundamental '  and  its 
'  overtones.'  To  illustrate  this,  several  series  of  holes  in  the 
siren  may  be  blown  at  once,  the  high  tones  being  made  quite 
subordinate  in  intensity  to  the  lowest  one  by  using  smaller  jets. 
Changes  in  the  relative  intensities  of  the  series  of  overtones 
produce  changes  in  the  character  of  the  complex  tone ;  these 
are  said  to  be  changes  in  timbre.     A  series  of  tones  such  as 


1:2:3:4:5:6:  —  :8 


10, 


with  the  relative  intensities  indicated  by  the  size  of  the 
figures,  will  produce  quite  a  different  complex  tone  from 
a  series  such  as 

1:2:3:4:5:6:7:8:9:  10. 

The  character  of  the  tone  differs  also  with  the  character 
of  its  elementary  puffs.  When  puffs  of  the  same  frequency 
are  compared,  they  will  be  found  to  differ  in  properties  that 
may  be  termed  'loudness,'  'suddenness,'  'smoothness,' 
'sharpness,'  etc.  A  single  puff  in  any  case  is  heard  with 
more  or  less  complicated  variations  of  intensity.  Explosive 
puffs  like  those  from  the  siren  and  usually  from  the  vocal 
cords  rise  and  fall  suddenly  in  intensity.  Very  smootli 
puffs    are  obtained  from  tuning  forks. 

Tones  composed  of  puffs  of  different  forms  appear  differ- 
ent to  the  ear.  These  differences  often  resemble  those  pro- 
duced by  combining  tones  into  compounds  and  complexes. 
The  puffs  from  some  musical  instruments  whose  tones  differ 
in  timbre  can  be  shown  to  be  of  forms  that  would  arise  from 
adding  harmonic  series  of  sinusoids  with  regular  systems  of 
decreasing  amplitudes  for  the  components  of  shorter  periods. 
The  puffs  from  other  instruments  are  of  forms  that  would 
not  arise  in  this  way.  Tones  :^rom  the  voice  differ  not  only 
in  timbre  but  also  in  other  ways ;  the  puffs  have  very 
complicated  forms. 


PERCEPTION  OF  SOUNDS  97 

When  the  puffs  are  of  forms  such  as  would  arise  from  a 
summation  of  puffs  of  the  sinusoid  form,  with  periods  in  a 
harmonic  series,  the  sound  can  often  be  heard  as  containing 
a  series  of  tones.  This  led  Ohm  to  assert  that  each  sensation 
of  tone  corresponded  to  a  sinusoid  vibration  and  that  complex 
vibrations  were  analyzed  by  the  organ  of  hearing  into  a 
harmonic  series  of  sinusoids  resulting  in  a  mental  complex 
of  liarmonic  tones.^  Although  refuted  by  Seebeck,  this 
hypothesis  was  used  by  Helmholtz^  as  the  basis  of  his 
theory  of  the  action  of  the  ear.  The  hypothesis  is  certainly 
incorrect  when  applied  to  sensations.  To  the  mind  the  tone 
from  a  violin  is  just  as  simple  as  that  from  a  tuning  fork  or 
an  organ,  yet  the  analysis  of  the  vibration  into  a  series  of  sin- 
usoids would  give  results  differing  greatly  in  complexity. 
Moreover,  the  mind  executes  no  such  analysis ;  the  physical 
differences  represented  by  combinations  of  sinusoids  appear 
as  the  pi'operty  of  timbre.  Finally,  physical  speech  vibrations 
cannot  be  treated  as  a  series  of  sinusoids,  and  yet  the  ear 
hears  tones  in  speech.  Moreover,  the  explosive  tones  from 
the  siren  differ  with  the  character  of  the  explosion.  When 
elliptical  or  triangular  holes  and  mouthpieces  are  used,  the 
resulting  tones  differ  greatly  in  character  with  no  apparent 
presence  of  overtones.^ 

The  range  of  pitch  that  can  be  heard  by  the  ear  is  confined 
between  fairly  definite  limits  ;*  the  lowest  limit  for  a  series 

1  Seebeck,  Beobachtungen  iiber  einige  Bedingungen  der  Entstehung  von  Tonen, 
Ann.  d.  Phys.  u.  Chem.,  1841  LIII 417  ;  Ohm,  Ueber  die  Definition  des  Tones,  nebst 
daran  gelcniipfter  Theorie  der  Sirene  und  dhnlicher  tonbildender  Vorrichtungen, 
Ann.  d.  Phys.  u.  Chem.,  184.3  LIX  497  ;  Seebeck,  Ueber  die  Sirene,  Ann.  d. 
Phys.  u.  Chem.,  1843  LX  449  ;  Ohm,  Noch  ein  Paar  Worte  iiber  die  Definition 
des  Tones,  Ann.  d.  Phys.  u.  Chem.,  1844  LXII  1;  Seebeck,  Ueber  Schwingungen 
unter  Einwirhuny  veranderlicher  Krafte,  Ann.  d.  Phys.  u.  Chem.,  1844  LXII  289  ; 
Cjeber  die  Definition  des  Tones,  Ann.  d.  Phys.  u.  Chem.,  1844  LXIII 353  ;  Ueber  die 
Erzeugung  von  Tonen  durch  getrennte  Eindrilcke,  mit  Beziehung  anf  die  Definition 
<les  Tones,  Ann.  d.  Phys.  u.  Chem.,  1844  LXIII  368. 

^  Helmholtz,  Lehre  v.  d.  Tonempfindungen,  5.  Aufl.,  97,  Leipzig,  1896. 

s  Seebeck,  Ueber  d.  Erzeugung  v.  Tonen  durch  getrennte  Eindriicke,  Ann.  d, 
Phys.  u.  Chem.,  1844  LXIII  37.5. 

*  Sauveuk,  Me'm.  de  I'acad.  roy.  des  sciences,  Paris,  1700,  p.  140 ;  Chladni, 
Akustik,  2,  36,  294,  Leipzig,  1802 ;  Savakt,  Note  sur  la  limite  de  la  perception  des 

7 


98  PERCEPTION  OF  SPEECH 

of  puffs  from  the  siren  depends  on  the  intensity.  A  very- 
low  limit  of  16  to  30  frequency  can  be  reached  by  large  and 
powerful  forks.  The  upper  limit  of  pitch  can  be  determined 
by  striking  bars  or  forks  of  known  frequencies  ^  or  by  the 
Galton  whistle.^  The  ordinary  upper  limit  lies  near  a  fre- 
quency of  30,000  for  moderately  strong  tones ;  ^  it  is  lowered 

sons  graves,  Ann.  de  chim.  et  de  phys.,  1831  XLVIII  69;  Despketz,  Observa- 
tions sur  la  limiie  des  sons  graves  et  aigus,  C.  r.  Acad.  Sci.  Paris,  1845  XX  1214 ; 
Moos,  Beitrag  zur  Helmholtz'schen  Theorie  der  Tonempjindungen,  Archir.  f.  path. 
Anat.,  1864  XXXI  125;  Patholog.  Beobacht.  ilber  d.  Tone,  Arch.  f.  Augen-  und 
Ohrenhk.,  1872  II  (2)  139,  Arch.  f.  Ophth.  and  Otol.,  1873-74  III  113; 
Magnus,  Ein  Fall  von  partieller  Lahmung  des  Corti'schen  Organs,  Archiv  fiir 
Ohrenheilkuude,  1867  II  268;  Pketer,  Ueber  die  Grenzen  der  Tonwahrnehmung, 
Jena,  1876  (also  in  Preter's  Sammlung  physiol.  Abhandlungen,  I  1,  Jena, 
1877)  ;  TuRNBULL,  The  limit  of  perception  of  musical  tones  by  the  human  ear,  Boston 
Medical  and  Surg.  Journ.,  1879  C  741;  Stef.i.nini,  Dell' energia  minima  che  e 
necessaria  a  produrre  la  sensazione  del  suono,  Atti  deUa  r.  Ace.  lucchese, 
1888  XXV  239;  Love,  The  limits  of  hearing,  Journ.  Anat.  Physiol.,  1888 
XXIII  336 ;  Appunn,  Akusliscke  Versuche  ilber  die  Wahrnehmung  tiefer  Tone, 
Jahresb.  d.  Wetterau'schen  Gesellsch.,  1889;  Helmholtz,  Die  Lehre  von  den 
Tonempfindungen,  5.  Aufl.,  290i,  Leipzig,  1896  |  Battblli,  Sur  la  limite  inferieure 
des  sons  perceptibles.  Arch.  Ital.  de  Biol.,  1897  XXVII  202 ;  Schafer,  Die 
Bestimmung  d.  unteren  Horgrenze,  Zt.  f.  Psych,  n.  Phys.  d.  Sinn.,  1899  XXI  161. 

1  KcENiG,  Catalog,  Paris,  1889;  Ann.  d.  Phys.  u.  Chem.,  1899. 

^  Galton,  Inquiries  into  Human  Faculty,  38,  London,  1883 ;  Stu-mpf  iind 
Meyer,  Schwinungszahlbestimmungen  bei  sehr  hohen  Tonen,  Ann.  d.  Phys.  u. 
Cliem.,  1897  LXI  760;  Sohvvendt,  Exper.  Bestimm.  d.  Wellenldnge  u.  Schiving- 
ungszahl  hochster  horbarer  Tone,  Arch.  f.  d.  ges.  Physiol.  (Pfliiger),  1899  LXXV 
346,  also  in  Verb.  d.  naturf.  Ges.  Basel,  1900  XII  149  ;  Edelmann,  Fortschrilte 
in  der  Herstellung  der  Galtonpfeife,  Zt.  f.  Ohrenheilkde.,  1900  XXXVI  330; 
Studien  Uber  d.  Erzeugung  sehr  hoher  Tone  vermittelst  d.  Galtonpfeife,  Ann.  d. 
Phys.  u.  Chem.,  1900  II  469. 

3  Chladni,  Die  Akustik,  24,  Leipzig,  1802;  Sauvedk,  Me'm.  de  I'acad.  roy. 
des  sciences,  Paris,  1700,  p.  140;  Savart,  Notes  sur  la  sensibility  de  I'organe  de 
I'ouie,  Ann.  de  chim.  et  de  phys.,  1830  XLIV  337 ;  Despretz,  Observations  sur  la 
limite  des  sons  graves  et  aigus,  C.  r.  Acad.  Sci.  Paris,  1845  XX  1214;  Schwaktze, 
Totaler  Verlust  des  Perceptionsvermogens  f.  hohe  Tone  nach  hefligem  Schalleindruck, 
Archiv  f.  Ohrenh.,  1864  I  136;  Gottstein,  Ueber  den  feineren  Bau  und  die 
Eutwickelnng  der  Gehorschnecke  beim  Menschen  und  den  Saugethieren,  Bonn, 
1871;  Blake,  Summary  of  the  results  of  experiments  on  the  perception  of  high 
musical  tones,  Trans.  Amer.  Otol.  Soc,  1872-74;  Diagnostic  value  of  high  musical 
tones.  Trans.  Amer.  Otol.  Soc,  1873  118;  Audibility  of  high  musical  tones,  Amer. 
Jonru.  Oto].,  1879  I  274 ;  Burnett,  Ein  Fall  von  verminderler  Horbreite, 
Archiv  f.  Augen-  und  Ohrenheilk.,  1877  VI  238;  Ratleigh,  Acoustical 
observations;  very  high  notes,  Philos.  Mag.,  1882  (5)  XIII  344;  Pauchon,  Sur 
la  limite  superieure  de  perceptibility  des  sons,  C.  r.  Acad.  Sci.  Paris,  1883  XCVI 


PERCEPTION  OF  SOUNDS  99 

for  weaker  tones,^  by  advancing  age,^  etc.  When  the  upper 
limit  is  too  low,  the  perception  of  certain  consonants  is 
defective.^ 

When  two  sinusoid  vibrations  of  the  neighboring  frequen- 
cies n  and  n'  unite,  there  is  a  rise  and  fall  of  the  vibratory 
movement  with  the  frequency  h  =  ±(n—  n'').  These  fluctu- 
ations, or  'beats,'  can  be  readily  heard  by  sounding  two 
neighboring  piano  strings. 

When  the  beats  have  a  sufficiently  high  frequency,  they  are 
heard  as  '  difference  '  tones  *  with  a  frequency  equal  to  the 
difference  between  the  frequencies  of  the  two  primaries.^ 
Helmholtz's  deduction  of  difference  tones  from  the  asym- 
metrical vibration  of  the  tympanum  has  been  shown  to  be 
inconsistent  with  the  facts.^  Four  difference  tones  can 
arise  from  two  simultaneous  tones  under  favorable  con- 
ditions.'^     The  first  has  a  pitch  of   i)^  =  ±  (w  —  «'),  where 

1041 ;  Stumpf,  Tonpsychologie,  I  414,  Leipzig,  1883  ;  Love,  The  limits  of  hear- 
ing, Journ.  Anat.  Physiol.,  1888  XXIII  336. 

1  Blake,  as  before,  1872,  1873  ;  Sckipture  and  Smith,  Experiments  on  the 
highest  audible  tone,  Stud.  Yale  Psj'ch.  Lab.,  1894  II  105. 

2  Blake,  as  before,  1872,  1873  ;  Zwaakdemakek,  Een  Wet  van  ons  Gehoor, 
Ned.  Tydschr.  v.  Geneeskunde,  1890  737  ;  Der  Ver/ust  an  hohen  Tonen  mit  zuneh- 
mendem  Alter,  Archiv  f.  Ohrenheilk.,  1891  XXXII  53. 

"  Moos,  Ueber  das  comblnirte  Vorhommen  mangelhafter  Perception  gewisser 
Consonanten,  sowie  hoher  musikaliscken  Tone  und  deren  physiologische  Bedeutung, 
Arch.  f.  Augen- u.  Ohrenheilk.,  1874  IV  165;  Moos  und  Steibkugge,  Ueber 
Nervenatrophie  in  der  ersten  Schneckenwindung ;  physiologische  und  pathologische 
Bedeutung  derselben,  Zt.  f.  Ohrenheilk.,  1881  X  1. 

*  SoRGE,  Vorgemach  musicalischer  Composition,  Thl.  I,  Cap.  V,  §  5,  Hamburg, 
1745  (this  passage  is  repeated  in  Winkelmann,  Physik,  I,  779,  Breslau,  1891); 
Tartini,  Tratto  di  musica  secondo  la  vera  scienza  dell' armonia,  Padova,  1754. 

*  Hallstrom,  Von  den  Combinationstonen,  Diss.,  1819  ;  also  in  Ann.  d.  Phys. 
u.  Chem.,  1832  XXIV  438;  Helmholtz,  Ueber  CombinationstSne,  Monatsber. 
d.  Berliner  Akad.,  1856,  22  Mai,  279  (reprinted  in  Helmholtz,  Wiss.  Abhand., 
I  256,  Leipzig,  1882);  Ueber  CombinationstSne,  Ann.  d.  Phys.  u.  Chem.,  1856 
XCIX  497  (reprinted  in  Helmholtz,  Wiss.  Abhandl.,  I  263,  Leipzig,  1882); 
Tonempfindungen,  5.  Aufl.,  152  and  Beilage  XII,  Leipzig,  1896. 

^  VoiGT,  Ueber  den  Zasammenklang  zweier  einfacher  Tone,  Nachrichten  d. 
kgl.  Ges.  d.  Wiss.  zu  Gott.,  1890  159;  also  in  Ann.  d.  Phys.  u.  Chem.,  1890 
XL  652 ;  Hermann,  Zur  Theorie  der  CombinationstSne,  Arch.  f.  d.  ges.  Physiol. 
(Pfluger),  1891  XLIX  499. 

'  KKiJGER,  Beobachtungen  an  Zweikldngen,  Philos.  Stud.  (Wundt),  1900 
XVI  325. 


100  PERCEPTION  OF  SPEECH 

n  and  n'  indicate  the  pitches  of  the  two  tones.  The 
second  is  D^  —  ±  (n  —  i>i),  the  third  I)^=±  (^D^  —  2>^}, 
and  the  fourth  i>^  =  ±  (Z>3  —  Dj).  A  fifth  may  even 
occur.  It  is  not  yet  known  if  these  tones  occur  in  vocal 
sounds.  A  summation  tone  s  =  n  +  n'  may  possibly  be 
present.^ 

When  two  tones  are  heard  in  succession  they  may  appear 
to  be  alike  ;  vaguely  unlike ;  unlike  in  pitch,  intensity  or 
quality ;  or  unlike  in  any  two  or  all  three  of  these  properties. 
Very  small  differences  in  one  property  may  be  mistaken  for 
differences  in  another  one,  as  pitch  for  intensity. 

The  average  amount  by  wliich  the  two  tones  must  differ  in 
order  to  be  generallj^  perceived  as  unlike  is  known  as  the  just 
perceptible  difference.  To  determine  the  just  perceptible  dif- 
ference in  pitch,  a  tone  of  a  certain  pitch  is  first  produced,  and 
then  another  of  a  slightly  different  pitch ;  the  hearer  states 
his  judgment  as  to  whether  the  two  tones  are  the  same  or 
different.^  An  apparatus  for  this  experiment  consists  of  two 
forks  of  the  same  pitch,  with  a  small  weight  at  the  middle  of 
one  prong  of  each  fork.  Starting  with  the  weights  at  the 
middle,  whereby  both  forks  give  the  same  tone,  one  of  the 
weights  is  moved  upward  or  downward  by  successive  steps. 
The  forks  are  sounded  alternately.  When  the  difference  is 
large  enough  to  be  perceived,  the  two  forks  are  sounded 
simultaneously,  the  number  of  beats  giving  the  number  of 
vibrations  by  which  they  dijBfer. 

The  dependence  of  the  just  perceptible  difference  on  the 
pitch  of  the  tone  follows  the  general  rule  that  the  just 
perceptible  difference,  expressed  in  vibrations,  is  smallest 
with  low  tones  and  largest  with  high  tones  without  the 
difference  being  very  great,  and  that  within  the  range  of 

1  Helmholtz,  Lelire  v.  d.  Tonempfindungen,  5.  Aufl.,  254,  Leipzig,  1896; 
Keugee,  as  before,  334. 

2  Delezenne,  Mem.  sur  les  valeurs  num^riques  des  notes  de  la  gamine,  Eecueil 
des  travaux  de  la  Soc.  des  Sci.  de  Lille,  1826-27  1  ;  Seebeck,  Ueber  d.  Fdhig- 
keit  d.  GehSrs,  sehr  kleine  Unterschiede  d.  TonhOhe  :u  erkennen,  Ann.  d.  Phys.  u. 
Chem,,  1846  LXVIII  462  ;  Preyer,  Akustische  UntersucUungen,  Jena,  1879. 


PERCEPTION  OF  SOUNDS  101 

the  tones  usually  employed  in  speech  it  remains  practically 
constant.^ 

The  smaller  the  difference  the  greater  is  the  amount  of 
mental  work  required  for  its  detection.  The  amount  of  this 
work  may  be  measured  by  1.  the  minimum  time  required  to 
perceive  the  difference,  2.  the  time  required  to  respond  to 
the  difference,  3.  the  number  of  mistakes  made  in  detecting 
the  difference.  The  first  method  has  been  applied  to  the  dis- 
tinction of  visual  objects ;  the  two  that  are  to  be  distinguished 
are  placed  behind  a  screen  and  exposed  for  a  brief  interval, 
the  interval  being  increased  until  the  difference  is  perceived. 
The  second  method  has  been  applied  to  visual  objects  and  to 
sounds.  For  the  latter,  two  sounds  slightly  differing  in  inten- 
sity or  quality  are  used.  For  one  of  them  the  person  responds 
in  one  way,  for  the  other  in  another  way.  The  number  may 
be  indefinitely  increased.  The  greater  the  number  of  distinc- 
tions required  and  the  smaller  the  differences,  the  longer  the 
time  required.2  For  the  third  method  the  sounds  may  be  given 
in  pairs  irregularly  in  a  series  with  pairs  of  like  sounds.  The 
smaller  the  difference  the  greater  the  number  of  mistakes. 

The  sense  of  hearing  is  able  to  distinguish  continuous  vari- 
ations in  pitch  with  an  accuracy  depending  on  the  pitch  of 
the  tone  varied,  its  loudness  and  the  rate  of  variation.  Starting 
with  the  finger  at  a  certain  place  on  a  violin  string,  we  can 
change  the  pitch  of  the  tone  continuously  by  sliding  it  one 
way  or  the  other. 

Following  some  preliminary  observations,^  the  least  percep- 
tible change  was  investigated  by  Stern.*  The  tone  was 
produced  by  a  current  of  air  blowing  over  the  mouth  of  a 

1  LuFT,  Ueber  die  Vnterschiedsempjindlickkeit  f.  Tonhbhen,  Philos.  Stud.,  1888 
IV  511  ;  Meyek,  Ueber  die  Unterschiedsempjindlichkeit  f.  Tonhohen,  Zt.  i.Fsych. 
n.  Phys.  (1.  Sinn.,  1898  XVI  352. 

-  Summary  of  methods  and  results  in  Wundt,  Physiol.  Psychol.,  4.  Aufl.,  II 
362,  Leipzig,  1893. 

'  ScRiFTDRE,  On  the  least  perceptible  variation  of  pitch,  Amer.  Jour.  Psych., 
1892  IV  580 ;  Ueber  die  Aenderungsempjindlichkeit,  Zt.  f.  Psych,  u.  Phys.  d.  Sinn., 
189+  VI  472. 

*  Stern,  Die  Wahrnehmunq  von  Tonmrdnderungen,  Zt.  f.  Psych,  u.  Phys.  d. 
Sinn.,  1896  XI  1,  1899  XXI  30,  1899  XXII  1. 


102 


PERCEPTION  OF  SPEECH 


bottle  QF,  Fig.  63).  The  change  in  pitch  was  brought  about 
by  mercury  flowing  in  at  the  bottom  of  the  bottle  and  thus, 
by  changing  its  capacity,  raising  its  pitch.  The  mercury  was 
sent  at  a  definite  rate  into  the  bottle  andvariator  F"  together. 
The  variator  had  a  carefully  determined  form,  such  that  the 
rise  of  the  mercury  in  the  bottle  produced  an  even  rise  of  pitch. 
The  various  rates  at  which  the  tone  was  altered  were  produced 
by  different  rates  of  movement  of  the  piston  in  the  reservoir.' 
C.  The  tone  was  begun  and  gradually  raised  in  pitch  until 
the  change  was  detected.     Two  types  of  change  were  used; . 


Fig.  63. 


the  continuous  change  of  pitch  _/~  and  the  intermitted 
change  (or  discrete  difference)  of  pitch  _~.  In  the  former  the 
change  from  the  initial  tone  to  the  final  one  occurred  by  a 
slide  upward  (or  downward)  in-  pitch,  in  the  latter  there  was 
no  sound  in  the  interval.  Different  rates  and  extents  of 
change  were  used  with  the  results :  1.  continuous  changes  were 
more  accurately  perceived  than  the  corresponding  differences  ; 
2.  the  clearness  with  which  the  change  in  pitch  was  perceived 
increased  with  the  actual  extent  of  change  from  the  initial  to 
the  final  tone ;  3.  this  increase  in  clearness  was  greater  for 
continuous  changes  ;  4.  with  continuous  changes  rise  in  pitch 
was  more  clearly  perceived  than  fall  in  pitch,  while  the  fall  in 
pitch  was  remarkably  well  perceived  with  discrete  differences ; 
5.  the  accuracy  of  perception  of  the  likeness  of  two  discrete 
tones  was  much  less  than  that  of  the  constancy  of  pitch  of  a 


PERCEPTION  OF  SOUNDS  103 

continuous  tone ;  6.  the  accuracy  of  perception  of  the  likeness 
of  two  successive  tones  was  less  than  that  of  the  difference  of 
two  successive  tones  ;  7.  the  accuracy  of  perception  increased 
as  the  change  in  pitch  became  slower. 

The  application  of  these  facts  to  the  changes  in  the  cord 
tone  in  speech  is  apparent.  For  example,  the  lack  of  the 
ability  to  perceive  the  variations  that  may  arise  in  a  long 
sound  permits  a  long  vowel  to  gradually  change  its  nature 
and  finally  to  become  a  sound  that  has  an  ending  quite  differ- 
ent from  its  beginning,  that  is,  a  diphthong.  This  is  probably 
the  auditory  factor  that  in  Southern  British  English  permits 
most  long  vowels  to  become  diphthongs  although  the  spelling 
remains  the  same  and  the  diphthongization  is  unconsciously 
done  ;  thus,  '  so '  is  pronounced  as  sou,  '  fate '  as  feit,  etc., 
and  even  long  i  and  long  u  show  similar  tendencies.'^ 

Every  sound  may  be  said  to  have  its  range  of  likeness  or 
its  limits  of  imperceptible  difference.  Thus,  a  tone  may  varj"- 
within  certain  limits  without  anjr  perception  of  its  variation. 
Any  one  of  the  resonance  tones  constituting  a  vowel  may  vary 
in  pitch,  intensity  or  duration  without  a  perception  that  the 
sound  is  different.  Since  each  element  may  change  imper- 
ceptibly in  any  direction  the  timbre,  that  is,  the  vowel  char- 
acter, may  gradually  change  to  a  quite  different  one. 

The  judgments  of  likeness  of  objects  depend  upon  the  coin- 
cidence of  similar  elements.  Two  tones  are  judged  to  be  alike 
in  pitch  if  the  two  sensations  of  pitch  coincide. 

The  judgment  of  likeness  is"  made  with  a  feeling  of  certainty 
that  varies  from  absolute  certaint}''  to  complete  uncertainty. 
One  person  will  feel  absolutely  sure  that  two  tones  are  ex- 
actly alike  in  pitch,  another  will  feel  less  certain  about  it, 
still  another  will  feel  somewhat  doubtful  and  a  third  will  feel 
quite  uncertain,  —  all  of  them  feeling  the  likeness  and  not 
perceiving  any  difference  whatever.  Similar  differences  in 
degree  of  certainty  will  be  felt  by  one  person  on  different 
occasions.  This  judgment  of  likeness  with  different  degrees 
of  certainty  is  quite  different  from  the  judgment  of  closeness 
of  approach  to  likeness  or  of  the  degree  of  unlikeness. 

1  SoAMES,  Introduction  to  Phonetics,  2d  ed.,  48,  London,  1899. 


104  PERCEPTION  OF  SPEECH 

Investigations  on  these  points  are  still  lacking.  They  might 
be  readily  carried  out  with  tones  according  to  the  method  of 
equality  judgments  (or  of  the  so-called  method  of  right  and 
wrong  cases).!  ^he  improved  method  of  computation  gives 
definite  results.^ 

Large  differences  of  pitch  can  be  judged  with  considerable 
accuracy.  Equal  differences  of  frequency  of  vibration  appear 
as  equal  differences  of  pitch.^  For  example,  the  tone  384  is 
selected  as  halfway  between  256  and  512,  or  360  as  half- 
way between  296  and  424,  giving  the  relations  2:3:4  and 
37  :  45  :  53. 

Certain  special  relations  of  pitch  produce  the  musical 
intervals.  The  simpler  intervals  include  the  unison  (1  :  1), 
octave  (1  :  2),  fifth  (2  :  3),  fourth  (3  :  4),  major  sixth  (3  :  5), 
major  third  (4  :  5),  minor  third  (5  :  6),  minor  sixth  (5  :  8), 
minor  seventh  (5  :  9),  major  second  (8  :  9),  major  seventh 
(8  :  15),  minor  second  (15  :  16),  also  the  duodecime  (1  :  3), 
double  octave  (1  :  4),  etc. 

The  musical  intervals  can  be  estimated  with  a  degree  of 
accuracy  that  depends  on  the  individual  and  on  various 
conditions.* 

The  just  perceptible  difference  from  a  simple  interval 
may  be  determined  by  comparing  two  tones,  one  fixed  and 

1  Fechner,  Eleraente  d.  Psychophysik,  2.  Aufl.,  134,  Leipzig,  1889  ;  Mullek, 
Zur  Grundlegung  d.  Psychophysik,  Berlin,  1878;  Wundt,  Grundziige  d. 
physiol.  Psychol.,  4.  Aufl., '348,  Leipzig,  1893. 

2  Bkhns,  Ueber  d.  Ausgleichung  statistischer  ZSMung  in  der  Psychophysik, 
Philos.  Stud.  (Wundt),  1893  IX  1 ;  briefly  indicated  in  Scriptuke,  New  Psy- 
chology, 269,  London,  1897  ;  Mosch,  Zur  Methode  d.  richtigen  u.  falschen  FiUle 
im  Gebiete  d.  Schallempfindungen,  Philos.  Stud.  (Wundt),  1898  XIV  491. 

^  LoKENz,  Untersuchungen  iiber  d.  Auffassung  v.  Tondistanzen,  Philos.  Stud. 
(Wundt),  1890  VI  26  (discussed  in  Zt.  f.  Psych,  u.  Phys.  d.  Sinn.,  1890  I 
419,  1891  II  266;  Philos.  Stud.,  1891  VI  604,  1892  VII  298);  Wundt, 
Grundz.  d.  physiol.  Psychol.,  4.  Aufl.,  463,  Leipzig,  1893. 

*  Deleziennb,  M^m.  sur  les  valeurs  num&iques  des  notes  de  la  gamme,  Eecueil 
des  travaux  de  la  Soc.  des  Sci.  de  Lille,  1826-27  1 ;  Cornu  et  Mercadiek,  Sur 
les  intervalles  musicaux,  C.  r.  Acad.  Sci.  Paris,  1869  LXVIII  301,  424;  Peetek, 
Ueber  d.  Grenzen  d.  Tonwahrnehmung,  38,  Jena,  1876;  Schischmanow,  Unter- 
suchungen iiber  die  Empfindlichkeit  des  Intervailsinnes,  Philos.  Stud.  (Wundt),  1889 
V  558;  Stumpf  tjnd  Meter,  Maassbest immungen  iiber  d.  Reinheit  consonanter 
Intervalle,  Zt.  f.  Psych,  u.  Phys.  d.  Siun.,  1898  XVIII  321. 


PERCEPTION  OF  SOUNDS  105 

the  other  varied,  with  pitch  numbers  corresponding  to  the 
relations  of  frequency  required  by  the  interval.  The  just 
perceptible  difference  increases  generally  in  the  order  of  uni- 
son, octave,  fifth,  fourth,  major  sixth,  major  third,  minor  third, 
major  second,  minor  sixth,  minor  seventh,  major  seventh.^ 
Individual  differences  appear  in  the  intervals  of  the  fourth, 
third  and  sixth.^ 

Related  to  the  just  perceptible  difference  is  the  accuracy 
in  judging  the  exactness  of  an  interval.  It  may  be  deterr 
mined  by  using  one  fixed  and  one  varied  tone  and  requir- 
ing a  judgment  on  each  occasion  concerning  the  correctness 
or  incorrectness  of  the  relation.  This  accuracy  is  nearly 
the  same  for  all  the  usual  musical  intervals.^  An  increase 
in  a  consonant  interval  is  accompanied  by  a  feeling  of  ten- 
sion, sharpness  or  irritation ;  a  decrease  by  one  of  depres- 
sion, shallowness  or  dullness.*  A  slightly  increased  major 
third  (4 :  5  +)  and  a  slightly  decreased  minor  third  (5 :  6  ") 
and  also  a  slightly  increased  octave  (1:2+)  and  fifth  (2 :  3  "•") 
are  preferred  by  the  ear  to  the  exact  intervals.^ 

The  presence  of  overtones  diminishes  the  accuracy  of  judg- 
ment of  intervals ;  this  accuracy  is  the  same  for  the  third,  the 
fifth  and  the  octave ;  there  is  a  general  tendency  to  increase 
the  major  third,  the  fifth  and  especially  the  octave ;  the  inter- 
yals  of  simultaneous  tones  are  much  less  accurately  judged 
than  those  of  successive  tones ;  with  simultaneous  tones  there 
is  a  special  tendency  to  increase  the  interval.^ 

Coinciding  overtones  in  the  consonant  intervals  prob- 
ably have  some  effect  on  their  character.     Most  musical  in- 

1  SCHISCHMANOW,  as  before,  596. 

2  Pkeyee,  as  before,  38. 

3  Stumpf  nND  Meyee,  as  before  ;  Buch,  Veber  die.  Verschmelzung  von  Emp- 
Jindungen,  besonders  bei  Klangeindrildcen,  Philos.  Stud.  (Wundt),  1900  XV  267; 
Faist,  Versuche  iiber  Tonverschmelzung,  Zt.  f.  Psych,  u.  Phys.  d.  Sinn.,  1897  XV 
102 ;  Meinong  und  Witasbk,  Zur  experimentellen  Bestimmung  d.  Tonverschmel- 
zungsgrade,  same,  189. 

*  Planck,  Die  natilrliche  Stimmung  in  der  modernen  Vocalmusik,  Viertelj.  f. 
Musikwiss.,  1893  IX  418 ;  Stumpp  ttnd  Meter,  as  before,  392. 
^  Stumpf  dnd  Meyer,  as  before,  396. 
o  Stumpf  und  Meyer,  as  before,  400, 


106  PERCEPTION   OF  SPEECH 

struments  produce  notes,  or  tone-complexes,  consisting 
of  partials  with  frequencies  in  the  relations  1,  2,  3,  4,  5, 
6,  .  .  Two  notes  with  fundamentals  in  the  relation  1  to 
2  (octave)  will  have  the  partials  f  2  ^  t  ^  s  ^  i  Mo  .  '  :}• 
Two  notes  with  the  relation  2  to  3  (fifth)  will  have  the 
partials  \\^  %  %"  1|  V  fs  "':;J.     The  relation  3   to   4 

rfr^^-,r.^\^\    ryi'Troo      ( 3      6      9   12   15      18      21   24  27    30  ...  I 

(tourth)  gives  jig    12    le  20    24   28   . .  . }  • 

The  other  consonant  intervals  less  than  an  octave  have  less 
and  less  coincidence  of  their  partials,  in  the  order  mentioned 
on  p.  104.  The  coincidence  of  the  overtones  was  assumed  by 
Helmholtz  1  as  the  basis  of  the  feeling  of  gratification  that 
accompanies  consonant  intervals.  The  consonant  intervals 
may  appear  1.  in  a  succession  of  tones,  whereby  the  coincid- 
ing partials  occur  as  repetitions,  or  2.  in  simultaneous  tones, 
whereby  the  coinciding  partials  become  stronger. 

When  two  tones  differing  in  pitch  up  to  about  a  major 
second  are  sounded  together,  the  result  appears  as  a  tone 
of  intermediate  pitch  ^  with  beats.  With  a  great  difference 
in  pitch,  the  result  appears  as  a  combination  of  two  tones. ^ 

The  shortest  time  during  which  a  tone  must  be  produced 
depends  on  whether  it  is  to  be  heard  1.  as  an  indefinite  sound, 
2.  as  a  tone,  or  3.  as  a  tone  of  a  definite  pitch.  The  three 
degrees  of  recognition  involved  in  these  problems  require 
successively  longer  times ;  only  the  second  problem  has  been 
investigated. 

A  sensation  of  tone  can  be  produced  by  a  small  number  of 
tuning  fork  vibrations,*  under  favorable  circumstances  by  1.6, 
for  the  higher  tones,  to  6,  as  the  scale  is  descended ;  ^  or  by 

1  Helmholtz,  Lehre  v.  d.  Tonempfindungen,  5.  Aufl.,  310,  Leipzig,  1896. 

2  Stumpf  und  Metek,  as  before,  321. 
'  Kruger,  as  before,  324. 

*  Maoh,  Physikalische  Notizen,  Lotos,  1873,  23  ;  Exner,  Zu7-  Lehre  u.  d.  Ge- 
hoTsempJindungen,  Arch.  f.  d.  ges.  Physiol.  (Pfliiger),  1876  XIII  228;  Auekb.4.ch, 
Ueher  die  absolute  Anzahl  von  Schwingungen,  welche  zw  Erzeugung  eines  Tones 
erforderlich  sind,  Ann.  d.  Phys.  u.  Chem.,  1879  VI  591 ;  Gelle,  De  la  diire'e  de 
Vexcitation  sonore  n^cesxaire  a  In  perception,  C.  r.  Soc.  de  Biologie,  1886  (8)  III  38. 

5  ScHULZE  in  WuNDT,  Grundziige  d.  physiol.  Psycliol.,  4.  Aufl.,  451,  Leipzig, 
1893. 


PERCEPTION  OF  SOUNDS  107 

a  small  number  of  puffs  of  air,i  the  minimum  being  two 
according  to  most  experimenters.  An  electric  fork  in  front 
of  a  spherical  resonator  can  be  used  to  produce  a  simple  tone, 
which  can  be  carried  to  the  ear  in  a  distant  room  by  a  rubber 
tube.  A  stopcock  in  the  tube  can  be  made  to  turn  on  the 
sound  for  a  definite  time.^  The  shortest  audible  vowels  have 
never  been  determined.  The  experiment  might  be  made 
in  a  similar  way  or  by  closing  the  secondary  circuit  for  definite 
intervals  while  a  vowel  is  being  transmitted  by  a  telephone 
from  a  talking  machine. 

Sounds  enter  consciousness  more  or  less  gradually.  The 
tone  rises  suddenly  to  near  its  maximum  and  then  increases 
gradually  for  some  time.  A  tone  c  increases  in  its  intensity 
for  about  48  vibrations,  a  tone  e~^  for  about  44  vibrations.^ 
Weak  sounds  may  require  even  V  to  2°  to  reach  the  maximum.* 

A  sound  persists  in  consciousness  after  the  external  vibra- 
tion has  ceased.  If  a  tone  is  produced  for  a  very  short  time 
at  stated  intervals,  the  tone  actually  heard  will  be  a  little 
longer  in  proportion  to  the  silence  than  is  the  case  physi- 
cally. If  the  silences  are  now  made  successively  smaller,  the 
moment  will  come  when  the  persistence  of  the  tone  will 
cover  the  physical  silence  and  the  sound  will  no  longer 
be  heard  as  interrupted  but  as  continuous.  A  fork  giving  the 
desired  tone  is  kept  in  vibration  electrically  before  its  coiTe- 

1  Pfaundler,  Ueher  d.  geringste  Amahl  v.  Schallimpulsen,  welche  zur  Hervor- 
bringimg  eines  Tones  nOthig  ist,  Sitzber.  d.  k.  Akad.  d.  Wiss.  Wien,  math.- 
naturw.  Kl.,  1879  LXXVI  2.  Abth.,  561;  Kohlkausch,  Ein  Beitrag  zur 
Kenntniss  der  Empfindlichkeit  des  Gehorsinnes,  Ann.  d.  Phys.  u.  Chem.,  1879  "VII 
335  ;  Ueber  Tone,  die  durch  eitie  begrenzte  Aii-ahl  von  Impulsen  erzeugt  werden,  Ann. 
d.  Phys.  u.  Chem.,  1880  X  1 ;  Cross  and  Maltby,  On  the  least  number  of  vibra- 
tions necessary  to  determine  pitch,  Proc.  Amer.  Acad.  Arts  and  Sci ,  1891-92,  222  ; 
Herroun  and  Gerald,  Note  on  the  audibility  of  single  sound  waves,  and  the  num- 
ber of  vibrations  necessary  to  produce  u  tone,  Proc.  Eoy.  Soc.  Lond.,  1802  L  318  ; 
Abraham  und  BRnuL,  Wahrnehmung  kiirzester  Tone  und  Gerdusche,  Zt.  f.  Psych. 
u.  Phys.  d.  Sinn.,  1898  XVIII  176. 

^  ScHiJLZE,  as  before. 

'  ExNEK,  Zur  Lehre  v.  d.  GehSrsempJindungen,  Arch.  f.  d.  ges.  Physiol. 
(Pfluger),  1876  XIII  234. 

*  UreantschitSOH,  Ueber  d.  An-  und  AbJclingen  alcustischer  Empfindungen, 
Arch.  f.  d.  ges.  Physiol.  (Pfluger),  1881  XXV  323. 


108  PERCEPTION   OF  SPEECH 

spending  resonator  (p.  14)  ;  a  disc  with  openings  in  it  at 
regular  intervals  revolves  between  them.  From  the  smaller 
end  of  the  resonator  a  tube  leads  to  the  ear,  the  other  ear 
being  closed.  The  sound  can  reach  the  ear  onlj'  when  one 
of  the  openings  is  opposite  the  fork.  The  disc  is  revolved  at 
a  constantly  increasing  rate  till,  instead  of  a  succession  of 
sounds,  the  tone  of  the  fork  is  heard  as  a  continuous  sound.^ 
When  this  occurs,  each  sound  must  persist  mentally  in  nearly 
full  intensity  long  enough  to  fill  the  silent  physical  interval. 
The  time  can  be  calculated  from  the  speed  of  the  disc.  These 
intervals  as  determined  by  Mayer  were  for  c~^,  0.0395' ;  c", 
0.0222«;  c\  0.0142";  g\  0.0098';  c\  0.0076';  e^,  0.0065';  g"^, 
0.0060' ;  c^,  0.0055'.  Starting  with  an  interval  so  short  that 
the  tone  appeared  unbroken  and  increasing  it  until  it  appeared 
of  irregular  intensity,  Urbantschitsch  found  this  interval  to 
vary  from  0.012'  for  low  tones  to  0.006'  for  high  ones.^  This 
would  indicate  the  minimum  time  necessary  in  order  to  pro- 
duce a  tremolo  effect.  High  tones  are  relatively  louder 
to  the  ear  than  low  ones  ;  for  equally  loud  tones  the  time 
of  persistence  is  probably  constant.^ 

Measurements  might  profitably  be  made  of  the  perceptibil- 
ity of  speech  elements  as  judged  by  the  minimum  time  they 
must  last  in  order  to  be  recognized.  The  methods  would  be 
analogous  to  those  used  for  printed  letters.* 

When  two  tones  are  alternated  as  in  a  trill,  they  must  each 
last  at  least  about  0.03'  in  order  to  be  heard  with  the  trill 
effect ;  the  figure  remains  nearly  the  same  for  all  regions  of 

1  Matek,  Acoustical  investigations  :  I.  Determination  of  the  law  connecting  the 
pitch  of  a  sound  with  the  duration  of  its  residual  sensation,  Amer.  Jour.  Sci.,  1874 
VIII  241  ;  A  redetermination  of  the  law  connecting  the  pitch  of  a  sound  with  the 
duration  of  its  residual  sensation,  Amer.  Jour.  Sci.,  187.5  IX  267. 

2  Urbantschitsch,  Ueber  das  An-  und  Ahklingen  akustischer  Empfndungen, 
Arch.  f.  d.  ges.  Physiol.  (PaUger),  1881  XXV  .323. 

^  Abraham,  Ueber  d.  AbUingen  v.  Tonempjjndungen,  Zt.  f.  Psych,  u.  Phys.  d. 
Sinn.,  1899  XX  417. 

*  Cattell,  Ueber  d.  Trdgheit  d.  Netzhaut  u.  d.  Sehcentrums,  Pliilos.  Stud. 
(Wundt),  1886  III  94;  Sanfobd,  The  relative  legibility  of  small  letters,  Amer. 
Jour.  Psychol.,  1888  1  402;  Javal,  Rev.  scientifique,  1881  XXVII  802;  sum- 
mary in  Scripture,  New  Psychology,  Ch.  VI,  London,  1897. 


PERCEPTION   OF  SOUNDS  109 

the  scale  and  for  all  differences  of  pitch  between  the  tones.^ 
A  succession  of  notes  can  be  heard  when  each  tone  lasts  at 
least  0.03^ 

The  energy,  or  the  physical  intensity,  of  a  sound  wave  is 
defined  as  the  work  done  by  it  in  passing  through  a  unit  sur- 
face in  a  unit  time.  It  is  directly  proportional  to  the  square 
of  the  amplitude  and  inversely  to  the  square  of  the  period  (or 
directly  to  the  square  of  the  frequency).^ 

The  relation  between  the  energy  and  the  mental  intensity 
is  not  a  simple  one.  Under  constant  conditions  a  tone  of 
a  given  frequency  will  increase  and  decrease  in  apparent 
loudness  as  its  physical  intensity  increases  and  decreases. 
The  relation  is  fairly  well  expressed  by  saying  that  the  mental 
intensity  varies  as  the  logarithm  of  the  physical  intensity,^ 
a  relation  that  has  been  established  for  certain  tones.*  The 
exact  expression  of  the  relation  is  /  =  C  Ig  U,  where  I  is  the 
intensity  of  the  sensation,  U  the  physical  intensity  of  a  tone 
of  a  certain  pitch,  and  O  a  personal  constant,  and  where  Ig 
indicates  the  logarithm  with  the  basis  e  (natural,  not  Beiggs's 
logarithm).  It  is  not  known  if  this  relation  holds  true  when 
tones  of  different  pitches  are  compared. 

The  faintest  audible  degrees  of  tones,  noises  and  speech 
sounds  can  be  determined  with  considerable  accuracy  by  the 
differential  audiometer.  This  is  a  development  from  the  in- 
duction balance.®  A  secondary  coil  S  (Fig.  64)  connected  to 
a  telephone  T  is  placed  between  two  oppositely  wound  pri- 
mary coils  PP  in  series  with  each  other  and  a  microphone  M 
(transmitter).  A  current  is  sent  from  a  battery  (the  figure 
.shows  a  lamp  battery  DU  in  connection  with  the  dynamo  cir- 

^  Abraham  und  Schafer,  Ueber  d.  maximah  Geschwindigkeit  v.  Tonfolgen, 
Zt.  f.  Psych,  u.  Phys.  d.  Sinn.,  1899  XX  408. 

2  Rayleigh,  Theory  of  Sound,  II  17,  §  245,  London,  1899. 

^  Fechner,  Elemente  der  Psychophysik,  2   Aufl.,  Leipzig,  1889. 

'  WiEN,  Ueber  die  Messung  der  Tonstdrke,  Diss.,  Berlin,  1888;  also  in  Ann.  d. 
Phys.  u.  Chem.,  1889  XXXVI  8.34. 

*  Hughes,  On  an  induction-currents  balance,  and  experimental  researches  made 
therewith,  Proc.  Royal  See.  Lond.,  1879,  May  \b;  reported  in  Nature,  1879 
-XX  77, 


no 


PERCEPTION  OF  SPEECH 


cuit)  through  the  primary  coils  PP.  Sounds  entering  the 
microphone  M  cause  fluctuations  and  interruptions  of  the  cur- 
rent in  the  primary  coils  PP,  whenever  the  circuit  is  closed 
at  K.  If  the  secondary  coil  S  is  placed  near  one  of  them, 
the  sound  will  be  heard  in  the  telephone  T.  As  the  second- 
ary is  moved  away  from  the  primary,  the  sound  decreases, 
becoming  zero  at  the  middle  where  the  effects  of  the  pri- 
maries neutralize  each  other.  A  scale  showing  the  distance 
of  the  secondary  coil  from  the  middle  can  be  used  to  indicate 
degrees  of  intensity  of  the  sound ;  the  intensity  is  not  pro- 


Fis.  64. 

portional  to  the  distance.  Pressure  on  the  key  K  closes  the 
primary  circuit  and  sets  the  audiometer  in  operation.  With 
a  constant  source  of  current  the  measurements  on  different 
occasions  may  be  made  comparable.  The  figure  shows  an 
ammeter  G-  for  testing  the  current  and  a  resistance  R  for 
regulating  it;  the  microphone  should  be  short-circuited  when 
this  is  done.  The  ammeter  can  be  short-circuited  when  the 
audiometer  is  being  used.  By  means  of  a  phonograph  or 
gramophone  record  in  fixed  connection  with  the  transmitter 
the  initial  sounds  may  be  kept  constant.  The  telephone  of 
the  audiometer  may  be  placed  in  a  distant  room  so  that  the 
person  tested  is  in  no  way  disturbed.     This  instrument  has 


PERCEPTION  OP  SOUNDS  111 

not  yet  been  applied  to  the  study  of  speech,  although  it  would 
furnish  accurate  measurements  of  the  audibility  of  speech 
sounds  singly  and  connectedly  under  the  most  varied  condi- 
tions of  enunciation.  For  ordinary  tests  of  hearing  the 
microphone  is  omitted  and  clicks  are  produced  in  the  tele- 
phone by  closures  at  K. 

A  less  accurate  method  of  determining  the  faintest  audible 
sound  consists  in  removing  the  source  of  the  sound  to  different 
distances.  Accurate  but  rather  complicated  methods  of 
measuring  the  intensities  of  tones  have  been  devised  by 
WiEN  1  and  Sharps.  2 

The  faintest  audible  tone  of  the  frequency  240  was  deter- 
mined by  WiEN  with  his  special  apparatus.  Its  energy 
amounted  to  0.068'"'°'^,  which  means  that  the  energy  of  the 
air  vibration  striking  the  tympanum  was  equal  to  the  energy 
represented  in  a  weight  of  l"s  falling  through  0.068'"'  (/tt/i  = 
millionth  part  of  a  millimeter,  mg  =  milligram). 

The  just  perceptible  difference  in  intensity  varies  propor- 
tionately with  the  loudness  of  the  tone  ^  or  the  noise.* 

Among  the  other  mental  properties  of  sounds  the  objec- 
tivity and  the  emotional  tinge  may  be  mentioned.  The  objec- 
tivity of  a  tone  is  a  property  expressing  the  degree  to  which 
we  consider  the  tone  not  to  belong  to  ourselves.  A  tone 
produced  in  imagination,  as  in  mentally  singing  a  score,  has 

1  WiEN,  Ueher  d.  Messung  d.  Tonstarke,  Diss.,  Berlin,  1888;  also  in  Ann.  d. 
Phys.  u.  Chem.,  1889  n.  F.  XXXVI  834. 

^  Shakpe,  a  double  instrument  and  u.  double  method  for  the  measurement  of 
sound,  Science,  1899  N.  S.  IX  808. 

2  WiEsr,  as  before. 

*  VoLKMANN  in  Pechner,  Blemente  d.  Psychophysik,  2.  Aufl.,  I  479, 
Leipzig,  1889;  Renz  und  Wolf,  Versuche  iiber  d.  Unterscheidung  differenter 
Schallstarken,  Arch.  f.  physiol.  Heilk.,  1856  XV  185;  Tischeb,  Ueber  die  Un- 
terscheidung von  Schallstarken,  Philos.  Stud.  (Wundt),  1883  I  495;  Mekkel,  Das 
psychophysische  Grundgesetz  in  Bezug  auf  Schallstarken,  Philos.  Stud.  (Wundt), 
1888 IV  117,  251  -.Die  Abhangigkeitzw.  Reizu.Empfindung,Fhilos.  Stud.  (Wuudt), 

1888  IV  541,  1889  V  245,  499;  Starke,  Die  Messung  von  Schallstarken,  Philos. 
Stud.  (Wundt),  1886  III  264  ;  ZumMassder  Schallstdrke,  Fhilos.  Stud.  (Wundt), 

1889  V  157;  Angeli,,  Untersuchungen  iiber  d.  Schdizung  von  Schallintensitdten, 
Philos.  Stud.  (Wundt),  1892  VII  414;  Kampfe,  ^Be^Vr.  zur  exper.  PrUfung  d. 
Methode  d.  richt.  u.falschen  Falle,  Philos.  Stud.  (Wundt),  1893  VIII  511. 


112  PERCEPTION  OF  SPEECH 

almost  no  objectivity ;  it  is  attributed  to  our  innermost  self. 
Tones  actually  sung  by  ourselves  are  more  objective ;  those 
sung  by  others  are  highly  objective,  though  even  here  the 
degree  of  objectivity  increases  with  the  strangeness  of  the 
singer,  the  distance,  etc.  It  is  quite  possible  that  the  degree 
of  objectivity  depends  closely  on  the  action  of  the  muscles 
connected  with  the  voice  and  on  the  sounds  heard  by  the  ear. 
Even  in  internal  song  and  speech  the  vocal  organs  execute 
minute  movements,  which  can  be  registered.^  Weak  move- 
ments with  no  sounds  heard  would  mean  little  objectivity. 
Stronger  movements  as  in  actual  singing  and  speaking  with 
sounds  heard  would  have  more  objectivity.  Sounds  heard 
when  no  movements  are  made  by  ourselves  would  have 
more  nearly  complete  objectivity. 

The  sound  mass  that  we  experience  at  any  moment  is  gener- 
ally resolved  by  us  mentally  into  groups  of  sounds ;  thus,  in 
the  music  of  an  opera  we  attribute  certain  portions  to  the 
singer,  others  to  the  violins,  others  to  the  horns,  etc.  Much 
of  this  analysis  can  be  attributed  to  the  results  of  past  experi- 
ences ;  the  analysis  of  tone  complexes,  however,  seems  to  be 
a  fundamental  process.  The  nature  and  laws  of  the  mental 
analjrsis  are  still  experimentally  uninvestigated  and  little  can 
be  said  beyond  the  facts  obtainable  by  unaided  observation. 

References 

For  the  psychology  of  tone  and  noise :  Wundt,  Grundziige  d.  physiol. 
Psychol.,  4.  Aufl.,  Leipzig,  1893  ;  Stumpf,  Tonpsychologie,  Leipzig,  1883. 

For  acoustical  apparatus:  Koenig,  Paris.  For  magnetic  markers: 
Pf.tzold,  Leipzig ;  Zimmermann,  Leipzig ;  Vekdix,  Paris.  For  the 
Galton  whistle  :  Edelmann,  jMUnchen. 

^  CnKTis,  Automatic  movements  of  the  larynx,  Amer.  Jour.  Psychol.,  1900  XI 
237. 


CHAPTER   IX 

PERCEPTION   OP    SPEECH   ELEMENTS 

Each  individual  has  a  system  of  auditory  habits  in  the 
sense  that  the  various  speech  sounds  are  more  or  less  familiar 
to  his  ear.  These  auditory  habits  are  intimately  connected 
with  his  habits  of  speech.  Just  as  the  latter  have  been  termed 
the  'basis  of  articulation  '  (Sievbrs  ^),  so  the  former  may  be 
called  the  '  basis  of  aural  perception '  (Oeetel^)  ;  the  united 
system  of  habits  may  be  expressed  by  the  term  '  basis  of 
speech,'  or  '  phonetic  basis.'  Each  individual  has  his  own 
phonetic  basis.  The  bases  of  the  members  of  a  community 
are  closely  alike,  and  we  may  speak  of  the  phonetic  basis  of 
a  community.  In  like  manner  the  various  languages  may 
each  be  said  to  have  its  peculiar  phonetic  basis. 

Just  what  vocal  sound  is  perceived  by  the  ear  depends 
largely  on  the  sensitiveness  to  differences  (p.  100)  and  on  the 
past  sounds  that  are  most  familiar.  A  perfectly  strange 
language  appears  to  a  great  extent  as  a  murmur  of  indefinite 
sounds ;  it  is  only  by  familiarity  with  definite  sound-groups 
that  the  ear  learns  to  recognize  the  separate  sounds.  Finer 
discrimination  usually  occurs  only  when  the  vocal  organs  are 
used  to  imita,te  the  sounds,  and  the  results  of  a  person's  own 
efforts  are  compared  with  the  sounds  imitated.  The  finest 
discrimination  occurs  when  special  training  is  directed  to  it. 

The  experiments  of  Muller  and  Pilzecker  ^  in  learning, 
by  seeing  and  speaking,  various  series  of  syllables,  each  with  a 

1  SiEVERS,  Grundz.  d.  Phonetik,  4.  Aufl.,  105,  Leipzig,  18S3. 
^  Oertel,  Lectures  on  the  Study  of  Language,  241,  New  York,  1901. 
"  MiJLLER  vmD  Vn^zECK.E'R,  Experimentelle  Beitrage  zur  Lehre  vom  Gedacktniss, 
Zt.  f.  Psychol,  u  Physiol,  d.  Sinn.,  1901,  Ergiinzungsband  I,  247. 

8 


1  14  ,  PERCEPTION  OF  SPEECH 

vowel  between  two  consonants,  showed  that  the  best  remem- 
bered (or  most  impressive)  sounds  were  the  vowels,  then  the 
initial  consonants,  then  the  final  consonants ;  that  for  persons 
who  learned  mainly  by  the  ear  the  German  vowels  and  diph- 
thongs appeared  in  the  following  order  of  decreasing  effec- 
tiveness, oi,  oe,  i,  ai,  62  («A),  y,  au,  o,  a,  e^  {eh),  a,  u,  depending 
evidently  on  their  acoustic  impressiveness  and  on  their  impres- 
siveness  through  relative  lack  of  frequency  in  speech ;  that 
for  persons  not  inclined  to  ear-learning  the  order  of  decreasing 
effectiveness  was  a,  Cj,  ai,  au,  y,  a,  o,  ce,  oi,  e^,  i,  u ;  that  for 
the  former  class  the  order  for  the  final  consonants  was  s,  p, 
z,  m,  t,  f,  X  or  c,  n,  1,  r,  k,  s ;  and  for  the  latter  class  s,  x  or  c, 
z,  p,  n,  1,  t,  s,  k,  f,  m,  r ;  that  no  regular  arrangement  of 
impressiveness  could  be  made  for  the  initial  consonants. 
These  seem  to  be  the  only  experiments  yet  made  on  what  we 
may  venture  to  call  the  '  acoustic  impressiveness  of  vocal 
sounds ; '  the  investigation  should  be  extended  on  account  of 
its  important  bearings  on  the  methods  of  teaching  language 
and  on  the  study  of  speech  changes ;  the  methods  of  experi- 
menting are  described  in  Ch.  XIV  below. 

Just  as  the  intensity  of  a  sound  diminishes  with  the  dis- 
tance from  its  source,  so  does  the  amount  of  the  just 
perceptible  difference  change  also  for  some  reason  when 
weak  speech  sounds  are  heard  at  different  distances.  The 
relative  distances  at  which  the  average  ear  can  perceive  and 
distinguish  various  German  speech  sounds  under  average 
conditions  have  been  approximately  determined  by  Wolp.i 
The  vowel  a  is  heard  furthest ;  then  at  decreasing  distances 
there  follow  o,  ai,  e,  i,  au,  u,  s,  m,  n,  s,  f,  k,  t,  r,  b  and  h. 

"When  whispering  sounds  so  that  at  8™  none  could  be 
understood  by  a  listener,  Rotjsselot^  found  by  steadily  de- 
creasing the  distance  that  at  a  little  less  than  8"  i  was  heard ; 
at  7.2""  ka  was  heard ;  at  7""  ga  was  heard  as  ka  but  weaker ; 

1  Wolf,  Neue  Untersuchungen  ilber  HSrprufung  und  HSrstSrungen,  Arch.  f. 
Augen-  u.  Ohreuheilk.,  1873  III  (2)  35. 

2  EoussELOT,  Les  modifications  phon^tiques  du  lungage,  38,  Rev.  des  pat. 
gallo-rom.,  1891   IV,  V;   also  separate. 


PERCEPTION  OF  SPEECH  ELEMENTS  115 

at  6""  u ;  at  G.SS™  za  and  sa  as  sa ;  at  6.10™  ba  and  pa  as  ba ; 
at  5"  a ;  at  5.62"  ta  ;  at  5.46"  da  as  weaker  ta,  ba  and  pa  as 
pa ;  at  5.15"  sa  and  za  as  sa ;  at  5"  za  distinct  from  sa ;  at 
4.90"  fa ;  at  4.68"  va  as  weaker  fa ;  after  3"  e  as  i  or  e  ;  at 
2"  ma  as  pa  or  ba  ;  also  at  2"  e  distinct  from  i ;  also  at  2" 
o,  oe,  na,  la,  ra ;  at  1"  ma  ;  also  at  1"  pa  always  distinct ;  at 
0.50"  u,  va  as  fa  or  va  ;  at  0.25"  ba  and  pa  almost  completely 
distinct,  fa  always  distinct,  va  nearly  always  correctly,  da 
distinct ;  at  0.10"  ga  almost  always  correctly,  ba,  pa,  fa,  va, 
ta,  da  always  distinct ;  at  0.05"  ga  with  perfect  clearness ; 
even  with  the  lips  at  the  ear  sa  and  za  indistinct. 

With  an  ordinary  voice  such  that  no  sound  was  clear  at 
9.60"  RousSELOT  found  that  the  hearer  understood  a,  e,  i, 
o,  y,  at  9" ;  pa,  ka,  ta  at  8.55™  ;  ba,  sa,  sometimes  sa,  rarely 
fa  at  7.10" ;  sa  and  fa  very  distinctly  at  7" ;  da,  ma,  na  at 
6" ;  za,  ga  at  5.70" ;  za  at  5.50" ;  va,  u,  ce  at  5". 

The  property  of  speech  sounds  illustrated  by  the  experi- 
ments of  Wolf  and  Rousselot  I  venture  to  term  their 
'  acoustic  penetration.'  These  two  isolated  sets  of  results 
for  particular  voices  on  particular  occasions  furnish  sugges- 
tions for  systematic  investigations  of  the  penetrative  power 
of  the  various  sounds  of  a  given  language,  qf  a  given 
speaker  or  singer,  of  given  conditions  of  mind  and  body, 
and  of  given  methods  of  speaking;  and  of  various  national 
habits  of  speech  perception,  of  various  habits  of  listening,  etc. 
In  future  investigations  it  may  be  found  advisable  to  use  a 
phonograph  or  gramophone  as  a  constant  source  of  sound, 
and  also  to  use  the  audiometer  method  of  weakening  it 
(p.  109). 

The  perception  of  a  sound  is  greatly  influenced  by  associa- 
tive suggestions.  Elements  are  unconsciously  modified,  sup- 
pressed or  created.  Even  hallucinations  of  weak  tones  sup- 
posed to  be  physically  present  can  be  readily  produced  in 
nearly  all  normal  individuals  by  appropriate  suggestions  from 
the  surroundings.^    The  suggestive  influence  of  phonetic  habits 

1  Seashore,  Meanurements  of  illusions  and  hallucinations  in  normal  life,  Stud. 
Yale  Psych.  Lab.,  1895  III  1. 


116  PERCEPTION   OF  'SPEECH 

is  marked  in  causing  sounds  to  be  heard  differently.  Rous- 
selotI  relates  that  his  sister  heard  mo°povpjare  'mon 
pauvre  Pierret '  quite  correctly,  but  heard  popovpo  as 
popofpo,  the  V  appearing  as  f  before  p  when  there  was  no 
suggestion  from  the  meaning.  A  record  of  the  sounds  noted  in 
an  attempt  by  various  Germans  at  recording  some  French  words 
at  dictation  showed^  effects  of  suggestion  from  the  native 
language  such  as  to  produce  r9V3ne,  revni  and  rgvne  for  rvani, 
par  for  pa,  etc.  Innumerable  examples  have  been  reported 
in  studies  of  the  speech  of  children  and  of  the  attempts  of 
persons,  tribes  and  nations  to  acquire  foreign  words.^ 

Associative  suggestion  can  be  used  to  increase  the  accuracy 
of  perception  of  sounds.  Rotjssblot,*  after  two  months  of 
careful  phonetic  observation,  perceived  for  the  first  time  the 
differences  between  the  speech  of  his  mother  and  that  of  him- 
self, and  noted  that  a  regular  progression  in  change  of  dialect 
could-  be  heard  in  the  speech  of  father,  son,  and  grandson 
every  time  he  was  able  to  get  together  the  members  of  a  family; 
and  also  that  steps  of  phonetic  change  occurred  from  village 
to  village.  A  specimen  of  this  latter  form  of  change  is  found 
in  the  pronunciations  of  '  lapin '  in  various  neighboring  vil- 
lages in  France  :  lape"  (Dinan),  jape"  (St.  Carn^),  ]ape° 
(Meillac),  lapi"  (Corseul),  lapcs  (Quessoy),  lapa°5  (Mon- 
contour),  lapea  (Pl^n^e-Jugon),  lape"  (Cesson). 

The  faults  of  perception  may  be  illustrated  by  a  series  of 
tests  made  on  530  pupils  of  presumably  somewhat  varied 
nationalities  in  a  Boston  public  school.^  The  ages  ranged  from 
8  to  14  ;  only  5  were  found  to  be  somewhat  deaf  to  the  sound 
of  a  tuning  fork.  The  records  for  a  series  of  spoken  mono- 
syllables included  the  following  specimen  results  : 

'  fan  '  was  recorded  as  :  fan  (511  times),  than  (5),  fair  (4),  thank 
(3),  fell  (2),  —  (2),  clams  (1),  fang  (1),  sam  (1)  ; 

1  RoussELOT,  Les  modifications  phon^tigues  du  langnge,  40,  Rev.  des.  pat. 
gallorom.,  1891  IV,  V;  also  separate. 

2  RoossELOT,  Principes  de  phonetique  expe'rimentale,  37,  Paris,  1897. 
'  Oeetel,  Lectures  on  the  Study  of  Language,  242,  New  York,  1901. 
*  RoussELOT,  Principes  de  phondtique  expe'i-imentale,  43,  Paris,  1897. 
^  WiLTSE,  Experimental,  Amer.  Jour.  Psych.,  1888  I  702. 


PERCEPTION  OF  SPEECH  ELEMENTS  117 

'log'  was  recorded  as:  log  (434),  love  (66),  —  (10),  flog  (3), 
dog  (3),  cock  (2),  long  (1),  lo  (1),  lack  (1),  lawl  (1),  lord  (1), 
lull  (1),  lock  (1),  lough  (1),  loud  (1),  lode  (1),  glove  (1),  bog 
(1),  bare  (1)  ; 

'long'  was  recorded  as:  long  (497),  —  (11),  lawn  (4),  log  (3), 
loan  (3),  lamb  (2),  alarm  (1),  arm  (1),  kong  (1),  lung  (l),lant 
(1),  length  (1),  lur(l),  love  (1),  lone  (1),  laugh  (1); 

'  pen '  was  recorded  as  :  pen  (386),  hen  (48),  pan  (47),  hand  (13), 
ham  (5),  pain  (4),  pine  (3),  pail  (3),  head  (2),  paper  (1), 
paint  (1),  pear  (1),  pland  (1),  can  (1),  han  (1),  land  (1),  ream 
(1),  ten  (1),  then  (1)  ; 

'  dog '  was  recorded  as  :  dog  (519),  dug  (3),  dove  (3),  dod  (1), 
dollie  (1),  god  (1),  dull  (1)  ; 

In  order  to  furnish  any  useful  information  such  results 
must  be  carefully  analyzed.  This'  analysis  cannot  be  based 
upon  the  printed  forms  and  the  conventional  orthography, 
but  upon  the  actual  pronunciationSj  It  is  sounds  not  letters 
which  must  be  classified.  The  record  of  '  fan '  would  show 
the  following  apparent  representati^  of  the  three  sounds  f, 
ae,  n  which  make  up  the  word: 

f  is  reflected  518  times  by  f,  5  times  by  3,  3  times  by  6, 
once  by  s,  once  by  kl;  ae  is  reflected -522  times  by  ae, 
four  times  by  ae,  twice  by  e ;  n  is  reflected  516  times  by 
n,  4  times  by  r  or  a,  3  times  by  T|k,  twice  by  1,  and  once 
each  by  t],  m,  and  mz.  '■ ' 

But  a  careful  consideration  of  these  results  will  show  that  the 
sounds  which  reflect  f,  ae  and  o,  are  by  no  means  always  due 
to  a  faulty  perception  of  these  sounds.  Many  times  the  child 
had  evidently  missed  the  sound  altogether,  and  substituted 
for  it  some  other  sound  which,  together  with  the  other  sounds 
heard,  would  make  a  word.  Such  cases  of  sound-substitution 
are  entirely  different  from  those  where  a  sound  is  misheard. 
In  '  than  '  for  '  fan  '  we  have  undoubtedly  a  lapsus  auris  (the 
reverse  of  that  which  transformed  '  Theodor '  in  Russian  into 
'  Fedor, '  and  vulgar  English  '  nothing  '  into  '  nuffin  ').  In 
'  clams '  for  '  fan '  f  was  not  misheard  as  kl ;  the  child  un- 


118  PERCEPTION  OF  SPEECH 

doubtedly  heard  only  the  meaningless  sound  aen  which  called 
up  the  sound-memory  of  '  clams  '  and  this  was  written  down. 

Carefully  gathered  results  of  this  kind  would  indicate  ap- 
proximately the  relative  likenesses  of  the  sounds  used  to  the 
wrongly  heard  sounds.  The  errors  in  perception  show  some 
curious  resemblances  to  the  errors  of  child-speech  and  to  his- 
torical phonetic  changes.  Further  investigation  of  such  phe- 
nomena is  highly  desirable. 

The  perception  of  a  speech  sound  depends  on  the  ability  to 
produce  it.  Children  and  foreigners  do  not  hear  the  inac- 
curacies of  their  own  pronunciations.  Stammering  children 
often  reach  an  advanced  age  without  discovering  their  defect; 
some  come  to  the  laryngologist  for  cure  because  they  find  their 
speech  unintelligible  to  others  although  they  do  not  perceive 
any  peculiarities  in  their  own  sounds.  A  case  is  known  of 
a  young  man  with  a  falsetto  voice  who  had  never  perceived 
the  peculiarity. 

A  speech  sound  produced  by  an  individual  is  the  result  of 
a  very  large  number  of  fine  adjustments  of  the  speaking 
apparatus  influenced  by  an  infinitude  of  past  and  present  ex- 
periences in  hearing,  thinking  and  speaking.  The  sound 
varies  from  moment  to  moment  and  from  one  occasion  to  an- 
other. With  sufficiently  accurate  methods  of  measurement 
no  two  sounds  would  be  found  alike ;  the  variations  are 
limited  by  the  ability  to  perceive  the  differences. 

Owing  to  the  inaccuracies  of  sensation,  sounds  in  close  suc- 
cession may  differ  without  the  difference  being  perceived. 
Owing  to  the  inaccuracies  of  movement,  sounds  intended 
to  be  alike  will  differ  from  each  other.  Owing  to  the 
increase  of  variation  in  action  and  in  the  least  perceptible 
difference  in  hearing  when  sounds  are  repeated  at  increasing 
intervals,  they  may  on  different  occasions  differ  widely 
although  considered  to  be  the  same.  Records  of  different 
individuals  show'  that  language  elements  supposed  to  be 
identical  are  often  notably  different  within  the  same  dialect 

1  JossELYN,  Etiide  sur  la  phon&iqm  italienne,  172,  These,  Paris,  1900;  also 
in  La  Parole,  1901  III  251. 


PERCEPTION  OF  SPEECH  ELEMENTS  119 

and  that  the  same  language  element  is  often  pronounced  in 
very  different  ways  by  the  same  individual. 

With  the  formation  of  habits  the  vocal  organism  (mental, 
nervous  and  muscular)  acts  within  a  steadily  decreasing  range 
of  variation.  With  the  repetition  of  an  auditory  stimulus 
the  range  of  variations  unnoticed  by  the  sense  of  hearing 
becomes  more  limited.  With  a  source  of  comparison,  such  as 
a  phonograph  record  or  the  speech  of  a  person  or  of  a  com- 
munity, the  individual  keeps  the  more  closely  to  an  average 
in  reproduction  the  more  carefully  and  repeatedly  he  makes 
his  comparisons.  These  factors  tend  to  maintain  a  sound  at 
a  constant  average,  and,  in  case  of  a  steadily  progressing 
change,  to  keep  like  sounds  changing  likewise  under  the 
same  or  different  conditions. 

The  following  cases  may  serve  to  illustrate  different  phases 
of  the  interaction  of  sensory  and  motor  variation. 

The  deficiencies  in  perceiving  the  details  of  words  ami  in 
associating  the  proper  movements  show  themselves  in  the  use 
of  wrong  sounds  among  those  that  can  be  produced  correctly. 
The  records  of  my  own  child  at  16  months  showed :  seek  for 
sup  '  soup,'  although  p  appeared  in  bapa  and  pun  for  papa 
'papa'  and  spun  'spoon; '  baka  for  bata  'butter'  and  wa- 
wa  for  WDta,  although  t"  was  frequently  used.  The  failure  to 
perceive  initial  sounds  appeared  in  aet  for  haet  '  hat ; '  when 
haet  was  spoken  with  an  exaggerated  h,  the  result  was  gaet. 
An  exaggerated  perception  of  the  explosives  appeared  in 
kaetk  for  kset '  cat,'  hotk  for  hot '  hot ; '  doka  and  doga  for  dog 
"  dog.'  Mistaken  perceptions  of  sonancy  occurred  in  zuga  for 
suga  '  sugar,'  gam  for  kam  '  come.'  The  use  of  the  glottal 
catch  instead  of  t  occurred  many  times  in  mu  for  mit '  meat ; ' 
the  sound  of  >  was  distinct  from  that  of  t  and  the  action  of 
the  glottal  catch  could  be  felt  by  the  finger  over  the  larynx. 
The  child  had  never  heard-  a  glottal  catch.  At  later  dates 
some  of  these  errors  were  perceived  ;  thus  mit  for  mit  was 
used  along  with  mi>,  and  wawa  often  corrected  spontaneously 
to  wota.  At  18  months  he  used  oloba  for  olova  '  all  over ' 
and   kuXit  for   kulit  '  cool   it '  (spoken  with  the   Z-mouill^ 


120  PERCEPTION  OF  SPEECH 

which  he  had  never  heard),  although  he  could  use  v  and  1  in 
veigud  'very  good'  and  labmama  'love  mamma.' 

When  a  group  of  fairly  constant  sounds  is  heard  repeatedly, 
there  is  a  tendency  to  hear  any  slightly  different  sound  as  one 
of  the  constant  group.  This  is  favored  by  the  indefiniteness 
of  any  sound  owing  to  the  size  of  the  just  perceptible  differ- 
ence for  each  of  its  elements  and  the  indefiniteness  of 
remembered  sounds.  This  phenomenon  may  be  termed  '  the 
identification  of  similar  sounds.'  The  processes  of  assimi- 
lation of  neighboring  sounds  that  occur  regularly  in  language 
are  permitted  by  the  lack  of  distinction  of  difference  in  the 
results.  Thus  in  twenti  '  twenty  '  the  w  has  become  partly 
devocalized  on  account  of  the  greater  ease  in  speaking  it  in 
this  way ;  the  change  is  permitted  by  the  failure  of  the  ear 
ordinarily  to  detect  it.  A  similar  example  is  paedzs  for  paedz 
'  pads' '  before  a  pause  or  a  voiceless  sound. 

JossELYN  reports  the  case  of  a  friend  with  a  good  musical 
ear  who  insists  that  his  own  tlu  tlgks  tlaen  does  not  differ 
from  the  klu  klaks  klaen  which  he  hears  and  that  both  begin 
with  k ;  in  these  words  he  makes  1  merely  a  lateral  surd  ex- 
plosion of  the  t  and  fails  to  notice  the  lack  of  the  proper 
k-explosion  and  the  loss  of  sonancy  in  the  1. 

The  ear  may  fail  to  notice  a  gradual  lengthening  of  the  rush 
of  air  at  the  end  of  an  explosive,  which  arises  from  gradually 
increasing  slowness  in  moving  the  tongue  or  lips.  The 
occlusives  thus  become  aspirated  ^ ;  and  the  aspirate  may  de- 
velop into  an  independent  sound.  For  example,  t->t^->^th,  as 
seen  in  French  to"  'ton,'  German  t'^on  'ton,'  Danish  thui^a 
'  tange.'  If  the  channel  is  made  farther  forward  in  the  cavity 
of  the  mouth,  the  rush  of  air  produces  a  fricative  consonant 
instead  of  an  h.  The  character  of  the  fricative  varies  accord- 
ing to  the  place  of  stricture.  Danish  thuiig  '  tunge  '  may  thus 
become  tsuiia,^  a  development  parallel  to  the  second  German 
sound-shifting.  The  affricatee  may  further  be  simplified  to 
simple  spirants,  ts->^s  .     The  whole  development  arises  from 

1  Storbi,  Englische  Philologie,  2.  Aufl.,  74,  Leipzig,  1892. 
^  Storm,  as  before,  74. 


PERCEPTION    OF  SPEECH  ELEMENTS  121 

the  tendency  to  an  alteration  in  muscular  action  permitted 
by  the  failure  of  the  ear  to  distinguish  the  successive  stages  of 
tlie  change.  In  this  way  t->t^-^th^tB-+ts^ss-+s.  Thus  the 
original  word  that  appears  in  English  as  tel  '  tell '  appears  in 
Danisli  as  thalg  and  with  further  development  in  German  as 
tselan.  Likewise  to  the  English  hit  'heat'  corresponds 
German  hitsg  '  hitze '  and  to  hot  '  hot '  the  German  hais 
'  heiss.' 

The  conscious,  semi-conscious  or  unconscious  distinction  of 
differences  is  a  form  of  mental  work,  the  repetition  of  the  same 
sound  involving  less  perceptive  stimulation  than  a  series  of 
different  sounds.  The  '  harmony  of  the  vowels '  in  some  lan- 
guages seems  favored  by  auditory  as  well  as  by  motor  econ- 
omy. In  these  languages  the  vowels  in  a  word  must  belong 
to  the  same  group  or  must  be  the  same,  except  in  so  far  as 
other  influences  are  at  work.^  For  example,  in  Hungarian  the 
hard  vowels  form  one  group  and  the  soft  vowels  another; 
the  language  establishes  a  principle  of  vowel-harmonj^,  ac- 
cording to  which  in  general  only  vowels  of  the  same  class 
may  occur  in  a  word.^  This  principle  requires  in  many  cases 
two  kinds  of  sufBx  for  the  same  meaning:  'hd,zn^l,'  at  the 
house  ;  '  kertn^l,'  at  the  garden ;  '  irnak,'  they  write ;  '  k^rnek,' 
they  ask.  Similar  requirements  of  vowel-harmony  appear 
in  Finnish,  Northern  Turkish  and  other  languages  of  the 
Ural-Altaic  group.  Sporadic  examples  occur  in  the  Arian 
languages ;  Heraclean  x"^P"'^°'^  corresponds  to  Homeric 
')^epaBo'i,  in  Latin  nihil  stands  for  *nehil.  In  alimentum 
and  monumentum  the  vowels  i  and  u  respectively  are  de- 
termined by  the  color  of  the  vowel  in  the  preceding  syl- 
lable, a  and  o.^  In  the  French  and  Canadian  dialectic 
forms  klerte  =  '  clart^ '  and  serite  =  '  charitd  '  the  change 
appears  to  be  due  to  harmonic  assimilation  of  the  first  vowel 

1  References  in  Passy,  Changements  phon&iques,  186,  Thfese,  Paris,  1891. 

2  Balassa,  Phonetik  d.hmgarischen  Sprache,  Inter.  Zt.  f.  allg.  Sprachw.,  1889 
IV  I.M. 

**  Brugmann,  Grundriss  der  vergleichenden  Grammatikder  indogermanischen 
Sprachen,  I  2.  Halfte,  2.  Aufl.,  835  §  962  f.,  Strasburg,  1897. 


122  PERCEPTION  OF  SPEECH 

to  the  last  one.  Consonant  harmony  is  not  unusual.  It 
occurs  in  isolated  cases  in  the  colloquial  forms  of  all  lan- 
guages,^ as  well  as  constantly  in  infant  speech. 

It  has  been  shown  by  Laclotte  ^  that  the  tongue  movements 
used  in  producing  a  vowel  affect  not  only  the  preceding  con- 
sonant but  also  the  vowel  before  that  consonant.  The  ten- 
dency to  assimilate  the  articulations  for  the  former  of  two 
vowels  to  those  for  the  latter  may  be  an  impulse  toward  unity 
of  character,  but  such  an  impulse  must,  I  believe,  be  favored 
and  developed  by  the  ear  in  order  to  be  effective. 

The  unconscious  desire  to  avoid  the  labor  of  perceiving  a 
difference  may  be  one  reason  why  the  two  portions  of  a  diph- 
thong often  show  a  tendency  to  assimilation.  Sometimes  the 
second  portion  approaches  the  former  in  character  and  is  ab- 
sorbed by  it :  thus  ai^a  in  Old  English  '  stan ; '  ei->^e  in  Swed- 
ish and  Danish  '  sten.'  Sometimes  the  latter  portion  prevails ; 
thus  ei,  oi,  ei  and  ui  have  all  become  i  in  Modern  Greek 
pronunciation.  Sometimes  the  two  elements  of  a  diphthong 
approach  each  other  in  character  and  form  a  vowel  of  inter- 
mediate character ;  thus  au  of  Latin  '  aurum '  has  become  o 
in  Spanish  'oro'  and  French  'or;'  French  ai  is  regularly 
pronounced  e. 

To  lighten  the  work  of  distinguishing  among  sounds  that 
resemble  one  another  small  differences  may  be  exaggerated 
or  like  sounds  may  be-  made  different.  These  phenomena 
may  take  part  in  the  development  of  diphthongs  out  of  long 
vowels.  The  diphthongization  started  by  any  cause  per- 
mitted to  act  on  account  of  the  inability  to  perceive  varia- 
tion is  exaggerated  as  soon  as  the  vowel  is  felt  —  even 
dimly  —  to  be  a  diphthong  that  must  be  pronounced  in  that 
way.  This  usually  affects  the  first  portion  most;  often  it 
ultimately  becomes  a  quite  different  vowel;  thug  hus  -> 
hous  -*  haus  '  house  ; '  rim  ->  reim  ->  raim  '  rime.'  These 
changes  are  complicated  by  motor  factors,  but  the  motor 
adjustments  are  governed  largely  by  the  ear.     Such  phenom- 

1  Passt,  as  before,  189. 

2  Laclotte,  L'karmonie  vocalique,  La  Parole,  1899  I  177. 


PERCEPTION  OF  SPEECH  ELEMENTS  123 

ena  as  the  tendency  of  English  long  vowels  to  become  open 
may  be  mainly  or  entirely  due  to  auditory  preferences  and  not 
to  motor  habits;  observations  on  the  deaf  might -be  of  value 
here. 

The  result  of  the  neglect  of  some  differences  and  the 
exaggeration  of  others  has  been  stated  by  Passy  to  be  that 
'language  tends  constantly  to  bring  into  prominence  what 
is  necessary.' 1  It  sometimes  favors,  sometimes  opposes  an- 
other principle,  that  of  ease  of  speaking.  Both  are  prin- 
ciples of  economy;  from  a  psychological  point  of  view  the 
former  might  be  called  that  of  'perceptive  economy,'  the 
other  that  of  '  motor  economy.'  Perceptive  economy  re- 
quires not  only  the  suppression  of  needless  distinctions  but 
also  the  emphasis  of  needful  ones. 

Closely  connected  with  the  variations  in  perception  are  the 
changes  in  memory.  Variations  of  the  same  sound  fuse  to 
the  same  auditory-motor  memorj'-  image  ;  the  memory  images, 
with  their  indefiniteness  and  their  progressive  changes,  are 
the  important  factors  of  many  speech  changes.  Thus,  the 
general  change  of  initial  t  to  ts  in  Old  High  German  prob- 
ably arose  from  the  change  of  initial  t  to  ts  when  followed  by 
i  or  e  ;  this  brought  with  it  the  change  of  initial  t  in  tu  and 
to  on  account  of  the  union  of  all  t's  in  one  memory-image.^ 

The  gradual  changes  in  the  general  speech  of  a  commu- 
nity, a  family  or  an  individual  are  brought  about  by  internal  or 
external  factors  causing  a  shifting  of  the  general  average  of 
the  sounds  within  the  limits  of  the  just  perceptible  difference. 

The  unnoticed  variations  in  pronunciation  are  factors  of 
change  in  language.  They  are  particularly  effective  in  the 
language  of  children  whose  peculiarities  of  speech  are  largely 
due  to  deficient  perception  of  sounds  and  their  combinations, 
to  incomplete  and  erroneous  associations  with  sounds  in 
memory,  to  imperfect  control  over  the  vocal  organs  and  to 
incorrect  associations  between  the  sounds  heard  from  others, 

1  Passy,  as  before,  227. 
'    2  Kabsten,  Sprecheinheiten  u.  deren  Rolle  in  Lautwandel  u.  Laulgesetz,  Trans. 
Mod.  Lang.  Assoc.  Amer.,  1890  III  190;  also  in  Phonet.  Stud.,  1890  III  5. 


124  PERCEPTION  OF  SPEECH 

the  movements  made  by  themselves  and  the  sounds  of  their 
own  speech.  Such  variations  cannot,  however,  furnish  an 
adequate  explanation  for  the  historical  changes  of  speech 
sounds,  for  the  variability  in  articulation  cannot  be  regarded 
as  the  cause  of  a  phonetic  change.  It  must  be  regarded 
rather  as  the  condition  under  which  certain  changes  are  per- 
mitted to  take  place.  The  ultimate  causes  for  such  changes 
must  be  sought  elsewhere.  Variability  of  articulation  can- 
not work  a  change  unless  all  deviations,  or  at  least  a  large 
majority  of  them,  are  in  one  direction.  The  force  or  forces 
which  turn  them  into  the  same  direction  are  the  real  causes 
for  the  change.^ 

Some  of  the  causes  of  phonetic  changes  are  certainly  purely 
auditory,  others  are  purely  motor,  many  are  due  to  phe- 
nomena of  association  and  memory;  on  nearly  every  point, 
however,  experimental  data  are  still  lacking  although  it 
would  nofc  be  difficult  to  devise  methods  of  investigation. 
As  a  guide  for  future  work  we  may  assume  the  principle  of 
the  unified  nature  of  the  human  constitution.  In  its  applica- 
tion to  an  individual  this  principle  would  lead  us  to  expect  to 
find  in  speech  and  language  the  more  or  less  modified  pro- 
cesses that  appear  in  other  activities.  Thus,  as  instinctive 
economy  shows  itself  in  every  form  of  perception  (visual, 
tactual),  in  every  form  of  thought  (scientific,  literary),  and 
in  every  activity  (writing,  manual  labor),  we  can  with  confi- 
dence assume  its  action  in  speech  and  language.  Again,  the 
modification  of  effort  as  the  speed  is  increased,  which  is  a 
form  of  economy,  must  appear  in  speech  because  it  appears 
in  all  mental  activities.  Numerous  other  laws  of  human 
activity  are  to  be  looked  for  in  the  study  of  speech  for  the 
same  reason.  In  regard  to  various  individuals  and  communi- 
ties our  fundamental  principle  entitles  us  to  expect  as  much 
agreement  in  general  with  variation  in  particulars  as  we  find 
in  anatomical,  physiological  and  psychological  work. 

The  facts  summarized  in  this  chapter  suggest  various  ap- 
plications  to   the   methods   of   learning   foreign   languages: 

1  Oertel,  Lectures  on  the  Study  of  Language,  103,  246,  269,  New  York,  1901. 


PERCEPTION  OF  SPEECH  ELEMENTS  125 

1.  the  value  of  training  of  the  sense  of  hearing  to  perceive  (at 
first  consciously  and  then  sub-consciously)  the  fiaer  distinc- 
tions among  speech  elements  in  spite  of  their  associations 
with  other  sounds ;  this  may  be  done  by  direct  auditory  train- 
ing in  distinguishing  differences  (p.  116),  by  aid  from  produc- 
ing the  sound  (p.  118),  by  records  of  vocal  movement  (Part 
III),  etc.  :  2.  the  training  of  the  sense  of  hearing  to  correctly 
perceive  and  distinguish  complexes  of  sounds  as  wholes 
without  noticing  the  elements;  this  may  be  done  by  using 
words,  phrases,  etc.  in  the  ways  just  suggested. 

References 

For  summary  of  the  phenomena  of  sound  change :  Passy,  Change- 
ments  phonetiques,  Ch.  Ill,  Paris,  1891 ;  Paul,  Principien  der  Sprach- 
gesohichte,  Ch.  Ill,  Halle,  1898 ;  Sweet,  History  of  English  Sounds, 
Oxford,  1888;  History  of  Language,  Ch.  Ill,  New  York,  1901;  Oertel, 
Lectures  on  the  Study  of  Language,  Lect.  Ill,  New  York,  1901. 


CHAPTER   X 

SPEECH   IDEAS 

The  current  of  thought  in  consciousness  varies  in  its 
density  from  moment  to  moment.  The  regions  of  less 
density  may  be  used  to  divide  off  parts  of  greater  density ; . 
such  portions  of  greater  density  are  what  we  usually  term 
'  ideas,'  or  '  thoughts.'  Each  denser  portion  of  the  speech 
current  in  consciousness  is  an  *  auditory  idea  'or  —  as  a  matter 
of  speech  —  a  'phonetic  unit.'  A  word  is  sometimes  said  to 
be  the  expression  of  one  idea ;  this  is  probably  always  true 
for  disconnected  words.  In  connected  speech,  however,  an 
idea  is  usually  expressed  by  several  words.  Thus,  in  the 
phrase  '  I,  said  the  fly,  with  my  little  eye '  in  a  gramophone 
record  of  a  recitation  of  Cock  Rohin'^  the  idea  '  I '  is  followed 
by  the  complex  idea  '  said  the  fly,'  the  subordinate  idea  '  with ' 
and  the  single  idea  '  my  little  eye.'  In  the  last  case  the 
thought  in  the  mind  of  the  speaker  was  evidently  a  particular 
eye;  the  fact  of  its  being  'mine,'  and  of  its  being  'little' 
were  only  dimly  present  and  really  served  only  to  make  up 
the  details  of  the  picture.  The  words  of  this  group  can 
be  heard  to  run  together;  in  the  tracing  from  the  plate 
there  was  no  break  in  the  vibrations  of  the  speech  curve. 
The  group  '  my  little  eye '  was  evidently  a  phonetic  unit. 
If  by  a  '  word '  we  understand  the  group  of  sounds  or  letters 
usually  considered  as  a  linguistic  unit,  this  phonetic  unit 
consisted  of  several  words.  The  fusion  of  words  into  pho- 
netic units  appears  often  in  the  mistakes  of  foreigners  and 

1  Scripture,  Researches   in  experimental  phonetics  (first  series),  Stud.   Yale 
Psych.  Lab.,  1889  VII  35. 


SPEECH  IDEAS  127 

children.  l^Its  applications  to  the  laws  of  phonetic  change 
have  been  pointed  out  by  Jespeesen.^  i 

It  is  to  be  noted  that  the  term  '  word '  is  ordinarily  used  in 
an  inconsistent  and  arbitrary  fashion.  Thus  '  another '  is  one 
word  and  '  a  different '  two,  '  city  hall '  always  two  words, 
'  railway '  one  word,  'street  car '  two, '  Newhaven  '  in  England 
one,  '  New  Haven '  in  America  two,  etc.,  although  in  each  of 
these  cases  only  one  phonetic  unit  is  present.  The  com- 
pounding of  words  that  occurs  in  German  makes  them  more 
closely  represent  phonetic  units.  '  Versicherungsgesellschaf t ' 
and  '  insurance  company '  both  indicate  one  idea ;  both  are 
spoken  with  no  pause  ;  the  English  division  into  two  words 
is  merely  a  matter  of  typography.  '  Versicherungsgesell- 
schaftsgebaude  '  and  '  building  of  the  insurance  company '  are 
likewise  psychologically  identical  though  typographically 
different.  German  compounds  are  in  no  way  longer  than  or 
different  from  English  ones  except  in  being  written  and 
printed  without  spaces.  In  both  languages  the  accent  is  the 
unifying  element,  distinguishing  in  English,  for  instance,  the 
compound  '  blackbird '  from  the  two  independent  words 
'  black  bird.' 

A  '  phonetic  unit '  in  the  meaning  in  which  I  have  used 

the  term  is  to  be  distingviished  from  a  '  phonetic  element.' 

QCabsten  ^  considers  that  in  each  language  we  are  to  assume 

/single  sounds  for  such  simplest  sound-memories  as  we  can 

prove  to  exist ;  thus  the  two  Roumanian  forms  of  t  indicate 

that  at  a  previous  time  two  memory-groups  of  t  must  have 

arisen  from  the  single  Latin  memory-group.      SuchP  single 

sounds  may  properly  be  called  'phonetic  elements.'    ^Both 

;  terms, '  phonetic  unit '  and  '  phonetic  element,'  are  psychologi- 

'  cal  ones  ; )  the    '  phonetic  element '  is  the  simplest  (possible 

'  phonetic    unit '    that  can   be  proved    to    exist,  while    the 

'  phonetic  unit '  is  a  synthesis  of  elements  that  varies  on  each 

occasion.     In  like  manner  it  may  be  possible  to  define  words 

1  Jespeksen,  Zur  Lautgesetzfrage,  Int.  Zt.  f.  allg.  Sprachw.,  1887  III  193. 

2  ICaksten,  Sprecheinheiten  u.  deren  Rolle  in  Lautwandel  u.  Lautgesetz,  Trans. 
Mod.  Lang.  Assoc.  Amer.,  1890  III  195  ;  also  in  Phonet.  Stud.,  1900  III  9. 


128  PERCEPTION  OF  SPEECH 

as  such  combinations  of  phonetic  elements  as  can  be  proven 
to  have  independent  existence  in  memory.^ 

It  may  be  considered  as  well  established  that  printed  words 
are  perceived  in  wholes  as  ideograms  and  not  as  combinations 
of  letters.  In  this  respect  English  words  are  not  to  be  dis- 
tinguished from  Chinese  characters,  and  they  are  often  not 
inferior  to  them  in  complexity  and  useless  adornment.  We 
may  —  I  believe  —  even  go  further  and  say  that  groups  of 
words  ordinarily  form  single  ideograms,  the  undistinguished 
elements  acting  to  produce  a  combination  of  marks  of  suffi- 
cient peculiarity  to  arouse  a  certain  idea.  Finally,  it  is 
doubtless  true  that  complexes  of  sounds  in  words  or  phrases 
act  also  as  ideograms.  ^^This  ideographic  characteristic  of  a 
word  is  indicated  by  several  facts.  It  takes  no  more  time  to 
recognize  a  short  printed  word  than  to  recognize  one  of  its 
letters. 2  Among  the  phenomena  of  aphasia  it  has  sometimes 
been  noticed  that  '  entire  words  are  read  more  promptly  than 
the  letters  composing  them '  and  that  '  words  which  were  read 
correctly  were  spelled  wrongly,'  the  patient  often  attempting 
from  the  sound  of  the  perceived  word  to  guess  at  the  spelling 
although  he  had  the  letters  before  him.  Experiments  by 
GoLDSCHBiDER  and  MiJLLBE  3  showed  that  the  perception 
of  certain  determining  letters  was  sufficient  for  the  recogni- 
tion of  the  word.  Eedmann  and  Dodge*  have  shown  that 
words  may  be  perceived  under  conditions  that  exclude  any 
perception  of  the  single  elements. 

In  experiments  to  determine  the  amount  of  change  in  a 
printed  word,  used  as  an  ideogram,  that  might  be  made  with- 
out a  change  in  the  perceived  Avord,  Pillsbtjry^  exposed 
words  containing  various  misprints.     An  omitted  letter  was 

■  Kaksten,  as  before. 

2  Oattell,  Ueber  d.  Trdgheit  d.  Netzhaut  und  d.  Sehcentrums,  Philos.  Stud. 
(Wundt),  1886  III  97. 

8  GoLDSCiiETDER  UND  MiJi.LEE,  ZuT  Psychologie  u.  Pathologic  des  Lesens, 
Zt.  f.  klin.  Med.,  1894  XXIII  130. 

«  Ekdmanx  und  Dodge,  Psychologische  Untersuclrangen  iiber  das  Lesen  auf 
exper.  Grundlage,  Halle,  1898. 

<>  PiLLSBUKY,  The  reading  of  words,  Amer.  Jour.  Psychol.,  1897  VIII  333. 


SPEECH  IDEAS  129 

most  often  noticed,  a  wrong  letter  less  and  a  blurred  letter 
least.  The  characterless  blur  of  a  mutilated  letter  furnished 
more  suggestive  material  for  the  mind  to  make  into  the 
correct  one  than  a  wrong  letter  did ;  an  omitted  letter  altered 
the  picture  of  the  syllable.  Thus,  '  shabbilw  '  briefly  exposed 
was  read  as  '  shabbily '  and  associated  with  the  word  '  gen- 
teelly,' the  subject  declaring  that  he  saw  the  word  spelled 
'  shabbily.'  '  Eaxth '  was  read  as  '  earth,'  '  fashxon '  as 
*  fashion,'  '  cotton '  as  '  custard,'  '  ordnary '  as  '  ordinary,'  etc. 

The  same  phenomenon  occurs  even  when  the  word  is 
left  exposed  indefinitely.  I  have  found  the  following  cases 
in  some  experiments  on  the  association  of  ideas.  The  word 
shown  (indicated  by  small  capitals)  aroused  generally  a 
visual  association  (likewise  indicated)  or  a  motor  word  (in- 
dicated by  small  letters).  The  records  included  :i  beruf 
—  brief  [before  the  word  was  fully  recognized]  —  beruf- 
stand  —  berufstiichtigkeit ;  KARA  vane —  [at  first  read  as] 
KRAVATE  —  karavane  —  afrika,  absicht  —  arbeit  [because 
only  beginning  and  end  noticed].  Closely  related  to  this  is 
the  involuntary  completion  of  a  word  as  in  the  case  :  the  — 
THEE  —  [a  feeling  that  this  is  incorrect]  —  the  door.  Similar 
cases  have  been  observed  by  Cordes.'"'  The  word  Scholk 
appeared  at  once  to  the  subject  as  schalk  with  the  con- 
sciousness that  something  else  was  present;  the  word  im- 
perative appeared  as  imperator  before  the  word  was  read 
to  the  end. 

The  effect  of  preceding  suggestions  on  the  perception  of 
words  has  been  noticed  by  Munsterberg  ^  and  Pillsbury.* 
For  example,  the  word  '  lid '  was  called  out  just  before  the 
letters  '  xover '  were  shown  for  an  instant  too  brief  for  read- 
ing them ;  the  subject  supposed  that  he  saw  the  word '  stove.' 

1  Scripture,  Ueher  d,  associativen  Verlauf  d.  Vorstellungen,  Philos.  Stud. 
<Wundt),  1891  VII  5-1. 

2  CoKDES,  Exper.  Untersuchungen  iiber  Associationen,  Philos.  Stud.  (Wundt), 
1901  XVII  66. 

s  MiJNSTERBERG,    Studien  zur  Assoc iationslehre,    Beitrage    zur    experimen- 
tellen  Psychologie,  1892  IV  20. 
4  PiLLSEURY,  as  before. 


130  PERCEPTION  OF  SPEECH 

The  word  '  small '  called  out  beforehand  caused  '  greal '  to 
Be  read  as  'small,'  the  letters  supposed  to  be  seen  being  'mal.' 
The  most  striking  characteristics  of  the  whole  word  (or  ideo- 
gram) are  perceived  and  begin  to  bring  up  some  internal 
word  with  the  rest  of  the  idea  of  which  it  is  a  component. 
This  internal  word  contains  many  visual  elements  that  often 
suffice  to  complete  a  defective  visual  word,  or  even  to 
modify  it.  '  If  A,  is  seen  as  the  second  letter  in  a  word,  it  is 
associable  with  s  or  t,  among  others,  for  the  first  letter.  If 
the  form  of  the  word  and  some  other  letter  suggest  that  the 
word,  as  a  whole,  is  should  rather  than  though,  the  sh  con- 
nection will  be  effective.'  ^  The  condition  of  mind  largely 
determines  how  the  perceived  outline  is  completed. 

That  the  perception  of  printed  words  does  not  occur  by 
letters  or  always  even  by  single  words  is  a  fact  clearly  shown 
by  visual  lapses,  or  misreadings.  The  phenomena  are  familiar 
to  everj'  one  ;  a  careful  collection  of  cases  has  been  made  by 
Meringee  and  Mayee.^  The  following  typical  forms  have 
been  noted :  1.  exchanges  of  neighboring  words  ('  zu  viel ' 
for  '  viel  zu  ')  or  of  near  sounds  (zoka  for  koza)  ;  2.  anticipa- 
tions of  words  ('  des  Brutus  Casar  Liebe  zum  Casar '  for  '  des 
Brutus  Liebe  .  .  .')  or  of  sounds  (' verspateter '  for  'verpes- 
teter,'  '  tanzen  sahe  '  for  '  tanzen  sahe')  ;  3.  postpositions  of 
words  and  syllables  (seldom  or  never  except  in  disease)  or  of 
sounds  ('  er  wiirschet  euch  zu  sehn'  for  '  er  wiinschet  .  .  .') ; 

4.  rearrangements    (  '  weiberfrucht  '    for    '  weiberfurcht  '  )  ; 

5.  omissions  of  words  [common]  and  syllables  ('  abhangen ' 
for  '  abzuhangen  ')  or  of  sounds  ('  stet '  for  '  stets)  '.  Many  of 
the  other  misreadings  observed  by  Meeinger  and  Mayer 
were  due  to  other  causes  than  union  in  visual  perception. 

Observations  on  the  misunderstandings  of  auditory  words 
show  that  the  vowel  of  the  root  syllable  and  the  vowels  in 
general  are  most  often  heard  correctly  while  the  consonants 
(especially  the  initial  ones)  are  often  heard  wrongly.^     '  Feld 

1  PiLLSBUKT,  as  before. 

2  Mekingek  nND  Matek,  Versprechen  und  Verlesen,  100,  Stuttgart,  1895. 
"  Mekinger  und  Mater,  as  before,  157. 


SPEECH  IDEAS  131 

im  Meere '  was  understood  for  '  Feld  in  Mahren,'  '  Vetter 
aus  Kroke  '  for  '  Vetter  aus  Chikago,'  '  Htihner  isst '  for 
'  jiinger  ist,'  '  Bahnen '  for  '  Vulkane.' 

Bagley^  made  phonograph  records  of  mutilated  words 
(a)  used  without  context,  (5)  used  with  one  or  two  related 
words,  (c)  used  at  the  beginning  of  a  complete  sentence,  (jT) 
used  in  the  middle  of  a  complete  sentence,  (e)  used  at  the  end 
of  a  complete  sentence.  The  mutilations  consisted  in  omis- 
sion of  an  initial,  medial  or  final  consonant;  for  example, 
'  the  book  was  put  a-ide, '  '  the  siege  was  interrupted  by  a 
tru— . '  The  observer  was  instructed  to  listen  to  the  sentence 
as  reproduced  and  to  repeat  it  to  the  operator,  who  recorded 
it  as  given  by  the  observer,  noting  the  errors.  Baglby 
draws  the  following  conclusions  concerning  the  perception  of 
auditory  words  : 

1.  In  monosyllabic  words  the  elision  of  the  initial  conso- 
nant affects  perception  more  than  the  elision  of  the  iinal 
consonant. 

2.  When  a  word  is  given  with  one  or  two  related  words, 
the  chances  for  its  correct  perception  (that  is,  perception  of 
the  word  in  spite  of  the  mutilation)  are  increased  by  82%  as 
compared  with  the  chances  without  context. 

3.  When  the  mutilated  words  are  placed  in  a  sentence 
instead  of  being  isolated,  the  chances  for  correct  perception 
are  remarkably  increased. 

4.  In  the  middle  of  a  complete"  sentence  there  is  a  signifi- 
cant increase  in  the  chances  of  correct  perception  as  compared 
with  the  chances  at  the  beginning. 

5.  The  position  most  favorable  for  correct  perception  is  at 
the  end  of  the  sentence. 

6.  Elision  of  p,  t,  k,  b,  d,  g  works  the  greatest  injury  to 
the  perception  of  a  mutilated  word ;  elision  of  w,  r,  1,  j  the 
least  (vowels  not  considered). 

7.  The  mutilated  word  with  context  is  not,  as  a  rule,  filled 
out  at  once  by  aid  of  the  sounds  contained  in  it  but  by  the 

'  Baglet,  Apperception  of  the  spoken  sentence,  Amer.  Jour.  Psychol.,  1900 
XII  80. 


132  PERCEPTION  OF  SPEECH 

idea  of  the  correct  word  aroused  by  associations  derived  from 
the  context.  Thus,  with  '  the  matter  is  a  function  of  ti — 
and  space  '  one  observer  perceived  '  ti —  '  as  '  tide  '  but  sub- 
stituted '  time  '  by  association  with  '  space ; '  with  '  wri-ing 
in  pain,  he  called  for  help  '  one  observer  supplied  '  writhing  ' 
after  perceiving  '  pain. ' 

It  may  be  suggested  that  auditory  words  and  phrases  form 
'  ideophones  '  just  as  printed  ones  form  '  ideograms.'  The 
further  distinctions  may  be  made  of  ideograms  and  ideophones 
into  sensory  (visual  words  and  auditory  words)  and  motor 
ones  (written  words  and  spoken  words). 

In  all  probability  the  most  prominent  features  of  a  phonetic 
unit  are  first  perceived  and  the  details  are  gradually  filled  in. 
In  the  case  of  finger  reading  by  the  blind  this  double  process 
occurs  through  separate  organs ;  the  right  hand  precedes  in 
traveling  across  the  line  of  raised  letters  and  furnishes  a 
vague  idea  of  the  words  which  is  filled  in  by  the  left  hand 
following  it.^ 

An  idea  is  a  more  or  less  complicated  union  of  elements. 
These  elements  are  derived  from  past  and  present  experiences. 
The  idea  '  milk '  as  it  occurs  to  me  at  the  present  moment  is 
the  result  of  past  and  present  experiences  of  sight,  taste,  touch, 
etc.,  of  the  object  itself  and  of  associated  experiences  such 
as  visual,  auditory  and  motor  words.  It  is  generally  stated 
that  the  idea  of  the  object  occurs  first  and  the  word  follows ; 
there  seems  to  be  no  justification  for  this  separation  in  time  ; 
experiences  of  every  kind  may  arise  at  the  same  time. 

The  sum  of  the  speech-elements  in  an  idea  is  called  the 
'  internal  word ; '  visual,  auditory,  arm-motor,  and  voice- 
motor  groups,  or  factors,  are  distinguished.  Some  persons 
see  the  printed  word  in  memory  most  prominently,  others 
hear  it,  others  speak  it.  When  the  motor  factors  are 
strong,  they  can  be  detected  in  the  action  of  the  muscles. 
Unconscious  larynx  movements  in  connection  with  internal 
words  have  been  observed  in  experiments  by  Hansen  and 

1  Hellek,  Studien  zur  BUndenpsychologie,  Philos.  Stud.  (Wundt),  1895 
XI  460. 


SPEECH  IDEAS  133 

Lehmann  ^  and  have  been  registered  by  Cuetis.^  The  arm 
movements  have  been  observed  by  Cumbeelaxd.^ 

The  most  prominent  elements  of  internal  words  are  the 
motor  sensations  of  the  vocal  organs  and  the  auditory  sen- 
sations. The  idea  is  generally  most  closely  connected  with 
these  and  to  a  less  degree  with  the  printed  letters  and  the  arm 
sensations.  The  closer  the  connection  between  the  various 
factors  and  the  greater  the  accurate  familiarity  with  each,  the 
more  complete  the  internal  word. 

The  advantage  of  fusing  the  word  with  the  object  into  one 
idea  appeared  in  an  experiment  by  Bell  *  in  teaching  a  deaf 
child.  The  method  has  been  extended  to  the  instruction  of 
normal  children.  ^  Printed  words  like  bed,  dooe,  window 
are  placed  on  the  objects  that  the  child  sees  and  the  words 
are  repeated  as  frequently  as  possible  while  the  objects  are 
seen  or  handled.  The  result  is  a  very  intimate  fusion  of 
the  language  elements  with  the  other  ones  in  the  various 
ideas  of  the  child's  experience. 

In  regard  to  acquiring  a  foreign  language  the  facts  men- 
tioned in  this  chapter  seem  to  indicate :  1.  the  desirability  of 
correctly  associating  groups  of  words  to  single  ideas  without 
the  necessity  of  thinking  out  the  details  (p.  126);  2.  the 
advantage  of  learning  words  and  phrases  as  ideograms  and 
ideophones  (p.  128);  3.  the  desirability  of  learning  the  details 
of  such  ideo-units  in  the  earlier  lessons  in  order  to  form 
the  correct  associations  between  them  and  their  meanings 
(p.  130);  4.  the  naturalness  of  first  noting  the  most  prominent 
characteristics  of  ideograms  and  ideophones  and  gradually 
distinguishing  their  details  (p.  132);  5.  the  profitableness  of 

^  Hansen  und  Lehmann,  Ueber  unioillkurliches  Flilstern,  Philos.  Stud. 
(Wnndt),  1895  XI  471 ;  Scripture,  New  Psychology,  63,  259,  London,  1897. 

2  CuKTis,  Automatic  movements  of  the  larynx,  Amer.  Jour.  Psych.,  1900 
XI  237. 

3  Cumberland,  A  thought  reader's  experiences.  Nineteenth  Century,  1886 
XX  867;  Scripture,  New  Psychology,  255,  London,  1897. 

*  Bell,  Upon  a  method  of  teaching  language  to  a  veri/  young  congenitally  deaj 
child,  Amer.  Annals  of  the  Deaf  and  Dumb,  1883  XXVIII  124. 

*  Scripture,  In  the  Japanese  way.  Outlook,  1897  LV  557. 


134  PERCEPTION  OF  SPEECH 

closely  uniting  the  internal  word  to  the  idea  of  the  object 
itself  (p.  132) ;  the  advantage  of  emphasizing  the  auditory  and 
motor  elements  in  building  up  the  internal  word  (p.  133). 

Rbfeeences 

For  internal  speech  :  Aubert,  Die  innerliche  Sprache  und  ihr  Verhalten 
zu  den  Sinneswahrnehmungen  und  Bewegungen,  Tit.  f .  Psych,  u.  Phys.  d. 
Sinn.,  1890  I  52 ;  Baldwin,  Internal  speech  and  song,  Philos.  Rev.,  1897 
II  385 ;  Ballet,  Le  langage  interieur  et  les  diverses  formes  de  I'aphasie, 
2e  edit.,  Paris,  1888 ;  Egger,  La  parole  intdrieure,  Paris,  1881 ;  Klein- 
PAUL,  Sprache  ohne  Worte,  Leipzig,  1889 ;  Laupts,  Enquele  sur  le 
langage  interieur,  Arch.  Anth.  Crim.,  1895  X  128,  478,  609  ;  1896  XI  96, 
307;  Netteb,  La  parole  interieure  et  I'Sme,  Paris,  1892;  Paulhan,  Le 
langage  interieur,  Rev.  philos.,  1886  XXI  34. 


CHAPTER   XI 

ASSOCIATION   OF   IDEAS 

An  idea  is  generally  followed  by  another  whose  content 
stands  to  that  of  the  former  in  the  relation  of  previous  con- 
tiguity in  space  or  time,  of  similarity,  or  of  contrast.^  These 
relations  have  been  termed  '  laws  of  association ; '  they  have 
proved  useful  in  arranging  objects  for  memorizing.  It  has 
been  pointed  out  ^  that  these  so-called  '  laws  '  are  simply 
classes  in  which  pairs  of  associated  ideas  may  be  placed.  It 
is  also  true^  that  the  various  classifications  of  associations 
are  merely  classifications  of  objects  as  usually  associated,  or  of 
the  relations  of  the  meanings  of  words  associated  together.  It 
has  been  said  that  they  have  been  made  on  logical  and  not 
on  psychological  principles.* 

Herbaet  ^  treated  ideas  as  definitely  bounded  groups  of 
sensations  capable  of  indefinite  existence  outside  of  conscious- 
ness ;  they  favored  or  opposed  each  other  according  to  certain 
formulas  and  thereby  rose  or  fell  in  consciousness.  Owing 
to  the  lack  of  experimental  data  such  a  mechanics  of  ideas 
was  necessarily  fanciful. 

1  Aristoteles,  De  meinoria,  Ch.  II,  451  b  16f. 

2  Wdndt,  Grundziige  d.  phyaiol.  Psychol.,  4.  Aufl.,  II  453,  Leipzig,  1893. 

8  Thumb  und  Maeee,  Exper.  Untersuchungen  ilber  d.  psycholog.  Grundlagea 
d.  sprachlichen  Analogiebildung,  14,  Leipzig,  1901. 

*  Okth,  in  a  review  contained  in  Zt.  f.  pad.  Psychol,  u,  Path.,  1901  III  222. 

"  Herbaet,  Psychologie  als  Wissenschaft,  Konigsberg,  1824;  Lehrbuch  zur 
Psychologie,  2.  Aufl.,  Konigsberg,  1834;  Sammtliche  Werke,  herausg.  von 
Hartenstein,  V,  VI,  VII;  Deobisch,  Empirische  Psychologie,  Leipzig,  1842; 
Erste  Griindlinien  d.  math.  Psychol.,  Leipzig,  1850;  Volkmann,  Lehrbuch  d. 
Psychologie,  Cothen,  1884;  Ziehen,  Das  Verhaltniss  d.  Herbart'schen  Psychol, 
zur  physiol. -exper.  Psychol.,  Samm.  v.  Abhandl.  aus  d.  Gebiete  d.  pad.  Psychol,  u. 
Physiol.,  1900  III  Heft  5. 


136  PERCEPTION   OF  SPEECH 

One  attempt  to  treat  the  results  of  an  experimental  investi- 
gation showed  that  ideas  could  not  be  considered  as  definite 
objects  in  any  way,  and  resulted  in  the  attempt  to  develop  a 
new  theory.^  The  technique  of  the  experiment  consisted 
essentially  in  placing  the  subject  in  a  dark  compartment  with 
a  ground-glass  or  tissue-paper  screen  on  which  the  image  of 
a  printed  word  or  a  picture  was  projected  by  a  lens  provided 
with  a  photographic  shutter.  The  subject  observed  and 
stated  the  train  of  thought  aroused  by  each  image.  This 
arrangement  in  various  modifications  has  proved  useful  in 
further  investigations.^  In  stating  the  results  of  experiments 
in  the  following  pages  visual  images  are  indicated  by  small 
capitals,  motor  images  by  lower  case  roman  letters  and  auditory 
images  by  italics. 

The  general  characteristics  of  an  association  may  be  stated 
in  the  following  way.  At  any  given  instant  t^  the  roind  con- 
sists of  an  immense  complexity  of  elements  of  various  inten- 
sities. One  group  of  elements  is  of  maximum  intensity ; 
others  are  in  all  degrees  down  to  a  faintness  of  intensity  such 
that  their  presence  can  be  proved  only  by  indirect  means.* 
For  example,  the  mental  condition  at  the  present  moment 
may  be  that  of  looking  at  a  book ;  the  book  may  be  considered 
as  the  idea  present  in  mind  at  the  moment,  but  all  the  other 
things  seen,  heard,  felt  and  thought  at  the  same  moment  — 
no  matter  how  dimly  —  and  all  the  unperceived  elements  of 
mind  foiTa  part  of  it. 

The  main  group  in  consciousness  undergoes  more  or  less 
rapid  change  in  its  elements ;  some  remain  fairly  constant ; 
some  disappear ;  some  new  ones  appear.  At  a  moment  t-^  the 
most  intense  group  may  be  partly  or  wholly  different  from 

1  Scripture,  Ueber  d.  assoc.  Verlauf  d.  Vorstetlungen,  Diss.,  Leipzig,  1891; 
also  in  Philos.  Stud.  (Wundt),  1891  VII  1;  New  Psychology,  Ch.  XIII, 
London,  1897. 

2  MuNSTERBERG,  Studien  zur  Associationslehre,  Beitr.  z.  exper.  Psychol.,  1892 
IV  20;  PiLLSBDRT,  ^  studi/  in  apperception,  Amer.  Jour.  Psychol.,  1897  VIII 
313;  CoRDES,  Experimentelle  Untersuchungen  uber  Associationen,  Philos.  Stud. 
(Wundt),  1901  XVII  30. 

3  ScEiPTDRE,  as  hefore,  136;  New  Psychology,  205,  391. 


ASSOCIATION   OF  IDEAS  137 

that  of  the  moment  t^.  Thus,  the  thought  of  the  book  at  the 
moment  ig  was  followed  by  the  memory  of  a  certain  class- 
room on  a  certain  occasion  at  the  moment  t-^.  This  did  not 
occur  through  the  substitution  of  one  group  by  another,  but 
through  gradual  changes  (at  different  rates)  of  the  elements 
of  the  fiist  group  and  the  gradual  formation  of  the  new 
group.  The  total  content  of  the  mind  at  the  moment  t^  and 
the  changes  during  the  time  from  t^  to  t.^  determine  the  content 
at  the  moment  ij.  An  '  idea '  is  not  an  object  of  unchange- 
able form  that  appears  and  disappears  but  is  a  group  of  activ- 
ities extended  in  time.  For  example,  the  term  '  boat '  is  given 
to  an  object  of  fairly  stable  existence ;  although  the  boat 
may  not  be  present  to  the  senses,  yet  it  is  assumed  to  exist 
and  to  be  somewhere.  Our  idea  of  a  boat  is  not  of  this 
nature ;  when  we  are  not  thinking  of  the  boat,  no  idea  of  it 
exists ;  when  we  think  of  it,  the  idea  forms,  acts  and  passes 
again  out  of  existence. 

An  '  idea '  is  a  sum  of  conscious  elements  sufficiently  distinct 
from  other  elements  to  be  more  or  less  definitely  marked  off  as  a 
group.  An  idea  may  be  considered  as  a  region  of  greater 
density  in  the  course  of  thought. 

The  persistence  and  disappearance  of  an  element  in  an  idea 
depend  on  its  intensity  and  on  its  connections  with  other  ele- 
ments of  mental  life.  Memory  elements  have  been  shown  ^  to 
fade  away  at  first  rapidly  and  then  more  and  more  slowly,  al- 
ways approaching  to  but  never  quite  reaching  complete  loss  — 
the  curve  of  memory  being  an  asymptotic  one.  Repetition  of  an 
element  adds  to  its  intensity;  with  sufficient  repetition  its 
strength  even  at  a  much  later  time  will  keep  it  ready  for  pro- 
minence in  consciousness  by  slight  new  additions.  The  de- 
finiteness  of  an  element,  measured  by  its  least  perceptible  change 
(p.  101)  or  by  the  frequency  of  confusion  with  a  slightly 
different  element  (p.  103),  has  been  shown  to  decrease  with 
time  ;  this  renders  it  more  and  more  likely  to  appear  the  same 
as  elements  that  originally  differed  somewhat  from  it. 

1  Ebbinqhatjs,  Ueber  d.  Gedachtniss,  Leipzig,  1885  ;  Wolfe,  Untersuchungen 
iiber  das    Tongeddchtniss,  Philos.   Stud.  (Wandt),  1886  III  534. 


138  PERCEPTION  OF  SPEECH 

The  new  elements  entering  consciousness  by  the  senses  find 
at  hand  in  all  degrees  of  intensity  innumerable  elements  from 
past  experiences,  and  the  resulting  union  of  coinciding  elements 
with  omission  of  disparate  ones  brings  a  new  idea  into 
prominence  and  at  the  same  time  modifies  it.  The  union  of 
certain  elements  of  a  new  idea  with  familiar  ones  of  previous 
experience  may  be  seen  in  the  case  where  the  printed  word 
ABTEi  was  at  first  almost  read  as  aebeit  and  in  the  numerous 
cases  of  mistaken  perception  of  misspelled  and  misspoken 
words  (above).  A  word  may  be  perceived  as  a  word  and  then 
followed  by  a  thought  of  its  meaning,  but  usually  the  per- 
ception of  the  word  and  the  thought  of  its  meaning  occur  as 
one  act.i  In  either  case  the  very  first  member  in  an  associa- 
tion is  an  assimilation  of  a  group  of  sensations  into  a  complex 
of  present  and  revived  sensations ;  in  the  former  the  sensory 
elements  are  prominent,  in  the  latter  they  are  less  so. 

Each  element  in  an  idea  undergoes  changes  in  intensity 
and  in  definiteness  owing  to  the  influences  of  other  elements ; 
these  steadily  modify  the  idea  until  in  a  short  time  it  seems  a 
different  one.  Such  changes  are  evident  in  the  case  where  a 
picture  of  a  scorpion  was  followed  1.  by  a  memory  of  a  picture 
of  a  scorpion,  2.  in  a  class-room,  3.  by  a  memory  of  a  teacher 
discoursing  concerning  it.  The  taste  of  tea  on  one  occasion 
suggested  1.  a  taste  memory  of  the  almost  tasteless  solution 
of  a  homeopathic  medicine,  2.  a  visual  memory  of  such  a  solu- 
tion in  a  glass,  3.  a  memory  of  the  sensations  of  a  throat  sickness. 
The  steady  development  of  the  mental  picture  is  apparent  in 
each  case.  The  gradual  grouping  of  mental  elements  is  like- 
wise seen  in  examples  like  that  in  which  the  printed  word 
SEWING  was  followed  by  a  visual  picture  of  a  person  sew- 
ing, which  '  gradually  became  that  of  a  definite  person  in 
the  act  of  sewing.'  The  manner  in  which  many  elements  are 
strengthened  so  that  a  series  of  different  groups  appears  as  a 
succession  of  ideas  is  seen  in  a  case  where  a  picture  of  a  deer 
was  followed  1.  by  a  visual  picture  of  the  land  where  deer  are 

1  CoRDES,  Exper.  Untersuchungen  iiher  Associationen,  Philos.  Stud.  (Wundt), 
1901  XVII  30. 


ASSOCIATION  OF  IDEAS  139 

used  as  draught  animals,  2.  by  a  memory  of  a  deer  seen  in  a 
forest,  and  3.  by  a  memory  of  a  picture  of  a  deer  seen  long 
before. 

The  processes  that  change  one  idea  to  another  may  be  said 
to  result  in  the  loss  of  some  of  the  elements  of  the  first  and  the 
addition  of  new  elements.^  Thus,  the  printed  word  fluc.h 
suggested  to  an  Englishman  the  printed  word  flush  ;  the  four 
letters  flu  h  had  been  more  often  connected  in  a  certain  order 
with  s  than  with  o  ;  consequently  the  c  was  suppressed  and  the 
s  added.  Similar  associations  by  the  same  person  (English) 
were    eahm  —  eaum     (the  word     '  Rahm '    was    unknown 

to  him),  SBD  —  SAID  —  SEED,  LBEO  —  LEAP,  KOT  —  COD, 

GACOLUSIM  —  COLOSSAL  —  COLOSSEUM ;  some  of  these  indi- 
cate that  the  visual  and  motor  words  were  acting  together.  In 
many  cases  the  association  consisted  in  simply  adding  new  ele- 
ments :  HOHL  — ■  HOHLBN,  MON  — MONTAG.  Similar  associations 
by  an  American  were  :  muhe  —  muhsam,  kot  —  cotton, 
LEFO  —  LBPEE,  MASS  —  MASSACHUSETTS  (with  this  Subject 
English  words  were  followed  almost  without  exception  by  vis- 
ual memories  of  objects  and  scenes,  not  by  words).  Another 
American  associated :  this  —  that,  goodness  —  goodness  — 
badness,  from  —  from  here  —  from  this,  sat  —  Saturday,  is 
—  is  not  —  be,  of  —  of  —  of  him,  very  —  very  —  very  true, 
HOW  —  how  —  do  you  do,  the  —  thee  —  (feeling  of  dissatis- 
faction) —  THE  DOOR,  SPURS  —  SUPURS.  Some  of  the  results 
recorded  for  a  German  were :  klug  —  und  weise,  fluch  — 
der  bosen  tat,  mass  —  mass  f iir  mass,  A  —  B,  eaub  —  thier, 
MUHE  —  los,  etc.,  nearly  all  word  associations  being  simply 
additions.  The  records  of  a  Japanese  gave :  hohl  —  hohb, 
KLUG  —  heit,  A  —  aal  —  B,  beruf  —  brief  —  beruf sstand  — 
berufstiichtigkeit,  etc. 

It  still  remains  to  explain  why  some  elements  persist  and 
some  disappear  and  why  certain  new  elements  arise.  The 
statement  that  '  elements  that  have  been  present  together  tend 
to  recall  each  other '  gives  the  principle  on  which  objects  are 
to  be  used  in  order  to  form  associations  but  does  not  indicate 
1  Scripture,  Verlauf  d.  VorstelL,  as  before,  18. 


140  PERCEPTION  OF  SPEECH 

the  mental  processes.  The  whole  course  of  thought  may  be, 
I  believe,  explained  on  the  assumption  of  three  principles :  1. 
every  element  of  thought  fades  more  or  less  rapidly  in  inten- 
sity in  an  asymptotic  course  (p.  137) ;  2.  every  element  loses 
its  definiteness  more  or  less  rapidly  also  in  an  asymptotic  way 
(p.  137) ;  3.  elements  of  the  same  kind  are  added.  The  first  two 
principles  are  famihar  phenomena  of  memory.  The  definite- 
ness of  an  idea  is  measured  by  its  eonfusibility  vsdth  another 
idea  (p.  103).  Ideas  that  are  confusible  with  each  other  are  to 
be  considered  as  the  same.  The  addition  of  the  same  elements 
is  a  familiar  phenomenon  in  sensation;  stimuh,  as- of  the  skin, 
too  weak  to  be  perceived  finally  become  noticed  and  even 
painful  if  frequently  repeated ;  similar  summations  of  weak 
stimuli  have  been  noticed  in  experiments  on  muscles,  nerves, 
and  the  brain. 

The  whole  course  of  thought  at  any  time  may,  I  believe,  be 
treated  as  consisting  of  all  previous  experiences,  which  are 
fading  in  intensity  and  definiteness  without  ever  being  entirely 
lost,  which  are  being  fused  with  each  other  whenever  the 
definiteness  is  so  far  diminished  that  they  are  practically  the 
same,  and  which  rise  into  prominence  according  as  the  fusion 
produces  sufficient  intensity.  The  entrance  of  a  new  sensation 
adds  new  elements  ;  the  resulting  perception  depends  upon  the 
degrees  of  intensity  and  definiteness  of  the  elements  already 
on  hand  at  the  moment  of  entrance;  the  course  of  thought 
then  follows  on  the  usual  principles  with  the  result  that  at  the 
next  moment  a  new  combination  reaches  prominence. 

The  theory  advocated  was  promised  on  a  previous  occasion.^ 
It  differs  from  that  of  Hbrbart  in  denying  definite  boun- 
daries to  ideas  and  the  principles  of  attraction  and  repul- 
sion between  them,  biit  resembles  it  in  considering  that  ele- 
ments of  ideas  have  an  existence  in  the  mind  although  not 
perceived. 

This  view  is  contrary  to  that  of  many  contemporary  psychol- 
ogists. Their  view  is  that  when  an  idea  fades  away,  it  ceases 
to  exist,  that  it  leaves  brain  adjustments  behind  it,  and  that, 

'  ScKiPTUKE,  as  before,  101. 


Association  of  ideas  141 

when  these  adjustments  again  affect  brain  action,  the  idea 
reappears.  Such  a  presentation  of  the  case  seems  inade- 
quate. Brain  action  is  an  uninterrupted  sequence  of 
physiological  activities.  Mind  action  must,  I  believe,  be 
analogously  treated  as  a  continuity  of  mental  processes.  The 
two  sets  of  phenomena  are,  of  course,  closely  related;  for 
convenience  we  may  perhaps  mix  them  in  a  discussion.  But 
the  supposition  that  mental  facts  are  accidental  attachments 
to  members  of  the  brain  sequence  is  only  a  little  less  futile 
than  the  one  that  they  form  a  sequence  of  brain-mind- 
brain-mind,  etc.  The  former  contradicts  the  fundamental 
hypothesis  of  physiology ;  the  latter  that  —  according  to  my 
opinion  —  of  psychology,  namely,  that  the  whole  of  mental 
life  must  be  explained  by  reference  to  elementary  mental 
processes.  The  habit  among  some  writers  of  '  explaining  ' 
any  psychological  difficulty  by  inserting  '  sequences  of  neural 
processes  '  —  generally  inconsistent  with  the  later  discoveries 
of  neurology  and  often  absurd  —  between  mental  ones  has 
been  a  great  hindrance  to  the  development  of  psychology ;  its 
appearance  in  linguistics  would  be  deplorable. 

Wundt's  view  ^  is  a  development  of  the  principles  of  simi- 
larity and  contiguity  formerly  adduced  as  explanations  of 
association;  it  may  be  summarized  as  follows.  The  associa- 
tive processes  cannot  occur  between  ideas  but  only  between 
the  elements  that  compose  them.  A  '  reproduced '  element 
generally  belongs  to  many  previous  ideas.  Only  two  processes 
are  present  in  the  association  of  ideas,  namely,  connection  of 
like  elements,  and  connection  of  those  that  have  entered  into 
a  functional  relation  by  occurrence  together.  These  may  be 
called  '  connection  by  likeness '  and  '  connection  by  contact.' 
Every  association  of  ideas  involves  association  of  elements  by 
both  connections.  At  the  first  moment  an  idea  reawakens  the 
same  elements  of  earlier  impressions  in  a  simultaneous  associa- 
tion with  the  result  of  greater  prominence  of  familiar  elements 
and  neglect  of  unfamiliar  ones.  As  I  have  already  pointed 
■out,  the  principles  of  Hkeness  and  contact  are  classifications ; 

^  WuNDT,  Grundziige  d.  physiol.  Psychol.,  4.  Aufl.,  II  467,  Leipzig,  1893. 


142  PERCEPTION  OF  SPEECH 

the  reawakening  of  the  same  elements  involves  a  sleeping  ex- 
istence of  elements  in  the  mind  similar  to  that  for  Hbrbaet's 
complete  ideas ;  the  neglect  of  unfamiliar  elements  also  resem- 
bles Herbaet's  conflict  of  ideas. 

According  to  Cordes,^  a  single  element  or  a  complex  of 
elements  in  an  idea  becomes  specially  prominent  on  account  of 
favoring  internal  or  external  conditions;  the  other  elements 
fade  away  while  the  more  prominent  elements  persist;  new 
elements  assimilate  themselves  to  the  persisting  ones  and 
form  a  new  idea.  This  is  a  common  form  of  association.  In 
other  cases  the  new  elements  attract  so  much  attention  to 
themselves  that  the  persisting  ones  are  neglected  and  rapidly 
fade  away ;  in  such  a  case  the  induced  idea  appears  to  contain 
little  or  nothing  of  the  preceding  one.  By  special  attention 
certain  elements  of  an  idea  can  be  made  to  persist  through 
a  series  of  associations ;  this  principle  is  of  great  importance 
in  learning  languages. 

An  idea  may  bring  two  or  more  ideas  by  association  inde- 
pendently of  one  another.  The  following  cases  occurred  in 
my  records :  A  —  aal  —  B ;  GACOLUSIM  —  gahcia  —  gladstone, 
is  —  is  not  —  be,  both  the  associated  ideas  being  plainly 
connected  with  the  inducing  idea  and  not  with  each  other.  In 
like  manner  the  word  filz  aroused^  the  associations  1.  of 
brown  felt,  used  in  sound-boxes,  2.  the  economic  term  '  verfil- 
zen  ; '  the  two  associated  ideas  have  no  connection  with  each 
other ;  we  may  suppose  that  they  were  both  aroused  by  filz 
and  that  one  of  them  developed  more  rapidly  than  the  other. 

The  united  effect  of  two  ideas  in  producing  a  succession 
can  be  seen  in  a  case  by  Cordes  ^  in  which  the  simultaneous 
presentation  of  a  tone  from  a  musical  instrument  and  of  the 
word  KLEIN  was  followed  by  the  memory  of  a  very  small  tun- 
ing fork ;  in  another  case  a  tone  and  the  picture  of  Emperor 
William  II.  was  followed  by  the  thought  of  the  Hymn  to 
^Egir.  In  general  we  may  say  that  two  simultaneous  ideas 
have   an   effect  that  depends   on   their  relative    masses;    if 

1  Cordes,  as  before,  58.  ^  Cordes,  as  before,  48. 

"  Cordes,  as  before,  61. 


ASSOCIATION  OP  IDEAS  143 

one  of  the  ideas  is  overpoweringly  weighty,  the  next  idea 
will  be  chiefly  influenced  by  it ;  but  if  two  are  nearly  bal- 
anced the  next  idea  will  be  the  result  of  the  two.  It  has 
been  noted  by  Mayer  and  Oeth^  that  when  a  person  re- 
sponds bj-  an  associated  word  to  the  word  he  hears^  the  asso- 
ciation may  be  more  than  a  simple  one.  Thus,  the  word '  stif  t ' 
was  followed  by  the  visual  memory  of  a  student  friend  of  that 
name  and  the  person  responded  by  the  word  '  student ; '  the 
word  '  lead  '  was  followed  by  a  distinct  visual  image  of  a  flat 
piece  of  grayish-white  lead,  after  which  the  response  'heavy' 
was  made ;  '  soul '  was  followed  by  the  internal  word  '  body  ' 
after  which  the  response  '  mind '  was  made. 

In  many  cases  the  course  of  thought  seems  to  have  no  very 
definite  region  of  density.  Such  cases  as  those  reported  in  some 
association  experiments  by  Coedes  ^  are  common ;  upon  see- 
ing the  word  medici  the  observer  gave  no  definite  association 
but  said,  '  I  thought  of  the  whole  epoch  in  art  that  is  repre- 
sented by  the  name ; '  to  the  word  donchj^ey  he  '  associated 
the  whole  complex  from  Zola's  Deb&cle,  the  word  macmahon 
came  late  and  only  because  he  wished  something  definite.' 
In  other  cases  there  may  be  a  sufficiently  definite  idea  with  a 
whole  region  of  semi-definite  elements,  as  in  the  record  by 
Coedes  where  sulla  was  followed  by  an  idea  of  Catiline 
'  together  with  a  picture  of  the  map  of  Italy  and  dimmer 
thoughts  of  the  wars  that  have  occurred  there.'  On  another 
occasion  the  word  stahl  aroused  ^  '  a  lot  of  reproductions, 
apparently  simultaneous:  an  image  of  a  fine  piece  of  steel, 
blue ;  memory  of  a  touch  impression,  that  reminded  of  the  steel 
works  of  native  place;  Stahl  as  the  name  of  a  medical  man 
and  of  a  philosopher ;  the  ideas  seemed  to  be  simultaneous ; 
they  came  one  after  another  into  the  focus  of  consciousness, 
but  with  each  it  was  clear  that  it  was  already  present ;  very 
quick ;  very  fine  phenomenon.' 

1  Mater  und  Orth,  Zur  qual.  Untersuchung  d.  Association,  7it.  f.  Psychol,  u. 
Physiol,  d.  Sinn.,  1901  XXVI 1. 

2  Coedes,  as  before,  51. 
8  CoRDES,  as  before,  52. 


144  PERCEPTION  OF  SPEECH 

This  generally  overlooked  existence  of  regions  of  not  very- 
definite  density  has  been  specially  emphasized  by  Mayer  and 
Orth.^  The  persons  experimented  upon  often  said  that  they 
experienced  certain  mental  conditions  which  they  could  not  call 
definite  ideas  or  acts  of  will.  Sometimes  these  vague  condi- 
tions acquired  some  definiteness ;  for  example,  the  word  '  mus- 
tard '  was  followed  by  a  pecuhar  mental  phenomenon  that 
seemed  describable  as  a  memory  of  a  common  proverb  [without 
the  proverb  actually  being  thought  of]  and  the  response  '  seed ' 
was  made. 

On  some  occasions  a  word  is  followed  by  another  appar- 
ently entirely  different;  it  is  generally  found,  however,  that 
there  is  some  common  mental  characteristic  in  the  two  words. 
This  common  mental  characteristic  may  be  either  their  connec- 
tion on  some  previous  occasion,  or  their  connection  with  other 
words  or  objects  that  nevertheless  do  not  present  themselves. 
The  former  characteristic  seems  to  have  no  psychological 
meaning  except  as  a  paraphrase  of  the  latter.  A  connection 
on  some  previous  occasion  is  a  statement  of  a  fact  of  the 
past ;  adduced  as  an  explanation  of  the  association  it  implies 
some  present  fact.  In  many  cases  of  association  the  fact 
present  is  the  persistence  of  some  elements  from  the  inducing 
idea  into  the  induced  ideas ;  in  cases  where  no  such  persist- 
ence can  be  detected  it  may  well  be  assumed  that  elements 
have  persisted  without  any  notice  of  them.  In  my  experi- 
ments there  were  some  associations  of  different  words  that 
could  be  readily  traced  to  a  previous  connection :  zatjm  — 
ztigel  (zaum  und  ztigel),  sed  —  but,  this — that,  etc.  They 
were  not  common ;  a  word  was  most  frequently  followed  by 
words  to  complete  a  phrase  or  by  memory  pictures.  Even 
with  foreign  words  the  associations  consisted  generally  in 
adding  elements  of  the  same  language  or  in  bringing  up 
memory  pictures,  and  not  often  in  translating.  Although 
the  similarity  associations  are  among  the  most  common  visual 
ones,  they  do  not  occur  frequently  between  words.  The  few 
examples  found  in  the  investigation  mentioned  were  :  truppe 
1  Matek  und  Okth,  as  before,  5. 


ASSOCIATION  OF  IDEAS  145 

—  mantiver  [probably  through  memory  images  of  scenes  or 
words],  TKXTPPE  —  menge  [likewise],  zaum  [confused  with 
ZATJisr]  —  hecke.  AU  these  cases  of  '  previous  connection ' 
are  to  be  interpreted  by  the  following  principles. 

An  association  where  the  word  A  is  followed  by  a  word  0 
on  account  of  relations  of  both  A  and  O  to  an  idea  (or 
group  of  ideas)  B  which  does  not  fully  or  at  all  enter  con- 
sciousness has  been  called  a 'mediate  association.'  In  order  to 
investigate  mediate  association  experimentally,  the  following 
method  was  devised.^  On  one  card  there  was  a  German  word 
and  some  Japanese  characters.  On  another  card  there  was  a 
strange  word  (Japanese,  in  Roman  letters),  with  the  same 
characters.  A  series  of  cards,  with  the  same  number  of 
each  kind,  was  shown  in  irregular  order.  For  example,  in 
one  experiment  the  following  series  (the  Japanese  characters 
being  represented  here  by  Greek  letters)  was  shown  in  the 
order  here  given :  —  (1)  hana  a/3,  (2)  hito  7S,  (3)  iukxt  e?, 

(4)  KUEXJ  7)6,  (5)  MENSCH  7S,  (6)  GEHEN  69,  (7)  KOMMEN  r)6,  (8) 

BLXTME  a^.  The  subject  was  asked  to  state  if  he  had  noticed 
any  associations  between  the  first  four  words  and  the  second 
four;  he  said  he  had  not.  Thereupon  the  words  alone  without 
the  characters  were  shown  him,  with  the  request  to  state  the 
first  thing  that  entered  his  mind  after  each.  The  results  were 
as  follows :  —  (1)  hito  —  mensch,  (2)  ktjrtj  —  kommen, 

(3)  HANA — ?  (4)  ITJKU  —  GEGEN,  (5)  KOMMEN  —  HJKU,  (6) 
GEHEN  —  ?  (7)    MENSCH  —  HITO,    (8)    BLTJME  —  HANA.      At 

the  end  the  subject  declared  that  all  the  associations  were 
involuntary,  that  he  could  give  no  reason  for  them  and 
that  the  Japanese  characters  had  not  occurred  to  him  at 
all.  Several  of  these  associations  were,  however,  correct: 
it  seems  probable  that  they  were  brought  about  by  the  influ- 
ence of  the  Japanese  characters  which,  nevertheless,  had  not 
entered  into  consciousness.  This  probability  is  increased  by 
other  experiments  in  which  the  word-association  was  correctly 
made,  and  was  followed  by  the  occurrence  of  the  characters. 
In  still  other  cases  the  association  was  correctly  formed  with- 

1  Scripture,  as  before,  81 ;  New  Psychology,  202,  London,  1897. 

10 


146  PERCEPTION  OF  SPEECH 

out  thought  of  the  characters,  whereas  the  subject  could  re- 
produce them  when  asked.  Finally,  the  characters  themselves 
were  found  to  be  in  all  stages  of  indefiniteness  and  forgot- 
tenness,  even  in  correct  associations.  In  experiments  made  by 
AscHAFFENBUKG  ^  a  number  of  cases  occurred  in  which  the 
connection  between  the  two  ideas  was  intelligible  only  on  the 
supposition  of  an  intermediate  idea.  In  the  greatest  number 
of  cases  this  intermediate  idea  appeared  to  have  been  a  sound- 
association  with  the  inducing  idea,  while  the  relation  of  the 
induced  idea  to  the  intermediate  one  was  of  any  kind. 

Several ,  excellent  examples  of  mediate  association  were 
observed  by  Coedes.^  In  one  case  the  word  balde  was  fol- 
lowed by  a  memory  of  '  Gothe's  garden  house  at  Weimar  — 
white,  two-storied  house  on  the  side  of  a  hill,  clear  —  then 
(that  it  was  later,  I  can  say  with  perfect  certainty)  the  words : 
"  warte  nur,  balde  ruhest  du  auch "  —  then  the  thought : 
"  ah,  that  explains  it."  ' 

In  my  experiments  I  pointed  out  that  the  mediate  idea  B 
was  found  in  all  degrees  of  consciousness,  from  full  conscious- 
ness where  the  succession  of  ideas  appeared  as  ^  —  ^  —  C,  to 
complete  lack  of  consciousness  where  B  was  unnoticed  and 
the  succession  appeared  as  ^  —  C  with  possible  or  even  impos- 
sible introspective  recovery  of  B.  The  view  of  Cordes  ^  is  an 
amplification  of  mine:  mediate  association  is  often  to  be 
considered  as  a  special  case  of  the  usual  immediate  association 
where  the  second  idea  is  a  complex  idea  out  of  which  certain 
elements  become  specially  prominent  and  form  an  idea  whose 
relation  [through  identical  elements]  to  the  first  one  can 
readily  be  found ;  and  in  other  cases  as  an  immediate  associa- 
tion where  the  usual  formation  of  a  definite  idea  out  of  the 
complex  of  the  second  idea  [through  identical  elements]  was 
hindered  in  some  way,  with  the  result  that  an  unusual  group 
was  formed. 

1  AscHAFFENBUKO,  Experimentelle  Studien  iiber  Associationen,  I.  Theil, 
Psychol.  Arbeiten  (Krapelin),  1895  I  40;  Thomas,  Ein  weiteres  Beispid  von 
Association  durch  eine  Gerur.hempfindung,  Zt.  f.  Psychol,  u.  Physiol,  d.  Sinn.,  1895 
XII  60. 

2  CoBDES,  before,  74.  a  Cordes  as,  as  before,  73. 


ASSOCIATION  OF  IDEAS 


147 


Related  to  mediate  association  is  association  through  un- 
noticed sensations  or  unconscious  memories.  In  addition  to 
observations  of  such  occurrences  ^  they  have  been  produced  in 
careful  experiments.^  A  series  of  four  or  five  cards,  each 
containing  a  picture  in  the  middle  and  a  small  letter  or  char- 
acter in  one  corner,  were  shown  in  succession  for  so  short  a 
time  that,  at  the  most,  the  subject  was  able  to  recognize  only 
the  picture  without  the  small  letter.  Thereafter  the  small 
characters  were  exhibited  alone,  and  the  subject  had  to  state 
which  of  the  pictures  first  occurred  to  him.  The  following 
is  a  specimen  series,  the  pictures  being  indicated  by  words. 


Peacock. 
*F 

Shield. 
A 

Cat. 
I 

Flag. 

Negro. 
C 

The  results  on  one  occasion  were :  I — cat, :  :  — flag,  A — shield, 
C  —  negro,  F  —  ?  .  Upon  being  questioned,  the  observer  stated 
that  he  had  not  recognized  any  of  the  small  characters  in  the 
original  series.  Many  similar  results  were  obtained.  In  some 
cases  the  subject  would  feel  that  a  certain  picture  belonged 
to  a  certain  letter,  although  he  had  not  seen  the  letter  before 
during  the  experiment,  as  far  as  his  knowledge  went. 

Forgotten  associations  may  also  have  their  effects.  On 
seventeen  successive  days  Kbapelin^  used  the  same  series 
of  inducing  ideas,  and  measured  the  quickness  of  association. 
This  increased  during  the  first  few  days,  and  then  remained  at 
a  constant  level  of  about  one  half  the  original  time.  After  an 
interval  of  one  and  three-quarter  years  the  same  ideas  were 
used  among  others  in  measurements  of  quickness ;  for  these 
ideas  the  time  was  much  shorter  than  for  the  others,  although 


1  Jerusalem,  Ein  Beispiel  von  Association  durch  unbewusste  Mittelglieder, 
Philos.  Stud.  (Wundt),  1894  X323;  WnNDT,  Sind  die  Mittelglieder  einer  mittel- 
haren  Association  bewusst  oder  unbewussfi  Philos.  Stud.,  1894X326. 

^  ScRiPTnKE,  as  before,  136. 

*  Kbapelin,  Ueber  den  Einfluss  der  Vebung  auf  die  Dauer  von  Associationen, 
St.  Petersburg,  med.  "Wochenschrift,  1889,  No.  1  (cited  from  Aschaffenburg). 


148  PERCEPTION  OF  SPEECH 

the'  earlier  associations  had  been  forgotten.  The  greater  ease 
and  rapidity  of  familiar  associations  as  compared  with  un- 
famihar  ones  is  shown  in  the  greater  facility  in  learning 
oriental  languages  by  the  use  of  Roman  letters  rather  than 
strange  ones.^ 

Cases  frequently  occuried  in  my  experiments  in  which  the 
train  of  thought  had  started  before  the  word  or  object  was 
clearly  perceived.  Similar  observations  have  been  made  by 
MiJNSTEEBEEG,  CoEDBS  and  others. 

Mediate  association  is  probably  the  source  of  many  asso- 
ciations said  to  occur  by  similarity  and  contrast,  both  the 
inducing  and  induced  ideas  being  connected  with  a  group  of 
ideas  more  or  less  dimly  in  consciousness.  Other  similarity 
and  contrast  associations  contain  identical  elements  that  are 
fully  conscious.  These  phenomena  of  mediate  association 
have  been  used  to  explain  the  so-called  '  free  rise  '  of  ideas  in 
consciousness,  that  is,  the  appearance  of  ideas  quite  uncon- 
nected with  the  preceding  ideas.  It  does  in  fact  account  for 
many  of  them.  I  do  not  believe,  however,  that  such  a  '  free 
rise '  is  impossible ;  it  may  occur  spontaneously  whenever 
enough  elements  have  become  so  indefinite  (p.  140)  as  to 
unite  with  others  to  form  a  sum  of  sufficient  intensity. 
The  influence  of  mediate  association  appears  clearly  in 
the  memory  experiments  of  Ebbinghaus,'''  of  Mullee  and 
Schumann^  and  of  Mullee  and  Pilzeckee.*  In  a  series 
of  syllables  successively  read  in  trochaic  rhythm  associa- 
tions are  formed  not  only  between  neighboring  syllables  but 
also  between  distant  ones,  especially  between  the  emphasized 
ones. 

Associations  may  be  formed  between  percepts  of  the  same 
sense  (visual  with  visual,  auditory  with  auditory,  motor  with 
motor)  or  between  those  of  different  senses  (visual  with  motor, 

1  Sweet,  Practical  Study  of  Language,  36,  London,  1900. 

2  Ebbinghaus,  Ueber  d.  Gediiohtniss,  139,  Leipzig,  1885. 

8  MuLLEK  UND  Sciiu.MANN,  Exper.  Bettrage  zur  Untersuch.  d.  Geddcknisses, 
Zt.  f.  Psychol,  u.  Physiol,  d.  Sinn.,  1893  VI  307. 

*  MtJLLEK  UND  PiLZECKEK,  Exper.  Beitrdge  zur  Lehre  vom  Gedachtniss,  Zt.  f. 
Psychol,  u.  Physiol,  d.  Sinn.,  1900,  Erganzuugsband,  I  216. 


ASSOCIATION  OF  IDEAS  149 

etc.).  This  is  true  not  only  of  different  forms  of  the  same 
word  but  also  of  different  words.^  Thus,  the  two  syllables 
'  bas  '  and  '  dut '  may  be  so  connected  that  the  sight  of  '  bas ' 
at  once  produces  the  motor  response  '  dut '  without  inter- 
mediate association  of  motor  '  bas '  or  visual '  dut.' 

In  the  preceding  account  of  the  association  of  ideas  no  use 
has  been  made  of  the  term  '  association  by  function.'  The 
meaning  of  this  term  may  be  illustrated  by  the  following 
quotation  from  Paul  :  '  We  hear  from  time  to  time  a  num- 
ber of  sentences  which  are  built  up  in  the  same  way  and  which 
therefore  unite  to  a  group.  The  memory  of  the  special  con- 
tent of  the  individual  sentences  may  fade  more  and  more ; 
the  common  element  becomes  strengthened  by  the  constant 
repetition;  and  thus  the  rule  [for  the  construction  of  a  sen- 
tence] is  unconsciously  abstracted  from  the  examples.'  ^  It  is 
not  necessary  to  assume  a  special  form  of  mental  activity  for 
such  associations  by  function ;  the  cases  can,  I  believe,  all  be 
treated  just  as  other  associations.  In  speaking  of  '  me '  a 
person  has  in  mind  a  picture  including  not  only  the  word  but 
a  multitude  of  sensations  and  thoughts,  past  and  present, 
concerning  himself  among  which  are  numerous  elements  of 
past  experiences  in  which  he  and  others  have  been  the  object 
of  some  action.  To  such  past  cases  he  has  been  taught  to 
associate  the  words  '  me  '  and  '  him,'  not  '  I '  and  '  he.'  A 
new  experience  suggested  by  '  me '  may  bring  '  him  '  on 
account  of  the  apparently  identical  elements  in  the  general 
picture;  the  fading  away  of  the  definiteness  of  the  two 
objects  in  the  original  pictures  brings  an  unconscious  fusion 
in  memory  of  the  previous  objects  of  an  action,  and  when  a 
distinction  of  persons  is  called  for  at  a  later  time  the  objec- 
tivity will  still  remain.  The  use  of  '  knowed '  as  the  past  of 
'  know '  is  due  to  the  habit  of  using  d  when  referring  to  the  past 
just  as  a  word  'yesterday'  or  'then'  might  be  used.  The 
other  functional  associations  and  the  formation  of  sentence- 
habits  may  be  reduced  to  the  same  principles.     In  going  over 

1  M&LLER  UKD  PiLZECKEK,  as  before,  12. 

2  Paul,  Principien  der  Sprachgeschichte,  3.  Aufl.,  100,  Halle,  1898. 


150  PERCEPTION  OF  SPEECH 

Paul's  examples  ^  of  speech  changes  due  to  association  by 
function  I  find  that  every  one  can  be  explained  as  I  have  indi- 
cated. The  mental  process  in  using  the  Attic  Greek  ttoXltov 
by  association  of  the  masculine  genitive  of  the  first  declension 
"with  the  genitive  ov  of  the  second,^  or  '  Berthas '  for  the 
German  genitive  of  '  Bertha,'  is  exactly  as  described  for  the 
case  of  '  me'  above.  The  associations  may  be  considered  as 
'  associations  by  function '  if  this  term  is  taken  to  refer  only 
to  the  use  of  the  words  associated ;  the  assumption  of  a  mental 
process  of  association  by  function  is,  I  beheve,  a  needless  one. 
We  must  undoubtedly  admit  an  association  by  function  ^ 
just  as  we  do  an  association  of  part  to  whole,  an  association 
by  contrast,  etc.,  but  as  pointed  out  above  (p.  135),  these 
terms  are  no  more  than  convenient  classifications  of  the 
relations  of  the  things  associated.  In  this  chapter  an  attempt 
has  been  made  to  explain  how  the  associations  actually  do 
take  place  in  the  mind;  what  is  philologically  a  functional 
association  is  psychologically  a  process  not  essentially  dif- 
ferent from  the  other  associations.  The  cases  of  '  agramma- 
tism '  *  are  explainable  as  due  to  weakening  of  the  fundamental 
processes  of  memory  and  association. 

For  instruction  in  language  the  following  conclusions  are 
suggested  by  the  facts  of  this  chapter:  1.  a  word-idea 
should  be  learned  as  parts  of  various  courses  of  thought 
in  order  to  form  the  necessary  language  associations  in 
addition  to  being  learned  separately  in  the  earlier  lessons; 
2.  the  learner  should  make  an  effort  to  actively  produce 
the  complete  idea  with  its  object-memories  and  internal 
word  and  not  rely  on  the  so-called  '  spontaneous  '  rise  of 
the   idea   from   memory;    3.    constant    repetition   is    neces- 

'  Paul,  as  before,  106. 

2  Brugmann,  Griechische  Grammatik,  3.  Aufl.,  224,  Munchen,  1900. 

5  Paul,  as  before  ;  Thumb  und  Marbe,  Experimentelle  Untersuchungen  ii.  d. 
psychol.  Grundlagen  d.  sprachl.  Analogiebildung,  61,  Leipzig,  1901 ;  Oertel, 
Lectures  on  the  Study  of  Language,  156,  New  York,  1901. 

*  Krapelin,  Psychiatrie,  6.  Aufl.,  II,  312,  Leipzig,  1899;  Heller,  Ueber 
Aphasie  bei  Idioten  u.  Imbecillen,  Zt.  f.  Psychol,  u.  Physiol,  d.  Sinn.,  1897  XIII 
181. 


ASSOCIATION  OF  IDEAS  151 

sary;  4.  both  ear  and  eye  should  be  carefully  trained  to 
quick  and  accurate  perception;  5.  the  learner  should  be 
trained  to  associate  the  ideas  and  words  that  actually  occur 
in  the  language  studied  and  to  avoid  other  associations,  that 
is,  as  far  as  possible  to  learn  exclusively  in  the  language 
studied  with  avoidance  of  translating  into  or  thinking  in  the 
native  language;  6.  the  language  instruction  should  be  as- 
sociated as  far  as  practicable  with  surroundings  that  tend  to 
arouse  and  confine  the  thoughts  peculiar  to  the  language, 
as  occurs  by  residence  in  the  region  to  which  the  language 
belongs,  by  appropriate  furnishings  of  the  room,  etc. ;  7. 
words  and  phrases  should  be  associated  as  much  as  possible 
with  objects  or  pictures;  8.  the  most  frequently  needed 
words  of  a  language  should  be  learned  in  as  many  different 
connections  as  may  be  practicable;  9.  the  associations  of 
language  elements  should  be  made  so  firm  that  they  occur 
even  before  the  ideas  reach  full  consciousness ;  10.  owing  to 
the  inability  of  speech  to  keep  up  with  the  rapidity  of  thought, 
the  formation  of  ideophones  should  be  encouraged. 

Repeeences 

For  a  summary  of  data  concerning  association  of  ideas  :  Wundt, 
Grundz,  d.  physiol.  Psychol.,  4.  Aufl.,  Leipzig,  1893 ;  Grundriss  d.  Psychol., 
4.  Aufl.,  Leipzig,  1901 ;  Jodl,  Lehrbuch  d.  Psychol.,  Stuttgart,  1896; 
Ebbinghaus,  Grundz.  d.  Psychol.  Leipzig,  1902  ;  James,  Principles  of 
Psychology,  New  York,  1890  ;  Ladd,  Outlines  of  Descriptive  Psychology, 
New  York,  1898 ;  and  the  various  other  works  on  psychology. 


CHAPTER   XII 

HABITS   OP   ASSOCIATTON 

The  forms  of  association  represent  habits  of  thought  and 
speech.  Some  of  these  forms  are  easier  than  others  for  each 
individual,  community,  language,  etc. 

The  firmness  with  which  ideas  are  associated  may  vary. 
Two  measures  of  firmness  have  been  proposed:  the  recip- 
rocal of  the  time  required,  and  the  relative  frequency. 

The  time  required  for  an  association  may  be  roughly  meas- 
ured by  starting  a  stop  watch  as  the  inducing  word  or 
picture  is  presented,  and  stopping  it  when  the  reply  comes. 
Finer  measurements  may  be  made  by  means  of  chronoscopes 
with  appropriate  connections.  Various  chronoscopes  have 
been  devised  by  Hipp,  Ewald,  D'Aesonval,  and  others ; 
the  pendulum  chronoscope  with  its  attachments  has  been 
specially  constructed  for  work  on  association  and  similar 
problems. 

The  pendulum  chronoscope  (Fig.  65)  contains  in  the  first 
place  an  accurately  adjusted  double-bob  pendulum.  This  is 
held  by  a  catch  at  the  right-hand  side.  In  making  an  experi- 
ment this  catch  is  pressed  noiselessly  and  the  pendulum  starts 
on  its  swing.  It  carries  on  its  lower  bob  a  piece  of  magnet 
iron  that  holds  to  itself  a  light  indicator  in  an  accurately  but 
automatically  adjusted  position.  This  indicator  has  two 
branches,  a  point  passing  in  front  of  the  scale  and  a  flat  piece 
passing  behind  it.  This  indicator  replaces  the  older  hanging 
pointer  shown  in  the  figure.  At  a  definite  instant  the  pen- 
dulum in  its  swing  releases  a  catch  and  thereby  drops  a  shut- 
ter that  covered  an  opening  in  a  screen  at  the  back  of  the 
chronoscope.     Behind  this  screen  there  may  be  a  word  which 


HABITS   OF  ASSOCIATION 


153 


is  exposed  by  the  fall  of  the  shutter.  The  person  experi- 
mented upon  responds  to  this  word  by  repeating  it  or  by 
calling  out  some  association.  A  telegraph  key  held  in  a  clamp 
(fastened  to  the  back  of  a  chair)  is  adjusted  so  that  its  knob 


¥lQ.  65. 


is  pressed  Ughtly  against  the  chin  of  the  subject.  The 
moment  this  knob  is  pressed  a  current  is  sent  through  a 
magnet  under  the  chronoscope  ;  this  releases  a  horizontal  bar 
moving  behind  the  scale.  Since  the  flat  part  of  the  pointer 
swings  between  the  scale  and  this  bar,  it  is  picked  off  the 
pendulum  when  the  bar  snaps.  In  making  the  instrument  a 
zero-mark  is  placed  on  the  scale  plate  at  the  instant  the  shutter 


154  PERCEPTION  OF  SPEECH 

starts  to  fall ;  the  other  divisions  of  the  scale  in  hundredths 
are  so  carefuUy  registered  on  the  scale  plate  that  a  well- 
made  instrument  gives  readings  accurate  to  less  than  half  a 
thousandth  of  a  second.  The  finer  divisions  into  thousandths 
may  be  marked  on  the  scale  or,  preferably,  left  for  the 
eye. 

Behind  the  shutter  there  is  a  wheel  carrying  catches  for 
small  cards  with  words  or  pictures  on  them.  The  subject  is 
seated  so  that  he  can  see  the  shutter-opening  comfortably. 
When  the  subject  is  to  be  placed  in  a  distant  room,  a  break 
contact  attached  to  the  shutter  is  used  to  operate  a  distant 
magnetic  shutter ;  otherwise  the  manipulation  is  the  same. 
For  response  to  a  spoken  word  a  magnetic  release  of  the 
pendulum  is  substituted  for  the  catch  that  usually  holds  it, 
the  pendulum  being  now  at  zero  ;  this  release  is  operated  by 
a  key  under  the  chin  of  the  speaker.  When  the  subject  is 
in  a  distant  room,  the  inducing  word  is  spoken  into  a  tele- 
phone or  a  speaking  tube. 

A  hp  key  or  a  voice  key  may  be  used  in  any  of  these  ex- 
periments in  place  of  the  chin  key.  The  lip  key  ^  is  so  ar- 
ranged that  the  movement  of  the  lips  interrupts  an  electric 
circuit  and  sends  the  current  through  the  chronoscope  mag- 
net. The  voice  key  is  essentially  a  tube  shaped  at  one  end  so 
as  to  fit  closely  over  the  mouth,  and  closed  at  the  other  by  a 
diaphragm  of  leather, ^  metal, ^  or  membrane,*  which  is  agitated 
by  the  vibrations  from  the  mouth.  A  contact  in  the  middle 
of  the  diaphragm  serves  to  interrupt  an  electric  circuit  with 

1  CatteLL,  Psychometrische  Untersuchungen,  Philos.  Stud.  (Wundt),  1886 
III  312  ;  Keapelin,  Ueber  d.  Beeinflussung  psychischer  Vorgange  durch  einige 
Arzueimittel,  Jena,  1892;  MiJLLER  und  Pilzeckee,  as  before,  7. 

2  Cattell,  as  before,  313. 

3  BouDET  DE  Paris,  Des  applications  du  telephone  et  du  microphone  a  la 
physiologic  et  k  la  clinique,  Paris,  1880;  Boddet  de  Paris,  fitude  de  voix  arti- 
cule'e,  Paris,  1880 ;  Sceiptcke,  So>ne  new  apparatus.  Stud.  Yale  Psych.  Lab.,  1895 
III  107  ;  Thinking,  Feeling,  Doing,  53,  New  York,  1901. 

*  RoussELOT,  Les  modijications  phone'tir/nes  du  langage  €tudiees  dans  le  paiois 
d'une,  famille  de  Cellefrouin,  Revuedes  patois  gallo-romans,  1891  IV,  V;  also  sepa- 
rate ;  RoussELOT,  La  methode  graphique  applique'e  h  la  recherche  des  transfor- 
mations inconscientes  du  langage,  Paris,  1891. 


HABITS   OF  ASSOCIATION 


155 


each  vibration.  The  voice  key  shown  in  Fig.  66  has  a  metal 
diaphragm  D  which  touches  the  platinum  point  of  the  ad- 
justable screw  ;iS'  at  the  slightest  agitation ;  the  electric  cir- 
cuit B  with  poles  at  B  and  *S'  is  thus  closed. 

In  using  the  chronoscope  in  this  way  the  latent  time  of  a 
magnet  should  always  be  known.  A  simple  change  of  wires 
from  the  chin-key  to  the  contact  on  the  shutter  causes  the 
chronoscope  to  pick  off  its  own  pointer ;  the  time  registered 
is  that  of  the  action  of  the  magnet,  the  lost  time  of  the  other 
mechanism  having  been  included  in  the  scale-graduation ;  this 
time  is  very  constant  at  0.007'  to  0.009=  according  to  the 
strength  of  the  current  in  relation  to  the  adjustment  of  the 
sensitiveness  of  the  release.     This  adjustment  of  the  release 


Fig.  66. 

is  accomplished  by  a  special  screw  at  one  side  of  the 
apparatus. 

To  find  the  time  required  to  read  a  word  aloud  a  card  with 
that  word  is  inserted  behind  the  shutter ;  the  pendulum  is  re- 
leased ;  the  shutter  drops  at  zero  ;  the  subject  responds  when 
he  sees  the  word;  the  indicator  is  caught  off  at  the  mo- 
ment of  response ;  and  the  time  elapsed  is  read  from  the  scale. 
This  may  be  called  the  time  of  a  visual-motor  word-associa- 
tion. To  find  the  time  of  an  association  of  ideas  the  person 
is  to  call  out  not  the  word  he  sees  but  the  first  other  word 
that  occurs  to  him ;  the  increase  is  called  the  association-time. 

For  each  set  of  experiments  the  average  and  the  im- 
mediate probable  error  are  computed.  This  latter  quantity 
—  of  great  value  as  an  indication  of  stability  in  the  mental 
operation  —  is   calculated  by  finding   the   differences   f i,  v^. 


156  PERCEPTION  OF   SPEECH 

. . .,  v„  between  each  separate  result  asj,  x^,  •  • .,  »„  and  the 
average  a  (that  is,  v-^  =  ojj  —  «,  v^  =^  x^  —  a,  . . .,  v„  =  x„  — 
a),  squaring  the  differences  and  adding  the  squares  (obtaining 
^1^  +  ^2^  +  ■  ■  ■  +  ^3^)'  dividing  the  sum  by  one  less  than  the 
number  of  experiments  (w  —  1),  and  taking  two  thirds  of  the 
square  root  of  the  quotient.  The  complete  process  of  finding 
the  average  and  the  probable  error  from  the  individual  results 
a;j,  x^,  . . .,  x^  is  indicated  by  the  equations 

X-i   -\-  Xif  -\-  ,  ,  ,  -\-  X  ji^ 

a  =  — 

n 

^j=  Xy  —  a,  v^  =  x^—  a,  .  .  .,  v„  =  Xn  —  «, 


»  V}.  —   1 


Among  the  measurements  of  association  time  that  find  their 
application  in  speech  those  of  Traittscholdt,  Cattell  and 
AscHAPPENBTJEG  may  be  mentioned.  The  experiments  were 
not  undertaken  vsdth  any  thought  of  such  an  application  and 
the  data  for  our  purposes  are  not  numerous.  Investigations 
on  the  firmness  of  language  associations,  on  the  influence  of 
alliteration  and  rime,  on  language  habits,  and  similar  topics  are 
still  to  be  made.  The  experiments  by  Teautscholdt  ^  showed 
that  the  quickest  associations  were  those  between  words  used 
in  common  connections  (gold  —  silver,  hght  —  dark).  Cat- 
tell  ^  has  determined  the  time  required  by  two  persons  for 
associations  of  various  kinds ;  some  of  the  averages  are  given 
in  the  table  opposite  for  B,  a  German,  and  C,  an  American. 

The  influence  of  language  habits  is  marked.  The  shortest 
associations  are  those  between  words  of  two  languages.  The 
other  short  associations  such  as  'city  —  its  country,'  'month 

—  its  season,'  '  month  —  following  month  '  '  prominent   man 

—  his  profession '  owe  their  facility  to  the  numerous  repe- 

1  Tkautsoholdt,  Exper,  Untersuchiingen  ilber  d.  Assoc,  d.  Vorstellungen, 
Philos.  Stud.  (Wundt),  1883  I  24L 

^  Cattell,  Psychometrische  Untersuchungen,  Philos.  Stud.  (Wundt),  1886  III 
452,  1888  IV  241. 


HABITS   OF  ASSOCIATION 


157 


titions  that  have  been  heard,  seen  and  made  by  the  person. 
Less  past  familiarity  explains  also  the  longer  time  for  '  month 
—  preceding  month '  and  for  translations  of  the  longer 
■words.  Other  longer  times  as  for  '  language  —  author,' 
'  author  —  one  of  his  works,'  '  class  of  objects  —  some 
example,'  seem  to  be  explainable  only  on  the  supposition 
that  the  first  idea  induces  more  than  one  association,  and 
that  extra  time  is  required  for  one  of  these  to  become  more 
prominent  than  the  other. 

B  C 


letter      ... 
group  of  letters 

picture    

picture 

short  English  word 

long  English  word  . 

short  German  word 

long  German  word  . 

city 

month  .     . 

month 

month     . 

author    . 

prominent  man 

country 

season 

language     .     . 

author    .     . 

class  of  objects 

picture   ... 

adjective 

verb  •     .  .     . 

verb  .     .     . 

Experiments  of  somewhat  different  kind  by  Binet  and 
Hbnki  1  showed  that  the  time  necessary  to  repeat  the  heard 
word  ce"  '  un'  was  0.22^  when  the  word  was  known  before- 
hand, 0.54'  when  it  was  not,  0.78'  when  the  word  was  to  be 
repeated  not  in  the  same  accentuation ;  that  the  time  required 
to  cease  producing  a  continued  sound  at  a  signal  was  0.27'; 
and  to  stop  counting  a  series  of  figures  was  0.34'. 

According  to  Aschapfenbueg^  the  external  associations  — 

1  BiNET  ET  Henki,  Les  actions  d'arret  dans  les  phe'nomenes  de  la  parole, 
Rev.  phil.,  1894,  XXX VII  608. 

2  AsCHAFFENEUEG,  Exper.  Studien  iiber  Associationen,  Psychol.  Arbeiten 
(Kriipelin),  1896  I  209. 


its  name 

0.43" 

0,46' 

the  word     . 

40 

40 

its  name           .... 

47 

54 

its  name  in  a  foreign  Ian 

guage 

64 

69 

German  word 

22 

25 

German  word 

32 

38 

English  word  . 

27 

15 

English  word  .     .     . 

58 

40 

its  country .     .          .     . 

34 

43 

its  season 

41 

31 

following  months      .     . 

34 

38 

preceding  month 

71 

82 

his  language   . 

41 

34 

his  profession           .     . 

45 

35 

one  of  its  cities    . 

38 

34 

one  of  its  months     .     . 

55 

42 

an  author    ... 

68 

52 

one  of  his  works 

108 

68 

some  example 

69 

50 

a  part  of  it      . 

38 

43 

substantive 

85 

33 

subject  . 

81 

51 

object 

61 

35 

158  PERCEPTION  OF  SPEECH 

that  is,  of  objects  connected  in  space  and  time,  or  by  speech 
usages  or  by  similarities  of  sound  —  are  more  common  and  take 
less  time  than  internal  or  logical  associations.  When  a  spoken 
word  is  associated  to  an  auditory  word,  the  connection  may  oc- 
cur directly  or  with  one  or  more  ideas  between  them.^  The 
latter  is  the  most  common  case ;  it  requires  somewhat  more 
time. 

According  to  experiments  made  by  Beegstrom  ^  the  time 
required  for  sorting  a  series  of  cards  into  piles  was  lengthened  if 
they  had  previously  been  sorted  into  piles  differently  arranged, 
or  if  the  different  arrangement  had  been  learned  by  the  eye  or 
the  ear  alone.  This  showed  the  interference  of  a  previous 
habit  with  a  present  activity ;  the  effect  decreased  with  the 
time  that  had  elapsed.  It  presumably  increased  with  the  firm- 
ness of  the  previous  habit.  This  interference  of  an  asso- 
ciation by  a  shortly  preceding  one  is  seen  in  the  difficulty 
of  alternatmg  s  and  s  in  similar  associations  as  in  '  Shall  he 
sell  sea  shells  ?  Shall  she  sell  sea  shells  ? '  and  in  similar 
confusions  for  other  sounds  where  a  group  of  associated 
articulatory  movements  is  to  be  sometimes  varied  by  a  small 
change.  This  phenomenon  may  be  called  '  associative  stam- 
mering ; '  hke  stammering  it  is  due  to  improper  coordination 
of  muscular  movements,  but  the  trouble  arises  from  associative 
interferences  in  thought  and  not  from  defects  of  muscular  con- 
trol. The  term  '  stuttering '  (Lautstottern)  is  hardly  justifi- 
able, as  the  mental  and  physiological  processes  utterly  lack  the 
excessive  innervations  and  muscular  cramps  that  characterize 
stuttering. 

The  interference  of  associations  is  assigned  by  Wheelee  ^ 
as  the  compelling  force  that  may  carry  a  sound-change  from 
one  word  to  another.  For  example,  the  later  habit  of  pro- 
nouncing u  as  ju  in  words  like  'new'  and  'Tuesday'  ac- 

1  Mayer  dnd  Orth,  Zur  qual.  Untersuchung  d.  Association,  Zt.  f.  Psych,  u. 
Phys,  d.  Sinn.,  1901  XXVI  1. 

2  Bergstrom,  Exper.  on  physiol.  memory  by  means  of  the  interference  of  associa- 
tions. Am.  Jour.  Psychol.,  1893  V  356. 

'  Wheeler,  The  causes  of  uniformity  in  phonetic  change,  Trans.  Amer.  Philol. 
Assoc,  1901  XXXII  6. 


HABITS   OF  ASSOCIATION  159 

quired  in  opposition  to  the  earlier  one  of  using  u  may  lead  a 
person  to  extend  the  use  of  ju  to  most  cases  of  u,  as  in  '  tune, 
due,'  etc.,  and  even  in  '  do '  and  '  two.'  The  laws  governing 
such  interfering  associations  might  be  investigated  by  time- 
measurements  according  to  the  methods  of  this  chapter  or 
by  studies  of  the  speech  curves. 

The  firmness  of  an  association  may  be  judged  bydts  frequency. 
No  investigations  have  been  conducted  on  the  frequencies  of 
specific  associations.  Data  concerning  some  such  associations 
have  been  obtained  by  statistics  of  favorite  words,  and  of 
phrases  and  rimes  in  written  works. 

The  most  frequent  forms  of  associations  that  occurred  with 
six  participants  in  my  own  investigations  (p.  136)  are  shown 
in  the  following  table  in  which  the  figures  give  the  number 
of  times  each  form  occurred ;  the  ?  in  the  table  indicates  the 

inability  to  classify  the   association ;   the indicates  '  no 

association.' 

Subjects  : 

S.        N.        D.        H.        R.        K.      Total 
Kind  of  association. 

Picture  — picture  13         61         17         50        70  0        211 

—  sound  0  0  10  0  0  1 
■'       —visual  word                    0           1           5          0          2          3           11 

—  motor  word  37  0         10  .5  0         18  70 
0           4         15           1           4           0           24 

"       _     ■?  23  6  26  2  2           0  59 

Visual  word  —  picture  6  6  9  1  5           0  27 

—  sound  0  0  0  0  0          0  0 
-visual  word  5  9  7  9  3           0  33 

—  motor  word  18  33  6  0  5         10  72 
2  0  3  0  10  6 

—  t  7  3         15  0  0  0  25 

The  table  shows  that  pictures  were  followed  most  fre- 
quently by  memory  pictures,  less  frequently  by  internal  words 
described  as  'words  as  though  spoken'  (motor  words,  or, 
perhaps,  motor-auditory  words)  and  still  less  frequently  by 
visual  words.  Visual  words  were  followed  most  frequently 
by  motor  words,  less  frequently  by  visual  words  (imagined  or 
remembered),  and  still  less  frequently  by  memory  pictures. 

In  experiments  in  which  the  subject  was  required  to  associate 


160  PERCEPTION  OF  SPEECH 

a  word  to  one  that  was  called  out,  Krapelin^  found  that 
substantives  produced  associations  of  substantives  in  90%  of  the 
cases.  MtJNSTEEBEEG^  found  that  substantives  were  an- 
swered by  68%  substantives,  14%  adjectives  and  18%  verbs, 
and  that  adjectives  were  answered  mainly  by  adjectives,  infini- 
tives by  infinitives.  Aschafeenbtjeg  ^  found  that  substan- 
tives were  followed  by  81%  substantives,  6%  adjectives,  and 
10%  verbs. 

According  to  Bourdon  *  words  form  associations  through 
their  meanings  rather  than  through  resemblance  in  sound. 

Experiments  made  by  Gtjicciaedi  and  Ferrari,^  in  which 
a  paper  with  the  five  combinations  He,  eno,  ago,  ondo,  olle  was 
placed  before  each  subject  with  the  instruction  to  write  as 
many  rime-words  as  possible  in  ten  minutes,  showed  for  54 
persons  1347  rimes  by  spontaneous  sound-association,  292  by 
running  over  artificial  combinations  tdl  a  word  was  found,  163 
by  memory  associations  of  past  events,  30  presumably  by  a 
mixture  of  sound-  and  writing-associations,  15  by  visual  asso- 
ciations, —  the  kind  of  association  being  stated  by  each  sub- 
ject himself. 

In  the  experiments  of  Thumb  and  Marbe^  a  word  was 
called  out  and  a  stop-watch,  marking  fifths  of  a  second,  was  set 
going;  upon  the  reply  from  the  subject  the  watch  was 
stopped.  Names  of  personal  relations  (father,  brother,  etc.) 
.  were  answered  80  %  of  the  time  by  names  of  relations  (mother, 
sister,  etc.).  Certain  pairs  of  associations  were  favored  in 
frequency  and  quickness  :  father  —  mother,  mother  —  father, 
son  —  father,   daughter  —  mother,  brother  —  sister,    sister  — 

1  Keapelin,  Ber.  iiber  d.  56.  Versamml.  deutscher  Naturforscher  and 
Aerzte,  Freib.  i/B,  1884  258. 

^  MlJNSTEEBEKG,  Studien  ztir  Associationslehre,  Beitrage  znr  exp.  Psychol., 
1892  IV  32. 

5  Aschaffeneukg,  as  before,  206. 

*  BouEDON,  Succession  des  ph^nomenes  psychologiques,  Eer.  philos.,  189.3 
XXXV  238. 

^  GuicciAEDi  E  Ferkaei,  Di  alcune  associazioni  verbale,  Rivista  Sperimen- 
tale  di  Freniatria,  1897  XXIII  No.  3. 

^  Thomb  und  Maeee,  Experimentelle  Untersuchungen  iiber  d.  psychol. 
Gruudlagen  d.  sprachl.  Analogiebildung,  Leipzig,  1901. 


HABITS   OF  ASSOCIATION  161 

brother,  etc.,  some  of  these  (father  —  mother)  being  more 
regular  than  others  (mother  —  father).  Adjectives  were 
answered  mainly  by  adjectives  of  an  opposed  meaning :  large  — 
small,  old  —  young,  etc.  These  pairs  were  favored  also  in 
quickness.  Pronouns  were  answered  mainly  by  pronouns  in 
certain  favored  pairs  :  he  —  she,  this  —  that,  etc.  Adverbs  of 
place  and  time  were  answered  mainly  by  adverbs  of  the  same 
class  :  where  —  there,  here  —  there,  when  —  then,  to-morrow 
—  to-day,  etc.,  but  with  less  tendency  to  favored  pairs.  A 
numeral  was  generally  answered  by  the  next  higher  numeral : 
one  —  two,  nine  —  ten,  etc.  Verbs  —  interspersed  with  other 
words  —  were  answered  by  52%  substantives,  42%  verbs,  2% 
adjectives  and  4%  scattering.  Some  favored  pairs  appeared : 
give  —  take,  take  —  give,  etc.  "When  the  subject  was  limited 
to  a  verb  as  his  response  to  a  finite  form  of  a  verb,  it  was 
found  that  two  persons  associated  most  frequently  the  anal- 
ogous number-person-tense  form  of  another  verb,  while  two 
others  associated  other  forms  of  the  same  verb.  In  the 
latter  case  the  favored  associations  were  the  next  following 
person,  the  same  form  of  another  tense,  and  the  participle  or 
infinitive. 

In  some  experiments  by  Oeetel  ^  no  such  associations  of 
numerals  were  found. 

On  the  pedagogical  side  it  seems  safe  to  conclude  that 
for  the  practical  use  of  a  language  an  effort  should  be  made 
to  have  the  word-associations  occur  quickly;  that  even  for 
purposes  of  thought  and  general  instruction  the  associations 
between  things  shotild  be  accompanied  by  associations  between 
words;  that  one  aim  of  instruction  should  be  to  form  per- 
manent habits  of  association;  etc. 

Rbfeebnces 

For  description  and  instructions  for  use  of  Hipp  chronoscope :  Wunbt, 
(Jrundzuge  d.  physiol.  Psychol.,  4.  Aufl.,  II  322,  Leipzig,  1893.  For  tests 
of  its  accuracy:  Kulpe  und  Kirsohmann,  Ein  neuer  Apparat  zur  Con- 
irole  zeitmessender  Instrnmente,  Philos.   Stud.   (Wundt),  1893  VIII   145; 

1  Oertel,  Note  on  the  association  of  numerals,  Amer.  Jour.  Philol.  XXII 261. 

11 


162  PERCEPTION  OF  SPEECH 

MiJLLEB  DND  PiLZECKER,  Exper.  Beitrdge  zur  Lehre  vom  Gedachtniss,  Zt. 
f.  Psychol,  u.  Physiol,  d.  Sinn.,  1900,  Erganzungsb.  I  289.  For  manipu- 
lation of  EwALD  chronoscope  :  Gilbert,  Mental  and  physical  development 
of  school-children,  Stud.  Yale  Psych.  Lab.,  189  411  47.  For  description 
and  manipulation  of  D'Arsonval  chronoscope :  Philippe,  Technique  du 
chronomfetre  de  D'Arsonval,  Paris,  1899.  For  description  and  manipula^ 
tion  of  the  pendulum  chronoscope:  Scripture,  Some  new  apparatus,  Stud. 
Yale  Psych.  Lab.,  1895  III  98  ;  Elem.  course  in  psychol.  measurements, 
same,  1896  IV  133;  New  Psychology,  155,  London,  1897;  The  Pendulum 
Chronoscope  (in  preparation). 

For  the  Hipp  and  Ewald  chronoscopes :  Peyer,  Favarger  &  Cie., 
Neuchatel,  Switzerland.  For  apparatus  to  test  the  Hipp  chronoscope  :  Zim- 
MKRMANN,  Leipzig.  For  the  D'Arsonval  chronoscope  :  Verdin,  Paris. 
For  the  pendulum  chronoscope :  Psychological  Laboratory  op  Yale 
University  (made  to  order). 


CHAPTER   XIII 

SPECIAL  ASSOCIATIONS  IN   SPEECH 

Among  the  phenomena  of  speech  that  depend  on  the  asso- 
ciation of  ideas  no  more  easily  investigated  or  more  important 
problems  could  be  selected  than  those  of  syntax.  Although 
the  methods  readily  suggest  themselves,  experimental  work 
can  hardly  be  said  to  have  been  begun  and  the  subject  can 
find  no  treatment  on  the  present  occasion.  A  short  time  ago 
the  same  statements  might  have  been  made  in  regard  to  most 
phonetic  and  linguistic  phenomena  involving  associations  of 
ideas;  some  beginnings  have,  however,  been  recently  made 
by  statistical  and  experimental  methods. 

The  effect  of  more  than  one  center  of  density  (p.  137)  at 
the  same  moment  may  be  seen  in  '  lapses  '  of  speech.^ 

According  to  Meeinger  and  Mayer  the  most  frequent 
lapses  consist  in  exchanges  between  parts  of  a  sentence,  a 
word  or  a  sound  appearing  too  soon  (anticipation)  or  too  late 
(postponement) ;  in  general  two  parts  are  interchanged  that 
have  similar  or  identical  functions.  Among  the  examples 
are  :  '  wertlaut '  for  '  lautwert ; '  '  malarium  plasmodiae  '  for 
'  Plasmodium  malariae  ; '  '  du  leichst  dir  merk  seinen  namen  ' 
for  '  du  merkst  dir  leicht  seinen  namen.'  Words  in  antithesis 
[or  other  favored  associations,  p.  142]  are  specially  liable  to 
exchange :  '  da  steht  der  einsatz  nicht  ftir  den  gewinn.'  In 
most  exchanges  of  words  an  adjective  is  exchanged  for  an 
adjective,    a   substantive   for    a    substantive,   etc.     [that    is, 

1  AvENAEius,  Kritik  d.  reinen  Erfahrung,  II  472,  Leipzig,  1890;  Meringer 
UND  Mayer,  Versprechen  und  Verlesen,  Stuttgart,  1895;  Bawden,  A  study  of 
lapses,  Psychol.  Rev.,  Mon.  Suppl.  Ill  No.  4. 


164  PERCEPTION  OF  SPEECH 

according  to  the  principle  of  favored  associations].  The  ex- 
changes of  syllables  are  not  so  common:  ' gebrecherver- 
hirne '  for '  verbrechergehirne,' '  musikatorisch-deklamatalisch.' 
Vowels  of  nearly  the  same  emphasis  are  specially  subject  to  ex- 
change: 'alabister-bachse'  for  '  alabaster-buchse,'  '  reidflinsch ' 
for  '  rindfleisch.'  Further  frequent  changes  are  found  in  those 
of  initial  consonants  of  syllables  of  approximately  the  same 
emphasis :  '  denile  semenz,'  for  '  senile  demenz '  ['  Kelen 
Heller '  for  '  Helen  Keller '  is  a  case  of  my  own]  ;  and  in  final 
sounds  of  differently  or  similarly  emphasized  syllables :  '  stein- 
beiss  '  for  '  steissbein,'  '  ich  verganz  gass  '  for  '  ich  vergass 
ganz.'  Such  exchanges  do  not  seem  to  occur  at  all  frequently 
between  the  vowels  of  differently  emphasized  syllables,  as 
'  hendla '  for  '  handle,'  or  between  uiitial  and  final  sounds,  as 
'  tug '  for  '  gut.'  It  is  furthermore  notable  that  the  result  of 
such  transposition  is  usually  a  well  known  and  habitual  sound- 
sequence.^ 

The  general  rule  seems  to  be  that  exchanges  occur  only 
between  sounds  equally  important  in  the  particular  case  of 
speech.  'The  sounds  of  internal  speech  are  not  aU  of  the 
same  importance.  With  a  sound  that  is  just  being  spoken 
there  fuse  traces  of  all  those  of  equal  importance  that  are  in- 
tended to  be  spoken  and  also  traces  of  all  past  ones.'  ^  This 
principle  is  proposed  as  the  explanation  of  verbal  lapses,  of 
the  action  of  a  speech  sound  on  those  distant  from  it,  of  the 
similar  phenomena  of  assimilation  and  dissimilation  in  non- 
contiguous sounds,  of  vowel  harmony,  of  exchange,  etc.  In 
associative  effectiveness  the  various  sounds  could  be  arranged 
in  the  descending  order :  1.  initial  sound  of  the  root  syllable, 
initial  sound  of  the  word ;  2.  vowel  of  the  root  syllable,  vowel 
of  a  syllable  with  secondary  emphasis ;  3.  initial  sound  of  an 
unemphatic  syllable  ;  4.  all  other  vowels,  all  other  consonants.^ 

Other  associations  than  those  in  the  particular  spoken 
phrase  are  often  active ;  '  eine  papstliche  enklitika '  for  '  eine 

1  Oektel,  Lectures  on  the  Study  of  Language,  23],  New  York,  1901. 

2  Meeinoer  dnd  Matee,  as  before,  164. 
•'  Meeingee  tiND  Matee,  as  before,  137. 


SPECIAL   ASSOCIATIONS  IN  SPEECH  165 

papstliehe  encyklika,'  by  a  speaker  who  had  written  an  essay 
on  the  '  enchticae.' 

The  scheme  of  possible  transpositions  is  indicated  in  an 
example  (Fig.  67)  where  +  denotes  the  initial  sound  of  an 
emphatic  syllable,  X  the  initial  sound  of  an  unemphatic  syl- 
lable, 4  the  vowel  of  an  emphatic  syllable,  —  the  iinal  sound 
of  an  emphatic  syllable,  0  the  final  sound  of  an  unemphatic 
syllable.  At  the  time  when  the  /  of  faul  has  become  the 
center  of  attention,  the  remainder  of  the  sentence  is  also 
present  in  mind.  The  most  proniinent  sounds  st,  D  and  m 
become  closely  associated  and  may  be  interchanged.  The 
sounds  of  the  second  rank  of  importance  are  au,  aa,  a  and 
ar ;  these  also  become  associated  and  may  be  interchanged. 
Like  associations  may  occur  in  the  third  rank  t,  n,  and  also  in 
the  fourth  rank  I,  te,  ne} 

Etrvas  iat  faul  im   Staate  D^nertiarlts. 

»•»  )  +  6-  +   6  ite  +  6  ■kp  ■*   6  J 


+  o-  +oxe+oxe+OT- 

Fig.  67. 

Instead  of  a  transposition  a  portion  of  speech  may  replace, 
add  itself  to  or  unite  with  another  without  losing  its  own 
place.  This  may  occur  by  anticipation  or  postponement.  Such 
association  occurs  only  between  portions  that  are  complemen- 
tary to  each  other  and  not  between  portions  of  similar  nature, 
for  example,  between  a  root  syllable  and  an  ending  but  not 
between  two  root  syllables.  Cases  of  anticipation  occur  in 
the  various  forms,  '  ungehallt  verhallen '  for  '  ungehort  ver- 
hallen,'  '  funktion  der  geschnelligkeit .  .  .  '  for  '  funktion  der 
schnelligkeit  des  gefiihls,'  '  schlecht  liberlegt  '  for  '  schlecht 
iiberlegt,'  '  wie  ich  um  die  ecke  gekommen  bist,  weist  du  ? ' 
for  ' .  .  .  gekommen  bin.  .  .  . '  The  various  types  of  postpone- 
ment are  to  be  seen  in  the  following  examples :  '  er  wiinscht 
zu    wunschen  '   for   ' .  .  .  zu    wissen,'    '  warenheilkunde  '   for 

1  Meringek  und  Mater,  as  before,  28. 


166  PERCEPTION  OF  SPEECH 

'  warenkunde '  in  a  conversation  concerning  '  heilkunde,' '  stoss 
eines  erdbobens '  for  ' .  .  .  erdbebens,'  '  sozialistische  zekten ' 
for  ' .  .  .  sekten,'  '  wie  ein  botaniker  blumen  sa  .  .  .  '  for  'wie 
ein  botaniker  blumen  sammelt,'  '  bessere  leute  als  er  sind ' 
for  ' .  .  .  er  ist.'  Anticipations  are  more  frequent  with  the 
young ;  postponements  occur  mainly  with  the  old  and  because 
of  fatigue,  rarely  in  energetic  speaking.^  Mbringer  and 
Mayer  are  hardly  correct  in  placing  here  the  cases  like  '  ein 
rechter  dummer  mensch '  for  '  ein  recht  dummer  mensch.' 
They  are  due  rather  to  a  lax  giummatical  coordination  which 
is  often  found  in  colloquial  speech  for  the  more  logical  sub- 
ordinating structure.  A  parallel  case  in  English  is  'now  you 
are  nice  and  dirty '  for  ' .  .   .  nicely  dirty.'  ^ 

Contamination^  is  an  alteration  through  simultaneous  as- 
sociation. In  the  former  case  there  are  two  nearly  equal 
centers  of  density  in  the  stream  of  thought  which  produce  a 
combined  effect.  Typical  examples  were  found  in :  '  hangt 
in  zusammenhang '  from  the  familiar  phrases  '  hangt  zusammen ' 
and  '  ist  in  zusammenhang ; '  '  ich  war  bis  7  uhr  zu  haus  habe 
ich  geschrieben '  from  '  ich  war  bis  7  uhr  zu  haus  '  and  '  bis  7 
uhr  habe  ich  geschrieben  ; '  '  ich  habe  eine  empfohlung  an  sie ' 
for  ' .  .  .  empfehlung  .  .  . '  just  after  hearing  the  words  '  sie 
sind  mir  empfohlen ; '  '  linsengericht '  for  '  linsensystem.'  Such 
contaminations  of  two  lines  of  association  appear  in  '  mixed 
metaphors.' 

The  mental  processes  that  show  themselves  in  lapses  may 
be  assumed  to  be  constantly  active  in  speech  and  to  have 
contributed  to  the  changes  in  language.  It  is  possible  that 
some  actual  lapses  frequently  repeated  may  have  been  imitated 
by  the  community  and  so  passed  into  the  language  (Paul). 
It  is  more  probable  that  the  lapses  confused  the  memory 
images  of  certain  words  so  that  the  speakers  became  uncer- 
tain as  to  the  proper  form  and  finally  adopted  the  new  one. 

As  examples  of  word  forms  that  have  arisen  by  contaminJi- 

1  Meringee  und  Matek,  as  before,  52. 

2  Storm,  Eiiglische  Philologie,  2.  Aufl.,  I  690,  Leipzig,  1896. 

8  Meringer  und  Mayer,  as  before,  .'JS ;  Oertel,  as  before,  170. 


SPECIAL  ASSOCIATIONS  IN  SPEECH  167 

tion  we  may  select  ^  German  '  gewohnt '  from  the  Middle  High 
German  adjective  '  gewon '  and  the  participle  '  gewent '  from 
'wenen,'  gewohnen;  'zu  guter  letzt '  from  'zu  guter  letz 
(Middle  High  German  'letze,'  departure)  and  '  zu  letzt;' 
'■  Fritzens '  for  '  Fritzen,'  under  influence  of  the  common  geni- 
tive ending  '  s ; ' '  gegessen  '  from  '  gezzen '  from  the  feeling  for 
the  usual  extra  prefix  '  ge  '  in  the  participle.  These  cases  indi- 
cate, I  believe,  the  close  connection  between  functional  associ- 
ation (p.  149)  and  the  fusion  of  past  associations.  Examples 
of  phrase  forms  arising  by  contamination  are :  ^  '  das  gehort 
mein '  from  '  das  gehort  mir '  and  '  das  ist  mein ; '  '  I  am  friends 
with  him  '  from  '  I  am  friendly  with  him  '  and  '  we  are  friends ; ' 
'  der  selbe  wie '  from  '  der  selbe  der '  and  '  der  gleiche  wie.' 

The  phenomenon  of  assimilatory  condensation,  as  in  'ein 
kleinernes '  for  '  ein  kleines  schweinernes,'  has  been  called 
'contamination  by  successive  association.'  The  whole 
phrase  is  in  mind  while  it  is  being  uttered;  the  riming  of 
two  of  the  prominent  sounds  causes  an  immediate  transfer  of 
the  center  of  density  from  one  syllable  to  the  other;  in  the 
utterance  the  intervening  sounds  are  slurred  or  omitted.  I 
have  observed  a  related  phenomenon  in  the  case  of  a  child  two 
years  old  who  usually  said  dSteka  for  dadSteka,  mazkot 
for  mamaizkot,  Inbezrum  for  Inbeblzrum  although  the  longer 
forms  were  often  used  also.  Careful  observation  led  me  to 
believe  that  the  omitted  syllables  were  not  simply  dropped 
out  but  were  represented  in  utterance  by  some  very  brief 
sounds  at  the  ends  of  the  preceding  syllables ;  thus  the  glide 
from  z  to  r  in  Inbezrum  seemed  to  differ  from  the  usual 
one  although  I  could  not  hear  any  very  distinct  sound  or 
detect  any  special  b-movement  of  the  lips.  From  the  general 
laws  of  mental  life  and  from  some  experimental  records  of 
speech  sounds  we  would  expect  that  even  with  such  a  con- 
densation of  thought  the  vocal  organs  will  perform  the  usual 
movements  in  a  highly  abbreviated  way  and  produce  what 
might  be  called  rudimentary  sounds.     The  question  can  be 

1  Paul,  Principien  der  Sprachgeschichte,  3.  Aufl.,  U5,  Halle,  1898. 

2  Paul,  as  before,  149. 


168  PERCEPTION  OF  SPEECH 

decided  only  by  experiments.  The  phenomena  seem  related 
to  those  of  haplology  found  in  the  history  of  words,  as  in 
'  nutrix  '  for  '  nutritrix. ' 

It  is  to  be  noted  that  among  the  thousands  of  lapses  in 
German  noted  by  Mbringer  and  Mayer  certain  forms  were 
rare :  exchanges  within  a  group  of  consonants  (only  one  case, 
'  skenien '  for  '  xenien ')  ;  omission  of  letters  except  in  final 
sj'^llables;  omission  of  syllables  that  cannot  be  explained 
by  the  principles  of  association  ('  erste  katorie '  for  '  erste 
kategorie').  Omissions  of  letters  and  syllables  occur,  how- 
ever, constantly  in  ordinary  speech ;  such  phenomena  of  syn- 
cope in  the  history  of  language  have  been  explained  as  the 
results  of  increased  speed  (Brxjgmann)  but  most  of  them  are 
rather  to  be  considered  as  economy  effected  by  condensation. 

Such  effects  of  visual  and  written  lapses  on  a  large  scale 
may  have  occurred  ^  at  the  time  of  the  great  adoption  of 
French  words  into  English ;  thus  the  use  of  n  for  u  in  foreign 
words  may  have  produced  two  forms  of  which  the  incorrect 
one  finally  prevailed.  Thus  the  Old  French  has  '  enhancer.' 
In  Anglo-Norman  the  forms  '  enhancer '  and  '  enhauncer ' 
are  found  which  -^  '  enhaunce '  ->■ '  enliance,'  the  Anglo-Nor- 
man forms  probably  (Koppel)  arising  from  erroneous  writing 
of  n  for  u  in  the  Old  French  form. 

In  the  history  of  language  there  has  been  at  all  times  a 
tendency  to  make  commonly  associated  words  alike  in  fonn. 
Meringer  and  Mayer  would  explain  such  historical  assimila- 
tions in  the  same  way  as  assimilations  that  occur  in  lapses 
(above);  it  may  be  suggested  that  the  principle  of  economy 
by  similarity  may  be  applied  here  as  well  as  to  the  explana- 
tion of  vowel  harmony  (p.  121). 

A  good  illustration  of  the  mental  action  in  assimilation  by 
analogy  is  to  be  found  in  Browning's  word '  gadge '  in  the  lines 

'  The  dead  back-weight  of  the  beheading  axe  ! 
The  glowing  trip-hook,  thumb-screws  and  the  gadge  I ' 
{A  Soul's  Tragedy,  Act  I.) 

1  KopPEL,  Spelling-Pronunciations,  Quellen  u.  Forschungen  zur  Sprach-  a. 
Colturgeschichte,  1901  LXXXIX  1. 


SPECIAL  ASSOCIATIONS  IN  SPEECH  169 

Upon  being  told  that  lie  had  probably  meant  to  write  '  gag ' 
he  replied :  '  Gadge  is  a  real  name,  in  Johnson,  too,  ior  a 
torturing  iron.'  The  word  is  not  given  by  Johnson.  Brown- 
ing probably  ^  had  in  mind  the  form  '  gagge  '  and  had  changed 
it  to  'gadge'  after  analogy  with  'egge,'  'wegge,'  'brigge' 
which  have  become  in  Modern  English  'edge,'  'wedge,' 
'  bridge.' 

The  assimilation  of  a  somewhat  different  word  to  the  form 
of  a  group  with  which  it  is  associated  is  seen  in  the  change  of 
'  October '  to  '  octomber  '  or  '  octember '  to  resemble.  '  Septem- 
ber,' 'november,'  etc.  in  Vulgar  Latin,  Old  French,  Modern 
Greek  and  Slavic.  A  like  assimilation  occurs  in  forming  new 
words  as  '  electrocute '  in  America.  The  coromon  ending  is 
felt  by  the  popular  mind  as  a  suffix  (e.  g.  '  mber,'  '  cute ')  to 
be  added  to  a  class  of  words. 

The  process  of  assimilation  as  a  principle  of  economy  of 
thought  appears  in  the  following  remarks  by  Whitney.^ 
'When  phonetic  corruption  has  disguised  too  much,  or  has 
swept  away,  the  characteristics  of  a  form,  so  that  it  becomes 
an  exceptional  or  anomalous  case,  there  is  an  inclination  to 
remodel  it  on  a  prevailing  norm.  The  greater  mass  of  cases 
exerts  an  assimilative  influence  upon  the  smaller.  Or,  we 
may  say,  it  is  a  case  of  mental  economy  :  an  avoidance  of  the 
effort  of  memory  involved  in  remembering  exceptions  and  ob- 
serving them  accurately  in  practice.  The  formal  distinction 
of  plural  for  singular  was  one  which  our  language  was  never 
minded  to  give  up.  Of  all  the  plural  signs,  the  one  which 
had  the  most  distinctive  character  was  s.  The  attention  of 
the  language-users  became  centered  upon  this  as  an  affix  by 
which  the  plural  modification  of  sense  was  made,  and  then 
proceeded  to  apply  it  in  words  where  it  had  not  before  been 
used ;  and  the  movement,  once  started,  gathered  force  in  its 
progress  until  it  swept  in  nearly  all  the  nouns  of  the  lan- 
guage. So  with  the  verb.  By  the  numerical  predominance 
of  forms  like  loved  from  love,  the  addition  of  a  rf  got  itself  more 

1  KoppEL,  as  before,  39. 

2  Whitney,  Life  and  Growth  of  Language,  75,  New  York,  1875. 


170  PERCEPTION  OF  SPEECH 

conspicuously  associated  with  the  designation  of  past  time; 
and  men  began  to  overlook  the  cases  which  by  right  of  former 
usage  ought  to  be  made  exceptions.'  This  reaction  against 
unusual  forms  and  purposeless  differences  is  seen  constantly 
in  the  history  of  language.^ 

These  phenomena  of  assimilation,  which  seem  closely  re- 
lated to  those  of  functional  assimilation,  are  to  be  explained  in 
much  the  same  way. 

The  principle  of  favored  associations  appears  clearly  in 
various  familiar  examples  of  assimilation  collected  by  Thumb 
and  Maebe.2  Vulgar  Latin  has  '  grevis  '  from  '  gravis  '  by 
association  with  'levis.'  The  influence  of  the  word  for  one 
numeral  on  that  for  the  following  one  is  seen  in  Greek  '  hvai ' 
for  '  hvolv '  influenced  by  '  rptcrl,'  Gothic  '  fidwor  '  for  '  *hwid- 
wor  '  by  '  fimf,'  Lithuanian  '  septyni '  for  '  *septimi '  by 
'  asztuni,'  Latin  '  novem  '  for  '  *  noven '  by  '  decem,'  Lithuanian 
'  devyni '  for  '  *navyni '  by  '  deszimts,'  Slavic  '  deveti '  for 
'  noveti  '  by  '  deseti.'  The  influence  of  adverb-associations 
is  seen  in  the  resemblances  of  forms  in  Gothic  '  hwar,  thar, 
her ; '  Old  High  German  '  wftr,  thftr,  hiar ; '  Anglo-Saxon 
'  thider '  for  '  *th8eder  '  by  '  hider ; '  Middle  High  German, 
'  wannSn,  dannftn,  hinnfin ; '  Modern  Greek  rcopi  (for  rwpa 
'now'),  airo-^i  for  a7roi|fe,  'to-day,'  etc.  The  influence  of 
associated  pairs  of  pronouns  is  seen  in  Greek  i^/^et?  for  *^ya6t9 
by  vfieK,  Modern  Greek  ecrovvov  for  iaov  by  '  avrovvov,'  etc. 
Favored  associations  in  verbs  result  in  assimilative  changes  as 
in  Ital.  '  rendere  '  for  '  reddere '  influenced  by  '  prendere,' 
Port.  '  bebesto  '  from  Lat.  '  bibitus  '  by  '  comesto.'  Assimila- 
tions that  correspond  to  such  associations  are  found  in  '  ich 
frug '  for  '  ich  fragte  '  after  '  ich  trug.' 

Assimilation  by  analogy  may  be  made  to  include  the 
cases  of  change  in  pronunciation  due  to  spelling.  In  re- 
cent times,  when  the  use    of  printed  words  has   become   as 

'  Paul,  Principien  d.  Sprachgeschichte,  Ch.  X.  Isolierung  und  reaction  dage.gen, 
3.  Aufl.,  170,  Halle,  1898. 

2  TunMB  UND  Marbe,  Exper.  Untersuchungen  uber  d.  psychol.  Grundlagfen 
d.  sprachl.  Analogiebildung,  49,  Leipzig,  1901. 


SPECIAL  ASSOCIATIONS  IN  SPEECH  171 

frequent  and  as  important  as  that  of  spoken  words  —  for 
some  people  even  more  frequent  and  important —  there  is 
a  tendency  to  assimilate  spoken  words  to  forms  suggested  by 
the  usual  associations  of  sounds  to  spelling.  It  is  to  this  influ- 
ence that  we  may  ascribe  some  of  the  variations  of  American 
pronunciation  in  different  parts  of  the  country.  A  simi- 
lar tendency  appears  in  Northern  British  English.  '  [The 
North]  is  much  less  tolerant  of  pronunciations  which  go 
against  the  normal  force  of  the  spelling,  such  as  the  z  in 
.  .  .  discern,  dishonour,  sacrifice,  abscission,  transition.'  ^  In 
England  the  pronunciation  of  many  words  has  been  influenced 
by  the  spelling ;  a  summary  of  the  cases  has  been  given  by 
KoPPEL ;  2  an  illustrative  case  is  that  of  h.  '  Initial  h,  which 
was  preserved  through  First  and  Second  Modern  EngUsh, 
began  to  be  dropped  at  the  end  of  the  last  century,  but  has 
now  been  restored  in  Standard  English  by  the  combined  in- 
fluence of  the  spelling  and  of  the  speakers  of  Scotch  and  Irish 
English.'  ^  The  restoration  in  Southern  English  has  occurred 
completely  in  a  series  of  words*  such  as  'hereditary,  hos- 
pital, hostile,  humility,  habit,  hebrew,  hermit,  homage,  hori- 
zon, hosanna,  host,  hostage.'  In  some  words  like  'hostler, 
herb,  humble,  humor,'  the  h  is  sometimes  omitted,  although 
this  practice  is  decreasing.  In  '  heir,  honest,  honor,  hour,'  the 
h  is  completely  dropped.  In  America  the  restoration  is  com- 
plete and  the  initial  h  of  stressed  words  is  never  dropped 
except  in  'heir,  honest,  honor,  hour'  and  some  derivatives. 
Even  in  unstressed  syllables  the  American  seldom  drops  the 
initial  h  although  he  may  weaken  it.  Such  pronunciations  as 
anotel  for  'a  hotel,'  3nistorikl  for  'a  historical'  are  not  used 
in  ordinary  speech ;  the  spellings  '  an  hotel '  and  '  an  histori- 
cal '  which  are  sometimes  used  in  American  books  to  conform 
to  British  spellings,  do  not  represent  —  as  they  do  in  England 
—  the  actual   pronunciation;   an  American   would   :fead  'an 

1  Lloyd,  Primer  of  Northern  English,  31,  Marburg,  1899. 

2  KopPEL,  Spetlinff-Pronunciations,  Quellen   u.    Forsch.    zur  Sprach-  u.    Cul- 
turges,  1901  LXXXIX  1. 

"  Sweet,  New  Engl.  Grammar,  280,  Oxford,  1892. 
*  KopPEL,  as  before,  4. 


172  PERCEPTION  OF  SPEECH 

hotel '  as  an  hotel  or,  rather,  aen  hotel  and  would  feel  it  as  a 
foreign  oddity.  It  is  to  be  noted  that  the  rough  American  h 
is  quite  a  different  sound  from  the  faint  Southern  English  h 
and  that  it  cannot  be  dropped  without  making  a  much  greater 
change  in  the  impression  on  the  ear.^ 

When  a  sound  or  a  group  of  sounds  is  perceptibly  like 
another,  this  other  may  be  brought  by  association  more  or  less 
into  mind,  with  possible  interruption  of  the  course  of  thought. 
This  effect  is  produced  by  alliteration  and  rime  in  verse  for 
just  that  purpose.  It  is  offensive  in  prose  when  noticed 
because  it  interrupts  the  succession  of  ideas.  This  is  probably 
the  reason  why  the  English  language  does  not  like  the  im- 
mediate repetition  of  any  emphatic  word.  It  is  possibly  also 
the  cause  of  •  such  harmonic  dissimilation  of  sounds  as  in 
Latin  'Solaris'  for  '  solalis,'  'sepulcrum'  for  '  sepulculum,' 
'  meridies  '  for  '  medidies  ; '  Greek  eT€0r]v  for  edidrjv,  Tidrjfjn 
for  dlOr^ixi ;  Spanish  '  arbol  '  from  '  arborem  ; '  French  '  ros- 
signol'  from  '  lusciniolam.'  The  loss  of  consonants  or  of 
syllables  may  occur  also  for  the  same  reason.  The  peculiar- 
ities of  the  cases  in  which  these  phenomena  occur  perhaps 
depend  on  the  degree  with  wliich  the  similarity  attracts 
attention. 

In  many  of  the  lapses  the  tendency  to  dissimilation  is 
clear;  it  is  to  be  noted  that  in  the  conversational  speech  of 
to-day  blunders  are  sometimes  found  when  the  conditions  are 
the  same  as  those  that  in  the  history  of  language  produced 
dissimilations  of  sounds  or  syllables.^  It  may  be  possible, 
however,  to  explain  some  dissimilations  on  the  principle  of 
mental  economy  (p.  122).  Just  what  relation  this  principle 
bears  to  lapses  is  not  clear.  Many  of  the  phenomena  of 
dissimilation  are  still  obscure.^ 

The  explanations  of  Meringee  and  Mayek  seem  to  apply 
clearly  to  one  form  of  metathesis,  namely,  that  where   two 

1  Shaw,  Three  Plays  for  Puritans,  314;  quoted  in  Oertel,  Lectures  on  the 
Study  of  Language,  239,  New  York,  1901. 

2  IMeringer  und  Mayer,  as  before,  v. 

'  Oertel,  Lectures  on  tlie  Study  of  Language,  208,  232,  New  York,  1901. 


SPECIAL  ASSOCIATIONS  IN  SPEECH  173 

more  or  less  distant  sounds  change  their  places,  as  Latin 
'  crocodilus '  -*  Middle  High  German  '  kokodrille,'  Italian 
'  glorioso '  -*  dialectic  '  grolioso,'  Latin  '  periclum '  ->•  Span- 
ish 'peligro.'  Metathesis  of  neighboring  sounds  ^  as  Anglo- 
Saxon  '  fix  '  =  Old  High  German  '  fisc,' '  first '  =  '  frist,'  seems 
to  find  little  analogy  in  lapses;  Meeingbr  and  Mayer ^ 
found  only  one  case  in  their  records.  I  find  one  ('  wist '  for 
'wits  ')  in  Bawden's  list  ■'in  which  two  neighboring  sounds 
are  exchanged.  Michels's  *  explanation  of  Indger.  '  *pot- 
men '  ->  '  ptomen '  as  having  arisen  by  widely  spread  lapses 
seems  difficult  to  accept.  Under  the  influence  of  a  printed  word 
where  the  elements  are  perceived  simultaneously  it  might  well 
occur  that  two  neighboring  elements  should  exchange  places 
in  the  spoken  word,  as  in  tlie  actual  case  of  '  frith '  for  '  firth  ' ; 
but  the  change  of  order  in  a  succession  of  auditory  and  motor 
elements,  as  '  fiks  '  for  '  fisk,'  is  a  speech  phenomenon  whose 
fundamental  psychological  principles  have  not  yet  been 
investigated.  A  suggestion  may  be  found  in  the  fact  that  an 
idea  includes  a  group  of  elements  extending  over  a  region  of 
time ;  considered  in  this  way  the  cases  do  not  differ  funda- 
mentally from  those  of  metathesis  of  distant  sounds. 

The  subject  of  associative  interference  in  speech  should  be 
attacked  by  experimental  methods.  Phenomena  that  show 
themselves  strikingly  to  cursory  observation  will  be  found  — 
according  to  a  well-established  psychological  principle  —  to 
occur  regularly  in  minor  degrees  in  all  persons.  By  meas- 
urements of  the  increase  of  time  in  speaking  a  phrase  when 
the  subject  hears  or  has  just  heard  an  interfering  association 
the  nature  of  the  fundamental  process  might  be  investigated. 
The  experimental  conditions  are  not  hard  to  arrange.  In  this 
way  the  incipient  stages  of  verbal  lapses  might  be  traced  by 
the  differences  in  time. 

Measurements  of  association-time  may  perhaps  be  used  to 

1  Paul,  Principien  der  Sprachgeschichte,  59. 

2  Mekinger  und  Mateb,  as  before,  vii. 

'  Bawden,  a  study  of  lapses,  111,  Paychol.  Rev.,  Mon.  Suppl.,  Ill,  No.  4. 
*  MiCHELS,  Metathesis  im  Indogermanischen,  Indogerm.  Forsclmngen,  1894  IV 
•62. 


174  PERCEPTION  OF  SPEECH 

study  the  effect  of  the  emotional  tinge  on  the  use  and  fate  of 
words,  the  stages  of  expansion  and  contraction  in  the  meaning 
of  a  word,  the  disturbance  of  the  meaning  of  one  word  by  a 
change  in  that  of  another,  and  various  other  special  associa^ 
tions  in  speech. 

Repeeences 

For  effect  of  association  of  ideas  in  speech  :  Wundt,  Vblkerpsychologie, 
I,  Leipzig,  1901 ;  Paul,  Principien  d.  Sprachgeschichte,  3.  Aufl.,  Halle, 
1898;  Oeetel,  Lectures  on  the  Study  of  Language,  New  York,  1901. 
For  summary  of  the  phenomena  of  analogy :  Wheeler,  Analogy  and  the 
scope  of  its  application  in  language,  Cornell  Studies  in  Classical  Philology, 
1887  I.  For  problems  of  syntax  based  on  association  of  ideas  (with 
references  to  older  literature)  :  Wundt,  Vblkerpsychologie,  I,  Leipzig, 
1900;  Delbruck,  Grundfragen  d.  Sprachforschung,  Strassburg,  1901; 
Wundt,  Sprachges.  u.  Spraehpsychol.,  Leipzig,  1901 ;  Morris,  On  Prin- 
ciples and  Methods  in  Syntax,  New  York,  1901. 


CHAPTER  XIV 

rOEMATION   OF   SPEECH    ASSOCIATIONS 

Learning  a  language  consists  to  a  large  extent  in  forming 
associations  among  ideas  and  words.  The  determination  of 
the  best  methods  of  doing  this  should  be  one  of  the  chief 
objects  of  experimental  phonetics. 

When  experiments  are  made  to  determine  the  influence  of 
one  factor  in  a  method,  all  other  factors  must  be  kept  constant. 
The  skill  of  the  experimenter  is  mainly  involved  in  attempt- 
ing this,  and  the  accuracy  of  the  results  depends  on  the  degree 
of  approximation  to  this  condition.  The  disagreements  of  the 
results  of  various  investigators  are  generally  due  to  lack  of  ac- 
curacy in  this  respect ;  the  results  of  the  less  accurate  experi- 
ments are  to  be  rejected  in  favor  of  those  of  more  accurate 
ones.  With  the  progress  of  the  science  and  the  development 
of  its  technique  the  accuracy  steadily  increases. 

When  it  is  desired  to  determine  the  facts  of  association 
depending  on  the  forms  of  speech  and  not  on  the  meaning,  ex- 
periments may  be  made  with  symbols,  such  as  meaningless 
syllables,  figures,  or  signs.  Syllables  come  most  closely  to 
the  actual  conditions  of  language ;  their  preparation  requires 
considerable  care  in  order  to  make  the  conditions  alike 
in  different  experiments.  The  various  series  of  syllables 
should  be  built  as  equally  as  possible.  The  'normal'  series 
of  MuLLER  and  Schumann  ^  consisted  each  of  12  syllables 
made  in  the  following  way.  The  letters  h,  d,  f,  g,  h,  j,  k,  I,  m, 
n,p,  r,  s,  t,  w,  z,  sch  representing  17  initial  consonant  sounds  in 
German  were   written   on   small  pieces  of   cardboard.     The 

1  MuLLER  UND  ScHUMAiTN,  Exper.  Beitrdge  zur  Untersuchung  d.  Geddchtnisses, 
Zt  f.  Psychol,  u.  Physiol,  d.  Sinn.,  1893  VI  19. 


176  PERCEPTION  OF  SPEECH 

pieces  were  mixed  in  a  box.  Likewise  a  similar  collection 
aa,  a,  e,  i,  o,  u,  a,  o,  u,  au,  ei,  eii,  for  the  vowels  and  diph- 
thongs and  a  third  collection  /,  h,  I,  m,  n,  p,  r,  s,  t,  z,  ch,  sch 
for  the  final  consonants  were  arranged.  To  form  a  syllable 
one  card  was  drawn  by  chance  from  each  box ;  the  cards 
were  not  replaced  in  the  box.  In  this  way  12  totally  different 
syllables  were  obtained ;  for  example,  baup,  teir,  sohos,  mal,  etc. 
In  case  two  successive  syllables  had  similar  contiguous  con- 
sonants or  formed  a  word,  the  order  of  the  syllables  was 
changed;  certain  objectionable  combinations  were  avoided. 
The  method  may  be  readily  applied  to  any  language. 

The  symbols,  syllables,  words  or  pictures  to  be  learned  may 
be  presented  to  the  eye  by  holding  up  or  turning  over  cards 
successively  at  regular  intervals,^  or  by  placing  each  behind 
a  shutter  which  opens  for  a  definite  time  at  definite  intervals  ^ 
(p.  136),  or  by  placing  them  on  the  surface  of  a  revolving 
cylinder  which  shows  each  for  a  given  time  as  it  passes  before 
an  opening  in  a  screen.^  The  first  of  these  methods  is  very 
convenient.  Special  care  is  required  in  keeping  the  condi- 
tions constant.  The  cards  must  be  shown  evenly  at  a  defi- 
nite rate.  The  use  of  a  revolving  cylinder  renders  it  possible 
to  obtain  a  constant  rate  of  exposure ;  the  movement  of  the 
syllable  while  it  is  seen  is  somewhat  disturbing.  The  ideal 
method  would  be  a  strip  of  syllables  jerked  forward  and  ex- 
posed by  a  mechanism  similar  to  that  of  a  kinetoscope,  or  a 
drum  with  syllables  moved  by  an  intermittent  gear  connected 
witli  a  shutter  over  the  exposure  opening. 

As  tests  for  the  formation  of  associations  among  series  of 
syllables,  the  following  ones  have  been  employed. 

The  test  of  first  complete  formation  consists  in  going  over 
the  syllables  until  the  set  can  be  repeated  at  a  definite  rate 

1  Ebbinghaus,  Ueber  das  Gedachtniss,  Leipzig,  1885. 

2  ScKiPTURE,  Ueber  d.  qual.  Verlauf  d.  Yorstellungen,  Phllos.  Stud.  (Wuudt), 
1891  VII  50. 

'  MiJLLER  UND  Schumann",  Exper.Beitrdge  :ur  Untersuchung  d.  Gedachtnisses, 
Zt.  f.  Psychol,  u.  Physiol,  d.  Sinn.,  1900  VI  81 ;  Muller  cnd  Pilzecker,  Exper. 
Beitrdge  zur  Lehre  vom  Gedachtniss,  Zt.  f.  Psychol,  u.  Physiol,  d.  Sinn.,  1900 
Ergauzungsb.  I  99. 


FORMATION  OF  SPEECH  ASSOCIATIONS  177 

correctly  from  a  given  one  for  the  first  time  without  hesita- 
tion and  with  a  consciousness  of  correctness.^  They  should 
be  read  each  time  from  beginning  to  end  and  not  learned  in 
portions;  the  learner  attempts  as  soon  as  possible  to  an- 
nounce the  next  syllable  before  it  is  seen  and  in  case  of 
success  to  continue  the  announcement  from  memory  with- 
out looking  at  the  syllables  ;  upon  any  hesitation  the  remain- 
der of  the  series  is  read  through  as  usual ;  when  the  whole 
series  is  first  repeated  correctly  from  memory,  it  is  considered 
as  having  been  learned;  the  number  of  repetitions  (also  the 
length  of  time)  required  is  taken  as  the  measure  of  the  work 
involved. 

Another  test  consists  in  recording  the  number  of  syllables 
that  can  be  reproduced.  The  subject  may  be  left  free  during 
a  given  time  to  recall  in  any  way  he  can  as  many  syllables  as 
possible,  or  a  syllable  may  be  shown  him  and  the  next  one 
required,  or  his  method  of  recollection  may  be  regulated  in 
some  other  way. 

A  third  test  may  be  made  by  measuring  the  time  required 
for  a  person  to  recall  the  syllable  following  one  shown  him, 
that  is,  the  time  of  association  (p.  155).  He  may  be  instructed 
to  give  the  following  syllable  as  quickly  as  possible,  whether 
he  is  perfectly  sure  or  not,  and  to  use  the  word  '  no  '  in  case 
he  feels  that  he  has  forgotten  the  right  one.^ 

The  maintenance  of  constant  internal  conditions  is  impor- 
tant. Maximum  attention  may  be  approximately  obtained  by 
requiring  the  syllables  to  be  learned  as  rapidly  as  possible; 
rest  is  attained  by  pauses  between  series ;  the  same  hour  of 
the  day  is  employed  for  experiments  that  are  to  be  compared ; 
the  manner  of  living  is  changed  as  little  as  possible;  the  in- 
voluntary tendency  to  rhythmic  emphasis  is  regulated  by 
adoption  of  some  one  form.^  Learning  in  trochaic  rhythm 
has  been  adopted  in  several  investigations.* 

1  Ebeinghaus,  as  before,  31. 
^  MiJLLEE  UND  PiLZECKEK,  as  before,  8. 
8  Ebbinghaus,  as  before,  34. 

*  MuLLEK  UND  ScHOMANN,  as  before  ;  Mulleb  und  Pilzecker,  as  before. 

12 


178  PERCEPTION  OF  SPEECH 

In  conducting  experiments  where  the  number  of  successes 
is  compared  with  the  total  number  of  the  trials,  it  is  necessary 
to  follow  the  established  methods  of  statistics ;  there  must  be 
exact  definition  and  treatment  of  the  countable  unit;  there 
must  be  careful  investigation  of  the  lavfs  of  probability  in- 
volved ;  and  accurate  determination  of  the  degrees  of  trust- 
worthiness to  be  attached  to  the  results.^  Many  of  the 
mathematical  methods  that  have  led  to  discoveries  in  biology 
will  prove  of  value  in  the  problems  of  memory. 

Ebbinghaus's  experiments  have  shown  that  the  number 
of  repetitions  required  for  learning  different  series  of  mean- 
ingless syllables  increases  at  first  slowly,  then  rapidly,  and 
finally  less  rapidly,  as  the  series  are  longer ;  that  each  repetition 
of  a  series  saves  the  same  amount  of  labor  in  relearning  it  at 
a  later  time  ;  that  the  memory  effect,  as  judged  by  the  saving 
in  relearning  a  series  at  a  later  time,  decreases  as  the  logarithm 
of  the  elapsed  time ;  that  when  many  repetitions  are  necessary 
it  is  more  advantageous  to  scatter  them  over  a  considerable 
time  than  to  do  them  at  once ;  that  members  of  a  series  of 
syllables  become  associated  not  only  with  the  adjacent  ones 
but  also  with  the  others.^ 

JoST  ^  has  shown  that  the  repetition  of  an  association  adds 
the  more  to  its  firmness  the  longer  the  time  it  occurs  after 
the  association  is  first  formed;  the  result  is  seen  in  the 
greater  effectiveness  of  spreading  the  repetitions  of  an  asso- 
ciation over  long  intervals  as  compared  with  bunching  them. 
This  seems  to  indicate  that  in  learning  a  language,  if  the 
number  of  possible  repetitions  is  limited,  as  by  the  number  of 
lessons,  the  repetitions  should  occur  at  the  longest  possible 
intervals. 

The   experiments   of   Mulleb   and  Pilzeckek*   showed 

^  ScKiPTnRE,  New  Psychology,  Ch.  II,  Statistics,  London,  1897  ;  EBBiNGHAns, 
Ueber  d.  Gedachtniss,  Leipzig,  1885. 

^  Some  of  Ebbinghaus's  tables  and  curves  are  reproduced  in  Scriptuke, 
New  Psychology,  Ch.  XII,  London,  1897. 

8  JosT,  Die  Associationsfestiglceit  in  Hirer  Abhangigkeit  v.  d.  Verteilung  d. 
Wiederholungen,  Zt.  f.  Psychol,  u.  Physiol,  d.  Sinn.,  1897  XIV  43S. 

*    MtJLLER  UND  PiLZKCKER,  aS  befoTC,   194. 


FORMATION  OF  SPEECH  ASSOCIATIONS  179 

that  the  number  of  correctly  reproduced  syllables  increased 
with  the  number  of  repetitions ;  that  the  time  T^  for 
associating  the  correct  syllable  decreased  slightly ;  that  the 
time  Tf  for  associating  the  wrong  syllable  (when  that 
occurred)  increased ;  that  the  time  T^  of  saying  '  no  '  on  not 
being  able  to  remember  the  syllable  also  increased ;  that  in  all 
cases  y^  <  2}  <  T^;  that  under  equal  circumstances  the  time 
of  response  increased  with  the  time  that  had  elapsed  since 
the   formation  of   an  association. 

The  associations  in  a  series  of  syllables  are  weaker  if  the 
learning  of  the  series  is  immediately  followed  by  active 
attention  to  some  other  work.  Syllables  that  have  already 
been  associated  with  certain  others  are  more  difficult  to  bring 
into  new  associations,  but  their  use  in  forming  the  new  asso- 
ciations strengthens  the  older  ones.^ 

The  number  of  words  that  can  be  remembered  in  the 
form  of  connected  phrases  is  very  many  times  that  of  dis- 
connected words ;  the  most  important  words  in  phrases  are 
best  remembered;  in  short  phrases  the  number  of  replace- 
ments of  the  original  word  by  a  synonym  is  greater  than  the 
number  of  words  forgotten ;  in  long  phrases  it  is  less ;  for 
phrases  of  more  than  20  words  there  was,  among  more  than 
half  the  pupils  tested,  a  slight  alteration  of  the  sense  of  the 
phrase  when  reproduced.^ 

Arrangement  of  the  material  in  rhythmic  groups  aids  in 
fixing  associations.  For  meaningless  syllables  the  trochaic 
rhythm  seems  most  favorable  for  Germans ;  ^  individual 
preferences  are  found.* 

According  to  observations  made  by  -Smith,®  in  which  per- 
sons were  required  to  learn  a  series  of  figures  in  20  seconds, 
the  slower  the  readings  the  better  the  memory,  the  percent- 
age of  mistakes  being  3.3%  for  one  reading  lasting  over  the 

1  MuLi.ER  UND  Schumann,  as  before,  177,  318. 

2  BiNET  ET  Henki,  M€moin  des  phrases,  Annee  psychologique,  1895  I  24. 

3  MiTLLEB  UND  SCHUMANN,  as  before,  IS,  257. 

*  Smith,  Rhi/thmus  und  Arbeit,  Philos.  Stud.  (Wundt),  1900  XVI  197. 
^  Smith,  On  muscular  memory,  Amer.  Jour.  Psychol.,  1896  VI  453. 


180 


PERCEPTION  OF  SPEECH 


given  time,  4.2%  for  two  in  the  same  time,  5.5%  for  three, 
and  6.5%  for  four.  Memorization  was  said  to  be  aided  by- 
speaking  in  a  loud  tone. 

The  methods  of  learning  quantities  of  language  have  been 
investigated  by  Stbfpens.  ^  The  usual  method  of  learning  a 
stanza  of  poetry,  consists  in  repeating  the  lines  in  various 
groups.  The  variations  in  the  repetitions  followed  by  differ- 
ent persons  in  learning  a  strophe  of  Byron's  Bon  Juan 
were  indicated  by  Steffens  in  the  following  manner. 


1.  To  horse !  to  horse  !  he  quits  forever  quits 

2.  A  scene  of  peace,  though  soothing  to  his  soul ; 

3.  Again  he  rouses  from  his  moping  fits, 

4.  But  seeks  not  now  the  harlot  and  the  bowl. 

5.  Onward  he  flies,  norjix'd  as  yet  the  yoal 

6.  Where  he  shall  rest  him  on  his  pilgrimage ; 

7.  And  o'er  him  many  changing  scenes  must  roll 

8.  Ere  toil  his  thirst  for  travel  can  assuage, 

9.  Or  he  shall  calm  his  breast,  or  learn  experience  sage. 


I     I 


_L 


II 


I  I 


This  indicates  that  the  person  read  the  first  two  lines  in 
succession,  then  repeated  them,  then  read  the  first  four  lines, 
then  repeated  them,  then  read  the  third  and  fourth,  then 
read  the  first  six,  but  repeated  the  words  'and  the  bowl '  an 
extra  time,  etc.  The  division  of  such  a  strophe  into  portions 
differed  with  each  individual,  but  the  general  principle  of 
learning  by  portions  was  always  followed.  Steffens  then 
had  strophes  of  verse,  series  of  syllables,  etc.,  learned  by  the 
same  persons  in  two  different  ways :  1.  as  the  person  chose, 
that  is,  by  portions ;  2.  by  repeating  the  whole  material  each 
time  from  beginning  to  end;  the  results  without  exception 
showed  a  great  economy  in  the  second  method.  This  advan- 
tage of  the  totality  method  over  the  sectional  method  was 
clearly  and  definitively  established  for  material  of  practically 
constant  character,  the  common  prejudice  in  favor  of  the  sec- 


1  Steffens,    Exper.    Beitrdge   zur  Lehre    vom    okonomischen    Lernen,   Zt. 
Psychol,  u.  Physiol,  d.  Sinn.,  1900  XXII  321. 


FORMATION  OF  SPEECH  ASSOCIATIONS  181 

tional  method  being  shown  to  be  unfounded.  In  view  of  the 
possible  extensive  application  of  this  principle  to  the  most 
varied  subjects  of  teaching,  the  experiments  should  be  ex- 
tended to  such  problems  as  the  learning  of  a  vocabulary,  the 
learning  of  phrases,  etc.  The  principle  seems  to  indicate,  for 
example,  that,  if  25  pages  of  a  foreign  language  are  to  be  com- 
mitted to  memory,  the  work  should  not  be  done  in  sections, 
but  that  the  whole  should  be  gone  over  completely  each 
time  until  learned.  If  the  principle  holds  good,  the  state- 
ment 1  cannot  be  accepted  that '  Economy  teaches  us  to  begin 
with  as  small  a  vocabulary  as  possible,  and  to  master  that 
vocabulary  thoroughly  before  proceeding  to  learn  new  words. ' 

Experiments  have  shown  ^  that  under  equal  conditions  a 
firmer  association  is  made  between  a  picture  and  a  printed 
word  than  between  two  printed  words,  and  that  the  learning 
of  foreign  words  is  aided  by  placing  pictures  rather  than 
translations  beside  them.  This  principle  has  been  used  as 
an  aid  in  various  methods  of  instruction  (Combnius)  and  has 
been  adopted  into  most  books  for  early  lessons  in  the  native 
language.  Its  application  to  the  teaching  of  modern  foreign 
languages,  though  comparatively  recent,  has  been  found  to 
be  highly  successful.  No  systematic  attempt  appears  to  have 
yet  been  made  to  introduce  it  into  the  teaching  of  the  ancient 
languages. 

Experiments  by  MtJNSTEEBEEG  and  Bigham  ^  seem  to  indi- 
cate that  for  figures  the  visual  memory  is  superior  to  the 
auditory,  and  that  both  combined  give  still  better  results. 

In  experiments  by  Ktrkpatrick,*  ten  short  words  were 
pronounced  to  379  school  and  college  pupils,  ten  other  words 
on  a  blackboard  were  exposed,  and  finally  ten  objects  were 
shown,  all  at  the  same  rate  of  one  in  two  seconds.  Immedi- 
ately after  each  set  was  finished  the  pupils  wrote  as  many  as 
they  could  remember ;  three  days  later  they  again  wrote  all 

1  Sweet,  The  Practical  Study  of  Languages,  110,  New  York.  1900. 

'^  Scripture,  Education  as  a  science,  Pedagog.  Sem.,  1892  II  111. 

8  MuNSTERBBRG  AND  BiGHAM,  Memory,  Psychol.  Kev.,  1894  I  34. 

^  KiEKPATRiCK,  An  experimental  study  of  memory,  Psychol.  Eev.,  1894  I  602. 


182  PERCEPTION  OF  SPEECH 

that  they  could  remember.  The  average  numbers  of  items 
remembered  immediately  were  6.9,  6.9,  8.3  respectively,  indi- 
cating the  more  efficient  action  of  objects ;  the  average  num- 
bers of  words  correctly  remembered  after  three  days  were  0.9, 
1.9,  6.3,  showing  a  surprisingly  great  superiority  of  the  mem- 
ory for  objects.  The  value  of  objects  for  forming  firm  asso- 
ciations probably  depends  on  the  much  greater  impression  they 
make.  In  another  set  of  experiments  on  other  pupils  the 
figures  were  7.3,  7.8,  8.0  for  immediate  memory  and  1.8,  0.5, 
3.5  after  an  interval  of  three  days.  In  order  to  determine  to 
what  extent  the  power  to  recognize  completely  or  partially 
might  remain  when  the  limit  of  recalling  had  been  reached, 
the  words  for  the  thirty  original  items  were,  at  the  end  of  the 
experiment  on  the  third  day,  mixed  with  fifteen  other  words, 
the  pupil  being  required  to  pick  out  the  correct  ones.  The 
average  results  were  3.8,  2.7,  6.0  placed  in  the  correct  lists, 
the  ability  to  recognize  being  greater  than  the  ability  to 
recall. 

Series  of  meaningless  syllables  are  generally  more  quickly 
learned  when  presented  to  the  eye  than  to  the  ear,  but  are 
apparently  not  more  firmly  fixed  in  memory.^ 

Experiments  on  the  methods  of  forming  associations  among 
the  elements  of  words  have  been  made  by  Lay.^  According 
to  Lay  every  didactic  theory  or  hypothesis  has  its  import- 
ance, but  a  feeling  of  insecurity  is  attached  to  it  because  it 
presents  deductions  from  deductions  and  is  far  removed  from 
the  certainty  of  direct  scientific  experience;  principles  that 
are  to  be  valid  for  the  practical  arrangement  of  a  subject  for 
teaching  must  have  as  high  a  degree  of  certainty  as  possible ; 
the  various  methods  proposed  must  be  tested  by  accurate 
scientific  experiments.  Lay's  experiments  in  teaching  the 
spelling  of  meaningless  words  showed  that  the  thoroughness 
of  learning  a  certain  number  of  words  depended  on  the  method 

1  Whitehead,  A  study  of  visual  and  aural  memory  processes,  Psychol.  Rev., 
1896  III  258. 

'  Lay,  Fiihrer  durch  den  Rechtschreibnnterricht,  2.  Aufl.,  Wiesbaden,  1899  ; 
Didahtisch-psychologisches  Experiment,  Rechtschreiben  und  Rechtschreibunterricht, 
Zt.  f.  pad.  Psychol,  u.  Pathol.,  1900  II  95. 


FORMATION  OF  SPEECH  ASSOCIATIONS  183 

employed ;  simple  hearing  (dictation  by  the  teacher)  resulted 
in  an  average  of  3.04  errors  per  pupil;  hearing  with  soft 
verbal  repetition  by  the  pupil,  2.69;  hearing  with  loud  repeti- 
tion, 2.25;  simple  seeing,  1.22;  seeing  with  soft  verbal 
repetition,  1.02;  seeing  with  loud  repetition,  0.95;  loud 
spelling  by  the  pupil,  1.02;  copying  with  the  hand,  0.54. 
The  most  efficient  method  was  thus  that  of  copying;  the 
least  efficient  that  of  dictation.  It  may  be  suggested  that 
copying  involves  unusual  concentration  of  attention  to  the 
word  shown  and  to  the  details  of  the  word  executed.  The 
words  in  these  experiments  were  repeated  the  same  number 
of  times ;  the  dictation  method  thus  required  less  time  than 
the  copying  method.  It  was  necessary,  then,  to  determine 
which  method  gives  the  best  results  for  the  same  time 
required  in  learning.  Lay  showed  that,  for  the  same  time 
spent  in  learning,  the  copying  method  was  the  best,  the  visual 
reading  with  vocal  repetition  less  good,  the  spelling  and 
dictation  methods  still  less  efficient.  He  showed  by  experi- 
ment that  the  same  order  of  efficiency  prevailed  in  forming 
the  permanent  spelling  associations.  His  results  also  showed 
that  the  vocal  organs  have  far  more  influence  in  learning  to 
spell  than  did  the  ear  (that  speaking  was  better  than  hearing) ; 
that  the  visual  image  was  two  to  three  times  as  effective  as  the 
auditory  image ;  that  copying  was  superior  to  seeing  alone ; 
that  an  understanding  of  the  meaning  of  a  word  [greater 
attention  aroused  by  interest]  was  an  enormous  aid. 

Schiller  ^  reports  two  sets  of  experiments  on  learning  the 
spellings  of  words. 

The  first  set  consisted  in  learning  to  spell  German  words 
by  various  combinations  of  the  senses  and  the  volitions.  The 
results  showed  the  following  relations  in  ascending  order 
among  the  errors  in  spelling  made  by  the  pupils  in  one 
class :  1.  copying  the  written  word  while  softly  pronouncing 
it;  2.  copying  while  loudly  pronouncing  it;  3.  looking  at  it 
and  making  movements  of  the  hand  in  the  air  as  if  wi'iting 

^  Schiller,  Stiidien  und  Versuche  iiber  die  ErUrnung  d.  Orthographie,  Samml. 
V.  Abh.  ans  d.  Gebiete  d.  pad.  Psychol,  u.  Physiol.,  1898  II  4.  Heft. 


184  PERCEPTION   OF  SPEECH 

it;  4.  spelling  it  aloud;  5.  looking  at  it  while  pronouncing  it 
loudly;  6.  looking  at  it  while  pronouncing  it  softly;  7.  look- 
ing at  it  with  mouth  closed ;  8.  hearing  the  word  and  making 
movements  in  air  as  if  writing;  9.  hearing  it  and  pronounc- 
ing it  loudly;  10.  hearing  it  and  pronouncing  it  softly;  11. 
hearing  it  only.  The  most  accurate  method  was  thus  that  of 
copying  a  written  (or  printed)  word,  the  least  accurate  was 
that  of  hearing  it.  In  general  loud  pronunciation  at  the  same 
time  helped. 

The  second  series  of  experiments  was  on  the  learning  of 
Latin  words ;  the  results  were  similar  except  in  the  fact  that 
simultaneous  loud  pronunciation  was  disadvantageous  in  all 
cases. 

In  investigations  by  Kemsies  ^  ten  dissyllabic  Latin  words 
with  their  dissj-llabic  German  translations  were  presented  live 
times  in  succession  to  groups  of  school-children,  who  were 
then  required  at  once  to  write  down  all  they  had  learned. 
In  one  form  of  experiment  the  words  were  read  off,  in  another 
they  were  shown  in  print  and  in  a  third  they  were  both  read 
and  shown.  The  experiments  in  which  the  words  were  heard 
showed  great  advantages  over  the  others,  both  in  the  amount 
learned  and  in  its  exactness.  The  visual  method  was  least 
successful.  The  combined  learning  by  hearing  and  seeing 
showed  on  an  average  no  advantage  over  that  by  hearing 
only ;  the  gain  by  using  two  senses  seemed  often  overbalanced 
by  the  distraction  of  attention  thereby.  This  latter  difficulty 
might  —  I  suggest  —  be  due  to  the  particular  method  em- 
ployed. When  the  words  were  learned  first  by  one  method 
and  then  by  another,  the  result  was  not  so  good  as  Avhen 
the  same  method  was  employed  throughout.  In  learning  the 
spelling  of  words  Kemsies  found  that  visual  learning  was 
not  so  good  as  the  auditory  or  auditory-visual  learning. 

In  later  experiments  Kemsies  ^  used  meaningless  dissyl- 

1  Kemsies,  Geddchtnissuntersuchungen  an  SchiUern,  Zt.  f.  pad.  Psychol,  u. 
Pathol..  1900  II  21,  84. 

2  Kemsies,  Gedachtnissuntersuchungen  an  SchiUern,  HI.,  Zt.  f.  pad.  Psychol,  u. 
Pathol,,  1901  III  171. 


FORMATION  OF  SPEECH  ASSOCIATIONS 


185 


labic  words  (to  represent  foreign  words)  with  a  dissyllabic 
German  word  (native  word)  for  each  to  represent  its 
translation.     The  following  is  a  specimen  set: 

achtbar 
Kutscher 
lieblich 
blasen 


Idmsi 

sipaf 

eiibor 

emok 

tiigan 


Flasche 


T%ul 
kogri 
fedok 
r^fus 
geikul 


neulich 

scheinen 

Nachte 

Sclimiede 

sonnig 


These  sets  were  spoken  by  the  experimenter,  or  were  shown 
in  large  letters,  or  were  both  spoken  and  shown.  For  the 
auditory  presentation  the  pupils  sat  with  closed  eyes  in  a  quiet 
room;  for  the  visual  presentation  the  words  appeared  as 
transparencies  to  the  pupils  in  a  dark  room ;  for  the  combined 
presentation  the  experimenter  spoke  the  words  in  connection 
with  the  visual  presentation.  In  one  form  of  experiment 
the  words  were  presented  at  the  rate  of  half  a  second  for  each 
syllable,  making  1'  for  each  word,  20=  for  a  set  and  100 
for  five  repetitions  of  a  set.  The  test  of  learning  con- 
sisted in  writing  the  words  as  soon  as  possible  after  the  end 
of  the  presentation.  In  another  form  of  experiment  the 
words  were  repeated  at  the  same  rate  until  the  entire  set  was 
sufficiently  learned  so  that  the  words  were  all  recognizable 
although  not  necessarily  completely  reproducible.  The  final 
results  by  these  methods  have  not  yet  been  published. 

The  firmness  of  an  association  depends  on  the  vividness  of 
the  impressions.  Various  methods  of  producing  vivid  impres- 
sions are  used  in  forming  language  associations;  they  are 
based  on  the  pedagogical  methods  used  to  fix  attention. ^ 

Motor  (spoken)  words  are  more  firmly  associated  with  each 
other  than  with  auditory  words.  Only  rarely  —  as  with  the 
deaf — are  they  directly  associated  with  visual  words.  In 
learning  to  speak  a  foreign  language  the  words  should  be 
constantly  spoken  in  connection  in  order  to  establish  direct 
associations  among   the  words  in  their   motor  forms.     The 


^  Summary  of  these  in  the  chapters  on  attention  and  memory  in  Scripture, 
Thinking,  Feeling,  Doing,  2.  ed.,  New  York  (in  press). 


186  PERCEPTION  OF  SPEECH 

attempt  to  form  associations  mainly  with  auditory  words  is 
wasteful.  With  visual  words  it  is  quite  impracticable  to 
form  associations  readily  available  in  conversation.  All  these 
sets  of  associations  should  be  united  so  that  the  person 
'thinks'  a  foreign  language  just  as  he  does  his  own.  The 
formation  of  associations  between  the  native  and  the  foreign 
lanofuaere  is  liable  to  hinder  the  associations  within  the 
foreign  language.  The  fundamental  method  to  be  followed 
in  learning  a  language  may  be  said  to  be  that  of  forming,  as 
firmly  as  possible,  such  associations  among  the  language 
elements  as  actually  occur  in  the  language  itself.  'The 
whole  process  of  learning  a  language  is  one  of  forming 
associations. '  ^ 

In  closing  this  chapter  I  feel  compelled  to  emphasize  the 
obligations  of  the  science  of  experimental  phonetics  in  respect 
to  the  methods  of  teaching  languages,  native  and  foreign, 
modern  and  classical.  The  present  diversity  of  methods  and 
conflict  of  opinions  can  have  no  possible  justification  except 
the  lack  of  scientific  data.  The  human  mind  acts  according 
to  just  as  definite  laws  as  the  expansion  of  steam  and  the 
transmission  of  motion.  That  more  work  can  be  gotten 
out  of  a  pound  of  coal  by  the  proper  scientific  and  technical 
knowledge  of  applying  it  under  the  proper  circumstances 
is  no  more  true  than  it  is  that  a  thorough  understand- 
ing of  the  mental  processes  involved  in  learning  a  language 
will  render  the  economy  and  progress  far  greater  than  at 
present.  These  processes  are  still  scientifically  uninvesti- 
gated, and  will  probably  remain  so  except  in  so  far  as  experi- 
mental phonetics  carries  on  the  work.  The  results  reported 
in  this  chapter  are  no  more  than  indications  of  what  is  to  be 
done ;  each  practical  problem  —  the  value  of  pictures  in  ele- 
mentary instruction,  the  valpe  of  translations  from  the  native 
to  the  foreign  language,  etc.,  — must  be  solved  by  measure- 
ments of  such  accuracy  as  to  be  conclusive. 

1  Sweet,  The  Practical  Study  of  Languages,  103,  New  York,  1900. 


FORMATION   OF  SPEECH  ASSOCIATIONS  187 


Refeeences 

For  methods  of  instruction  in  language  :  Breymann,  Die  neuspraoh- 
liche  Reformliteratur  von  1876-1893  (digest  of  the  literature  to  1893); 
Berlitz,  Methode  Berlitz  fiir  den  Utiterricht  in  den  neueren  Sprachen, 
Berlin,  1890;  Bilder  zu  den  Lektionen,  etc.;  Bever,  Der  neue  Sprach- 
unterricht,  Cothen,  1893  ;  Bekbner,  The  INlethod  of  Teaching  Modern 
Languages  in  Germany,  London,  1898  '(account  of  methods  used  in 
various  schools);  Breal,  Enseignement  des  langues  vivantes,  Paris, 
1893;  GouiN,  L'art  d'enseigner  et  d'etudier  les  langues,  Paris,  1880; 
GouiN,  The  Art  of  Teaching  and  Studying  Languages  (trans,  by  Swan 
AND  Btxis),  London,  1892  ;  IIengesbaoh,  Die  neusprachliche  Reform 
im  Lichte  der  preussischen  Dlrektoren-Versammlung,  Neuere  Sprachen,  1897 
IV  346;  Jagee,  Au.<:  d.  Praxis  d.  franz.  Unterriclits,  Neuere  Sprachen, 
1894  I  65,  133;  Jkcinac,  Der  deutsche  u.der  russisc/ie  Berlitz  in  Russ- 
land,  Neuere  Sprachen,  1897  IV  109  ;  Jespeesen-Lundell-Western, 
Quousque  Tandem  (series  of  publications)  ;  Junker,  Lehroersuch  im 
Engliscken,  Neuere  Sprachen,  1894  I  105  (use  of  phonetics  and  phonetic 
text  for  first  instruction,  use  of  pictures);  Knorr,  Ein  Werj,  der 
icirklich  zum  Ziele  fiihrt,  Neuere  Sprachen,  1898  V  483 ;  Landenbach- 
Passy-Delobeil,  Methode  directe,  Paris,  1899  ;  Meyer,  Ueber  franzosi- 
schen  Unterricht,  Neuere  Sprachen,  1894  I  5,  79,  143,  208,  258,  319,  400, 
456  (with  previous  literature)  ;  Passy-Rambeau,  Chrestomathie  fran- 
(jaise,  2nie  gd.,  Paris  and  New  York,  1901  (Introduction);  Rambeau,  On 
the  value  nf  phonetics  in  teaching  modern  languages,  Neuere  Sprachen,  1895 
II  1;  RoDEN,  Inwiefern  muss  d.  Sprachunterricht  umkehren?  Marburg, 
1890;  Sweet,  The  Practical  Study  of  Languages,  New  York,  1900; 
Tbaugott,  Darstellung  und  Kritik  d.  Methode  Gouin,  Diss.,  Jena,  1898;  , 
Kritik  d.  Methode  Gouin,  Neuere  Sprachen,  1898  VI  345;  Tupschewsky, 
Die  Verwerthung  d.  Phonetik  f.  d.  grammatikalischen  Unterricht  auf  d. 
Oberstufe,  Neuere  Sprachen,  1895  II  501  ;  Vietor,  Der  Sprachunterricht 
muss  umkehren,  2.  Aufl.,  Leipzig,  1886;  Viktor,  A  new  method  of  language 
teaching,  Educat.  Rev.,  1893  VI  351 ;  Walter,  Englisch  nach  dem 
Reformplan,  Frankfurt,  1899 ;  Thirteen  Authors,  Methods  of  Teaching 
Modern  Languages,  Boston,  1893.  For  language  lessons  in  connection 
with  pictures  :  Flemming,  Hilfsmittel  f.  d.  fremdsprachlichen  Anschauungs- 
unterricht,  Neuere  Sprachen,  1894  I  510,  558  (contains  account  of  various 
series  of  pictures  with  titles  of  books  to  be  used  with  them)  ;  Hartmann, 
Die  Auschauungim  neusprachlichen  Unterricht,  Wien,  1895  (literature  of 
the  subject  to  1895). 


PART   III 

PKODUCTIOlSr   OF   SPEECH 

CHAPTER   XV 

VOLUNTAEY   ACTION   AND   THE   GRAPHIC   SIBTHOD 

The  production  of  vocal  sounds  results  from  the  action  of 
muscles.  A  muscle  is  a  contractile  body  of  slight  but  very- 
complete  elasticity;  it  is  stretched  to  a  great  extent  by  a 
small  pull  but  returns  to  its  original  length  when  released. 
The  voluntary  muscles  are  composed  of  fine  fibers  that  extend 
the  whole  length  of  the  muscle.  The  contraction  of  a  muscle 
consists  of  the  contraction  of  its  fibers ;  this  produces  a  de- 
crease in  length  and  an  increase  in  thickness. 

The  laws  of  muscular  contraction  are  best  illustrated  by 
experiments  with  the  gastrocnemius  muscle  removed  from  the 
leg  of  a  frog.  To  prepare  the  muscle,  the  top  of  a  frog's  head 
is  cut  off  by.  inserting  one  blade  of  the  scissors  across  the 
mouth,  and  placing  the  other  behind  the  skull ;  the  skin  is 
stripped  from  the  leg,  the  heel-tendon  is  cut,  the  muscle  of  the 
calf  of  the  leg  is  separated  from  the  rest,  and  cut  from  the 
bone.  The  muscle  is  kept  moist  by  a  brush  dipped  in  a 
solution  of  -^^  of  1  %  of  salt  in  water.  The  muscle  is  sup- 
ported by  a  hook ;  another  hook  passing  through  the  heel- 
tendon  is  attached  to  a  simple  recording  lever  writing  on  a 
moving  surface.  The  scheme  of  the  arrangement  for  record- 
ing-a  curve  of  contraction  is  shown  in  Fig.  68.  The  muscle 
m,  stretched  by  a  weight  g,  is  attached  to  the  lever  h  whose 
point  r  writes  on  a  smoked  plate  o.  This  plate  carries  a  pro- 
jection d  which,  as  it  is  moved,  strikes  the  key  k  and  breaks 


VOLUNTARY  ACTION  AND   THE  GRAPHIC  METHOD    189 

the  circuit  containing  the  battery  c  and  the  primary  coil  p  of 
an  inductorium  sp.  The  breaking  of  the  primary  circuit  epic 
produces  a  momentary  im- 
pulse in  the  secondary  coil  s 
which  stimulates  the  muscle 
m  through  the  wires  carried  to 
the  hooks.  Tlie  plate  is  cov- 
ered with  soot  in  the  usual 
way  (p.  7).  It  is  first  moved 
slowly  and  stopped  when  it 
just  breaks  the  circuit;  the 
muscle  contracts  and  draws 
the  vertical  line  seen  at  r  in  Fig. 
69 ;  this  indicates  the  point  on  the  plate  at  which  the  shock 
occurs.  The  plate  is  now  returned  to  its  position  and  moved 
rapidly  along.  The  muscle  draws  its  curve  of  contraction  k  on 
the  plate.  The  record  shows  that  the  contraction  begins  at 
some  time  after  the  shock,  rises  to  a  maximum  and  then  falls. 
The '  myograph '  plate  can  be  replaced  by  a  recording  surface 
of  any  kind  (Figs.  6,  7,  8,  71) ;  a  mechanism  for  breaking  the 
primary  circuit  is  readily  attached  to  the  axle  (p.  93). 


Jig.  68. 


i\a.  69. 

By  placing  a  common  telegraph  key  or  a  contact  wheel 
(p.  91)  or  an  electric  fork  (p.  15)  in  the  primary  circuit  of 
the  inductorium  (Fig.  68),  a  series  of  shocks  may  be  sent  to 
the  muscle.  Each  shock  produces  an  effect;  if  the  shocks 
follow  so  rapidly  that  the  relaxation  is  not  complete,  the 
effects  are  added;  when  the  shocks  are  sufficiently  frequent, 
the  muscle  is  strongly  contracted  without  visible  relaxation, 
the  condition  being  called  '  tetanus.'  The  tetanic  contraction, 
however,  consists  of  contractile  movements  whose  frequency 


390  PRODUCTION  OF  SPEECH 

is  the  same  as  that  of  the  shocks ;  when  the  muscles  of  the 
cheek  are  tetaiiized  by  the  indue  torium,  a  person  with 
closed  ears  can  hear  a  tone  of  the  same  frequency  as  that 
of  the  interruption  of  the  primary  circuit.  Shocks  so  weak 
that  no  visible  effect  is  produced  when  they  are  used  singly 
may  produce  contraction  if  they  are  repeated  with  sufficient 
frequency ;  thus  an  irritation  leaves  an  increased  irritability. 

To  demonstrate  the  action  of  the  nerve  on  a  muscle  the 
frog's  gastrocnemius  may  be  used  with  the  sciatic  nerve  at- 
tached. The  preparation  is  made  as  before  (p.  188),  but  the 
sciatic  nerve  is  carefully  separated  from  the  muscles  along  the 
thigh  and  cut  as  near  the  spinal  column  as  possible  ;  moreover, 
the  muscle  is  left  attached  to  the  bone  at  the  knee  and  the 
bones  are  cut  just  below  the  knee  and  half-way  up  the  thigh. 
The  muscle  suspended  from  the  thigh-bone  is  clamped  in  a 
standard  and  connected  to  the  recording  lever  as  before.  The 
vvdres  from  the  secondary  coil  are  brought  close  together  in  a 
small  handle  and  the  nerve  is  laid  across  the  ends  by  means  of 
a  small  brush  dipped  in  the  salt  solution.  A  shock  to  the  nerve 
is  followed  by  a  contraction  of  the  muscle.  More  time  elapses 
between  the  moment  of  the  shock  and  that  of  contraction  than 
when  the  muscle  is  stimulated  directly.  This  time  increases 
with  the  length  of  the  portion  of  the  nerve  between  the  muscle 
and  the  electrode.  The  irritation  is  conducted  along  the  nerve 
at  the  rate  of  about  27™  a  second ;  for  the  motor  nerve  of 
the  human  arm  the  rate  is  from  34™  to  43™.  Repeated  shocks 
are  followed  by  repeated  contractions,  and  by  tetanus. 

The  voluntary  contraction  of  a  muscle  is  tetanic.  When  the 
cheek  muscles  are  contracted  voluntarily,  they  can  be  heard  to 
give  a  tone  that  is  always  of  the-  same  low  pitch.  The  volun- 
tary stimulation  of  a  muscle  requires  the  uninjured  continuity 
of  the  nerve  from  the  muscle  to  the  central  nerve  system. 
The  irritation  from  the  central  system  proceeds  along  each 
nerve  iiber  separately;  there  is  never  any  transmission  from  one 
fiber  to  another.  The  character  of  the  irritation  that  proceeds 
along  the  nerve  is  unknown ;  it  stimulates  the  end-plate  at 
the  end-  of  the  nerve  and  this  plate  irritates  the  muscle. 


VOLUNTARY  ACTION  AND   THE  GRAPHIC  METHOD    191 

The  curve  of  tetanic  contraction,  that  is,  its  variation  of 
degree  at  each  moment  of  time,  depends  on  the  strength  of 
the  motor  nerve-impulse  at  each  moment.  Thus,  the  lip  con- 
traction and  closure  may  be  sudden  or  gradual,  weak  or  strong, 
short  or  long,  according  to  the  degrees  of  irritation  received 
at  each  moment  by  the  muscles.  The  variations  among 
speech  sounds  of  the  same  type  often  depend  not  so  much 
on  variations  in  the  positions  of  the  oigans  as  on  variations  in 
the  course  of  the  movement  through  these  positions. 

The  motor  nerves  come  from  groups  of  cells  in  the  brain 
and  spinal  cord.  Sensory  nerves  from  the  tendons,  joints, 
skin,  mucous  membrane  and  the  muscle  substance  carry  to  the 
central  nervous  system  irritations  depending  on  the  degree  of 
contraction  of  the  muscle.  Thus,  the  position  of  the  tongue  is 
indicated  at  each  moment  by  irritations  from  its  surface  and  its 
muscles.  When  a  movement  is  repeated  so  often  that  definite 
associations  are  established  between  the  motor  irritations  of 
the  various  muscles  at  each  moment  and  the  sensory  irrita- 
tions present  at  that  moment,  the  sensory  irritations  serve 
to  regulate  the  motor  ones  and  to  govern  the  movement. 
This  regulation  takes  place  in  the  reflex  centers;  when  it 
is  once  established,  an  impulse  to  the  center  is  followed  by 
the  complete  movement  properly  coordinated.  These  sen- 
sory impulses  are  of  different  degrees  of  fineness.  Upon 
them  depends  to  a  large  degree  the  accuracy  of  intended 
movements;  their  fineness  can  be  increased  by  the  proper 
practice.  In  cases  of  great  dullness  special  methods  and 
apparatus  must  be  employed.^  The  motor  cells  receive  irri- 
tations 1.  from  sensory  fibers  of  the  same  or  of  another 
level  in  the  cord  (direct  reflex) ;  2.  from  intermediate  nerve 
cells  that  are  irritated  by  sensory  fibers  (indirect  reflex) ;  3. 
from  cerebral  fibers,  especially  from  the  cortex  of  the  brain 
(voluntary  movement). 

The  general   scheme  of   reflex  activity  may   be  stated   as 

1  RonssELOT,  Applications  pratiques  de  la  phone'tique  expgrimentale,  La  Parole, 
1899  I  401  ;  Zund-Burguet,  Applications  pratiques  de  laphonitique  experimentale, 
La  Parole,  1899  I  11,  138,  281 ;  see  also  below,  Ch.  XXVIL 


192  PRODUCTION  OF  SPEECH 

follows.  An  immediate  center,  apparently  without  connection 
with  higher  sense  nerves,  controls  the  simplest  reflexes  in 
which  mainly  the  organs  of  the  stimulated  portion  are  in- 
volved. The  sensory  nerves,  however,  send  communications 
to  many  centers  of  other  levels  and  to  the  highest  centers. 
The  higher  the  center  the  greater  its  expanse  of  irritation 
and  control ;  it  controls  not  only  the  muscles  of  its  own 
level  but  also  those  of  lower  levels  and  thus  brings,  about 
complicated  activities.  The  highest  centers  act.  only  by  stim- 
ulating lower  centers ;  they  are,  however,  in  direct  connec- 
tion with  the  higher  sense-centers,  so  that  single  irritations 
from  these  may  be  followed  by  highly  complicated  activities. 

The  relations  and  connections  of  various  portions  of  the 
brain  are  shown  in  the  schematic  Fig.  70  after  Auzoux's 
model. 

The  spinal  cord  S  at  its  upper  end  becomes  the  lulh  B.  In 
the  dorsal  portion  (to  the  left  in  Fig.  70)  of  the  bulb,  there 
are  groups  of  cells  —  '  centers '  — •  that  control  various  com- 
plex muscular  acti^dties.  The  bulb  contains  the  centers  of 
coordination  and  reflex  action  for  chewing,  swallowing,  action 
of  the  vocal  cords,  coughing,  etc.  It  also  contains  the  auto- 
matic center  for  breathing.  The  ventral  portion  of  the  bulb 
is  occupied  by  nerve  fibers. 

Just  above  the  bulb  lies  the  pons  (Fig.  70,  P)  and  behind 
it  the  cerebellum  (^OV).  Overlapping  the  whole  is  the  cere- 
hruni  (  CV),  which  consists  of  two  hemispheres,  a  section  through 
one  of  them  being  shown  in  the  figure.  The  various  portions 
known  as  the  frontal,  parietal,  occipital  and  temporal  lobes  are 
indicated  by  the  letters  FL,  PL,  OL,  TL  (see  also  Fig.  57). 

Among  other  functions  the  pons  has  that  of  transmitting 
the  speech  impulses  from  the  voluntary  centers  to  the  lower 
ones ;  some  diseases  of  the  pons  alter  the  length  of  syllables, 
producing  what  is  known  as  '  scanning  speech.'  The  cere- 
bellum has  no  known  speech  function.  The  higher  portions 
of  the  brain  (^stalk,  thalamus,  corpus  striatum,  inner  capsule, 
etc.)  are  all  to  some  degree  involved  in  the  muscular  move- 
ments of  speech. 


VOLUNTARY  ACTION  AND   THE  GRAPHIC  METHOD    193 

The  various  portions  of  the  surface  of  the  cerebrum  —  the 
cortex  —  are  connected  with  the  lower  portions  of  the  nervous 
system  by  '  longitudinal  fibers '  (in  Fig.  70  marked  by  — *  as  at 
L)  ;  with  other  portions  of  the  same  hemisphere  by  '  associa- 


FiG.  70. 


tion  fibers  '  (as  at  A)  and  with  portions  of  the  other  hemisphere 
by  '  transverse  fibers '  (as  at  TR). 

The  cortex  consists  of  immense  numbers  of  nerve  cells  and 
fibers  that  seem  capable  of  entering  into  endless  combinations. 
Mental  life  is  affected  more  directly  and  extensively  by  re- 
moval of  portions  of  the  cortex  or  injury  of  it  than  by  injury 
of  any  other  region  of   the  body.     The   central  portions  of 

13 


194  PRODUCTION  OF  SPEECH 

the  cortex  on  each  side  are  closely  connected  with  the  volun- 
tary control  of  the  muscles  (see  Fig.  57,  p.  83).  Injury  of 
definite  portions'  of  these  regions  is  followed  by  very  de- 
finite disturbance  in  the  power  to  voluntarily  perform  certain 
movements.  This  does  not  mean  that  the  volitions  are 
located  in  these  portions  of  the  brain,  but  that  the  two  are 
closely  connected  in  function. 

A  volition  may  be  followed  by  a  muscular  act;  thus  the 
decision  to  press  the  tongue  against  the  teeth  may  be  followed 
by  the  actual  performance  of  the  act.  The  series  of  irritations 
may  be  traced  back  from  the  muscles  through  the  end-plates, 
nerves  and  nerve  centers  in  the  central  gray  masses  of  the 
cerebrum  to  cells  in  the  cortex.  The  connection  between  the 
vohtion,  a  mental  fact,  and  the  activity  of  the  cortical  cells,  a 
physical  fact,  has  found  no  satisfactory  explanation. 

Some  of  the  peripheral  nerves  arise  directly  from  the  brain. 
Among  these  is  the  hypoglossus,  which  controls  all  the  tongue 
muscles  and  most  of  those  connected  with  the  hyoid  bone. 
The  vagus  contains  motor  fibers  to  the  larynx  and  the  bron- 
chial muscles  ;  sensory  fibers  from  the  larynx,  trachea,  bronchi 
and  lungs ;  motor  and  inhibitory  fibers  to  the  velum ;  sensory 
fibers  from  the  pharynx.  The  glossopharyngeus  contains  motor 
fibers  to  the  velum  (elevator  of  the  velum),  uvula,  pharynx 
(middle  constrictor  of  the  pharynx)  and  the  stylopharyn- 
geal muscle;  sensory  fibers  from  the  tongue  and  velum.  The 
aousticus  is  the  nerve  of  hearing.  The  facialis  contains  motor 
fibers  to  the  face  muscles,  the  stylohyoid  and  the  stapedius 
muscles.  The  trigeminus  contains  motor  fibers  to  the  jaw 
muscles,  the  tensor  tympani  and  the  tensor  of  the  velum. 

Voluntary  impulses  do  not  act  on  separate  muscles,  but 
on  the  same  complexes  of  cells  as  are  involved  in  reflex 
actions. 

Owing  to  the  lack  of  data  concerning  the  action  of  the 
nervous  system  and  to  the  lack  of  methods  for  its  investi- 
gation in  regard  to  the  production  of  speech  sounds,  the 
work  of  experimental  phonetics  lies  at  present  almost  entirely 
in  studying  the  muscular  movements  and  the  volitions  that 


VOLUNTARY  ACTION  AND    THE   GRAPHIC  METHOD    195 

give  rise  to  them  with   little  consideration   of   the    nervous 
mechanism  involved. 

The  methods  used  for  registering  muscular  movement  in- 
clude, among  others,  that  of  air  transmission  by  Makby 
tambours.^ 


Fio.  71. 

The  tambour  is  a  metallic  box  with  a  rubber  top  and  a  side 
tube.     There  are  two  tambours,  the  receiver  and  the  recorder. 

Any  desired  movement  may  be  imparted  to  the  straight 
lever  of  the  receiver  (2,  Fig.  71).  This  lever  communicates 
the  movement  to  the  air  inside  by  varying  the  pressure  on  the 
rubber  top.     The  movement  of  the  air  is  transmitted  along 

1  Makey,  La  methode  grapliique  daus  les  sciences  experimentales.  Paris,  1878; 
2me  tirage  arec  supplement,  Paris,  1885. 


196  PRODUCTION  OF  SPEECH 

the  rubber  tube  (5)  to  the  recorder  (5).  The  rubber  top  of 
the  recorder  moves  in  response  to  the  movements  of  the  air, 
and  the  light  lever  (P)  resting  on  it  repeats  the  movement. 
The  valve  (^)  is  used  to  equalize  the  air  pressure. 

The  details  of  the  recording  tambour  of  the  most  common 
form   are   shown   in   Fig.   72.     The  tube  N,  to  which   the 

rubber  connecting  tube  (3  in 
Fig.  71)  is  attached,  opens  into 
the  metal  box  M.  The  alu- 
minum plate  K,  attached  to  the 
rubber  cover  L,  communicates 
^'''-  ^2-  its  movement  by  means  of  the 

link  J  and  the  clamp  H  to  the  lever  I.  ■  A  very  light  record- 
ing arm  T  (only  a  portion  is  shown)  is  placed  on  I.  As  the 
block  F  carrying  the  fulcrum  G  is  movable  by  a  hinge  on 
the  fixed  block  E,  the  lever  can  be  inclined  and  the  record- 
ing point  raised  or  lowered  by  tipping  F.  The  degree  of 
amplification  can  be  adjusted  by  sliding  H  along  i,  the  link 
J  being  kept  perpendicular  to  I  by  moving  M  by  means  of  the 
screw  A.  The  screw  0  fastens  the  tambour  to  a  rod  through 
R.  A  later  form  of  the  tambour  is  shown  in  Fig.  73;  it  is 
smaller  and  more  sensitive.  The  construction  is  in  general 
on  the  same  pattern  as  the  tambour  in  Fig.  72;  the  screw  A, 
however,  moves  the  whole  tam- 
bour forward  —  a  factor  of  great 
importance  in  adjusting  two  tam- 
bours so  that  their  recording  points 
are  in  proper  alignment ;  the  screw 
B  turns  the  tambour  side  wise  and 

adjusts  the  degree  of  pressure  of  the  point  against  the  drum. 
The  perpendicularity  of  J  is  maintained  by  fastening  the 
metal  box  at  the  proper  point  by  means  of  a  screw  shown 
near  M;  the  lever  D  moves  the  block  F  on  its  hinge. 

The  receiving  tambour  resembles  the  recording  one,  but  is 
often  modified  to  suit  special  requirements. 

The  care  and  repair  of  tambours  require  some  technical 
knowledge.     The  rubber  membrane  (heavier  for  the  receiver, 


VOLUNTARY  ACTION  AND    THE  GRAPHIC  METHOD    197 

lighter  for  the  recorder)  must  be  evenly  stretched.  The  box 
is  made  air-tight  by  inclosing  in  it  a  few  bits  of  paraffine  and 
warming  the  edge  so  that  this  runs  along  the  contact  between 
the  rubber  and  the  edge ;  the  truthfulness  of  the  record  de- 
pends upon  the  prevention  of  any  escape  of  air.  The  disc 
that  holds  the  connecting  link  from  the  lever  to  the  rubber 
is  fastened  to  the  latter  by  melted  wax  or  paraffine. 

The  tambour  ordinates  are  cui'ved  and  not  straight.  The 
degree  of  curvature  depends  on  the  radius  of  the  movement 
of  the  recording  point.  Before  a  set  of  experiments  the 
tambour  should  be  made  to  record  a  large  excursion  while 
the  drum  is  at  rest.  The  curved  ordinates  may  be  drawn  on 
the  drum  before  the  record  is  varnished  by  turning  it  to  each 
desired  point  and  recording  an 
excursion  while  it  is  at  rest. 
When  this  is  not  done,  all  com- 
parisons must  be  made  by  a 
curved  line  obtained  from  the 
original  excursion  of  the  tam- 
bour on  the  motionless  driini. 
In  such  cases  all  comparisons 
by  straight  lines  are  false ;  valu- 
able and  laborious  researches  Fig.  74. 
have  been  ruined  by  the  neglect 

of  this  seK-evident  fact.  When  comparisons  are  to  be  made 
by  perpendicular  lines,  a  large  excursion  oabx  (Fig.  74)  of 
the  recording  point  is  made  while  the  drum  is  at  rest,  repre- 
senting the  perpendicular  oo.  The  line  oabx  would  be  '  recti- 
fied '  by  moving  its  points  to  the  left  by  the  distances  between 
each  one  and  the  line  oo.  A  tambour  tracing  is  rectified  like- 
wise ;  the  tracing  dVodVci'  would  thus  be  moved  to  the  left  as 
indicated  by  the  dotted  line.  The  dotted  line  need  not  be 
actually  drawn.  The  most  convenient  method  is  to  draw  a 
set  of  lines  parallel  to  the  horizontal  axis  as  shown  in  Fig.  74 
and  subtract  from  all  horizontal  measurements  the  distances 
from  the  line  oo  to  a,  5,  x,  etc. 

When  the  tambour  is  used  to  record  on  a  drum,  the  lever 


Fig.  75. 


198  PRODUCTION  OF  SPEECH 

h  (Fig.  75)  in  its  horizontal  position  should  be  parallel  to  the 
plane  tt  of  a  tangent  to  the  surface  of  the  cylinder  cy  at  the 

point  p  touched  by  the  flex- 
ible recording  point  s.  As 
the  lever  rises  or  falls,  the 
point  s  would  leave  the  sur- 
face of  the  cylinder  if  it 
kept  in  the  plane  of  the  tan- 
gent, owing  to  its  circular 
movement  which  brings  it 
to  one  side  of  the  vertical 
line  on  the  cylinder;  considerable  spring  and  flexibility  are 
thus  required  in  the  recording  point  in  order  to  have  it 
remain  on  the  cylinder. 

Tambour  records  may  be  made  on  any  suitable  recording 
surface.  Drums  for  use  with  any  motor  power  have  already 
been  described  (p.  7).  The  smoked  drum  may  be  replaced 
by  a  glass  wheel  when  the  records  are  to  be  used  in  demon- 
stration with  a  projecting  lantern.  The  apparatus  with  a 
tambour  is  shown  above  in  Fig.  8.  For  travelling  purposes 
a  clockwork  drum  may  be  made  of  aluminum.^  The  special 
clockwork  drum  shown  in  Fig.  71  is  of  a  widely  used  tj^e  ;  it 
is  frequently  called  a  '  kymograph.'  Its  speed  is  so  carefully 
regulated  that,  when  its  rate  of  revolution  is  once  determined, 
it  can  be  depended  upon  to  maintain  that  rate  with  a  high 
degree  of  accuracy,  provided  the  spring  is  kept  wound  up  to 
about  the  same  tension  and  the  whole  apparatus  is  in  perfect 
order. 

The  following  instructions  may  be  found  of  use.  To  re- 
move the  cylindrical  drum  grasp  it  at  0  and  lift  the  arm  F. 
Place  the  drum  on  a  separate  horizontal  support  and  smoke  it 
as  usual  (p.  7). 

Lift  the  drum  from  the  support,  grasping  it  around  the 
ring  0  at  the  end.  Raise  the  spring  G  of  the  kymograph  by 
the  arm  F  till  it  catches.  Let  the  end  of  the  drum-axle  drop 
into  the  socket  P.     Bring  the  groove  of  the  ring  0  up  till  it 

1  JossELYN,  Mtude  sur  la  phonetique  italienne,  3,  These,  Paris,  1900. 


VOLUNTARY  ACTION  AND    THE  GRAPHIC  METHOD    199 

catches  on  the  wheel  at  the  end  of  the  arm  iV.  Bring  the 
top  of  the  axle  just  below  the  socket  held  by  (?,  and  let  F 
snap.  The  drum  is  now  in  position ;  it  should  be  turned  till 
the  projecting  point  at  the  bottom  of  the  axle  catches  in  a 
notch  of  the  spring  P.  If  the  kymograph  is  not  firm  upon 
the  table,  adjust  the  leg  M. 

Wind  up  the  clock-spring  by  the  handle.  Move  the  brake 
Fl  in  order  to  release  the  governor  D.  When  the  screw  B 
is  tight  the  drum  will  turn  with  the  clockwork ;  when  it  is 
loose,  the  drum  is  disconnected.  The  connection  of  the 
clockwork  with  the  drum  axle  is  established  by  the  large  fric- 
tion disc  which  presses  against  the  small  friction  roll  X. 
When  handling  the  drum,  always  disconnect  it  by  turning 
-B  ;  this  keeps  the  friction  disc  from  being  ground  by  acci- 
dental movements  of  the  roll  X. 

The  speed  of  the  friction  disc  is  changed  by  different  com- 
binations of  the  gears  in  the  clockwork.  The  case  of  the 
clockwork  can  be  readily  opened  by  unscrewing  the  movable 
side  T.  There  are  two  gears  that  move  sidewise  on  their 
axles,  a  lower  one  and  an  upper  one.  When  the  upper 
wheel  is  in  the  middle  position  the  screw  0  should  be  turned 
so  as  to  bring  the  little  wheel  at  the  end  of  the  arm  into  posi- 
tion between  the  largest  and  smallest  cog-wheels.  There  are 
three  sets  of  springs  for  the  governor;  that  set  should  be 
chosen  which  allows  the  wings  of  the  governor  to  take  a 
medium  position  when  in  motion.  The  following  table 
gives  the  speeds  approximately  obtainable  by  the  different 
combinations. 


SPEED 

NAME. 

POSITION   OF 
LOWBK  WHEEL. 

POSITION   OF    UPPER 
WHEEL. 

FRICTION  ROLL 

AT    LOWEST 

POINT. 

FRICTION  ROLL 

AT   HIGHEST 

POINT. 

I 

II 

III 

IV 

V 

VI 

Left. 

Left. 

Left. 

Right. 

Right. 

Right. 

Right  (weak  spring). 
Left  (medium  spring). 
Middle  (strong  spring). 
Right  (weak  spring). 
Left  (medium  spring). 
Middle  (strong  spring). 

6° 

2» 
12» 
40" 
16» 

12» 

45- 
15" 

5' 
2-     . 

200  PRODUCTION  OF  SPEECH 

The  intermediate  speeds  between  the  figures  in  the  table 
are  obtained  by  moving  the  roll  X  by  means  of  the  screw  R. 
An  index  connected  with  X  moves  over  a  scale  so  that  a 
speed  once  found  can  be  reproduced  by  direct  adjustment  of 
the  index  to  the  same  point;  to  avoid  back-lash  the  adjust- 
ment should  be  made  in  the  direction  from  zero  upward. 
For  respiration  records  adjust  the  kymograph  to  about  20' 
for  one  revolution. 

To  determine  the  speed  of  the  drum  a  time-line  may  be 
drawn  on  it  by  a  vibrating  fork  (p.  15),  a  time-marker  (p.  91) 
connected  to  some  regular  interrupter  such  as  a  clock,  or 
directly  by  the  graphic  chronometer.  ^ 

The  following  experiments  on  finger  movements  are  de- 
signed to  illustrate  some  of  the  fundamental  phenomena  of 
voluntary  action.  They  are  described  as  being  performed  by 
the  finger;  they  can  be  readily  modified  for  application  to  the 
lip  or  the  jaw  by  placing  the  receiving  tambour  in  the  proper 
position.  The  phenomena  illustrated  find  their  application  to 
speech  in  many  ways. 

To  make  the  finger  perform  some  work  analogous  to  that 
which  occurs  in  stretching  the  vocal  cords,  a  loop  of  tape  over 
the  middle  finger  is  attached  to  a  string  ending  in  a  rubber 
band.  The  arm  may  be  laid  on  the  table.  The  movement 
is  registered  by  attaching  to  the  string  the  lever  of  the  receiv- 
ing tambour  and  having  the  recording  tambour  write  on  the 
smoked  drum. 

The  strength  of  the  muscular  contraction  depends,  within 
limits  of  variation,  on  the  strength  of  the  effort  intended. 
The  stronger  the  pull  intended  the  greater  is  the  actual  pull. 
A  series  of  efforts,  however,  with  intensities  in  the  relations 
1:2:3:4  results  in  muscular  acts  that  generally  bear  quite 
different  and  often  changing  relations^  (Fig.  76). 

Separate  pulls  will  vary  although  intended  to  be  alike. 
If  the  finger  is  first  contracted  with  any  desired  force  and 
after  relaxation  is  again  contracted  to  what  is  supposed  to  be 

1  Jacquet,  Studien  iiber graphische  Zeitregistrirunq ,  Zt.  f.  Biol.,  1891  XXVIII  1. 

2  SCEIPTDRE,  New  Psychology,  216-218,  London,  1897. 


VOLUNTARY  ACTION  AND    THE   GRAPHIC  METHOD    201 

the  same  degree  of  force,  a  comparison  of  the  two  records  will 
indicate  the  amount  of  the  error  of  execution. 
To  obtain  the  error  of  execution  we  first  find 

^^x^-\-x^  +  ...  +  x„ 
n 
where   x^,  x^,  . . .,  a;„  are  the   measurements  of  the   separate 
pulls,  n  the  number  of  pulls  and  a  the  average  pull ;  and  then, 
calculating  v^  =  x^  —  a,  v^  =  x^  —  a,.. .,  v„  =  x„  —  a,  we  have 


P 


~  3  V  n-1 


as  the  probable  error  of  execution.     The  size  of  this  probable 
error  is  used  as  the  measure  of  the  uncertainty  of  the  mus- 


FiG.  76. 

cular  movement.  This  error  is  never  zero;  all  movements 
vary  around  an  average.  The  notion  that  the  positions  for 
a  speech  sound  are  something  fixed  for  an  individual  is  quite 
erroneous ;  there  is  an  average,  for  a  certain  intended  position, 
but  every  particular  position  varies  from  the  average.  Some 
individuals  have  large  ranges  of  variation,  some  have  small 
ones.  If  no  variations  are  detected,  it  is  because  the  methods 
of  measurement  are  not  accurate  enough. 


202  PRODUCTION  OF  SPEECH 

The  error  of  execution  is  due  partly  to  an  error  of  percep- 
tion and  partly  to  an  error  of  movement ;  ^  and  partly  also  to 
an  error  in  the  intention.^  Such  an  analysis,  though  prob- 
ably a  lughly  valuable  undertaking,  has  not  yet  been  made  for 
any  speech  movements.  The  regulation  of  muscular  move- 
ment occurs  through  adjustment  of  the  impjilses  sent  to  the 
muscles  in  response  to  the  sensations  arising  from  them.  The 
error  of  perception  can  be  indicated  by  having  the  person  state 
immediately  after  each  contraction  whether  the  pull  appeared 
to  him  to  be  greater  than,  equal  to,  or  less  thaii  the  intended 
one. 

The  strength  of  a  muscular  contraction  fluctuates  although 
it  is  intended  to  be  constant ;  the  stronger  or  longer  the  effort, 
the  greater  the  fluctuation.  Let  the  finger  be  kept  contracted 
to  any  desired  degree  ;  the  record  on  the  drum  will  show  con- 
tinual fluctuations  (Fig.  77).     The  fluctuations  will  be  found 


Fig.  77. 

to  be  greater  for  a  strong  contraction ;  they  will  become  very 
great  when  the  effort  is  maintained  for  a  long  time. 

The  irregularities  in  the  pitch  of  the  voice  in  striking  or 
maintaining  a  note  are  due  to  defects  in  regulation  of  the 
tension  of  the  vocal  muscles.  In  taking  the  pitch  of  a  note 
from  an  instrument  the  note  is  first  perceived  through  the 
ear,  then  the  vocal  muscles  are  adjusted  to  produce  it,  there- 
upon the  produced  note  is  heard  as  coinciding  with  or  differ- 
ing from  the  desired  one,  and  the  vocal  adjustment  is  corrected. 
The  maintenance  of  any  given  pitch  depends  also  on  the  regu- 
lation of  the  muscular  tension  by  the  sensations  from  the 

1  FuLLERTON  AND  Cattell,  On  the  perception  of  small  differences,  65, 
Philadelphia,  1892  (account  in  Sokipture,  New  Psychology,  224,  London, 
1897). 

2  WooDWORTH,  Accuracij  of  voluntary  movement,  Psychol.  Rev.,  Monogr. 
Suppl.  m,  No.  2,  71. 


VOLUNTARY  ACTION  AND   THE  GRAPHIC  METHOD    203 

muscles.  The  error  of  execution  in  singing  a  note  thus  de- 
pends directly  on  the  size  of  the  just  perceptible  difference 
and  on  the  size  of  the  average  error  of  movement.  A  large 
range  of  unperceived  difference  in  the  organ  of  hearing  per- 
mits the  voice  to  vary  greatly  but  unconsciously.  A  large 
error  of  movement  causes  the  voice  to  vary  greatly.  With  a 
small  range  of  unperceived  auditory  difference  but  a  large 
error  of  movement  the  variations  in  pitch  are  detected  by  the 
singer  but  cannot  be  corrected. 

A  highly  instructive  experiment  can  be  arranged  by  using 
two  sets  of  tambours  with  springs  and  cords  connected  to  two 
fingers.  Records  are  to  be  made  of  the  two  when  making  con- 
tractions and  relaxations  at  the  same  instants,  of  one  contract- 
ing only  with  every  second  contraction  of  the  other,  of  one 
contracting  only  when  the  other  pulls  %vith  a  certain  strength, 
etc.  By  letting  one  finger  (1)  represent  the  action  of  the  larynx 
in  producing  a  tone  and  the  other  (2)  the  action  of  the  other 
speech  organs,  we  can  produce  greatly  simplified  representa- 
tions of  speech  movements ;  thus,  aka  would  be  the  succession 
of  movements  \.2.\  \  papa  would  be  2-2-2-2  !  ^^c.  The  records 
will  show  that  the  movements  of  the  two  fingers  are  not  made 
accurately  together,  and  that  in  such  combinations  as  \.2-\  the 
action  of  (1)  tends  to  overlap  its  proper  place,  even  produc- 
ing 2-2-2'  ^^-  Exactly  analogous  results  will  be  found  to 
such  phonetic  phenomena  as  the  change  of  aka  to  aga,  of 
papa  to  baba,  or  as,  in  some  cases,  the  partial  desonation  of 
z  in  givzs  '  gives,'  and  the  desonation  of  final  vowels  as  in 
Fr.  veky^  '  v&u,'  etc.  Oertel  suggests  that  such  experi- 
ments may  clear  up  the  obscurity  of  dissimilatory  loss  and 
substitution  of  certain  sounds  such  as  1,  n,  r.^ 

Closer  imitations  of  the  action  of  the  speech  organs  may  be 
made  by  using  several  tambours  attached  to  different  fingers 
or  parts  of  the  body.  On  the  principle  that  all  activities 
follow  the  same  laws  and  differ  only  in  complexity,  these  ex- 
periments can  be  used  not  only  to  demonstrate  the  laws  of 
sound  modification  but  also  to  suggest  modifications  that 
1  Oertel,  Lectures  on  the  Study  of  Language,  234,  New  York,  1901. 


204  PRODUCTION  OF  SPEECH 

might  otherwise  be  overlooked.  Letting  one  finger  repre- 
sent the  tongue  and  the  other  the  velum,  the  tendency  of  the 
latter  to  relax  its  contraction  before  the  tongue  movement 
changes  illustrates  such  a  phenomenon  as  the  nasahzation  of 
a  vowel  followed  by  a  nasal  consonant. 

When  several  fingers  are  required  to  perform  movements 
in  succession,  it  will  be  found  that  certain  associations  are 
favored.  Letting  the  separate  fingers  perform  different  move- 
ments we  find  that  certain  successions  are  easier  than  others. 
It  is  easier  to  repeat  the  movement  of  a  finger  than  to  change 
to  another,  to  move  the  fingers  in  the  order  1,  2,  3,  4,  5  than 
1,  3,  5,  2,  4,  etc.  A  close  analogy  to  this  is  found  in  the 
vowel  harmony  that  appears  in  isolated   cases  in  nearly  all 


Fig.  78. 

languages   and   is   well    developed  in    Hungarian    and  Fin- 
nish (p.  121). 

A  movement  of  a  definite  kind  requires  a  definite  time  for 
its  execution.  When  a  voluntary  movement  is  repeated 
with  great  rapidity,  there  is  a  limit  beyond  which  the  move- 
ment loses  in  definiteness.  This  may  be  illustrated  by  repeats 
ing  the  contraction  of  the  finger  with  increasing  rapidity ;  Fig. 
78  shows  a  typical  record.  The  hurriedness  abbreviates  the 
extent  both  of  the  contraction  and  of  the  relaxation ;  at  some 
points  the  finger  is  almost  immovably  cramped.  The  slurring 
of  sounds  in  rapid  talking  is  an  analogous  example  in  speech. 
Under  each  set  of  circumstances  there  is  a  rate  of  repetition  of 
a  muscular  movement  which  each  person  takes  naturally  ; 
this  natural  rate  is  the  least  fatiguing  and  the  most  accurate 


VOLUNTARY  ACTION  AND   THE  GRAPHIC  METHOD    205 

one.^  This  natural  rate  varies  with  the  individual,  with  the 
nature  of  the  act,  with  fatigue,  etc. 

Reflex  movements  are  more  precise  than  voluntary  ones, 
movements  unattended  to  more  so  than  those  that  receive 
attention.^  These  principles  are  of  application  in  learning 
new  speech  faiovements. 

A  voluntary  movement  involves  a  more  or  less  conscious 
volition,  that  is,  a  phenomenon  of  decision  known  to  the 
person  performing  the  movement.  The  greater  the  con- 
sciousness of  the  decision,  the  greater  is  the  amount  of  mental 
energy  consumed.  The  first  lessons  in  learning  new  speech 
movements  are  liable  to  be  very  fatiguing.  Through  interest 
or  excitement  the  fatigue  may  not  be  noticed  by  the  learner 
till  afterward,  yet  its  effect  in  increasing  the  error  of  execu- 
tion (p.  201)  often  becomes  apparent  to  the  teacher.  As  im- 
pressions made  on  a  fatigued  person  are  not  so  accurate  or 
lasting,  it  is  generally  more  economical  to  have  frequent 
short  lessons  than  less  frequent  long  ones,  if  the  latter  pro- 
duce fatigue.  The  acquirement  of  ability  to  perform  a  new 
activity  does  not  increase  in  proportion  to  the  number  of 
times  it  is  practised.  The  gain  is  at  first  slow,  then  more 
rapid,  then  very  rapid,  then  slower,  etc.,  until  finally  it  becomes 
very  small  when  the  person  has  about  reached  the  limit  of 
his  improvement.^  After  this  point  the  practice  is  required 
in  order  to  avoid  loss.*  The  dependence  of  the  energy  and 
precision  of  a  movement  on   the  degree   of  fatigue,  though 

1  ScKiPTUBE,  Observations  on  rhythmic  action,  Science,  1899  n.  s.  X  807. 

2  Bliss,  Investigations  in  reaction-time  and  attention,  Stud.  Yale  Paych.  Lab., 
1893  I  4.'j ;  SCKIPTTJKE,  New  Psychology,  127,  London,  1897. 

"  Feohner,  Ueher  d.  Gang.  d.  Muskeliibung,  Ber.  d.  k.-sachs.  Ges.  d.  Wiss., 
math.-phys.  Kl.,  1857  IX  113;  Henky,  Recherches  exp&.  sur  I'entrainement  7nus- 
culaire,  C.  i.  Acad.  Sci.  Paris,  1891  CXII  1473  ;  Lombard,  Some  of  the  influ- 
ences which  affect  the  power  of  voluntary  muscular  contraction.  Jour.  Physiol.,  1 892 
XIII  14;  Bbtan  and  Hartee,  Studies  in  the  physiology  and  psychology  of  the 
telegraphic  language,  Psychol.  Rev.,  1897  IV  27;  Johnson,  Researches  in  prac- 
tice and  habit.  Stud.  Yale  Psych.  Lab.,  1898  VI  51  ;  Manca,  Studi  suW  allena- 
mento,  Atti  della  R.  Accad.  d.  Sci.  Torino,  1892  XXVII  564. 

*  AscHAFFENBUEG,  Experimentelle  Studien  u.  Associationen,  Psychol.  Arbeiten 
<(Krapelin),  1896  16,  11. 


206 


PRODUCTION  OF  SPEECH 


repeatedly  investigated  for  finger  and  arm  movements,i  has 
not  yet  been  considered  in  the  case  of  the  vocal  organs. 

The  degree  of  conscious  intention  may  be  so  small  as  to  be 
unnoticed.  Such  movements  may  be  called  '  unintentional ' 
ones.  They  are  being  constantly  made  all  over  the  body. 
They  are  of  special  interest  from  the  fact  that  speech  ideas 
have  a  tendency  to  express  themselves  in  such  movements. 
It  is  hardly  too  much  to  say  that  the  vocal  muscles  are 
continually  making  unintentional  speech  movements  in  con- 
nection with   our   thoughts.      These   movements  have  been 


\\!A 


[]x=3)====;wv\A  ^wv 


■J  ■     "^ 

•A         ^ 


6 

Fig.  79. 


«, 


recorded  by  experimental  means.^  Under  proper  circum- 
stances the  faint  speech  sounds  from  them  can  be  heard  and 
understood.^ 

To  respond  to  a  stimulus  by  to  act  requires  time.  This  time, 
the  '  reaction  time,'  is  longer  the  greater  the  nervous  or  men- 
tal action  included  in  the  process. 

The  time  required  to  respond  to  a  sound  by  a  vocal  move- 

1  Literature  given  by  .Tote  yko,  Revue  (je'n&ale  sur  la  fatigue  muscidaire,  Annee 
psychologiqije,  1899  IV  1  ;  Hirschlaff,  Zut  Methodik  u.  Kritik  d.  Ergographen- 
Messungen,  Zt.  f.  piid.  Psychol,  u.  Pathol.,  1901  III  185. 

'^  Curtis,  Automatic  movements  of  the  larynx,  Amer.  Jour.  Psychol.,  1900  XI 
237. 

3  Hansen  und  Lehmann,  Oeber  unwillkUrliches  Flustern,  Philos.  Stud.  (Wundt), 
1895  IX  471 ;  summary  in  ScRiPTnRE,  New  Psychology,  65,  259,  London, 
1897. 


VOLUNTARY  ACTION  AND   THE   GRAPHIC  METHOD    207 

ment  may  be  registered  on  a  recording  drum  (p.  7).  The  fol- 
lowing arrangement  will  do.  A  current  from  the  battery  B 
(Fig.  79)  is  sent  through  the  primary  coil  P  of  an  inducto- 
rium,  then  through  a  magnetic  marker  M  (p.  91),  an  open 
circuit  key  K^  and  a  closed  circuit  key  K^.  A  telephone  T 
is  connected  to  the  secondary  coil  S  of  the  inductorium. 
Pressure  on  K^  closes  the  circuit,  makes  a  cUck  in  the  tele- 
phone and  deflects  the  point  of  the  marker.  While  K^  is 
held  down  and  the  marker  deflected  to  one  side,  pressure  on 
K^  will  break  the  circuit  and  remove  the  deflection.  The 
marker  is  arranged  to  write  on  a  drum  beside  the  time  line 
from  an  electric  fork  (Fig.  17)  ;  the  time  of  the  deflection  of 
the  point  can  thus  be  determined.  The  person  experimented 
upon  is  to  respond  to  a  click  in  the  telephone  by  actuating  the 
key  K^ ,  the  time  of  the  deflection  is  his  '  reaction  time.' 
For  measurements  in  thousandths  of  a  second  the  records 
must  be  corrected  by  adding  the  excess  of  latent  time  of  the 
marker  at  the  make  over  that  at  the  break  (p.  92).  This 
correction  can  be  avoided  through  using  K^  as  a  break-make 
key  by  the  additional  contact  at  the  back ;  the  sound  occurs 
at  the  break ;  since  it  is  registered  by  a  break  deflection  the 
reaction  time  is  measured  between  two  break  deflections  and 
no  correction  is  needed  for  latent  time.  Many  variations  may 
be  made  in  the  apparatus.  It  is  often  convenient  to  connect 
the  reaction  key  K^  to  a  separate  marker;  to  use  a  spark  coil 
(p.  12)  instead  of  the  marker;  to  use  a  chronoscope  (p.  152) 
instead  of  the  fork  and  the  smoked  drum.  The  key  K^  may 
be  a  chin  key  consisting  of  a  telegraph  key  so  placed  under 
the  chin  as  to  break  the  circuit  when  the  jaw  begins  to 
move  (p.  154),  a  voice  key  that  breaks  the  circuit  by  the 
action  of  the  air  against  a  metal  plate  (Fig.  66),  or  a  lip 
key  that  breaks  the  circuit  when  the  lips  are  compressed. 

When  the  subject  responds  by  a  simple  movement  such  as 
lowering  the  jaw,  blowing,  or  pressing  the  lips,  the  action  is 
closely  like  that  of  a  response  with  the  finger ;  all  these  forms 
are  termed  '  simple  reactions.' 

Of  this  reaction  time  very  httle  is  consumed  by  the  trans- 


208  PRODUCTION  OF  SPEECH 

mission  of  the  sound  from  the  telephone  to  the  brain  and  of  the 
impulse  from  the  brain  to  the  vocal  organs  ;  nearly  the  whole 
of  it  represents  the  time  required  by  the  processes  in  the 
brain.  These  processes  are  known  to  us  in  consciousness  as 
perception  and  volition ;  the  '  simple  reaction  time '  thus 
indicates  very  closely  the  time  of  these  two.  An  average 
simple  reaction  time  to  sound  will  lie  in  the  neighborhood  of 
0.20%  varying  with  the  individual,  with  the  character  of  the 
sound,  with  the  character  of  the  movement,  with  fatigue,  etc. 

In  a  simple  reaction  the  only  mental  processes  involved  are 
perception  and  volition.  Two  others  may  be  added  by  requir- 
ing the  subject  to  react  to  one  stimulus  and  not  to  another. 
In  the  arrangement  already  described,  the  sound  in  the  tele- 
phone may  be  weakened  by  moving  the  secondary  coil  S 
further  away  from  the  primary  F.  The  subject,  not  knowing 
which  will  be  heard,  is  to  react  when  he  hears  the  weak  sound 
and  not  when  he  hears  the  loud  one.  He  is  thus  obhged 
to  discriminate  between  two  sensations  and  choose  between 
action  and  non-action.     The  time  is  greatly  lengthened. 

When  the  subject  responds  to  the  telephone  click  by  a 
speech  movement  such  as  that  of  a  vowel  or  a  consonant,  the 
action  may  be  distinguished  as  a  '  semi-vocal  reaction. '  A 
'  complete  vocal  reaction  '  may  be  measured  with  two  voice 
keys,  each  in  series  with  a  battery  and  a  marker.  It  may 
also  be  done  with  one  key  having  either  a  double  mouth- 
piece or  a  large  trumpet.  The  repetition  of  a  spoken  word 
by  the  subject  is  a  vocal  reaction  with  discrimination  and 
choice.  A  more  complicated  form  of  reaction  occurs  when 
the  response  is  to  be  another  word  than  the  one  heard  but 
related  to  it  in  some  way.  Thus,  it  might  be  required  to 
respond  to  an  adjective  by  giving  some  noun;  this  would 
give  an  'association  time.'  The  methods  of  measuring  asso- 
ciation time  with  a  chronoscope  have  already  been  described 
(p.  152). 

The  following  further  technical  details  concerning  apparatus 
will  be  found  useful  not  only  in  connection  with  the  experi- 
ments of  this  chapter  but  also  throughout  laboratory  work. 


VOLUNTARY  ACTION  AND  THE   GRAPHIC  METHOD     209 

The  success  of  experimental  work  often  depends  on  the 
electrical  facilities  of  the  laboratory.  Batteries  of  different 
kinds  are  adapted  to  different  forms  of  work.  Nitric  acid 
batteries  (Geove)  give  strong  currents  for  a  few  hours 
but  are  troublesome  to  handle ;  chromic  acid  (dip)  batteries 
give  very  strong  currents  for  a  brief  time ;  ammonium  chloride 
batteries  (LBCLANCHi:),  giving  momentary  currents  and  re- 
quiring renewal  only  at  long  intervals,  are  suitable  for  open 
circuit  work,  as  for  signals,  bells,  etc.;  copper  sulphate  bat- 
teries (Daniell)  give  very  steady  but  weak  currents  for  a 
long  time;  potash  (Lalande)  and  soda  (Edison)  batteries 
give  very  constant  currents  of  any  strength  for  a  long  time 
with  little  trouble  of  renewal;  storage  batteries,  which  must 


Fig.  80. 

be  charged  from  a  d3aiamo,  are  universally  available ;  low 
voltage  direct  currents  may  be  obtained  directly  from  a  suil^ 
able  dynamo  or  by  a  dynamotor  from  a  high  voltage  direct 
or  from  an  alternating  current ;  low  voltage  currents  can  be 
obtained  directly  from  a  high  voltage  circuit  by  means  of 
lamp  batteries. 

The  lamp  batteries  are  so  convenient  in  a  laboratory  sup- 
plied with  the  usual  direct  current  that  a  description  of  them 
seems  advisable.  In  the  three-socket  battery  (Fig.  80)  the 
current  from  the  main  line  is  brought  to  the  posts  E  F;  the 
socket  A  contains  a  lamp  that  allows  the  desired  amount  of 
current  to  pass ;  the  socket  B  contains  a  small  lamp  of  such 
resistance  that  the  fall  of  potential  between  its  poles  gives 
the  voltage  desired  for  the  experimental  work ;  the  socket  0 

14 


210  PRODUCTION  OF  SPEECH 

contains  a  plug  with  wires  to  the  apparatus  ;  i)  is  a  switch. 
On  a  110-volt  circuit  a  large  lamp  A  called  a  110-volt  32  c.  p. 
lamp  (about  110  ohms)  allows  1  ampere  of  current  to  pass 
through  it;  a  small  lamp  B  of  10  ohms  reduces  the  cur- 
rent to  a  little  less  than  1  ampere ;  the  tension  at  the  two 
poles  of  the  socket  B  as  indicated  by  the  volt  meter  is 
about  8  volts.  When  connection  is  made  through  the  appa- 
ratus, the  current  will  be  divided  between  the  small  lamp 
and  the  apparatus  in  inverse  proportion  to  the  resistance; 
for  an  apparatus  with  small  resistance,  e.  g.  a  key  and  low 


Fig.  81. 

resistance  telegraph  sounder,  almost  the  entire  ctirrent  of  1 
ampere  mil  pass  through  it ;  the  tension,  however,  is  that  at 
the  poles  of  the  small  lamp,  namely,  8  volts.  For  apparatus 
of  greater  resistance  small  lamps  of  higher  resistance  are  used ; 
for  currents  of  greater  intensity  larger  lamps  are  used  in  A. 
Experience  has  shown  that  a  4:-ampere  and  a  1-ampere  pair  of 
lamps  suffice  for  most  experimental  work. 

The  four-socket  batteiy  is  of  great  convenience.  The  socket 
Q  (Fig.  81)  is  placed  in  series  witli  that  of  the  small  lamp  B; 
a  plug  mth  vidres  r\ins  from  it  to  one  piece  of  apparatus 
while  wres   run  from  C  to  another  piece.     To  run  a  high 


VOLUNTARY  ACTION  AND   THE  GRAPHIC  METHOD    211 

resistance  telegraph  sounder  it  is  connected  to  the  wires  of 
Q  while  the  key  is  connected  to  those  of  C.  As  long  as  the 
key  is  closed,  the  current  passes  almost  entirely  through  C; 
when  it  is  opened,  it  is  forced  at  the  tension  of  the  main  line 
(consequently  with  greater  effect)  through  the  sounder.  To 
run  a  high  resistance  marker  (Fig.  61)  with  an  electric  fork 
(Fig.  17)  having  a  magnet  of  low  resistance,  the  fork  is  con- 
nected to  G  while  the  marker  is  connected  to  G;va.  this  way 
a  strong  current  is  obtained  through  each.  Closure  of  the 
circuit  at  G-  changes  the  battery  into  a  three-socket  one. 

Refebences 

For  a  summary  of  the  facts  of  muscular  contraction  :  Hermann,  Lehr- 
buch  d.  Physiologie  ;  Howells,  American  Textbook  of  Physiology ; 
ScHAEFER,  Textbook  of  Physiology ;  Foster,  Handbook  of  Physiology. 
For  the  technique  of  graphic  records :  Langendorff,  Physiologische 
Graphik,  Leipzig-Wieu,  1891.  For  the  technique  of  reaction  time 
experiments :  Wundt,  Grundz.  d.  physiol.  Psychol.,  4.  Aufl.,  II  322, 
Leipzig,  1893  ;  Scripture,  New  Psychology,  Ch.  VIII,  London,  1897  ; 
Scripture,  Elementary  Course  in  psychol.  measurements,  Exercises 
IX-X-XII-XIII,  Stud.  Yale  Psych.  Lab.,  1896  IV.  For  various  methods 
of  recording  rapidly  repeated  movements :  Scripture,  New  Psychology, 
Ch.  VII,  London,  1897;  Cross  education,  Pop.  Sci.  Monthly,  1900 
LVI  589.  For  the  mathematical  treatment  of  muscle-curves  :  Hall- 
8T)£n,  Analys  af  muskelkurvor.  Acta  Societatis  Scientiarum  Fennicse 
(Helsingfors),  1898  XXIV  No.  1;  1900  XXIX  No.  5. 

For  recording  drums:  Petzold,  Leipzig ;  Zimmermann,  Leipzig; 
Albrecht,  Tubingen  ;  Verdin,  Paris.  For  tambours  :  Verdin,  Paris ; 
Albrecht,  Tubingen.  For  clamps,  standards,  scalpels,  etc. :  Petzold, 
Leipzig ;  Zimmbrmann,  Leipzig ;  MiJncke,  Berlin.  For  Harvard 
physiological  apparatus :  Prof.  W.  T.  Porter,  Boston.  For  Auzoux's 
model  of  the  brain  (Fig.  70)  :   Montaudon,  Paris. 


CHAPTER  XVI 

BEEATHING 

The  diaphragm  forms  the  bottom  of  the  thorax.  When  at 
rest  it  curves  upward,  part  of  it  lying  on  the  walls  of  the 
thorax.  When  its  muscles  contract,  it  descends  and  the  side 
parts  are  removed  from  the  walls.  In  this  way  the  thorax  is 
lengthened.  The  pressure  of  the  diaphragm  on  the  organs 
below  pushes  the  abdomen  outward. 

Other  muscles  act  to  lift  the  ribs  and  thereby  to  deepen  and 
widen  the  thorax.  According  to  the  preponderance  of  the 
diaphragm  movement  or  the  rib  movement  two  types  of 
breathing  are  distinguished,  the  abdominal  and  the  costal. 

On  account  of  atmospheric  pressure  the  elastic  walls  of  the 
lungs  are  obliged  to  follow  the  walls  of  the  thorax,  and  thus 
air  is  drawn  in.  The  lungs  also  descend  slightly  during 
inspiration,  drawing  after  them  the  trachea. 

Expiration  is  mainly  passive.^  When  the  inspiration-mus- 
cles are  relaxed,  the  elasticity  of  the  lungs  makes  them  con- 
tract ;  this  draws  the  diaphragm  upward  and  the  walls  of  the 
thorax  inward,  while  gravity  aids  in  lowering  the  ribs.  The 
air  in  the  lungs  is  thus  partly  forced  out  again.  To  produce 
forcible  expiration  the  muscles  of  the  abdomen  may  be  con- 
tracted ;  the  contents  of  the  abdomen  are  pressed  inward  and 
upward  and  the  diaphragm  and  lungs  are  forcibly  moved. 
The  ribs  are  also  drawn  downward  by  the  same  muscles,  as 
well  as  by  sets  of  special  muscles. 

In  ordinary  breathing  about  500'^°™  of  air  are  inspired  and 

1  Perhaps  slightly  active ;  Treves,  Observations  sur  le  mecanisme  de  la 
respiration,  Aroh.  ital.  de  biol.,  1899  XXXI  130. 


BREATHING  213 

expired.^  A  forcible  expiration  can  bring  out  about  1600"™ 
more,  called  the  '  reserved  air.'  The  lungs  are  not  exhausted 
by  the  deepest  expiration,  as  there  stiU.  remains  'residual  air '  to 
the  amount  of  800"""°.  With  the  deepest  possible  inspiration 
an  additional  amount  of  1600°™  can  be  added,  called  the 
'  complementary  air.' 

The  movements  of  inspiration  and  expiration  occur  invol- 
untarily with  a  definite  rhythm  and  depth.  The  average 
frequency  with  adults  is  18  to  20  a  minute.  Both  rhythm 
and  depth  can  be  largely  controlled  by  the  will.  The  emo- 
tions affect  frequency,  depth  and  form  of  the  breathings  and 
sometimes  cause  characteristic  noises  and  tones,  as  in  sobbing, 
sighing,  laughing,  etc. 

The  nerves  controlling  the  breathing  muscles  come  from  the 
spinal  cord,  where  they  have  connection  with  the  respiration 
center  in  the  bulb  (p.  193).  The  activity  of  this  center  depends 
on  the  nature  of  the  blood  reaching  it.  As  the  blood  becomes 
more  or  less  venous  the  breathing  becomes  more  or  less  violent. 
Muscular  activity  causes  an  acceleration  of  breathing  by  a 
chemical  product  that  enters  the  blood.  Heat  also  stunulates 
the  respiration  center. 

The  movements  of  single  points  of  the  body  during  breathing 
may  be  conveniently  studied  by  the  method  of  air-transmission 
by  means  of  the  Marby  tambours  recording  on  a  smoked 
drum  (p.  195).  To  register  thoracic  or  abdominal  movements 
of  a  person  sitting  or  lying  down,  a  light  projection  at  right 
angles  may  be  attached  to  the  lever  of  the  receiving  tambour 
of  the  arrangement  shown  in  Fig.  71,  and  the  tambour  is  so 
placed  on  supporting  rods  that  this  projection  rests  upon  the 
desired  point  of  the  chest  or  abdomen.  The  movements  are 
registered  in  the  way  described  on  p.  198. 

If  preferred,  the  receiving  tambour  may  have  a  small  projec- 
tion instead  of  a  lever  attached  to  its  surface.^    Such  a  tambour 

1  This  is  the  usual  statement ;  according  to  Marcet,  A  contribution  to 
the  history  of  the  respiration  of  man,  Croonian  Lecture',  London,  1897,  the 
average  of  210  experiments  gave  250""=™. 

^  Bebt,  Lefons  snr  la  physiologie  compar^e  de  la  respiration,  290,  Paris,  1870. 


214 


PRODUCTION  OF  SPEECH 


is  shown  at  k  in  Fig.  82 ;  it  may  be  used  in  any  support  on  a 
person  lying  down  or  otlierwise  fixed  so  that  the  body  will  not 
sway ;  or  it  may  be  placed  on  one  end  of  the  adjustable  calipers 
rp,  arranged  to  clasp  the  thorax  on  any  diameter  and  to 
register  independently  of  a  swaying  motion. 

The  relations  between  costal  and  abdominal  breathing  can  be 
•  studied  by  using  several  sets  of  tambours  recording  simulta- 
neously on  the  same  drum.     The  lengths  of  tubing  and  the 
amplification    adjustments    should    be 
the  same  for  all.     The  older  doctrine  of 
a  preponderance  of  abdominal  or  tho- 
racic breathing  in  the  male  or  female 
sex  seems  without  foundation  except 
in  so  far  as  brought  about  by  clothing. ' 
The  changes  in  the  circumference  of 
the  thorax  or  abdomen  may  be  regis- 
tered by  means   of  a  '  pneiunograph.' 
In  one  form  (Maeey)  a  hollow  rub- 
ber tube  is  kept  expanded  by  a  spiral 
spring  ;   this  tube  is   closed  by  metal 
ends,  one  of  which  has   a   projecting 
outlet  connected  to  the  small  rubber 
tube  from  the  recording  tambour.      A 
band  is    stretched    around   the    body 
from  one  end  of  the  tube  to  the  other. 
An  increase   in  the   circumference   of 
the  thorax  stretches  the  tube  and  thus 
draws    air  from   the   recorder.     In   a 
better  form   of   the  pneumograph   the 
tube  is  of  metal  and  the  ends  of  rubber  (Bert).     In  still 
another  form  a  tambour  hke  that  in  Fig.  72  is  acted  upon  by 
a  band  and  a  compound  lever  (Maret).     A  later  form  (Fig. 
83)  comprises   two   tambours   with   adjustable  amplification 
(Veedin)  . 

Some  records  with  a  pneumograph  (of  the  first  of  the  above 


Fig.  82. 


1  FiTZ,  j1  studji  of  types  of  respiratory  movement,  Jour.  Exper.  Med.,  1896  I  677. 


BREA  THING 


215 


Fig.  83. 


kinds)  aroiind  the  abdomen  of  a  male  person  with  chiefly 
abdominal  breathing  are  shown  in  Fig.  84.  Ordinary  breaths 
followed  by  several  deeper 
ones  are  shown  in  the  top 
line  of  records  ;  it  will  be 
noticed  that  the  movements 
are  very  small  after  the  blood 
has  been  refreshed  by  deep 
breathing.  A  record  of  ordi- 
nary breathing  interrupted  by 
sniffing,  sobs  and  a  sigh-like 
sob  are  shown  in  the  second 
record;  the  inspirations  are 
very  sudden.  The  curves  for  a  groan  and  a  sigh  are  also 
shown  in  the  third  record;  the  inspirations  are  not  sudden, 
and  the  expirations  are  more  gradual  than  in  the  sigh,  the 
groan  showing  a  specially  long  and  irregular  expiration. 
All  these  sobs,  groans  and  sighs  were  produced  premedi- 
tatedly.  A  series  of  premeditated  laughs  is  also  shown. 
Each  laugh  consisted  of  'ho-ho-ho-ho  '  with  falling  pitch; 
the  laugh  occupied  the  expiration-half  of  each  curve.  The 
record  marked  '4  lines  of  song  '  shows  the  breath  expenditure 
during  the  singing  of 

"  Way  down  upon  the  Swanee  River, 
Far,  far  from  home. 
Oh,  darkies,  how  my  heart  does  quiver, 
Far  from  the  old  folks  at  home." 

The  expiration  of  the  breath  not  used  during  each  line  ap- 
pears clearly  each  time  at  the  end.  The  next  to  last  record 
shows  the  use  of  the  breath  in  speaking  the  verses 

"  The  Cities  are  full  of  pride. 
Challenging  each  to  each  ; 
This  from  her  mountain-side. 

That  from  her  burthened  beach  "  (Kipling). 

The  inspiration  occurred  just  before  the  beginning  of  each 
line.     The  last  record  shows  the  breath -expenditure  when  the 


216 


PRODUCTION  OF  SPEECH 


stanza  was  spoken  more  rapidly;  one  deep  inspiration  with  a 
slight  accession  afterwards  is  made  to  do  for  each  pair  of 
lines.     The  discharge  of  the  air  not  used  in  speaking  is  indi- 


FiG.  84. 

cated  by  the  sudden  rise  at  the  end  of  each  line.  Both  rec- 
ords were  made  with  no  intentional  distribution  of  the 
inspirations.  The  time-line  with  seconds  is  given  for  all 
these  records  at  the  bottom. 


BREA THING 


217 


The  records  made  from  the  surface  of  the  thorax  or  abdo- 
men give  indications  concerning  the  suddenness  of  inspira- 
tion and  expiration  and  concerning  the  rate  at  which  the 
breath  is  expended.  They  give  no  direct  measurements  of 
quantity  or  pressure.  The  relative  amounts  of  breath  used  in 
single  sounds  can,  however,  be  indicated  with  this  method  by 
repeating  them  a  given  number  of  times  in  a  single  expiration. 
The  expenditure  of  breath 
was  found  in  one  case  by 
RoussELOT  to  stand  in  the 
following  relations:  fa 
>  va  >  pa  >  ba.i 

In  taking  records  of 
breathing  during  speech  it 
is  necessary  to  guard' 
against  apparent  small  in- 
spirations at  the  begin- 
nings and  endings  of  words  ^ 
which  are  in  reality  due  to 
extraneous  muscular  con- 
tractions.* 

To  register  the  variations  in  the  breath  from  the  mouth 
or  the  nose,  the  receiving  tambour  (Fig.  71)  is  removed  and 
the  end  of  the  rubber  tube  is  placed  on  a  short  glass  tube  ^ 
which  is  inserted  loosely  in  the  corner  of  the  mouth  or  in  one 
nostril.  The  main  body  of  air  passes  by,  but  the  variations  in 
pressure  will  affect  the  recording  tambour.  The  curves  in 
Fig.  85  were  taken  with  the  tube  held  at  the  corner  of  the 

1  RonssEi.OT,  Les  modifications  phon^tigues  du  langage,  62,  Kev.  d.  pat.  gallo- 
rom.,  1891  IV,  V;  also  separate. 

2  OussoF,  Andes  exp&imentales  sur  une  prononciation  russe.  La  Parole,  1899 
I  785. 

3  BiNET  ET  Henei,  Les  actions  d'arret  dans  les  phenomenes  de  la  parole,  Eev. 
philos.,  1894  XXXVII  608. 

*  Gregoike,  Note  sur  faction  du  thorax  dans  la  phonation,  La  Parole,  1899  I 

718. 

6  Glass  tubing  may  be  cut  by  first  scratching  it  slightly  with  a  triangular  (hard) 
file  and  then  bending  it  with  the  fingers ;  its  edges  are  rounded  by  insertion  in  a 
Bnnsen  flame. 


Fig.  85. 


218 


PRODUCTION  OF  SPEECH 


open  mouth.  They  show  a  series  of  equal  breaths  and  several 
attempts  at  blowing  with  forces  in  the  relations  1:2:3:4. 
The  variations  in  mouth-pressure  during  the  recitation  of  four 


Fig.  86. 


lines  of  The  Cities  (p.  215)  and  of  the  first  four  lines  of  Cock 
Rohin  are  shown  in  Fig.  86.  The  expiration  curves  for  the 
word  du  spoken  in  various  ways  have  been  registered  by 
ViBTOE  1  mth  a  short  tube  held  between  the  lips.     The  height 


•^aj^ 


Fig.  87. 

of  a  curve  in  Fig.  86  shows  the  force  of  expiration  spoken  in 
an  assertion,  in  a  question,  in  irritation,  in  warning.  The 
full  pressure  from   the  mouth   can  be  obtained   by  using  a. 

1  ViETOE,  Kleine  Beitrdge  zur  Experimentalphonetik,  Neuere  Sprachen,  1894 
I,  Suppl.,  25;  Elemente  der  Plionetik,  4.  Aufl.,  283,  Leipzig,  1898. 


BREATHING 


219 


mouth-piece  fitting  over  the  lips,  that  from  the  nose   by  a 
nasal  olive  (Fig.  88)  fitting  the  nostril. 

Attached  to  a  speaking  tube  whose  end  fits  the  mouth 
rather  closely,  the  Maeby  tambour  can  be  used  to  register  the 
expiratory  impulses  and  thus  to  give 
data  concerning  the  lengths  of  sounds 
and  also  some  information  concerning 
their  force.  Since  the  Faxis  in  tam- 
bour records  is  a  peculiar  curve,  the 
moments  of  time  cannot  be  found  by 
lines  perpendicular  to  the  X  axis  but 
must  be  referred  to  it  by  means  of 
curved  lines.     The  exact  curve  of  the 

Y  axis  is  readily  found  by  using  the  tambour  while  the  drum 
is  at  rest  (p.  197).  The  special  vocal  tambour  of  Rousselot  i 
(Fig.  89)  comprises  a  bent  metal  tube  ending  in  a  membrane 
of  rubber  which  moves  a  very  fight  recording  point.  The 
mouth-piece  A  passes  into  the  tube  D  which  ends  in  the  rub- 
ber membrane  E.    The  vibrations  of  the  membrane  are  recorded 


Fig.  88. 


Fig.  89. 

by  the  lever  F,  adjustable  by  the  screw  (r.  The  combination 
of  clamps  I H  B  afford  great  adjustabifity  on  the  supporting 
rod  O.  This  tambour  is  adapted  to  registering  small  fluctua- 
tions in  pressure  such  as  are  found  in  various  speech  sounds 
like  r,  the  explosives,  etc. 

To  give  some  idea  of  the  total  volume  of  air  expended,  a 


1  RonssELOT,  Laphonitique  experimentale,  La  Parole,  1899  I  9. 


220  PRODUCTION  OF  SPEECH 

mouth-piece  fitting  closely  over  the  lips  may  be  attached  to 
a  tube  directly  from  a  recording  tambour  for  a  short  sound 
and  by  way  of  a  reservoir  for  longer  sounds.  The  amount  of 
air  corresponding  to  each  degree  of  the  excursion  can  be  deter- 
mined conveniently  by  attaching  a  graduated  syringe  to  the 
tube;i  this  is  best  accomphshed  by  inserting  a  T-tube  in 
the  rubber  tube  connected  to  the  tambour  and  attaching  the 
syringe  to  the  long  arm  of  the  T-  The  tambour  method,  how- 
ever, is  not  very  accurate  for  this  purpose.  A  tambour  with  a 
mouth-piece  communicating  with  the  external  air  may  be 
used  to  indicate  the  rate  of  expenditure. 

An  accurate  instrument  that  directly  and  proportionately 
records  the  volume  of  air  expired  or  inspired  is  found  in  the 

breath  recorder  of  Gad^  shoAvn 
in  Fig.  90.  A  box-like  mica 
cover  d  with  its  edges  im- 
mersed in  a  square  trough  of 
water  t  is  so  balanced  upon 
the  axle  a  by  the  weight  g  that 
it  is  in  equilibrium  in  any  posi- 
tion. The  air  entering  through 
the  tube  r  in  the  bottom  plate  h  raises  the  cover  d  and  records 
by  the  arm  h.  The  graduation  of  the  record  is  done  by  sending 
in  known  quantities  of  air  and  marking  the  position  of  the 
pointer.  For  this  purpose  a  large  syringe  graduated  in  ccm. 
may  be  attached  to  the  tube  before  or  after  an  experiment. 
An  apparatus  like  this  in  which  the  records  are  directly  pro- 
portional to  the  amount  of  air  is  often  preferable  to  a  tambour 
with  which  the  scale  diminishes  rapidly  as  the  amount 
increases.  A  special  registering  spirometer  has  been  devised 
by  Makcbt.^     ■ 

In  an  ordinary  expiration  the  air  is  driven  out  by  the  tension 
of  the  lungs  and  the  abdominal  muscles  ;  the  pressure  begins 

1  Lombard   and   PiLLSEURy,  A    new  form  of  piston  recorder,  Amer.  Jour. 
Physiol.,  1899  III  186. 

2  Langendorff,  Physiologische  Graphik,  266,  Leipzig  und  Wien,  1891. 

5  M ARCET,  Etudes  des  diff&entes  formes  de  la  respiration  de  I'homme,  Rev.  me'd. 
de  la  Suisse  romande,  1896  601. 


Fig.  90. 


BREATHING  221 

with  a  maximum  and  falls  to  zero.  For  singing,  a  constant 
rate  of  expenditure  is  often  required.  This  must  be  obtained 
by  muscular  resistance,  such  as  that  of  the  diaphragm  and 
of  the  muscles  around  the  thorax.  A  tracing  with  the  pneu- 
mograph should  show  a  steady  movement  of  the  chest  or 
abdomen  and  not  one  of  varying  rapidity  or  of  irregular  char- 
acter. Some  of  the  troubles  of  singers  arise  from  letting  out 
the  air  too  rapidly  at  first ;  these  can  often  be  cured  by  proper 
instruction  in  breathing,  profitably  aided  by  registering  the 
results  with  the  pneumograph.^  The  modulation  of  the  voice 
in  song  requires  accurately  coordinated  and  controlled  move- 
ments of  the  breathing  muscles ;  this  is  accomplished  by  modi- 
fications of  the  usual  respiratory  action. 

Using  a  Veedin  spirometer  —  a  rather  rough  instrument 
constructed  for  other  purposes  but  giving  sufficiently  accurate 
results  —  RouDET^  found  that  under  equal  conditions  the  rate 
of  expenditure  increased  with  the  intensity  of  the  sound.  The 
vowel  a  sung  on  the  note  df'  during  one  second  at  three 
degrees  of  intensity  —  feeble,  medium,  strong  —  showed,  as 
averages  of  20  experiments,  rates  of  expenditure  of  10.6'=°™, 
16.4°™  and  24.1°°"  respectively.  The  increase  in  amphtude  of 
the  vibration  in  a  louder  sound  means  that  the  glottis  opens 
more  widely  for  each  vibration  and  lets  out  more  air. 

When  the  vowel  a  was  sung  on  the  notes  c",  e°,  g'^,  c^  with 
what  appeared  to  be  a  constant  intensity,  the  records  showed 
a  decrease  of  the  rate  of  expenditure  with  a  rise  in  pitch.^ 
The  physical  intensity  of  a  vibratory  movement  (p.  109)  in- 
creases as  the  square  of  the  frequency  and  the  square  of  the 
amplitude ;  two  tones  of  the  same  amplitude  in  the  relations 
of  1 :  2  in  frequency  stand  in  the  relations  of  1 :  4  in  physical 
intensity.  To  maintain  the  relation  1 : 2  in  frequency  while 
obtaining  the  relation  1 : 1  in  physical  intensity  the  relation  of 

1  Oliviek,  Stiologie  et  traitement  de  certains  troubles  vocaux,  La  Parole,  1899  I 
367. 

2  EouDBT,  De  la  depense  d'air  dans  la  parole  et  de  ses  consequences  phonetiques, 
La  Parole,  1900  11  209. 

8  KouDET,  as  before,  214. 


222  PRODUCTION  OF  SPEECH 

amplitude  must  be  made  2:1;  thus  the  higher  the  tone  the 
smaller  the  amplitude,  and  consequently  the  smaller  the  rate 
of  expenditure.  The  psychological  relations  of  intensity  —  by 
which  RouDBT  judges  the  equality  of  the  sounds  —  for  sounds 
of  different  pitch  presumably  bear  some  relations  resembling 
the  physical  ones.  The  compensation  is  thus  a  nervous  and 
mental  one.  Rotjdet's  first  explanation  by  an  increase  in  the 
area  of  the  glottis  is  unnecessary  and  probably  erroneous ;  his 
second  explanation  is  approximately  the  one  I  have  just 
given. 

Experiments  ^  with  a  sung  on  the  note  d'^  with  apparently 
the  same  intensity  for  l^  2%  3^  showed  rates  of  expenditure 
that  were  13.5"=™,  7.9'=°"  and  6.2'=™  per  second  respectively. 
This  does  not  show,  as  Roxjdbt  supposed,  that  there  is  uncon- 
scious economy  in  the  respiratory  distribution,  but  that  the 
judgment  was  one  of  equal  energy  and  not  one  of  equal 
intensity.  In  these  experiments,  as  in  many  others,  the  sub- 
ject presumably  felt  instinctively  that  he  was  to  produce  the 
same  total  effect  in  each  case.  The  energy  of  a  sound  varies, 
both  physically  and  mentally,  in  the  same  way  —  though  not 
proportionately  —  as  the  amplitude,  pitch  and  length.  Two 
sounds  are  considered  equal  in  energy  ('  intensity '  is  the 
usual  term)  when  they  produce  the  same  total  mental  impres- 
sion. A  longer  sound  produces  a  more  energetic  effect  and 
is  instinctively  lowered  ia  pitch  or  amplitude  when  it  is  to 
be  made  equal  to  a  shorter  one.  These  experiments  confirm 
the  principle  of  compensation  among  the  three  factors.^ 

Measurements  ^  of  the  rate  of  expenditure  during  different 
vowels  sung  on  the  note  #  during  1^  showed  for  u^  22.6, 
03  21.7,  Oj  16.5,  ag  13.1,  a^  15.7,  Cj  16.2,  e^  19.6,  Cg  21.3, 
ig  26.3°°"  (1, 2>3  indicate  'open,'  'medium'  and  'close'  respec- 
tively). As  a  general  rule  the  rate  of  expenditure  increased 
as  the  passage  above  the  tongue  diminished.     Rotjdet's  ex- 

1  RouDET,  as  before,  215. 

'^  SoRiPTtTEE,   Researches  in  experimental  phonetics  (first  series),  Stud.  Yale 
Psych.  Lab.,  1899  VII  100. 
'  RouDET,  as  before,  215. 


BREATHING  223 

planation  that  the  friction  of  the  air  in  the  mouth  passage 
acts  directly  by  back  pressure,  so  as  to  produce  a  larger  open- 
ing of  the  glottis  whereby  more  air  can  pass,  indicates  merely 
a  difference  in  the  glottal  action.  The  rate  of  expenditure  is 
unquestionably  governed  by  the  respiratory  muscles  and  the 
glottis;  a  particular  rate  is  associated  with  each  vowel  for 
reasons  still  unknown,  possible  in  reference  to  auditory  im- 
pressions of  the  energy  usually  felt  in  each. 

Measurements  ^  of  the  average  rate  of  expenditure  for  the 
vowel  a  pronounced  in  several  ways  gave  with  the  glottal  catch 
ggccm^  with  a  clear  beginning  (the  cords  closed  for  vibration 
before  breath  action)  14.0°°",  with  a  breathed  beginning  (cords 
not  fuUy  closed  before  breath  action)  24.2"°"  and  when 
whispered  34.4"".  Measurements ^  of  six  fricatives  gave: 
s  30.6,  z  27.5,  f  33.5,  v  27.9,  s  38.6,  z  28.2.  The  expendi- 
ture was  much  greater  than  in  vowels  ;  it  was  greater  for  the 
surds  than  for  the  corresponding  sonants. 

RouDET  finds  that  an  explosive  has  a  smaller  total  expendi- 
ture than  a  fricative,  but  the  average  rate  of  expenditure  — 
that  is,  the  total  expenditure  divided  by  the  duration  —  is 
incomparably  greater;  among  the  explosives  both  the  total 
expenditure  and  the  average  rate  are  greater  for  a  surd  than 
for  a  sonant,  for  an  aspirated  form  than  for  a  pure  explosive.* 
In  Italian  it  has  been  shown*  that  the  more  closed  the  artic- 
ulation the  greater  is  the  average  rate  of  expenditure,  for 
example,  i  >  o  >  a. 

The  expenditure  of  breath  during  vocal  sounds  is  quite 
variable  but  in  ordinary  speech  certain  constant  relations  are 
found.  The  following  facts  in  regard  to  French  sounds  of 
Cellefrouin  have  been  established  by  Rotjsselot  ^  by  means  of 
tambour  records.     The  expenditure  differs  at  different  times 

1  RoDDET,  as  before,  217. 

2  RotJDET,  as  before,  220. 
8  RocDET,  as  before,  222. 

*  JosSELTN,  Stude  sur  la  phone'tique  italienne,  Thfese,  Pari-s,  1900 ;  also  in  La 
Parole,  1900  II. 

5  RousSBLOT,  Les  modifications  phon^tiques  du  langage,  65,  Rev.  d.  pat.  gallo- 
rom  ,  1891  I ;  also  separate. 


224 


PRODUCTION  OF  SPEECH 


nose 


of  the  day,  with  different  activities,  with  the  position  (seated 
or  standing),  etc.,  although  the  person  may  consider  the  sound 
to  have  been  produced  with  the  same  force.  Measurements 
with  a  spirometer  showed  the  following  relations  of  breath 
expenditure  for  consonants  followed  by  a  to  be  true  without 
exception  for  all  subjects  tested :  p<f,  t<s,  k<ts<  s< 
X,  b  <  V,  d  <  z,  g  <  dz  <  z  <  Y.  This  indicated  that  fricar 
tives  required  more  air  than  explosives ;  nasals  required  less 

air  than  the  corresponding  surd 
explosives,  ni<p,n<n<t; 
fricative  surds  used  more  breath 
than  fricative  sonants,  v  <  f ,  z  < 
s,  z  <  s ;  finally  r  <  1.  As  final 
sounds  the  fricatives  required  more 
breath  than  explosives,  nasals  less 
than  the  corresponding  oral  sounds, 
all  surds  more  than  the  sonants,  1 
more  than  r  and  A  about  the  same 
as  ].  Although  some  results  were 
conflicting,  the  general  relations  of 
breath  expenditure  for  the  vowels 


were :  ig  <  I3,  y^  <  yg,  o^  < 


(for 


Fig.  91. 


meanings  of  the  inferior  numerals 
see  p.  222).  The  relaxation  of  artic- 
ulation in  one  vowel  as  compared  with  another  (from 
which  it  may  be  historically  derived)  is  accompanied  by  in- 
creased rate  of  expenditure  of  breath  but  often  also  by  a 
shortening  of  duration.  In  nasal  vowels  less  breath  was  ex- 
pended through  the  mouth  than  in  oral  ones. 

Tambour  curves  for  the  nose  and  mouth  made  by  Gold- 
SCHEIDER  ^  show  clcarly  the  final  rush  of  breath  as  the  cords 
open  after  a  vowel  is  finished  (a,  Fig.  91).  This  rush  does 
not  appear  when  a  vowel  is  purposely  made  to  end  softly. 
The  relations  of  the  two  currents  of  air  in  a  nasal  are  shown 
in  the  nose  and  mouth  curves  for  ma. 

^  GoLDSCiiEiDEE,  Ueber  Sprachstorungen,  Berliner  klin.  Wochenschr.,  1891 
XXVIII  487. 


BREA THING 


225 


The  pressure  of  air  may  be  obtained  by  connecting  a  tube 
from  the  mouth  to  a  water  or  mercury  manometer.  This  is  a 
U-shaped  glass  tube  with  water  or  mercury  at  the  bottom ; 
when  one  arm  is  connected  by  a  rubber  tube  to  the  mouth,  the 
water  or  mercury  will  rise  in  the  other  arm  to  a  height  depend- 
ing on  the  air-pressure.  Water  records  may  be  changed  into 
mercury  records  by  dividing  by  13.6.  A  convenient  form  of 
mercury  manometer  is  shown  in  Fig.  92.  The  mercury  in  the 
U-tube  m  rises  along  the  scale 
so  according  to  the  pressure 
transmitted  through  the  tube  e. 
The  apparatus  can  be  con- 
veniently used  in  connection 
with  a  recording  tambour. 
The  records  of  pressure  are 
taken  in  the  usual  way  with 
a  tambour;  they  are  then 
graduated  by  attaching  the 
tambour  tube  to  e.  By  means 
of  the  bulb  b,  compressed  by 
the  plate  p  by  moving  the 
screw  s,  the  apparatus  attached 
to  e  can  be  made  to  mark  a 
graduation  on  the  record  for 
each  unit  of  pressure. 

After  an  inspiration  the  chambers  of  the  thorax  are  filled 
with  air  at  the  atmospheric  pressure ;  closure  of  the  glottis  and 
relaxation  of  the  inspiration  muscles  produce  an  increase  of 
pressure,  measured  through  an  external  tracheal  opening,  vary- 
ing from  3°"  of  water  in  whisper  to  97°""  in  a  loud  cry,  from 
13  to  16  in  ordinary  speech.^  To  indicate  the  pressure 
Avithin  the  mouth  a  small  rubber  tube  from  a  U-shaped  water 
manometer  is  inserted  into  the  mouth  and  passed  behind  the 
place  of  closure.2     The  effect  of  the  glottal  closure  in  v  or  b 

1  CAGNlAKD-LATOtlK,  Sur  la  pression  a  laquelle  I'air  contenu  dans  la  trachge- 
arlere  se  Irouve  soumis  pendant  I'acte  de  la  phonation,  C.  r.  Acad.  Sci.  Paris,  1837 
IV  201;  Aun.  d.  Sci.  Nat.,  1837,  2me  se'r.,  VII  180,  VIII  319. 

2  SiEVBRS,  Grundziige  d.  Phouetik,  4.  Aufl.,  22,  Leipzig,  1893. 

15 


Fig.  92. 


226  PRODUCTION  OF  SPEECH 

as  compared  with  f  or  p  in  diminishing  the  pressure  in  the 
mouth  appears  readily.  It  may  be  suggested  that  the  stronger 
articulation  of  the  surds,  even  in  whispering,  arises  from  the 
associated  habit  of  resisting  increased  air  pressure. 

To  measure  the  pressure  of  the  air  during  speech,  Weeks  ^ 
used  a  small  metal  tube  of  2°"°  diameter  inserted  into  the 
corner  of  the  mouth  and  bent  around  the  teeth  to  the  center 
of  the  palate  at  the  beginning  of  the  arch  where  the  tongue 
rarely  touches.  Attached  to  a  Makey  tambour  this  indicated 
the  air  pressure  in  the  mouth  at  each  moment.  With  this  in- 
strument Weeks  showed  that  final  h,  d  and  g  in  the  South 
German  pronunciation  are  not  the  same  as  p,  t  and  k,  as 
they  appear  to  the  ear,  but  differ  in  being  spoken  with  less 
pressure. 

In  a  sonant  sound  part  of  the  lung  pressure  is  used  in  set- 
ting the  cords  in  vibration.  In  a  sonant  explosive  the 
remaining  pressure  is  borne  by  the  mouth.  In  a  surd  explo- 
sive, with  open  glottis,  the  entire  lung  pressure  is  borne  by 
the  mouth.  In  whispering,  a  small  part  of  the  pressure  is 
borne  by  the  glottis.  With  a  constant  lung  pressure  the 
variations  of  mouth  pressure  in  surd  and  whispered  sounds 
may  arise  from  different  degrees  of  closure  of  the  glottis. 
The  lung  pressure  can  hardly  be  supposed  to  vary  from  one 
sound  to  another  and  we  may  well  assume  that  the  decreased 
mouth  pressure  for  b„,  go,  d^  (surd  J,  d,  g)  as  compared  with 
p,  t,  k  indicates  more  closure  of  the  glottis.  The  essential 
difference  between  bo,  do,  g„  and  b,  d,  g  (sonant  b,  d,  </)  thus 
lies  in  a  weakening  of  the  glottal  vibration  to  a  whisper 
action  but  not  to  the  condition  of  rest  found  in  surd  sounds. 
RosAPELLY  2  has,  in  fact,  observed  —  with  a  laryngoscope  and 
an  obstruction  between  the  jaws  —  that  in  whispered  aba  the 
glottis  remains  of  constant  width  whereas  in  apa  it  opens 
more  widely  during  the  p. 

1  Weeks,  Recherches  expgrimentales  de  phonetiqne,  Annee  psychologiqne, 
18931174;    summary  in   Maitre  phon^tique,  1894,  juin. 

''■  RosAPELLT,  M^m.  de  la  Socie'te  de  linguistique,  IX  488  ;  Rousselot,  Prin- 
cipes  de  phone'tique  expe'r.,  469,  Paris,  1901. 


BREA  THING  227 

With  a  water  manometer  consisting  of  a  U-tube  Roudet  ^ 
registered  the  subglottal  pressure  in  a  person  having  an  ex- 
ternal opening  into  the  trachea.  In  ordinary  inspiration  the 
pressure  became  at  first  rapidly  negative  and  then  slowly 
returned  to  zero;  in  expiration  it  became  rapidly  positive 
and  slowly  returned  to  zero.  In  ordinary  breathing  the 
minimum  pressure  usually  reached  —2"'"  water  while  the 
maximum  reached  +4°"" ;  during  speech  the  extreme  figure 
for  expiratory  pressure  was  20°".  When  a  (as  in  Fr.  '  pas ') 
was  sung  on  the  note  e"  with  three  degrees  of  intensity,  the 
pressures  indicated  were  :  feeble  ll"",  medium  14™,  loud  19°". 
When  a  was  sung  on  the  three  notes  c",  e",  ^  with  apparently 
the  same  intensity,  the  pressures  were  19.5™,  17.5°'",  12.5°"',  as 
was  to  be  expected  from  the  fact  that  to  be  of  equal  physical 
intensity  sounds  of  different  pitches  must  have  amplitudes  in- 
versely proportional  to  their  frequencies  (p.  109).  For  vowels 
sung  on  the  same  pitch  with  apparently  the  same  intensity  the 
pressures  were:  for  u  15.0,  o  13.3,  a  13.3,  e  14.5,  i  17.0°". 
The  pressure  seemed  to  be  slightly  greater  for  the  close 
vowels.  In  whispered  vowels  the  pressure  varied  greatly ; 
for  example,  from  6°™  to  15°"  for  a.  In  a  series  kept  at 
the  same  intensity  the  pressures  were :  for  u  10.5,  o  9.0, 
a  9.0,  e  10.0,  i  12.0™-  The  pressures  for  a  series  of  sylla- 
bles spoken  on  .e"  were:  for  pa  15,  ba  11,  ta  12,  da  11,  ka 
17,  ga  15,  fa  12,  va  11,  sa  14,  za  13,  sa  16,  za  14,  ma  15, 
na  16,  la  13,  ra  16°™.  The  pressure  was  thus  greater  for  the 
surds  than  for  the  sonants. 

The  air  pressure  in  millimeters  of  mercury  during  the 
vowels  in  ordinary  and  ventriloquistic  speech  has  been  found 
to  be :  ^ 


a 

e 

1 

0 

u 

ordinary : 
ventriloquistic : 

10 
60 

40 
70 

30 
55 

30 
70 

50 
60 

1  Roudet,  Recherches  sur  le  role  de  la  pression  sousglottique  dans  la  parole,  La 
Parole,  1900  II  599. 

2  Flatau  tjnd  Gutzmann,  Die  Bauchredner-Kunst,  Leipzig,  1894. 


228  PRODUCTION  OF  SPEECH 

The  amount  of  air  actually  used,  however,  in  ventriloquism 
is  much  less  than  in  ordinary  speech  ;  in  one  experiment  with 
a  spirometer  900""™  were  used  in  saying  ventriloquially  what 
required  1300""™  ordinarily.  The  curve  of  inspiration  traced 
from  the  abdomen  rises  more  slowly  in  ventriloquism. 

References 

For  breathing  in  connection  with  song  and  speech  r  Geutzner,  Pliysio- 
logie  (1.  Stimme  u.  Sprache,  Hermann's  Handbueh  d.  Physiol.  I  (2), 
Leipzig,  1879;  Joal,  Respiration  en  chant,  Paris,  1895;  Curtis,  Voice 
Building  and  Tone  Placing,  New  York,  1896.  For  anatomical  plates  : 
SpALTEHOLTZ,  Handatlas  d.  Anatomie  d.  Menschen,  Leipzig,  1900  (Engl, 
ed.  by  Barker);  Testut,  Trait6  d'anatomie  humaine,  4me  ^d.,  Paris, 
1899 ;  Quain,  Elements  of  Anatomy,  London,  1896 ;  Gray,  Anatomy, 
Descriptive  and  Surgical,  Philadelphia,  1901. 

For  model  to  illustrate  ruction  of  lungs  and  diaphragm  :  Kohl,  Chem- 
nitz. For  Auzoux's  separable  models  of  man  :  Montaudon,  Paris.  For 
separable  paper  models :  Witkowski,  Anatomie  iconoclastique  (Le  corps 
huniain),  Paris,  1879.  For  tambours  and  pneumographs :  Verdin,  Paris ; 
ZiMMERMANN,  Leipzig.     For  recording  drums  :  see  references  to  Chap.  I. 


CHAPTER   XVII 

VOCAL   OEGANS 

Ik  the  widest  application  of  the  term  the  '  vocal  organs ' 
include  all  the  organs  directly  concerned  in  speech  and  song ; 
the  nervous  organs  have  been  considered  in  Chapters  VII  and 
XV,  the  breath  organs  in  Chapter  XVI ;  the  larynx  will 
receive  separate  treatment  in  the  following  chapters. 

The  general  outline  of  the  organs  above  the  lungs  that  are 
directly  concerned  in  speech  is  given  in  Fig.  93. 

The  trachea  (i^)  is  tlie  outlet  for  the  lungs.  The  rings  of 
cartilage  (upper  one  at  2T)  keep  it  distended.  Behind  it  lies 
the  oesophagus  (D)  and  the  backbone  (T).  The  trachea  ends 
in  the  larynx  (i/).  The  cricoid  (19')  and  the  thyroid  (18,  T) 
cartilages  and  the  vocal  cords  (^ff)  will  be  described  in  the 
chapter  on  the  larynx.  In  ordinary  expiration  the  air  passes 
through  the  trachea  and  larynx  past  the  epiglottis  (E)  into  the 
pharynx  (C  C)  through  the  nasal  cavity  (A)  and  out  the 
nostril  (n~)  on  each  side. 

The  nasal  cavity  (A)  on  each  side  is  of  very  complicated 
form  owing  to  the  various  processes  projecting  into  it  (2,  3, 
4-}.  The  oral  cavity  (B}  is  roofed  by  the  hard  palate  (/) 
and  the  velum  or  soft  palate  (ii).  The  pharyngeal  cavity 
C'Cmay  be  divided  by  closure  of  the  velum  (11)  across  it 
into  two  parts,  the  upper  or  nasal  portion  ( C)  and  the  lower 
or  oral  portion  (  C")-  In  this  case  the  entire  mouth  cavity  from 
lips  to  larynx  is  made  up  of  the  oral  portion  (B)  and  the 
pharyngeal  portion  (C).  The  fall  of  the  velum  turns  the 
pharynx  into  a  single  cavity  and  separates  it  more  or  less 
from  the  oral  cavity. 

The  muscles  controlling  the  movement  of  the  lower  jaw 


230 


PRODUCTION  OF  SPEECH 


are:  1.  th%temporal(l.  Fig.  95),  which  raises  it  and,  if  it  has 
been  projected,  draws  it  back;  2.  the  masseter  (i,  Fig.  94; 
W,  Fig.  95),  which  raises  it;  3.  the  internal pterygoidal,  which 
raises  it  and  may  give  it  slight  side  movement;  4.   the  ea;- 


TiG.  93. 

ternal  pterygoidal,  which  projects  it  or  twists  it  to  one  side. 
The  last  two  muscles  are  attached  to  the  back  part  of  the  jaw. 
The  orbicularis  oris  (9,  Fig.  94;  7,  Fig.  95;  0,  Fig.  96)  con- 
sists of  a  muscle  layer  formed  of  fibers  radiating  from  the 
corners  of  the  mouth  into  the  upper  and  lower  lips,  some  of 
the  fibers  running  around  the  corners.     When  the  fibers  of 


VOCAL   ORGANS 


231 


the  upper  and  lower  lips  act  together,  they  constrict  the 
mouth.  Physiologically  each  of  these  muscles  can  be  divided 
into  an  outer  zone  (away  from  the  mouth)  and  a  marginal  zone. 
Contraction  of  the  outer  zone  alone  compresses  the  lips  and 
projects  them,  that  of  the  inner  zone  alone  presses  them  back 
against  the  teeth.  Each  lateral  half  of  each  muscle  may  act 
independently.  The  buccinator  (11,  Fig.  95 ;  b,  Fig.  96)  is  a 
flat  muscle  at  the  corner  of  the  mouth,  forming  a  large  portion 
of  the  cheek.     It  pulls  back  the  corner  of  the  mouth,  closes 


7 


Fig.  95. 

the  lips  and  presses  them  and  the  cheeks  against  the  teeth. 
The  mingling  of  the  fibers  of  the  buccinators  and  the  orbicu- 
laris oris  is  shown  in  Fig.  96.  The  triangularis  (12,  Fig.  94; 
10,  Fig.  95 ;  t.  Fig.  96)  draws  down  the  corner  of  the  mouth. 
The  quadratus  of  the  lower  lip  (10,  Fig.  94;  8,  Fig.  95;  q-i. 
Fig.  96)  pulls  the  lower  lip  out  and  down.  The  quadratus  of 
the  upper  lip  (q-s.  Fig.  96)  is  a  flat  muscle  dividing  above 
into  the  infraorbital  branch  (6,  Fig.  94;  3,  Fig.  95),  the 
angular  branch  (4,  Fig.  94;  2,  Fig.  95)  and  a  zygomatic 
branch  whose  fibers  have  the  same  insertion  in  the  skull  as 
the  zygomatic  muscle  (2,  Fig.  94).     The  incisivus  of  the  lower 


232  PRODUCTION  OF  SPEECH 

lip  (^■-^,,Fig.  96)  is  a  small  muscle  covered  by  the  quadratus  of 
the  lower  lip  aiad  lying  on  the  edge  of  the  orbicularis  from 
the  corner  of  the  mouth  to  the  jaw  just  below  the  lateral 
incisor  tooth;  it  pulls  the  corner  of  the  mouth  toward  the 
middle  and  downward.  The  incisivus  of  the  upper  lip  (is, 
Fig.  96)  is  a  similar  muscle  covered  by  the  upper  quadratus; 
it  draws  the  corner  of  the  mouth  inward  and  upward.  The 
canine  muscle  (7,  Fig.  94 ;  6,  Fig.  95 ;  c,  Fig.  96)  raises  the 
corner  of  the  mouth.  The  zygomatic  (S  and  8,  Fig.  94) 
raises  and  retracts  the  corner  of  the  mouth.  The  mentalis 
(ii,Fig.  94;  9,  Fig.   95;  m,  Fig.   96)  raises  the  skin  of  the 


Fig.  96. 

chin  and  thus  helps  to  protrude  the  lower  lip.  The  thin 
risorius  (13,  Fig.  94)  pulls  back  the  corner  of  the  mouth. 

The  velum,  or  soft  palate,  (11,  Fig.  93;  c.  Fig.  97)  is  a  soft 
fold  just  back  of  the  hard  palate.  On  looking  into  the  mouth 
it  is  seen  to  hang  down  in  the  back ;  in  the  center  it  carries 
the  uvula  (12,  Fig.  93 ;  F,  Fig.  97)  and  on  the  sides  it  falls 
in  two  arches,  the  front  one  being  the  glossopalatine  and  the 
rear  one  the  fharyngopalatine  arch.  The  vertical  portions  of 
the  arches  are  known  as  the  anterior  and  posterior  pillars  of 
the  velum.  The  velum  is  composed  of  a  fibrous  membrane 
with  muscles  and  a  mucous  covering.  The  palatine  tonsil  on 
each  side  lies  between  the  two  pillars. 

The  elevator  of  the  velum  (b,  Fig.  97)  rising  from  the  tem- 
poral bone  and  the  cartilaginous  wall  of  the  Eustachian  tube 


VOCAL   ORGANS 


233 


and  passing  obliquely  downward,  serves  to  raise  the  middle 
portion  of  the  velum.  The  tensor  of  the  velum  (e)  comes 
from  the  skull,  passes  downward,  turns  over  a  hoop-like  bony- 
process  at  a  right  angle  and  enters  as  a  thin  broad  layer  into 
the  velum  which  it  serves  to  stretch.  The  muscle  (a)  of  the 
uvula  (J*)  springs  from  the  fibrous  membrane  of  the  soft 
palate  and  passes  into  the  uvula,  spreading  out  its  fibers 
which  insert  themselves  in  the  mucous  membrane  of  its  sur- 
face ;  it  shortens  the  uvula  and  raises  it  up  and  back. 


The  glossopalatine  muscle  {R,  Fig.  97;  7,  Figs.  98  and  99) 
comes  from  the  tongue  and  passes  up  the  anterior  pillar  to 
the  velum. 

The  pharyngopalatine  muscle  (Jf-,  Fig.  97)  passing  from  the 
rear  portion  of  the  velum  descends  by  the  posterior  pillar 
partly  to  the  central  portion  of  the  pharynx  and  partly  to 
the  larynx.  The  muscle  serves  to  narrow  the  nasopharyn- 
geal opening  and  to  raise  the  pharynx  and  larynx. 

The    hyoid    bone   (h.    Fig.    93;    B,    Figs.    98,    99)   is   a 


234 


PRODUCTION  OF  SPEECH 


U-sbaped  bone  lying  just  above  tbe  larynx.  The  mylohyoid 
(^16,  Fig.  93)  is  a  muscular  layer  connecting  the  hyoid  bone 
to  the  front  part  of  the  lower  jaw.  Just  above  it  near  the 
middle  is  tbe  geniohyoid  muscle  (15,  Fig.  93;  ^  Figs. 
98,  99).  Also  above  it  on  each  side  is  the  digastricus 
running  from  the  front  part  of  the  jaw  partly  to  the  loop 
(13,  Fig.  98)  and  partly  through  it  to  the  side  of  the  skull. 
All  three  approximate  the  hyoid  bone  and  the  jaw. 
c 


11'  13 


■  Jcrc'J 


B 

Fig.  98. 

The  median  septum  (13,  Fig.  93;  9,  Fig.  97;  s,  Fig.  100) 
extends  along  the  middle  of  the  tongue. 

The  styloglossus  (1,  Figs.  98,  99;  6,  Fig.  97)  runs  from 
the  styloid  process  ((7)  on  the  side  of  the  skull  to  the  side 
parts  of  the  tongue.  The  two  muscles  draw  the  tongue  (par- 
ticularly the  rear  portion)  up  and  back  and  press  it  against 
the  soft  palate.  Some  of  the  fibers  also  cross  from  one  side 
to  the  other  in  the  tongue. 


VOCAL    ORGANS 


235 


The  hyoglossus  (2,  ^',  Figs.  98,  99 ;  7,  Fig.  97)  runs  from 
the  hyoid  hone  upward  and  forward  to  the  point  of  the  tongue. 
It  pulls  the  tongue  hack  and  down. 

The  genioglossus  (14,  Fig.  93 ;  5,  Figs.  98,  99 ;  g,  Fig.  100), 
the  largest  of  the  tongue  muscles,  runs  from  the  inner  surface 
of  the  front  of  the  lower  jaw  (A)  into  the  tongue  and  radi- 


n7T 


Fig.  99. 

ates  on  each  side  of  the  septum  (13,  Fig.  93)  to  all  parts  of  it. 
The  lower  fibers  run  to  the  hyoid  bone  and  serve  to  raise  it, 
the  larynx  and  the  tongue;  some  fibers  also  go  to  the  epi- 
glottis. The  median  portions  draw  the  tongue  forward  and 
tend  to  push  the  point  out  of  the  mouth.  The  anterior  fibers 
draw  the  tip  down  and  back. 

The  inferior  longitudinal  muscle  (6,  Figs.  98,  99;  5,  Fig. 


236 


PRODUCTION  OF  SPEECH 


97)  is  a  band  passing  under  the  surface  of  tongue  to  the  apex. 
Tlie  muscle  shortens  the  tongue  and  makes  it  more  convex 
lengthwise. 

The  superior  longitudinal  muscle  (5,  Fig.  97;  Is,  Fig.  100) 
forms  a  layer  on  the  upper  surface  with  fibers  running  from 
the  septum  outward  and  forward  to  the  free  edge.  It  con- 
caves the  tongue  upward  longitudinally. 

The  chondroglossus  (B",  Figs.  98,  99)  rises  from  the  hyoid 
bone  and  blends  with  the  muscular  substance  of  the  tongue. 
The  muscle  aids  in  drawing  the  tongue  back  and  down. 


KiG.  100. 


The  fibers  of  the  transverse  lingualis  (t,  Fig.  100),  inter- 
lacing with  bundles  of  the  genioglossus,  pass  from  the  sub- 
mucous layer  at  the  sides  of  the  tongue  to  or  through  the 
septum  (13,  Fig.  93);  they  are  found  in  all  parts  of  the 
tongue.  They  compress  the  tongue  transversely  and  make  it 
convex  sidewise. 

The  fibers  of  the  vertical  lingualis  (y,  Fig.  100)  are  found 
near  the  edges  of  the  tongue;  they  connect  points  in  the 
upper  and  lower  surfaces ;  they  flatten  the  tongue  and  push 
out  the  edges. 

The  frenum  linguae  is  a  fold  of  mucous  membrane  con- 
necting the  under  part  of  the  tongue  to  the  jaw;  when  too 
short  it  interferes  with  the  movements  of  speech. 


VOCAL    ORGANS 


237 


Three  constrictor  muscles,  superior,  middle  and  inferior 
(1,  2,  3,  Fig.  101),  serve  to  diminish  the  cross  section  of  the 
pharynx.  The  latter  two  also  shorten  the  pharynx  by  raising 
the  hyoid  bone  and  the  larynx. 

The  superior  constrictor  of  the  pharynx  (1,  Fig.  101;  8\ 
Figs.  98,  99)  forms  a  band  only  about  2™  broad  around  the 
nasal  part  of  the  pharynx.     The  contraction  of  this  muscle 


Fig.  101. 

produces  a  ridge  against  which  the  velum  presses  to  close 
the  nasal  opening.^  One  of  its  parts  is  the  glossophart/ngeus 
(4,  Fig.  97;  8,  Figs.  98  and  99)  passing  to  the  tongue. 
The  middle  constrictor  of  the  pharynx  (2,  Fig.  101 ;  9, 
Figs.  98,  99)  forms  a  band  around  the  middle  portion  of 
the  pharynx  from  the  points  of  insertion  on  the  hyoid  bone. 
The  inferior  constrictor  of  the  pharynx  (3,  Fig.  101)  rises 
from  the  larynx  and  passes  around  the  lower  portion  of  the 
pharynx. 

1  Passavant,  Ueber  die  Verschliessung  des  Schlundes  beim  Sprechen,  Frank- 
furt a/M.,  1863  ;  Verschliessuhg  d.  Schlundes  beim  Sprechen,  Arch.  f.  d.  path. 
Anat.  u.  Physiol.  (Virchow),  1869  XLVI  1. 


238  PRODUCTION  OF  SPEECH 

Fig.  101  shows  also  the  styloid  process  G,  lower  jaw  R, 
hyoid  bone  J,  thyroid  cartilage  K,  trachea  M,  oesophagus 
L,  and  the  following  muscles :  stylopharyngeus  5,  stylohyoid 
6,  styloglossus  7,  hyoglossus  8,  mylohyoid  9,  buccinator  13, 
cricothyroid  IJf. 

The  action  of  most  of  the  organs  of  articulation  can  be 
observed  on  a  fluorescent  screen  when  the  side  of  the  head  is 
illuminated  by  a  very  strong  RoNTGBN  apparatus.^  Owing 
to  the  simultaneous  demonstration  of  several  organs  and  to 
the  freedom  of  the  mouth  from  apparatus,  this  method  will 
probably  be  of  great  service.  It  requires  a  strong  spark 
coil  (250™™  to  500™™  spark),  an  interrupter  (motor,  vibrator 
with  mercury  contact,  or  Wehnelt's  electrolytic  break),  a 
RoNTGEN  tube,  a  barium-platinum-cyanide  screen,  battery 
or  dynamo  current,  and  connections. 

References 

For  ao atomy :  Testut,  Anatomie  humaine,  4"«  ed.,  Paris,  1899; 
Spalteholtz,  Handatlas  d.  Anatomie  d.  Menschen,  Leipzig,  1900 
(Engl.  ed.  by  Barker)  ;  Quain,  Elements  of  anatomy,  London,  1896; 
Gray,  Anatomy,  Descriptive  and  Surgical,  Philadelphia,  1901.  For 
Auzoux's  separable  models  of  man  and  of  the  larynx  and  tongue : 
Montaudon,  Paris.  For  separable  paper  charts :  Witkowski,  An- 
atomie iconoclastique  (Langue  et  larynx),  Paris,  1879.  For  Rontgen 
apparatus  :  Reiniger,  Gebbeet  &  Schall,  Eriangen. 

^  ScHEiER,  Die  Yerwerthung  d.  Rontgenstrahlen  f.  d.  Physiol,  d.  Sprache 
u.  Stimme,  Arch.  f.  Laryngol.,  1898  VII  116;  Ueber  d.  Bedeutung  d.  Rontgen- 
strahlenf.  d.  Physiol,  d.  Sprache  u.  Sfi'mme,  Neuere  Sprachen,  1897-98  V,  Beiblatt, 
40 ;  Zur  Anwendung  d.  Rontgenstrahlen  f.  d.  Physiol,  d.  Gesanges,  AUg.  med. 
Centralztg.,  1898  No.  37  ;  Zwaardemaker,  Sur  les  sons  dominantes  des  re'son- 
nanles,  Arch,  ueerland.  des  sci.,  1899   (2)  II  241. 


CHAPTER   XVIII 

STRUCTURE   AND   OBSERVATION  OF   THE   LARYNX 

The  larynx  (^,  Fig.  93)  is  situated  at  the  upper  end  of  the 
trachea  (F,  Fig.  93).  It  comprises  a  framework  of  cartilages, 
partly  united  by  joints  and  partly  bound  together  by  liga- 
ments and  membranes. 

The  cricoid  cartilage  (19,  Fig.  93 ;  M,  Fig.  101 ;  C,  Figs. 
104,  105,  107  to  111)  is  just  above  the  top  ring  of  the 
trachea.  It  is  a  ring,  narrower  in  front  and  much  enlarged 
in  the  rear. 

The  thyroid  cartilage  (7,  Fig.  93;  K,  Fig.  101;  T,  Figs. 
104  to  111)   is   a   single   large   cartilage   composed   of  two 


Fig.  102.  Fig.  103. 

plates  at  the  sides  and  front  of  the  larynx.  It  rests  upon  the 
cricoid  at  the  cricothyroid  joints  in  the  rear.  The  thyroid 
prominence  (^',  Fig.  107)  may  be  felt  on  the  front  of  the 
neck  (Adam's  apple).  The  upper  and  lower  horns  of  the 
thyroid  are  indicated  by  b  and  h'  in  Figs.  107  and  109. 
The  two  cartilages  are  shown  in  a  front  view  in  Fig.  102, 
and  in  a  side  view  in  Fig.  103. 

The    arytenoid   cartilages    (A,   Figs.    104,    105)    are   two 
small  pyramidal  cartilages  with  triangular  bases.     They  rest 


240 


PRODUCTION  OF  SPEECH 


upon  the  upper  edge  of  the  posterior  wide  portion  of  the  cricoid. 
One  projection  of  each  arytenoid  cartilage,  the  vocal  process 
(v,  Fig.  106),  carries  one  end  of  the  vocal  muscle  ( V,  Figs. 


Fig.  104. 


Fig.  105. 


104,  105)  ;  the  lateral  projection  is  called  the  muscular  pro- 
cess (jn,  Fig.  106).  The  upper  corner  carries  a  small  pro- 
jection called  the  corniculate  (or  Santorini)  cartilage  (6, 
Figs.  109,  110). 

The  epiglottis  (.£",  Figs.  93, 109, 110,  111)  is  a  thin,  very  flex- 
ible, elastic  cartilage  just  above  the  thyroid  cartilage  and  just 
behind  the  root  of  the  tongue  and  the  hyoid  bone.  The  ten- 
sion of  the  surrounding  tissues  keeps  it  erect. 

The  thyroarytenoid  muscle  (2!A,  Fig.  106)  comprises  fibers 
running  from  the  arytenoid  cartilage  to  the  thyroid.  It  is 
often  treated  as  consisting  of  two  parts. 
The  external  thyroarytenoid  comprises 
the  fibers  lying  nearer  the  thyroid  carti- 
lage ;  the  internal  thyroarytenoid,  or 
'vocal  muscle,'  includes  the  fibers  close 
to  the  glottis.  There  is,  however,  no 
distinct  separation  between  the  two 
parts.  The  external  fibers  pull  the 
arytenoid  cartilage  forward  as  a  whole.  The  internal  fibers 
pull  the  vocal  process  of  the  arytenoid  cartilage  directly 
forward. 

The  glottis  is  the  opening  across  the  larynx  (6r,  Fig.  106). 
The  portion  between  the  vocal  muscles  is  called  the  ligamen- 
tous glottis,  that  between  the  arytenoid  cartilages  the  car- 
tilaginous glottis. 


Fig.  106. 


STRUCTURE  AND   OBSERVATION  OF   THE  LARYNX    241 

The  cricothyroid  muscles  (^OT,  Figs.  107,  108)  pull  the 
front  portion  of  the  cricoid  cartilage  upward  around  the  cri- 
cothyroid joints,  whereby  the  upper  rear  portion  of  the  cricoid 
cartilage  0  with  the  arytenoid  A  moves  backward  and  slightly 
downward  from  the  position  indicated  in  Fig.  104  to  that 
in  Fig.  105.  The  vocal  muscle  F'between  the  thyroid  Tand 
the  arytenoid  A  is  thus  stretched  and  lengthened.  Owing 
to  their  slanting  position,  the  cricothyroid  muscles  also  com- 
press the  front  of  the  thyroid  cartilage  and  thus  stretch  the 


Fig.  107. 


Fig.  108. 


vocal  muscles  by  moving  their  front  point  of  insertion  forward. 
The  posterior  cricoarytenoid  muscle  (CAP,  Figs.  109,  110) 
on  each  side  pulls  the  arytenoid  cartilage  downward  and 
separates  the  vocal  muscles. 

Each  lateral  cricoarytenoid  muscle  (OAL,  Fig.  110)  runs 
from  the  upper  edge  of  the  cricoid  cartilage  to  the  muscular 
process  and  lateral  edge  of  the  arytenoid.  It  pulls  the 
muscular  process  of  the  arytenoid  cartilage  forward  and 
downward. 

The   tranverse   arytenoid   muscle    (AA,   Figs.    106,   109) 
pulls  together  the  two  arytenoid  cartilages.      It  moves  the 

16 


242 


PRODUCTION  OF  SPEECH 


muscular  processes  upward  and  backward,  whereby  the  vocal 
processes  are  brought  nearer  together.  Some  of  its  fibers 
run  obliquely  and  are  often  represented  as  separate  muscles, 
the  oblique  arytenoids  (^AAo,  Figs.  109,  110). 

The  thyroepiglottic  muscles  (TE,  Fig.  110)  enlarge  the 
opening  to  the  larynx.  The  aryepiglottic  QAU,  Fig.  110)  and 
the  oblique  arytenoid  (^AAo,  Figs.  109, 110)  muscles  narrow  the 
opening. 


Fig.  109. 


Fig.  110. 


The  thyrohyoid  muscles  (TR,  Figs.  107,  108)  from  the 
thyroid  cartilage  to  the  hyoid  bone  serve  to  raise  the  larynx. 
The  sternothyroid  from  the  thyi-oid  to  the  breast  bone  serves 
to  pull  it  down.  The  laryngeal  portion  of  the  stylopharyn- 
geal (^10,  Figs.  98,  99)  muscle  can  also  energetically  raise  the 
larynx  and  tip  it  forward.  The  combined  action  of  both  sets 
of  muscles  holds  the  larynx  firmly  in  place.  The  larynx  rises 
and  falls  with  different  speech  sounds,  as  can  be  felt  when  the 
finger  is  placed  on  the  projection  in  the  neck  and  different 
vowels  are  spoken  or  whispered. 

Fig.  Ill  shows  the  front  half  of  a  longitudinal  section  of 
the  larynx,  with  the  epiglottis  E,  the  thyroid  cartilage  T^ 


STRUCTURE  AND   OBSERVATION  OF  THE   LARYNX    243 


the  cricoid  cartilage  C,  the  thyroarytenoid  muscles  TA  and  the 
ventricular  bands  VB.  Fig.  112  gives  an  enlarged  section 
of  one  side  of  the  larynx,  showing  the  thyroid  cartilage  T, 
the  cricoid  cartilage  C,  the  external  and  internal  thyroary- 
tenoid muscles  TAU  and  TAI,  the  vocal  ligament  VL,  the 
cricothyroid  muscles  CT  and  the  ventricular  band  VB. 

The  ventricular  band  (^VB,  Figs.  Ill,  112)  is  a  fold   of 
tissue   extending  from  the   thyroid  cartilage  in  front  just 
above  the  vocal  bands  to  the  arytenoid  cartilages.     Muscular 
fibers  are  found  in  these  bands.^     The  ven- 
tricular band  is  often  shorter  and  thicker  than 
that  shown  in  the  figure. 

The  laryngeal  ventricles  (ventricles  of 
MoEGAGNi)  are  small  cavities,  one  on  each 
side,  above  the  vocal  bands  and  under  the 
ventricular  bands.  The  opening  between  the 
ventricular  band  and  the  vocal  band  is  often 
much  greater  than  that  shown  in  the  figure. 

The  mucous  membrane  that  lines  the  larynx 
contains  an  unusual  number  of  elastic  fibers 
that  help  to  preserve  its  form  amid  the  con- 
stant stretching  it  undergoes.  At  the  edges 
of  the  thyroarytenoid  muscles  (F",  Fig.  112) 
the  elastic  tissue  is  thickened.  The  edges 
are  distinguished  from  the  neighboring  mucous  covering  by 
a  difference  in  the  epithelial  cells  and  by  the  lack  of  glands. 
There  is  no  special  projecting  ligament  to  form  anything  re- 
sembling a  cord  or  a  membrane.  The  term  '  vocal  cord,' 
'  vocal  band,'  or  '  vocal  hp '  is  sometimes  applied  to  this  edge, 
sometimes  to  the  entire  muscle. 

The  mucous  membrane  lining  the  larynx  is  supplied  with 
glands  except  along  the  vocal  ligament.  These  glands  keep 
the  surface  lubricated.  The  laryngeal  ventricles,  being 
recesses  or  folds  of  the  mucous  membrane  which  have  their 
mouths  wide  below  and  directed  downward  toward  the  vocal 

1  Steinlechner  und  Tittel,  Der  Musculus  ventricularis  d.  Menschen,  Sitzb. 
d.  k.  Akad.  Wiss.  Wien,  1897  CVI  3.  Abth.  157  (structure,  earlier  literature). 


Fig.  111. 


244 


PllODUCTION  OF  SPEECH 


u 


%^^ 


cords,  must  empty  tlie  mucus  which  exudes  from  them  upon 
the  upper  surface  of  the  cords.  Somewhat  of  the  shape  of  a 
Phrygian  cap  with  the  apex  above  and  wound  around  the 
arj-tenoid  cartilage,  the  ventricle  presents  an  ample  extent  of 
surface  on  which  the  mucous  glands  may  open.  Their 
.     ,  mouths  may  be  seen  extending  in  a  few 

cases  to  within  a  few  millimeters  of  the 
edges  of  the  cords. 

It  is  to  be  noted  that  many  of  the 
muscles  are  more  or  less  closely  united 
by  common  fibers.  Thus,  the  thyroaryte- 
noid and  the  lateral  cricoarytenoid  muscles 
are,  in  man,  parts  of  a  general  constrictor 
muscle  of  the  larynx,  the  cricothyroary- 
tenoid ;  again  the  transverse  arytenoid  is 
the  inner  layer  of  an  arytenoid  muscle 
whose  superficial  layers  send  off  fibers  to 
several  other  muscles,  particularly  to  the 
aryepigiottic. 

The  muscular  arrangement  described 
above  is  the  typical  one  from  which  there 
are  great  individual  differences.  These 
individual  differences  probably  have  ef- 
fects on  vocal  sounds,  but  nothing  is 
known  in  regard  to  the  details. 

The  movement  of  the  arytenoid  carti- 
lages may  be  resolved  into  three  compo- 
nents. The  first  is  a  rotation  that  brings 
the  vocal  processes  (p.  240)  closer  to- 
gether and  at  the  same  time  tenses  the 
cords.  The  second  is  a  hinge-action  that  moves  the  vocal 
processes  upward-outward  or  downward-inward;  the  former 
opens  and  raises  the  glottis,  the  latter  closes  and  lowers  it. 
The  third  component  is  a  sliding  action  sidewise  whereby 
the  cartilages  move  toward  each  other. 

The  action  of  the  muscles  in  producing  the  movements  of 
the  ar^-tenoid  cartilages  may  be  indicated    schematically  by 


Fir, 


\\i. 


STRUCTURE  AND   OBSERVATION  OF  THE  LARYNX    245 

means  of  Fig.  113.  The  position  for  respiration  is  shown  at 
A ;  the  muscles  are  all  in  a  certain  equilibrium  of  contraction. 
The  position  at  B  shows  increase  in  the  rotation-component; 
it  might  be  due  to  stronger  action  of  the  lateral  cricoary- 
tenoid muscles,  or  to  weaker  action  of  the  interarytenoid ;  it 
is  a  position  used  in  light  whispering.  Closure  of  the  liga- 
mentous glottis  with  the  cartilaginous  glottis  open  is  shown 
at  C;  the  rotation  component  is  greater  than  at^;  each  car- 
tilage has  slid  toward  the  other ;  the  action  of  the  posterior 
and  lateral  cricoarytenoids  must  be  relatively  larger  or  that 
of  the  interarytenoid  smaller.  The  entire  glottis  is  closed  at 
D;  it  involves  chiefly  the  action  of  the  lateral  cricoarytenoids 


A  B  CD 

Fig.  113. 

and  the  interarytenoid  with  relatively  little  action  of  the  pos- 
terior cricoarytenoids. 

Tensing  of  the  cords  by  the  cricothyroid  would  tend  to 
close  the  glottis.  Contraction  of  the  external  portions  of  the 
thyroarytenoid  would  relax  the  cords  and  open  the  glottis; 
just  what  the  contraction  of  the  internal  portion  would  do 
can  hardly  be  said. 

The  muscles  in  their  action  on  the  vocal  bands  and  glottis 
may  be  classed  as  1.  tensors:  cricothyroid  and  transverse 
arytenoid;  2.  relaxers:  thyroarytenoid;  3.  closers  (adduc- 
tors) :  thyroarytenoid,  lateral  cricoarytenoid,  transverse  ary- 
tenoid ;  4.  openers  (abductors) :  posterior  cricoarytenoid. 
It  is  to  be  noted  that  all  tensors  have  also  a  closing  action 
and  that  all  openers  have  also  a  tensing  effect. 


246  PRODUCTION  OF  SPEECH 

The  slant  of  the  glottis  is  regulated  by  the  interaction 
of  the  thyroarytenoids  and  the  lateral  cricoarytenoids,  the 
former  lowering  the  rear  end,  the  latter  raising  it.  The 
effect  of  the  change  in  slant  is  probably  to  alter  the  direction 
of  the  air-blast;  the  higher  position  gives  a  more  gradual 
convergence  of  the  walls  below  the  glottis  while  the  lower 
position  makes  the  convergence  more  sudden.  The  effect 
on  the  character  of  the  tone  is  not  known. 

In  swallowing,  the  larynx  is  raised,  the  tongue  is  moved 
backward  and  the  epiglottis  is  depressed;  in  this  way  the 
ventricular  bands  in  the  larynx  are  brought  against  the  lower 
part  of  the  epiglottis  and  the  opening  is  tightly  closed.  The 
glottis  is  also  closed.  .  The  epiglottis  has  presumably  an 
important  function  in  adjusting  the  tone  of  the  laryngeal 
cavity  immediately  above  the  vocal  bands  and  in  modifying 
the  tone  of  the  pharynx.  The  rise  and  fall  of  the  larj'nx 
are  due  to  the  action  of  the  thyrohyoid  and  stylopharyngeal 
muscles. 

The  cricothyroid  muscle  is  governed  by  the  superior 
laryngeal  branch  of  the  vagus  nerve,  the  other  muscles  by 
the  inferior  laryngeal  branch.  The  movements  of  the  mus- 
cles are  governed  by  sub-cerebral  and  cerebral  centers.  The 
former  originate  the  movements  connected  with  organic 
life,  such  as  breathing,  coughing,  crying  from  pain,  laugh- 
ing, and  various  forms  of  intonation  connected  directly  with 
the  emotions;  the  latter  originate  the  specific  movements 
required  in  speech.  For  breathing  the  sub-cerebral  center 
lies  in  the  bulb  (5,  Fig.  70).  For  intonation  the  sub-cere- 
bral center  seems  also  to  be  in  the  bulb.  Cerebral  centers 
for  closing  and  opening  the  glottis  have  been  found  in  the 
cortex,  both  sides  of  the  larynx  being  actuated  by  stimula- 
tion of  either  side  of  the  brain.  In  each  cerebral  hem- 
isphere there  is  a  bilateral  center  for  the  adduction  of  the 
vocal   cords ;  ^  a   cortical   center  of  abduction  has  not  been 

'  Krause,  Ueber  d.  Beziehungen  d.  Grosshirnrinde  zu  KeMkopf  u.  Rachen,  Arch. 
f.  Anat.  u.  Physiol.  (Physiol.  Abth.),  1884  ;  Semon  and  Horslet,  An  experimen- 
tal investigation  of  the  central  motor  innervation  of  the  larynx,  Phil.  Trans.  Eoy.  Soc 
Lend.,  1890  CLXXXI  (B)  187. 


HTUUCTURE   AND   OBSEllVATION   OF   THE   LARYXX     247 


found ;  separate    cortical   centers    for  the    separate    sides    of 
the  larynx  do  not  exist. 

The  opening  of  tlie  glottis  and  the  tension  of  the  vocal 
cords  involve  complicated  muscular  adjustments  that  have 
become  fairly  well  known  only  since  the  invention  of  the 
laryngoscope. 

The  action  of  the  vocal  bands  can  be  directly  observed 
by  means  of  the  laryngoscope.  Although  Sbnn,  Bablngton 
and  CHAEEii;RE  had  made 
mirrors  for  the  purpose  of 
looking  down  the  throat, 
Gaucia,  who  liad  bought 
Chaeiueee's  mirror,  was 
the  first  to  successfully  use 
one.i  The  development  of 
the  method  was  mainly  due 

to  t'ZEEMAK.2 

Tlie  source  of  illumin- 
ation must  be  strong  and 
concentrated.  The  most 
convenient  form  is  that  of 
a  small  electric  lamp  fast- 
ened to  the  forehead  of  the 
observer.  The  arrangement 
shown  in  Fig.  114  has  been 
found  adapted  to  the  use 
of  students.  The  electric 
lamp  in  the  holder  L  can  be 
turned  in  any  direction  by  the  ball-joint  J;  its  light  is 
focused  by  an  adjustable  lens.  It  may  be  connected  to  a 
storage  battery  or  through  a  suitable  resistance  to  the  city 
wires.     The  apparatus  shown  in  Fig.  114  comprises  a  lamp  A 

^  Rapport  snr  '  Garcia,  M^moire  sur  la  voix  humaine'  C.  r.  Acad.  Sci.  Paris, 
1841  XII  638;  Observations  on  the  human  voice,  Philog.  Mag,  1855  5  218; 
Richard,  Notice  snr  Finvention  du  Laryngoscope,  Paris,  1861 ;  Frankel,  Unter- 
suchtinqsmetkoden  d.  Kehlkopfes  u.  d.  Luftrohre,  Hej'mann's  Handb.  d.  Laryng.  u 
Rhin.,  I  229,  Wien,  1898, 

-  CzERMAK,  Der  Kehlkopfspiegel,  Leipzig,  1860-1863. 


Fig.  114. 


248 


PRODUCTION  OF  SPEECH 


of  about  100  ohms  resistance  on  a  llO-volt  circuit  (a  32- 
candle-power  lamp)  ;  the  current  of  1  ampere  passes  through 
this  and  a  small  adjustable  wire  resistance  R  to  the  laryngo- 
scope lamp.  The  degree  of  brightness  in  the  latter  is  regu- 
lated by  adjusting  the  resistance.  An  extra  lamp  is  shown 
at  0.  For  observing  others  the  spring  B  passes  over  the 
head  of  the  observer.  For  self-observation  the  spring  is  fixed 
by  an  adjustable  clamp  D  to  the  rod  ^,  and  an  adjustable 
mirror  F  is  attached  to  the  same  rod. 

Oil  and  gas  lamps  with  condensing  lenses  may  also  be 
used.     Physicians  frequently  employ  an  Argand  burner  with 

a  reflector  fastened  before  the 
eye  which  looks  through  a  small 
hole  in  the  center. 

A  larjrngeal  mirror  (^M,  Fig. 
114)  of  the  largest  size  that  the 
subject  can  conveniently  bear  is 
sterilized  by  carefully  cleaning 
it  with  a  brush  in  a  hot  solution 
of  sodium  carbonate  and  by  rin- 
sing it  before  use  in  a  5%  solu- 
tion of  carbolic  acid.  Persons 
with  tuberculosis  or  other  infec- 
tious diseases  should  have  their 
own  mirrors.  The  mirror  should 
be  warmed  to  about  body  temperature  (tested  by  the  hand) 
against  the  large  incandescent  lamp  or  over  a  flame. 

The  subject  should  open  the  mouth  as  widely  as  possible, 
the  lips  exposing  the  teeth.  The  tongue  is  stuck  out  (not 
pulled  out)  and  the  point  is  wrapped  in  a  cloth  and  held 
down  by  the  thumb  and  finger  (Fig.  115).  The  subject  must 
continue  his  respiration  quietly  and  without  stopping,  other- 
wise the  contact  of  the  mirror  is  liable  to  cause  retching; 
he  is  to  repeat  whatever  sound  he  hears. 

The  handle  of  the  mirror  is  held  like  a  pencil.  "While 
the  vowel  e  is  being  sung,  the  mirror  is  inserted  quickly 
and  evenly  so  that  the  uvula  rests  upon  the  back   of  the 


Fig.  115. 


STRUCTURE  AND   OBSERVATION  OF  THE  LARYNX     249 

mirror ;  the  handle  is  kept  at  the  corner  of  the  mouth. 
A  slight  further  movement  and  turning  of  the  mirror  suffice 
to  send  the  light  down  the  larynx  and  to  reflect  its  picture 
to  the  eye.  Considerable  practice  is  required  to  attain  a 
ready  and  complete  control  of  the  adjustments.  In  the 
laryngoscope  mirror  the  picture  appears  reversed,  the  epi- 
glottis being  at  the  top.  The  Santorini  cartilages  appear 
in  the  view;  their  movements  serve  to  indicate  the  tilting 
of  the  arytenoid  cartilages. 

Measurements  can  be  made  with  considerable  accuracy  by 
a  graduated  mirror  or  by  glancing  at  a  millimeter  scale  and 
then  estimating  the  distance  in  the  laryngoscopic  picture.  An 
instrument  for  directly  measuring  the  width  of  the  glottis 
has  been  devised  by  Exnee.i 

The  character  of  the  vibration  of  the  vocal  bands  may 
be  observed  by  the  stroboscopic  method,  which  has  been 
rendered  easy  of  use.'^ 

With  a  sufficiently  bright  light  and  a  camera  arrangement 
the  laryngeal  view  may  be  photographed.^    With  a  stereoscopic 

1  ExNER,  Das  Laryngomeler,  Zt.  f.  Instrumentenkunde,  1897  XVII  371. 

2  Oertel,  Ueber  eine  neue  laryngostroboskopische  Untersuchungsmethode,  Cen- 
tralbl.  f.  (1.  med.  Wiss.,  1878  XVI  81  ;  Laryngostroboskopische  Beobachiungen  iiber 
die  Bildung  der  Register  bei  d.  menschl.  Stimme,  Centralbl.  f.  d.  med.  Wiss.,  1878 
XVI  99  ;  Ueber  d.  Mechanismus  d.  Brust-  und  Falsettregist.,  Beitrage  z.  Biol.,  25, 
Stuttgart,  1882;  Das  Laryngostroboskop  und  seine  Verwendung  in  d.  Pkysik, 
Physiol,  u.  Med.,  Archiv  f.  Laryngologie,  III  (also  separate,  Berlin,  1895); 
Ueber  d.  Laryngostroboskop,  Verli.  d.  Congr.  f.  inn.  Med.,  1895  3.31  ;  Rethi, 
Exper.  Unlersuch.  ilb.  d.  Schwingungstypus  n.  d.  Mechanismus  d.  Stimmbander  bei 
d.  Fa/settstimme,  Sitzb.  d.  k.  Akad.  Wiss.  Wien,  math.-naturw.  Kl.,  1896  CV  3. 
Abth.  197  ;  Untersuch.  ub.  d.  Schwingungsform  d.  Stimmbander  bei  d.  verschied. 
Ge.iangsregistern,  .same,  1897  CVI  3.  Abtli.  66;  Mbsehold,  Stroboskopische  u. 
photogr.  Studien  lib.  d.  Stellung  d.  Stimmlippen  im  Brust-  und  Falsettregister, 
Arcli.  f.  Laryngol.,  1898  VII  1;  Spiess,  Ein  neues  Laryngostroboskop,  Arch.  f. 
Laryngol.,  1898  VII  148. 

8  French,  On  a  perfected  method  of  photographing  the  larynx,  N.  Y.  Med.  Jour., 
1884,  Dec.  13;  Lari/ngeal  and  postnasal  photography  with  the  aid  of  the  arc  light, 
N.  Y.  Med.  Jour.,  1897,  Jan.  23.  (Accounts  of  earlier  attempts  and  later  metliods 
bv  KiLLiAN,  Miinch.  med.  Wocheuschr.,  1893,  Feb.  7  ;  Wagner,  D.  Photographic 
d.  Kehlkopfes,  Heymann's  Handb.  d.  Laryngol.  n.  Rhinol.,  I  1512,  Wien,  1898; 
Garel,  Ann.  des  Mai.  de   I'OreiUe,  1899  XXV  (2)  702.) 


250  PRODUCTION  OF  SPEECH 

camera  ^  double  views  may  be  obtained  that  appear  in  relief 
through  a  stereoscope. 

The  combination  of  a  stereoscopic  shutter  and  a  photo- 
graphic arrangement  with  a  moving  sensitive  surface  renders 
it  possible  to  get  pictures  of  the  cords  in  typical  stages  of 
vibration.^ 

References 

For  the  structure  and  action  of  the  larynx :  Spalteholz,  Handatlas 
d.  Anat.  d.  Menschen,  Leipzig,  1900  ;  Engl,  trans,  by  Barker  ;  Het- 
MANN,  Handb.  d.  Laryngol.  u.  Rhin.,  I,  Wien,  1898  ;  Grijtzner, 
Physiologic  d.  Stimme  u.  Sprache,  Hermann's  Handbuch  d.  Physiol.,  I  2, 
Leipzig,  1879  ;  Hermann,  Lehrbuch  d.  Physiologie,  338,  12.  Aufl.  Berlin, 
1900.  For  the  nerve  centers  and  connections  with  the  larynx :  Semon, 
Die  Nervenkrankheiten  des  Kehlkopfes  und  der  Luftrohre,  Heymann's 
Handb.  d.  Laryngol.  u.  Rhin.,  1  587,  Wien,  1898.  For  methods  of  laryn- 
goscopy :  Frankel,  Untersuchungsmethoden  d.  Kehlkopfes  u.  d.  Luftrohre, 
Heymann's  Handbuch  d.  Laryngologie  u.  Rhinologie,  I  227,  Wien,  1898. 

For  Auzoux's  separable  models  of  the  larynx:  Mo^taudon,  Paris. 
For  separable  paper  charts :  Witkowski,  Anatomie  Iconoclastique 
(Langue  et  larynx),  Paris,  1879.  For  apparatus  for  demonstrating 
the  action  of  the  laryngeal  muscles  :  Oertel,  Ueber  d.  laryngolog. 
Unterricht,  5,  MUnchen ;  Wagner,  Schema  d.  hypokinetischen  Mobi- 
litatsneurosen  d.  Kehlkopfes  z.  laryngolog.  Unterricht.  For  laryngo- 
scopes :  Kny-Scheerer  Co.,  New  York ;  Sydow,  Berlin.  For  Spiess's 
laryngostroboscope :  Reiniger,  Gebbert  &  Schall,  Erlangen. 

1  Garel,  La  photographic  stgrgoscopique  du  larynx,  Ann.  des  Mai.  de  I'Oreille, 
1899  XXV  (2)  702. 

2  SsiSMANOwsKY,  Die  Anwendung  d.  Photographic  bei  Untersuchung  d.  Stimm- 
banderschwingungen.  Arch.  f.  d.  ges.  Physiol.  (Pfliiger),  1885  XXXVII  375; 
MuSEHOLD,  Stroboskopische  «.  photogr.  Studien  iib.  d.  Stellung  d.  Stimmlippen  im 
Brunt-  u.  Falsettregister,  Arch.  f.  Laryngol.,  1898  VII  1. 


CHAPTER  XIX 


ACTION   OF   THE   LAEYNX 


A  VIEW  of  the  larynx  from  above  during  quiet  breathing  is 
shown  in  the  photograph  (Fig.  116)  made  by  French.  The 
epiglottis  is  seen  as  a  fold  curled  upward  at  the  top  of 
the  picture.  The  arytenoid  cartilages  are  rotated  so  that 
their  vocal  processes  are  turned  outward,  thereby  separating 
the  rear  ends  of  the  vocal  cords.  The  whole  glottis  is  thus 
widely  opened;  the  trachea  can  be  seen  below. 

Speech  sounds  pro- 
duced with  this  adjust- 
ment of  the  larynx  get 
their  acoustic  character 
entirely  from  the  vocal 
cavities  and  not  at  all 
from  the  glottis ;  they  are 
said  to  be  '  surd '  or  'un- 
voiced. ' 

Vocal  sounds  produced 
when   the  cords  are  vi- 
brating are  said  to  be  '  sung  '  or  '  intoned  '  when  they  occur 
in  song,  '  sonant '  or  '  voiced  '  when  in  speech. 

In  intonation  the  vocal  cords  are  brought  together.  The 
blast  of  air  from  the  trachea  sets  them  in  vibration.  The 
rapidity  of  the  vibration  depends  on  the  length,  tension  and 
loading  of  the  muscles  constituting  the  vocal  bands. 

From  photographs  of  the  vocal  bands  during  intonation 
it  is  possible  to  make  some  deductions  concerning  the  laryn- 
geal action. 


Fig.  116. 


252 


PRODUCTION  OF  SPEECH 


im 


Fig.  117. 


The  series  of  photographs  shown  in  Figs.  117  to  121  were 
taken  by  Feench^  from  the  larynx  of  a  professional  con- 
tralto. The  picture  for  her  lowest  note,  Fig.  117,  shows  the 
vocal  bands  quite  short  and  wide,  with  the  ligamentous  glottis 

(p.  240)  open  along  three  fourths  of 
its  length  and  the  cartilaginous  glot- 
tis partly  open,  the  ligamentous  glottis 
being  linear  in  shape.  As  the  voice 
ascended  the  scale  the  vocal  bands 
increased  in  length  and  decreased  in 
width,  imtil  at  e^  the  condition  was 
as  shown  in  Fig.  118 :  here  the  carti- 
laginous glottis  has  opened  further, 
the  vocal  bands  had  increased  in 
length  at  least  3™™  in  the  seven  notes, 
and  had  become  narrower.  The  rise 
in  pitch  seems  to  have  been  brought 
about  by  stretching  the  bands.  With  a  further  rise  in  pitch, 
however,  the  condition  suddenly  changed.  In  the  transition 
from  e^  to  /^  (Fig.  119)  the  bands  were  shortened  about  2°"°, 
the  cartilaginous  glottis  was  closed  and  the  ligamentous  glot- 
tis narrowed;  the  entire  cavity  of  the 
larynx  was  reduced  and  the  epiglottis 
lowered.  The  bands  appeared  to  be 
more  tightly  stretched,  and  to  be  ca- 
pable of  vibrating  only  along  the  liga- 
mentous glottis.  The  change  in  action 
was  accompanied  by  a  marked  change 
in  the  acoustic  quality  of  the  tone  pro- 
duced. Such  a  change  in  the  manner 
of  producing  tones  is  said  to  be  a 
'  change  of  register,'  a  '  register '  in- 
cluding all  tones  produced  in  the 
same  manner.  As  the  scale  was  followed  upward,  the 
vocal  bands  steadily  increased  in  length  and  the  ligamen- 
tous glottis  gradually  opened.  The  condition  at  d?  is  shown 
in  Fig.  120 ;  the  bands  had  increased  in  length  several  mil- 

'  French,  The  action  of  the  glottis  in  singing,  N.  Y.  Med.  Jour.,  1891  Jan.  31. 


$ 


T 


Fig.  118. 


ACTION  OF  THE  LARYNX 


253 


limeters  and  the  cartilaginous  glottis  was  somewhat  opened. 
These  facts  apparently  indicated  a  decrease  in  tension  of  the 
bands.  The  epiglottis  had  risen  slightly.  As  the  voice  passed 
from  d^  to  e^  a  distinct  change  in  quality  was  again  heard  and 
the  laryngeal  conditions  were  seen 
to  become  readjusted  (Fig.  121). 
The  vocal  bands  seemed  slightly 
shorter  than  before.  There  was 
closure  of  the  cartilaginous  glottis 
and  a  small  portion  of  each  end  of 
the  ligamentous  glottis.  The  epi- 
glottis was  depressed.  There  was 
again  a  change  of  register.  This 
was  the  highest  note  that  could  be 
sung  with  ease;  the  action  in  as- 
cending this  register  could  not  be 
studied. 

Other    carefully    made    photo- 
graphs   by   Feench    show   both    similarities   and    disagree- 
ments.    They  seem  to  establish   the  following  conclusions 

regarding  the  action  of  the  female 

larynx. 


Fig.  us. 


m. 


f.1 

'The  larynx  may  act  in  a  variety  of 
ways  in  the  production  of  the  same 
tones  or  registers  in  different  individ- 
uals. The  rule  —  which,  liowever,  has 
many  exceptions  —  is  that  the  vocal 
bands  are  short  and  wide  and  the 
ligamentous  and  cartilaginous  por- 
tions of  the  glottis  are  open  in  the 
production  of  the  lower  tones ;  that, 
as  the  voice  ascends  the  scale,  the 
vocal  bands  increase  in  length  and  de- 
crease in  width,  the  aperture  between 
the  posterior  portions  of  the  vocal  bands  increases  in  size,  the 
Santobini  cartilages  are  tilted  more  and  more  forward,  and  the 
epiglottis  rises  until  a  note  in  the  neighborhood  of  e^  treble  clef, 
iirst  line,  is  reached.     The  cartilaginous  glottis  is  then  closed. 


Fig.  120. 


m^ 


254  PRODUCTION  OF  SPEECH 

The  glottic  chink  becomes  much  narrower  and  linear  in  shape, 
the  capitula  Santokini  are  tilted  backward,  and  the  epiglottis  is 
depressed. 

'  When  the  vocal  bands  are  shortened  in  the  change  at  the 
lower  break  in  the  voice,  it  is  mainly  due  to  closure  of  the  carti- 
laginous portion  of  the  glottis,  the  ligamentous  portion  not 
usually  being  affected.  If,  therefore,  the  cartilaginous  glottis  is 
not  closed,  there  is  usually  no  material  change  in  the  length  of 
the  vocal  bands. 

'  As  the  voice  ascends  from  the  lower  break,  the  vocal  bands 
increase  in  length  and  diminish  in  width,  the  posterior  portion 
of  the  glottic  chink  opens  more  and  more,  the  capitula  Santorini 
are  tilted  forward,  and  the  epiglottis  rises  until,  in  the  neighbor- 
hood of  e^,  treble  clef,  fourth  space, 
another  change  occurs. 

'  The  glottic  chink  is  then  reduced  to 
a  very  narrow  slit,  in  some  subjects  ex- 
tending the  whole  length  of  the  glottis, 
in  others,  closing  in  front  or  behind,  or 
both.  Not  only  is  the  cartilaginous  glot- 
tis always  closed,  but  the  ligamentous 
glottis  is,  I  believe,  invariably  short- 
ened. The  arytenoid  cartilages  are  til- 
ted backward  and  the  epiglottis  is 
depressed.  As  the  voice  ascends  in  the 
J,      ,.,  head  register  the  cavity  of  the  larynx 

is  reduced  in  size,  the  arytenoid  carti- 
lages are  tilted  forward  and  brought  closer  together,  the  epi- 
glottis is  depressed,  and  the  vocal  bands  decreased  in  length  and 
breadth.  If  the  posterior  part  of  the  ligamentous  portion  of  the 
glottis  is  not  closed  in  the  lower,  it  is  likely  to  be  in  the  upper 
notes  of  the  head  register.'  ^ 

Concerning  the  muscular  action  whereby  the  changes  in 
pitch  are  produced,  we  can  hardly  say  more  than  that  pre- 
sumably they  are  mainly  brought  about  by  the  interaction  of 
the  cricothyroid  and  the  thyroarytenoid  muscles.  The  former 
stretches  the  bands  (p.  241).  The  latter  can  make  them 
more  tense  by  contraction  of  its  fibers  (p.  240),  whereby  the 
pitch  would  be  raised,  or  it  can  shift  the  weight  toward  the 

'  French,  as  before. 


■ACTION  OF  THE  LARYNX  255 

middle,  whereby  the  pitch  would  be  lowered.  Changes  in 
load,  in  tension  and  in  length  of  the  vibrating  portion  can  be 
produced  by  the  mUscles  attached  to  the  arytenoid  cartilages 
(p.  239).  The  intimate  connections  of  all  these  muscles  with 
the  other  muscles  of  the  larynx  (p.  244)  would  suggest  gen- 
eral changes  in  any  change  of  register. 

The  rise  in  pitch  through  several  octaves  evidently  cannot 
be  produced  by  continuous  stretching  of  the  bands.  For  a 
rise  of  seven  tones  the  bands  shown  in  Figs.  117  and  118  were 
stretched  about  3°"°.  As  this  voice  had  a  compass  of  about 
2J  octaves,  a  total  lengthening  of  10°"°  to  12™°"  would  be 
needed  at  the  same  rate.  The  impossibility  of  such  a  stretch- 
ing indicates  the  necessity  of  a  change  of  method  in  pro- 
ducing the  tones. 

It  was  asserted  by  Galen  that  the  edges  of  the  glottis 
were  an  essential  factor  in  the  production  of  voice ;  ^  he 
seems  to  have  supposed  them  to  act  by  forcing  the  breath 
to  form  a  jet  whereby  the  air  in  the  vocal  cavity  was  aroused 
to  vibration  as  in  a  labial  pipe.  Dodaut  recognized  the  fact 
that  the  pitch  of  the  voice  depends  on  the  tension  of  the  vocal 
bands.  ^  According  to  Feerein  the  width  of  the  glottis 
has  no  influence  on  the  pitch  of  the  tone,  and  the  bands 
are  essentially  strings  set  in  vibration  by  the  air  as  the  string 
of  a  violin  is  aroused  by  a  bow.^  He  was  the  first  to  make 
experiments  on  membrane  strips  stretched  over  a  tube  and 
on  the  larynx  removed  from  the  human  body. 

Three  views  have  been  held  concerning  the  manner  in 
which  the  vocal  bands  vibrate. 

For  some  purposes  a  vocal  band  maj"^  be  considered  as 
a  string  stretched  between  two  points  with  its  entire  mass 
concentrated  in  a  material  point  at  the  center ;  the  laws 
of  its  vibration  can  then  be  deduced  mathematically.''     For 

1  Galen,  De  usu  partium,  Lib.  VI,  cap.  2. 

2  DoDAET,  Mgm.  sur  Us  causes  de  la  voix,  etc.,  Mem.  de  I'Acad.  des  Sc.  de  Paris, 
1700,  1706,  1707. 

3  Fekreis,  De  la  formation  de  la  voix  de  I'homme,  M^m.  de  I'Acad.  des  Sc.  de 
Pari.s,  1741. 

*  Ratleigh,  Theory  of  Sound,  2.  ed.,  I  §  52,  London,  1894. 


256  PRODUCTION  OF  SPEECH 

vibrations   so   small    that   the   additional  stretching   during 
the  elongation  is  negligible,  we  have 

T=  2n/— 
V  2s 

where  T  is  the  period  of  vibration,  s  the  tension,  a  the  length 
and  m  the  mass.  Thus  the  period  increases  with  an  increase 
of  length,  an  increase  of  mass,  or  a  decrease  of  tension. 
This  last  statement,  more  general  than  the  equation,  is  valid 
for  the  slowest  mode  of  vibration  of  any  stretched  string ;  the 
fall  in  pitch  with  increase  of  length,  increase  of  mass  and  de- 
crease of  tension  can  be  readily  illustrated  on  any  stringed' 
instrument. 

For  most  purposes,  however,  we  must  consider  the  distri- 
bution of  the  mass  of  the  string  along  its  length.  The  ideal 
musical  string  is  '  a  perfectly  uniform  and  flexible  filament 
of  solid  matter  stretched  between  two  ilxed  points.'  The 
strings  of  most  musical  instruments  approach  the  ideal  closely. 

The  free  vibrations  of  a  string  consist  of  the  sum  of  a 
series  of  harmonics  whose  periods  are  the  natural  periods  of 
the  whole  string,  a  half  of  the  string,  a  third  of  the  string,  etc. 
This  can  be  easily  shown  by  setting  a  violin  string  in  vibra- 
tion and  then  touching  it  exactly  in  the  middle;  the  lower 
tone  ceases  but  tlie  tone  of  half  the  string  continues  to  be 
heard.  The  higher  tones  may  be  similarly  found.  Such  a 
series  of  tones  is  often  called  a  note ;  the  component  tones  are 
called  pa7'tials.  The  lowest  partial  is  called  the  first  partial 
or  fundamental.  The  higher  partials  are  called  second,  third, 
.  .  .  loartials  ot  first,  second,  .  .  .  overtones.  For  example,  the 
note  of  100  vibrations  a  second  from  a  piano  string  would 
consist  of  the  partials  100,  200,  300,  400,  500,  600,  ...  in 
various  intensities  ;  the  first  partial,  100,  would  be  the  funda- 
mental and  the  others  would  be  overtones  (p.  72). 

The  vibrations  of  strings  maintained  by  a  blast  of  air  as  in 
an  .^olian  harp  are  in  a  plane  transverse  to  the  direction  of 
the  wind.  ^  In  the  vocal  bands  such  an  action  would  tend  to 
compression  sidewise,  that  is,  to  a  cushion  action. 

1  Rayleigh,  Acoustical  observations,  Phil.  Mag.,  1879  (5)  VII  161. 


ACTION  OF   THE  LARYNX  257 

The  vocal  bands  are  sometimes  treated  as  membranes 
stretched  across  a  channel.  J.  Muller  '  made  experiments 
on  membranous  lips,  whereby  he  showed  that  the  width  of 
the  opening  had  little  influence  on  the  period,  that  the 
period  depended  chiefly  on  the  tension  and  on  the  damp- 
ing and  that  small  membranes  could  be  made  to  give  very 
deep  and  powerful  tones.  He  treated  the  larynx  as  a  pipe 
with  membranous  reeds  whose  periods  followed  the  rules  for 
strings.  That  membranes  can  be  made  to  give  deep  tones 
only  when  stretched  on  soft  supports  that  also  vibrate, 
that  the  cords  can  be  treated  as  ordinary  membranes  only  in 
falsetto  tones,  and  that  in  falsetto  tones  they  have  nodal 
points  —  these  are  conclusions  drawn  by  C.  Mtjllbr.^ 

Membrane  pipes  have  been  made  in  various  ways  and  have 
been  studied  to  some  extent.^  They  form  convenient  instru- 
ments for  illustrating  the  effect  of  tension  on  the  pitch  of  the 
membrane  but  are  decidedly  liable  to  mislead  in  implying 
that  the  vocal  bands  vibrate  like  membranes  and  that  the 
tension  is  obtained  wholly  by  bringing  the  points  of  support 
further  apart.  A  convenient  model  is  that  of  Czekmak* 
or  that  of  LuDWiG.^  The  simple  form  shown  in  Pig.  122  will 
serve  every  purpose.  Two  opposite  points  of  the  thin-walled 
rubber  tube  are  each  caught  between  the  thumb  and  finger ; 
the  tube  is  then  stretched  till  the  sides  come  together.  A 
blast  of  air  through  the  tube  sets  the  edges  in  vibration.  The 
period  of  this  vibration  depends  on  the  tension,  which  can  be 
regulated  by  the  fingers. 

The  vocal  bands  may  also  be  treated  as  elastic  cushions 
that  yield  by  compression.  The  vibrations  of  cushions  have, 
as  far  as  I  am  aware,  received  no  extended  treatment.     The 

1  MiJLLEE,  Handbnch  d.  Physiol,  d.  Menschen,  II  179,  Coblenz,  1840. 

'^  MiJLLEE,  Untersuchungen  iiher  einseitig  frei  schwingende  Membranen  und  deren 
Beziehung  sum  menschlichen  Stimmorgan,  Schr.  d.  Ges.  zur  Beford.  d.  ges.  Natur- 
wiss.  i..  Marburg,  1877  II  102,  166,  167. 

'  Hubert,  Sur  le  mode  de  vibration  des  membranes,  et  le  rdle  du  muscle  thri/o- 
aryUnoidien,  C.  r.  Acad.  Sci.,  Paris,  1891  CXII  715; 

«  CzEKMAK,  Gesammelte  Schriften,  II  71,  "Wien,  1879. 

6  Ludwig's  kiinstliche  Kehlkopfe,  in  Petzold's  Katalog. 

17 


258  PRODUCTION  OF  SPEECH 

possibility  of  a  cushion  action  of  the  vocal  bands  was  sug- 
gested by  EwALD  1  and  MtrsBHOLD.^  The  blast  of  air  pushes 
the  edges  of  the  cushions  to  one  side  either  through  compres- 
sion of  the  projecting  cushions  themselves  or  through  yield- 
ing of  the  walls.  '  This  view  is  favored  by  the  fact  that  the 
vocal  bands  are  not  of  a  nature  and  shape  to  readily  vibrate 
transversely.  The  true  shape  is  given  in  Fig.  112;  the 
usual  diagrams  in  works  outside  those  specially  pertaining  to 
laryngology  give  a  quite  erroneous  idea  of  them.  The  vocal 
bands  suggest  a  pair  of  cushions  suitable  for  compression, 


Fig.  122. 

and  not  a  pair  of  membranes.  When  the  bands  are  closed  by 
the  action  of  the  cartilages,  the  air  is  retained  behind  them 
until  the  pressure  is  great  enough  to  force  them  open,  the 
pressure  being  regulated  by  the  tension  of  the  vocal  muscles 
constituting  the  bands.  When  they  have  been  forced  apart 
to  emit  the  puff  of  air,  they  close  again  and  remain  closed 
until  the  pressure  is  again  sufficient  to  open  them. '  ^ 

The  character  of  the  vibrations  of  the  vocal  bands  seems 
clearly  indicated  by  the  following  additional  facts. 

1  EwALB,  Physiologie  des  Kehlkopfes,  Heymann's   Handbuch  d.  Laryn".  u. 
Khin.,  I  181,  Wien,  1898. 

2  Mdsehold,  Stroboskopische  u.  photogr.  Studien  iih.  d.  Stdlung  d.  Stimmlippen 
im  Brust-  u.  Falsettregister,  Arch.  f.  Laryngol.,  1898  VII  1. 

^  ScEiPTUBE,  On  the  nature  of  vowels,  Amer.  Jour.  Sci.,  1901  XI  309. 


ACTION  OF  THE  LARYNX  259 

Observations  ^  of  the  vocal  cords  of  men  singing  in  the 
chest  register  showed  that  the  cords  touch  along  their 
M^hole  length ;  that  in  loud  tones  they  have  a  slightly- 
rounded  form,  especially  in  the  middle,  indicating  strong  con- 
tact in  the  middle  with  lighter  contact  at  the  ends ;  that  in 
weaker  tones  the  line  of  contact  appears  even  and  thin  while 
the  top  of  the  cords  becomes  flatter.  These  observations 
made  it  clear  that  a  vibration  of  the  cords  in  the  axial  direc- 
tion of  the  larynx  did  not  occur,  and  established  the  fact  of 
cushion  action.  Observations  on  the  head  register  showed 
that  the  vocal  cords  did  not  touch  but  were  separated  by  a 
more  or  less  weakly  elliptical  sht ;  the  exact  method  of  vibra- 
tion was  not  established. 


Fig.  12.3. 

Observations  ^  by  the  stroboscopic  method  showed  that  in 
singing  in  the  chest  register  the  glottis  opens  to  a  spindle- 
like slit  and  then  closes  completely  along  its  whole  length ; 
that  the  cords  move  sidewise,  that  is,  outwards,  and  not  cross- 
wise in  the  direction  of  the  axis  of  the  larynx.  Observations 
on  the  head  register  showed  that  the  edges  of  the  cords  did  not 
touch,  but  did  not  afford  a  decision  concerning  the  direction 
of  their  vibration.  Fig.  123  A  (Mtjsbhold)  shows  the  edges 
of  the  bands  just  touching  (dotted  line)  at  rest,  and  tightly 
pressed  together  as  in  singing  in  the  chest  register  (full  line). 
Fig.  123  B  (Musehold)  shows  the  directions  in  which  the 
bands  yield  to  the  pressure  of  air  from  the  trachea. 

1  Musehold,  as  before,  8. 

'^  Musehold,  as  before,  12,  16. 


260  PRODUCTION    OF  SPEECH 

From  the  foregoing  observations  we  may  draw  fairly  relia- 
ble conclusions  concerning  the  manner  in  which  the  vocal 
bands  execute  their  vibrations. 

In  regard  to  the  chest  register  the  theory  stated  by 
Gakcia  1  seems  established.  '  The  vocal  cords  close  the  pas- 
sage for  the  air  and  offer  resistance  to  it.  As  soon  as  the  air 
attains  a  sufficient  pressure,  it  separates  the  cords  and  pro- 
duces an  explosion,  but  at  the  same  moment  they  come 
together  again  on  account  of  their  elasticity  and  because  the 
pressure  below  has  ceased,  ready  for  a  new  explosion.  A 
series  of  these  compressions  and  expansions,  or  explosions, 
caused  by  the  pressure  of  the  accumulated  air  and  the  reac- 
tion of  the  glottis,  produces  the  voice.  ...  It  is  not  neces- 
sary for  the  glottis  to  close  again  completely  after  each 
opening  in  order  to  produce  the  explosion;  it  is  sufficient 
that  it  should  present  a  resistance  to'  the  air  sufficient  to 
develop  its  elasticity.'  The  action  of  the  lips  in  blowing  a 
trumpet,  as  recently  established  by  the  stroboscopic  method,  ^ 
is  closely  like  that  of  the  cushion  action  of  the  cords. 

In  the  chest  register  the  vocal  bands  probably  always 
vibrate  throughout  their  entire  thickness,  and  never  along  the 
edges  only.^ 

In  regard  to  the  head  register  it  seems  probable  that  the 
thyroarytenoids  do  not  contract  —  at  least  strongly ;  *  that 
the  change  in  the  tension  of  the  cords  is  produced  by  stretch- 
ing ;  that  the  cords  have  somewhat  sharper  edges  than  in  the 
chest  register;  that  the  direction  of  vibration  may  deviate 
more  or  less  from  the  transversal  direction.  The  action  may 
be  similar  to  that  of  a  stretched  string  with  a  mass  of  soft 
material  attached  to  it,  or  to  that  of  a  cushion  with  the  main 
tension  along  its  edge.  It  is  possible  that  the  edge  of  the 
band  moves  neither  axially  nor  transversely  and  not  even  in 
a  straight  line  but  in  a  more  or  less  complicated  curve. 

1  Gaecia,  Beobachtungen  ilb  d.  menschl.  Stimme,  Monatsschr.  f.  Ohreuheilk., 
1878. 

^  MnsEHOLD,  as  before,  19. 

2  MusEHOLD,  as  before,  18.  *  Ewald,  as  before,  200. 


ACTION   OF   THE  LARYNX  261 

In  regard  to  the  course  of  a  vibration  executed  by  the 
bands  no  reliable  data  are  at  hand  except  those  obtainable 
from  speech  curves  (Part  I).  These  indicate  regularly  for 
the  chest  register  more  or  less  sudden  movements  separated 
by  intervals  of  rest  (p.  39).  Concerning  the  head  register 
we  have  no  published  information. 

Different  adjustments  of  the  weight  of  the  muscle  sub- 
stance within  the  vocal  bands  would  produce  differences  in 
the  character  of  the  vibration  and  consequently  puffs  of 
different  forms  (p.  96).  These  differences  in  adjustment  may 
be  produced  by  differences  in  the  groups  of  fibers  contracted. 
The  character  of  the  voice  in  singing  or  speaking  doubtless 
arises  largely  from  these  differences  in  the  action  of  the  bands. 
The  effect  of  different  loads  on  the  action  of  a  vibrating  string 
may  be  readily  illustrated.  A  string  —  for  example,  a  violin 
string  —  is  stretched  between  two  supports.  By  loading  the 
string  with  little  blocks  of  paper  or  by  pressing  cotton  wads 
against  it  at  different  points  the  character  of  the  tone  may 
be  made  to  vary  as  a  result  of  the  modification  of  the  over- 
tones. The  effect  in  vibrating  cushions  is  not  so  readily 
demonstrated. 

It  has  been  suggested  (Swain)  that  the  ventricular  bands 
may  possibly  descend  and  touch  the  top  surfaces  of  the  vocal 
bands  during  intonation  and  thus  modify  the  character  of 
the  vibrations  by  acting  as  dampers,  loads  or  nodal  supports. 

According  to  St6rk,i  when  the  larynx  is  strongly  illu- 
minated below  the  cords  by  a  light  through  the  neck  and 
is  observed  with  a  laryngoscope,  the  light  is  seen  in  increas- 
ing brightness  through  the  cords  as  the  pitch  rises  until  in 
the  head  register  there  seems  to  be  only  a  thin  membrane 
in  front  of  it.  This  shows  merely  that  in  high  notes  the  time 
of  closure  diminishes  in  comparison  with  the  time  of  opening. 

That  the  vocal  muscle  possesses  the  ability  to  contract 
differently  in  its  different  parts  is  shown  by  an  experiment 
described  by  Ewald.^     Across  the  end  of  a  tube  two  frog- 

1  Stork,  Klinik  der  Kehkopfkrankheiten,  Stuttgart,  1876. 

2  EwALD,  Phi/siologie  des  KeUkopfes,  Heymann's  Handbuch  d.  Laryngologie 
n.  Rhin.,  I  202,  Wien,  1898. 


262  PRODUCTION  OF  SPEECH 

muscles  were  placed  to  form  an  artificial  larynx.  The  muscles 
were  stretched  by  causing  them  to  contract  by  means  of  elec- 
tric currents.  A  note  was  produced  when  a  blast  of  air  was 
driven  through  the  apparatus.  By  shifting  the  electrodes  the 
inner  or  the  outer  portions  of  the  muscles  could  be  made  to 
contract  separately.  Different  distributions  of  the  weight 
in  the  vibrating  muscles  produced  changes  in  pitch.  In  this 
way  considerable  changes  could  be  produced  while  the  total 
contractile  force  remained  constant.  This  experiment  of 
Ewald's  does  not  prove  that  the  tension  of  the  cords  remains 
constant  and  that  the  changes  in  pitch  are  entirely  produced 
by  different  degrees  and  distributions  of  the  contraction.  It  is 
much  more  probable  that  the  differences  in  distribution  aid  in 
great  changes  in  pitch,  but  that  the  finer  adjustments  are  de- 
rived from  differences  in  the  tension  of  a  portion  already  con- 
tracted ;  this  would  involve  combined  changes  in  the  tensions 
of  the  thyroarytenoid  and  the  cricothyroid  muscles. 

According  to  Oebtel^  and  Koschlakofp^  the  vocal  bands 
in  the  head  register  vibrate  in  two  longitudinal  segments  with 
nodal  lines  running  along  not  far  from  their  edges.  The  nar- 
row strip  between  the  nodal  line  and  the  edge  makes  extensive 
movements  while  the  portion  beyond  the  nodal  line  makes  only 
small  ones.  It  may  be  suggested  that  the  greater  weight  of 
the  outer  portion  would  make  its  smaller  vibrations  equivalent 
in  energy  to  the  more  extended  ones  of  the  inner  portion. 

According  to  Rethi's  observations^  on  the  head  register 
by  means  of  the  stroboscopic  method,  the  edge  of  the  vocal 
cord  rises  for  a  vibration  and  then  falls  while  a  ridge-like 
wave  passes  from  the  edge  along  the  top  surface  outward,  no 
nodal  lines  being  seen ;  the  phenomena  were  explained  by  the 
contraction   of  the   internal   portion  of  the   thyroarytenoid 

1  Oeptel,  as  on  p.  249. 

'^  KosoHi/AKOFF,  XJeber  d.  Schwinrjungstijpen  d.  Stimmbdnder,  Arch.  f.  d.  ges. 
Physiol.  (Pfliiger),  1886  XXXVIII  473. 

'  Rethi,  Exper.  Untersuch.  iib.  d.  Schwingunr/stypus  u.  d.  Mechanisnius  d. 
Stimmbdnder  bei  d.  Falxettsdmme,  Sitzb.  d.  k.  Akad.  Wiss.  Wieu,  math.-naturw. 
Kl.,  1896  CV  3.  Abth.  197. 


ACTION  OF  THE  LARYNX  263 

muscle  while  the  external  portion  was  relaxed.     In  the  middle 
register  the  action  was  similar  to  that  in  the  head  register.^ 

Studies  of  vowels  sung  and  spoken  in  the  chest  register 
seem  to  require  the  assumption  of  cushion  action  of  the 
bands,  as  indicated  by  the  following  facts.  The  movement 
imparted  to  the  air  hj  a  freely  vibrating  membrane  is  neces- 
sarily of  the  nature  of  a  sinusoid  (p.  2)  or  a  sum  of  har- 
monic sinusoids  (p.  13).  That  the  movement  is  not  of  such 
a  nature  in  sung  and  spoken  vowels  of  the  chest  register  has 
been  proven  by  recorded  speech  curves  (p.  41).  The  vibra- 
tions of  cushions  may  be  of  any  degree  of  sharpness  or  smooth- 
ness from  a  practically  instantaneous  explosion  to  a  move- 
ment as  regular  as  that  of  a  fork.  Such  vibrations  appear 
in  the  various  speech  curves.  Vibrations  of  a  sinusoid  char 
acter  can  arouse  only  harmonic  resonance  vibrations,  whereas 
explosive  vibrations  require  no  such  adjustment  of  the  reso- 
nating cavity.  The  evidence  is  conclusive  (pp.  21,  39)  that 
in  sung  and  spoken  vowels  a  harmonic  relation  between  the 
resonance  tones  and  the  cord  tone  is  not  necessary.  In  con- 
sidering the  tone  aroused  by  the  cords  it  seems  necessary  to 
treat  it  not  as  a  note  composed  of  a  series  of  partials  (p.  90) 
but  as  a  series  of  pufEs.  These  facts  are  conclusive  in  regard 
to  the  cushion  action  in  the  chest  register.  Similar  data  for 
the  head  register  are  not  at  hand. 

When  the  vocal  cords  close  to  obstruct  the  air  passage, 
the  greater  the  breath  pressure  the  more  energetic  must  be 
the  muscular  action  in  order  to  maintain  the  closure.  Even 
when  the  cords  are  vibrating  the  tension  and  firmness  of 
closure  must  increase  as  the  pressure  increases  in  order  to 
prevent  the  cords  from  simply  being  forced  apart  and  produc- 
ing a  breathy  tone.  That  this  is  actually  the  case  has  been 
shown  by  Mtjsehold  (p.  259).     According  to  Muller  ^  an 

1  R^THI,  Unlersuch.  ub.  d.  Schwingungsform  d  Stimmbander  bei  d.  verschied. 
Registern,  Sitzb.  d.  k.  Akad.  Wiss.  Wien,  math.-naturw.  Kl.,  1897  CVI  3.  Abth. 
68. 

2  MuLLEK,  XJeber  d.  Compensation  d.  physischen  Krafte  am  menschl.  Stimm- 
organ,  1839. 


264  PRODUCTION  OF  SPEECH 

increase  in  the  pressure  of  the  air  produces  an  increased 
'  passive '  tension  of  the  vocal  membranes  and  consequently 
a  higher  note  ;  this  can  be  readily  demonstrated  by  the  instru- 
ment shown  in  Fig.  122.  To  maintaiu  a  sound  on  the  same 
note  this  passive  tension  must  be  compensated  by  a  relaxation 
of  the  active  tension.  This  theory  would  be  apparently 
incontestable  if  the  cords  were  membranes,  as  Mullek  sup- 
posed. It  has  been  shown  to  be  inadequate  by  the  observa- 
tions of  MusEHOLD ;  the  cords  do  not  relax  but  contract  more 
firmly  as  the  breath  pressure  rises.  The  maintenance  of  a 
constant  period  of  vibration  in  spite  of  the  firmer  closure  may, 
I  suggest,  be  due  to  a  redistribution  of  the  contraction  in  the 
different  fibers,  the  fibers  along  the  edge  contracting  more 
strongly  while  those  in  the  interior  relax  and  act  not  only 
to  diminish  the  total  tension  of  the  cords  but  also  as  loads 
to  lengthen  the  period. 

When  the  same  note  is  sung  by  different  persons  or  by  the 
same  person  in,  different  conditions,  the  ear  will  readily  detect 
differences  in  the  character  of  the  sound.  Persons  can  be 
distinguished  by  their  voices  when  speaking  and  singing. 
There  are  undoubtedly  individual  differences  in  the  action 
of  the  vocal  bands  and  in  the  adjustments  of  the  vocal  cavity. 
The  changes  in  the  character  of  a  note  coming  directly  from 
the  glottis  are  brought  about  by  differences  in  the  structure 
and  action  of  the  larynx.  On  the  theory  that  the  cords  exe- 
cute vibratory  movements  like  most  musical  instruments  these 
differences  arise  from  the  differences  in  the  strengths  of  the 
partial  tones  (p.  95).  On  the  theory  that  the  cords  produce 
puffs  like  a  siren  they  arise  from  the  shape  of  the  puff 
(p.  96). 

The  character  of  the  voice  depends  also  on  the  condition  of 
lubrifaction  of  the  larynx.  It  must  necessarily  be  the  case 
that  a  wet  wall  of  whatever  resisting  quality  must  produce 
sound  waves  of  a  different  nature  from  a  dry  or  nearly  dry 
surface,  and  this  must  especially  apply  to  the  vocal  cords. 
Any  influence,  whether  physiological  or  pathological,  which 
tends  to  modify  the  amount  and  the  consistency  of  the  lubri- 


ACTION  OF  THE  LARYNX  265 

facient  mucus,  must  also  influence  the  vocal  tone.  A  large 
part  of  the  modification  of  the  voice  in  attacks  of  laryngitis 
must  be  due  to  this  change  in  the  mucus. 

Changes  in  the  tones  from  the  cords  are  also  brought  about 
by  adjustments  of  the  sizes,  necks  and  apertures  of  the  series  of 
cavities  above  them ;  these  are  brought  about  by  rise  and  fall 
of  the  larynx,  by  changes  in  the  position  of  the  epiglottis, 
tongue,  velum,  jaw,  lips,  by  changes  in  the  tension  in  the 
walls  of  the  cavities,  etc.  It  is  doubtful  for  the  human  sub- 
ject, if  the  laryngeal  ventricle,  even  during  very  strenuous 
phonation,  is  dilated  sufficiently  to  greatly  modify  the  quality, 
of  the  tone.  We  know  that  this  occurs  in  some  animals  in 
which  these  ventricles  seem  to  serve  the  purpose  of  resonators. 
The  ventricular  bands  may  perhaps  in  some  way  affect  the 
character  of  the  voice  tone. 

Voices  may  be  classed  roughly  as  soft  and  sharp.  The  soft 
voice  has  a  character  resembling  that  of  a  flute  or  a  tuning 
fork,  that  is,  a  tone  with  mainly  low  partials.  The  soft 
voice  is  most  readily  produced  when  the  head  is  slightly 
inclined  forward  and  the  larynx  lowered.  The  length  of 
the  mouth  cavity  favors  low  tones  and  the  softness  of  the 
walls  would  hinder  the  development  of  high  tones.  The  lips 
are  generally  held  rather  close,  to  hinder  the  exit  of  high 
tones.  The  tongue  is  drawn  back  and  the  soft  palate  raised 
to  close  the  nasal  opening.  On  the  vibration  theory  the  bands 
themselves  may  be  supposed  to  swing  in  a  way  to  develop 
only  low  overtones.  Geutzner^  supposes  them  to  vibrate 
without  touching  at  the  edges.  It  may  be  suggested  that  the 
adjustment  of  the  muscular  load  within  the  bands  might  be 
supposed  to  dampen  the  higher  overtones  (p.  295).  On  the 
explosion  theory  the  puffs  are  of  smooth  shape ;  they  might 
even  approximate  the  sinusoid  form  (p.  2).  In  the  production 
of  the  sharp  voice  the  larynx  is  high,  the  head  is  generally 
tipped  back,  the  muscular  adjustments  are  firm,  the  mouth 

1  Merkel,  Die  Fuuctioneii  d.  menschl.  Schlnnd-  n.  Kehlkopfes,  Leipzig, 
1862;  Gkutzner,  Physiologie  d.  Stimme  u.  Sprache,  Hermann's  Handbnch  d. 
Physiol.,  I  (2)  106,  Leipzig,  1879. 


266  PRODUCTION  OF  SPEECH 

is  open  and  the  tongue  depressed;  the  epiglottis  is  half 
erected.  On  the  vibration  theory  these  adjustments  fayor 
the  development  of  high  partials  and  their  exit  from  the 
mouth  ;  the  vocal  bands  are  supposed  to  strike  sharply  against 
each  other  and  the  load  is  not  adjusted  to  avoid  the  over- 
tones. The  sound  is  like  that  of  a  membrane  striking 
against  a  solid  edge  (Gkutzner).  A  screeching  tone  is  an 
exaggeration  of  the  sharp  tone  (Gabcia).  The  adoption  of 
the  striking  of  the  bands  into  the  vibration  theory  practically 
replaces  it  by  the  explosion  theory.  On  the  explosion  theory 
the  glottis  closes  and  opens  in  a  way  to  produce  puffs  whose 
shape  is  not  smooth. 

Experimental  records  from  the  larynx  are  generally  con- 
cerned with  its  vertical  displacement  or  with  the  pitch  of  the 
tone  it  produces. 

The  rise  and  fall  of  the  larynx  can  be  registered  by  tam- 
bours with  special  projecting  arms.^  The  rise  of  the  larynx 
for  high  tones  and  its  fall  for  low  ones  indicate  activity  of 
the  thyrohyoid  and  sternothyroid  muscles.  Movements  dur- 
ing internal  speech  have  been  similarly  registered.^  Ob- 
servations with  RoNTGEN  rays  showed  that  for  a  the  hyoid 
bone  is  still  while  the  larynx  is  somewhat  raised.  The 
larynx  is  higher  for  a  than  for  u,  lower  than  for  i.  For 
e  it  is  somewhat  lower  than  for  i;  for  o  somewhat  higher 
than  for  u.  As  a  is  made  to  pass  into  i  both  hyoid  bone  and 
larjmx  rise,  maintaining  their  relative  positions.  As  a  is 
changed  to  u,  the  larynx  sinks  and  the  hyoid  bone  is  pushed 
forward  somewhat.  For  a  the  cavity  bounded  by  the  larynx, 
the  base  of  tongue,  the  rear  wall  of  pharynx  and  the  soft 
palate  is  only  moderately  large  ;  it  is  large  for  e,  still  larger 
for  i  and  narrowest  for  u.  For  rise  in  pitch  the  epiglottis 
rises,  and  likewise  the  reverse.  Observations  on  over  thirty 
singers  showed  that  with  the  falsetto  voice  the  epiglottis  is 

1  T.  Krztwicki,  Ueber  die  graphiache  Darstellung  der  Kehlkopfbewegungen 
beim  Sprechen  n.  Singen,  Kiinigsberg,  1892  ;  Eousselot,  Principes  de  phonStique 
experimentale,  98,  Paris,  1897. 

-  Curtis,  Automatic  movemenin  of  the  larynx,  Amer.  Jour.  Psychol.,  1900 
XI  237. 


ACTION  OF   THE   LARYNX  267 

nearly   upright,   and  that   the  larynx  is   raised  and   brought 
near  the  hyoid  bone.i 

The  pitch  of  the  tone  from  the  larynx  may  be  determined 
in  several  ways. 

To  register  from  the  outside  of  the  larynx,  a  tube  is  fitted 
tightly  into  the  bottom  of  a  small  round  box  ^  (Fig.  124); 
the  edges  may  be  cut  to  fit  closely  on  the  neck  over  the 
larynx;  it  may  be  covered  with  a  rubber  membrane.^  A 
rubber  tube  transmits  the  air  vibrations  from  this  box  to  a 
Marby  tambour  (p.  195  ),  whereby  they  may  be  made  to 
record  themselves  on  a  drum. 

Rosapelly's  electric  interrupter  for  the  larynx  consists  of 
a  small  weight  on  a  spring  whose  inertia  closes  an  electric 
circuit  when  its  supporting  frame  is  jarred.* 

RousSELOT  ^  has  used  a  carbon  microphone  to  interrupt  an 
electric  current  in  accordance  with  the       _ 
air   movements  of  the  sound  spoken. 
Instead  of  a  telephone  plate  the  fluctu- 
ations in  the  magnet  included  in  the 
circuit  were  communicated  to  an  arma-  '°'  ^"'*' 

ture  held  by  a  membrane  of  varnished  parchment;  the  move- 
ments were  registered  by  a  recording  arm. 

The  microphone  known  in  America  as  the  Blake  trans- 
mitter and  a  very  light  and  carefully  made  time-marker  may 
be  used  for  the  same  purpose,  as  may  also  a  carefully  adjusted 
voice  key  (Fig.  66). 

The  methods  of  registering  the  vibrations  in  the  speech 
sounds  issuing  from  the  mouth  aie  mentioned  in  Part  I;  a 

1  ScHEiER,  Ueber  d.  Verwerthung  d.  RSntqen-Strahhn  f.  d.  Physiol,  d.  Sprache 
u.  Stiinme,  Arch.  f.  Laryngol.,  1898  VII  126;  Ueber  d.  Bedeutung  d.  Rontgen- 
Strahlen  fur  d.  Physiol,  d.  Sprache  u.  Stimme,  Neuere  Sprachen,  1897-98  V, 
Beiblatt,  40. 

2  RocsSELOT,  Les  modifications  phon€t.  du  langage,  15,  "Rev.  des  pat.  gallo- 
romans,  1891  IV",  V  (also  separate)  ;  Principes  de  phone'tique  expe'rimentale,  97, 
Paris,  1897. 

3  Meyek,  Stimmhaftes  H,  Neaere  Sprachen,  1900  VIII  261. 

*  RoSAPELLY,  Essai  d'inscription  phon&iqm,  Travaux  du  lab.  de  Marey,  IT 
117;  RoussELOT,   Les  modifications,  as  before,  14;  Principes,  106. 

*  RoussELOT,   Les    modifications,  3.s  before,  16;  Principes,  127. 


268  PRODUCTION  OF  SPEECH 

proper  interpretation  of  the  records  gives  the  period  of  the 
cord  vibrations  at  each  moment  (p.  62). 

The  sounds  from  the  larynx  may  be  grouped  under  the 
terms  '  tone, '  '  whisper, '  '  breath  '  and  '  catch. ' 

In  song  and  ordinary  speech  the  sounds  are  mainly  tones  ; 
it  seems  quite  probable  that  the  cords  execute  their  vibrations 
in  the  same  general  way  for  the  tones  in  both  eases.  Accord- 
ing to  DoNDERS  ^  and  Helmholtz  ^  the  edges  vibrate  freely  in 
song,  whereas  in  speech  they  strike.  Hermann's^  results 
for  sung  vowels  would  indicate  that  even  in  song  the  action 
is  not  that  of  a  freely  swinging  membranous  reed;  the  vowels 
show  that  the  tone  from  the  bands  consists  of  a  series  of  posi- 
tive puffs  of  air  separated  by  longer  or  shoi'ter  intervals  of 
silence  (p.  39).  My  own  curves  show  conclusively  that  in 
speech  the  puff  from  the  bands  is  of  an  explosive  nature  giv- 
ing a  positive  blow  to  the  air  in  the  mouth  cavity  and  that  the 
sharpness  of  the  explosion  differs  in  different  vowels.  The 
action  in  singing,  as  indicated  by  Herjlann's  curves,  is 
probably  of  a  similar  nature,  the  explosion  being  a  more 
gradual  one. 

The  difference  between  song  and  speech  lies  apparently  not 
in  the  kind  of  vibration  executed  by  the  cords  but  in  the  man- 
ner in  which  the  tone  of  the  voice  runs  up  and  down  in 
pitch.  The  difference  seems  to  have  been  correctly  perceived 
by  Aristoxenus,*  who  in  discussing  KivrjaK  ^wi'^?  opposes 
KivrjaK  (Tvve')(fi<i  to  KLvrjo-f;  Bia(TTT]ij,aTiKr].  The  first  term  may 
be  translated  as  'change  in  pitch  of  the  voice,'  the  second 
as  'continuous  change,'  and  the  last  as  'change  by  steps.' 
The  continuous  change  he  considers  to  be  characteristic  of 
speech  as  opposed  to  song.  'Now  the  continuous  move- 
ment is,  we  assert,  the  movement  of  conversational  speech, 

1  DoNDERS,  Over  cle  tongwerktuigen  van  hei  stem-  en  spraakorqaan,  n.  p.,  u.  d. 

2  Helmholtz,  Die  Lehre  v.  d.  Tonempfindungen,  5.  Aufl.,  169,  Leipzig,  1896. 
^  Hermann,  Weitere  Untersuch.  il.  d.  Wesen  d.  Vokale,  Arch.  f.  d.  ges.  Physiol. 

(Pfluger),  1895  LXI  192. 

4  ARiSTOXENna,  Harmonica,  I  §  25,  p.  8,  Meib.  The  passages  are  collected 
by  Johnson,  Musical  pilch  and  the  measurement  of  intervals,  Thesis,  Baltimore, 
1896. 


ACTION  OF  THE  LARYNX 


269 


for  when  we  converse  the  voice  moves  through  a  space  in 
such  a  manner  as  to  seem  to  rest  nowhere. '  ^ 

In  song  the  intention  is  to  maintain  the  voice  on  successive 
notes  at  a  constant  pitch  for  each  one,  while  in  speech  the 
pitch  is  seldom  constant.  The  effort  at  a  constant  pitch 
necessarily  fails  as  do  all  attempts  at  constant  muscular  con- 
traction (p.  202) ;  the  result  is  an  average  pitch  with  a  prob- 
able error  (p.  201)  whose  size  depends  on  the  accuracy  of 
muscular  control  (p.  202)  under  guidance  of  the  ear. 

The  constancy  with  which  a  tone  can  be  maintained  is  a 
matter  of  considerable  importance  that  has  not  yet  been  in- 


FlG.   125. 

vestigated.  It  may  be  demonstrated  by  singing  in  unison 
with  a  fork  or  an  organ  pipe;  the  beats  due  to  the  differ- 
ences are  readily  heard.  It  may  also  be  observed  optically  by 
an  apparatus  devised  by  Hbnsen.^  The  flame  of  a  mano- 
metric  capsule  (Fig.  18)  in  front  of  a  mirror  on  the  end  of  a 
prong  of  a  vibrating  fork  (Fig.  125)  is  seen  to  have  one  point 
(Fig.  125)  for  a  tone  sung  with  the  ratio  of  frequency  1  :  1 


1  Abistuxenus,  Harmonica,  I  §  28,  p.  8,  Meib.,  quoted  by  Johnson,  The 
motion  of  the  voice  in  the  theory  of  ancient  music,  Trans.  Amer.  Philol.  Assoc, 
1899  XXX  47. 

2  Hensen,  ^i'n  einfaches  Verfahren  sur  Beobachtung  der-Tonhohe  eines  gesunge- 
nen  Tons,  Arch.  f.  Anat.  u.  Physiol.  (Physiol.  Abth.),  1879  155. 


270 


PRODUCTION   OF  SPEECH 


(unison)  to  that  of  the  fork,  two  points  (Fig.  126)  with  the 
ratio  2  :  1  (octave),  three  points  (Fig.  127)  with  the  ratio 
3  :  1  (duodecime),  etc.  With  the  ratios  3  :  2  (fifth)  there  are 
three  points  (Fig.  128)  but  the  flames  appear  twisted  to- 
getlier,  with  4  :  3  (fourth)  four  points  (Fig.  129),  and  with 
6  :  4  (major  tliird)  five  points  (Fig.  130).  With  the  least 
variation  in  pitch  from  the  exact  ratio  the  figure  seen  in  the 
mirror  appears  to  rotate  around  a  vertical  axis.  The  greater 
the  variation  the  more  rapid  the  rotation.     When  the  tone  is 


Fig.  126. 


Fig.  127. 


Fig.  128. 


Fig.  129. 


Fig.  130. 


too  low,  the  flame  appears  to  move  in  the  direction  in  which 
the  points  are  directed;  when  too  high,  in  the  opposite  direc- 
tion. The  mirror-fork  may  be  provided  with  sliding  weights 
for  altering  the  pitch. 

The  accuracy  with  which  a  tone  can  be  reproduced  by  the 
voice  has  been  investigated  by  Klundbr.^  Two  small  pho- 
nautographs,  each  consisting  of  a  recording  point  attached  to 
a  rubber  membrane  on  the  end  of  a  tube,  were  arranged  to 
record  simultaneously  on  a  smoked  drum.  One  of  them  re- 
corded the  vibrations  of  a  tone  from  an  organ  pipe,  the  other 


1  Klunder,    Ueber  die  Genauigkeit   der  Stimme,  Arch.  f.  Anat.    u,   Physiol. 
(Physiol.  Ahth.),   1879  119. 


ACTION  OF   THE  LARYNX  271 

those  from  a  voice  attempting  to  repeat  the  same  tone.  Tlie 
results  showed  under  favorable  circumstances  an  average  error 
in  pitch  of  y^  of  1%,  reaching  sometimes  li%. 

A  convenient  method  of  measuring  the  accuracy  of  repeti- 
tion is  the  following.  In  a  darkened  room  a  white  siren  disc 
with  series  of  holes  from  90  to  110  in  number  is  placed  on 
the  axle  of  the  siren  motor  (Fig.  59).  The  resistance  of 
the  motor  (p.  10)  is  adjusted  until  a  blast  from  the  tube 
through  the  series  of  100  holes  produces  a  tone  of  the  de- 
sired pitch,  found  by  comparison  with  a  tuning  fork  or  other 
instrument  of  known  periodicity.  A  manometric  flame  (Fig. 
18)  is  held  opposite  the  holes  at  one  side.  The  standard 
tone  is  produced  for  a  moment  by  a  blast  on  the  siren  tube ; 
the  person  tested  then  reproduces  it  by  singing  into  the  trum- 
pet of  the  manometric  capsule.  The  vibrations  of  the  flame 
cause  one  of  the  series  of  holes  to  remain  apparently  still 
while  the  others  appear  in  progression  or  regression;  the 
number  of  this  series  from  that  used  for  the  blast  is 
noted.  The  difference  of  this  number  from  the  row  that 
was  used  for  the  blast  will  indicate  the  error  in  pitch. 
Let  the  number  be  n;  then  the  tone  sung  was  in  error  by 

Y?^  X  frequency  of  the  tone  produced   by  the  blast.     For 

example,  if  the  siren  had  been  adjusted  so  that  the  tone  of 
the  blast  through  the  series  of  100  holes  was  a}-  =  435,  and  if 
the  third  row  from  the  blast-row  toward  the  outer  edge  stood 
still  while  the  voice  attempted  to  repeat  this  tone,  then  the 

tone  of  the  voice  was  zr-^  X  435  =  13  vibrations  too  high. 

The  method  may  be  used  to  determine  the  accuracy  in 
striking  unisons,  fifths,  octaves,  etc.,  also  the  dependence  of 
accuracy  on  the  interval  that  elapses  between  the  tone  heard 
and  the  tone  sung,  also  tone  memory,  etc.  These  problems 
are  still  uninvestigated.  Instead  of  the  manometric  capsule 
a  voice-key  (Fig.  66)  in  the  primary  circuit  of  a  spark  coil 
(like  the  contact  wheel  in  Fig.  59)  may  be  made  to  produce 
sparks  between  two  metallic  points  or  flashes  in  a  Geisslee  or 


272 


PRODUCTION  OF  SPEECH 


Pumj  tube,  whereby  more  brilliant  illumination  is  obtained. 
Various  other  modifications  are  possible.^ 

Tlie  notes  that  can  be  produced  by  the  voice  are  limited  to 
a  small  range.  The  ordinary  range  covers  about  an  octave 
and  a  half  or  more,  as  indicated  in  the  accompanying  diagram. 


Soprano 
Mezzo-soprano 


_    Alto 
Tenor 
Baritone 
Bass 

A  '  register '  is  the  range  of  the  voice  within  which  it  pro- 
duces tones  of  the  same  general  acoustical  quality.  The 
tones  in  such  a  register  are  presumably  produced  by  similar 
action  in  the  larynx ;  the  two  uses  of  the  term  "  register ' 
probably  coincide  with  these  two  closely  united  phenomena. 

In  most  persons  two  typically  distinct  registers  are  present. 
The  '  chest  register, '  with  resonance  vibrations  generally  felt 
in  the  thorax,  has  a  strong  and  smooth  acoustic  color  and 
requires  little  effort.  The  higher  '  head  register  '  of  a  thin- 
ner acoustic  character  has  a  resonance  apparently  in  the 
head;  the  tones  are  produced  with  more  effort.  The  larynx  is 
raised  for  head  tones  and  there  seems  to  be  a  general  extra 
muscular  effort.  The  head  register  is  often  called  the  '  fal- 
setto register.' 

Several  other  registers  have  been  found.  The  '  middle 
register '  includes  notes  higher  than  those  for  which  the 
chest  register  easily  provides  naturally,  but  for  which  the 
head  register  is  not  required.  The  '  deep  bass  register  '  lies 
below  the  chest  register;  the  arytenoid  cartilages  are  not 
brought  together  as  in  the  chest  register,  whence  results  a 
'  breathy  '  tone.  The  '  straw  bass  register '  lies  below  the 
previous  register,  the  muscles  of  the  larynx  are  not  stretched 

1  ScKiPTURE,  Ehnientary  course  in  psychological  measurements,  Stud.  Yale 
Psych.  Lab.,  1896  IV  135. 


ACTION  OF  THE  LARYNX 


273 


SO  much  as  usual,  the  larynx  appears  tipped  backward,  the 
vocal  bands  are  quite  relaxed  but  are  brought  close  together. 
The  tone  is  not  only  breathy  but  also  somewhat  rattling.  ^ 

It  is  probably  the  case  that  each  person  may  possess  several 
registers.  The  usual  instruction  in  singing  aims  at  an  abil- 
ity to  pass  from  one  register  to  another  without  a  very  notice- 
able change  in  the  character  of  the  notes ;  among  the  Alpine 
jodelers  the  aim  is  to  develop  the  registers  separately  and 
distinctly. 

Mackenzie  has  reported  observations  on  four  hundred 
singers.^  The  chest  register  was  generally  used  throughout 
by  pure  sopranos,  among  whom  were  Nilsson,  Albani  and 
Valeria;  the  contraltos  almost  invariably  used  the  head 
register  for  the  high  notes;  the  mezzo-sopranos  used  both 
registers ;  the  tenors  generally  used  both,  though  a  few  used 
the  chest  register  only;  the  barytones  and  basses  used  the 
chest  register  only. 

For  typical  voices  the  notes  may  be  assigned  to  the  different 
registers  as  indicated  by  the  following  diagrams.  It  will  be 
noticed  that  several  tones  may  be  made  in  either  register. 


Hend 

Chest 
Deep  hass 

I  5£raw  bcLSS 

Male. 


Female. 


The  glottis  may  be  closed  sufficiently  to  vibrate  but  yet  to 
allow  the  continuous  escape  of  breath.  The  result  is  known 
in  vocal  music  as  the  '  breathy  tone ; '  pictures  of  the  glottis  in 

1  For  details  concerning  these  two  registers  see  Grutznee,  Physiologie  d. 
Stlmme  u.  Sprache,  Hermann's  Handbuch  d.  Physiologifi,  I  (1)  89,  Leipzig,  1879. 

2  Mackenzie,  Hygiene  of  the  Vocal  Organs,  35,  London,  1888. 

13 


274 


PnODUCTION   OF  SPEECH 


two  such  cases  are  shown  in  Figs.  131  and  132  ;i  they  were 
from  pupils  of  a  vocal  instructor  who  taught  a  breathy  tone. 


Fig.  131. 


Fig.  132. 


In  whispering,  a  current  of  air  is  blown  through  the 
glottis.  The  laryngeal  action  differs  somewhat  in  various 
kinds  of  whisper. 

The  arytenoid  cartilages  may  be  brought  toward  each  other 

with   the   points  tilted  forward,   while  the  vocal  cords  are 

__^_  relaxed,  and  bulging  in  the  mid- 

"~~~^  die  (Fig.   133).2     The   epiglottis 

may    be    considerably    depressed 

over  the  opening.     The  glottis  in 

these  forms  is  used  for  soft  whis- 


FiG.  133. 


pering. 

Still    rougher   whisper    sounds 

may  be  produced  by  pressing  the 
base  of  the  epiglottis  against  the  ventricular  bands  and  the 
upper  edges  of  the  arytenoid  cartilages,  which  are  them- 
selves brought  close  together.  The  three  slits  thus  produced 
meet  at  right  angles.  When  these  slits  are  tightly  closed 
and  made  to  vibrate  along  their  edges  by  strong  breath 
pressure,  the  peculiar  Arabic  ain  is  produced. ^     The  vibra- 

1  Curtis,  Voice  Biiildiiig  autl  Tone  Placing,  Figs.  41  and  42,  New  York,  1896. 

^  CzEEMAK,  Der  Kclilkopfspiegel,  Leipzig,  1863  ;  Ges.  Schriften,  I  551,  Leip- 
zig, 1879. 

^  CzEEMAK,  as  liefore,  Ges.  Schriften,  552,  Sweet's  supposition  of  a  vibra- 
tion occurring  in  tlie  larynx  helow  the  glottis  involves  an  anatomical  impossi- 


ACTION  OF  THE  LARYNX  275 

tion  is  from  the  edges  of  the  arytenoids  and  the  ventricular 
bands,  not  from  the  cords. 

Records  made  by  Rousselot  ^  indicate  that  a  vibration  of 
constant  period  —  in  one  case  -^-^  of  a  second  —  is  present  in 
all  the  whispered  vowels ;  this  would  indicate  that  the  vocal 
cords  vibrate  at  least  to  some  extent  in  whispering.  A 
laryngoscopic  observation  in  one  case  showed  during  whis- 
pering the  vibration  of  a  fixed  polyp  on  one  of  the  cords, 
indicating  a  vibration  of  the  edge  of  the  cord.  Such  a  whis- 
per might  be  termed  a  '  sonant  whisper. ' 

The  form  of  the  glottis  in  whispering  is  variable. ^  In  some 
persons  the  entire  glottis  is  open,  forming  an  isosceles  tri- 
angle (5,  Fig.  113)  in  others  only  the  cartilaginous  glottis  is 
open  (C,  Fig.  113).  The  former  position  gives  a.  soft  whis- 
per, the  latter  a  strong  one.  Of  58  persons  examined  with 
the  laryngoscope  34  showed  the  former  condition  and  24  the 
latter  when  they  were  told  to  whisper.  In  producing  a  soft 
whisper  the  cords  are  approached  hardly  at  all;  with  a 
medium  whisper  the  ligamentous  glottis  is  closed  and  the 
ventricular  bands  are  somewhat  approached;  with  a  very 
strong  whisper  the  cartilaginous  glottis  is  closed  to  a  small 
opening,  the  ventricular  bands  are  in  contact  and  the  epi- 
glottis is  much .  depressed.  This  typical  action  is  not  uni- 
versal; some  subjects  keep  the  glottis  widely  open  even  in 
loud  whispering;  others  close  the  ligamentous  glottis  even  in 
soft  whispering;  with  still  others  the  ends  of  the  glottis  are 
closed,  leaving  a  small  elliptical  opening  in  the  middle,  for 
a  soft  whisper. 

It  seems  plausible  to  suppose  that  between  a  full  tone  used 
in  speech  and  song  and  a  completely  toneless  whisper  there 
may  be  numerous  gradations  of  breathy  tone  and  sonant 
whisper. 

When  the  cord  glottis  is  adjusted  to  vibrate  while  the  car- 

bility;   Sweet,  ISi  ardbik  0rout  saundz,  Maitre  phonetique,  1895  X  79;  Passy, 
le  gijti/ral,  Maitre  phonetique,  1895  X  99. 

1  Olivier,  De  la  voix  chuchote'e,  La  Parole,  1899  126. 

2  Olivier,  as  before,  28. 


276  PRODUCTION  OF  SPEECH 

tilage  glottis  remains  open,  a  combination  of  tone  and  whisper 
may  be  produced,  as  occurs  in  groaning. 

When  the  glottis  is  slightly  narrowed,  a  rushing  noise  may 
be  produced ;  there  are  many  degrees  of  this  '  glottal  breath 
sound,'  or  one  form  of  h.  That  the  glottis  is  somewhat 
narrowed  in  the  usual  h  seems  to  have  been  settled  by 
observations  of  Czeemak  and  Brijcke.^  Much  narrowing 
produces  an  h  of  heavier  character  than  the  ordinary  h. 

Many  articulations  are  used  to  produce  the  sounds  that  may 
be  grouped  as  h-sounds.  The  friction  may  occur  in  the 
glottis,  just  above  it,  with  the  velum  near  the  pharynx  wall, 
between  the  tongue  and  velum,  etc.  Tones  are  imposed  on 
the  h-sound  by  the  resonance  cavities ;  the  assertion  that  the 
adjustment  of  these  cavities  is  the  same  as  that  of  the  neigh- 
boring vowel  is  probably  erroneous  for  English  speech.^  The 
American  h  is  apparently  like  the  British  h  in  not  having 
the  same  adjustment  as  the  following  vowel. 

The  h  may  be  weakly  or  strongly  sonant.  The  sonant  h 
was  prescribed  by  the  Sanskrit  grammarians ;  ^  it  is  used  in 
some  modern  languages.* 

Several  examples  of  sonant  h  are  to  be  found  in  the  records 
at  the  end  of  this  volume.  In  the  words  '  You  had  it '  on 
Block  V  (Plate  VII)  of  the  Jefferson  record  the  liquid  j 
changes  to  u  in  line  6,  the  u  continues  during  the  first  half 
of  line  7,  the  ae  of  '  had '  appears  in  the  latter  half  of  line  7 
and  passes  into  d  in  the  middle  of  hue  8.  At  no  time  from 
the   ]    to   the   d   do   the   cords   cease  to  vibrate,  as  can  be 

1  Czeemak,  Physiol.  Untersuchungen  mit  Garcia's  Kehlkopfspiegel ,  Sitzber.  d. 
k.  Akad.  Wiss.  Wien,  math.-nat.  Kl.,  XXIX  557  ;  Gesammelte  Schriften,  I  551, 
Leipzig,  1879. 

2  Lloyd,  in  Vietoe,  El.  d.  Phon.,  4.  Aufl.,  22,  Leipzig,  1898. 

8  Meyer,  Stimmhaftes  H,  Neuere  Sprachen,  1900  VIII  261  ;  tsum  ftimhaftn 
ha,  Maitre  phonetique,  1901  XVI  87.  Taittiriya  Pratii;akliya,  ii.  47,  ed.  by 
Whitney,  Journ.  Amer.  Oriental  Soc,  1871  IX  77  ;  Michaelis,  Ueber  das  H 
und  die  verwandten  Laute,  Arch.  f.  d.  Studiiim  d.  neueren  Sprachen  (Herrig), 
1887  LXXIX  49,  283.  ■ 

*  Meyek,  as  before;  KlingHaedt,  Stimmhaftes  H,  Neuere  Sprachen,  1901 
IX  85  ;  Passy,  Ii  vocalique,  Neuere  Sprachen,  1901  IX  245. 


ACTION  OF  THE  LARYNX  '         277 

plainly  seen  in  tiie  curve ;  yet  the  record  speaks  a  distinct  h 
in  '  had.'  Since  the  cord  tone  does  not  cease  this  must  be  a 
sonant  h.  Two  other  cases  appear  in  the  Cock  Rohin  records. 
The  h  is  distinctly  heard  in  '  saw  him '  of  '  I  saw  him  die.' 
The  curve  in  Plate  II  shows  the  vowel  o  beginning  at  the 
left  of  line  6  and  increasing  in  amphtude  during  the  first  half 
of  the  hne.  The  last  'quarter  of  the  line  shows  the  i  of  '  him.' 
Between  the  o  and  the  i  there  is  a  region  of  diminished  amph- 
tude, corresponding  to  the  h.  The  record  conclusively  shows 
that  at  no  time  during  the  three  sounds  does  the  cord  tone 
cease.  The  h  is  therefore  sonant.  A  fainter  h  is  heard  in 
'  saw  him '  of  '  Who  saw  him  die  ? ' ;  it  is  so  faint  that  it 
escaped  my  ear  when  listening  to  the  gramophone  record  in 
first  studying  the  curves  and  I  therefore  recorded  the  sounds 
as  SDim.  I  have  described  them  above  (p.  63)  in  this  way. 
On  carefully  hstening  again  to  the  record  I  could  distinctly 
and  certainly  hear  the  h  in  this  case  also.  The  curve,  how- 
ever, in  Plate  I  line  1  shows  only  a  very  shght  weakening 
between  the  o  and  the  i  just  to  the  right  of  the  middle  of  the 
line.  The  sonant  h  in  this  case  has  vibrations  as  strong  as 
those  of  a  large  part  of  the  o.  The  presence  of  the  h  in  all 
the  above  cases  was  apparent  to  other  ears  than  mine.  The 
curves  show  that  the  cords  do  not  relax  their  tension  during 
these  cases  of  sonant  h.  The  regularity  of  the  period  and  its 
agreement  with  the  cord  periods  of  the  neighboring  vowels 
indicate  that  there  is  no  very  great  readjustment  in  the  larynx. 
One  view  of  the  mechanism  of  sonant  h  is  that  the  glottis 
opens  while  the  cords  are  vibrating  and  that  this  permits  an 
escape  of  air  with  a  rushing  noise  (not  appearing  in  my  curves) 
while  the  cords  continue  to  vibrate.  This  involves  fairly  con- 
stant tension  in  the  vocal  cords  in  spite  of  the  opening  of  the 
glottis.  The  action  is  like  that  of  the  sonant  whisper.  This 
would  probably  be  the  vocal  action  corresponding  to  Seel- 
mann's  view  ^  of  the  nature  of  the  Greek  spirifus  asper  and 
lenis  as  being  strong  and  weak  breathy  beginnings  of  vowels. 

1  Seelmann,  Die  Ausprache  des  Latein,  255,  262,  Heilbronn,  1885 ;  Paul, 
Ueber  vokalische  Aspiration  und  reinen  Vokaleiusatz,  Leipzig,  1888. 


278  PRODUCTION  OF  SPEECH 

The  speech  curves  considered  suggest  another  view.  This 
is  that  the  cords  continue  to  vibrate  during  the  intervocalic 
h  with  no  disturbance,  the  glottis  remaining  closed  as  in  the 
adjacent  vowels,  and  that  the  h  is  produced  by  narrowing  the 
air  passage  either  by  bringing  the  ventricular  bands  close 
together  or  by  partially  closing  the  epiglottis  down  over  the 
larynx.  I  find  that  I  can  sing  a  breathy  a,  e,  etc.  indefinitely 
long  with  some  closure  that  is  behind  and  below  the  tongue. 
According  to  this  view  the  sonant  h  is  a  sonant  fricative  of 
the  same  class  as  j,  7,  etc.  with  the  passage  narrowed  above 
the  vocal  cords.  It  thus  differs  radically  from  the  ordinary 
breathed  h. 

To  the  ear  the  surd  and  sonant  h-sounds  do  not  differ 
very  much.  As  forms  of  articulation  they  must  differ.  The 
surd  h  is  usually  a  glottal  fricative.  The  sonant  h  may  be  a 
glottal  fricative  produced  by  closing  the  ligamentous  glottis 
for  the  tone  while  the  cartilaginous  glottis  remains  open  for 
the  friction,^  or  by  opening  the  glottis  somewhat  while  the 
cords  are  still  vibrating,^  or  by  narrowing  the  air  passage 
above  the  cords  without  altering  the  glottal  adjustments  (as 
explained  above). 

The  speech  sound  known  as  the  'glottal  catch'  is  made 
by  closure  of  the  glottis  and  sudden  opening;  the  time  of 
closure  appears  to  the  ear  as  silence ;  the  opening  may  appear 
as  an  explosion  unless  it  is  masked  by  the  following  vocal 
sound,  or  it  may  be  so  gradual  that  it  is  not  heard. 

The  glottal  catch  may  be  used  to  replace  an  occlusive  of 
another  kind.  I  have  repeatedly  observed  this  in  my  child  of 
12  to  18  months  as  a  substitute  for  t  and  k,  as  in  te>3WD'  '  take 
a  walk,'  mi'  'meat.'  This  child  had  never  heard  a  glottal 
catch  used  as  a  speech  sound.  A  similar  use  of  the  glottal 
catch  to  separate  words  occurs  in  the  attempt  to  separate 
with  special  distinctness  such  combinations  of  words  as  du'it 

1  CzEEMAK,  Ueher  d.  Spiritus  asper  und  lenis,  etc.,  Sitzb.  d.  k.  Akad.  d.  Wiss. 
Wien,  math.-naturw.  Kl.,  1866  LII  (2)  630,  Anmerk.  1  ;  also  in  Gesamm.  Schriften, 
I  756,  Leipzig,  1879. 

2  Meter,  as  before. 


ACTION  OF  THE  LARYNX  279 

*do  it,'  slai.tiaz  'sly  tears.'  In  the  latter  case  there  is 
no  glottal  explosion  because  the  t-closure  occurs  before  the 
glottis  is  opened.  A  frequent  pronunciation  of  '  camp- 
meeting  '  is  kaem'mititi ;  the  mouth  adjustment  for  m  is  kept 
between  the  two  vowels,  and  the  occlusive  effect  is  xaroduced 
by  inserting  a  glottal  catch  in  the  middle.  The  explosion  of 
the  catch  is  in  this  case  nasal.  The  use  of  a  glottal  catch  at 
the  beginning  of  a  vowel  often  occurs  in  -a-a^a  '  ah,  ah,  ah  ' 
repeated  in  as  an  exclamation  of  warning.  It  is  sometimes 
used  to  end  vowels,  as  occasionally  ha>  used  for  an  exclama- 
tion of  surprise,  or  even  in  hwo'  '  whoa.' 

In  the  Scottish  dialect  of  Glasgow  the  glottal  catch  accom- 
panies intervocalic  t,  as  in  bat-gr  '  butter,'  or  may  replace  it, 
as  in  b3>gr.i 

The  glottal  catch  is  the  regular  beginning  of  initial  vowels 
in  North  German;  it  disappears  from  a  word  whenever  the 
vowel  in  the  union  of  speech  is  no  longer  felt  to  be  an  initial 
one;  thus,  -ain  far  ain  '  ein  Verein,  but  herain  'herein' 
instead  of  her 'ain.  The  failure  of  foreigners  to  use  the 
glottal  catch  in  speaking  German  produces  a  strange  im- 
pression on  the  native  ear. 

The  glottal  catch  appears  as  the  Danish  stdd,  by  which,  for 
example,  ma-lar  'maler,  [he]  paints'  is  distinguished  from 
malar  '  maler,  painter. '  '^ 

The  glottal  catch  seems  to  occur  also  as  the  Arabic  hamza, 
which  is  a  regular  consonant  represented  in  the  alphabet ;  the 
•closure,  however,  seems  to  be  reinforced  by  pressing  the  base 
of  the  epiglottis  over  the  closed  glottis.  ^ 

The  equivalence  of  a  glottal  catch  to  other  consonant 
articulations  has  been  observed  in  some  experiments  by 
MiYAKE.'*  In  beating  time  with  the  finger  while  a  syllable 
-was  regularly  repeated,  the  finger-beat  occurred  1.    at  the 

1  Passt,  £tude  sur  les  changements  phonetiques,  155,  These,  Paris,  1891. 
~     2  ViETOE,  Elemente  d.  Phonetik,  4.  Aufl.,  25,  Leipzig,  1898. 

2  CzERMAK,  Phydol.  Untersuchungen  mit  Garcia's  Kehlkopfspiegel,  Sitzb.  d.  k. 
Akad.  Wiss.  Wien,  math.-nat.  Kl.,  1858  XXIX  557;  Ges.  Schriften,  I  555, 
Leipzig,  1879. 

4  MiYAKE,  Researches  on  rhythmic  action,  Stud.  Yale  Psych.  Lab.,  1902  X  54. 


280  PRODUCTION  OF  SPEECH 

beginning  of  the  consonant  in  a  syllable  composed  of  conso- 
nant and  vowel ;  2.  at  the  beginning  of  the  vowel  in  a  syllable 
composed  of  an  English  vowel  with  a  smooth  beginning ;  3. 
ahead  of  the  vowel  by  the  regular  consonant  time  in  a  syllable 
composed  of  a  vowel  begun  with  a  glottal  catch. 

The  usual  attempt  to  explain  the  glottal  catch  as  a  slight 
cough  is  a  blunder;  the  bulb  centres  (p.  193)  for  the  two 
activities  are  not  the  same  and  the  muscular  action  is  probably 
quite  different. 

Repbkences 

For  the  history  of  the  theories  of  cord  action  :  Wright,  The  nose  and 
throat  in  medical  Jiistory,  The  Laryngoscope,  1901-02;  also  separate.  For 
the  action  and  treatment  of  the  cords  in  singing  :  Mackenzie,  Hygiene 
of  the  Vocal  Organs,  London,  1888;  Curtis,  Voice  Building  and  Tone 
Placing,  New  York,  1896 ;  Stockhausen,  Gesangsmethode,  Leipzig. 


CHAPTER   XX 

TONES   OF   THE   VOCAL   CAVITIES 

When  a  blow  is  struck  on  the  wall  of  a  cavity  or  over  an 
opening,  the  molecules  of  air  adjacent  to  the  wall  or  the 
opening  are  driven  toward  the  neighboring  molecules.  This 
produces  a  wave  of  condensation  and  rarefaction  which  is 
propagated  through  the  cavity.  A  negative  blow,  such  as 
that  produced  by  a  pull  on  the  wall  or  the  sudden  removal 
of  an  object  from  an  opening,  propagates  a  wave  of  rare- 
faction similarly. 

The  excitation  of  the  air  of  the  cavity  may  arise  from  a 
single  momentary  impulse,  from  a  succession  of  such  im- 
pulses or  from  a  series  of  impressions  of  a  more  or  less  wave- 
like character. 

The  simplest  conditions  can  be  represented  by  supposing 
a  piston  moving  without  friction  in  a  rigid  cylinder  closed 
at  one  end;  for  most  purposes  we  can  consider  the  air  in 
the  cylinder  to  act  as  a  spring  in  resisting  the  movement 
of  the  piston.  With  a  condition  of  constant  density  the 
period  of  the  vibration  resulting  from  a  blow  will  depend  on 
the  mass  of  the  piston  and  on  the  strength  of  the  spring, 
that  is,  on  the  size  of  the  cavity.  In  moving  through  an 
opening  the  air  moves  approximately  as  an  incompressible 
fluid.  From  the  mass  of  the  air  and  the  elasticity  of  the 
cavity,  the  period  of  vibration  can  be  calculated. 

The  period  of  a  cavity  of  the  volume  S  communicating 
with  the  external  air  by  a  long  cylindrical  neck  of  the  length 
L  and  the  area  A  can  be  shown  ^  to  be 

1  Ratleigh,  Theory  of  Sound,  2d  ed.,  II  §  303,  London,  1896. 


282  PRODUCTION  OF  SPEECH 

where  a  is  the  velocity  of  sound  (p.  4).  If  the  radius  of  the 
neck  is  M,  the  area  will  be  "ttB^  and  the  formula  for  the 
period  will  be 

y,_  2  Vtt  .  VLS  ^Q. 

aR  ■  ^^^ 

The  period  is  lengthened  by  enlarging  the  cavity,  or  by 
increasing  the  length  of  the  cylindrical  neck ;  but  it  is  short- 
ened by  enlarging  the  area  of  the  neck. 

The  ease  with  which  the  air  flows  in  and  out  through 
the  cylindrical  channel,  or  the  conductivity  of  the  channel, 
diminishes  as  the  length  is  greater,  and  increases  as  the  area 
increases.     The  degree  of  conductivity  can  be  expressed  ^  by 

.         0  =  ^.  (3) 

where  A  is  the  area  and  L  the  length  of  the  channel.  The 
period  of  the  channel  will  be 


T 


J^JS^  (4) 

n     y     0. 


where  S  is  the  volume  of  the  channel  and  a  the  velocity  of 
sound.  Less  conductivity  corresponds  to  increased  mass  of 
the  piston,  with  a  resultant  lengthening  of  period,  and  greater 
conductivity  to  decreased  mass  with  a  resultant  shortening 
of  period.  Owing  to  the  loss  of  movement  at  the  open  end 
of  the  cylindrical  tube,  the  conductivity  c  as  calculated 
above  needs  a  correction  which  is  found  to  be  at  least 
h  =  \TrR  for  each  end ;  this  must  be  added  to  L.  The  cor- 
rection is  exactly  this  for  an  infinitely  long  tube  with  an 
infinite  flange  at  the  open  end.  For  an  unflanged  end  it  is 
equal  to  about  0.6i2,  when  the  wave  length  is  great  in  com- 
parison with  the  diameter.  Thus,  instead  of  the  formula  (3) 
above  we  should  write  ^ 

1  Rayleigh,  as  before,  §  304. 

2  Rayleigh,  as  before,  §§  307,  309,  3U. 


TONES   OF   THE    VOCAL    CAVITIES  283 

Some  experimental  determinations  by  Sondhauss  ^  in  the 
case  of  resonators  without  necks  showed  that  the  influence  of 
the  aperture  depended  mainly  upon  its  area,  although  a  very 
elongated  shape  produced  a  rise  in  pitch;  his  empirical  for- 
mula gave  for  the  pitch  of  the  cavity 

1  -^7 

n  =  -  =  52400  ~,  (6) 

T  VS 

the  unit  being  the  millimeter.     For  flasks  with  long  necks  he 
found 

n  =  46705\/ -^,  •  (7) 

The  latter  formula  supposes  that  the  neck  is  so  long  that 
the  correction  for  the  open  end  may  be  neglected,  the  former 
that  it  is  so  short  that  the  length  itself  may  be  neglected.  In 
practice,  formulas  (4)  and  (5)  will  generally  be  required. 

Various  theoretical  and  experimental  data  have  been  given 
by  Helmholtz^  and  Ellis.  ^ 

When  a  cavity  has  more  than  one  aperture,  the  separate 
conductivities  are  to  be  added  if  the  apertures  are  so  far 
apart  that  they  can  be  considered  as  acting  separately.  This 
is  the  case  in  the  mouth,  the  labial  aperture  being  at  the  end 
opposite  to  the  pharyngonasal  aperture.  In  the  case  of  a 
vowel  like  i  the  front  and  the  rear  cavities  on  either  side 
of  the  elevation  of  the  tongue  have  each  two  apertures. 

The  main  vibration  of  the  air  in  a  cavity  is  frequently 
accompanied  by  other  vibrations  of  shorter  periods.  These 
vibrations  in  cavities  with  narrow  necks  are  relatively  of 
very  much  shorter  period. 

Owing  to  dissipative  forces  the  vibration  excited  by  the 
blow  of  the  piston  will  die  away  as  explained  on  p.  5. 

1  SoNDHAUSS,  Ueber  d.  Brummkreisel  u.  d.  Schwingunqsgesetz  d.  kubischen 
Pfeifen,  Ann.  d.  Phys.  u.  Chem.,  1850  LXXXI  235,  347;  Rayleigh,  as  before, 
§  309. 

2  Helmholtz,  Lehre  v.  d.  Tonempfindung,  5.  Aufl.,  73,  Beilage  II,  Braun- 
schweig, 1896. 

8  Ellis,  notes  to  translation  of  Helmholtz,  Sensations  of  Tone,  London, 
1885. 


284  PRODUCTION  OF  SPEECH 

The  effect  of  repeated  blows  on  a  system  with  a  period  of 
free  vibration  has  been  considered  on  p.  12. 

The  vibrations  in  cavities  whose  three  dimensions  are  very- 
small  compared  to  the  wave  length  and  whose  communication 
with  the  external  air  is  by  small  holes  in  the  surface  have 
been  investigated  by  Helmholtz.^  A  later  treatment  is  by 
Rayleigh.2  The  topics  discussed  include  the  cases  where 
a  mass  of  air  confined  almost  entirely  by  rigid  walls  com- 
municates with  the  external  atmosphere  by  one  or  more  nar- 
row passages,  where  there  is  a  contraction  making  a  double 
cavity,  where  there  is  a  long  tube  in  connection  with  a 
reservoir,  where  there  are  lateral  openings,  where  the  open- 
ings are  of  different  forms,  where  the  necks  are  of  different 
shapes,  where  the  cavities  are  not  regular  tubes,  where  the 
cavities  are  not  straight  tubes,  etc.  It  is  evident  that  these 
are  to  a  great  extent  just  the  problems  involved  in  the  action 
of  the  vocal  cavities  in  producing  speech  sounds,  and  that 
the  same  methods  can  be  used  to  investigate  their  action. 
For  example,  a  mathematical  treatment  of  the  vibration 
period  of  the  mouth  cavity,  as  affected  by  its  size,  its  aper- 
tures, its  internal  neck  formed  by  the  tongue,  the  labial  tube, 
the  labial  and  nasal  openings,  etc.,  with  such  modifications 
as  may  be  needed  to  account  for  the  lack  of  rigidity  in  the 
walls  and  the  special  deviations  from  the  general  conditions, 
would  be  of  as  great  value  to  phonetics  as  similar  treatments 
of  like  problems  have  been  to  physics  and  other  sciences. 
These  problems  have  not  yet  been  attempted  in  spite  of  their 
great  importance. 

The  preceding  general  considerations  find  many  practical 
applications  to  the  vocal  cavities.  As  the  walls  of  the 
cavities  are  not  very  rigid,  the  formulas  given  above  are  not 
strictly  applicable;  just  how  closely  approximate  they  are, 
it  is  impossible  to  say;  a  mathematical  treatment  including 

1  Helmholtz,  Theorie  der  Luftschwingungen  in  RBhren  mit  offenen  Enden, 
Journal  f.  reine  u.  angew.  Math.  (Crelle),  1859  LVII  1. 

2  Eayleioii,  On  the  theory  of  resonance,  Phil.  Trans.  Roy.  Soc.  Lond.,  1871 
CLXI  77 ;  Theory  of  Sound,  2d  ed.,  II  §§  303-322,  London,  1896. 


TONES   OF  THE    VOCAL   CAVITIES  285 

yielding  walls  seems  to  be  still  lacking.  Yielding  walls 
lengthen  the  period  of  vibration  and  increase  the  factor  of 
friction. 

The  vocal  cavities  may  be  made  to  produce  sound  waves 
by  striking  the  hand  against  the  open  mouth,  or  by  sud- 
denly removing  it  from  the  mouth,  or  by  snapping  the  finger 
out  of  the  mouth ;  also  by  striking  a  blow  on  the  cheek,  and 
by  various  speech  movements. 

For  a  blow  on  the  cheek  with  the  mouth  closed  the  piston 
(p.  281)  is  represented  by  the  flesh  of  the  cheeks.  The  air 
within  the  mouth  resists  the  blow.  The  period  of  vibration 
that  results  is  long  owing  to  the  large  mass  of  the  cheeks 
and  also  to  the  weakening  of  the  elastic  force  by  the  yielding 
walls  of  the  mouth.  When  the  mouth  is  open,  there  is  no 
such  resistance  to  the  movement  of  the  cheek  as  when  the 
mouth  is  closed.  The  blow  on  the  cheek  drives  the  air  out 
between  the  lips.  The  air  between  the  lips  now  takes  the 
place  of  the  piston  and  any  effect  on  the  cheeks  is  negligible 
in  comparison. 

When  the  hand  is  struck  against  the  open  mouth  the  cavity 
receives  an  impulse  of  condensation  or  a  positive  blow.  When 
the  finger  is  snapped  out  of  the  mouth  it  receives  one  of  rare- 
faction, or  a  negative  blow. 

Blows  may  also  occur  by  the  release  of  compressed  air. 
This  is  the  case  in  the  explosive  occlusives.  In  these  there 
is  a  closure  of  the  air  passage  by  the  lips  (p,  b),  by  the  tongue 
against  the  teeth  or  palate  (t,  d,  k,  g)  or  by  the  glottis  (>); 
the  air  is  compressed  behind  the  closure  and,  on  being  re- 
leased, strikes  a  positive  blow  on  the  cavity  in  front  and  a 
negative  blow  on  the  one  behind. 

The  puffs  from  the  vocal  bands  are  capable  of  arousing 
tones  in  the  cavities  of  the  air  passage.  There  are  at  least 
two  theories  of  the  manner  in  which  the  complex  note  heard 
in  singing  or  in  speech  is  derived  from  the  vibrations  of  the 
bands. 

According  to  one  theory  the  note  produced  directly  by  the 
vibrations  of  the  bands  consists  of  a  series  of  partial  tones  of. 


286  PRODUCTION  OF  SPEECH 

different  intensities  (pp.  72,  106,  256),  and  the  vocal  cavities 
reinforce  some  of  them  by  resonance.  For  illustration  we  may- 
suppose  the  notes  from  three  different  pairs  of  vocal  bands  A, 
B,  0  to  be  composed  of  partials  having  relations  of  intensity 
as  indicated  by  the  sizes  of  the  figures :  — 

^—123456789        10 

J5  — 123456789  10 

C  — 123456789  10 

Although  the  three  notes  will  appear  of  the  same  pitch,  their 
characters  will  be  different,  the  note  of  A  being  thin  and 
flute-like,  that  of  B  rich,  and  that  of  0  piercing  and  sharp. 
These  relations  are  modified  by  the  resonating  cavities  of  the 
chest,  pharynx,  mouth  and  nose,  so  that  some  of  the  partials 
are  reinforced.  In  this  way  the  even  partials  might  be  rein- 
forced in  the  case  of  A  so  that  the  voice  obtains  something  of 
the  character  of  B.  Likewise  certain  arbitrary  partials  might 
be  so  reinforced  in  the  case  of  0  that  it  also  becomes  some- 
what like  B.  To  attain  these  results  the  system  of  cavities 
must  be  carefully  adjusted  to  resonate  to  the  tones  desired. 

The  second  theory  would  suppose  the  bands  not  to  vibrate 
but  to  open  momentarily  and  then  close  again  in  a  series  of 
movements  (p.  260),  whereby  the  resulting  air  movement 
is  not  a  vibratory  one  of  a  sinusoidal  (p.  3)  or  a  harmonic 
(p.  13)  nature  but  is  a  series  of  brief  puffs.  The  air  move- 
ment direct  from  the  cords  is  thus  not  like  that  of  a  smooth 
vibration  but  that  of  a  series  of  explosions.  The  curve  of 
explosion,  that  is,  the  sharpness  of  the  explosive  rise  and 
fall,  may  be  different  in  different  cases.  The  effect  on  the 
ear  will  be  a  tone  of  the  pitch  of  the  frequency  of  the  explo- 
sion, to  which  there  may  be  added  higher  tones  —  not  neces- 
sarily harmonic  in  relation  —  arising  from  the  character  of 
the  curve  of  explosion  (p.  94).  Owing  to  the  blows  struck 
by  the  explosions  from  the  cords  the  cavities  add  tones 
of  free  vibration  (p.   2).     That  for  the  chest  register  this 


TONES   OF  THE   VOCAL   CAVITIES  287 

theory  is  certainly  the  correct  one  has  been  shown  on  pages 
259-260;  for  the  head  register  the  matter  has  not  been 
finally  settled. 

The  size  of  the  cavity  within  the  mouth  can  be  varied  by 
movements  of  the  tongue  and  jaw ;  the  size  and  shape  of  the 
openings  may  be  altered  by  adjustments  of  the  lips,  velum, 
palatine  arches,  epiglottis  and  glottis.  The  tongue  may  also 
divide  the  mouth  into  two  or  even  three  cavities  with  necks 
between  them.  The  pharyngeal  cavity  is  subject  to  great 
modifications  by  contraction  of  its  muscular  walls,  by  move- 
ments of  the  tongue,  and  by  the  rise  and  fall  of  the  larynx ; 
its  apertures  are  greatljf  varied  by  the  velum,  tongue  and 
epiglottis.  The  tracheal  cavity  seems  to  be  capable  of  little 
variation.  The  entire  system  of  cavities  forms  a  compound 
one.  Its  natural  period  depends  on  the  sizes  of  the  com- 
ponent cavities,  on  the  necks  between  them,  and  on  the  sizes 
and  shapes  of  the  openings. 

Several  methods  may  be  used  to  determine  the  natural 
period  of  a  cavity. 

One  method  consists  in  holding  vibrating  bodies  before  the 
opening  and  noticing  which  one  is  most  loudly  reinforced. 
Forks  of  different  pitch  may  be  held  before  the  mouth; 
the  period  of  the  fork  producing  the  loudest  resonance 
may  be  considered  as  that  of  the  mouth  cavity  under  the 
given  circumstances.  This  method  has  been  used  to  deter- 
mine the  period  of  the  mouth  cavity  adjusted  for  different 
vowels,  although  the  adjustment  of  the  mouth  under  these 
circumstances  may  differ  considerably  from  the  actual  adjust- 
ment in  speaking.  Helmholtz's  ^  determinations  for  his  own 
voice  (North  German)  were  as  follows :  — 

Vowel:    ^^^  ''"^"    o    a     e^(d)    e^Ce)        i  ce  y 

Tones:  /»  /^  I*  a'  cP+g^  f^  +  U"  P+d^  P  +  <?^  P+g"" 
The  '  bright  u  '  was  like  the  French  ou.  In  musical  notation 
the  results  are  as  indicated  on  next  page. 

1  Helmholtz,  Lehre  v.  d.  Tonempfindungen,  5.  Aafl.,  177,  Braunschweig, 
1896. 


288 


PRODUCTION  OF  SPEECH 


1= 
1: 


^        ^       fe^        ^ 


W 


Atjerbach's  results  (German)  by  the  same  method  ^  were :  ^ 


Vowel :    Uj      u 
Tone :      g^       c' 


o 

^2 


/.2 


or  in  musical  notation 


gi  g3  ^2 


4=- 


ce 


e^(a) 


-t^ 


w=^- 


=t:=t 


U2 


ce  62 


The  same  method  is  used  in  a  modified  form  to  determine 
the  period  of  the  chest  cavity.  When  the  voice .  is  made  to 
rise  and  fall  in  pitch,  certain  tones  will  be  felt  to  be  rein- 
forced in  the  chest. 

Another  method  consists  in  blowing  across  the  opening 
of  the  cavity;  in  this  way  the  pitch  of  a  bottle  is  readily 
obtained. 3  'Although  good  results  have  been  obtained  in 
this  way,  our  ignorance  as  to  the  mode  of  action  of  the  wind 
renders  the  method  unsatisfactory. '  *  The  pitch  of  the  mouth 
cavity  may  also  be  obtained  by  a  similar  method,  whisper- 
ing; the  resultant  tone  is  noted  by  comparison  with  some 
musical    instrument.  ^      The   whisper-method    is    inaccurate 

^  AuERBACH,  Untersnchungen  ii.  d.  Natur  d.  Vokalklanges,  Diss.,  Berlin,  1876; 
also  in  Ann.  d.  Phys.  u.  Chem ,  1876  Ergb.  VIII  177;  Zur  Grassmann'schen 
Vokaltheorie,  Ann.  d,  Phys.  u.  Chem.,  1878  IV  508. 

^  AuEKBACH,  Die  phi/sikalischen  Grundlarjen  d.  Phonetik,  Zt.  f.  franz.  Spr.  u. 
Lit.,   1894  XVI  144. 

'  DoNDERS,  according  to  Geutznek,  Physiologie  d.  Stimme  u.  Sprache, 
Hermann's  Handbuch  d.  Physiol.,  I  (2)  160,  Leipzig,  1879. 

*  Rayleigh,  Tlieory  of  Sound,  §  314,  London,  1896. 

5  DoNDERS,  Ueber  d.  Natur  d.  Vokale,  Archiv  f.  d.  holland.  Beitrage  z.  Natur- 
u.  Heilkunde,  1 858 1 157  ;  Kronig,  Notiz  iib.  Vokallaute  u.  iib.  eine  mat.  Slimmgabel, 


TONES   OF  THE    VOCAL   CAVITIES  289 

chiefly  because  the  ear  is  incapable  of  correctly  assigning  the 
pitch  of  the  complex  of  tones  in  the  whispered  sound.  The 
results  of  different  observers  ^  are  so  completely  discordant 
with  one  another  and  with  those  of  the  later  accurate  methods 
that  they  do  not  seem  worth  considering.  The  Tkautmann 
vowel-system, 2  based  on  whisper-observations,  asserts  that 
the  resonances  form  two  septime  accords  of  the  notes  g"^  and 
g^  respectively;  this  is  contrary  to  the  facts  ascertained  by 
more  accurate  methods. 

Still  another  method  consists  in  striking  a  blow  on  the  wall 
of  the  cavity.     Blows  on  the  larynx  have  been  tried. ^ 

None  of  these  subjective  methods  gives  any  reliable  results. 

In  the  first  place  the  judgment  of  the  ear  concerning  the 
pitch  of  a  sound  is  largely  influenced  by  the  presence  of 
other  sounds;  a  complex  of  resonance  tones  is  not  heard  as  a 
strong  lower  tone  with  higher  ones  added,  but  as  a  tone  of 
a  pitch  that  may  be  quite  different  from  the  actual  pitch  of 
the  lowest  tone.*  The  resonance  of  a  vowel-position  is  just 
such  a  complex  of  tones  and  is  inevitably  heard  of  a  pitch 
not  that  of  its  lowest  component.  The  results  obtained  by 
the  preceding  methods  give  the  pitch-impressions  of  various 
mouth  positions,  and,  in  as  far  as  these  mouth  positions 
represent  the  positions  for  the  vowels,  they  are  of  value  as 
phenomena  of  hearing.  They  are  of  no  value  for  determin- 
ing the  resonance  tones  in  a  spoken  vowel. 

Another  objection,  that  is  fatal  to  any  method  in  which 
the  cords  are  not  used,  lies  in  the  inevitable  difference  in 
muscular  adjustment  when  any  change  is  made.  It  can 
be  readily  demonstrated  by  psychological  apparatus  that  a 
muscular  adjustment  or  movement  becomes  immediately 
altered   with    any   change  in    attention   or  other  muscular 

Ann.  d.  Phys    u.  Chem.,  1876  CLVII  339;  Teautmann,  Die  Sprachlaute,  46, 
Leipzig,  1884-86 ;  Stokm,  Englisehe  Philologie,  97,  2.  Aufl.,  Leipzig,  1892. 

'  Teautmann,  Die  Sprachlaute,  46,  48,  Leipzig,  1884-86. 

2  Tkadtmann,  as  before,  40. 

^  AuEKBAOH,  Bestimmung  d.  ResonanztSne  d.  Mundkohle  durch  Percussion, 
Ann.  d.  Phys.  u.  Chemie,  1848  III  153. 

*  Stumpf,  Tonpsychologie,  II  406,  Leipzig,  1 890. 

19 


290  PRODUCTION   OF  SPEECH 

adjustments  of  the  body.  The  passing  of  a  thought  through 
the  mind  or  the  moving  of  a  finger  can  be  shown  by  physio- 
logical and  psychological  methods  to  affect  to  a  greater  or 
less  extent  the  muscles  of  the  walls  of  the  blood  vessels, 
of  respiration,  of  the  larynx,  of  the  sweat  glands,  etc.  This 
is  due  to  the  extremely  delicate  coordination  of  all  the  sen- 
sitive and  contractile  parts  of  the  body  by  means  of  the 
nervous  system.  It  is  unquestionable  that  the  removal  of 
laryngeal  action  changes  the  articulation  in  the  mouth  to 
some  extent. 

At  best  the  foregoing  results  apply  only  to  sung  vowels, 
since  in  spoken  vowels  the  cavities  undergo  constant  change 
and  there  is  no  means  of  knowing  which  part  of  the  vowel  is 
represented. 

Only  the  objective  methods  of  determining  the  resonance 
tones  are  to  be  trusted.  These  methods  are  two:  1.  synthesis 
of  elements  that  produce  an  actual  speech  sound,  2.  analysis 
of  an  actual  speech  sound  into  its  elements. 

The  synthetic  method  consists  in  manufacturing  sounds 
that  approximate  speech  sounds.  The  closer  the  imitation 
the  greater  the  likelihood  that  the  principles  employed  are 
the  same  as  those  of  the  vocal  organs. 

The  speaking  machines  of  Kempblen^  and  Fabee^  were 
built  on  a  study  of  the  action  of  the  vocal  organs.  The 
vowel  instruments  of  Willis,  Helmholtz  and  Lloyd  were 
designed  to  determine  the  resonance  tones  of  the  voice. 

With  cylindrical  resonators  of  known  pitch  acted  upon  by 
vibrating  reeds  Willis^  found  the  tones  necessary  to  pro- 
duce sounds  resembling  the  English  vowels  in  the  words 
no,  nought,  paw,  part,  pad,  pay,  pet,  see,  to  be  c^,  e'^,  g\  dP,  f^, 
d*,  <?,  g^  respectively.  Just  what  sounds  occurred  in  these 
cases  cannot  be  accurately  stated ;  they  appear  to  have  been  o, 

1  Kempelen,  Mechanismus  d.  menschl.  Sprache,  1791. 

2  Techmer,  Phonetik,  Fig.  7a,  Leipzig,  1880 ;  also  in  Int.  Zt.  f.  allg.  Sprachw., 
1884  I  Fig.  11. 

'  Willis,  On  vowel  sounds,  and  on  reed  organ-pipes,  Trans.  Carab.  Philos. 
Soc,  1830  III  231. 


TONES   OF   THE    VOCAL    CAVITIES 


291 


Dj,  Og,  aj,  ag,  Cj,  Cg,  i  (the  numerals  indicating  varieties  of  a 
sound).  With  spherical  resonators  used  in  a  similar  way 
Helmholtz^  obtained  the  same  results  as  Willis  for  o,  Oj, 
Dj  and  a,  but  different  ones  for  the  last  three,  namely,  6^  for 
Cj,  c*  for  e^,  and  d^  for  i.  The  following  musical  notation 
indicates  the  results:  first  four  notes,  Willis  and  Helm- 
HOLTZ;  fifth,  Willis;  last  three  upper,  Willis;  last  three 
lower,  Helmholtz. 


rfeiz 


III 


=1 


et 


In  these  two  methods  the  action  of  the  cords  in  emitting  puffs 
of  air  was  imitated  by  reeds. 

With   a   series   of    forks   before    resonators    Helmholtz 
obtained  '^  a  good  o  followed  by  u  on  the  note  h~^  by  using 
the  tones  indicated  by  the  adjacent  notes  with  intensities  as 
indicated  by  their  sizes.     The  other  vowels 
seem  not  to  have  been  successfully  imitated. 
The  failure  of  the  method  seems  mainly  due 
to  the  maintenance  of  the  tones  of  the  resona- 
tors by  a  constant  supply  of  energy,  whereas 
in  the  vocal  organs  they  are  intermittently 
aroused  in  the   chest   register  (p.   259)  and 
possibly  also  in  the  head  register. 

By  sending  a  blast  into  bottles  of  different 
sizes  with  different  necks  Lloyd  ^  has  imitated  some  of  the 
whispered  vowels;    calculations   of   the   periodicities  of  the 
body  and   neck  gave  the   periods   of   the  resonance   tones. 
Different  relations  between  the  resonance  periods   of   body 

1  Helmholtz,  Lehre  v.  d.  Tonempfindungen,  5.  Aufl.,  1 99,  Braunschweig,  1896. 

2  Helmholtz,  as  before,  200. 

^  Lloyd,  Some  researches  into  the  nature  of  vowel-sounds.  Thesis,  Liverpool, 
1890;  Speech  sounds:  their  nature  and  causation,  Phonet.  Stud.,  1890  III  251; 
1891  IV  37,  183,  275;  1892  V  1,  129,  263;  Neuere  Sprachen,  1897-98  V, 
Beiblatt,  1. 


A-s 

p^t: 

U-.^ 

m 

'i 

292 


PRODUCTION  OF  SPEECH 


and  neck  gave  sounds  resembling  different  whispered  rowels. 
The  ratio  between  the  two  resonances  required  to  pro- 
duce a  vowel  was  termed  its  '  radical  ratio.'  The  results 
were  as  follows  (the  letters  of  the  notation  are  to  be 
understood  as  arbitrarily  indicating  the  vowels  in  the  key 
words) : 

■  Sound  resembling  vowel  whispered  in :  bean    bin    pity     Welsh  un  Fr.  d^ 
Radical  ratio :  37       31       29  23  19 

Notation:  Ji         ig        ig  14  e; 


Fr.  maison 
17 
62 


Fr.  bete 
13 


men 
11 
64 


man 

7 


father 
5 


foil         foal 
3  2 

3  O 


book 
H 


pool 

1 

"2 


The  vowel  sound  occurred  whenever  these  two  ratios  were 
present,  regardless  of  what  the  actual  notes  were.  For  a 
lower  resonance  tone  of  c"  the  vowel -like  sounds  would  have 
tones  ^  as  in  the  following  notation : 


tt^tt^^^t. 


t    t 


^: 


^ 


-i-^t-^^-l:— -t-— -t^-t 


rH 


The  vowel  character  is  said  to  depend  primarily  on  the 
'  radical  ratio, '  although  the  vowels  actually  produced  have 
normally  certain  definite  ranges  for  their  tones. 

The  results  may  have  some  application  to  the  tones  of  whis- 
pered vowels,  depending  on  the  closeness  of  the  imitation. 
They  give  no  information  concerning  the  tones  of  spoken  and 
sung  vowels,  as  such  sounds  were  not  produced.  It  is 
probably  true  that  in  each  vowel  a  certain  relation  of  cavity 


'  ViETOR,  Elemente  d.  Phonetik,  4.  Aufl.,  34,  Leipzig,  1898. 


TONES   OF   THE    VOCAL    CAVITIES  293 

tones  occurs;  this  is  the  supposition  of  the  Wheatstonb- 
Helmholtz  overtone  theory.  Some  of  these  relations  have 
been  determined  by  Pipping  and  Hermann  (pp.  21,  23,  48); 
they  are  utterly  different  from  Lloyd's  ratios.  It  is  not  true 
that  the  cavity  tones  may  be  of  any  pitch,  as  has  been  abun- 
dantly shown  by  the  results  described  in  Part  I. 

Another  method  consists  in  using  puffs  of  air  to  arouse 
adjustable  cavities.  A  carefully  trued  siren  disc  (p.  90)  runs 
in  a  slit  in  a  coupling  connecting  tlie  two  ends  of  opposite 
portions  of  a  blast  pipe;  the  adjustments  must  be  so  accurate 
that  little  air  escapes.  The  blast  is  brought  to  some  musical 
instrument,  such  as  a  flageolet,  acting  as  a  cavity  giving 
musical  tones.  The  puffs  of  air,  like  those  from  the  vocal 
cushions  (p.  257),  blow  the  pipe  intermittently,  producing 
resonance  effects  like  those  of  magnetic  impulses  on  a  damped 
spring  (p.  7)  and  thus  imitating  the  vocal  action  (p.  260). 
The  blast  may  be  divided  into  two  portions  by  a  Y-tube  and 
two  instruments  used  at  the  same  time;  or  two  independ- 
ent blasts  may  be  arranged  at  different  points  on  the  siren. 
The  investigations  with  this  instrument  have  not  yet  been 
completed. 

The  analytic  method  has  been  applied  in  two  ways. 

An  analysis  has  been  attempted  by  singing  a  tone  before 
a  series  of  resonators  in  the  manner  mentioned  on  p.  73. 
Some  approximate  success  might  be  attained  for  a  tone 
sung  with  perfect  constancy  on  a  given  note,  a  condition 
that  can  at  best  be  satisfied  with  only  a  fair  degree  of  accu- 
racy (p.  269).  The  resonators,  however,  respond  somewhat 
to  other  tones  than  their  own  (p.  73). 

The  analysis  by  means  of  registered  curves  of  speech  has 
been  described  in  Part  I ;  at  the  present  time  it  is,  in  some 
of  its  forms,  the  only  method  whose  results  can  be  trusted. 
The  tones  for  the  sung  vowels,  in  as  far  as  determined  by  this 
method,  have  been  given  above  (Swedish,  p.  21;  Finnish, 
p.  22;  Russian,  p.  25;  American,  pp.  28,  50;  German,  p.  48). 
These  tones  represent  the  lowest  ones  of  the  system  of  cavi- 
ties ;  the  higher  tones  are  still  undiscovered.     Most  of  these 


294  PRODUCTION  OF  SPEECH 

lowest  tones  are  probably  mouth  tones  in  the  sense  that  they 
are  specially  sensitive  to  modifications  of  the  oropharyngeal 
cavity  with  its  various  apertures  and  necks.  Some,  however, 
may  be  trachea  tones.  Pipping^  considered  as  chest  tones 
the  low  ones  found  in  the  neighborhood  of  the  note  250  in  a 
series  of  Finnish  vowels  (p.  22).  The  lower  resonance  tone 
of  constant  pitch  found  in  a  number  of  cases  of  a  in  ai  ('  I, 
eye,'  etc.)  may  possibly  arise  from  the  chest  instead  of  the 
mouth  and  pharynx ;  in  seven  recorded  cases  ^  the  frequencies 
were  as  follows:  'I,'  286;  'I,'  286;  'I,'  286;  'I,'  286;  'I,' 
360 ;  '  eye,'  435 ;  '  fly,'  256.  The  resonating  chamber  for  these 
tones  can  hardly  include  the  lungs,  as  the  lung  capacity  is 
undergoing  continual  change  during  respiration.  The  trachea 
and  the  bronchial  tubes  with  their  hard  walls  seem  better 
suited  for  resonance  and  are  more  appropriate  in  size ;  their 
capacity  remains  approximately  constant ;  their  accordion-like 
structure  permits  minor  adjustments.  The  size  of  the  chest 
cavity  has  been  shown  to  vary  as  the  musical  scale  is  sung.^ 
This  was  supposed  to  occur  for  the  purpose  of  reinforcing 
the  cord  tone  by  resonance  (p.  13). 

The  attempt  has  been  made  to  calculate  the  resonance  tones 
for  the  vowels  from  maps  of  the  mouth-pharynx  cavity. 
Lloyd  gives*  the  following  frequencies:  marme  2816,  pit 
2500,  rein  2112,  there  1508,  man  1431,  father  1082,  law  834, 
note  623-444,  pwt  528,  brwte  314-287.  So  little  is  known 
concerning  the  resonances  of  a  compound  cavity  and  the 
methods  of  mouth-mapping  are  still  so  crude  that  at  present 
no  reliance  can  be  placed  on  such  calculations. 

The  cavity  tones  of  the  consonants  have  been  studied  only 
by  Hermann  (p.  43).     The   acoustic  characters  of   conso- 

1  Pipping,  Zur  Phonetik  d.  finnischen  Sprache,  Mem.  de  la  Soc.  finno-ougri- 
enne,  XIV,  Helsingfors,  1899. 

2  Scripture,  Researches  in  experimental  phonetics  (first  series),  Stud.  Yale  Psych. 
Lab.,  1899  VII  6i. 

^  Sewall  and  Pollard,  On  the  relations  of  diaphragmatic  and  costal  respira- 
tion, with  particular  reference  to  phonation,  Jour.  Physiol.,  1890  XI  159. 

■*  Lloyd,  The  interpretation  of  the  phonograms  of  vowels.  Jour.  Anat.  Physiol., 
1897  XXXI  251;  On  consonant  sounds,  Proc.  Roy.  Soc.  Ediu.,  1897-98  XXII  241. 


TONES   OF   THE    VOCAL   CAVITIES  295 

nants  depend  largely  on  the  tones  in  their  explosions  or 
noises;  the  relations  of  these  tones  to  their  modes  of  articu- 
lation have  been  observed  but  not  experimentally  recorded. 

The  cavity  tones  in  a  vocal  sound  probably  always  in- 
clude more  than  two  tones.  These  tones  change  with  the 
constantly  changing  shapes  of  the  cavities  and  probably 
never  remain  constant.  The  cavity  tones  with  the  cord 
tone  form  a  more  or  less  musical  harmony  which  changes  by 
more  or  less  sudden  gradations  at  each  instant.  The  simul- 
taneous and  successive  relations  of  harmony  among  these 
tones  determine  the  character  of  the  sounds  spoken. 

Certain  differences  in  acoustic  character  run  through 
the  speech  of  a  person;  other  differences  run  through  a 
family;  others  through  a  community,  a  dialect,  a  region,  or 
a  country.  These  differences  arise  partly  from  the  different 
forms  of  the  cord  vibrations  (p.  264),  from  the  different  sys- 
tems of  tones  from  the  vocal  cavities,  and  from  the  courses  of 
each  of  these  tones  in  the  vocal  harmony. 

References 

For  the  phenomena  of  resonance :  see  References  to  Chap.  I.  For 
summary  of  data  on  vowel-resonance  :  Vietor,  Elemente  d.  Phonetik, 
4.  Aufl.,  27,  Leipzig,  1898. 


CHAPTER   XXI 


TONGUE   CONTACTS:    METHODS   OF   PALATOGEAPHY ;    AMEEI- 
CAN,    lEISH   AND   HTJNGAEIAN   EECOEDS 

Foe  describing  the  positions  of  the  tongue  different  terms 
for  the  various  regions  have  come  into  use.  A  convenient 
arrangement  is  that  of  Lenz^  given  in  Figs.  134,  135.     The 

letters  on  the  diagram  in  Fig. 
135  are  those  used  by  Jes- 
PEESEN.^  A  diagram  showing 
the  vertical  section  through 
the  vocal  cavities  maybe  called 
a '  sagittal  diagram. '  The  dia- 
gram recording  the  contact  of 
the  tongue  with  the  palate  is 
called  a  'palatogram.' 

The  contacts  of  the  tongue 
with  the  roof  of  the  mouth 
are  stated  in  compound  terms, 
in  which  the  first  part  indi- 
cates the  main  portion  of  the 
tongue  that  touches,  and  the 
second  the  main  portion  touched.  The  tongue  articulations  are 
classed  as  '  dorsal '  (referring  to  the  top  of  the  body  of  the 
tongue)  and  '  marginal, '  with  subdivision  of  the  latter  into 
'  frontal '  and  '  lateral. '  An  articulation  of  the  extreme  point 
is  often  termed  '  apical.'    The  roof  articulations  are  indicated 

^  Lenz,  Zur  Physiol,  u.  Gesch.  d.  Palatalen,  Diss.,  Bonn,  1887  ;  also  in  Zt.  f. 
vergl.  Sprach.,  1888  XXIX  1. 

^  Jespeesen,  The  Articulations  of  Speecli  Sounds  represented  by  Analpha- 
betic Symbols,  Marburg,  1889. 


Fig.  134. 


PALATOGRAPHY 


297 


by  the  names,  'dental,  alveolar,  pre-,  medio-,  postpalatal, 
pre-,  postvelar,  uvular  and  pharyngeal.'  Fig.  135  indicates  a 
dorsal-postpalatal  articulation.  The  term  '  cacuminal '  (or 
'  cerebral, '  or  '  inverted  ')  is  applied  to  a  frontal  articula- 
tion, in  which  the  point  of  the  tongue  is  turned  up  and  back. 
The  frontal-prepalatal  articulation  is  thus  a  cacuminal  one. 
Cacuminal  articulations  are  found  in  various  Dravidian  and 
Sanskrit  sounds,  in  some  pronunciations  of  the  English  r, 
in  several  French  and  Swedish  dialects,  etc.  The  terms 
'  lateral '  and  '  central '  refer   to  the  openings   between  the 


Fig.  135. 

tongue  and  the  surfaces  of  the  mouth.     A  lateral  opening 
occurs,  for  example,  in  1. 

For  describing  the  ■  positions  of  the  tongue  in  forming 
vowels  several  general  terms  have  come  into  use.  '  Front, 
mixed,  back  '  or  '  anterior,  neutral,  posterior  '  indicate  that 
the  tongue  is  raised  toward  the  front,  middle  or  back  part  of 
the  palate.  '  High,  mid,  low  '  refer  to  the  degree  of  eleva- 
tion. '  Narrow  '  or  '  close  '  indicates  that  '  the  tongue  and 
flexible  parts  of  the  mouth  are  made  tense  and  convex  in 
shape; '  '  wide  '  or  '  open  '  indicates  that  they  are  flattened. ^ 
1  Sweet,  The  History  of  Language,  17,  London,  1900. 


298 


PRODUCTION  OF  SPEECH 


The  points  at  which  the  tongue  touches  the  palate  (and,  to 
some  degree,  the  velum)  in  forming  sounds  can  be  registered 
by  a  mixture  of  meal  and  mucilage  ^  or  by  carmine  water  color 
or  Chinese  ink  ^  spread  over  the  previously  dried  tongue.  The 
sound  is  spoken  naturally;  the  mouth  is  at  once  opened  and 
the  marks  on  the  palate  are  observed  with  a  small  dental  or 
laryngeal  mirror  in  the  mouth  and  a  larger  mirror  in  front. 
The  results  obtained  are  called  '  palatograms. ' 

This  method  has  developed  into  the  use  of  a  thin  shell-like 
'  artificial  palate. '  ^     It  is  covered  with  chalk  and  placed  in 

the  mouth;  after  the  speech  sound 
is  made,  it  is  removed  and  examined 
at  leisure.  Kingsley's  palate  is 
shown  in  Fig.  136.  Owing  to  the 
cutting  away  of  some  of  the  sides  of 
the  posterior  velar  portion  parts  of 
the  articulation  are  lost  in  some 
peech  sounds ;  usually  the  artificial 
1  lalate  is  still  further  limited  by  be- 
ag  cut  off  at  the  last  teeth.  The 
results  of  an  experiment  may  be 
marked  on  a  plaster  cast*  (Fig- 
137),  drawn  on  a  diagram,  or  photo- 
graphed. ° 

A  cast  of  the  palate  may  be  made 
either  with   dental  modeling  com- 
pound or  with  plaster  of  Paris. 

A  portion  of  the  modeling  compound  is  held  in  hot  water  till 
softened;  it  is  then  placed  in  a  dentist's  mouth  tray,  or,  if 

1  Coles,  Trans.  Odontolog.  Soc.  Grt.  Britain,  1871  n.  s,  IS'  110. 

'^  Gkutznek,  Phi/siologie  d.  Stimme  u.  Sprache,  Hermann's  Handbuch  d. 
Physiol.,  I  (2)  204,  Leipzig,  1879. 

2  KiNGSLEY,  Illustrations  of  the  articulations  of  the  tongue,  On  Oral  Deformi- 
ties,London,  1880;  also  in  Internal.  Zt.  f.  allg.  Sprachwissenscliaft,  1887  III  225  ; 
Balassa,  Phonetik  d.  ungarischen  Sprache,  Internal.  Zt.  f.  allg.  Sprachwiss.,  1889 
IV  130. 

*  KiNGSLEY,  as  before. 

^  Hagelin,  Stomatoskopiska  undersokningar  af  franska  sprukljud,  Stock- 
holm, 1889. 


Fig.   136. 


PALATOGRAPHY 


299 


that  is  lacking,  on  the  end  of  a  wide  flat  stick.  The  operator, 
standing  behind,  bends  back  the  head  of  the  subject  and 
inserts  the  soft  compound  into  his  open  mouth,  pushing  it  up 
firmly  against  the  palate.  It  is  kept  against  the  palate  until 
fairly  hard,  then  removed  by  loosening  first  at  the  back,  and 
dipped  in  cold  water  to  completely  harden  it.  A  plaster 
cast  is  now  to  be  made  from  the  form  thus  obtained.  This  is 
rubbed  with  soapy  water  and  surrounded  by  a  wall  of  clay 
or  wax.  The  cup-like  dish  thus  obtained  is  filled  with 
water.  Fresh  plaster  of  Paris,  mixed  with  water  to  a  rather 
thin  paste,  is  poured  in  this  dish ; 
it  is  allowed  to  remain  till  it 
hardens,  which  it  should  do  in 
about  20  minutes.  On  removing 
the  wax  by  softening  in  warm 
water,  a  model  of  the  palate  will 
be  found. 

If  plaster  of  Paris  is  used  in- 
stead of  modeling  wax  for  the 
original  impression,  it  is  mixed 
to  the  consistency  of  batter.  The 
tray  is  filled.  The  subject  bends 
the  head  forward.  Standing  on 
one  side,  the  operator  pushes  the 
tray  into  the  mouth  and  against 
the  palate.     It  is  held   in  place 

till  the  plaster  feels  hard  in  the  mouth.  The  tray  is  then 
rocked  slightly  till  the  plaster  is  loosened  from  the  teeth. 
The  surface  of  the  negative  cast  thus  obtained  is  colored 
with  ink  or  dye  and  then  covered  with  sandarac  varnish. 
The  positive  cast  is  then  made  from  this  just  as  from  that  in 
modeling  compound.  The  negative  cast  is  removed  from  the 
positive  by  chipping  it  off  till  the  colored  surface  appears. 

The  surface  of  the  model  thus  obtained  is  rendered  ad- 
herent by  plunging  it  into  a  bath  of  stearine  or  wax ;  it  is 
then  rubbed  with  a  stiff  brush  dipped  in  powdered  graphite 
until  it  is  entirely  coated.     A  saturated  solution  of  copper 


Fig.  137. 


300  PRODUCTION  OF  SPEECH 

sulphate  in  water  with  10%  of  sulphuric  acid  is  poured  into  a 
jar.  In  this  a  porous  battery  cup  is  placed;  the  cup  con- 
tains a  piece  of  zinc  in  pure  water.  A  wire  from  the  zinc 
supports  the  plaster  model  in  the  copper  sulphate  solution; 
this  wire  must  make  electric  contact  with  the  graphite  coat- 
ing. After  the  copper  begins  to  deposit  on  the  surface  a  few 
drops  of  sulphuric  acid  are  added  to  the  water  around  the 
zinc.  The  thickness  of  the  deposit  of  copper  is  examined 
from  time  to  time;  it  should  be  sufficiently  thick  in  about 
twelve  hours.  It  is  then  detached.  It  is  blackened  by 
boiling  it  in  a  solution  of  sodium  sulphite  or  by  covering  it 
with  black  Japan  varnish. 

It  is  generally  preferable  to  have  a  dentist  make  a  cast  and 
a  thin  plate  of  metaP  or  celluloid^  in  his  own  way. 

An  artificial  palate  may  be  made  in  a  simpler  fashion 
by  using  thin  tough  filter  paper.  ^  A  drop  of  oil  is  poured 
on  the  mold<;  a  sheet  of  filter  paper  wet  with  water  is 
applied  to  it  carefully,  —  tearing  rather  than  folding  it  if 
necessary.  A  paste  is  made  of  chalk  powder  and  strong 
liquid  glue  or  cement  without  a  bad  taste ;  a  thin  layer  is 
spread  over  the  paper.  Another  sheet  of  paper  (wet,  if  pos- 
sible ;  dry,  if  time  presses)  is  put  over  the  first  and  pressed 
into  the  depressions  carefully  with  the  fingers  and  a  small 
blunt  stick.  The  whole  is  set  aside  to  dry.  When  half  dry, 
it  is  well  to  press  it  again  carefully  into  the  mold.  When 
fully  dry  (half  a  day  or  more)  it  is  coated  with  black  enamel 
or  varnish.  These  paper  palates  cannot  be  used  long  with- 
out being  dried  over  a  fire  or  a  flame.  They  can  be  rendered 
waterproof  by  pouring  oil  on  them  when  half  dry.* 

The  quickest  method  ^  —  often  the  only  one  possible  in 
traveling  —  is  to  use  a  sheet  of  tinfoil  of  0.2™™  thickness  or 

1  Hagelin,  as  before. 

2  ViETOR,  Kleine  Beitrage  zur  ExperimeidalphoneUk,  Neuere  Sprachen,  1894 
I  Suppl.  35. 

3  RoussELOT,  Principes  de  phoue'tique  experimentale,  57,  Paris,  1897. 

*  JossELYN,  £t'ide  sar  la  phonetique  itaiienne,  2,  Thfese,  Paris,  1900;  also  in 
La  Parole,  1900  II  422. 

'  RoussELOT,  as  before,  58. 


PALATOGRAPHY  301 

two  sheets  united  by  a  flexible  rubber  varnish.  If  one  side 
has  previously  been  covered  with  this  varnish,  it  suffices  to 
press  it  against  the  palate  at  the  time  of  the  experiment  with 
the  thumb  or  a  slightly  pointed  stick ;  the .  sheet  is  then 
removed,  and  the  edges  cut  off  around  the  teeth.  To  make 
it  adhere  more  strongly  to  the  palate,  the  sheet  may  be  coated 
on  its  upper  side  with  strong  paste. 

For  an  experiment  the  inner  surface  of  the  artificial  palate 
is  oiled,  and  sprinkled  with  powdered  chalk  or  some  similar 
substance  ;  it  is  inserted  with  chalked  fingers ;  the  sound  is 
spoken ;  and  the  palate  is  at  once  removed.  The  parts 
touched  by  the  tongue  appear  black,  the  chalk  having  been 
removed  where  the  tongue  pressed  heavily  and  moistened 
where  it  touched  lightly.  The  result  may  be  sketched  on 
a  plaster  cast  made  for  the  purpose,  or  may  be  photographed. 
A  convenient  method  of  recording  results  is  to  sketch  them 
on  a  diagram  of  the  person's  palate  printed  from  a  zinc  block 
made  from  a  drawing  showing  the  outline  of  the  artificial 
palate. 

It  must  be  constantly  borne  in  mind  that  contacts  may 
occur  outside  the  limits  of  the  artificial  palate.  The  plate  of 
KiNGSLEY  loses  at  the  sides  of  the  velum  and  those  of  most 
other  investigators  lose  everything  back  of  the  hard  palate. 
Techmbk's  plate  included  the  sides  of  the  velum. 

To  obtain  records  for  a  sound  in  the  interior  of  a  word, 
such  words  should  be  selected  as  give  no  other  records  or  no 
records  which  can  be  confused  with  the  one  desired.^  Thus 
the  1  gives  clear  traces  in  the  front  of  the  palate  for  '  blanc ' 
(tonic),  '  blanchir '  (initial  atonic),  '  blanchisseuse  en  gros  ' 
{initial  tonic  distinct  from  accent  of  phrase),  'va  chez  M. 
Blanc  '  (tonic  preceded  by  a  number  of  syllables). 

To  compare  analogous  sounds  they  are  spoken  in  analogous 
words  and  the  tracings  are  superimposed.  For  example,  the 
record  for  the  vowel  in  '  long  '  is  compared  with  those  for  the 
vowels  in  log,  log,  lag  in  order  to  'determine  its  character. 
Sounds  may  be  tested  by  their  effects  on  known  articula- 

1  RonsSELOT,  Etudes  de  prononciations  Parisiennes,  La  Parole,  1899  I  547. 


302  PRODUCTION  OF  SPEECH 

tions  of  other  sounds.  Thus  anterior  vowels  tend  to  make 
the  k  mouill^ ;  tracings  for  various  forms  of  kav  show  ^ 
that  aj  makes  the  k  mouill^  and  is  distinct  from  a^  and 
Eg  (the  inferior  numerals  indicate  contacts  of  different 
backwardness). 

Palatograms  of  some  of  his  American  sounds  have  been 
given  by  Kingslby. 

The  contact  surfaces  were  recorded  for  the  vowels  e  in 
ken  'cane'  (Fig.  138),  and  i  in  si  'see'  (Fig.  139).  The 
tongue  evidently  divides  the  mouth  cavity  into  two  por- 
tions connected  by  a  neck.  For  i  the  anterior  portion  is 
smaller  than  for  e  and  the  neck  is  narrower  and  longer;  the 
posterior  portion  is  apparently  not  greatly  changed.  Con- 
cerning the  tones  of  the  cavities  under  such  conditions  we 
can  hardly  say  more  than  that  at  least  one  of  the  tones  for  i 
will  be  higher  than  the  corresponding  one  for  e ;  this  is  actu- 
ally the  case  in  all  the  experimental  determinations  (pp.  21, 
23,  25,  26,  48,  287,  288).  The  contact  for  t  (Fig.  140)  shows 
complete  alveolar  contact  of  the  tongue.  If  this  contact  was 
marginal,  the  release  was  probably  quick  with  a  sharp  explo- 
sion ;  if  predorsal,  slower  with  a  slight  following  aspiration. 
The  mouth  cavity  was  apparently  large ;  the  tone  of  the  ex- 
plosion of  t  has  been  registered  only  for  a  German  example 
(p.  48) ;  no  comparison  can  be  made  with  this  t  as  the  contact 
for  Hermann's  t  was  not  recorded.  The  n  (Fig.  141)  shows 
complete  alveolar  contact ;  although  the  mouth  cavitj'  ap- 
pears to  be  nearly  the  same  in  size  as  that  of  the  t,  the  open- 
ing of  the  nasal  aperture  must  lower  its  tone.  The  k  is 
postvelar  (Fig.  142)  ;  the  g  is  also  postvelar  but  slightly 
further  forward  (Fig.  143)  ;  the  projection  to  the  rear  in  the 
middle  of  Kingsley's  artificial  palate  (Fig.  136)  rendered  it 
possible  to  record  such  backward  contacts ;  the  contacts  prob- 
ably extended  further  to  the  sides  than  in  Figs.  142  and  143 
but  could  not  be  recorded  on  account  of  the  narrowness  of 
the  projection ;  concerning  the  nature  of  the  release  and  the 
tones  of  the  explosions  of  the  k  and  g  nothing  is  known.  A 
'  RoDSSELOT,  as  before,  548. 


AMERICAN  PALATOGRAMS 


303 


somewhat  more  forward  velar  contact  occurs  in  r\  (Fig.  144)  ; 
pharyngeal  and  tracheal  cavity  tones  were  presumably  present. 
The  backwardness  of  the  contacts  for  k,  g,  -q  is  remarkable 
when  the  palatograms  are  compared  with  those  of  other 
languages.     For  f  and  v  the  tongue  seems  to  rise  slightly 


Fig.  138.  Pig.  139.  Fig.  140.  Fig.  141.  Fig.  142. 


Fig.  143.  Fig.  144.  Fig.  145.  Fig.  146. 

Jii|  jfc    H^    /^ 


Fig.  147. 


Fig.  148. 


Fig.  149. 


Fig.  150. 


in  the  postpalatal  and  prevelar  regions  (Fig.  145)  ;  similar 
records  may  be  occasionally  found  in  the  work  of  other  ob- 
servers. This  rise  presumably  influences  the  cavity  tones 
aroused  by  the  friction  at  the  aperture  of  the  cavity  and 
heard  in  the  fricative  noise ;  in  the  case  of  v  it  must  also 
influence  the  cavity  tone  aroused  by  the  cord  tone. 


304  PRODUCTION  OF  SPEECH 

Kingsley's  s  (Fig.  146)  shows  a  very  short  narrow  nozzle- 
like opening  with  a  gradual  approach  and  a  very  free  exit ; 
the  laws  governing  the  action  of  such  apertures  have  been 
treated  in  works  in  hydrodynamics,  but  their  acoustic  appli- 
cations have  not  been  made.  The  record  for  Kingsley's 
s  and  z  was  so  nearly  identical  with'  that  for  e  (Fig.  138) 
that  the  same  diagram  was  used  for  both ;  the  nozzle  is  broad 
and  the  cavities  large,  indicating  perhaps  a  soft  rushing 
sound  with  low  tones. 

The  record  for  9  (Fig.  147)  shows  firm  contact  at  the  sides 
and  loose  contact  in  front.  The  record  for  c,  J  (Fig.  148) 
is  that  for  the  sounds  heard  in  '  church  '  and  '  judge. '  These 
consist  of  an  occlusive  t-  or  d-sound  with  a  fricative  release 
producing  a  rushing  sound  instead  of  the  explosive  release  of 
an  ordinary  t  or  d.  It  is  customary  to  assume  that  these  are 
consonant  diphthongs  and  to  indicate  them  by  ts  and  dz.  It 
is  quite  possible,  however,  that  the  fricative  release  may  not 
be  of  the  character  supposed;  moreover,  the  occlusive  and 
fricative  elements  may  be  too  closely  fused  to  permit  us 
to  consider  the  sounds  as  diphthongs.  Similar  cases  will  be 
found  in  the  following  chapters. 

The  1  (Fig.  149)  shows  frontal-alveolar  contact;  the  rear 
portion  of  the  tongue  is  generally  supposed  to  be  raised  but 
no  record  appears.  In  r  (Fig.  150)  the  front  portion  of  the 
tongue  is  turned  up  against  the  palate. 

It  must  be  added  that  the  identity  of  the  contacts  for  t  and 
d,  f  and  v,  s  and  z,  s  and  z,  c  and  J,  is  due  to  the  failure  of 
KiNGSLEY  to  distinguish  the  finer  differences.  In  general 
the  surd  has  a  more  extended  contact  than  the  corresponding 
sonant.  This  indicates  stronger  muscular  action,  as  would  be 
expected  from  the  fact  that  part  of  the  lung  pressure  is  used 
to  make  the  cords  vibrate  in  a  sonant  (p.  244).  This  rela- 
tion of  corresponding  surd  and  sonant  as  strong  and  weak 
is  a  general  one. 

Some  palatogralns  by  Rousselot  ^  of   the  sounds  of  an 

^  Rousselot,  L'enseignement  de  la  prononciation  par  la  vue,  La  Parole,  1901 
III  587. 


IRISH  PALATOGRAMS  305 

American  showed  results  in  general  like  those  by  Kingsley 
but  with  several  exceptions.  The  relations  of  contact  were 
6  >  ?5,  c  >  J  as  usual,  but  t<d,  s<z,  s<z  contrary  to 
the  general  rule.  Rousselot  believes  that  in  such  a  case  the 
surds  t,  s,  s  are  made  as  whispered  sounds  and  not  surd  ones. 
He  apparently  implies  that  the  closure  of  the  glottis  for 
whispering  uses  some  of  the  lung  pressure  and  requires  less 
closure  in  the  mouth.  This  is  a  valid  explanation  for  less 
pressure  in  whispered  t  than  in  surd  t ;  it  is  inadequate  for 
less  pressure  in  whispered  t  than  in  sonant  d,  for  the  vibrat- 
ing cords  in  d  let  less  air  pass  than  the  narrowed  glottis  in 
whispered  t. 

Palatograms  of  a  native  of  Neale,  County  Mayo,  Ire- 
land, ^  showed  many  '  subpalatal '  vowels,  that  is,  vowels  in 
which  the  elevation  of  the  tongue  was  too  feeble  to  reach  the 
artificial  palate  or  too  far  back  to  reach  its  rear  boundary; 
such  were  a,  e  (generally),  u,  o,  a.  The  consonants  p,  b,  m, 
f,  V  were  likewise  subpalatal.  The  two  classes  of  vowels  are 
much  more  clearly  separated  in  Irish  than,  for  example,  in 
French,  where  all  vowels  leave  traces  on  the  artificial  palate. 
The  action  of  the  broad  Irish  vowels  a,  o,  u  is  quite  distinct 
from  that  of  the  thin  ones  e,  i  in  palatalizing  the  preced- 
ing consonants;  the  phenomenon  occurs  for  e  and  i  with  a 
regularity  that  does  not  appear  in  most  other  languages.  In 
addition  to  the  data  of  special  interest  in  regard  to  Irish, 
Rousselot  points  out  some  that  are  of  general  importance : 
1.  reciprocal  influence  of  vowels  and  consonants ;  2.  influence 
of  syntactic  groupings  or  of  morphology  on  the  articulations ; 
3.  great  variations  in  the  articulations  of  sound  without  loss 
of  auditory  identity;  4.  differences  of  force  between  initial 
and  final  consonants,  and  between  a  final  consonant  followed 
by  a  vowel  and  one  followed  by  a  consonant  in  the  next  word ; 
5.  the  existence  of  k,  g,  t,  d  and  s  mouilM  in  Irish  also. 

Using  Kingslby's  method,  Balassa  gives  diagrams  of 
his  own  Hungarian  sounds. ^ 

1  Rousselot,  Les  articulations  irlandaises,  La  Parole,  1899  I  241. 

2  Balassa,  Phonetik  d.  ungarischen  Sprache,  Internat.  Zt.  f.  allg.  Sprachwiss, 
1889  IV  130. 

20 


306 


PRODUCTION  OF  SPEECH 


u  62 

Fig.  151.  Fig.  l.'J2. 


1  oe 

Fig.  153.  Fig.  154. 


y 

Fig.  155. 


Fig.  157. 


n 

Fig.  159. 


J  S  S  1 

Fig.   160.  Fig.  161.  Fig.  162.  Fig.  163. 


Fig.  165. 


HUNGARIAN  PALATOGRAMS  307 

No  contacts  appeared  for  aj  ^ydvnd; '  a^  'alma  '  [aj  and  a^ 
having  the  same  tongue  position,  with  lip  retraction  for  aj  and 
lip  projection  for  ag] ;  Oj  '  tJta; '  O2  '  okos; '  Cj  '  este; '  f  '/a; ' 
V  '  v^t:  ; '  p  '  joiros ;  '  b  '  bov ; '  m  '  ?MOSt, '  '  hamvad ; '  t| 
'  hang; '  r  '  va?-. ' 

Figures  151  to  167  give  the  contacts  for  the  other  long 
vowels,  liquids  and  surds:  u  '  iit;  '  e^^  elet;  '  i  '  tiz;  '  ce 
'  szollo; '  y  '  hw,'  kj  '  a^aro/c;  '  k^  '  ^ev^s;  '  t  "  ty\x\; '  medio- 
palatal n  '  nyvl ; '  ]  '  ha/o ; '  s  '  sz&iaz ; '  s  '  sas ; '  1  '  /6 ; '  n 
'  n^p ;'  t '  ie ;  '  ts  '  apacza ; '  ts  '  csdszar. '  The  short  vowels 
have  slightly  different  contacts ;  the  sonants  were  assumed  to 
have  nearly  the  same  contacts  as  the  corresponding  surds. 

The  palatograms  clearly  indicate  a  classification  into  rear 
and  front  vowels,  usually  called  '  deep  '  and  '  high  '  on  ac- 
count of  the  difference  in  pitch.  These  two  classes,  a,  o, 
u,  and  e,  i,  ce,  y,  show  themselves  in  the  phenomena  of  'vowel 
harmony  '  (p.  121).  The  middle  vowels  are  lacking  entirely 
in  modern  Hungarian. 

The  rearwardness  of  the  1  is  noteworthy.  After  t,  d  the 
1-contact  is  made  at  the  same  place  as  for  those  sounds.  The 
ancient  Z-mouill^  has  become  j  or  z  in  most  dialects,  1  in  the 
others. 

In  the  '  consonant  diphthongs '  ts  ts  the  first  portion  is 
not  the  same  as  the  ordinary  t,  but  an  occlusion  at  the 
places  for  the  second  portion.  They  are  affricates,  that  is, 
occlusives  with  fricative  releases.  According  to  the  palato- 
grams the  former  seems  to  be  an  affricated  t,  the  latter  an 
affricated  t.  The  ts  is  said  by  Balassa  to  be  the  same  as 
Kingsley's  c,  but  Fig.  148  has  hardly  any  resemblance  to 
Fig.  167. 

References 

For  tongue  action  in  English  :  Grandgent,  German  and  English 
Sounds,  Boston,  1892  ;  Soamks,  Introduction  to  the  Study  of  Phonetics 
(English,  French,  German),  2d  ed.,  London,  1899;  Sweet,  Primer  of 
Phonetics,  Oxfox-d,  1890  ;  Vietor,  Elemente  d.  Phonetik,  4.  Aufl.,  Leip- 
zig, 1898. 

For  dental  materials  :  S.  S.  White  Dental  Mfg.  Co.,  New  York. 


CHAPTER   XXII 

TONGUE  CONTACTS :  GERMAN  RECORDS 

Diagrams  of  their  own  palatal  records  for  German  sounds 
have  been  given  by  GrtjtznerI  (jn,_  1347  at  Festenberg  in 
Kreis  Polnisch-Wartenberg,  Schlesien),  Techmer,^  Vietor^ 
(a  native  of  Nassau),  and  Lenz.* 

Geutzner's  diagrams  (painted  tongue)  of  continuously 
produced  sounds  are  given  in  Figs.  168  to  172.  For  1  (Fig. 
168)  the  tongue  is  pressed  against  the  palate  just  above  the 
front  and  side  teeth,  with  a  small  opening  opposite  the  first 
molar  on  each  side.  The  velum  closes  the  nasal  cavity. 
The  auditory  character  of  the  1  changes  only  slowly  as  the 

AAAAA 

1  r  t  s  s 

Fig.  168.  Fig.  169.  Fig.   170.  Fig.   171.         Fig.  172. 

region  of  articulation  is  advanced  or  retracted.  The  opening 
in  1  may  be  on  one  side  only.  The  curves  of  the  German 
1  have  been  given  by  Wendbler  (p.  19)  and  Hermann 
(p.  43).       Grutzner's   articulation  for  r  is  given   in  Fig. 

1  Grutzner,  Physiologic  der  Stimme  und  Sprache,  Hermann's  Handbuch  der 
Physiologie,  I  (2),  204,  207,  219,  221,  Leipzig,  1879. 

2  Techmer,  Phonetik,  30,  Tafeln  III-IV,  Leipzig,  1880  ;  Naturwiss.  Analyse 
u.  Synthese  d.  horbaren  Sprache,  Interiiat.  Zt.  f.  allg.  Sprachwissensehaft,  1884  I, 
140,  Tafeln  III-IV. 

2  ViETOR,  Elemente  der  Phonetik,  4.  Aufl.,  307,  308,  Leipzig,  1898. 
*  Lenz,  Zur  Physioloi/ie  nnd  Geschtchte  der  Palatalen,  Diss.,  Bonn,  1887  ;  also 
in  Zt.  f.  vergl.  Sprachf.,  1888  XXIX  1. 


GERMAN  PALATOGRAMS  309 

169.  The  curves  for  r  have  been  recorded  by  Bonders, 
Wendelee  (p.  19)  and  Hermann  (p.  44).  Grutzner's  t 
(Fig.  170)  is  alveolar  and  dental  -at  its  moment  of  closure. 
His  s  (Fig.  171)  shows  the  touching  of  the  tongue  against  the 
teeth  and  alveolae  with  the  narrow  opening  in  front.  The 
channel  is  very  small.  Getjtzner's  s  (Fig.  172)  is  one  of  a 
possible  series  of  rush  sounds  that  begins  with  s  and  changes 
as  the  tongue  articulates  further  backward.  The  lower  pitch 
of  s  as  compared  with  s  was  observed  by  Kempelen.  Curves 
of  the  vibrations  in  t,  s,  s  and  their  corresponding  sonants 
have  been  obtained  by  Hermann  (p.  42). 

Vietor's  diagrams  (artificial  palate)  of  continuously  pro- 
duced sounds  are  given  in  Figs.  173  to  183,  which  contain 
also  lines  indicating  the  positions  for  the  related  American 
and  French  sounds  as  obtained  by  Kingsley  and  Rousselot. 

Vietor's  close  i  (Fig.  173),  as  in  libn  '  lieben  '  is 
formed  with  the  tongue  so  high  in  the  middle  that  the 
breath  makes  a  rushing  noise;  the  lips  are  not  generally 
drawn  back.  His  y  (-it)  (Fig.  174),  as  in  ybri§  '  iibrig, '  has 
a  tongue  position  not  quite  identical  with  that  of  i,  with 
the  lips  not  in  the  neutral  i  position  but  in  the  projected 
and  rounded  u  position.  For  his  Cj  (Fig.  175),  as  in  re  '  reh, ' 
the  tongue  does  not  rise  so  high  as  in  the  previous  cases.  His 
oe  (6)  (Fig.  176),  as  in  seen  '  schon, '  combines  an  approxi- 
mate Cj  position  of  the  tongue  with  an  o  position  of  the  lips. 
The  62  (Fig.  177),  as  in  ber  'bar'  in  his  pronunciation, 
has  a  still  larger  opening.  Figs.  178  to  183  give  the  conso- 
nant articulations  for  c  as  in  ig  '  ich, '  s  as  in  ist  '  ist, '  s  as 
in  seen  'schon, '  t  as  in  ton  'ton, '  r  (lingual)  as  in  rabQ  'rabe, ' 
and  1  as  in  libg  'liebe.' 

Vietor's  g  (Fig.  178)  may  be  considered  as  a  development 
in  the  series  s  —  s  —  9  by  regression  and  lengthening  of  the 
tongue  articulation.  The  transversal  extent  of  the  articula- 
tion in  9  varies  with  the  preceding  vowel.  ^ 

In  Vietor's  s  (Fig.  179)  the  narrow  stream  of  air  passes 
out  through  a  partially  dorsal  contact  of  the  tongue,  differing 
1  ViETOK,  Elemente  d.  Phonetik,  4.  Aufl.,  174,  Leipzig,  1898. 


310 


PRODUCTION   OF  SPEECH 


r 

Fig.  182. 


1 

Fig.  18.3. 


GERMAN  PALATOGRAMS  311 

from  the  apical  contact  of  Geutznee  (Fig.  171).  The  hiss- 
ing noise  of  the  s  is  probably  made  by  the  friction  in  the 
passage  and  not  by  the  impact  against  the  teeth  as  Vietok 
supposes.  In  Vietoe's  s  (Fig.  180)  a  broad  stream  of  air 
passes  between  the  tongue  and  the  gums ;  the  articulation  is 
dorsal-alveolar  or  dorsal-postdental.  It  differs  little  from 
that  of  Geutznee  (Fig.  172). 

In  Vietoe's  t  (Fig.  181)  the  articulation  closely  resembles 
that  for  s  without  the  opening;  the  pressure  is  strongest 
in  front  of  and  around  the  notch  shown  in  the  figure. 

Vietoe's  r  (Fig.  182)  has  an  alveolar  contact  with  the 
front  of  the  tongue  further  back  than  Geutznee 's  (Fig. 
169).  It  is  generally  sonant  with  no  rushing  noise;  before 
or  after  surds  the  cord  tone  is  often  partly  or  entirely  lost. 
The  number  of  beats  is  variable. 

\  For  1  the  contact  is  alveolar  and  along  the  front  teeth 
(Fig.  183);  it  is  firmest  along  the  molars,  lighter  in  front; 
the  chief  opening  is  at  the  eye  teeth  and  the  first  molars. ^ 

Refeeences 

For  tongue  action  in  German  :  Bremer,  Deutsche  Phonetik,  Leipzig; 
1893  ;  Brucke,  Grundziige  d.  Physiol,  u.  Systematik  d.  Sprachlaute, 
Wien,  1855;  2.  Aufl.,  1876;  Grandgent,  German  and  English  Sounds, 
Boston,  1892 ;  Klinghardt,  Artikulations-  und  Horiibungen,  Kothen, 
1897 ;  Merkel,  Physiol,  d.  menschl.  Sprache,  Leipzig,  1866 ;  Sievers, 
Grundziige  d.  Phonetik,  5.  Aufl.,  Leipzig,  1901 ;  Vietor,  Elemente  d. 
Phonetik,  4.  Aufl.,  Leipzig,  1898. 

1  ViETOE,  as  before,  214. 


CHAPTER   XXIIl 

TONGUE   CONTACTS  :    FRENCH   AND   ITALIAN    RECORDS 

The  Parisian  dialect  is  being  subjected  to  a  careful  study- 
by  RousSELOT ;  ^  the  published  palatograms  show  the  follow- 
ing facts.  The  results  are  interesting  in  view  of  the  growing 
claim  of  Parisian  to  be  considered  as  standard  French. 

In  Paris  three  forms  of  a  are  clearly  distinguished.  The 
'  medium  a '  as  in  '  patte  '  is  pronounced  with  the  muscles  of 
the  tongue  and  hps  completely  relaxed;  the  tongue  is  left 
at  rest  in  the  mouth,  the  jaw  is  lowered,  the  larynx  emits  a 
sound  that  resonates  softly  and  hollowly  in  the  cavity ;  this 
a  is  indicated  in  Roxjsselot's  notation  by  a,  in  ours  by 
a^.  The  '  close  a,'  as  in  '  pSte '  or  '  ah  ! '  is  pronounced 
with  tense  muscles,  the  tongue  drawn  back  and  the  lips 
slightly  contracted ,  it  tends  toward  o  ;  it  is  indicated  by  a 
(Rousselot)  or  bj'  ag.  The  'open  a,'  as  in  'cave,'  is  pro- 
nounced with  the  tongue  slightly  raised  in  the  front  portion 
and  slightly  depressed  in  the  rear,  while  the  Ups  are  slightly 
separated;  it  is  indicated  by  a  or  by  a^.  The  artificial  palate 
may  show  no  records  of  these  forms  of  a,  but  ordinarily  they 
appear  at  the  back  portions  with  the  contacts  increasing  in 
the  order  aj,  ag,  a^,  as  shown  in  Fig.  184.  When  a^  and  a^ 
occur  in  atonic  syllables  they  become  a^  the  relaxation  in 
force  bringing  an  associated  relaxation  in  articulation.  When 
aj  receives  an  oratorical  accent,  it  becomes  ag,  the  extra  force 
bringing  an  extra  effort  in  articulation. 

Three  very  distinct  forms  of  e  may  be  recognized  in  Paris : 
Cj  (e),  'open  e,'  as  in  'fait';  e^  (e),  'medium  e,'  as  in  'Eh 

^  Rousselot,  J^tudes  de  prononciations  parisiennes,  I  Les  articulations  ^tudi^es 
a  t'aide  du  palais  artijiciel,  La  Parole,  1899  I  481. 


FRENCH  PALATOGRAMS 


Fig.  184. 


Fig.  185. 


Fig.  186. 


Fig.  188.  Fig.  189. 


Fig.  190. 


Q^iS, 


Fig.  192. 


Fig.  193. 


Fig.  194. 


A/!\/i 


Fig.  196. 


Fig.  197. 


Fig.  198. 


313 


Fig.  187. 


Fig.  191. 


Fig.  195. 


Fig.  199. 


^ 


Fig.  200 


Fig.  201. 


Fig.  202. 


/^     ^ 


Fig.  203. 


Fig.  204. 


Fig.  205. 


814  PRODUCTION   OF  SPEECH 

bien ! ' ;  and  Cg  (e)  '  close  e.'  The  ej  and  eg  are  readily  isolated. 
As  Cg  occurs  only  in  an  accented  syllable  before  a  consonant 
or  in  an  unaccented  syllable,  the  Parisian  isolates  it  with 
difficulty ;  in  certain  provinces  Cg  has  an  independent  value. 
The  same  conditions  are  found  in  general  for  the  other  medium 
vowels  ij,  72,  Oj,  U2,  062-  The  palatograms  (Fig.  185)  show 
increasing  contacts  in  the  order  e^,  e^,  eg.  Changes  occur  as 
the  results  of  differences  in  stress  just  as  for  a.  The  explana- 
tion for  Cg  -»^  62  when  unstressed  is  the  same  as  for  ag  -^  aj. 
The  change  ej  -*  e^  (open  to  medium)  when  unstressed  re- 
sults from  the  fact  that  the  relaxation  of  the  internal  tongue 
muscles  along  the  septum  produces  a  \videning  of  the  tongue 
and  more  contact  along  the  palate.  The  same  reasons  explain 
certain  changes  of  long  Cj  to  short  Cg  in  speech,  that  is,  of  a 
tense  open  vowel  to  a  relaxed  close  one. 

Two  very  different  Parisian  i's  were  found,  namely,  \^  (i), 
a  medium  i,  and  ig  (I),  a  close  i.  The  ij  is  followed  hj  a  con- 
sonant or  is  unstressed,  as  in  mi2ni2St  deg  bOgZ  a^r^  '  ministre 
des  beaux  arts.'  Both  i's  appear  in  i2si3  '  ici,'  fi^ni^  '  fini ' 
and  in  12!  'il'  and  igl  'ile.'  The  palatograms  show  less  con- 
tact for  i2  than  for  ig  (Fig.  186).  The  changes  ig  ->  12  and 
ig  -^  ig  are  analogous  to  those  for  e  (above). 

Parisian  speech  has  three  forms  of  oe :  ce^  ((^),  '  open  cje,' 
as  in  '  heure ' ;  cEj  (ce),  '  medium  ce,'  as  in  '  je  parle  ' ;  and  cEg 
(cb),  '  close  ce,'  as  in  '  eux.'  The  palatograms  show  increasing 
contacts  in  the  order  cej,  oCg,  cCg  (Fig.  187).  The  palato- 
gram  for  cej  corresponds  closely  to  that  for  a^ ;  those  of  ce.^ 
and  CBg  are  quite  different  from  that  of  Cj.  Accented  ocj  regu- 
larly becomes  oeg  when  the  syllable  loses  the  accent. 

The  so-called  '  mute  e '  in  French  is,  if  sounded,  oCg  when 
named,  ceg  in  a  phrase,  and  cjCj  when  accented.  In  other 
investigations  Roussblot  indicates  this  sound  by  a  special 
symbol  corresponding  to  a  of  this  book.  As  a  final,  the 
'  mute  e  '  does  not  entirely  disappear ;  it  at  least  modifies 
the  preceding  consonant. 

The  two  forms  of  y  are  y^  (m),  '  medium  y,'  as  in  '  pudeur ' ; 
and  yg  (i<), '  close  y,'  as  in  '  pur  '  (Fig.  188).     The  y  contacts 


FRENCH  PALATOGRAMS  315 

occur  within  the  region  for  those  of  e  (Fig.  185),  just  as 
do  those  for  oe  within  the  region  between  a  and  e. 

There  are  the  three  forms  of  o :  Oj  (o),  '  open  o,'  as  in 
'or';  02  (0),  'medium  o,'  as  in  'botte  ';  O3  (<?),  -close  o,'  as 
in  'beau.'  Their  contacts  do  not  differ  greatly.  The  ex- 
tremes Oj  and  03  are  shown  in  Fig.  189;  O2  is  seldom  distin- 
guishable- from  the  others  except  in  combinations. 

There  are  two  fonns  of  u :  Ug  '  medium  u,'  as  in  '  boule ' ; 
Ug  '  close  u,'  as  in  '  cou.'  The  palatograms  (Fig.  190)  —  not 
from  the  same  subject  as  for  Figs.  184  to  189,  owing  to  an 
anomaly  for  u  —  show  more  contact  for  Ug  than  for  Ug. 

The  nasal  vowels  rarely  have  the  same  contacts  as  the 
corresponding  oral  ones.  The  palatograms  for  the  same 
subject  that  furnished  Figs.  184  to  189  showed  the  contacts 
for  oe",  o",  a",  e"  (Fig.  191)  all  to  lie  in  the  oe-region  (Fig. 
187).  The  records  seem  to  indicate  correspondences  of 
tongue  position  between  ce"  and  oBj,  o"  and  Oj,  a"  and  Eg,  e" 
and  an  intermediary  between  a^  and  ej. 

The  contacts  for  k  and  g  show  many  varieties  of  a  typical 
form  (Figs.  192,  193),  depending  on  the  adjacent  sounds. 

The  K  and  \  sounds  are  those  known  as  '  k-  and  ^-mouill^.' 
Their  contacts  are  further  forward  than  those  for  k  and  g 
even  in  the  combination  kj  and  gj  ;  comparisons  are  shown  in 
Figs.  192  and  193.  These  k  and  \  sounds  are  distinct  from 
the  k  and  g  sounds  both  in  place  of  articulation  and  in  the 
nature  of  the  explosive  release.^  The  treatment  of  k  and  \ 
as  '  soft '  or  '  mouiU^  '  forms  of  k  and  g  arises  from  their 
interchangeability  in  French  speech  and  from  the  use  of  the 
same  letters  to  indicate  them.  The  '  mouillure  of  k  and  g,'' 
that  is,  the  change  of  k  and  g  to  k  and  \,  occurred  with  one 
subject  before  i^,  e^,  ce,^,  aj  but  not  constantly ;  it  happened 
generally  only  in  a  moment  of  negligence,  and  in  rapid  rather 
than  slow  speech.  Two  examples  of  constant  occurrence 
were  loCg  majr^Kig  d  ka^rgajbag  '  le  marquis  de  Carabas  '■  and 
loe^  sOjkOglag  majfgKig  'le  chocolat  Marquis '  (r^  =  uvula  r). 

The  contact  for  j  (consonant  i  as  in  '  yeux  ')  is  shown  in 

^  Lenz,  Zur  Physiotoyie  u.  Geschichte  d.  Patatalen,  Diss.,  Bonn,  1887  ;  also  in 
Zt.  f.  vergl.  Spraehf.,  1888  XXIX  1. 


316  PRODUCTION   OF  SPEECH 

Fig.  194.  The  sound  which  has  replaced  the  Z-mouilM  has 
contacts  as  shown  in  Fig.  195  in  baje  'Miller'  (i)  and  br2i3 
'  brille '  (^).   Its  practical  identity  with  j  of  Fig.  194  is  evident. 

The  sounds  s,  z,  s,  z  (Figs.  196,  197,  198)  have  contact 
surfaces  that  are  small  in  comparison  with  those  of  the  corres- 
ponding American  and  German  records. 

The  contact  surfaces  for  t  and  d  in  ta  and  da  are  shown  in 
Fig.  199  (t  >  d).  They  are  somewhat  more  extended  in  te 
and  de  and  still  more  in  ti  and  di,  ty  and  dy.  The  sounds 
i  and  y  incite  to  the  still  greater  contact  that  characterizes  the 
t-  or  c?-mouill^.  These  have  the  next  distinguishable  con- 
tacts in  front  of  k  and  \  with  a  softer  release  than  those  of 
t  and  d ;  they  may  be  indicated  by  t  and  6.  This  mouillure 
is  heard  ordinarily  in  familiar  words,  as  '  turguet,'  '  naturel ' ; 
it  occurs  constantly  in  the  interjection  '  natureknent ! ' 

The  n  contact  involves  an  anterior  occlusion  (Fig.  200) ; 
it  depends  somewhat  on  the  following  vowel  (ni  >  ne).  In 
the  combination  nji  (Fig.  201)  the  occlusion  for  n  is  a  very 
small  one  along  the  front  teeth  and  undoubtedly  along  the 
sides  while  the  contact  for  ]  Occupies  considerable  space  at 
the  sides  as  usual. 

The  n,  so-called  7?.-mouilld,  has  a  contact  utterly  different 
(Fig.  202)  from  that  of  n. 

The  contact  of  1  varies  considerably.  An  ordinary  initial  1 
is  illustrated  in  Fig.  203,  a  mecUal  1  in  Fig.  204.  The  in- 
fluence of  final  '  mute  e '  on  the  contact  for  1  is  shown  in  the 
records  (Fig.  205)  for  '  bal '  (/)  and  '  balle  '  (f ). 

Hagelin's  excellent  photographs  of  palatograms  by  several 
French  speakers  ^  are  not  available  for  reproduction. 

Rousselot's^  diagrams  for  the  contacts  of  the  tongue  in 
his  native  dialect  (Cellefrouin  in  Charente)  were  obtained  from 
himself  by  means  of  observation  with  a  mirror,  by  the  use  of 
an  artificial  palate  and  by  employing  small  rubber  bulbs  in 
the  mouth. 

1  Hagelin,  Stomatoskopiska  undersokningar  af  franska  sprakljud,  Stock- 
holm, 1889. 

^  RousSELOT,  Les  modifications  pkonit.  du  langage,  23,  Revue  des  patois 
gallo-romans,  1891  IV,  V;  also  separate. 


FRENCH  PALATOGRAMS  317 

In  the  fricatives  z  and  s  the  tongue  scarcely  touches  the 
edges  of  the  palat&  (the  outside  lines  in  Fig.  206),  less  for  z 
than  for  s ;  the  passage  for  the  air  current  is  not  indicated. 
Rousselot's  s  and  z  are  quite  different  from  any  of  the 
others  yet  given;  several  of  Hagelix's  figures  show  openings 
more  like  those  of  the  German  and  English  diagrams.  For 
n,  d  and  t  the  tongue  touches  the  palate  on  all  sides,  cover- 
ing more  of  the  central  portion  as  the  contact  rises  from  z 
and  s  through  n,  d,  t.  French  t  and  d  are  regularly  dorsal - 
alveolar  or  else  frontal-postdental  as  given  by  Hagelin  (see 
also  Fig.  199);  the  dorsal-palatal  t  and  d  of  Rousselot 
seem  unusual  and  hard  to  understand  when  we  consider  the 
nature  of  the  release  of  such  backward  contacts;  I  am  in- 
clined to  consider  them  as  palatalized  t  and  d,  or  the  so-called 
t-  and  c?-mouill^. 

In  the  pairs  s,  z  and  t,  d  the  surd  has  the  greater  contact 
surface,  indicating  stronger  articulation  (p.  304). 

In  Rousselot's  labials  p,  b,  f,  v,  m,  the  tongue  is  in  repose, 
touching  the  palate  with  its  edges  at  the  rear  teeth.  The  line 
across  each  corner  in  Fig.  207  marks  the  front  limit  of  contact 
for  p,  b,  f,  V  spoken  with  a  following  r  or  1,  and  also  for  m. 
For  m  there  is  a  slight  rise  of  the  lower  jaw.  The  differences 
in  articulation  for  the'se  sounds  are  produced  at  the  lips. 

Rousselot's  palatals  j  (consonant  i  as  in  '  yeux  '),  s  (as  in 
'cache'),  and  z  (as  in  '  je  ')  have  side  contacts  as  shown  in  Fig. 
207.  In  the  French  s  the  tongue  is  placed  along  the  teeth, 
sometimes  far  to  the  front,  and  even  all  around  (HiiGELiN); 
the  opening  is  quite  different  from  that  of  German  s  (Figs. 
172,  180)  and  the  air  passage  is  much  thinner  and  wider. 

For  k  and  g  the  tongue  is  raised  across  the  palate,  the 
marked  variations  seem  to  show  the  influence  of  the  follow- 
ing sounds,  as  may  be  seen  in  Fig.  208  from  k(o),  g(o),  k(i), 
g(i),  k(]),  g(]),  g(l)  and  k(l),  the  line  in  each  case  marks 
the  front  limit  of  contact.  In  general  the  surds  have  more 
extensive  contacts  than  the  sonants.  In  kj,  gj,  the  occlu- 
sions seem  rather  to  have  become  k  and  \.  Rousselot's  k 
before  i  is  quite  different  from  the  cases  given  by  Hagelin. 


318  PRODUCTION   OF  SPEECH 

The  w  (Fig.  208)  has  about  the  same  contact  as  g(o)  and 
the  lip  position  of  u. 

For  1  (Fig.  209)  and  r  (Fig.  210)  the  tongue  touches  the 
palate  in  about  the  same  regions,  for  1  more  than  for  r. 

When  consonants  are  grouped,  the  first  consonant  some- 
times tends  to  accommodate  itself  to  the  following  one.  This 
is  not  shown  in  Rousselot's  palatograms  of  p(l),  p(r),  b(l), 
b(r),.etc.  (Fig.  207),  but  does  appear  in  the  records  for  p(j), 
bQ),  f(]),  v(])  (Fig.  211)  and  in  those  for  s(j),  t(])  (Fig. 
212);  it  is  quite  marked  also  for  k(j),  g(j),  k(l)  and  g(l) 
(Fig.  208),  the  k  and  the  g  contacts  being  much  advanced 
toward  the  lips  and  strongly  palatalized. 

The  record  for  A,  or  '  Z-mouill^,'  (I,  Fig.  209)  shows  that  it  is 
a  very  different  sound  from  1.  When  followed  by  j  as  in  '  Ueux,' 
the  contact  (Ij,  Fig.  209)  indicates  an  even  greater  contact  than 
for  A  alone  although  it  resembles  it  more  than  that  for  1. 

The  record  for  n  (  w,  Fig.  212),  or  'w-mouilld,'  shows  a 
contact  utterly  different  from  that  for  n  (Fig.  206).  When 
followed  by  ],  the  contact  (w^,  Fig.  212)  indicates  a  sound 
differing  somewhat  from  n  and  still  more  so  from  n,  biit  lying 
between  ii  and  n.  The  conclusion  is  evident  that  A  and  n 
are  not  in  any  way  to  be  considered  as  composed  of  1  +  j 
and  n  +  ],  although  in  this  dialect  n  was  always  derived 
historically  from  nj  and  A  partly  from  1].  The  records  seem 
to  indicate,  moreover,  that  the  combinations  are  A]  and  nj 
rather  than  1]  and  nj. 

The  anterior  limits  of  the  regions  of  contact  in  Rousse- 
lot's forms  of  a  are  given  in  Fig.  213;  ag  is  the  vowel  a 
produced  by  Roxjsselot  with  the  least  effort  (as  in  '  Paris  '  ) ; 
a,  (as  in  '  partir  ')  requires  a  slightly  greater  opening  of  the 
mouth  and  retraction  of  the  tongue;  a^  (as  in  '  pftte  ')  in- 
volves a  still  further  retraction  of  the  tongue  to  leave  a  large 
cavity  in  front.  Fig.  213  shows  successively  larger  contacts 
for  the  neutral  and  anterior  vowels  in  the  order  a.^  '  pdte,' 
a°  '  ewfawt,'  aj  '  partir,'  a^  '  Paris,'  Cj  '  f^te  '  and  e"  '  vwi,'  e^ 
'  eglise,'  Cg  '  maison,'  i^  '  Rivoli,'  ]  '  yeux,'  ig  '  ici.'  A  similar 
series  of  contacts  is  seen  in  Fig.  214  ;  the  contacts  increase 


FRENCH  PALATOGRAMS 


319 


F»Tr'-^d\ 


z,  B,  n,  d,  t 

Fig.  206. 


p,  b,  f,  V,  a,  z,  ] 
Fig.  '207. 


k(j),S(3),k(i),s(i),s(l), 

k(l),k(o),g(o),w 

Fig.  208. 


Fig.  209. 


i   -<*• 


r,r(j) 
Fig.  210. 


P(]),b(]),fO),v(j) 
Fig.  211. 


Fig.  212. 


as,  a",  ai,  ^,  ej,  e",  e^,  63,  is,  ],  i. 
Fig.  213. 


oei,  0621  °e3.  U>  y2i  73 
Fig.  214. 


as,  Oi,  O2,  O3,  o",  U2,  Us 
Fig.  215. 


320  PRODUCTION   OF  SPEECH 

in  the  order  cEj  'hewre,'  ocj  '  heitreux,'  oCg  'heurewx,  few,'  q 
(w)  'liti,'  72  (i^a)  'Mtile,'  yg  (u^  'fendw.'  The  back  vowels 
ag  '  p<ite,'  Oj  '  or,'  o^  '  ehocala,'  O3  '  chapeait '  and  0°  '  on,'  Ug 
'boMche,'  Ug  'OM,'  form  another  series  of  steadily  increasing 
contacts  (Fig.  215). 

Comparison  of  Rousselot's  own  records  with  the  Parisian 
ones  shows  instructive  resemblances  and  differences.  The  order 
of  increasing  contact  is  ag,  aj,  a^  (Fig.  213)  instead  of  a^,  ag, 
ag  (Fig.  184).  For  e  (Fig.  213)  the  order  is  the  same  (Fig. 
185)  but  the  contacts  are  all  further  back;  his  e  sounds  are 
evidently  all  more  open  and  nearer  to  the  a  sounds  than  the 
Parisian  ones  are.  For  i  (Fig.  213)  the  records  are  closely 
similar  (Fig.  186).  The  same  is  true  for  ce  (Fig.  214  and  Fig. 
187).  The  contacts  for  y  (Fig.  214,  u^,  Wg)  occur  in  the 
region  for  i  (Fig.  213)  and  not  in  that  for  e  (Fig.  213)  as  in 
the  Parisian  records  (Figs.  188, 185, 186).  The  contacts  for  o 
and  u  (Fig.  215)  are  practically  the  same  as  the  Parisian  ones 
(Figs.  189,  190).  The  nasal  vowels  show  the  following  rela- 
tions of  tongue  contact  (js'  indicates  '  approximates ')  :  a°^  ag 
(Fig.  213),  e^cK"  Bj  (Fig.  21 3) ;  ce"  is  not  given ;  the  palatograms 
give  o"  =  Og  but  the  graphic  records  of  tongue  elevation  and 
pressure  (Figs.  256,  259)  indicate  o°JK'Oj.  The  records  for 
n,  s,  z,  s,  z,  ],  k,  g,  1,  show  general  agreement.  The  record  for 
'  ?-mouilM '  (Fig.  209)  shows  a  true  X  and  not  its  usual  sub- 
stitute ]  (Fig.  195).  In  the  combination  '  Ij '  the  contact  shows 
that  the  first  sound  is  A  rather  than  1.  There  is  likewise  a 
true  n  (Fig.  212),  with  indication  that '  nj '  is  ii]  rather  than 
nj.  Rousselot's  r  (Fig.  210)  is  evidently  the  lingual  r  and 
not  the  uvular  one,  or  '  r  grassey^.' 

Palatograms  taken  in  the  province  of  Nivernais,  France, 
showed  a  gradual  unperceived  geographical  and  phonetic 
progression  from  s  and  z  at  the  Loire  boundary  to  s  and  z 
at  the  opposite  side ;  the  Latin  words  '  capellum '  and 
'  gambam,'  for  example,  having  become  clearly  sagpjo  and 
zaginb  at  Chaulgnes  and  se^pjo  and  z&^mb  at  Chaumard.^ 

1  Meunier,  Emploi  de  la  methode  qraphique,  etc.,  La  Parole,  1900  II  67. 


ITALIAN  PALATOGRAMS  321 

Palatograms  of  Italian  sounds  i  show  that  there  are  two 
distinct  forms  of  a  as  in  SL-^ma^  (Fig.  216),  three  forms  of  e  as 
in  kreide2re3  (Fig.  217),  two  of  i  as  in  iini2  (Fig.  218),  three 
of  o  as  in  pOipOglOg  (Fig.  219),  and  two  of  u  as  in  virtUj 
and  rujinore  (Fig.  220). 

These  palatograms  and  all  the  following  ones,  unless 
otherwise  stated,  are  from  a  physician,  a  native  of  Terni 
(Perugia),  who,  after  living  in  many  of  the  large  cities  of 
Italy,  had  settled  at  Siena  (Tuscany). 

The  t  and  d  are  regularly  dental  (Figs.  221,  222).  The 
palatograms  for  ka,  ki,  ko  (Fig.  223)  and  ga,  gi,  go  (Fig.  224) 
show  the  different  forms  of  k  and  g  depending  on  the  follow- 
ing vowel;  in  all  these  forms  the  point  of  the  tongue  was 
against  the  lower  teeth.  The  records  for  ca  and  ci  (Fig. 
225)  show  that  c  includes  the  contacts  for  t  (backward  t) 
and  J  (consonant  i)  and  not  those  for  t  and  s ;  the  fact  seems 
also  to  have  been  established  that  the  entire  contact  for  t  -(-  j 
was  made  at  the  same  time.  According  to  Jossblyn  it  is 
quite  wrong  to  consider  c  as  composed  of  the  articulations  t 
and  s,  or  even  as  composed  of  a  succession  of  articulations. 
The  contacts  for  ja  and  ji  were,  for  this  subject,  practically 
the  same  as  for  ca  and  ci.  With  other  subjects  the  ja  and  ji 
showed  a  tendency  toward  a  fricative  form  (Figs.  226,  227). 
The  contact  for  ts  as  in  '  zio  '  (Fig.  228)  resembles  that  of  t 
(Fig.  221)  but  covers  a  smaller  surface ;  that  for  dz  as  in 
'  dozzina'  is  like  that  for  ts  with  the  tongue  less  firmly  against 
the  palate  in  the  rear.  Josselyn  seems  to  consider  ts,  dz  to 
be  nearly  as  closely  unified  as  c,  J.  For  s  (Fig.  229)  the 
contact  is  against  the  alveoles  with  a  short  opening  near  the 
middle;  for  z  (Fig.  230)  the  contact  surface  is  slightly 
less.  For  s  (Fig.  231)  the  channel  is  very  wide.  The  1 
(Fig.  232)  involved  a  frontal-prepalatal  contact  but  in  an- 
other subject  was  frontal-dental  (Fig.  233).  The  rolled  r  and 
fricative  r  did  not  differ  in  contact  (Fig.  234).  The  almost 
complete  closure  in  the  prepalatal  region  for  the  fricative  r 

1  JossELYN,  Ji'tude  sur  la  phanHique  italienne,  These,  Paris,  1 900 ;  also  in  La 
Parole,  1900  II  422,  449,  673,  739;  1901  III  41. 

21 


322 


PRODUCTION  OF  SPEECH 


Fig.  216. 


Fig.  218. 


k 
Fig.  223. 


ITALIAN  PALATOGRAMS 


323 


Fig.  233. 


m 
Fis.  235. 


324 


PRODUCTION  OF  SPEECH 


may  be  made  complete  by  a  slight  movement;  in  such  a 
case  if  the  sides  of  the  tongue  are  not  sufficiently  firm  the 
lateral  escape  of  the  air  will  produce  an  1,  or  if  they  are  firm 
the  velum  can  descend  and  produce  an  n;  such  phonetic 
changes  are  common  in  the  Romance  languages.  In  the 
change  from  fricative  r  to  s  the  closure  may  readily  become 
complete  and  produce  an  intermediate  t,  as  in  pwo  dartsi 
for  pwo  darsi.  The  articulation  for  m  (Fig.  235)  is  post- 
palatal  with  occasional  alveolar  contact  of  the  tongue  tip. 
The  n  is  frontal-prepalatal  (Fig.  236)  or  dental.  The  record 
of  ng  in  '  vengo '  shows  a  postpalatal  ti  (Fig.  237),  quite 
different  from  the  prepalatal  n  (Fig.  236).  The  dorsal  con- 
tact for  X  or  Z-mouill6  (1  in  Fig.  238)  is  very  different  from 
the  frontal  contact  in  1]  (^  in  Fig.  238).  There  does  not 
appear  to  be  so  much  difference  in  the  case  of  n  and  nj  (Fig. 
239).  The  ]  in  jeri  '  ieri '  (^  in  Fig.  240)  is  clearly  distinct 
from  the  vowel  i  in  io  (7  in  Fig.  240)  although  somewhat 
resembling  it. 

Rbfeeences 

For  the  tongue  action  in  French  :  Passy,  Les  sons  du  franpais,  5™^ 
^d.,  Paris,  1899;  Passy,  Le  fran9ais  parle,  4.  ed.,  Leipzig,  1897;  Beyer, 
Franzosische  Phonetik,  2.  Aufl.,  Kothen,  1897;  Beyer  dnd  Passy,  Ele- 
mentarbuch  des  gesprochenen  Franzdsisoh,  Kothen,  1893 ;  Borxer- 
ScHMiTZ,  Lehrbuch  d.  franz.  Sprache,  Leipzig,  1901 ;  Vietor,  Elements 
der  Phonetik,  4.  Auii.,  Leipzig,  1898. 


CHAPTER   XXIV 

TONGUE   POSITIONS   AND    MOVEMENTS 

The  regulative  sensations  (p.  191)  coming  to  conscious- 
ness from  tlie  tongue  are  ratiier  indefinite;  they  seem  to  be 
derived  mainly  from  the  contacts  of  the  mucous  surfaces. 
The  main  guidance  for  tongue  movements  is  found  in  the 
sounds  heard. 

In  the  production  of  a  speech  sound  the  tongue  makes 
more  or  less  complicated,  movements.     As  in  the  case  of  all 
muscular  action  the  tongue  is  never  still  and  never  occupies 
exactly  the  same  position  for  any  period  of  time.     If  a  cer- 
tain range  of  variation  of  position  is  or  must  be  considered 
negligible,  then  it  can  be  said  to  remain  in  a  given  position 
for  the  time  its  movements  are  confined  within  that  range. 
Thus  in  the  production  of  i  the  tongue  rises  and  then  falls; 
there  is  no  moment  at  which  it  is  perfectly  still.     Even  in 
producing  i  for  a  considerable  period  of  time  the  tongue  is 
constantly  fluctuating  in  its  position.     In  a  spoken  i  it  main- 
tains  no   such   position  for  any  great   length   of  time   but 
passes  from   the  position  for  the   previous   speech   element 
through  all  the  positions  involved  in  producing  i  and  then  to 
the  position  for  the  following  element.     The  manner  in  which 
the  tongue  goes  through  the  series  of  changes  is  certainly  as 
characteristic  of  a  speech   movement  as  its  position  at  any 
moment;  acoustically  the  changes  in  the  rush  of  air  and  in 
the  cavity  tones  are  as  important  as  the  conditions  at  any 
one  moment.     The  usual  custom  of  assigning  some  one  posi- 
tion as  the  characteristic  of  a  speech  movement  is  often  mis- 
leading.    Thus  a  diagram  showing  the  point  of  the  tongue 


326  PRODUCTION  OF  SPEECH 

pressed  against  the  gums  is  described  as  a  frontal-alveolar 
articulation,  and  a  t  produced  in  this  way  is  said  to  be  frontal- 
alveolar,  whereas  the  chief  characteristics  of  this  t  may  lie 
in  the  manner  in  which  the  closure  is  made  and  released. 

The  use  of  the  term  '  articulation  '  has  sometimes  resulted 
in  a  misconception  of  the  nature  of  speech  movements. 
'  Articulation  '  is  a  term  applied  to  the  joints,  whose  bones 
are  said  to  articulate ;  it  is  not  applied  to  the  movement  of 
the  bones ;  an  articulation  is  a  relatively  fixed  thing.  The 
tongue,  however,  does  not  '  articulate  '  with  the  palate  but 
touches  it  at  various  points  in  various  ways.  The  movement 
of  the  tongue  is  the  characteristic  of  the  speech  action;  its 
contact  with  the  palate  — •  even  if  this  be  called  an  '  articula- 
tion '  — is  in  both  time  and  extent  only  a  small  portion  of 
the  whole  speech  action.  Phonetic  writers  seem  to  have 
been  confused  by  a  quite  different  use  of  the  word  '  articu- 
late.' In  such  phrases  as  '  he  articulates  distinctly,'  it  refers 
to  the  intelligibility  of  the  sounds  by  the  ear ;  this  has  no 
reference  whatever  to  precision  of  the  vocal  movements,  but 
to  the  likeness  of  the  sounds  produced  to  those  we  are  accus- 
tomed to  hear.  Some  writers  also  seem  to  have  had  in  mind 
the  incorrect  theory  that  a  spoken  word  consists  of  a  series 
of  distinct  sounds  united  by  glides ;  supposing  that  the  dis- 
tinctness of  articulation  (that  is,  for  the  ear)  would  depend 
on  the  precision  with  which  the  separate  sounds  were  made 
and  marked  off,  they  would  naturally  think  of  some  connec- 
tion between  the  auditory  articulativeness  and  the  motor  pre- 
cision of  movement.  In  this  book  I  have,  for  want  of  a 
better  word,  often  used  '  articulation '  in  the  usual  way,  but 
the  reader  should  not  forget  that  it  refers  merely  to  vocal 
movements,  that  it  has  no  connection  with  the  distinctness 
of  speech  and  that  it  implies  no  action  of  the  organs  in  any 
way  resembling  articulation  in  the  joints. 

In  studying  the  diagrams  of  the  positions  of  the  tongue  it 
Biust  be  constantly  borne  in  mind  that  they  give  only  phases 
of  the  movements  in  speech.  These  phases  are  usually  ob- 
tained by  producing  the  sound  continuously  as  in  singing. 


TONGUE  POSITIONS  AND  MOVEMENTS  327 

In  song  the  tongue  assumes  fairly  constant  positions  for 
considerable  lengths  of  time  and  these  positions  are  approxi- 
mately the  same  on  different  occasions.  It  is  thus  possible 
to  map  out  the  positions  with  considerable  accuracy,  although 
the  work  requires  a  long  time. 

A  careful  education  of  the  sense  of  touch  in  the  mouth 
renders  it  possible  to  feel  the  movements  of  the  tongue  with 
greatly  increased  accuracy.  By  repeatedly  touching  the  sur- 
faces inside  the  mouth  with  the  finger  the  sense  of  location 
can  be  made  more  definite.  Observation  in  a  mirror  is  aided 
by  inserting  into  the  mouth  a  small  incandescent  lamp  on 
a  handle. 

Several  observers  have  given  diagrams  of  what  they  con- 
sidered to  be  the  positions  of  the  tongue  during  speech 
sounds.  Among  the  early  sets  that  by  Mbrkel  i  was  care- 
fully obtained.  His  sagittal  diagrams  show  the  positions  of 
the  tongue  while  he  emitted  various  sounds  continuously. 

In  Grandgent's  ^  determinations  of  the  mouth  positions 
the  sound  was  spoken  (or  imagined),  a  ruler  was  inserted 
to  measure  the  distances  from  the  upper  front  teeth  to  1. 
the  rear  pharyngeal  arch,  2.  the  front  pharyngeal  arch,  and 
3.  a  point  half-way  between  the  latter  and  the  rear  edge 
of  the  palate.  This  method  was  used  to  obtain  a  series 
of  sagittal  diagrams  ^  of  Geandgent's  sounds  and  of  the 
German  sounds  of  Hochdoefee,  a  native  of  Magdeburg. 
Geandgent's  speech  is  a  good  approximation*  to  the  Boston 
dialect;  but  it  differs  considerably  from  other  American  and 
English  dialects.  In  some  respects  the  Boston  dialect  has 
English  characteristics,  using  pa9,  ba6,  for  'path,'  'bath,' 
etc.  The  form  of  Geandgent's  palate  is  a  fairly  typical 
one. 

1  Meekel,  Physiologie  der  menschlichen  Sprache  (physiologische  Laletik), 
Leipzig,  1866 ;  this  is  a  thorough  revision  of  the  last  section  of  Meekel,  Anatomie 
und  -Physiologie  des  menschlichen  Stimm-  und  Sprachorgans  (Anthropophonik), 
Leipzig,  1.  Aufl.,  1857,  2.  Aufl.,  1863. 

2  Gkandgent,  Vowel  measurements.  Pub.  Mod.  Lang.  Assoc,  1890  V  148. 

3  Geandgent,  German  and  English  Sounds,  Boston,  1892. 
*  Kambeau,  Bemerkungen,  Neuere  Spracheu,  1895  II  528. 


328  PRODUCTION  OF  SPEECH 

The  diagrams  for  Hochdorfer's  sounds  are  given  in 
Plates  XVII  to  XXII  at  the  end  of  this  volume,  those  for 
Grandgent's  sounds  in  Plates  XXIII  to  XXVI.  Each 
figure  for  a  sound  includes  a  sagittal  diagram  of  the  mouth 
cavity,  a  transverse  diagram  showing  the  opening  between  the 
tongue  and  the  roof  of  the  mouth  at  its  narrowest  part,  and 
a  front  diagram  of  the  position  of  the  lips.  The  sounds  are 
indicated  by  key  words.  The  following  account  resembles  the 
original  in  general,  though  differing  at  a  few  points. 

The  upper  figure  in  Plate  XVII  shows  Hochdorfer's 
uvula  r.  In  producing  this  sound  a  deep  channel  is  formed 
in  the  back  part  of  the  tongue,  in  which  the  uvula  lies.  The 
breath-pressure  raises  it,  a  puff  of  air  occurs  in  the  mouth, 
and  it  falls.  As  the  vocal  cords  are  vibrating  at  the  same 
time  this  produces  a  series  of  puffs  of  tone  (p.  19).  Often 
only  one  such  puff  is  used  in  speech ;  the  rate  at  which  the 
puffs  come  depends  on  the  muscular  adjustment  and  the 
breath-pressure.  The  tongue  position  resembles  that  for 
Hochdorfer's  a  in  mala  '  male  '  (Plate  XIX)  to  which 
final  r  in  words  like  bia  'bier,'  vasa  'wasser, '  is  actually 
reduced  by  many  Germans  in  ordinary  conversation. 

Hochdorfer's  x  is  a  hiss  produced  in  the  back  of  the 
mouth  by  a  broad  stream  of  air  escaping  between  the  inner 
part  of  the  tongue  and  the  lower  edge  of  the  velum.  The 
uvula  rests  on  the  tongue  without  vibrating.  In  some  dia- 
lects, however,  it  is  caused  to  vibrate ;  this  makes  it  like  the 
uvula  r  without  a  tone  from  the  cords.  His  5  is  a  hiss 
from  a  narrow  passage  between  the  alveolae  and  the  fore-part 
of  the  tongue ;  the  point  of  the  tongue  is  against  the  lower 
teeth.  His  j  {j  as  in  ja)  is  a  sonant  buzz  with  the  tongue 
closer  than  in  9  and  with  the  lips  less  open ;  the  point  of 
the  tongue  is  raised.  His  s  is  a  dull  hiss  made  by  a  broad 
stream  of  air  between  the  tongue  and  the  palate,  and  modified 
by  the  position  of  the  lips  and  teeth.  His  s  is  a  sharp  hiss  with 
the  tongue  close  to  the  teeth.  The  auditory  characteristics 
of  these  sounds  lie  in  the  hiss  mixed  with  groups  of  tones  of 
different  pitch.     The  hiss  is  produced  mainly  between  the 


TONGUE   POSITIONS  AND  MOVEMENTS  329 

tongue  and  the  palate;  the  teeth  have  little  effect.  The 
tones  depend  on  the  combinations  of  resonance  chambers 
formed  in  the  oral  cavity  by  the  positions  of  the  lips,  tongue, 
velum,  jaw  and  larynx.  The  chief  resonance  tone  can  be 
varied  by  rise  and  fall  of  the  larynx  without  destroying  the 
character  of  the  sound ;  thus  s  can  be  whispered  through  a 
range  of  an  octave,  s  through  a  somewhat  smaller  range  and 
9  and  x  through  a  still  more  limited  one.  The  acoustic  curves 
for  these  sounds  from  Hekmank's  voice  have  been  given  on 
p.  42. 

Grandgbnt's  r  (Plate  XXIII)  is  a  slight  buzz  with  the  up- 
turned tongue-point  near  the  palate.  His  w  position  closely 
resembles  that  of  u  (Plate  XXIV).  His  ]  position  differs  little 
from  that  for  i  (Plate  XXVI) ;  the  tongue  and  lip  passages  are 
opener  than  for  Hochdokfee's  German  j.  Geandgbnt's  s 
and  s  have  the  tongue-apex  raised  higher  than  Hochdokfee's 
German  s  and  s.  In  pitch  his  s  seems  to  the  ear  higher  than 
his  s  and  also  than  Hochdoepbe's  s.  In  Geandgbnt's  6  the 
air  escapes  through  the  spaces  between  the  upper  front  teeth 
and  between  the  notches  of  these  teeth  *and  the  edge  of  the 
tongue.  The  resonance  tones  differ  from  those  of  f  (with 
the  lower  lip  against  the  upper  teeth)  on  account  of  the  differ- 
ent cavities  formed  by  the  positions  of  the  tongue  and  lips. 

In  the  back  vowels  u,  o,  o  (Plates  XVIII  and  XXIV)  the 
tongue  rises  in  the  back  and  leaves  a  large  cavity  in  the  front 
of  the  mouth.  Where  the  palate  is  low,  this  space  is  gained 
by  drawing  the  tongue  more  strongly  back  (Plate  XVIII)  than 
otherwise  (Plate  XXIV).  The  rounding  of  the  lips  includes 
greater  projection  for  Hochdoe&ee  than  for  Geandgent. 
The  palate  and  tongue  positions  form  a  regulai,iy  descending 
series  in  the  order  shown  in  these  two  Plates. 

The  vowel  positions  in  Plates  XIX  and  XXV  have  un- 
rounded lips,  except  a  in  hat  '  hurt '  and  a  in  mala  '  male. ' 
When  the  Germ,  a  is  used  for  er,  the  lower  jaw  is  somewhat 
higher.  These  two  vowels  are  much  alike  for  Hochdoefee 
and  Geandgent  both  in  sound  and  in  position.  It  should  be 
noticed  that  the  pronunciation  of  o  in  '  hot '  by  Geaotdgent 


330 


PRODUCTION  OF  SPEECH 


is  rather  like  a  than  o.  Geandgbnt's  vowels  in  Plate  XXV 
differ  in  sound  from  any  of  Hochdoefee's. 

The  front  vowels  in  Plates  XX  and  XXVI  are  unrounded. 
The  short  e  and  i  seemed  to  be  the  same  in  sound  for  the 
two  speakers ;  the  long  e  and  i  differed  slightly  for  the  two ; 
the  a  in  '  bar  '  appeared  quite  unlike  the  ae  in  '  bat '  and 
noticeably  different  from  the  ae  in   'fairy.' 

The  front  rounded  vowels  of  Hochdoefee  did  not  corre- 
spond to  anything  in  English.  They  were  produced  in  two 
ways;  the  commoner  method  is  shown  in  Plate  XXI,  the 
other  in  Plate  XXII. 

To  obtain  the  curve  of  the  surface  of  the  tongue  several 
methods  have  been  devised  by  Atkinson.     In  one  of  them  ^ 

a  strip  of  vulcanized  rub- 
ber about  1"™  thick  and 
7mm  tQ  gmm  ^i(jp^  softened 

in  boiling  water,  is  in- 
serted as  far  as  possible 
in  the  mouth  and  fixed  to 
the  upper  front  teeth  (Fig. 
241).  The  desired  sound 
is  produced  ;  the  strip 
is  bent  into  position  by 
the  tongue  and  is  allowed 
to  harden.  The  cooling 
may  be  hastened  by  a  jet  of  cold  water.  It  then  shows  the 
curvature  of  the  tongue  and  its  relation  to  the  front  teeth. 
The  exact  shape  of  the  palate  is  obtained  by  a  dental  mold; 
this  is  sawed  in  half  to  give  the  sagittal  section;  the  rubber 
tongue  curve  attached  to  this  aids  in  completing  the  sagittal 
diagram  of  the  phase  of  greatest  movement.  Such  a  tongue 
curve  has  been  used  in  teaching  vowel  positions  to  the  deaf  2 
and  in  investigating  phonetic  changes. ^     An  accurate  instru- 

1  RonsSELOT,    Principes    de    phone'tique    expe'rimentale,  278,  Paris,    1897 ; 
JjACLotte,  AlTr6\os-BovK6xos,  La  Parole,  1899  I  349. 

2  Meunier,    Emploi   de   la   melhode   graphique  pour   Vgducation    des    sourds- 
muets,  La  Parole,  1900  11  65. 

^  Laclotte,  as  before. 


Fig.  241. 


TONGUE  POSITIONS  AND  MOVEMENTS  331 

menti  for  obtaining  the  position  of  a  point  on  the  surface  of 
the  tongue  is  shown  in  Figs.  242,  243.  A  fine  wire  C  slides 
in  a  tube  A,  its  other  end  being  caught  in  the  coil  3  through 
a  slot  in  A  extending  from  E  to  F.  When  D  is  -dt  F  the 
wire   O  is  completely  within  A;   when  D  is  at  F,  it  projects 


Fig.  242. 

4.5™".  The  tooth -stop  Cr  slides  freely  on  A  when  its  project- 
ing end  is  down,  but  is  fixed  when  its  end  is  up  as  shown  in 
the  figure.  The  index,  middle  and  ring  fingers  are  placed  in 
the  handle  B;  the  thumb  is  used  to  move  D.  The  tooth- 
stop  Gr  is  placed  in  the  depression  between  the  two  front  teeth. 


.  Fig.  243. 

The  tube  A  is  rested  against  the  edge  of  the  teeth  (Fig. 
243,  a)  and  the  hard  palate  (Fig.  243,  b).  The  wire  is  pushed 
out  until  it  touches  the  tongue,  which  is  held  in  the  desired 
position.     The  instrument  is  then  applied  to  a  plaster  mold 

1  Atkinson,  Methods  uf  mouth-mapping ,  Neuere  Sprachen,  1899  VI  494. 


382 


PRODUCTION   OF  SPEECH 


of  the  mouth  cut  in  half  sagittally,  and  the  position  of  the 
point  of  0  is  marked  on  the  diagram.  The  position  of  the 
tooth-stop  shown  at  (?  in  Fig.  243  slightly  lowers  the  direc- 
tion of  the  tube  in  the  mouth ;  that  at  F  in  Fig.  243  directs  it 
as  shown  at  BB  so  as  to  measure  the  front  cavities  in  back 
vowels.  The  dotted  outline  G  in  Fig.  243  shows  a  modifica- 
tion for  measuring  the  position  of  the  velum.  A  series  of 
sagittal  diagrams  of  the  sung  vowels  obtained  with  this  instru- 
ment is  shown  in  Fig.  244.  The 
diagrams  indicate  the  tongue  posi- 
tions for  the  following  vowels : 

1.  i  as  hi  bit   '  beat '   ( ) 

and  an  attempt  at  i  as  in  German 

bitn  '  bieten  '  ( )  ;  2.  e  as 

in  belt  '  bait '  ( )  and  an 

attempt  at  e  as  in  French  bet 

'  bete  '  ( )  ;  3.  a  as  in  ba9 

'bath';      4.    6    as   bout   'boat' 

( )  and  an  attempt  at  6  as 

in  German  b5t  '  bot '  ( ) ; 

5.  u  as  in  but  '  boot '  ( ) 


I    '  ^'^         I  )    /^'  ^^'^  ^'^  attempt  at  u  as  in  French 

bu  '  bout.'    A  comparison  of  these 
diagrams   with   those   of    Plates 
XVIII  to  XXVI  shows  in  gen- 
eral a  closer  resemblance  of  these 
British      positions      to     HocH- 
dorfeb's  German  positions  than 
to  Grandgent's  American  ones. 
Little  hollow  rubber  bulbs  of  any  desired  form  ^  (Fig.  245) 
can  be  introduced  into  the  mouth  to  record  by  air  transmission 
(p.  195)  the  pressure  or  tenseness  of  the  tongue  at  a  given 
point.      They  may  be  called  '  exploratory  bulbs. ' 

In  Italian  the  relations  of  pressure  of  the  tongue  below  the 
•rear   part  of   the  palate  were  found ^  for  one  person   to   be 

^  RoossELOT,  Principes  ile  la  phonetique  experimentale,  86,  Paris,  1897. 
2  JosSELTN,  Etude  sur  la  phon&.  ital.,  40,  91,  These,  Paris,  1900;  also  in  La 
Parole,  1901  III  41. 


J 


Fig.  244, 


TONGUE  POSITIONS  AND  MOVEMENTS 


333 


p>b>m;  also  postpalatal,  t>d>n>l;    mediopalatal,  the 
same;    alveolar,    n>t>d.       For  another   they   were:  post- 
palatal,    t  >  n  >  1  =:  d  ;    mediopalatal, 
d  >  n  >  t  >  1 ;    alveolar,    t  >  d  >  1  >  n ; 
postpalatal,    k>g;    mediopalatal,    c 
slightly    >  J  ;    postpalatal,     s  >  z    ; 
labial,  v  >  f ;  postpalatal,  v  >  f ;   me- 
diopalatal,    s>z>s;    postpalatal, 
p>b>m;    labial,   p  >m>b.      The 
differences   in    the    position    of    the 
tongue   and   its  pressure   against  the  teeth  in  d  and  t  and 
their  variations    in    different   positions,  as  shown  ^  in  Fig. 
246  for  the  words  dido,  tito,  were  recorded  by  a  bulb  behind 
the  teeth.     The  records  would  seem  to  indicate  differences 
among  consonants  usually  considered  the  same  that  are  not 
inferior  to  those  found  among  the  varieties  of  a  vowel.    Such 


Fig.  245. 


Fig.  246. 


records  indicate  not  only  differences  in  pressure  but  also  in 
the  character  and  extent  of  the  movement. 

Records  for  the  Italian  vowels  ^  of  eight  subjects  showed 
that  the  tongue  did  not  rise  so  high  in  the  niiddle  of  the 
mouth  for  the  first  vowel  as  for  the  second  in  ama  and 
similar  words,  indicating  the  existence  of 
two  forms  of  a  (Fig.  247).  Similar  records 
showed  that  there  were  three  forms  of  e, 
two  of  i,  three  of  o  and  two  of  u  (Figs. 
248  to  250).  These  vowels  are  found 
in  ajinaj,  krcjdegreg,  i2nij,  \n\^  of  one  person,  fiini^  of 
another,   pOjpOglOg  (oj  =  o?),  virtUj,   ru2more ;  their  palat- 


FlG.  247. 


1  JosSELYN,  as  before,  3.5. 


^  JosSELTN,  as  before,  13. 


334  PRODUCTION  OF  SPEECH 

ograms   have   been  given  above  (Figs.  216  to  220).     The 
elevation  of  the  tongue  throughout  the  word  ijnij  is  shown  in 


Fig.  248. 


Fig.  251.  With  an  exploratory  bulb  in  the  rear  of  the  mouth 
the  word  popolo  gave  the  tracing  shown  in  Fig.  252.  The 
first  p  hardly  appears  at  all;  this  is  due  to  the  fact  that  while 


Fig.  249. 


the  articulation  for  p  is  made  at  the  lips,  the  tongue  has  the 
o  position.  The  rise  of  the  tongue  during  the  second  p  ap- 
pears clearly,  and  that  for  1  strongly.     The  three  o's  have 


Fig.  250.  Fig.  251. 

successively  higher  tongue  positions.  The  o-l  glide  shows  a 
considerable  rise  of  the  tongue ;  it  is  heard  as  a  kind  of  u ; 
the  record  shows  it  almost  as  a  distinct  sound. 

The  total  elevation    of  the   tongue  may  be  conveniently 
registered  by  turning  the  artificial  palate  into  a  tambour  by 


TONGUE   POSITIONS  AND  MOVEMENTS 


335 


covering  it  with  a  sheet  of  thin  rubber  and  attaching  an  out- 
let tube.i     It  may  be  called  a  tongue-tambour. 


Fio.   252. 

The  elevation  of  the  tongue  may  be  indicated  by  a  receiv- 
ing tambour  with  a  knob  attached  so  that  it  rests  under  the 
soft  portion  of  the  chin ;  ^  the  mylohyoid,  geniohyoid  and 
digastricus  (p.  234)  muscles  contract  to  support  the  tongue 
in  action.  The  apparatus  is  shown  in  Fig.  253.  The  tam- 
bour M  is  held  in  place  by  the  set 
of  adjustable  rods  and  clamps  P  S K 
attached  to  the  band  J  at  J"  and 
by  the  set  A  B  attached  at  C.  The 
knob  T  is  moved  by  the  contraction 
of  the  geniohyoid  and  transmits  the 
motion  in  the  usual  way  by  a  lever 
with  the  fulcrum  F  to  the  rubber 
top  L.  The  screw  0  affords  finer 
adjustment.  This  apparatus  does 
not  interfere  with  the  resonance  of 
the  mouth  as  the  exploratory  bulb  ' 
(Fig.  245)  does. 

For  the  French  vowels  spoken 
by  RoussELOT^  the  relative  de- 
grees of  elevation  of  the  tongue  as  indicated  by  the  tongue- 
tambour  are  given  in  Figs.  254,  255,  256,  and  those  by  the 
geniohyoid  tambour  in  Figs.  257,  258,  259. 

1  RoussELOT,  Les  modifications  phonetiques  du  lanqage,  11,  Rev.  pat.  gallo-rom. 
1891  IV,  V;  also  separate. 

2  RousSELOT,   Les   mod.,  as  before,  1 1  ;    Principes  de  la  phonetique  experi- 
mentale,  95,  Paris,  1897. 

8  RoussEr.OT,  Les  mod.,  as  before,  29. 


Fig.  253. 


336 


PRODUCTION  OF  SPEECH 


A  series  of  records  of  Dutch  sounds  showed  ^  for  a  almost 
no  increase  of  tension  in  the  mouth  floor,  for  u  a  strong 
increase,  for  o  somewhat  less,  for  i  a  very  great  increase,  for 


Fig.  254 


Fig.  2.55. 


e  somewhat  less  —  the  order  of  increase  being  thus  a,  o, 
u,  e,  i;  for  t,  d,  n  strong  increase;  for  velar  sounds  a 
relaxation. 

The  flapping  of  the  tongue  in  producing  a  rolled  r  inter- 


FlG.  256. 


Fig.  257. 


rupts  the  breath  as  it  passes  through  to  the  mouth.  A  closely 
fitting  mouth-piece  connected  with  a  tambour  (p.  219)  may 
be  used  to  record  the  rolls  or  pseudobeats  (pp.  19,  44). 
The  German  r  was  found  in  one  case  ^  to  have  usually  from 


Fig.  258. 


m^Kl^K^^E^n 


Fig.  259. 


20  to  35  beats  a  second ;  in  initial  positions  usually  8  (4  or  5 
in  especially  distinct  speech) ;  medially  2  after  a  long  vowel, 
3  after  a  short  one ;  before  a  consonant  or  as  a  final  sound 

1  Gallee    und    Zwaaedemaker,    Ueber    Graphik    d.    Sprachlaute,   Neuere 
Sprachen,  1900  VIII  17. 

2  Vietor,  Elemente  d.  Phoiietik,  4   Aufl.,  208,  Leipzig,  1898. 


TONGUE   POSITIONS  AND  MOVEMENTS  337 

only  1.  Tambour  records  by  Heemaxn  ^  showed  that  the 
frequency  of  the  rolls  varied  greatly.  The  uvula  r  had  often 
a  higher  frequency  than  the  tongue  r.  Wendeler  ^  found 
in  his  speech  curves  that  for  his  German  tongue  r  the 
pitch  of  the  cord  note  during  the  r  had  no  influence  on 
the  frequency  of  the  roll  unless  the  note  was  made  loud, 
and  that  loud  cord  notes  raised  the  frequency  of  the  roll. 
Zwaakdemakee's  tambour  records^  led  him  to  conclude 
that  for  his  Dutch  r  the  period  of  the  roll  was  regularly  a 
multiple  of  the  period  of  the  cord  tone.  Such  a  harmonic 
relation  points  to  an  almost  inconceivable  preference  of  the 
ear  for  a  simple  relation  between  the  period  of  the  beat, 
which  is  distinctly  heard,  and  the  period  of  the  physical  tone- 
vibrations,  which  are  not  heard  separately  but  as  a  simple 
sensation  of  tone.  We  cannot,  however,  always  trust  the 
tambour  records  of  the  cord  tone. 

The  tongue  in  action  may  be  observed  by  means  of  the 
RoNTGEN  rays.* 

References 

For  studies  of  tongue  action  :  see  References  to  the  preceding 
chapters. 

1  Hermann,  Forlgeset^te  Untersurhunqen  iiber  d.  Konsonanten,  Arch.  f.  d.  ges. 
Physiol.  (Pfluger),  1900  LXXXIII  12. 

2  Wendeler,  Ein  Versuch,  d.  Sckallbewegunq  eimqer  Konsonanten  u.  anderer 
Gemusche  wit  d.  Hensen'schm  Sprachzeichner  qraphsch  darzusteUen,  Diss.,  Kiel, 
1886;  also  in  Zt.  f.  Biol.,  1887  XXIII  303. 

3  ZwAARDEMAKER,  Le  legistre  de  I'li,  Archives  neerlandaises  des  sci.  exactes 

etnat.,  1899,  (2)  II  257.  „,      .  ,     ,    c 

4  SCHEIER,  Die  Verwerthung  d.  Rontgenstrahlen  f.  d.  Physiol,  d.  Spraehe  u. 
Stimme  Arch,  f.  Laryngol.,  1898  VII  116;  Ueber  d.  Bedeutunq  d.  Rbntqenstrahlen 
f.  d  Physiol  d.  Spraehe  u.  Stimme,  Neuere  Sprachen,  1898  V  Phonet.  Stud.  40. 


22 


CHAPTER   XXV 

PHARYNX,   NOSE,   VELUM,   LIPS   AND   JAW 

The  pharynx  {OC,  Fig.  93)  acts  as  a  resonating  cavity  in 
communication  with  the  oral  and  nasal  cavities.  Its  main 
period  of  free  vibration  (p.  2)  depends  on  its  capacity  and  on 
the  sizes  and  shapes  of  its  laryngeal,  oral  and  nasal  apertures 
(p.  281).  The  condition  of  the  pharyngeal  walls  influences 
the  factor  of  friction  (p.  5)  and  thus  produces  changes  of 
auditory  timbre  (p.  96).  Owing  to  its  irregular  shape  the 
main  free  vibration  may  be  accompanied  by  accessory  ones ; 
their  relations  in  period  and  intensity  to  the  main  vibration 
also  produce  effects  of  timbre.  Changes  in  shape  without 
change  in  capacity  may  thus  affect  the  timbre.  Observations 
on  the  changes  in  timbre  in  song  and  speech  brought  about 
by  diseases  of  the  pharnyx  have  been  frequently  made ;  the 
results,  have  always  been  stated  in  vague  terms ;  the  attempts 
at  explanation  have  been  unsuccessful ;  no  experimental  data 
have  been  collected. 

The  separation  of  the  upper  (nasal)  from  the  lower  (oral) 
portion  of  the  pharynx  is  a  comphcated  act,  requiring  accu- 
rate muscular  adjustment.  The  contraction  of  the  superior 
constrictor  {1,  Fig.  101)  forms  a  ridge ;  the  velum  rises 
through  contraction  of  the  elevators  of  the  velum  (5,  Fig.  97). 
The  pharyngopalatine  (8,  Fig.  97)  and  the  glossopalatine 
(1?)  muscles  act  as  antagonists  to  the  elevators  and  serve  to 
give  an  angular  form  to  the  velum  during  speech,  whereby  the 
front  part  is  more  nearly  horizontal  and  the  rear  part  more 
nearly  vertical;  they  pull  the  velum  down  on  relaxation  of 
the  elevators,  and  the  pharyngopalatine s  pull  it  forward.    Con- 


PHARYNX,  NOSE,    VELUM,  LIPS  AND  JAW       339 

traction  of  the  pharyngopalatines  raises  the  larynx  and  the 
pharynx  waU  and  also  narrows  the  pharyngopalatine  arch. 
The  regulation  of  the  action  of  these  muscles  in  song  and 
speech  is  mainly,  or  wholly,  auditory,  that  is,  by  the  sound 
produced. 

The  naml  cavity  on  each  side  {A,  Fig.  93)  communicates 
with  the  upper  part  of  the  pharynx  by  an  opening  of  fixed 
size  called  the  nasopharyngeal  meatus  or  choana  (just  in  front 
of  9  in  Fig.  93).  The  nasal  cavity  on  each  side  is  to  a  large 
extent  filled  with  three  turhinal  bodies  (2,  3,  4,  Fig.  93)  of 
very  irregular  form ;  it  opens  in  front  at  the  nostril  (w,  Fig. 
93).  The  entire  cavity  is  lined  with  mucous  membrane. 
Several  accessory  nasal  sinuses  (two  of  them  shown  at  a  and 
d  in  Fig.  93)  have  small  openings  into  the  nasal  cavity. 

The  bone  and  cartilage  walls  of  the  nasal  cavities  adapt 
them  well  to  act  as  resonators  in  connection  with  the  pharynx. 
Since  the  capacity  and  the  apertures  are  practically  fixed  at 
any  moment,  the  effect  on  the  vocal  sounds  is  a  constant 
factor  that  enters  into  the  adjustments. 

Typical  groups  of  sounds  are  produced  by  changing  the 
connections  of  the  pharynx  with  the  nasal  and  oral  cavities, 
and  by  altering  their  apertures. 

With  the  lips  open  and  all  cavities  connected,  the  nasal 
vowels  (such  as  a°,  o",  ce",  e°  in  French)  are  produced. 

With  the  upper  part  of  the  pharynx  and  the  nasal  cavity 
cut  off  by  closure  of  the  velum  across  the  pharynx  and  with 
the  lips  open  the  pure  vowels  (such  as  a,  e,  i,  o,  u,  g,  o)  are 
formed  in  the  oropharyngeal  cavity. 

When  the  oral  cavity  is  cut  off  from  the  pharynx  by  the 
velum  or  tongue,  the  nose  acts  with  the  pharynx  as  a  com- 
plex cavity.  This  is  the  case  in  the  groups  of  sounds  char- 
acterized by  n,  n,  and  t|.  The  sound  n  is  a  regular  one  in 
French  and  Italian  (Ch.  XXIII).  As  it  is  usually  lacking  in 
in  English  and  German  it  will  be  omitted  in  the  following 
discussion.  In  respect  to  articulation  it  can  be  considered  as 
intermediate  between  n  and  y\. 

With  the  lips  closed,  the  oropharyngeal  cavity  open,  and 


340  PRODUCTION  OF  SPEECH 

pharyngonasal  cavity  free,  the  sounds  produced  belong  to  the 
m  group. 

When  one  nostril  is  closed  during  the  pronunciation  of 
m,  n,  T],  hardly  any  difference  is  noticed  in  m,  more  in  n  and 
most  in  t|  without  loss  of  distinctive  character.  When  both 
nostrils  are  closed,  these  sounds  come  to  an  end  owing  to  the 
stoppage  of  breath,  but  without  becoming  b,  d,  g  (for  which 
the  velum  cuts  off  the  upper  pharyngeal  and  nasal  cavities). 
When  the  entire  nasal  cavity  is  filled  with  cotton  ^  or  when 
one  of  the  choanse  is  closed  (no  observations  yet  reported  on 
both)  by  a  membranous  growth  '^  the  m,  n,  ii  characteristics 
are  still  retained. 

When  the  oropharyngeal  cavity  is  closed  by  the  lips  or 
tongue  and  by  the  velum  across  the  pharynx,  the  sounds  of 
the  b,  d,  g  class  are  produced.  They  come  to  an  end  owing 
to  the  lack  of  an  opening  for  the  escape  of  the  breath,  whereby 
the  blast  that  operates  the  vocal  cords  is  gradually  reduced 
to  zero. 

With  large  adenoid  growths  in  the  nose  the  speech  changes 
greatly ;  the  result  is  known  as  the  '  dead  voice  '  of  the  ade- 
noid patients ;  ^  m,  n,  t^  approach  but  do  not  merge  into  b,  d,  g. 
The  filhng  of  the  nasal  cavities  in  '  colds '  changes  m,  n,  11 
toward  b,  d,  g.  On  the  other  hand  the  removal  of  a  large 
single  nasal  polyp  which  leaves  a  cavity  behind  gives  to  the 
voice  for  a  time  a  hollow,  or  '  amphoric,'  character.  When 
the  accessory  nasal  sinuses  become  filled,  the  voice  acquires  a 
'  dead '  character. 

With  a  tube  inserted  through  the  corner  of  the  mouth  and 
passed  behind  the  place  of  closure,  m  and  n  are  produced  in- 
stead of  b  and  d  when  the  velum  is  closed  across  the  pharynx.* 

1  Sanger,  Ahistische  Wirkung  der  NasenhShlen,  Arcli.  f.  d.  ges.  Phvsiol. 
(Pfluger),  1896  LXIII  301. 

^  ZwAAKDEMAKER,  .Shi'  hs  sons  dominants  (tes  resonnantes,  avec  qudques  observa- 
tions sur  la  voix  morte  des  ad^noldiens,  ■  ArcMves  neerland.  des  sci.  exactes  et  nat., 
J899  (2)  112.53. 

3  Mbyee,  Ueber  adenoide  Vegetationen  in  d.  Nasenrachenhblde,  Arch.  i.  Ohren- 
heilk.,  1873  VII  2-H,  1874  VIII  129. 

*  Sanger,  as  before. 


PHARYNX,   NOSE,    VELUM,    LIPS  AND  JAW        341 

The  following  view  of  the  action  of  the  nasal  cavity  in  vocal 
sounds  seemed  justified  by  the  foregoing  observations. 

The  lower  resonance  tones  of  m,  n,  r\  depend  on  the  size  of 
oropharyngeal  cavity  and  on  its  apertures.  On  account  of 
the  decreasing  size  of  the  cavity  behind  the  closure  we  should 
expect  the  lowest  tone  for  m  (labial  closure),  a  somewhat 
higher  one  for  n  (alveolar  or  palatal  closure)  and  a  still  higher 
one  for  r[  (velar  closure).  Kcenig's  flames  (p.  27)  and  Her- 
mann's curves  (p.  44)  give  the  same  tone  for  m  and  n ;  no 
data  are  at  hand  for  -ry.  For  the  lowest  tone  we  may  suppose 
the  nasal  cavities  to  act  as  two  necks  of  fixed  size,  shape 
and  conductivity  to  the  pharyngeal  resonator.  The  size  and 
shape  can  probably  be  taken  as  those  at  the  choantB ;  the 
conductivity  depends  mainly  on  the  amount  of  free  space  in 
the  nasal  cavities.  The  differences  between  the  lower  cavity 
tone  in  m,  n,  r\  and  that  in  b,  d,  g  cannot  yet  be  definitely 
explained.  The  addition  of  the  upper  portion  of  the  pharyn- 
geal cavity  in  the  former  case  would  give  a  lower  tone,  the 
addition  of  the  nasal  necks  a  higher  one ;  the  final  effect  is 
probably  a  higher  tone.  Increasing  stoppage  of  the  nasal 
cavities  would  lower  the  tone  of  m,  n,  -q  ;  with  complete 
stoppage  it  would  be  lower  than  that  of  b,  d,  g  unless  other 
adjustments  were  made. 

The  higher  resonance  tones  of  m,  n,  r\  are  influenced  by 
the  various  cavities  into  which  the  turbinals  divide  the  nasal 
passages,  by  the  condition  of  the  mucous  membrane,  by  addi- 
tional cavities  present  in  the  accessory  sinuses  and  by  the 
character  of  the  walls.  These  higher  tones  are  markedly 
characteristic  of  different  voices  and  different  conditions,  but 
experimental  data  concerning  them  are  entirely  lacking. 

Similar  considerations  are  probably  valid  for  the  nasal  vowels. 

The  rise  and  fall  of  the  velum  affects  the  character  of  the 
vocal  sound. 

Observations  with  Rontgen  rays  ^  showed  that  the  velum 

1  ScHBiEK,  Die  Verwerthunff  d.  RSntgenstrahlen  f.  d.  Physiol,  d.  Sprache  u. 
Stimme,  Arch.  f.  Laryngol.,  1897  VII  125;  Ueber  d.  Bedeutung  d.  Rontgenstrahlen 
f.  d.  Phijsiol.  d.  Sprache  u.  Stimme,  Neure  Sprachen,  1 898  V  Phonet.  Stud.  40. 


342  PRODUCTION  OF  SPEECH 

rises  for  the  vowels  in  the  order  a,  e,  o,  u,  i,  that  for  a  it 
does  not  rise  to  the  line  of  the  hard  palate,  and  that  for  u 
and  i  it  forms  an  arch  up  into  the  nasal  cavity.  For  conso- 
nants, except  the  liquids,  it  rises  higher  than  for  i.  For 
occlusives  like  b  and  k  it  flies  up  and  falls  at  once.  For 
fricatives  like  f  and  v  it  does  not  rise  as  high  as  for  the 
occlusives.  For  m,  n  and  i],  it  rises  only  a  little  from  the 
position  of  rest.  For  nasal  vowels  there  is  little  or  no  move- 
ment. Rise  in  pitch  or  increase  in  intensity  of  the  cord  tone 
is  accompanied  by  rise  of  the  velum. 

The  tightness  of  the  closure  between  the  velum  and  the 
pharynx  wall  can  be  tested  by  putting  water  into  the  nose ; 
this  is  best  done  by  inserting  a  thin  elastic  rubber  tube  far 
into  the  nose  and,  the  head  being  bent  back,  injecting 
water  at  the  moment  of  producing  a  vowel.  According  to 
ScHUH  1  the  closure  is  complete  for  i  but  not  for  a.  Czee- 
MAK  2  found  that  in  speaking  a  the  water  ran  down  into  the 
throat,  that  in  speaking  i  the  water  collected  and  was  easily 
retained  for  a  considerable  time,  and  that  u  and  o  resembled 
i  in  this  respect,  but  e  less  so.  The  difference  in  tightness  is 
presumably  due  to  the  difference  in  the  angle  which  the  palate 
makes  with  the  pharynx  wall. 

In  order  to  determine  if  air  issues  from  the  nose  in  speak- 
ing a  sound,  a  cold  polished  surface  —  a  mirror  or  knife  blade 
—  may  be  placed  at  the  proper  moment  under  the  nose ;  the 
faintest  trace  of  breath  is  indicated  by  moisture  on  the  sur- 
face.^ In  the  production  of  the  pure  vowels  no  air  issues 
from  the  nose ;  any  trace  of  a  nasal  tone  is  accompanied  by 
emission  of  air. 

To  detect  any  passage  of  the  air  through  the  nose  it  can  be 

1  ScHDH,  Die  Bewegung  d.  weichen  Gaumens  b.  Sprechen  u.  Schlucken,  Wiener 
med.  Wochenschr.,  1858  VIII  33. 

2  CzEKMAK,  Ueber  das  Verhalten  des  weichen  Gaumens  beim  Hervorbringen  der 
reinen  Vokale,  Sitzb.  d.  k.  Akad.  d.  Wiss.  Wien,  math.-naturwiss.  Kl.,  1857;  also 
in  Czekmak's  Gesammelte  Schriften,  I  425,  Leipzig,  1879. 

•  ^  CzEKMAK,  Ueber  reine  u.  nasalirte  Vokale,  Sitzber.  d.  k.  Akad.  d.  Wiss. 
Wien,  math.-naturwiss.  Kl.,  1858  XXVIII  575;  also  in  Czekmak's  Gesammelte 
Schriften,  I  464,  Leipzig,  1879. 


PHARYNX,   NOSE,    VELUM,   LIPS  AND  JAW        343 

made  to  act  upon  a  small  flame  ^  by  inserting  into  the  nostril 
a  nipple  connected  to  a  rubber  tube  ending  in  a  glass  tube 
with  a  small  opening.^  The  slightest  trace  of  air  produces 
a  fluttering  of  the  flame. 

A  person  with  the  velum  grown  to  the  pharynx  wall  so 
that  no  air  could  pass  through  the  nose  was  able  to  produce 
the  pure  vowels  but  not  the  nasal  ones.^  The  sounds  m, 
n  and  n]  could  not  be  pronounced,  but  were  replaced  by  some- 
what similar  sounds  produced  by  keeping  the  cords  in  vibra- 
tion while  using  mouth  movements  similar  to  those  for  b,  d 
and  g,  but  with  the  least  possible  noise  in  the  closure  and 
opening. 

Gentzen's*  direct  observations  through  a  cavity  agreed 
essentially  with  those  of  Czbrmak.  A  really  considerable 
pressure  with  a  rod  was  required  to  press  down  the  velum  from 
above  during  speech.  A  stylus  resting  on  the  velum  was 
made  to  record  on  a  smoked  plate. 

According  to  records  by  Gtjtzmann  ^  in  a  case  where  the 
top  of  the  velum  was  accessible,  owing  to  removal  of  the 
upper  jaw,  etc.,  the  velum  was  pressed  more  or  less  firmly, 
but  always  tightly,  against  the  rear  wall  of  the  pharynx  in 
all  vowels  and  consonants  except  m,  n  and  r\,  while  a  cross 
ridge  was  plainly  apparent  just  above  the  closure ;  the  rise  of 
the  velum  was  least  for  a,  greater  for  o  and  o,  still  greater 
for  e  and  u,  greatest  for  i;  for  consonants  the  velum  was 
raised  at  least  as  high  as  for  i  and  generally  higher,  except 
for  m,  n  and  ii,  for  which  it  remained  quiet;  high  or  loud 
tones  were  accompanied  by  greater  rise.     The  natural  action 

1  Bbucke,  Grundziige  d.  Physiol,  u.  Systematik  d.  Sprachlaute,  2.  Aufl.,  37, 

Wien,  1876. 

2  SiEVEKS,  Grundziige  d.  Phonetik,  5.  Aufl.,  53,  Leipzig,  1901. 

3  CzEEMAK,  Einige  Beobachtungen  ii.  d.  Sprache  bei  vollstandiger  Verwach- 
sung  d.  Gaumensegeh  mit  der  hinteren  Sr.hlundwand,  Sitzber.  d.  k.  Akad.  d. 
Wiss.  Wien,  math.-naturwiss.  Kl.,  1858 ;  also  in  Czermak's  Gesammelte  Schriften, 

I  468,  Leipzig,  1879.  .       ^      ,      , 

4  Gentzen,  Beobachtungen  am  weichen  Gaumen  nach  Entfernung  etner  Geschwulst 
in  der  Augenhohle,  Diss.,  Konigsberg,  1876. 

5  Gptzmann,  Die  geschichtl.  Entwick.  d.  Lehre  v.  d.  Gatimensegelbewegung 
beim  Sprechen  u.  s.  w.,  Monatsschr.  f.  d.  ges.  Sprachheilk.,  1893  III  217. 


344  PRODUCTION   OF  SPEECH 

may  have  been  somewhat  disturbed  owing  to  the  extensive 
surgical  operation. 

The  rise  and  fall  of  the  velum  can  be  indicated  by  its  action 
on  a  lever  inserted  through  the  nose.^  A  straight  iron  wire 
about  200°""  in  length  and  1.8™™  in  diameter  has  a  loop  of  12™™ 
formed  on  the  side  at  one  end  and  covered  with  wax.  A  piece 
of  40™™  in  length  at  the  other  end  of  the  wire  is  bent  at  right 
angles  to  the  staff  but  in  the  plane  of  the  loop.  The  wire  is 
inserted  through  the  nose  so  that  the  edge  of  the  loop  rests 
upon  the  rear  edge  of  the  velum.  Any  rise  of  the  velum 
raises  the  edge  and  turns  the  wire ;  the  amount  of  turning  can 
be  seen  in  the  movement  of  the  projecting  arm  in  front.  With 
this  indicator  Czermak  showed  that  the  velum  occupied  a 
different  position  for  each  vowel ;  the  rise  of  the  velum  (from 
higher  articulation  with  the  back  of  the  pharynx  or  else  from 
greater  curving)  was  greatest  for  i,  somewhat  less  for  u,  con- 
siderably less  for  o,  much  less  for  e  and  nothing  or  almost 
nothing  for  a.  With  the  consonants  the  rise  was  the  greatest 
for  the  surd  occlusives  (p,  t,  k),  the  velum  evidently  being 
raised  passively  by  the  air  pressure.  With  sonant  occlusives 
(b,  d,  g)  the  rise  was  a  trifle  less,  the  pressure  being  evidently 
not  so  great.  With  the  surd  and  sonant  fricatives  (f,  s,  s, 
9;  X  ;  V,  z,  z,  j,  -y)  the  velum  acted  in  the  same  way  as  for  the 
stops,  the  rise,  however,  being  in  all  cases  less  than  for  the 
corresponding  occlusives.  For  the  1-sounds  the  rise  was  less 
than  for  the  fricatives,  a  distinct  movement  being  observable, 
for  example,  in  passing  from  1  to  s.  For  tongue  r  the  rise 
was  greater  than  for  uvula  r. 

A  simple  light  rod  inserted  through  the  nose  and  pivoted 
by  a  thread  from  a  band  on  the  forehead  may  be  made  to 
record  directly  on  a  smoked  drum  the  rise  and  fall  of  the 
velum. 2 

1  CzEKMAK,  Ueher  das  Verhalten  des  loeichen  Gaumes  beim  Hervorhringen  der 
reinen  Vocale,  Sitzber.  d.  k.  Akad.  d.  Wiss.  Wieu,  math.-naturwiss.  Kl.,  1857; 
al|o  in  Czekmak's  Gesammelte  Schrifteu,  I  423,  Leipzig,  1879. 

^  Allen,  On  a  new  method  of  recording  the  motions  of  the  soft  palate.  Trans. 
Coll.  Phys.  Philadelphia,  1884  (3)  III;  summarized  in  Internat.  Zt.  f.  allg.  Spr., 
1885  11  287. 


PHARYNX,   NOSE,    VELUM,  LIPS  AND  JAW        345 

A  small  plaster  knob  on  a  light  wire  from  a  Marey  tam- 
bour attached  to  the  forehead  may  be  inserted  into  the  mouth 
and  attached  to  the  velum,  i  A  record  of  the  rise  of  the 
velum  during  the  word  '  confabulate  '  spoken  with  three 
degrees  of  rapidity  is  given  in  Fig.  260.  It  shows  the  sudden 
rise  for  k,  the  partial  relaxation  during  a,  the  fall  for  n,  the 
rise  for  t,  the  slight  relaxation 

for  ae,  and  the  rise  maintained            Kr~\        (\l — \        (\l — \ 
during  b]ulet.  Fig.  261  shows  


jijv_^^^-jyfv_j^^^ 


_J^/l_/UVLJVlA. 


Fig.   262. 


■A_ 


Fig.  263. 


JJL 


M^ 


a   record    for   '  con  —  tra  —  ^'o-  2^''- 

vene  —  contra  —  contravene ; ' 

the  fall  during  a  is  nearly  as 

great  as  that  for  n,  indicat-  Fig.  261. 

ing  a  decidedly  nasal  a.    Fig. 

262  shows  a  record  for  '  pant 

—  banana  —  blanch  —  branch 

—  can't.'  In  'pant'  the 
velum  makes  two  distinct 
movements.  In  '  banana '  the 
last  two  vowels  involve  only 
a  slight  rise  above  the  position 
for  n ;  they  are  strongly  nasal. 
In  '  blanch'  and  '  branch  '  the  fig.  264. 
relaxation  for  n  is  complete. 
The  accented  vowel  in  these 

five  words  was  se.     Fig.  263  Fig.  265. 

shows  " '  hand  '    spoken   with 

extreme    slowness;    the   rise       ^— ^/-^. 

for  h  and  that  for  d  are  clear;  Fio.  266. 

the  semiclosure  between  them 

indicates  as  much  nasalization  for  k  as  for  n.  Fig.  264  shows 
the  phrase  '  into  Mount  ^tna '  whispered  and  then  spoken; 
the  action  of  the  palate  is  practically  the  same  in  both  cases. 
Fig.  265  gives  the  record  for  the  French  oe°  'un'  spoken  three 
times  by  a  native  and  then  for  a°  '  an  'likewise  three  times; 

1  V^EEKS,  .4  method  of  recording  the  soft  palate  movements  in  speech,  Studies 
and  Notes  in  Philol.  and  Lit.,  Harvard,  1893  [I  213. 


346  PRODUCTION  OF  SPEECH 

Fig.  266  gives  similar  records  for  o°  'on  '  and  e°  '  iu' ;  in  all 
cases  there  was  a  movement  of  the  palate  forward  from  its 
place  of  rest. 

The  relaxation  of  velar  closure  across  the  pharynx  allows 
the  upper  pharyngeal  and  the  nasal  cavities  to  influence  the 
sound.  This  gives  the  sound  an  auditory  characteristic 
called  —  not  quite  accurately  ^  —  '  nasalization. '  This  char- 
acteristic consists  in  changes  in  the  cavity  tones  of  the 
speech  sounds.  For  a  given  position  of  the  vocal  organs 
the  opening  of  the  upper  pharyngeal  cavity  will  add  tones 
due  to  the  size  of  the  cavity  and  the  nature  of  the  aper- 
tures; it  will  also  necessarily  modify  some  of  the  tones  of 
the  mouth  on  account  of  the  additional  aperture  and  the 
reciprocal  action  of  connected  cavities.  Thus,  a"  will 
differ  from  a  formed  by  the  same  positions  of  the  tongue, 
lips,  etc.,  not  only  in  having  additional  cavity  tones,  but 
also  in  changing  the  mouth  tones.  To  retain  the  mouth 
tones  unchanged  to  the  ear,  the  tongue,  lips,  etc.,  must  make 
readjustments;  this  is  perhaps  the  explanation  of  the  fact 
that  for  the  sound  heard  as  o"  Rousselot  finds  the  tongue 
position  varying  from  Oj  (p.  315)  to  O3  (p.  320). 

The  action  of  the  velum  may  be  conveniently  studied  by 
comparing  the  record  of  the  breath  curve  from  the  nose  with 
that  from  the  mouth.  A  nasal  olive  of  convenient  size 
(Fig.  88)  is  connected  with  a  small  tambour,  and  a  mouth 
trumpet  (p.  219)  with  another  one;  the  two  tambour  points  are 
synchronically  registered.  When  the  velum  is  closed  com- 
pletely across  the  nasal  passage,  the  recording  point  is  at  its 
position  of  rest  and  usually  no  vibrations  appear  in  the  line 
it  draws.  As  the  velum  falls,  air  passes  through  the  nose, 
the  recording  point  rises  and,  if  delicately  adjusted,  registers 
the  vibrations  from  the  larynx  that  may  be  present;  the 
extent  to  which  the  point  rises  depends  on  the  amount  of  air 
issuing  from  the  nose,  that  is,  on  the  size  of  the  opening  be- 
tjveen  the  velum  and  the  pharynx-wall.     "When  vibrations  do 

1  Sanger,  Ueber  d.  Entstehung  d.  Ndselns,  Arch.  f.  d.  ges.  Phvsiol.  (Pfliiger), 
1897  LXVI  467. 


PHARYNX,   NOSE,    VELUM,   LIPS  AND  JAW        347 

appear  in  the  nasal  tracing  without  any  rise  of  the  line  to  in- 
dicate exit  of  air,  they  are  often  due,  I  believe,  to  the  fact 
that  the  vibrations  in  the  mouth  set  the  velum  itself  (and 
consequently  the  air  above  it)  in  vibration  without  any  re- 
laxation of  the  closure. 

In  interpreting  the  records,  it  must  ever  be  borne  in  mind 
that  the  inertia  of  the  recording  levers  distorts  them;  thus 
a  constant  emission  of  air  from  the  nose  during  n  will  show 
itself  as  a  somewhat  gradual  rise  of  the  lever,  while  a  sud- 
den strong  one  from  the  mouth,  as  in  p,  will  give  a  sudden 
rise.  It  must  never  be  forgotten  that  the  scale  of  rise  is  not 
proportional,  but  that  a  considerable  rise  of  the  lever  from 
jest  indicates  only  a  small  emission,  while  a  small  increase  in 
rise  beyond  this  indicates  a  great  increase  in  emission. 


Fig.  267. 


Ordinarily  the  vocal  cords  cease  to  sound  when  the  vowel 
position  is  relaxed  before  a  pause;  the  surplus  air  is  then 
expelled  noiselessly  (p.  224).  In  some  dialects  the  cords  are 
still  sounding  when  the  position  is  relaxed ;  the  opening  of 
the  nasal  cavity  then  gives  a  nasal  twang  to  the  sound. ^ 
Records  showing  this  fact  have  been  made  by  Rousselot. 

Investigations  by  the  above  method  ^  have  been  made  on 
Italian  sounds.  In  Figs.  267  to  273  the  upper  record  is  from 
the  nose,  the  lower  one  from  the  mouth.  In  ma  and  na 
the  nasalization  includes  not  only  the  liquid  but,  to  a  less 
degree,  the  entire  vowel,  especially  its  close  (Fig.  267). 
The  vibrations  in  the  tracing  indicate  that  the  velar  move- 

1  Rousselot,  Principes  de  phone'tique  experimentale,  240,  Paris,  1897. 

2  JOSSELYN,  De  la  nasality  en  italien,  La  Parole,  1899  I  602. 


348 


PRODUCTION  OF  SPEECH 


Fig.  268. 


ment  finished  before  the  cord  action  did,  thus  giving  a 
special  nasal  twang  to  the  end  of  the  vowel.  This  relaxation 
of  the  velar  action  before  that  of  the  cord  action  is  analo- 
gous to  that  of  the  tongue  action  in  English  long  vowels 
whereby  they  frequently  acquire  a  '  diphthongal '  character. 

The  record  for  mano  (Fig.  268) 
shows  the  nasal  current  of  air 
during  m,  the  mouth  current  and 
the  smaller  nasal  one  during  a, 
the  increased  nasal  current  dur- 
ing n,  the  cessation  of  this  cur- 
rent during  o,  and  the  expulsion 
of  surd  air  from  both  nose  and  mouth  after  the  laryngeal 
vibrations  have  ceased. 

The  explosion  of  t  in  ta  (Fig.  269)  seems  to  have  been  ac- 
companied by  a  fall  of  the  velum  in  Josselyn's  records;  this 
does  not,  I  believe,  indicate  any  nasalization,  as  Josselyist 
asserts,  but  only  a  sudden  relaxation  of  the  tense  curvature 
produced  by  the  pressure  of  air  and  a  rebound  of  the  record- 
ing lever;  the  bend  in  the  line  at  this  point  in  Josselyn's 
figure  is  just  what  Avould  be  expected  from  such  action.  For 
p  in  pa  a  considerable  emission  of  air  is  indicated  at  the 
moment  of  the  explosion  of  p ;  this  is  due,  I  believe,  to  the 
fact  that  the  vowel  a  (which  is  somewhat  nasalized)  begins  ap- 


FiG.  269. 


parently  during  the  rush  of  air  in  the  explosion  of  p  (p.  45). 
The  k  of  ka  shows  no  disturbance  in  the  velar  record. 
During  1,  r,  g,  d,  b,  z  of  la,  ra,  ga,  da,  ba,  za  the  nasal 
line  shows  vibrations  without  any  deflection  from  the  point 
of  rest;  as  stated  above,  these  vibrations  indicate,  I  believe, 


PHARYNX,   NOSE,    VELUM,    LIPS    AND  JAW        349 

the  transmission  of  vibratory  movements  and  the  roll  of  the 
r  to  the  velum  and  thus  to  the  nasal  cavity,  but  no  relaxation 
of  velar  closure;  Josselyn's  deduction  of  nasalization  for 
these  sounds  is,  I  believe,  incorrect.  During  f  of  fa  a  small 
rise  was  noted  in  the  nasal  line,  indicating  a  slight  escape  of 
air  through  the  velar  closure. 


Fig.  270. 


In  the  record  for  '  nessuno  '  (Fig.  271)  the  full  opening  of 
the  nasal  cavity  is  seen  for  n ;  the  e  is  considerably  nasalized 
throughout,  but  most  strongly  near  the  end ;  the  glide  from  e 
to  s  close's  the  nasal  cavity  entirely  and  the  mouth  somewhat; 
the  glide  from  s  to  u  is  marked  by  a  slight  explosive  puff  from 
the  mouth  and  then  an  almost  complete  closure ;  the  u  shows 
a  steadily  increasing  stream  from  the  mouth  and  the  glide 
from  u  to  the  n  a  steadily  decreasing  one ;  the  u  is  without 
nasalization;  the  u-n  glide  is  strongly  nasalized;  the  n 
is  nasal  as  before ;  the  o  is  slightly  nasalized.      Records  of 


Fig.  271. 


'  menare,'  '  mentire  '  and  '  mandare  '  are  given  in  Fig.  272. 
The  m  is  of  nearly  constant  length.  The  first  n  is  very 
short,  the  second  more  than  3  times,  and  the  last  about  3 
times  as  long ;    similar  results  show  a  long  n  in  '  infante, ' 


'  imperare, '     mm. 


mente, '  and  a  short  n  in  '  onore, '  '  nes- 


B50  PRODUCTION  OF  SPEECH 

suno, '  '  mano, '  '  tenere. '  The  results  show  that  n  at 
the  end  of  a  syllable  is  stronger  and  longer,  while  at  the  be- 
ginning and  after  an  open  syllable  it  is  feebler  and  shorter. 
Rejecting  the  usual  view  of  the  nature  of  a  word  as  made  up 
of  series  of  separate  pieces  called  'syllables,'  I  would  give 
the  explanation  that  in  the  flow  of  speech  the  n  forms  part 
of  the  vowel  material  that  with  the  consonant  movement  goes 
to  make  up  the  content  between  centroids  of  stress,  and  that 
for  intervals  of  equal  stress-effect  its  length  is  varied  just  as 
those  of  the  vowels  to  produce  equal  amounts  of  auditory 
and  motor  work.     The  tendency  of  Italian  to  velar  relaxa- 


FiG.  272. 

tion,  that  is,  to  nasality,  has  been  conclusively  proved  by 
JossELYN,  whose  records  show  many  nasalized  vowels,  oc- 
clusives and  fricatives. 

JoasELYN  found  ^  that  in  Italian  the  nasalization  required 
for  a  '  nasal '  regularly  extended  to  the  neighboring  sounds 
and  sometimes  to  the  entire  word,  and  that  after  a  vowel  the 
m  and  n  might  take  a  form  intermediate  between  the  vowel 
and  the  usual  m  or  n. 

An  interesting  and  not  uncommon  pronunciation  ^  is  indi- 

1  JossELTN,  Etude  sur  la  phone'tique  italienne,  139,  Th&se,  Paris,  1900;  also  in 
La  Parole,  1900  II  179. 

2  JossELYN,  Etude,  as  before,  139. 


PHARYNX,   NOSE,    VELUM,    LIPS    AND  JAW        351 

cated  in  Fig.  273.  Here  the  first  n  has  disappeared,  as  is 
proved  by  the  fact  that  there  is  no  oral  occlusion,  the  vowel 
being  strongly  nasalized  and  merging  immediately  into  the  f. 
This  is  an  approach  to  the  character  of  a  French  nasal  vowel. 

As  already  pointed  out  (p.  346),  '  nasality  '  is  an  auditory 
term  indicating  the  presence  of  tones  from  the  nasal  cavity. 
These  tones  regularly  arise  when  the  rear  nasal  passage  is 
more  or  less  open. 

In  a  nasal  breath  record  any  such  opening  indicates  itself 
by  a  rise  in  the  course  of  the  curve.  Just  how  great  an 
effect  on  the  speech  sound  may  arisB  from  the  transmission  of 
laryngeal  vibrations  through  the  velum  when  entirely  closed 
across  the  nasal  passage,  it  is  impossible  to  say.     It  may  per- 


FlG.  273. 

haps  be  tested  by  stopping  the  front  nasal  opening  while_  a 
vowel  is  sung,  and  b}'  having  other  persons  listen  for  the 
presence  of  any  change.  In  an  absolutely  unnasalized  vowel 
I  am  unable  to  observe  any  difference. 

The  vibrations  in  the  nasal  line  indicate  vibrations  of  the 
air  due  to  the  cord  action ;  their  appearance  indicates  either 
transmission  through  the  velum  (p.  347),  while  still  closed 
against  the  pharynx  wall,  or  transmission  through  a  velar- 
nasal  opening.  In  the  former  case  they  might  perhaps  give 
rise  to  a  faint  nasal  tone,  although  this  is  doubtful.  In  the 
latter  there  is  a  velar-nasal  opening  whose  size  would  bear 
some  relation  —  but  no  simple  one  —  to  the  amplitude  of  the 
registered  vibrations.  The  auditory  effect  would  be  '  nasal- 
ization, '  properly  so  termed.     In  a  tight  tambour  system,  how- 


352  PRODUCTION  OF  SPEECH 

ever,  any  such  nasalization  must  be  accompanied  by  a  rise  in 
the  nasal  line ;  the  presence  of  vibrations  without  such  a  rise 
indicates  either  the  transmission  of  vibrations  through  the 
velum  without  opening  (as  indicated  above),  or  a  leak  in  the 
apparatus. 

The  absence  of  vibrations  from  the  nasal  tracing  does  not 
indicate  absence  of  nasal  cavity  tones;  no  cavity  tones  of 
an}^  kind  ever  appear  in  tambour  tracings.  As  long  as  the 
cords  vibrate,  any  opening  of  the  velar-nasal  passage  will  be 
accompanied  by  nasal  resonance. 

When  there  is  no  cord  tone,  the  opening  of  the  nasal  pas- 
sage is  accompanied  only  by  the  noise  of  the  escaping  breath, 
which  at  most  can  make  only  a  soft  h-like  sound  during 
speech  and  cannot  ordinarily  be  heard.     The  relative  weak- 

o  ag  32  e 

Fig.  274.  Tig.  273.  Fig.  276.  Fig.  277. 

ness  of  such  a  nasal  explosion  may  be  made  apparent  by  pro- 
nouncing '  cat '  and  '  cap  '  first  with  the  regular  mouth 
explosion  and  then  with  a  nasal  explosion,  the  mouth  being 
kept  closed.  An  explosion  by  dropping  the  velum  cannot 
be  made  strong  enough  to  be  heard  when  the  mouth  passage 
is  already  opened,  as  in  vowels.  This  '  surd  nasality  '  occurs 
as  a  nasal  modification  of  explosives  and  fricatives. 

The  positions  of  the  pillars  of  the  velum  (glossopalatine 
and  glossopharyngeal  arches)  have  been  carefully  observed 
and  drawn  by  Thudichum  ^  for  his  Swiss-French  vowels :  o 
as  in  'or,  fort,  sotte,  forte  '  (Fig.  274);  ag  (close)  as  in  'pfite, 
tasse,  cas'  (Fig.  275);  aj  (medium)  as  in  'page,  part,  papa' 
(Fig.  276) ;  and  e  as  in  '  pere,   tete,  perte,  nette  '  (Fig.  277). 

The  positions  and  movements  of  the  lips  can  be  observed 

1  Thidichum,  La  prononciatioti  de  I'a/ranfais,  Neuere  Sprachen,  1897  IV 
Phonet.  Stud.  22. 


PHARYNX,   NOSE,    VELUM,   LIPS  AND  JAW        353 

directly  and  drawn ;  or  they  may  be  photographed  by  making 
an  exposure  at  the  proper  moment.  Lip-positions  for  various 
American  and  German  sounds  are  given  in  Geandgent's 
Plates  XVII  to  XXVI  at  the  end  of  this  volume ;  they  are 
freehand  drawings  of  rather  schematic  character,  often  show- 
ing angles  instead  of  curves. 

The  activity  of  the  lips  is  frequently  overlooked,  although 
important  results  depend  on  the  various  degrees  of  length- 
ening the  mouth-opening  by  retraction  of  the  corners; 
of  rounding  by  closing  the  lips  except  for  an  opening  in  the 
middle,  or  by  pulling  the  corners  toward  the  middle ;  and  of 
projection  with  rounding,  or  without  rounding.  These  varia- 
tions in  the  opening  and  neck  of  the  vocal  resonator  change 
the  sounds  greatly  (p.  281).  One  special  character  of  Eng- 
lish sounds  as  compared  ,with  the  corresponding  German  and 
French  ones  arises  largely  from  the  small  movements  of  the 
lips. 

The  movements  of  the  lips  have  been  recorded  by  Dbmeny, 
in  a  series  of  photographs  taken  with  a  kinetocamera ;  ^  one 
set  of  his  views  for  '  Je  vous  aime  '  is  reproduced  by 
Jespersen.2 

The  kinetographic  method  has  not  yet  been  systematically 
applied  to  the  study  of  lip  movements  in  speech  although 
it  will  presumably  replace  all  others,  because  it  leaves  the 
speaker  unhindered  by  apparatus  attachments,  and  because  it 
can  be  made  with  any  required  accuracy.  A  good  register- 
ing kinetograph  (or  cinematographe)  is  focused  on  the  lips  of 
the  speaker  and  the  pictures  are  made  at  the  rate  of  40  or 
more  a  second.  Before  ending  the  experiment  a  millimeter 
scale  is  laid  on  the  lips  and  also  recorded.  The  film  is 
developed  by  means  of  a  special  equipment,  or  is  sent  to  a 
photographic  company.  The  measurements  may  be  made 
directly  on  the  negative  film,  or  on  a  blue  print.  A  positive 
film  may  be  made  for  projection.     For  finer  measurements  or 

1  Demeny,  Analyse  des  mouvements  de  la  parole  par  la  chronophotographie. 
C.  r.  de  I'Acad.  des  Sci.  Paris,  1891  CXIII  216 ;  Journal  de  physique,  1893  328. 

2  Jespeksen,  Fonetik,  Tavle  I,  Kobenhavn,  1897-99. 

2.3 


354 


PRODUCTION  OF  SPEECH 


for  demonstration  on  a  large  scale  the  pictures  can  be  greatly 
enlarged.  In  demonstrating  the  movements  by  projection 
the  details  can  be  studied  by  running  the  film  slowly,  after 
the  manner  employed  for  explaining  surgical  operations  in 
medical  schools. 

The  movements  of  the  lips  may  be  registered  by  a  pair  of 
light  arms  inserted  into  the  mouth  and  attached  to  a  Maeey 
tambour;^  an  open  tube  may  be  placed  before  the  lips  to 
register  the  breath  pressure.  Each  lever  may  be  made  to 
register  separately.^     A   complete   instrument^  is  shown  in 


Fig.  278. 


Fig.  278.  The  lips  rest  on  the  arms  at  L'  L."  Any  com- 
pression pulls  out  the  tops  of  the  tambours  J'  J"  by  the  arms 
K'  K " ;  the  movement  may  be  transmitted  to  two  separate 
registering  tambours  by  the  tubes  iV'  iV"  or  to  one  tambour 
Mhy  the  joint  tube  iV.  The  breath  current  is  caught  in  the 
mouth-piece  U  and  registered  by  the  tambour  F.  The  re- 
ceiving apparatus  is  held  on  the  rod  R  by  the  adjustable  arm 

'  RosAPELLT,  Inscriptions  des  mouvements  phonetlques,  Travaux  du  laboratoire 
de  M.  Marey,  1876  II  119. 
*  ^  HonsSELOT,  Les  modifications  phonitiques  du  langage,  Rev.  pat.  gallo-rom., 
1891  IV,  V;  also  separate. 

"  RousSELOT,  Principes  de  phone'tique  expe'rimeutale,  92,  Paris,  1897. 


PHARYNX,   NOSE,    VELUM,   LIPS  AND  JAW        355 

S.  The  recording  tambours  M  and  F  are  placed  on  the 
Maeey  support  V,  by  which  the  contact  of  the  recording 
points  may  be  adjusted.  This  is  likewise  fastened  to  the 
rod  E  by  the  screw  0.  The  two  recording  levers  are  adjusted 
to  register  synchronously  on  the  drum. 

The  pressure  of  the  lips  may  also  be  measured  by  a  small 
rubber  bulb  (Fig.  245)  between  them.  In  Italian  the  relations 
of  lip  pressure  have  been  found  ^  to  be  p  >  m  >  b  or  m  >  p  >  b. 

To  register  the  lip  projection  a  small  tambour  or  an  ex- 
ploratory bulb  may  be  rested  lightly  against  the  upper  or  the 
lower  lip;  any  contraction  of  the  muscle  of  the  lip  presses 
the  air  from  the  tambour.  ^  As  indicated  by  such  a  tambour, 
the  lips  in  Rousselot's  labials  are  less  completely  and  firmly 
closed  for  v  than  for  f,  and  less  firmly  closed  for  b  than  for  p, 
while  for  m  the  closure  is  like  that  for  b.  A  bulb  against  the 
lips  indicates  ^  a  greater  projection  for  u  than  for  w  in  Italian, 
as  in  the  words  duo  'duo  '  and  dwomo  'duomo.'  A  cylin- 
drical tambour  or  three  small  rubber  balls  may  be  used.* 

The  movements  of  the  lower  jaw  may  be  registered  by  a 
small  rubber  bulb  placed  in  the  ear  and  attached  to  a  tambour 
in  the  usual  way.  The  arrangement  is  very  convenient  and 
fairly  accurate,  though  not  sensitive  to  very  small  movements.^ 

To  register  the  movements  of  the  jaw  Gall^e  and  Zwaae- 
DEMAKER  ^  used  a  movable  arc  connected  to  the  lower  jaw 
and  supported  on  a  framework  attached  to  the  head.  The 
movements  of  the  arc  were  recorded  by  air  transmission  with 
tambours. 

In  ventriloquism  the  movements  of  the  lips  and  lower  jaw 
are   made  as  small  as   possible.     The   lower  lip  is   slightly 

1  JossBLYN,  Etude  sur  la  phonet.  ital.,  91,  Thfese,  Paris,  1900;  also  in  La 
Parole,  1901  11141. 

2  EoussELOT,  Principes  de  phonetique  expe'rimentale,  93,  Paris,  1897. 
8  JossBLYN,  as  before,  115. 

4  Gallee  und  Zwaakdemaker,  Ueber  Graphik  d.  Sprachlaute,  Neuere 
Sprachen,  1900  VIII  16. 

5  Gallee  und  Zwaaedemakek,  as  before,  11. 
•5  Gallee  und  Zwaabdemaker,  as  before,  17. 


356  PRODUCTION  OF  SPEECH 

drawn  back  and  rested  against  the  upper  teeth.     The  tongue 
articulations  are  greatly  altered.' 

References 

For  structure  of  pharynx  :  Disse,  Anatomie  d.  Rachens,  Heymann's 
Handb.  d.  Laryngologie  u.  Rhinologie,  II  1,  Wieu,  1899.  For  physiol- 
ogy of  pharynx  :  Einthoven,  Physioiogie  d.  Rachens,  Heymann's  Handb. 
as  before,  II  46.  For  anatomy  of  nasal  cavities  :  Frankel,  Gefrierdurch- 
schnitte  zur  Anat.  d.  Nasenhbhle,  Berlin,  1891.  For  the  use  of  Rontgen 
rays  :  Flatau,  Die  Anwendung  des  Rontgen' schen  Verfahrens  in  d. 
Rhinologie  u.  Laryngologie,  Heymann's  Handb.  d.  Laryngologie  u. 
Rhinologie,  III  1245,  Wein,  1900. 

For  graphic  apparatus  for  phonetics  :  Verdin,  Paris.  For  tambours 
and  manometers:  Albrecht,  Tubingen;  Petzold,  Leipzig;  Zimmer- 
MANN,  Leipzig.  For  cinematographe  camera  ;  Lumiere  et  ses  Fils, 
Lyon-Montplaisir. 

1  Flatau  und  Gutzmann,  Die  Bauchredner-Kunst,  Leipzig,  1894. 


CHAPTER   XXVI 

SIMULTANEOUS    AND   SUCCESSIVE   SPEECH    MOVEMENTS 

By  records  of  the  breath  curve  from  the  mouth  (p.  219) 
and  the  vibration  of  the  larynx  (p.  267)  Rousselot  ^  has  shown 
that  in  the  German  pronunciation  of  pa  and  ba  the  larynx 
does  not  begin  to  vibrate  till  much  later  than  in  the  French 
pronunciation.  This  is  evident  in  the  record  shown  in  Fig. 
279;  the  two  upper  lines  are  French  pronunciations,  the  two 


trii^tk 


i>Ttd,tk 


iofds 


ir^ei^tk 


Fig.  279. 

lower  ones  German.  In  French  the  p  is  surd  with  a  sonant 
explosion  ;  in  German  the  explosion  is  also  surd.  In  French 
the  b  is  sonant  during  its  last  portion  and  during  the  explo- 
sion ;  in  German  only  the  explosion  is  sonant. 

Similar  records  have  been  made^  on  an  American.  An  ex- 
ample is  given  in  Fig.  280.  The  breath  line  of  paet  shows 
the  explosion  of  p  at  ^,  a  rush  of  surd  air  from  2  to  S  con- 
stituting the  surd  explosion  of  p,  the  vibrations  of  ae,  and  the 

1  "KoDSSELOT,  Appiications  pratiques  de  la  phone'tique  exp&imentale.  La  Parole, 
1899  I  401. 

^  Rousselot,  U Enseignement  de  la  prononciatton  par  la  me.  La  Parole,  1901 
III  577. 


358 


PRODUCTION   OF  SPEECH 


occlusion  for  t;  the  cord  line  shows  quiescence  during  the 
occlusion  of  p,  the  advance  of  the  thyroid  cartilage  from  B  to 
S,  the  beginning  of  the  cord  vibrations  of  ae  at  3,  and  their 
cessation  for  t.  The  p  thus  ends  with  an  aspiration  consisting 
in  a  rush  of  surd  breath.     The  record  for  bsed  shows  sonancy 


Fig.  280. 

throughout  the  occlusion  of  b  from  1  to  ^,  a  sonant  explo- 
sion at  ^,  followed  by  the  curves  for  ae  and  d.  The  explosive 
rush  of  air  is  probably  much  weaker  than  for  p.  This  set  of 
records  showed  that  p  and  t  were  regularly  aspirated,  but  k 
not,  and  that  b  and  d  were  sonant  throughout  their  occlu- 
sions while  g  was  either  wholly  or  partially  sonant. 


^mvxWWWWUVW^MtfArt'V****^*^ 


t*irtt>Hn^H***H^t**,Vv*iMmft'^ 


aba 

Fig.  282. 


ama 

Fig.  283. 


RosAPELLY  registered  simultaneously  the  lip  closure  with 
the  apparatus  mentioned  on  page  354,  the  cord  vibrations  by 
an  electrical  vibrating  apparatus  on  the  larynx,  and  the  passage 
of  the  air  through  the  nose  by  a  tube  inserted  into  it  (Fig.  88). 
Records  of  French  apa,  aba  and  ama  are  given  in  Figs.  281  to 
283  (upper  line,  nose ;  middle  line,  larynx ;  bottom  line,  lips). 


SIMULTANEOUS   AND   SUCCESSIVE   MOVEMENTS     359 

Using  simultaneous  registration  for  the  larynx  by  RosA- 
PELLY'S  electrical  vibrator,  for  the  nose  by  a  tambour  (p. 
219)  and  for  the  lips  by  levers  connected  to  a  tambour 
(Fig.  278,  without  the  mouthpiece),  Rousselot^  obtained 
diagrams  like  that  shown  in  Fig.  284.  The  curve  from  the 
nose  indicates  the  issue  of  the  air  through  velar  relaxation 
(p.  346) ;  upward  movement  in  the  larynx  registration  can  be 
taken  to  show  vibration  of  the  cords,  the  single  vibrations 
seldom  appearing ;  in  the  lip  curve  upward  movement  shows 
increase  in  lip  pressure. 


^"'  ^                              ^.---^ 

" 

V   -V 

Ootids                                               — . lj- 

- 

t  - 

^^\                     M 

-'       V/^^^"^    ^ — 

— 

7n      ^    c.    vi    t   e  I   b   j  e- 

Fig.  284. 


Among  the  results  obtained  by  Roussblot  for  his  own 
dialect  of  French  —  without  consciousness  of  the  peculiarities 
—  the  following  may  be  noted  (I  have  not  specified  the 
varieties  of  the  vowels,  a^,  a^,  ag,  etc.,  or  their  lengths); 
I  have  ventured  to  add  physiological  and  psychological 
explanations  for  some  of  the  phenomena. 

The  nasalization  of  a  nasal  vowel  varies  with  the  nature  of 
the  preceding  sound,  being  complete  for  the  initial  position 
(as  a°ta")  and  after  s,  s  and  probably  all  the  continuants  (as 
in  so°,  se°,  sa°trie)  but  lacking  in  the  first  portions  after 
p,  b,  t,  d,  k,  g  (as  in  pa°s,  po",  ta",  ka").  In  the  case  of 
the  occlusives  mentioned,  the  velum  is  closed.     The  explo- 

1  RoussELOT,  Les  modifications  phongtiques  du  langage,  Rev.  des  pat.  gallo- 
rom.,  1891  IV,  V;  also  separate. 


360  PRODUCTION  OF  SPEECH 

sion  usually  occurs  through  the  mouth;  if  the  velum  is 
opened  instead  of  the  mouth,  the  explosion  is  nasal ;  if  both 
are  opened,  it  is  orinasal.  If  the  cords  do  not  sound  during 
the  explosion,  there  is  a  surd  breath  explosion.  To  produce 
a  surd  oral  explosion  the  velum  cannot  open  till  the  explosion 
is  over ;  if  it  then  opens  before  the  cords  begin  to  vibrate  for 
the  following  vowel,  a  silent  interval  occurs.  If  the  cords 
begin  to  vibrate  during  the  oral  explosion  and  before  the 
velum  opens,  the  result  is  a  glide  of  the  character  of  an  un- 
nasalized  vowel.  In  the  case  of  the  sonant  explosives  the 
cords  are  already  vibrating  during  the  explosion  and  the 
occlusion  must  be  followed  by  a  non-nasal  vowel  glide  unless 
the  explosion  is  to  be  nasal.  In  the  cases  of  s,  s,  etc.  the 
vowel  glide  may  be  very  short. 

The  consonants  z  and  z  are  nearly  always  surd  in  the 
middle  though  sonant  at  both  ends  (as  in  e"zur  '  un  jour  ;  ' 
aza,  an  artificial  group),  while  v  is  nearly  alwaj'S  completely 
sonant  (as  in  sivavforsave  '  si  vous  vous  forciez').  This 
may  possibly  be  due  to  the  elimination  of  the  breath  .pressure 
in  the  larynx  due  to  the  obstruction  in  the  mouth ;  the  pala- 
tograms  for  z  and  z  (Figs.  206,  207)  indicate  rather  consider- 
able closure,  but  d  and  g  have  still  more  closure  and  are  yet 
sonant.  The  cause  is  not  to  be  sought  in  some  association 
between  articulation  and  lung  pressure,  as  the  lung  action  is 
not  jerky. 

Final  sonants  often  become  surd  before  they  end,  on 
account  of  the  long  pause  for  which  the  larynx  prepares; 
thus  in  e°zurko]aviynomeynfcem  'un  jour  9a [=  il]y  avait  un 
homme  et  une  femme  '  the  first  m  is  entirely  sonant  while  the 
second  one,  occurring  just  before  a  short  pause,  is  half  surd. 

Surds  between  vowels  may  become  sonants  (as  in  to"- 
p.o^po"  'ton  pompon,'  lap.yzen  '  le  plus  jeune,'  sap.alav 
'  s'appelait').  This  is  due  to  the  greater  ease  in  maintaining 
the  glottal  position  as  compared  with  the  double  act  of  relaxing 
ai^d  then  tensing  the  cords.  This  gain  is  mental ;  it  saves 
two  changes  of  volition  with  the  necessity  of  auditorily 
verifying  the  results. 


SIMULTANEOUS  AND   SUCCESSIVE  MOVEMENTS    '361 


Simultaneous  sonation  and  nasalization  of  a  surd  were 
found  in  '  diable  ton  happeur,'  which  appeared  in  the  records 
as  '  djabXtuna^pSur  '  (Fig.  285),  the  p  actually  becoming  a 
nasalized  sonant  labial  somewhat  resembling  m.  The  phe- 
nomenon is  probably  due  in  the  first  place  to  the  avoidance 
of  glottal  readjustments,  for  the  reason  just  stated,  and  in  the 
second  place  to  the  greater  ease  of 
gradually  closing  the  velum  through 
p?  to  u  rather  than  very  suddenly  after 
a".  The  difficulty  of  the  rapid  velar 
action  may  lie  not  only  in  the  move- 
ment itself  but  also  in  the  dissolution 
of  its  association  with  cord  action 
through  the  preceding  sounds.  In  the 
following  examples  the  "  attached  to 
the  letter  for  an  occlusive  indicates 
velar  explosion. 

In  groups  of  occlusives  (p,  b,  t,  d,  k,  g)  with  fricatives  (f, 
V,  s,  z,  s,  z)  an  initial  surd  remains  such  but  an  initial  sonant 
often  becomes  surd  (as  in  kvuty  '  que  veux-tu  ?  '  but  dofyra 
'  refuser  ').  In  the  latter  case  there  is  a  partial  loss  of  cord 
action.  In  such  groups  between  vowels  there  is  most  often 
an  assimilation  of  the  first  consonant  to  the  second  in  respect 
to  sonancy,  very  rarely  of  the  second  to  the  first ;  sometimes 


Fig.  285. 


Fig.  286. 


the  two  retain  their  values.  Examples  were  found  in :  aboka 
for  abka,  pip.zi  '  pipes- y,'  upik.babje"  '  il  pique  bien  bien,' 
kopustboje"  '  §a  pousse  bien,'  pus.bje"  '  pouche  [tousse] 
bien  ! , '  ebokvuty  '  eh  bien !  que  veux-tu  ? , '  fob.opra°dr 
'  il  faut  bien  prendre, '  padokitpa"  '  pas  de  quitte  pain,  'e"- 
ledtopyl   '  un  lait  de   poule, '  zyg.oP3ti  '  joue,  petit, '   mo"- 


362  PRODUCTION  OF  SPEECH 

povopati  '  mon  pauvre  petit!,'  mapovtofcem.,,  'ma  pauvre 
femme!'  as  in  Fig.  286,  koekin3buz„paso''so  '  celui-ci  ne 
bouse  pas  son  sol,'  kunpuzopa  '  qu'il  ne  puisse  pas.'  The 
surd  forms  of  the  sonants  retain  their  mouth  action  and  do 
not  become  the  same  as  the  corresponding  surds,  and  con- 
versely ;  thus  bo  remains  distinct  from  p,  p«  from  b,  k.  from 
g,  etc.  (pp.  304,  317). 

When  a  surd  is  followed  by  1  or  m  it  sometimes  becomes 
sonant.  In  many  cases  of  tr  and  pr  the  t  and  p  are  sonant 
(as  in  uprfatana",  '  ils  pr^tendent'). 

In  liquids  the  presence  or  absence  of  the  cord  tone  during 
the  whole  or  part  of   the   sound   varies   from  case  to  case. 


Fig.  287. 

In  general,  initial  or  final  liquids  remain  sonant  or  become 
half  surd.  Between  a  vowel  and  a  surd  the  nasals  m  and 
n  and  also  1,  A,  r  and  ]  are  always  sonant.  Between  a  surd 
and  a  vowel  they  are  almost  always  sonant,  though  j  has  a 
marked  tendency  and  r,  1  and  A  a  less  tendency  to  become 
surd  during  part  of  the  length. 

In  an  investigation  by  Rotjsselot  ^  tracings  of  lip  pressure 
(p.  354),  larynx  action  (electrical  vibrator,  p.  267)  and  nasal 
breath  (p.  219)  were  made  on  a  native  of  Bonn,  a  native  of 
Biitow  (Further  Pomerania)  and  a  native  of  Hamburg. 

Fig.  287  gives  a  record  of  the  Pomeranian  dialect  for  '  wir 

woUen  nach  Eldena  laufen.'     The  dotted  lines  aid  in  com- 

* 

1  RoossELOT,  Recherches  de  phone'tique  exp&imentale  sur  la  marche  des  evolu- 
tions phonetiques  d'apres  quelqnes  dialectes  bas-allemands,  La  Parole,  1899  I  769. 


SIMULTANEOUS  AND  SUCCESSIVE  MOVEMENTS     363 

paring  corresponding  points  of  the  records.     The  approxi- 
mate boundaries  between  the  sounds  I  have  tried  to  indicate 
by  the  vertical   lines  at  the  bottom.     For  v  the  beginning 
IS  indicated  by  the  closing  of   the  lips  (rise  in  the  lower 
line)  and  of  the  velum  (fall  in  the  upper  line)  ;    the  lack 
of  vibrations  in  the  middle  line  indicates  that  it  is  surd  or 
that  the  cord   vibrations  are  y&tj  weak;    it  is  a  very  long 
sound.     The  lips  open  for  i  and  the  cords  vibrate.     The  lips 
again  close  for  v,  which  is  this  time  sonant.     The  lips  sepa- 
rate vertically  again  for  y,  still  more  for  1,  slightly  less  for  n 
and  most  for  a.     The  middle  line  indicates  that  y,  1,  n  and 
the  first  part  of  a  are  sonant,  the  latter  part  of  a  being  surd. 
The  top  line  indicates  complete  closure  of  the  velum  during 
Vo,  i,  V,  y  and  the  first  part  o,   1,  and  nasalization  of  the 
parts  of  1  and  a  adjacent  to  the  fully  nasalized  n.     A  pause 
with  slight  lip  movement  occurs  between  a  and  e.     The  lips 
come  gradually  nearer  throughout  e,  1  and  the  first  part  of 
n,  open  during  a,  close  during  1,  open  again  during  o,  close 
suddenly  for  the  implosion  of  p,  relax  slightly  but  do  not 
open  for  the  explosion  of  p,  and  remain  closed  during  the 
last  sound,  which  is  thus  m  and  not  n  as  written.     The 
nose  line  shows  that  the  portions  of  1  and  a  adjacent  to  n  are 
slightly  nasalized,  and  that  the  explosion   of  the  p  occurs 
entirely  through  the  nose.     The  p  is  thus  not  the  ordinary 
sound  but  the  nasal  explosive  p".     The  cord  line  indicates 
sonancy  up  to  the  implosion  of  p.     The  p  is  surd.     In  spite 
of  the  lack  of  vibrations  in  the  cord  line  their  presence  in 
the  nose  line   shows   that   the  m   is  sonant.      The  m  is  a 
long  sound  like  v ;  all  the  others  are  short  ones  of  about  the 
same  duration.     The  phrase  may  be  expressed  by  Vgivylnal- 
elnalop°ni.     The  record  makes  it  very  clear  that  each  part 
of  the  phrase  is  a  synthesis  of  continuous  movements   and 
any  separation  into  distinct  sounds  or  into  sounds  and  glides 
must  be  a  rather  arbitrary  one.     Other  records  of  the  same 
phrase  showed  like  results. 

Records  of  the  Bonn  pronunciation  of  '  ich  ging  meines 
Ganges  und  dachte  '  showed  that  '  ging  '  occurred  twice  (in 


364  PRODUCTION  OF  SPEECH 

slightly  slower  speech)  as  girik  and  five  times  (in  slightly 
faster  speech)  as  giii,  the  k  being  lost  between  r\  and  m, 
although  the  speaker  supposed  it  always  present.  In  pro- 
nouncing '  Ganges  '  the  speaker  supposed  himself  to  have 
always  said  gai^s  but  the  records  often  indicated  ganks. 
The  i  and  a  were  often  nasalized,  producing  gi°ti,  mi^nas, 
ga"Tiks  etc. 

The  supposedly  lost  k  of  juii  '  jung  '  in  the  Pomeranian 
dialect  often  appeared  in  the  records  (though  not  heard)  of 
'  dat  jung  Pirt '  which  was  spoken  as  dat  juTik  pirt.  In  the 
Bonn  dialect  a  supposedly  lost  final  n  of  '  vekofe  'was  found 
to  reappear  (though  not  noticed)  in  one  record  in  three  of 
'  de  al  Hemde  vekofe'  'die  alten  Hemden  verkaufen, '  the 
record  on  this  one  occasion  indicating  fskofan  and  on  the 
other  two  fakofa.  Such  appearances  of  sounds  supposed  to 
have  been  lost  in  the  history  of  the  dialect  seem  to  indicate 
the  transmission  of  unperceived  elements  of  a  language. 

Records  of  the  Pomeranian  pint  and  bint  showed  the  in- 
tonation of  the  larynx  starting  after  the  explosion  in  p  and 
near  the  beginning  of  the  explosion  in  b.  The  difference 
between  German  p  and  b  often  seems  small;  a  difference 
in  articulation  is  probably  always  present  (p.  304).  Medial 
b  between  vowels  was  found  to  be  sonant  throughout  in 
Pomeranian  but  often  surd  in  the  Bonn  dialect.  Not  only 
b  but  also  gy  V  and  d  were  often  found  to  be  surd  in  the 
Bonn  dialect. 

A  labial  maj'  labialize  the  following  sound,  lopn  ->■  lopm 
in  the  Pomeranian  (above)  and  Hamburg  dialects;  a  vowel 
between  two  nasals  or  followed  by  a  nasal  may  become  nasal- 
ized in  the  Bonn  dialect,  vai-\\e  ->■  mi'hie,  man  ->  ma"n ; 
a  consonant  may  be  exploded  nasally  on  account  of  a  pre- 
ceding nasal  (Bonn),  enda  ->  end"3,  embda  -*  emb"d"a  ;  a 
surd  may  become  a  sonant  when  followed  by  a  sonant,  but 
not  necessarily,  lopm  may-+lop.m  ;  a  surd  may  or  may 
not  be  changed  to  a  sonant  between  two  vowels  in  the  Bonn 
dialect,  hatyranox  may->  hat.yranox,  opemol  ->  op.emol. 
There  may  exist,  totally  unsuspected  by  the  ear,  a  tendency 


SIMULTANEOUS   AND   SUCCESSIVE  MOVEMENTS     365 

to  change  occlusives  to  fricatives.  In  one  case  of  the  Bonn 
dialect  the  lip  pressure  for  p  was  found  to  be  less  firm  than 
that  for  m  in  lopm  ;  in  one  of  the  Pomeranian  dialects  it  was 
found  to  be  no  stronger  than  that  for  v.  In  both  dialects 
there  appeared  a  tendency  to  nasalize  the  vowels ;  in  records 
of  the  Hamburg  dialect  this  tendency  was  very  strong. 

RoTJSSELOT  1  considers  it  to  be  proven  that  phonetic  trans- 
formations are  accomplished  by  degrees  and  that  if  they  are 
extended  over  considerable  territory  they  leave  traces  of 
their  various  stages;  that  they  are  to  be  considered  as  the 
products  of  physiological  tendencies  which  can  he  detected 
even  before  they  are  noticed  in  speech ;  that  they  show  sur- 
vivals of  past  forms  which  are  unnoticed  by  the  speaker  or 
the  hearer. 

Records  of  the  Italian  pronunciations  ^  of  several  "natives 
showed  variations  of  the  moment  at  which  the  cord  tone  begins 
in  combinations    of   surds  with 
sonant   consonants  and  vowels. 
In  the  following  typical  records 
the  upper  line  is  that   of  cord 
vibrations  registered  by  an  ex- 
ternal capsule   (Fig.    124),  the 
lower  line   that  from  a  mouth- 
piece   connected   to  a   tambour  -pia.  288. 
(p.  219).     In  making  compari- 
sons it  should   be  remembered   that  the  tambour  Y  axis  is 
curved  (p.  197).     The  tambour  curve  should  be  referred  to 
its  X  axis   by  a  curved   line.     The  vertical   lines   indicate 
corresponding  points  of  the  two  X  axes. 

In  the  record  for  totale  (Fig.  288)  the  vibrations  for  o  do 
not  begin  till  a  moment  after  the  t  has  exploded,  indicating  a 
rush  of  '  surd  air  '  between  the  t  closure  and  the  o.  The 
vibrations  for  a,  however,  begin  at  the  moment  of  the  explo- 
sion of  the  t.     The  record  shows  that  the  recording  lever  began 

1  RoussELOT,  as  before,  La  Parole,  1899  I  790. 

2  JossELYN,  itude  sur  la  phonetique  italienne,  These,  Paris,  1900 ;  also  in  La 
Parole,  1899  1 ;  1900  IL 


366 


PRODUCTION  OF  SPEECH 


its  fall  at  the  end  of  o  but,  owing  to  its  friction  and  inertia, 
did  not  have  time  to  descend  completely  before  the  explosion 
occurred;  the  moment  of  explosion  can  be  found  by  com- 
pleting the  curve  as  indicated  by  the  dotted  line.  These  two 
forms   of   t   are   of    frequent    occurrence   in   Italian.     The 

difference  between  a  t  with  a 
surd  explosion  and  one  with  a 
sonant  explosion  must  have  its 
effect  on  the  ear.  That  the 
sonant  explosion  may  or  may 
not  possess  the  cavity  tones  — 
and  therefore  the  mouth  con- 
figuration —  of  the  following 
vowel  has  been  shown  by  Hermann  (p.  45). 

The  record  for  slita  '  slitta  '  (Fig.  289)  shows  an  almost 
entirely  sonant  s  (or  s»),  a  very  long  t  closure,  a  long  surd  - 
explosion  and  the  vowel  a.  A  synchronic  dotted  curve 
shows  where  the  intonation  of  a  occurs  on  the  mouth  line. 
The  curve  along  which  the  recording  point  falls  when  the 
breath  ceases  to  act  is  shown  at  the  end  of  the  i  where  the 
breath  is  cut  off  by  the  t  closure ;  at  the  end  of  the  t  the  point 
does  not  fall  in  this  way  but  sinks  gradually,  indicating  a 
more   gradual   cessation  of  the  breath,  that  is,  simply  the 


Fio.  289. 


Fig.  290. 

fading  away  of  the  explosion  of  the  t.  All  records  of  Italian 
'  double  consonants  '  show,  just  as  in  this  case,  that  they  are 
never  double  movements,  but  single  consonants  lengthened 
^nd  intensified. 

In  the  record  of  riordinare  (Fig.  290)  the  cord  tone  started 
before  the  tongue  began  the  roll  for  the  first  r.     The  first  r 


SIMULTANEOUS  AND   SUCCESSIVE  MOVEMENTS     367 

showed   four  flaps,  the   second  r  apparently  one   somewhat 
complicated  one,  the  last  r  one  flap. 

In  the  record  of  at]ene  '  attiene  '  (Fig.  291)  a  long  t  ap- 
pears as  in  slita.  Its  explosion  does  not  die  away  like  most 
explosions  but  passes  into  a  surd  breath  involved  in  the 
'  consonant  i '. 

The  records  also  showed  that  in  the  occlusives  the  dis- 
tinctions of  sonancy  between  surd  p,  t  and  sonant  b,  d 
differ  in  each  individual;  that  in  a  true  sonant  the  cord 
tone  begins  during  the  occlusion  ('iozzina');  that  in  some 
initial  and  double  consonants  (as  in  '  acZc^entro '),  where  the 
muscular  wall  of  the  cavity  is  more  firmly  contracted,  the 
sonancy  ceases  before  the  explosion  owing  to  the  equalization 
of  the  air  pressure  above  and  below  the  glottis,  in  one  case 
ceasing  at  the  end  of  the 
glide-movement  from  a  to 
J  in  '  aggetivo ;  '  that  in 
one  form  of  surd  (aspirated 
surd)  the  vibrations  of  the 
following  vowel  begin  after 

the   explosion    is   finished 

-1       •       ,    i    r„    ,s  Fig.  291. 

(as   in      caino        shtta,  ); 

that  in  surds  the  vibrations  of  the  vowel  may  begin  before 
or  during  the  explosion  (as  in  '  avvocailo  ');  that  even  in  such 
a  surd  the  larynx  vibrations  may  begin  during  the  explosion 
but  nevertheless  may  be  marked  by  a  rush  of  air  later  in  the 
explosion  (as  in  '  fotale'  ).  Similar  conditions  seem  to  occur 
in  German  according  to  the  curves  published  by  Hekmank.^ 
The  character  of  '  consonant  i  and  u  '  in  Italian  has  been 
investigated  by  Josselyn.^  A  tambour  recording  the  breath 
current  (p.  219)  and  another  recording  from  the  exterior  of 
the  larynx  (p.  267)  gave  tracings  similar  to  those  just  dis- 
cussed.    In  '  piena  '  the  laryngeal  vibrations  begin  some  time 

1  Hermann,  Fortgesetzte  Untersuchun<jen  iiber  d.  Konsonanten,  Arch.  f.  d.  ges. 
Physiol.  (Pfluger),  1900  LXXXIII  1  ;  also  above,  Fig.  33. 

2  JossELTN,  Note  sur  i  et  u  consonnes,  c[e]  et  g[e]  en  italien,  La  Parole,  1899 
I  833;  iStude  sur  la  phonitique  italienne,  104,  The.se,  Paris,  1900;  also  in  La 
Parole,  1901  III  85. 


/     Xwtf^JmlUV*. 


368  PRODUCTION  OF  SPEECH 

after  the  p  has  exploded  while  in  '  pena  '  they  begin  almost  at 
the  same  time  as  the  explosion.  There  is  thus  a  current 
of  surd  breath  between  the  p  and  the  e  of  '  plena  '  while 
there  is  no  such  current  in  '  pena. '  That  the  sound  is  not 
simplj'  a  surd  i  is  shown  by  the  different  palatograms  for  '  pi ' 
of  '  pieno '  and  '  pi '  of  '  pia.'  The  word  is  thus  phoneti- 
cally p]eno.  Similar  results  were  obtained  in  comparing 
fjatiko  '  fianco'  with  fiXo  '  figiio,'  kjama  '  chiama'  with  kilo 
'  chilo,'  tjene  '  tiene  '  with  tenero  '  tenero,'  kjaro  '  chiaro  ' 
with  karo  '  caro.'  The  ]  was  surd  throughout  its  length, 
or  became  sonant  at  its  end  under  influence  of  the  follow- 
ing vowel.  When  a  sonant  consonant  was  followed  by  j 
as  in  bjeko  'bieco,'  vjeto  '  vieto, '  djetro  '  dietro,'  gjaco 
'  ghiaccio, '  the  explosion  of  the  consonant  was  weak ;  the  ] 
was  sonant  in  these  cases.  It  was  evident  throughout  that 
'  unsyllabic  i '  preceded  by  a  consonant  and  followed  by  a 
vowel  was  a  palatal  consonant  j  which  tended  to  unite  with 
the  preceding  consonant  and  modify  its  articulation.  The 
union  of  j  with,  and  the  modification  of,  the  consonant  were 
greater  as  the  places  of  articulation  were  more  nearly  alike ; 
the  labials  p  and  b  showed  little  influence  from  j  ;  t  and  d 
showed  more;  for  k  the  change  was  marked,  the  explosive 
in  kjaro  '  chiaro  '  losing  much  of  its  force  and  its  breath 
record  resembling  rather  that  of  the  fricative  in  fja'qko 
'  fianco,'  while  the  g  in  gjaco  'ghiaccio  '  gave  a  breath  record 
scarcely  differing  from  and  even  weaker  than  that  of  v.  A 
palatogram  showed  a  consonant  with  a  prepalatal  articulation 
between  t  and  k  to  exist  in  '  c  '  of  '  cece. '  This  articulation 
coincides  closely  with  that  of  ].  The  union  of  the  con- 
sonant and  3  was  probably  made  with  a  single  movement 
of  the  tongue  that  caused  an  occlusion  and  then  a  gradual 
opening.  This  sound  may  be  indicated  by  c,  its  sonant  by 
J.  A  similar  result  was  foi;nd  in  the  records  of  '  cielo.' 
These  words  would  thus  be  phoneticallj^  cece  and  celo. 
Likewise  '  gente  '  appeared  as  Jente.  This  hinders  us  from 
considering  Italian  c,  J  as  the  consonant  diphthongs  ts,  dz 
(p.  321).     A  palatogram  of  the  first  sound  in  '  ieri  '  showed 


SIMULTANEOUS  AND   SUCCESSIVE  MOVEMENTS     369 

that  it  was  the  consonant  ],  the  word  being  ]eri.  It  is  worth 
noting  that  in  general '  i '  has  a  vowel  character  where  it  cor- 
responds to  Latin  vowels  ('pia,  via ')  and  becomes  ]  where 
it  replaces  a  consonant  ('clarum-chiaro,'  '  flammam-fiamma  ') 
and  where  it  arises  from  diphthongization  ('  tenet-tiene  '). 

In  a  similar  manner  it  was  shown  that  in  '  puoi,  fuoco, 
quinto  '  there  was  a  wholly  or  partly  surd  w  after  the  initial 
consonant.  The  words  were  thus  phonetically  pwoi,  fwoko, 
kwinto.  This  consonant  w  was  often  very  weak  or  lacking 
in  some  pronunciations ;  '  puoi, '  for  example ,  being  the  same 
as  'poi.'  The  distinction  in  labial  action  was  clearly  shown 
between  w  and  u  in  records  of  the  projection  of  the  lips 
(p.  355).  This  consonant  w  is  a  common  Italian  develop- 
ment from  a  Latin  labial  vowel  (o  ->  uo  -*  wo)  or  consonant 
(5'M-*  kw). 

Simultaneous  records  of  the  air  issuing  from  the  mouth 
and  of  the  vibrations  of  the  larynx  (by  an  external  capsule) 
have  been  used  for  the  study  of  the  dialects  derived  from  the 
ancient  Armenian. i  In  the  popular  speech  of  Constantinople 
there  are  three  ways  of  pronouncing  the  sonants  b,  g,  d, 
dz,  dz,  namely:  1.  with  the  beginning  of  larynx  tone  preced- 
ing the  explosion  by  about  0.08';  2.  with  the  tone  begin- 
ning at  the  moment  of  explosion ;  3.  with  the  tone  beginning 
slightly  after  the  explosion,  by  0.01=  or  0.02^  There  are 
thus  in  fact  three  kinds  of  sonant  explosives ;  the  first,  corre- 
sponding exactly  to  the  French  sonants,  is  employed  in 
cases  of  emphasis ;  the  second,  corresponding  to  the  German 
sonants,  may  be  called  the  standard  sonants,  since  the  great 
majority  belong  to  this  class;  the  third  class,  appearing  only 
occasionally,  resembles  the  corresponding  surds  but  differs  in 
having  less  force  and  in  having  the  larynx  tone  earlier  in 
the  explosion.  In  the  literary  language  of  Constantinople 
and  in  the  dialect  of  Aslanbeg  these  sonants  are  regularly 
pronounced  like  the  aspirated  surds  (see  below)  but  have  less 
force;  sometimes,  however,  they  are  pronounced  as  in  the 
popular   speech.     In   the   dialects   of   Nouxa   and   Choucha 

1  Adjarian,  Les  explosives  de  I'ancien  arm^nien,  La  Parole,  1899  I  119. 

24 


370  PRODUCTION  OF  SPEECH 

these  sounds  are  fully  sonant;  the  larynx  vibrations  begin 
before  the  explosion,  sometimes  even  as  long  as  0.10^  before. 
In  the  dialects  of  Mouch  and  Sivas  they  have  formed  two 
distinct  classes ;  the  first  is  like  the  pronunciation  at  Nouxa 
and  Choucha;  in  the  second  the  consonant  is  pronounced 
with  more  force  than  in  the  first  class  and  the  mass  of  air 
emitted  is  larger;  in  both  classes  the  vibrations  generally 
begin  0.02^  to  0.03'  after  the  explosion.  The  unaspirated 
surds  p,  k,  t,  ts,  ts  are  considered  in  both  the  popular  and 
the  literary  speech  of  Constantinople  to  be  the  same  as  the 
sonants  and  are,  as  the  records  showed,  pronounced  in  exactly 
the  same  ways.  At  Aslanbeg  and  Sivas  they  have  also 
become  sonants,  the  vibrations  beginning  at  0.015*  to  0.08° 
before  the  explosion.  In  the  dialects  of  Nouxa,  Mouch  and 
Choucha  they  have  remained  surd  and  are  perfectly  distinct 
from  the  sonants  and  the  aspirated  surds.  The  aspirated 
surds  p",  k*",  t"",  ts*",  tS'^  fall  into  three  classes  in  both  the 
popular  and  literary  speech  of  Constantinople;  in  the  first 
the  vibrations  begin  at  0.01*  after  the  explosion;  in  the 
second  they  begin  just  as  the  explosion  begins ;  in  the  third 
they  begin  after  explosive  emission  of  air  is  completed  (or 
nearly  so)  —  the  first  and  third  classes  being  rare.  At  Mouch 
the  pronunciation  is  like  that  of  the  second  class  (standard) 
at  Constantinople.  In  the  dialects  of  Nouxa,  Choucha, 
Sivas  and  Aslanbeg  these  consonants  are  completely  surd. 
The  bearings  of  these  facts  on  the  phonetic  development  of 
Armenian  have  been  discussed ;  ^  the  resemblance  of  some 
of  the  Armenian  sounds  to  the  aspirates  of  the  Sanskrit  gram- 
marians had  already  been  noticed. ^ 

Simultaneous  registrations  of  the  movements  of  the  jaws 
and  lips  and  of  the  tension  of  mouth-floor  (p.  355)  have 
been  made  by  Gallee  and  Zwaardemakee.^    Some  of  their 

1  Rousselot-Meillbt,    Note    sur    les    evolutions    phongtiques.   La    Parole, 
1899  I  127. 
*      2  SiEvERS,  Grundziige  d.  Phonetik,  5.  Aufl.,  171,  Leipzig,  1901. 

3  GallSk  xind  Zwaardemaker,  Veber  Graphik  d.  Sprachlaute  namentlich 
der  explosivae,  Neuere  Sprachen,  1900  VIII  8. 


SIMULTANEOUS  AND   SUCCESSIVE  MOVEMENTS     371 


js/\/\/\f\M\/\tH'j\t^M^N^N^W^N^ 


Fig.  292. 


records  are  given  in  Figs.  292  and  293.     Eacli  wave  in  the 

time  line  at  the  bottom  indicates  ^^  of  a  second.     The  ver- 
tical   checks    on    the 

curves    indicate    syn- 
chronous positions    of 

the   recording   levers. 

The  upper  line  in  each 

case    shows    the    jaw 

movement;  depression 

indicates  lowering   of 

the  jaw.     The  upward 

curves  in   the  second 

line  indicate  tension  of 

the    upper   lip.      The 

rise  in  the  third  line 

indicates    increase    of 

tension  of  the  floor  of 

the  mouth  cavity. 

The  curves  in  Fig.  292  for  mowoder  '  moeder '  spoken  in 

the  Deventer  dialect  show  lowering  of  jaw  for  o  and  e  and 

tension  of  the  lip  for  m  and  w. 
The  tensing  of  the  mouth-floor  be- 
gins during  m,  increases  strongly 
during  the  rise  of  the  tongue  for  o, 
relaxes  somewhat  during  w,  in- 
creases again  for  o,  maintains 
itself  during  the  energetic  tongue 
articulation  of  d,  increases  during 
the  raising  of  the  tongue  for  e  and 
falls  for  r. 

For  mudar  '  moeder '  in  the 
North  Holland  dialect  the  records 
are  given  in  Fig.  293.  The  jaw 
movements  are  analogous  but 
much  more  energetic;  the  lip  is 
tensed  with   much   more   energy 

for  m;  the  mouth-floor  follows  in  general  the  same  course 

as  before. 


-V- 


7n 


rr. 


*f"—  ■"^' 


r-r 


Fig.  293. 


372 


PRODUCTION  OF  SPEECH 


That  a  vowel  may  have  an  influence  not  only  on  the  pre- 
ceding consonant  but  also  on  the  vowel  before  this  con- 
sonant has  been  shown  by  Laclotte.^  An  exploratory  bulb 
(p.  333)  was  placed  between  the  tongue  and  the  palate  and 
a  breath  receiver  (p.  219)  placed  before  the  mouth;  they  were 
attached  to  two  tambours.  The  records  showed  that  the  tongue 
position  during  the  consonant  is  lower  in  ba  than  in  bi,  in.za 
than  in  zi,  in  za  than  in  zi.  Laclottb  considers  the  records 
to  show  that  the  tongue  takes,  for  the  beginning  of  the  work 

of  articulation  of  the  syllable, 
the  position  necessary  for  the 
vowel  and  maintains  it  through- 
out the  consonant  and  its 
explosion.  In  da  the  d-artic- 
ulation  is  frontal,  in  di  it  is 
rather  dorsal.  Records  of  ela 
and  eli  showed  that  the  artic- 
ulations differed  for  e,  the 
tongue  being  higher  and  nearer 
to  the  i  position  in  eli.  Similar 
results  were  found  for  eba  and 
ebi,  venta  and  venti.  The  in- 
fluence of  a  vowel  on  the  artic- 
ulation of  the  vowel  of  the 
preceding  syllable  shows  itself 
in  the  tendency  to  vowel  har- 
mony and  renders  it  possible  to 
explain  why  '  illi '  -^  French  '  il '  but '  ilia  '  -^  French  '  elle, ' 
'  viginti '  -*  '  vingt '  but  '  triginta '  -^  '  trente, '  and  similar 
cases.  The  auditory  factor  in  vowel  harmony  and  the  ten- 
dency to  similarity  in  movements  have  been  considered  above 
(p.  121). 

The  method  of  attacking  historical  problems  by  experi- 
mental methods  may  be  effectively  illustrated  by  an  investi- 
gation by  Laclotte.^  The  words  aliroKo^  (goat-herd)  and 
^ovk6\o<;  (ox-herd)  are  evidently  composed  of  two  portions ; 

1  Laclotte,  L' Harmonie  vocalique.  La  Parole,  1899  I  177. 


Fig.  294. 


SIMULTANEOUS  AND   SUCCESSIVE  MOVEMENTS     373 

the  first  designates  the  animal,  al^  (goat)  and  /SoO?  (ox) ;  the 
second  is  related  to  the  Inao-European  root  qel  which  is  found 
in  Latin  as  *quel,  whence  inquilinus,  oolo,  etc.  In  the  occi- 
dental European  languages  the  evolution  of  q  into  k  or  p 
has  been  independent  of  the  neighboring  vowels,  whereas  in 
Greek  it  became  regularly  t  before  t  or  e ;  «  before  o  and  after 
ov  or  ib;  and  tt  before  o  and  after  e,  i,  etc.  Why  should  the" 
labialization  that  occurs  after  the  other  vowels,  not  occur 
after  ov? 

Using  the  vulcanite  strip  (p.  380)  Laclotte  recorded  the 
tongue  positions  for  his  pronunciations  of  e,  i,  o,  u  and  ko ; 
the  typical  sagittal  diagrams  are  given  in  Fig.  294.  For 
u  the  tongue  is  drawn  back,  raised  and  held  at  5°™  from 
the  palate,  touching  the  edges  with 
the  point  of  articulation  at  the  last 
molar.  The  action  for  ko  is  very 
similar  to  that  for  u.  For  e  and  i 
the  action  is  quite  different.  It  is 
evident  that  it  is  much  easier  to 
pass  from  the  u  than  from  the  e  or  i 
to  the  ko  position.     In  the  case  of  a  j-j^,  295. 

general  tendency  to  change  ko  to  po 

this  tendency  would  be  favored  after  e  and  i  but  resisted  after 
u ;  the  p  would  afford  opportunity  for  the  tongue  adjustments 
after  e  and  i  while  k  is  easiest  between  u  and  o. 

With  an  exploratory  bulb  (p.  333)  between  the  lips, 
another  at  the  point  of  articulation  of  k  and  a  breath  mouth- 
piece (p.  219)  pierced  to  allow  the  lip  tube  to  pass,  Laclotte 
obtained  the  records  shown  in  Figs.  295  to  297.  For  bukolos 
(Fig.  295)  the  lip  line  shows  the  closure  for  b;  the  tongue 
line  shows  the  small  posterior  rise  for  b,  the  larger  one  for  u, 
and  the  still  larger  one  for  k,  followed  by  the  very  small  (pos- 
terior) one  for  s;  the  breath  line  shows  the  explosion  for  b, 
the  air  current  for  u,  the  closure  and  explosion  for  k  and  the 
air  current  for  the  following  sounds.  The  set  of  movements 
in  uk  is  continuous  with  easy  transitions.  For  bupolos 
(Fig.   296)  the    lip  line   shows   the  two  closures  for  b  and 


374  PRODUCTION  OF  SPEECH 

p ;  the  tongue  line  shows  the  posterior  action  for  u  with  less 
posterior  action  for  p  and  none  for  o  (but  with  some  anterior 
action  for  o,  Fig.  294) ;  the  breath  curve  shows  the  closure 
for  p.     There  is  more  than  double  the  amount  of  lip  work 

and  more  tongue  work  owing  to 
the  changes  between  different  arti- 
culations. The  form  */Sou7roXo? 
would  be  more  difficult  than 
/3ovKo'Xo9.  In  aipolos  (Fig.  297) 
the  lip  line  shows  the  pressure  for 
p,  the  posterior  tongue  action  is 
"''  ^    ■  small,  the  breath  curve  is  marked; 

the  tongue  at  i  is  far  from  its  position  for  k  but  is  readily 
relaxed  to  the  p  position.  The  tendency  of  g  to  p  is  thus 
favored  in  al-n-o\o<s. 

Simultaneous  records  may  be  made  of  the  curve  of  speech 
by  the  methods  described  in  Part  I,  and  of  any  of  the  mus- 
cular activities  by  the  methods  described  in  this  Part. 

RoussELOT^  has  made  simultaneous  records  of  the  curve 
of  speech  and  of  a  muscular  movement  by  using  a  phonauto- 
graph  (Ch.  II)  and  an  exploratory  bulb  (Fig.  245),  and  also 
of  the  curve  of  speech  and  the  breath  pressure  by  attaching 
the  phonautograph  to  one  arm  of  a  Y-tube,  a  tambour  to  the 
other  and  a  mouthpiece  to  the  stem.  Some  of  his  results  will 
be  briefly  mentioned.  Characteristic  records  are  given  in 
Figs.  298  and  299;  they  were  taken  on  different  occasions 
and  do  not  refer  to  identical  sounds. 
Fig.  298  shows  the  records  of  lip  pres- 
sure and  voice  vibrations  in  the  middle 
portion  of  apa.  The  gradual  closing  and 
opening  of  the  lips  is  seen  in  the  upper 
line ;  the  closure  begins  before  the  cords 
cease  to  vibrate ;  the  a-p  glide  is  thus 
sonant.  The  opening,  p-a  glide,  is  likewise  sonant.  Fig. 
299  shows  the  curve  of  breath  pressure  from  the  mouth  and  the 
speech  curve.  The  a-p  glide  is  sonant;  the  explosion  of  the  p  is 
likewise  sonant.     Tracings  of  the  tongue  pressure  against  the 

1  EoussELOT,  Principes  de  phonetique  experimentale,  353,  Paris^  1901. 


Fig.  297. 


SIMULTANEOUS  AND  SUCCESSIVE  MOVEMENTS     375 

rear  part  of  the  palate,  and  of  the  speech  curve  during  the  vowel 
a,  showed  the  following  formation.  From  its  position  of  rest 
against  the  palate  the  tongue  descended  to  a  minimum  position ; 
the  tongue  then  gradually  rose  to  a  position  of  maximum  articu- 


FiG.  298. 

lation  and  gradually  fell  again  to  a  position  lower  than  the 
first  minimum.  This  movement  was  probably  compounded 
of  a  gradual  fall  of  the  jaw  and  a  fall-rise-fall  of  the  tongue. 
The  voice-tone  began  during  the  fall  to  the  first  minimum ; 
its  intensity  rapidly  rose  to  a  fairly  maintained  maximum  and 
fell  with  the  relaxation  of  articulation  at  the  close ;  its  pitch 
followed  about  the  same  course.  Analogous  results  were 
found  for  other  vowels.  Records  of  the  speech  curve  and 
the  breath  pressure  at  the  mouth  for  aj  a  and  aia  showed  for 
i  little  diminution  in  the  intensity  of  either  during  i  as  com- 


FlG.  299. 


pared  with  a,  but  for  j  a  gradual  diminution  of  both  during 
the  first  and  last  portions  [on-  and  off-glides]  and  practical 
loss  of  the  vibrations  during  the  middle  portion.  In  the  com- 
bination  aga— a  surd  between  two   vowels  — the   change 


376  PRODUCTION   OF  SPEECH 

from  a  to  5  [the  a-g  glide]  and  from  5  to  a  [the  5-a  glide] 
appears  in  the  records  to  be  a  sonant  g,  which  must  be 
nearly  identical  with  ].  Some  resemblance  was  found  be- 
tween the  speech  curve  during  1  or  r  and  that  during  the 
neighboring  vowels.  One  example  of  lingual  r  showed  about 
32  flaps  a  second,  a  cord  tone  of  about  140  frequency,  and  a 
lower  resonance  tone  of  about  450.  In  asa  the  changes  from 
a  to  s  and  from  s  to  a  were  gradual;  similar  results  were 
found  for  afa,  aza,  and  ava.  In  aba,  ama,  ata,  ada,  aka, 
aga  the  speech  vibrations  recorded  from  the  mouth  quickly 
lost  their  amplitude  as  the  occlusion  was  made  and  did  not 
regain  them  until  it  was  almost  completely  over.  The  passage 
from  the  vowel  to  the  occlusion  seemed  to  be  more  sudden 
in  French  than  in  German.  In  apa,  ata,  aka  two  types  of 
explosion  were  found.  In  one  the  speech  vibrations  appeared 
with  the  first  portion  of  air  at  the  explosion ;  in  the  other 
there  was  a  considerable  interval  between  the  beginning  of  the 
explosion  and  the  beginning  of  the  vibrations.  The  latter 
type  occurred  in  German  and  in  emphatic  French,  the  former 
in  ordinary  French.  In  aba,  ada,  aga  the  speech  vibrations 
appeared  at  the  first  moment  of  the  explosion,  as  would  be 
expected  from  the  continued  vibration  of  the  cords  during 
the  occlusion. 

In  concluding  this  chapter  I  may  point  out  1.  that  the 
intention  to  perform  two  movements  simultaneously  is  never 
perfectly  executed;  2.  that  the  character  of  any  movement 
depends   on   other  movements  occurring  at  the  same  time; 

3.  that  it  depends  on  the  immediately  preceding  movements ; 

4.  that  simultaneous  movements  become  associated  with  a 
single  intention;  5.  that  a  course  of  movement  is  to  be  con- 
sidered as  a  fluctuation  in  muscular  action  rather  than  as  a 
succession  of  sharply  defined  separate  movements. 

The  adjustments  of  large  groups  of  simultaneous  and  suc- 
cessive movements  in  the  flow  of  speech  depend  on  auditory 
,  and  inotor  habits. 

The  speech  experiences  of  an  individual  under  given  cir- 
cumstances associate  themselves  together  and  with  the  cir- 


SIMULTANEOUS   AND   SUCCESSIVE  MOVEMENTS     377 

cumstances.  Two  or  more  different  sets  of  habits  are 
formed,  and  these  may  be  associated  with  different  circum- 
stances. Cases  are  frequent  of  children  with  a  foreign  nurse 
speaking  the  foreign  tongue  whenever  addressed  by  the 
nurse,  even  though  she  may  use  the  native  tongue. 

In  the  same  speaker  the  somewhat  different,  though  corre- 
sponding, sounds  of  two  languages  will  usually  be  associated 
readily  in  each  lauguage  singly  but  less  readily  from  one 
language  to  another.  German  words  are  spoken  with  more 
difficulty  when  cited  in  the  middle  of  an  English- sentence 
than  when  used  alone.  This  is  not  due  to  any  physiological 
difficulty,  but  to  interruption  in  the  natural  associations  of 
voluntary  movements  (p.  158).  The  so-called  'basis  of 
articulation  '  (p.  113)  is  a  system  of  habits  of  simultaneous 
and  successive  motor  impulses.  The  mental  habits  are  best 
formed  by  confining  the  instruction  exclusively  to  the  sounds 
of  the  language  being  taught;  alternate  reading  and  trans- 
lation of  a  foreign  tongue  makes  the  acquirement  more 
difficult  (p.  151). 

The  importance  of  early  training  in  pronouncing  various 
languages  correctly  is  deducible  from  the  general  law  that 
habits  formed  in  childhood  are  the  most  permanent  ones. 
In  spite  of  later  correction  the  old  habits  may  often  appear 
in  cases  of  fatigue  ^  or  of  excitement.  Vietor  relates  ^  an 
observation  of  an  actress  who  in  emotional  scenes  used  her 
native  "y,  j  in  various  German  words  instead  of  the  g  required 
by  the  rules  of  the  stage.  I  have  heard  a  German  '  Gymna- 
siallehrer  '  drop  back  into  his  native  South  German  dialect  in 
the  process  of  relating  an  exciting  experience. 

In  forming  habits  of  speech  the  movements  should  be  made 
as  correctly  as  possible  from  the  start.  Every  incorrect  or 
imperfect  movement  tends  to  create  a  habit  of  its  own,  which 
must  be  overcome  (p.  158)  if  improvement  is  to  be  made.  In 
the  formation  of  a  habit  the  immediately  noticeable  result 

1  HoPFNER,  Ueher  d.  qeistige  Ermudung  d.  Schulkmder,  Zt.  f.  Psych,  u.  Physiol. 

d   Sinn,  1893  VI  191 

^  Vietor,  Elemente  d.  Phonetik,  4.  Aufl.,  169,  Leipzig,  1898. 


378  PRODUCTION  OF  SPEECH 

does  not  always  bear  a  fixed  relation  to  the  amount  of  prac- 
tice. It  has  been  established  by  experiments  on  practice  and 
habit  that  the  strength  ^  and  precision  of  control,^  after  increas- 
ing slowly  for  the  initial  stage,  then  show  a  stage  of  rapid 
gain  after  which  the  increase  is  very  slow.  The  highly  im- 
portant law  ^  that  '  it  is  intense  effort  which  educates '  has 
been  estabUshed  for  the  telegraphic  language ;  it  is  probably 
valid  for  all  habits. 


References 

For  the  physiology  of  simultaneous  movements :  see  works  on  physi- 
ology as  in  References  to  Ch.  XV.  For  the  psychology  of  simultaneous 
and  successive  action  :  Wundt,  GrundzUge  d-  physiol.  Psychologie,  4. 
Aufl..,  Leipzig,  1893;  Vorlesungen  ii.  Menschen- u.  Thierseele,  3.  Aufl., 
Leipzig,  1897 ;  trans.  London  and  New  York,  1894.  For  the  habits  of 
articulation  :  Sibvers,  Grundz.  d.  Phonetik,  5.  Aufl.,  114,  Leipzig,  1901; 
Sweet,  Primer  of  Phonetics,  69,  Oxford,  1890 ;  Beyer,  Franzbsische 
Phonetik,  2.  Aufl.,  59,  Kothen,  1897;  Vietor,  Elemente  d.  Phonetik,  4. 
Aufl.,  262,  Leipzig,  1898;  Passy,  Changements  phonetiques,  245,  Thfese, 
Paris,  1891. 

1  Fechnee,  Ueber  d.  Gang  d.  Muskeliibung,  Ber.  d.  k.  sachs.  Ges.  d.  Wiss., 
math.-phys.  Kl.,  1857,  IX  113. 

2  Bryan  and  Harter,  Studies  in  the  physio!,  and  psychol.  of  the  telegraphic 
language,  Psychol.  Rev.  1897,  IV  27;  Johnson,  Researches  in  practice  and  habit. 
Stud.  Yale  Psych.  Lab.,  1898  VI  .51. 

"  Bryan  and  Haetee,  as  before,  50. 


CHAPTER   XXVII 

VOCAL   CONTROL 

The  degree  of  contraction  of  a  muscle  is  governed  by  the 
amount  of  stimulation  from  its  nerve  (p.  191).  When  a  con- 
traction of  a  definite  nature  has  to  be  performed,  the  amount 
of  this  stimulation  must  be  regulated  by  reference  to  the  con- 
dition of  the  muscle  at  each  moment  of  its  action.  When 
several  muscles  act  together,  the  subordinate  centers  for 
separate  muscles  are  controlled  by  higher  centers  for  group- 
action  (p.  192). 

The  combined  action  of  groups  of  muscles  requires  the  co- 
ordination of  several  centers  of  regulation  by  a  higher  center. 
Thus,  the  production  of  a  tone  of  constant  character  re- 
quires regulation  not  only  of  the  thyroarytenoid,  cricoaryte- 
noid and  other  laryngeal  muscles,  but  also  of  the  breathing 
muscles.  The  production  of  any  concrete  sound  requires 
regulation  not  only  of  these  muscles  but  also  of  the  cavity 
muscles  and  —  for  expression,  gesture,  posture,  etc.  —  of 
most  of  the  other  muscles  of  the  body. 

Vocal  movements  are  controlled  by  systems  of  centers. 
The  center  for  the  control  of  each  single  muscle  lies  in  the 
spinal  cord  or  in  the  basal  portion  of  the  brain.  Centers  for 
automatic  control  of  separate  activities,  as  of  breathing,  laryn- 
geal action,  etc.,  lie  at  higher  levels,  namely,  in  the  bulb  (p.l93). 
Centers  for  voluntary  control  of  the  separate  activities  are 
found  in  the  cortex  of  the  cerebrum  in  the  anterior  and  pos- 
terior central  convolutions  (for  the  head  muscles  of  the  right 
side  in  the  region  between  '  Arm  '  and  '  Speech '  in  Fig.  57,  for 
the  trunk  muscles  in  the  region  above  '  Arm.')     The  centers 


380  PRODUCTION  OF  SPEECH 

for  voluntary  control  of  combined  activities  are  also  in  the 
cortex  (for  vocal  movements  at  '  Motor  words  '  in  Fig.  57.) 
They  are  all  subordinated  to  the  centers  for  ideas  of  speech  (in 
front  of  '  Motor  words '  in  Fig.  57)  and  these  in  turn  to  the 
centers  of  thought  supposed  to  be  located  in  portions  of  the 
frontal,  parietal  and  temporal  lobes  (^F,  P,  T,  association 
centers  of  FlechsigI).  The  scheme  of  subordination  is 
partly  shown  in  Fig.  58. 

Any  center  may  act  to  a  great  degree  independently  but  its 
intimate  connection  with  the  others  makes  it  highly  probable 
that  even  such  independent  ■  action  is  influenced  by  their  con- 
dition. For  example,  we  may  safely  say  that  although  the 
contraction  of  the  thyroarytenoid  muscle  is  brought  about 
directly  by  its  special  center  it  is  nevertheless  influenced  at 
each  instant  not  only  by  the  activities  of  the  centers  for  the 
other  laryngeal  muscles,  of  those  for  the  pharynx,  tongue,  lip, 
thorax,  etc.,  and  of  the  higher  ones  for  song  and  speech,  but 
also  by  the  activities  of  the  still  higher  centers  of  mental  life. 
The  intimate  connection  of  all  parts  of  the  nervous  system 
leads  us  to  suppose  that  the  action  of  such  a  single  center  is 
influenced  to  a  greater  or  less  degree  by  the  activities  of  every 
nerve  center  and  that  thus  it  stands  in  connection  with  every 
part  of  the  body.  Experiments  on  the  nervous  and  mental 
reactions  of  the  vaso-motor  system,  of  the  heart,  of  the 
muscles  of  the  sweat  glands,  bladder,  anus,  etc.,  make  it  prob- 
ably safe  to  say  that  the  production  of  any  vocal  sound  is 
accompanied  by  nerve  impulses  to  and  from  every  organ  of 
the  body.  Vocal  sounds  of  a  certain  character,  such  as  a 
clear,  smooth,  energetic  phrase  in  song,  become  associated 
with  the  regulation  not  only  of  the  vocal  muscles  but  also 
of  those  of  the  arms  and  hands,  and,  in  fact,  the  entire  bod}'. 
The  disturbance  of  any  of  these  by  restraint  or  unnatural 
posture  interferes  —  to  a  greater  or  less  degree,  depending 
on  the  individual  and  on  circumstances  —  with  the  vocal 
action.      To  produce  the  proper   modulation  the    singer   or 

1  Flechsig,  Gehirn  und  Seele,  Leipzig,  1896  ;  Die  Lokalisation  d.  geist. 
Vorgange,  Leipzig,  1896. 


VOCAL    CONTROL  381 

speaker   should    put  his   entire   body   into   the   appropriate 
condition. 

On  the  psychological  side  we  can  draw  analogous  con- 
clusions. 

In  first  attempting  to  make  a  new  sound  or  in'  attempting 
to  notice  the  details  of  a  speech  movement,  we  are  specially 
'  conscious  '  of  the  movement  or  group  of  movements.  As  the 
movement  is  repeated,  it  occurs  with  less  and  less  attention 
until  it  is  made  with  no  distinct  knowledge  of  the  perform- 
ance ('  automatically  '  in  one  sense).  In  the  last  case  it  is  said 
to  be  quite  '  unconscious, '  although  when  reminded  of  it  we 
may  often  remember  a  conscious  fact  that  passed  unnoticed  at 
the  time.  Even  movements  of  which  we  can  obtain  no  definite 
consciousness,  such  as  those  of  the  muscles  of  the  diaphragm 
or  the  larynx,  are  probably  represented  in  consciousness 
by  faint  elements,  for  their  influence  on  other  elements  can 
be  proved.  With  a  pathological  degree  of  attention  they 
may  come  distinctly  into  consciousness,  as  in  hypochondria. 
If  the  term  '  consciousness  '  is  not  limited  to  what  is  distinctly 
present  in  mind,  it  is  not  too  much,  I  believe,  to  assert  that 
all  muscular  movements  are  accompanied  by  some  degree  of 
consciousness. 

If  objection  is  made  to  the  use  of  the  word  '  consciousness  ' 
in  such  a  broad  sense,  we  may  say  that  all  centrally  originated 
movements  represent  mental  phenomena,  of  some  of  which 
we  are  distinctly  conscious,  of  others  less  conscious,  and  of 
still  others  '  unconscious  '  in  the  usual  meaning  of  the  word. 
'  Conscious  '  might  be  used  as  a  term  representing  a  phenom- 
enon varying  between  a  maximum  and  zero ;  ordinarily  it  is 
used  to  represent  it  between  a  maximum  and  an  undefined 
lower  limit,  beyond  which  the  phenomenon  is  said  to  be  "  un- 
conscious.' To  conform  to  ordinary  usage  I  shall  use  '  con- 
scious '  in  the  meaning  of  fully  conscious,  and  shall  speak  of 
'  semi-conscious  '  and  '  unconscious  '  as  usual.  '  Mental ' 
refers  to  any  phenomenon  that  can  be  proved  to  affect  any 
element  that  may  be  '  conscious. '  The  whole  motor  produc- 
tion of  speech  is  thus  to  be  treated  not  only  as  a  physiological 
mechanism  but  also  as  a  psychological  process. 


382  PRODUCTION  OF  SPEECH 

The  differences  in  tlie  degree  of  consciousness  of  the  sensa- 
tions of  movement  are  evident  in  the  case  of  the  vocal  organs. 
We  are,  under  ordinary  conditions,  clearly  conscious  of  the 
positions  and  movements  of  the  lips,  much  less  so  of  those  of 
the  tongue,  and  completely  unconscious  of  those  of  the  velum 
and  interior  of  the  larynx.  Moreover,  we  cannot  in  any  way 
acquire  consciousness  of  some  of  them.  No  one  can  feel  the 
contact  between  the  velum  and  the  rear  wall  of  the  pharynx 
or  gain  even  the  remotest  notion  of  the  action  of  the  muscles 
within  the  larynx.  As  already  pointed  out  (p.  247),  even 
the  simplest  facts  of  laryngeal  action  were  learned  only  by 
aid  of  the  laryngoscope,  and  our  uncertainty  to-day  concerning 
the  interaction  of  the  laryngeal  muscles  is  defined  by  the 
limits  of  clinical  and  experimental  methods.  I  know  of  only 
one  case  in  which  the  internal  action  of  the  larynx  was  sup- 
posed to  be  observable  in  consciousness;  the  result  was  the 
supposition  of  a  tone  produced  by  the  anatomically  impossible 
contraction  of  the  larynx  below  the  glottis.  The  notion  of 
many  phonetists  that  any  very  definite  knowledge  can  be 
gained  of  tongue  action  by  attending  to  its  sensations  is  a 
delusion  of  a  kind  familiar  to  psychologists. 

Several  factors  of  vocal  control  are  now  to  be  considered : 
1.  reflex-tonus ;  2.  force  of  movement ;  3.  accuracy  of 
movement;  4.  precision  of  movement;  5.  accuracy  of  co- 
ordination ;  6.  quickness  of  response ;  7.  quickness  of  move- 
ment ;  8.  forms  of  sensory-motor  control ;  9.  ideo-motor 
control ;  10.  general  voluntary  control.  Another  important 
topic,  the  adjustment  of  simultaneous  and  successive  move- 
ments, has  been  considered  in  detail  in  the  preceding  chapter. 

Even  the  muscles  apparently  at  rest  in  the  body  are 
contracted  to  some  extent.  The  utmost  voluntary  relaxation 
of  the  hand  hung  over  the  edge  of  a  table  is  not  complete ; 
during  sleep  it  relaxes  still  more.  The  muscles  of  the  face 
relax  in  fatigue  and  sleep.  This  condition  of  faint  continual 
contraction  has  been  named  tonus;  it  is  due  to  continuous 
mild  nerve  stimulations  sent  from  the  spinal  cord  and  brain  in 
response  to  sensations  from  the  skin  and  elsewhere  (Beond- 


VOCAL   CONTROL  383 

GEEST  reflex).  The  view  that  it  is  due  to  centrally  originated 
nerve  action  is  erroneous;  it  has  been  clearly  proved  that 
there  is  no  tonal  action  of  the  central  nervous  system. 

The  effect  of  the  degree  of  tonus  on  song  and  speech  has 
not  been  experimentally  investigated.  It  may  be  suggested 
that  flabby  muscles  in  the  resonance  cavities  would  diminish 
the  duration  of  the  free  vibrations  on  account  of  the  loss  of 
energy  at  the  soft  walls ;  this  may  be  expressed  as  an  increase 
of  the  factor  of  friction  k  in  the  formula  on  p.  5.  The  effect 
on  the  ear  would  be  a  change  in  the  '  color  '  of  the  vocal 
sound  in  a  way  still  undefined  and  yet  readily  recognizable 
in  the  depressing  voices  of  weak  or.sick  persons  in  compari- 
son with  a  stimulating  healthy  voice.  Such  changes  in 
color  appear  as  the  result  of  fatigue,  ill-health,  and  other 
devitalizing  conditions;  in  smaller  degr^ .they  result  from 
any  disturbance  —  mental  or  bodily,  such  as'grief,  disappoint- 
ment, colds,  the  missing  of  a  meal,  etc.  —  thp^  diminishes 
the  vitality  of  the  nerve  centers.  '*<V  j 

The  attempt  is  instinctively  made  by  the  speaker  or^^inger 
to  correct  such  a  fault  Iw  voluntary  innervation  of  the  &f»g-T 
cles;  this  cannot  succeed  perfectly  because  an  increase  M  t±^, 
innervation  brings  about- cdffti^ctions  of  associated  and  ap-^p*, 
tagonist  muscles  with  the  result  of  changed  conditions  and 
changed  sounds.  Such  extra  muscular  effort  is,  moreover, 
very  fatiguing. 

The  lacking  tonus  can  often  be  temporarily  replaced  by 
drugs  that  act  upon  the  nervous  system;  among  them  are 
tea,  coffee,  strychnine  and  other  tonics.  There  is  evidence 
to  show  that  it  can  be  temporarily  or  permanently  improved 
by  influence  —  success,  encouragement  —  that  stimulates 
mental  activity. 

The  amount  of  tonus  can  often  be  measured  by  a  tonal 
dynamometer  (or  'tonometer')  consisting  essentially  of  a 
spring  that  registers  the  amount  of  pressure  required  to 
impress  the  muscle. 

The  force  of  the  movement  depends  on  the  amount  of  stimu-        .^ 
lus  sent  to  the  muscle.     The  muscles  contracted  to  perform  a 


384  PRODUCTION   OF  SPEECH 

movement  include  not  only  those  directly  involved  but  also 
their  antagonists.  This  requires  an  excess  of  eifort  over 
what  might  be  expected,  but  when  the  innervations  are 
properly  coordinated  this  excess  is  not  necessarily  large. 
In  learning  a  new  movement  the  contraction  of  both  favoring 
and  antagonist  muscles  is  unnecessarily  large  and  fatiguing. 
The  presence  of  some  contraction  in  all  the  muscles  con- 
nected with  a  group  of  movements  is  highly  favorable  to 
quick  and  accurate  control  of  the  movement  and  its  varia- 
tions. This  principle  is  involved  in  the  contraction  of  the 
entire  abdominal  wall  or  part  of  it  during  inspiration  in 
order  to  accurately  control  the  expiration  in  singing.  ^  In 
singing  the  scale  the  chest  and  the  abdomen  often  make 
movements  of  expansion  in  opposition  to  the  general  expira- 
tory contraction.  This  may  be  due  to  an  attempt  to  adjust 
the  thorax  to  resonate  to  the  cord  tone,^  or,  perhaps,  to 
adjustments  giving  more  control  over  the  expiration. 

Changes  of  the  force  of  movement  in  the  organs  of  articula- 
tion show  themselves  in  various  ways.  The  properties  of  song 
and  speech  thact  depend  on  the  energy  of  action  have  not  yet 
been  determined.  Whatever  they  may  be,  they  are  instinc- 
tively felt  by  the  hearer  and  affect  his  general  mental  attitude 
strongly.  An  energetic  (not  necessarily  loud)  voice  in  oratory 
or  in  song  commands  attention  and  approval  —  other  things 
being  equal  —  by  appeal  to  some  of  the  fundamental  instincts 
of  the  hearer.  The  first  words  of  a  born  leader  are  often  suffi- 
cient to  move  an  assembly.  That  this  ability  need  not  be 
connected  with  a  high  grade  of  intellect  has  often  been  shown. 
The  results  arise,  I  believe,  from  differences  in  motor  en- 
ergy, but  their  details  must  be  left  to  a  future  experimental 
analysis  of  speech  curves,  muscular  activity  and  mental 
impressiveness. 

The  distinction  of  '  tense  '  and  '  lax  '  action,  as  in  the  for- 

1  Maokenzik,  Hygiene  of  the  Vocal  Organs,  London,  1888;  Cdktis,  Voice 
Building  and  Tone  Placing,  68,  New  York,  1896. 

''  Sewall  and  Pollard,  On  the  relations  of  diaphragmatic  and  costal  respira- 
tion, with  particular  reference  to  phonation.  Jour.  Physiol.,  1890  XI  159. 


VOCAL    CONTROL  885 

mation  of  vowels,  has  to  do  with  the  energy  of  muscular 
movement,  which  is  associated  with  the  degree  of  contraction, 
and  has  nothing  to  do  with  the  reflex  tonus.  Most  of  the 
philological  speculations  in  respect  to  tense  and  lax  sounds 
are  probably  erroneous  as  they  do  not  agree  with  what  is 
known  concerning  muscular  action;  experimental  data  are, 
however,  lacking. 

The  force  of  effort  may  be  measured  by  dynamometers  of 
various  forms.  The  most  usual  measurement  is  that  of  the 
pressure  required  to  compress  a  spring  or  to  raise  a  column 
of  mercury  or  water.  Special  dynamometers  have  been  de- 
vised for  the  lips,  tongue  and  respiration  muscles.  A  con- 
venient dynamometer  for  the  mouth  can  be  made  by  attaching 
an  exploratory  bulb  (Fig.  245)  to  a  water  or  mercury  mano- 
meter (p.  225). 

The  accuracy  of  movement  may  show  itself  in  various 
ways.  The  curve  of  movement  described  by  a  given  point  of 
the  moving  body  may  not  be  the  same  as  that  intended. 
Thus,  a  certain  speech  sound  requires  an  elevation  of  the 
point  of  the  tongue  along  a  certain  definite  line  till  it  strikes 
the  prepalatal  region ;  any  change  from  this  line  will  produce 
a  change  in  the  speech  sound.  With  the  other  appropriate 
speech  adjustments  this  speech  sound  may  be  made  the  implo- 
sion of  a  frontal-prepalatal  t;  any  inaccuracy  of  movement 
will  produce  a  different  implosion. 

The  inaccuracy  of  movement  is  a  fundamental  source  of 
inaccurate  and  wrong  sounds. 

The  inaccuracy  of  the  action  of  the  cricothyroid  muscle 
produces  inaccuracies  in  the  cord  tone  (p.  269)  which  the 
singer  may  be  able  to  hear  but  powerless  to  correct.  A  tone 
may  be  out  of  pitch,  or  may  fluctuate  in  pitch ,  instead  of 
being  constant;  a  succession  of  notes  may  be  united  by 
glides  instead  of  sudden  jumps. 

Inaccuracy  in  the  various  laryngeal  muscles  may  produce 
harsh  tones  instead  of  the  smooth  ones  intended.  Inac- 
curacy in  the  breathing  muscles  may  produce  the  fluctuations 
heard  in  one  form  of  tremolo,  or  a  too  rapid  expenditure  of 

25 


386  PRODUCTION  OF  SPEECH 

breath  which  makes  it  impossible  to  sing  properly,  etc.  Inac- 
curacy of  velar  action  produces  nasality,  modifications  of 
vowels,  etc.  Inaccuracies  of  tongue  and  lip  action  modify 
speech  essentially. 

The  methods  of  studying  the  accuracy  of  various  vocal 
movements  have  been  described  in  the  preceding  chapters. 
The  movements  can  frequeatly  be  registered  on  a  smoked 
drum ;  the  defects  are  studied  by  the  eye  at  leisure  and  the 
improvement  followed  in  the  successive  records.  This  method 
has  proved  highly  effective  in  correcting  the  defects  of 
singers  and  speakers.^ 

The  precision  of  movefnent  refers  to  the  regularity  and 
evenness  with  which  it  is  executed.  It  depends  mainly  or 
entirely  on  the  nervous  control. 

Accuracy  and  precision  of  coordination  represent  the  ner- 
vous control  over  simultaneous  muscular  adjustments.  The 
defects  of  one  form  of  stammering  arise  from  defective  co- 
ordination. A  typical  case,  due  to  altered  nerve  activity, 
may  be  found  in  the  '  thickened  '  speech  of  alcoholic  intoxi- 
cation. The  typical  form  of  defect  due  to  excessive  nerve 
activity  may  be  seen  in  the  incorrect  adjustments  that  arise 
during  excitement. 

The  accuracy  and  delicacy  of  the  coordination  of  the 
regulative  centers  vary  greatly  with  individuals.  Just  as 
in  the  case  of  painting  or  violin-playing  the  coordination 
and  regulation  are  naturally  good  in  some  persons  and  poor 
in  others;  the  degree  to  which  they  can  be  improved  by 
training  is  also  variable. 

The  quickness  of  response  in  a  movement  depends  mainly 
on  the  rapidity  of  the  action  in  the  nervous  centers  and  on 
the  number  of  centers  involved  in  the  reaction  to  the  sensa- 
tion. When  full  consciousness  is  involved,  as  in  the  reactions 
discussed  in  Ch.  XV,  the  time  required  is  considerable.  As 
the  reactions  become  less  conscious  (more  '  automatic ')  the 

1  Natier  et  Rousselot,  Les  applications  de  la  phonetique  expe'rimentale  \ 
la  raedecine,  Paris  (in  press). 


VOCAL    CONTROL  387 

time  is  reduced.  One  object  of  vocal  training  should  be  to 
render  song  or  speech  as  automatic  as  possible. 

The  quickness  of  movement  depends  on  both  muscular  and 
nervous  quickness.  They  must  be  properly  balanced.  Un- 
usual slowness  of  nervous  (mental)  action  renders  speech  ap- 
parently labored  and  pedantic ;  unusual  quickness  slurs  it. 

Hurried  movements  readily  become  inaccurate.  The  diffi- 
cult rolled  r  often  becomes  unrolled.  The  effect  of  hurry 
shows  itself  in  careless  utterances,  like  gmoin  for  '  guten 
Morgen '  or  sple  for  '  s'il  vous  plait.'  A  defective  relation 
between  the  speed  of  thought  and  the  control  of  the  vocal 
organs  results  in  inaccuracy  in  the  exact  formation  of  sounds. 
The  effect  of  extreme  nervous  haste  can  be  seen  in  the  defect 
of  speech  known  as  '  Poltern '  in  German.^  In  German  cases 
i  often  sounds  like  e,  u  like  o,  oi  like  ai ;  f  and  v  often  appear 
as  p  and  b,  s  and  2  as  t  and  d ;  p,  t,  k  are  often  hardly  dis- 
tinguishable from  b,  d,  g.  Only  rarely  does  a  large  change 
of  articulation  take  place ;  in  a  few  cases  k,  g  -►  t,  d  or  t,  d  -+ 
k,  g ;  somewhat  more  often  m  ->  n,  n  ->  m,  1  ->  r,  r  ->  1.  The 
errors  are  not  constant  as  in  stammering. 

Quickness  of  movement  can  be  studied  by  the  graphic 
methods  described  in  the  preceding  chapters;  the  necessary 
allowance  must  be  made  for  the  friction  and  inertia  of  the 
apparatus. 

Rapid,  precise  speech  seems  to  have  a  stimulating  effect 
on  the  hearer.  Its  physiological  and  psychological  character- 
istics are  still  uninvestigated.  The  ability  to  speak  rapidly 
and  clearly  is  associated  with  great  activity  of  the  nervous 
system  and  of  the  train  of  thought.  Owing  to  this  associa- 
tion such  speech  has  a  stimulating  effect  on  the  hearer  and  is 
used  by  skiliful  speakers  for  this  purpose. 

The  sensory-motor  control  is  generally  muscular  and 
auditory. 

The  action  of  the  vocal  muscles  occurs  under  guidance  of 
the  sensations  of   movement  obtained  from  them  (p.  191). 

1  LiEEMANN,  Poltern  (Paraphmsia  praeceps),  Vorlesungen  iib.  Sprachstorun- 
gen,  4.  Heft,  BerUn,  1900. 


388  PRODUCTION  OF  SPEECH 

The  association  of  the  correct  movement-sensation  ordinarily 
occurs  with  the  aid  of  hearing  the  sounds  produced.  In  the 
deaf  it  occurs  without  this  aid;  the  usual  teaching  of  vocal 
articulations  to  the  deaf  is  done  through  touch  and  sight; 
special  teaching  of  the  muscle  sensations  directly  has  been 
shown  to  be  of  use. 

The  character  of  the  direct  control  of  single  muscles  with- 
out the  aid  of  control  through  other  senses  may  be  tested  in 
various  ways.  Labial,  lingual  and  velar  action  may  be 
studied  by  graphic  methods  while  sound  movements  are 
silently  made,  the  results  being  compared  with  those  ob- 
tained in  the  usual  way;  I  am  not  aware  of  any  experi- 
mental work  along  this  line. 

Some  factors  of  auditory- motor  control  have  already  been 
discussed:  the  uncertainty  and  indefiniteness  of  auditory 
sensations  in  Ch.  VII I;  the  inaccuracy  and  lack  of  precision  of 
muscular  movement  in  Ch.  XV.  In  addition  to  these  the  in- 
accuracy of  the  connection  between  sensation  and  movement 
is  of  importance. 

The  amount  of  stimulation  sent  to  the  muscles  at  each 
movement  is  governed  by  the  sensations.  Too  much  stimulus 
at  one  instant  produces  too  much  contraction,  and  consequently 
a  change  in  the  complex  of  sensations ;  this  is  followed  by  a 
reduction  in  the  amount  of  nerve  impulse.  The  reduction 
is  generally  too  great ;  the  sensations  then  vary  in  the  reverse 
direction;  and  renewed  correction  is  attempted.  For  a  con- 
traction intended  to  be  constant,  as  of  the  cricothyroid  in 
singing  a  tone  of  constant  pitch,  the  continually  fluctuating 
and  erroneously  changing  motor  impulses  produce  changes 
in  the  sensations  from  the  tendons  and  in  the  pitch  of  the 
tone  heard  (this  last  is  not  a  factor  of  control  in  the  deaf). 
The  intention  to  keep  a  constant  pitch  results  in  an  adjust- 
ment of  the  vocal  centers  to  receive  constant  sensations  and 
to  impart  motor  impulses  standing  in  definite  relations  to 
tfcem.  The  fluctuating  sensations  actually  received  are  used 
to  regulate  the  impulses.  An  analogy  may  be  drawn  to  an 
engine  with  its  governor;  too  great  speed  causes  the  governor 


VOCAL  CONTROL  389 

to  reduce  the  steam  supply,  and  conversely;  without  a  fly- 
wheel to  make  the  changes  slow  the  engine  would  require 
rapid  readjustments  by  the  governor.  The  vocal  mechan- 
ism is  light  and  delicate ;  its  small  inertia  renders  its  action 
very  fluctuating  (p.  269);  it  thus  requires  continual  regu- 
lative action.  When  a  rising  tone  is  desired,  the  governing 
center  is  adjusted  so  that  each  degree  of  intensity  of  the 
sensations  is  answered  by  an  increased  motor  impulse.  Fall- 
ing tones  are  regulated  by  the  opposite  relation.  A  rise  or 
fall  that  seems  steady  to  the  ear  requires  a  complicated  — 
probably  not  proportional,  perhaps  logarithmic  (p.  109)  — 
relation. 

The  learning  of  speech  sounds  consists  largely  in  forming 
connections  between  the  motor  sensations  and  the  auditory 
ones.  When  such  associations  already  exist,  new  sounds 
are  liable  to  confusion  with  familiar  ones.  The  sounds  of  a 
foreign  language  may  be  heard  to  resemble  familiar  ones 
and  the  motor  associations  of  the  familiar  ones  become 
attached  to  the  new  ones.  The  incorrectness  of  the  associa- 
tion is  discovered  to  some  extent  by  the  speaker's  hearing  of 
his  own  sounds,  but  remains  also  to  some  extent  undetected. 

The  formation  of  ideo-motor  associations  has  received  little 
attention  from  phonetists. 

Sounds  occurring  simultaneously  with  sights,  touches, 
tastes,  smells,  emotions,  acts  of  will,  etc.,  tend  to  be  con- 
nected with  them  so  that  when  any  one  of  a  complex  group 
occurs  again  the  others  are  revived  more  or  less  clearly  in 
consciousness.  It  is  in  this  way  that  speech  movements 
become  associated  with  printed  letters.  The  introduction  of 
new  letters  requires  the  formation  of  new  associations ;  the 
use  of  letters  to  represent  sounds  in  an  unfamiliar  manner  is 
resisted  by  the  associations  already  formed.  The  neglect  of 
these  evident  facts  is  one  reason  why  the  phonetic  alphabets 
hitherto  devised  have  all  failed  to  find  general  acceptance. 

The  close  interconnection  of  all  the  nerve  centers  indicates 
that  the  action  of  any  one  may  influence  all  others.  Among 
others  the  intellectual  and  emotional  centers   influence  the 


390  PRODUCTION   OF  SPEECH 


X- 


vocal  centers  and  consequently  the  vocal  mechanism.  E 
perimental  data  are  stiU  entirely  lacking  except  in  regard  to 
internal  speech  in  its  effect  on  nasal  whispering  (p.  132)  and 
on  the  action  of  the  larynx  (p.  112).  Yet  from  what  is 
known  of  other  activities  it  can  be  safely  asserted  that  the 
character  of  the  vocal  movements  in  song  and  speech  depends 
most  intimately  on  the  mental  condition.  From  this  we  can 
readily  deduce  a  conclusion  used  in  musical  and  oratorical 
instruction  that  the  singer  or  speaker  must  feel  what  is  to  be 
said  if  he  wishes  to  say  it  properly. 

The  ideo-motor  associations  affect  the  contractions  of  the 
various  vocal  muscles  and  consequently  the  character  of 
the  air-vibration  produced.  At  present  the  most  promising 
method  of  investigation  seems  to  lie  in  analyzing  speech 
curves  (Part  I)  obtained  in  connection  with  various  modes 
of  thought  (conversation,  declamation,  etc.)  and  emotion  (ex- 
citement, anger,  etc.).  The  effect  of  the  mental  condition 
consists  exclusively  in  modifications  of  the  factors  of  vocal 
control  just  considered.  That  the  '  mind '  can  affect  the  air- 
vibrations  of  the  singer  or  speaker,  or  directly  communicate 
with  the  '  mind '  of  the  hearer  is  a  superstition  born  of  igno- 
rance and  credulity. 

The  yet-uninvestigated  minute  auditory  variations  in  the 
sounds  of  speech  and  song  have  great  effects  on  the  mind 
of  the  hearer.  Although  no  one  can  say  in  what  the  vocal 
difference  consists,  there  is  an  intimate  connection  between 
the  mental  attitude  of  the  hearer  and  the  voice-character  of 
the  speaker.  This  relation  is  well  known  to  speakers  and 
singers;  fatigue,  worry  or  embarrassment  often  seriously 
affects  the  voice. 

A  highly  important  problem  —  still  hardly  investigated 
experimentally  —  lies  in  the  relation  of  vocal  control  to  the 
emotions.  Every  change  in  the  emotional  condition  results 
in  changes  not  only  of  the  action  of  the  involuntary  muscles 
(heart,  blood  vessels)  but  also  in  changes  in  breathing  and 
vocal  action.  The  resulting  changes  in  the  voice  have  power- 
ful emotional  effects  on  the  hearer.    These  emotional  changes 


VOCAL   CONTROL  391 

in  vocal  action  cannot  be  perfectly  reproduced  by  the  speaker 
voluntarily  in  the  absence  of  the  emotion.  It  is  a  familiar 
principle  with  orators  and  singers  that  to  produce  the  full 
vocal  effect  they  must  first  arouse  the  emotion  itself  and 
then  allow  it  to  find  its  natural  expression. 

For  singers  and  speakers  we  may  safely  say  that  vocal 
training  should  include  not  only  a  development  of  the  vari- 
bus  other  factors  of  control  but  also  a  thorough  practice  in 
voluntarily  bringing  up  the  typical  mental  conditions  and  in 
properly  expressing  them. 

To  phonetists  we  may  point  out  that  the  object  of  speech 
is  the  attainment  of  a  certain  result,  that  this  may  often  be 
done  by  very  different  muscular  adjustments,  and  that  mus- 
cular adjustments  do  not  by  any  means  go  all  the  way  in  elu- 
cidating phonetics.  '  It  is  well  to  remember  that  ridiculous 
old  paradox  quoted  by  Galen  from  the  Stoics:  "It  is  evi- 
dent the  voice  cometh  from  the  mind ;  it  is  evident  also  it 
cometli  from  the  larynx ;  hence  the  mind  is  not  in  the  brain." 
Galen  splutters  over  this  a  good  deal,  and  fails  entirely  to 
see  its  bearing;  but  Galen  had  very  little  esprit.  If  he  had 
seen  and  heard  what  can  be  done  without  a  larynx  at  all,  he 
would  not  have  considered  without  reservation  the  larynx  as 
the  "  principalissimum  organ um  vocis,"  as  the  Medievals  put 
it  in  their  Hog-Latin.  No  two  larynxes  are  alike,  and  doubt- 
less if  we  could  get  down  to  very  fine  points  it  would  be 
found  that  more  or  less  identical  results  are  reached  by  very 
different  dynamics  and  neural  discharges.'     (Wright.) 

It  is  now  the  place  to  consider  the  dependence  of  vocal 
control  on  the  general  voluntary  control,  as  in  changes  of 
nutrition,  fatigue,  emotion,  and  general  habits. 

The  laws  governing  the  amount  of  energy  used  in  action, 
its  rate  and  accuracy  of  expenditure,  its  curve  of  fatigue,  its 
dependence  on  emotions  and  motives,  etc.,  have  been  studied 
with  great  success  in  the  case  of  arm  and  finger  movements 
with  results  which  —  on  the  principle  of  similarity  in  all  actions 
of  an  individual  —  are  directly  applicable  to  vocal  move- 
ments.   Experimental  records  have  not  yet  been  made  directly 


392  PRODUCTION  OF  SPEECH 

on  the  vocal  organs,  but  we  can  assume  that  each  individual 
has  his  own  peculiar  forms  of  vocal  movement;  that  he 
expends  his  vocal  energy  in  a  fashion  peculiar  to  himself ; 
that  the  forms  of  vocal  movement  and  of  vocal  expenditure 
change  in  their  details  with  every  mental  condition ;  that  they 
are  directly  expressive  of  conditions  of  thought,  emotion  and 
motive  ;  that  they  cannot  be  completely  changed  from  one  ex- 
pression to  another  except  by  changes  in  the  mental  conditions. 

When  the  nervous  system  is  well  nourished,  its  elements 
accumulate  quantities  of  higlily  complicated  substances. 
These  represent  potential  energy  which  may  be  turned  into 
kinetic  energy  by  the  breaking  down  of  the  more  highly  com- 
pounded substances  into  simpler  ones.  This  kinetic  energy 
shows  itself  in  the  forms  of  mental  and  muscular  work.  The 
discharged  energy  can  bfi  replaced  by  re-formation  of  the  com- 
plex substances  through  nutrition. 

A  large  store  of  potential  energy  shows  itself  mentally  — 
other  things  being  equal  —  in  a  feeling  of  good  nourishment. 
Whether  this  feeling  arises  directly  from  the  nervous  system 
or  indirectly  from  the  nature  of  the  reflex-tonus  and  action 
of  the  internal  organs  and  muscles,  may  be  left  undecided. 
A  small  store  of  potential  energy  is  accompanied  by  a  feel- 
ing of  weakness. 

The  condition  of  good  nourishment  shows  itself  in  1.  in- 
creased energy  of  the  reflex-tonus ;  2.  increased  force,  quick- 
ness and  precision  of  movement;  3.  increased  accuracy  of 
coordination  and  association. 

These  are  the  fundamental  factors  in  the  production  of  good 
vocal  sounds.  Flabby  muscles,  that  is,  with  poor  tonus,  do 
not  have  the  firm  configurations  necessary  for  forming  cavi- 
ties with  firm  walls.  Weak  muscles  cannot  hold  out  against 
the  work  required  of  them.  Slow  muscles  cannot  perform 
to  perfection  the  rapidly  changing  adjustments.  Inaccurate 
control  produces  inaccurate  results.  Poor  coordination  pro- 
duces defective  results.  The  typical  forms  of  these  results 
hftve  just  been  considered;  their  variations  in  conditions  of 
poor  nourishment  have  not  been  experimentally  investigated. 


VOCAL   CONTROL  393 

The  defective  results  are  often  perceived  by  the  speaker 
or  singer;  he  instinctively  tries  to  correct  them  by  extra 
muscular  exertion.  The  over-exertion  of  some  muscles  re- 
quires over-exertion  of  their  antagonists  in  order  to  obtain 
the  proper  positions.  This  brings  about  an  abnormal  condi- 
tion of  the  vocal  organs  and  difficulty  in  movement  and  con- 
trol. The  larynx  tone,  for  example,  becomes  a  strained  and 
fatiguing  falsetto  with  little  flexibility  instead  of  a  readily 
modulated  chest  tone ;  there  is  often  huskiness  of  the  voice 
owing  to  lack  of  precision  in  the  vocal  muscles ;  the  weakened 
breath  action  has  to  be  strengthened  by  a  special  effort. 

The  effects  of  fatigue  are  analogous  to  those  of  poor  nour- 
ishment. The  activity  of  a  day's  work  or  of  direct  electrical 
stimulation  has  been  shown  (Hodge)  to  result  in  a  decrease 
in  the  active  elements  of  the  nerve  cells.  Fatigue,  from 
this  point  of  view,  might  be  said  to  be  the  exhaustion  of 
nourishment.  Another  element  in  a  condition  of  fatigue 
arises  from  the  presence  of  toxic  products  in  the  blood  result- 
ing from  organic  activity.^ 

The  vocal  effects  of  fatigue  are  marked;  fatigue  can 
appear  in  the  voice  even  before  it  does  in  the  face.  The 
effects  resemble  those  of  poor  nutrition  but  are  not  quite 
the  same.  Just  what  their  elements  are  has  not  been  ex- 
perimentally determined;  they  probably  appear,  as  in  all 
voluntary  action,  in  lack  of  steadiness,  precision,  quickness, 
endurance,  etc.^ 

The  voice  in  singing  depends  not  only  on  the  structure 
of  the  vocal  organs  and  the  ear  but  also  on  all  the  factors 
of  vocal  control  that  we  have  considered.  These  should  be 
taken  into  account  at  the  outset  of  special  vocal  instruction 
in  order  to  avoid  a  mistaken  career,  and  also  for  the  possi- 
bilities of  improvement.  The  troubles  of  singers  arise  not 
merely  from  larj'ngeal  and  aural  defects  but  largely  from 
those  of  control. 

1  Mosso,  Ueber  d.  Gesetze  d.  Ermudung,  Arch.  f.  Anat.  u.  Physiol.  (Physiol. 
Abth.),  1890  Supplem.-Bd.  89. 

2  Scripture,  New  Psychology,  Ch.  XVI,  London,  1897. 


394 


PRODUCTION  OF  SPEECH 


Laryngoscopic  and  otoscopic  examinations  should  be  sup- 
plemented by  accurate  tests  of  vocal  action  and  auditory 
perception,  by  examination  of  their  association,  by  various 
tests  of  control,  and  by  as  thorough  a  study  of  mental  and 
bodily  peculiarities  as  may  be  practicable. 

We  have  now  to  consider  some  typical  methods  of  altering 
the  vocal  control  in  defective  speech ;  no  general  treatment 
of  the  subject  wiU  be  attempted. 

Defects  of  articulation  often  arise  from  lack  of  sensitive- 
ness in  regard  to  the  motor  organs,  combined  probably  with 
a  lack  of  acoustic  sensitiveness  which  is  usually  developed 


Fig.  300. 


Fig.  301. 


only  in  connection  with  correct  articulation.  They  can 
often  be  corrected  by  special  methods  and  devices.  Two 
methods  may  be  employed,  education  of  the  sensations  of 
the  motor  organs  directlj^,  and  education  by  appeal  to  an- 
other sense. 

The  direct  education  of  the  motor  organs  maj^  be  illus- 
trated by  the  following  cases.  In  producing  s  the  tongue  is 
usually  slightly  curved  over  the  lower  alveolae,^  the  anterior 
dorsal  portion  being  raised  toward  the  upper  incisor  teeth  and 
the  palate  without  touching  them,  while  the  sides  are  pressed 
strongly  against  the  molars  and  the  upper  lateral  alveolae. 
T^  this  way  a  small  narrow  channel  is  formed  through  which 
the  air  rushes  (Fig.  300).     This  may  be  called  the  '  interior 

1  ZuND-BuKGUET,  De,  la  prononciation  de  I's  et  du  s,  La  Parole,  1899  I  281. 


VOCAL    CONTROL 


395 


lingual-alveolar  s.'  The  s  may  also  be  formed  by  placing 
the  point  of  the  tongue  behind  the  superior  incisors  so  that 
it  does  not  touch  either  the  teeth  or  the  alveolae  (Fig.  301). 
The  rush  of  air  then  occurs  between  the  point  of  the  tongue 
and  the  palate.  This  may  be  called  the  "anterior  linguo-palatal 
s. '  It  is  frequent  in  the  speech  of  Roumanians.  It  is  never 
so  intense  or  clear  as  the  other  s;  it  readily  becomes 
a  kind  of  soft  s  if  the  point  of  the  tongue  is  slightly  pushed 
backward,  or  a  lisped  M  if  it  is  advanced  a  trifle  too  much 
toward  the  teeth.  To  transform  the  lisped  s  into  the  nor- 
mal s  ZuND-BuRGUET  uscs  a  Uttle  wire  loop  (Fig.  302)  that 
catches  the  point  of  the  tongue  and  directs  it  to  the  proper 


Fig.  302. 


Fig.  303. 


position.  Great  numbers  of  lispers  have  been  cured  with  this. 
In  producing  s  the  sides  of  the  tongue  usually  rest  along  the 
alveolse  and  the  superior  molars  (see  preceding  Chapters) ; 
the  point  of  the  tongue  lies  quite  free  between  the  anterior 
part  of  the  jaw  and  the  palate;  the  medio-dorsal  portion  rises 
toward  the  palate  and  forms  with  the  point  a  little  depres- 
sion whose  depth  varies  (Fig.  303).  This  little  medio- 
lingual  cavity  forms  a  sort  of  resonance  chamber  that  is  of 
great  importance  for  the  sound.  A  second  cavity  is  formed 
between  the  teeth  and  the  lips  by  projecting  the  latter.  The 
most  frequent  fault  arises  from  touching  the  point  or  the 
dorsum  of  the  tongue  to  the  palate,  whereby  the  sides  of 
the  tongue  leave  the  teeth,  and  the  air  finds  issue  at  one  or 
both  sides  instead  of  through  the  medio-lingual  cavity ;  this 


396  PRODUCTION   OF  SPEECH 

fault  has  been  called  '  chlintfement '  by  Roussblot  on  ac- 
count of  the  resemblance  of  the  sound  to  a  kind  of  mixed  s 
and  1.  The  defect  is  readily  cured  by  practice  with  a  wire 
that  directs  the  tongue  down.^  It  is  to  be  noted  that  this 
description  of  the  formation  of  s  differs  considerably  from 
those  given  by  most  other  investigators,  who  do  not  specify 
the  existence  of  any  such  medio-lingual  cavity. 

The  ■  auditory-motor  associations  may  often  be  advan- 
tageously replaced  by  visual-motor  ones. 

The  appeal  to  the  eye  is  regularly  made  in  teaching  the 
deaf  to  speak.  It  is  also  used  to  advantage  in  the  cases  of 
persons  whose  defective  movements  cannot  be  corrected  by 
auditory  teaching.  The  manner  oi  doing  this  for  improv- 
ing  a    foreigner's    pronunciation    has    been    illustrated    by 

RODSSELOT.2 

In  the  case  of  a  child  of  11  years  who  used  t  for  k,  s 
and  s,  d  for  g,  and  1  for  z,  without  yielding  to  any  auditory 
correction  and  without  evidence  of  any  auditory  or  vocal  defect, 
RoussELOT  succeeded  in  producing  the  correct  articulation 
by  an  appeal  to  the  eye.  He  placed  an  exploratory  bulb  (Fig. 
245)  in  his  own  mouth  at  the  point  of  articulation  for  the  t 
and  pronounced  successively  ta  and  ka ;  the  long  lever  of  a 
tambour  (p.  195)  connected  to  the  bulb  made  large  movements 
for  ta  and  none  for  ka.  The  child  understood  the  difference, 
and  after  practice  with  a  bulb  in  his  own  mouth  was  able  to 
produce  the  sounds  correctly.  For  s,  z,  s  and  z  the  lever 
was  arranged  to  pass  over  a  paper  with  the  proper  position 
for  each  sound  marked  on  it.  Two  lessons  were  enough  to 
correct  the  fault  in  this  case. 

In  teaching  the  distinctions  of  articulation  among  the 
palatal  consonants,  Meuniee^  has  used  two  thin  rubber 
chambers  attached  to  an  artificial  palate  (Fig.  304),  each 
attached  to  a  tambour  (Fig.  305);  as  the  correct  articulations 

1  ZuND-BoEGUET,  as  before,  285. 
»     ^  RoussELOT,  Applications  pratiques  de  ta  phon^tique  experimentaie.  La  Parole, 
1899  1401. 

'  Meunier,  Emploi  de  ta  mAliode  grapliique  pour  t'£ducation  des  sourds-mueti 
La  Parole,   1900  II  82. 


VOCAL    CONTROL 


397 


are  made,  the  lever  of  one  of  the  tambours  attached  to  the 
chambers  will  point  to  the  proper  letter  on  the  cardboard 
diagram. 

A  similar  method  is  of  use  ^  in 
teaching  the  proper  pressure  to  be 
used  in  a  certain  articulation ;  a  small 
bulb  is  used  in  teaching  the  precise 
place  of  articulation,  a  medium  bulb 
in  teaching  the  lip-pressure  and  a  large 
bulb  in  teaching  certain  vowels.  A 
mouth-piece  inclosing  a  large  bulb 
is  useful  in  teaching  the  proper    lip 

action,    as,    for    example,    in   the    French  y  (m).      A  bulb 
applied    beneath    the   chin  indicates   the   proper  degree  of 


Fig.  304. 


Fig.  305. 
1  ZUND-B0RGUET,   Applications   pratiques  de  la  phonetigue  expmmentale,  La 
Parole,   1899  I   18,45,  149, 


398  PRODUCTION   OF  SPEECH 

tongue  retraction  for  vowels  like  a,  o,  u.  A  bell-like  alarm 
placed  over  the  larynx  serves  to  indicate  sonancy.  Zund- 
BuEGUET  Hses  an  indicating  alarm  tambour  to  impress  on 
the  eye  and  ear  the  results  obtained  by  air-transmission; 
the  movement  of  the  arm  can  be  seen ;  an  adjustable  bell, 
placed  at  the  point  which  should  be  reached^  by  the  move- 
ment, indicates  to  the  ear  the  success  of  the  articula- 
tion. The  points  to  be  reached  in  pronouncing  various 
vowels  may  be  indicated  on  a  scale  above  the  pointer;  the 
movements  necessary  to  produce  the  differences  between 
closely  related  vowels  can  thus  be  taught.  The  indicator  may 
likewise  be  used  with  a  lip-bulb  to  teach  such  differences  as 
those  between  e,  i  and  y.  Attached  to  a  breath  mouth-  , 
piece,  the  indicator  shows  impressively  the  difference  between 
the  greater  expense  of  breath  in  English  or  German  p,  t,  k 
and  the  smaller  expense  in  French  p,  t,  k,  in  which  the 
glottis  is  closed  during  the  explosion  (Figs.  279,  280). 
Numerous  other  uses  can  be  made  of  the  Zund-Btjeguet 
apparatus. 

Refere^tces 

For  hygiene  of  the  voice  in  singing  and  the  troubles  of  singers: 
Mackenzie,  Hygiene  of  the  Vocal  Organs,  London,  1888;  Flataq, 
Hygiene  d.  Kehlkopfes  u.  d.  Stimme,  Stimmatorungen  d.  Sanger,  Hey- 
niann's  Handb.  d.  Laryngol.  u.  Rhinol.,  I  1448,  Wien,  1898,  (full  lit- 
erature) ;  Krause,  D.  Erkrank.  d.  Singstimme,  Berlin,  1898  ;  Browne 
AND  Behnke,  Voice,  Song  and  Speech,  London,  1895.  For  vocal  training : 
Mackenzie,  as  before ;  Curtis,  Voice  Building  and  Tone  Placing,  New 
York,  1896;  Stockhausen,  Gesangsmethode,  Leipzig.  For  diseases 
of  speech :  see  References,  p.  88.  For  the  literature  of  fatigue : 
JoTEYKo,  Revue  generale  sur  la  fatigue  musculaire,  Ann^e  psychologique, 
1899  V  1  (many  important  references  lacking)  ;  Mosso,  La  fatigue 
intellectuelle  et  physique,  Paris,  1894;  Binet  et  Henri,  La  fatigue 
intellectuelle,  Paris,   1898. 


PART   IV 

FACTOES   OF   SPEECH 

CHAPTER   XXVIII 

VOWELS 

The  necessity  of  a  study  of  the  physical  nature  of  the-^ 
vowels  was  emphasized  by  Willis.  '  The  mouth  and  its 
apparatus  were  constructed  for  other  purposes  besides  the 
production  of  vowels,  which  appears  to  be  merely  an  inci- 
dental use  of  it,  every  part  of  its  structure  being  adapted  to 
further  the  first  great  want  of  the  creature,  his  nourishment. 
Besides,  the  vowels  are  mere  affections  of  sound,  which  are 
not  at  all  beyond  the  reach  of  human  imitation  in  many  ways, 
and  not  inseparably  connected  with  the  human  organs,  al- 
though they  are  most  perfectly  produced  by  them ;  just  so, 
musical  notes  are  formed  in  the  larynx  in  the  highest  possi- 
ble purity  and  perfection,  and  our  best  musical  instruments 
ofter  mere  humble  imitations  of  them ;  but  who  ever  dreamed 
ot  seeking  from  the  larynx  an  explanation  of  the  laws  by 
which  musical  notes  are  governed?  These  considerations  in- 
duced me,  upon  entering  on  this  investigation,  to  lay  down  a 
different  plan  of  operation;  namely,  neglecting  entirely  the 
organs  of  speech,  to  determine,  if  possible,  by  experiments 
upon  the  usual  acoustical  instruments,  what  .forms  of  cavities 
or  other  conditions  are  essential  to  the  production  of  these 
sounds,  after  which,  by  comparing  these  with  the  various  posi- 
tions of  the  human  organs,  it  might  be  possible,  not  only  to 
deduce  the  explanation  and  reason  of  their  various  positions, 
but  to  separate  those  parts  and  motions  which  are  destined 


400  FACTORS   OF  SPEECH 

for  the  performance  of  their  other  functions,  from  those  which 
are  immediately  peculiar  to  speech  (if  such  exist). '  i 
Willis's  idea  of  studying  the  physical  characteristics  of  the 
vowels  has  been  developed  by  a  series  of  later  observers, 
finding  its  full  expression  in  the  study  of  curves  of  speech  by 
the  investigators  referred  to  in  Part  I.  In  its  perfection  the 
'  physical  definition  of  a  vowel '  will  consist  of  a  mathematical 
expression  for  the  course  of  the  molecular  vibration  which 
it  involves. 

The  nature  of  the  vibrations  in  spoken  vowels  can  perhaps 
be  made  clear  by  a  study  of  the  records  in  Plate  II. 

The  curves^  shown  in  the  Plate  are  from  a  record  con- 
taining the  nursery  rhyme  of  Cock  Robin,  spoken  by  an 
American.  The  words  in  the  Plate  occur  in  the  following 
phrases:  '  I '  in  '  I,  said  the  beetle,'  '  my  '  in  '  With  my  bow 
and  arrow,'  '  parson  '  in  '  I  '11  be  the  parson,'  'saw  him  '  in 
'  I  sajv  hjm  die, '  '  caught '  in  '  Who  caught  his  blood  ?  '  and 
'said'  in  '  I,  said  the  rook.'  The  record  was  traced  off  as 
described  in  Ch.  IV.  The  equation  beneath  the  Plate  in- 
dicates the  relation  between  length  and  time. 

The  curve  for  '  I '  shows  a  series  of  vibrations  in  which  each 
group  resembles  the  neighboring  one,  while  there  is  a  gradual 
*T;hange  in  character  from  a  typical  form  for  the  a  in  the  first 
part  to  a  tj'pical  form  for  the  i  in  the  second  part  of  the 
diphthong  ai  of  which  the  pronoun  '  I '  is  composed.  In  the 
first  portion  there  appears  a  succession  of  strong  vibrations, 
each  followed  by  a  series  of  weaker  ones.  These  strong 
vibrations  recur  at  periods  of  steadily  decreasing  length. 

If  we  consider  separately  each  group  of  vibrations  beginning 
with  a  strong  one,  we  find  that  it  is,  aside  from  minor  details, 
the  typical  curve  (Fig.  4)  of  a  vibration  initiated  by  a  blow 
and  dying  away  by  friction,  for  which  the  equation  is 

z/  =  a .  e"*'  .  sin  27r^  , 

'  Willis,  On  vowel  sounds,  and  on  reed-organ  pipes.  Trans.  Camb.  Phil.  Soc, 
1830  III  231  ;  also  in  Ann.  d.  Phys.  u.  Chem.,  1832  XXIV  397. 

2  ScKiPTnRE,  On  the  nature  of  vowels,  Amer.  Jonr.  Sci.,  1901  XI  302. 


VOWELS  401 

where  y  is  the  elongation  at  the  moment  t,  a  the  amplitude, 
e  the  basis  of  the  natural  series  of  logarithms,  k  a  factor  repre- 
senting friction  and  T  the  periodic  time'  (p.  6). 

The  succeeding  groups  of  vibrations  following  the  first  ' 
group  are  of  the  same  form  but  of  steadily  increasing  ampli- 
tude. They  recur  at  steadily  decreasing  intervals.  The  for- 
mula for  each  group  is  approximately  the  same  except  for  the 
difference  in  amplitude.  The  vibrations  are  evidently 
aroused  by  a  series  of  blows  (p.  11)  of  steadily  increasing  | 
strength  at  steadily  decreasing  intervals. 

It  seems  clear  that  these  vibrations  represent  the  free  vibra- 
tions of  the  air  in  the  mouth  cavity  aroused  by  a  series  of 
sudden  blows  and  that  these  sudden  blows  are  due  to  explo- 
sive openings  of  the  vocal  cords  (p.  260). 

The  tone  from  the  cords  results  from  the  succession  of 
groups  of  vibrations ;  it  is  a  tone  of  intermittence  (p.  94). 
The  period  of  the  tone  from  the  cords  is  represented  by  the 
distance  from  the  strong  vibration  at  the  beginning  of  each 
group  to  the  strong  one  at  the  beginning  of  the  following 
grotip  (p.  65). 

The  method  of  studying  the  details  of  such  curves  has 
been  given  in  Ch.  V. 

The  complexities  of  the  small  vibrations  indicate  the  pres-  v 
ence  of  several  partial  tones.  These  complexities  change 
steadily  from  the  beginning  of  the  vowel  onward  as  the  pitch 
rises,  in  a  way  to  indicate  the  presence  of  at  least  the  follow- 
ing partials:  1.  the  fundamental  cord  tone  consisting  of  a 
series  of  explosions  rising  from  a  period  of  0.0170'  (fre- 
quency, 59)  to  one  of  0.0052'  (frequency,  192);  2.  a  con- 
stant cavity  tone  of  0.0034'  period  (frequency,  294);  3.  a 
constant  cavity  tone  of  0.0013'  period  (frequency,  769)  and 
4.  higher  cavity  tones  undergoing  change. 

The   minor  complexities   in   the   vibrations   disappear   at  ■ 
about  one-quarter  of  the  distance  from  the  left  on  the  second 
line   in   the   figure.      At   the   same   time   the   amplitude   is 
strongly   increased.      Shortly   afterward   the   amplitude   de- 
creases  and    finally   reaches   zero.     Throughout   the   whole 


402  FACTORS   OF  SPEECH 

latter  portion  the  curve  has  an  entirely  different  character 
from  that  of  the  first  half ;  we  are  probably  quite  safe  in  con- 
sidering it  the  curve  of  i  in  the  diphthong  ai.  Throughv. 
out  the  i  the  groups  consist  of  two  vibrations,  one  slightly- 
stronger  than  the  other.  The  period  for  the  group  0.0052^ 
(frequency,  192)  remains  constant  till  near  the  end,  where  it 
lengthens  to  about  0.0122"  (frequency,  82).  The  cavity 
vibration  forming  half  of  each  group  remains  constant 
at  0.0026'  (frequency,  384)  through  nearly  all  of  the  i. 
Toward  the  close  it  still  apparently  remains  at  the  same 
period,  producing  phenomena  of  interference  as  the  group 
period  is  lengthened. 

From  the  curve  for  i  it  seems  justifiable  to  conclude  that  \ 
the  vocal  cords  emit  explosions  instead  of  sinusoid  puffs  of 
air  here  as  well  as  in  the  a.  The  explosion  produces  a 
strong  free  vibration  in  the  mouth  cavity  which  is  followed 
by  another  of  diminished  amplitude.  This  would  be  fol- 
lowed by  a  third  of  still  less  amplitude,  just  as  in  a,  but  a 
new  explosion  from  the  cords  occurs  at  just  that  moment. 
The  coincidence  of  double  the  period  of  the  cavity  tone 
with  the  period  of  the  cord  explosions  explains  the  rapid  gain 
in  amplitude  when  the  cord  tone  rises  sufficiently  to  produce 
the  coincidence  (p.  13).  The  maximum  is  followed  by  a 
relaxation  in  the  force  of  breath,  but  the  two  tones  main- 
tain the  same  relation  for  a  considerable  time.  As  the 
sound  finally  dies  away,  the  cords  also  relax,  both  breath  and 
pitch  falling  together.  The  explosions  from  the  cords  seem 
much  less  sharp  in  i  than  in  a. 

In  '  my '  the  m  vibrations  are  too  faint  for  accurate  measure- 
ment. The  a  resembles  somewhat,  but  not  closely,  the  a  of 
"  I. '  The  period  of  the  cord  explosions  remains  constant  at 
0.0074=  (frequency,  135)  instead  of  decreasing.  The  lower 
resonance  tone  has  a  period  in  the  neighborhood  of  0.0022' 
(frequency,  455);  it  apparently  undergoes  a  slow  change 
from  the  beginning  of  the  a  to  the  i. 

The  last  third  of  the  curve  somewhat  resembles  the  i  por- 
tion of  '  I. '     There  is,  however,  only  a  faint  rise  in  ampli- 


VOWELS  403 

tude,  and  the  i  portion  is  very  brief.  The  vibrations  in  this 
portion  are  in  groups  of  three;  the  groups  have  a  period  of 
0.0074=  (frequency,  135)  constant  to  the  end.  The  vibra- 
tions virithin  the  group  have  a  period  one-third  that  of  the 
group  itself,  indicating  a  constant  cavity  tone  of  0.0025' 
(frequency,  400). 

In  the  a  of  '  parson  '  the  cord  tone  rises  from  a  period  of 
0.0090»  (frequency,  111)  to  one  of  0.0072=  (frequency,  139) 
and  falls  again  to  the  pitch  from  which  it  started.  There 
are  indications  of  a  constant  cavity  tone  of  0.0022=  (fre- 
quency, 455)  and  of  higher  tones  vrith  changing  periods. 
In  respect  to  the  pitch  of  the  lowest  cavity  tone  there,  is 
close  agreement  of  this  a  with  that  of  '  my,'  yet  the  form  of 
the  curve  resembles  that  of  a  in  '  I  '  more  closely  than  that 
in  '  my. '  The  peculiarity  of  '  my  '  seems  to  lie  chiefly  in  the 
suddenness  with  which  the  vibrations  within  a  group  fall  in 
amplitude  after  the  initial  strong  vibration.  In  both  '  parson  ' 
and  ■  I '  the  cavity  vibrations  within  each  group  during  a  die 
away  less  quickly.  Such  differences  may  perhaps  find  their 
explanation  either  in  the  greater  friction  in  the  free  vibratory 
movement  in  the  mouth  (less  rigidity  of  the  walls  ?)  or  in 
the  sharper  character  of  the  cord  explosions  in  the  case  of 

'my.' 

The  curve  for  o  in  '  saw  him  '  indicates  a  quite  different 
vocal  action  from  that  present  in  a.  Instead  of  a  strong 
initial  vibration  followed  by  decreasing  ones  the  earlier  por- 
tion of  the  vowel  shows  groups  that  contain  at  least  two 
strong  vibrations.  It  is  presumably  the  case  that  the  cord 
explosions  are  of  a  more  gradual  character  or  else  that  the 
action  of  friction  is  much  less.  Even  later  in  the  vowel 
where  there  is  apparently  only  one  very  strong  vibration  in  a 
group,  this  probably  occurs  because  the  lower  portion  of  the 
second  one  is  cut  off  by  interference  with  another  partial  tone. 

The  cord  tone,  starting  with  a  period  of  0.0072=  (frequency, 
139),  remains  at  this  pitch  for  a  time  and  then  falls  to  0.0080= 
in  period  (frequency,  125).  A  lower  cavity  tone  with  a 
period   of   0.0026=    (frequency,  385)    is   apparently  present. 


404  FACTORS   OF  SPEECH 

The  last  part  of  the  line  shows  the  vibrations  for  i,  resem- 
bling those  for  i  in  ai  of  '  I '  and  '  my. '  The  middle  portion, 
where  there  is  a  weakening  in  amplitude,  belongs  to  the 
sonant  h  (p.  277).  The  m  is  just  begun  where  the  record 
is  cut  off.  The  grouping  in  the  i  is  by  threes.  The  cord 
tone  of  i  starts  with  a  period  of  0.0083=  (frequency,  121)  and 
steadily  rises  to  one  of  0.0072^  (frequency,  139)  in  the  m. 
The  lower  cavity  tone  has  a  period  of  about  0.0025=  (fre- 
quency, 400). 

Another  example  of  '  saw  him  '  from  the  same  record  was 
partially  discussed  in  Ch.  V  and  on  page  277. 

The  curve  for  the  o  of  '  caught '  exhibits  a  decided  differ- 
ence from  that  for  the  o  of  '  saw, '  although  both  vowels 
are  generally  considered  to  be  the  same.  The  o  of  '  caught ' 
shows  a  quick  and  strong  increase  in  amplitude  followed  by 
a  rather  sudden  decrease.  Its  pitch  is  approximately  con- 
stant. The  initial  strong  vibration  of  a  group  is  followed  by 
very  much  weaker  vibrations;  the  vocal  action  resembles 
that  in  a  rather  than  in  the  o  of  '  saw. '  In  the  last  few 
groups  there  is  a  marked  change  as  the  o  alters  to  t. 

The  cord  tone  rises  from  a  period  of  0.0074'  (frequency, 
135)  to  one  of  0.0064=  (frequency,  156)  but  falls  again  in 
the  last  few  periods.  The  lower  cavity  tone  seems  to  have 
a  period  of  about  0.0024=  (frequency,  417).  Other  tones 
of  higher  pitch  are  present. 

In  the  e  of  '  said  '  the  vocal  action  is  seen  to  differ  essen- 
tially from  that  in  a  or  o,  and  to  resemble  somewhat  that  in 
i.  There  is  much  less  indication  of  the  explosive  character  of 
the  cord  tone.  There  are  three  cavity  vibrations  to  each 
group.  The  pitch  of  the  cord  tone  is  nearly  constant  at 
0.0072=  period  (frequency,  189);  the  lower  resonance  tone 
has  a  period  of  0.0024=  (frequency,  417).  There  are  minor 
fluctuations  in  the  curve  that  indicate  higher  cavity  tones. 
The  amplitude  increases  steadily  until  the  vowel  is  ended 
rather  abruptly  by  the  change  to  d. 

The  preceding  account  gives  in  general  the  pitch  of  only 
the  lower  cavity  tones  in  each  vowel.     A  determination  for 


VOWELS  405 

the  higher  tones  would  require  more  elaborate  methods.  It 
IS  probable  that  the  higher  tones  are  quite  as  important 
for  the  vowel  characters  as  the  lowest  ones.  The  disagree- 
ment in  the  accounts  of  various  investigators  in  regard  to 
the  tones  found  in  the  vowels  may  have  arisen  partly  from 
finding  different  ones. 

The  results  seem  to  justify  the  conclusion  that  the  move^ 
ment  of  the  air  in  the  mouth  cavity  is  a  free  vibration  and  not 
a  forced  one.  The  'curves  of  spoken  vowels  given  in  Plate 
II  all  show  that  the  mouth  tone  is  constant  even  while  the 
cord  tone  is  steadily  changing.  It  follows  from  these  facts 
that  the  period  of  the  mouth  tone  is  independent  of  the  period 
of  the  cord  tone  and  that  there  is  no  necessary  relation  be- 
tween the  adjustment  of  the  size  of  the  mouth  cavity  and 
the  tension  of  the  vocal  cords.  If  the  period  of  the  mouth 
vibration  is  independent,  it  must  be  the  period  of  the  free  or 
natural  vibration.  j. 

Two  theories  have  been  held  concerning  the  relation  be- 
tween the  cord  tone  and  the  cavity  tone ;  these  may  be 
termed  the  Willis-Hermann  and  the  Helmholtz  theories ; 
the  supporters  of  each  have  tried  to  prove  them  in  various 
ways. 

Willis^  fitted  a  reed  to  the  bottom  of  a  funnel-shaped 
cavity  and  obtained  sounds  resembling  vowels  by  modifying 
the  opening  of  the  cavity.  He  then  tried  closed  cylindrical 
tubes  of  different  lengths  and  found  that  different  vowel-like 
sounds  were  produced  by  different  lengths  of  the  tube  (p.  290). 
His  experiments  led  him  to  the  conclusion  that  the  vowel-like 
sounds  are  produced  by  the  repetition  of  one  musical  note  in 
such  rapid  succession  as  to  produce  another.  '  It  has  long 
been  established,  however,  that  any  noise  whatever,  repeated 
in  such  rapid  succession  at  equidistant  intervals  as  to  make 
its  individual  impulses  insensible,  will  produce  a  musical 
note.  For  instance,  let  the  musical  note  of  the  pipe  be  g^ 
and  that  of  the  reed  c^  which  is  256  beats  a  second,  then  their 

1  Willis,  On  vowel  sounds,  and  on  reed-organ  pipes,  Trans.  Canib.  Phil.  Soc, 
1830  m  231 ;  also  in  Ann.  d.  Phys.  o.  Chem,,  1832  XXIV  397. 


406  FACTORS   OF  SPEECH 

combined  effect  is  y"^  ■  •  •  g'^  ■  •  •  g"^  ■  ■  •  g'^  •  •  •  (256  in 
a  second)  in  such  rapid  equidistant  succession  as  to  produce 
ci,  g'^  in  this  case  producing  the  same  effect  as  any  other  noise, 
so  that  we  might  expect  a  priori,  that  one  idea  suggested  by 
this  compound  sound  would  be  the  musical  note  c^. 

'  Experiment  shows  us  that  the  series  of  effects  produced 
are  characterized  and  distinguished  from  each  other  by  that 
quality  we  call  the  vowel,  and  it  shows  us  more,  it  shows  us 
not  only  that  the  pitch  of  the  sound  produced  is  always  that 
of  the  reed  or  the  primary  impulse,  but  that  the  vowel  pro- 
duced is  always  identical  for  the  same  value  of  s  [the  length 
of  the  pipe].  Thus  in  the  example  just  adduced,  g"^  is  pecu- 
liar to  the  vowel  o  [as  in  'all']:  when  this  is  repeated 
256  times  in  a  second  the  pitch  of  the  sound  is  c^,  and  the 
vowel  is  o :  if  by  means  of  another  reed  applied  to  the  same 
pipe  it  were  repeated  171  times  in  a  second,  the  pitch  would 
be  ,P,  but  the  vowel  still  o.  Hence  it  would  appear  that 
the  ear  in  losing  consciousness  of  the  pitch  of  s  [the  length 
of  the  pipe]  is  yet  able  to  identify  it  by  this  vowel  quality. 
But  this  vowel  quality  may  be  detected  to  a  certain  degree  in 
simple  musical  sounds;  the  high  squeaking  notes  of  the 
organ  or  violin  speak  plainly  i,  the  deep  bass  notes  u,  and 
in  running  rapidly  backwards  and  forwards  through  the 
intermediate  notes,  we  seem  to  hear  the  series  u,  o,  a,  e,  i, 
i,  e,  a,  o,  u,  etc.,  so  that  it  would  appear  as  if  in  simple 
sounds,  that  each  vowel  was  inseparable  from  a  peculiar 
pitch,  and  that  in  the  compound  system  of  pulses,  although 
its  pitch  be  lost,  its  vowel  quality  is  strengthened.  .  .  . 
Having  shown  the  probability  that  a  given  vowel  is  merely 
the  rapid  repetition  of  its  peculiar  note,  it  should  follow  that 
if  we  can  produce  this  rapid  repetition  in  any  other  way,  we 
may  expect  to  hear  vowels.  Robinson  and  others  had 
shown  that  a  quill  held  against  a  toothed  wheel  would  pro- 
duce a  musical  note  by  the  rapid  equidistant  repetition  of  the 
snaps  of  the  quill  upon  the  teeth.  For  the  quill  I  substituted 
a  piece  of  watch-spring  pressed  lightly  against  the  teeth  of 
the  wheel,  so  that  each  snap  became  the  musical  note  of  the 


VOWELS  407 

spring,  the  spring  being  ab  the  same  time  grasped  in  a  pair 
of  pincers,  so  as  to  admit  of  any  alteration  in  length  of  the 
vibrating  portion.  This  system  evidently  produces  a  com- 
pound sound  similar  to  that  of  the  pipe  and  the  reed,  and  an 
alteration  in  the  length  of  the  spring  ought  therefore  to  pro- 
duce the  same  effect  as  that  of  the  pipe.  In  effect  the  sound 
produced  retains  the  same  pitch  as  long  as  the  wheel  revolves 
uniformly,  but  puts  on  in  succession  all  the  vowel  qualities 
as  the  effective  length  of  the  spring  is  altered,  and  that  with 
considerable  distinctness,  when  due  allowance  is  made  for  the 
harsh  and  disagreeable  quality  of  the  sound  itself.' 

Thus  Willis  maintains  two  theses:  1.  that  a  vowel  con- 
sists of  [at  least]  two  tones,  a  cord  tone  and  a  mouth  tone ;  2. 
that  the  mouth  tone  is  independent  of  the  cord  tone  in  regard 
to  pitch. 

~  The  theory  of  Willis  was  adversely  criticised  by  W  heat- 
stone,  ^  who  supposed  that  the  vowels  arose  from  the  vibra- 
tions of  the  vocal  cords  through  the  strengthening  of  certain 
overtones  by  the  resonance  of  the  mouth.  Whbatstonk's 
view  was  expounded  as  a  general  hypothesis  by  Grassmann  ^ 
and  developed  into  a  theory  by  Helmholtz.^ 

'  We  may  well  suppose  that  in  tones  of  the  human  larynx, 
as  in  those  of  other  reed  instruments,  the  overtones  would 
continuously  diminish  in  intensity  as  their  pitch  is  higher,  if 
we  could  observe  them  without  the  resonance  of  the  mouth. 
In  fact  they  correspond  to  this  assumption  fairly  well  in  those 
vowels  that  are  spoken  with  widely-opened,  funnel-like 
mouth-cavities,  as  in  sharp  a  or  e.  This  relation  is,  however, 
very  materially  changed  by  the  resonance  in  the  mouth.  The 
more   the   mouth-cavity  is  narrowed  by  the  lips,  teeth,   or 

1  Wheatstone,  London  and  Westminster  Review,  1837,  p.  27. 

2  Grassmann,  Leitfaden  d.  Akustik,  Program  d.  Stettiner  Gymnasiums,  1854  ; 
Ueber  d.  phi/sik.  Natur  d.  Sprachlaute,  Ann.  d.  Phys.  u,  Chem.,  1877  I  606. 

3  Helmholtz,  Deber  d.  Vokale,  Arch,  f,  d.  holl.  Beitr.  z.  Natur-  u.  Heilk.,  1857  I 
354;  Ueber  d.  Klangfarbe  d.  Vokale,  Gel.  Anz.  d.  k.  bayr.  Akad.  d.  Wiss.,  1859 
537  ;  also  in  Ann.  d.  Phys.  u.  Chem.,  1859  CVIII  280,  and  in  Ges.  wiss.  Abhandl., 
I  395,  397,  Leipzig,  1882;  Die  Lehre  y.  d.  Tonempfindungen,  5.  Aufl.,  168, 
Braunschweig,  1896. 


408  FACTORS   OF  SPEECH 

tongue,  the  more  prominently  its  resonance  appears  for  tones 
of  very  definite  pitch,  and  by  just  so  much  more  it  thus 
strengthens  those  overtones  in  the  tone  of  the  vocal  cords 
which  approximate  the  favored  degrees  of  pitch;  and  by  just 
so  much  more  the  others  are  weakened. '  ^ 

'  The  pitch  of  the  strongest  resonance  of  the  mouth  depends 
only  on  the  vowel  for  whose  production  it  has  been  arranged, 
and  changes  essentially  even  for  small  changes  in  the  charac- 
ter of  the  vowel,  as,  for  example,  in  various  dialects  of  the 
same  language.  On  the  other  hand,  the  resonances  of  the 
mouth  are  almost  independent  of  age  and  sex.  I  have  found 
in  general  the  same  resonances  for  men,  women,  and  children. 
What  is  lacking  to  the  childish  and  female  mouth  in  capacity 
can  be  easily  replaced  by  narrower  closure  of  the  opening,  so 
that  the  resonance  can  still  be  as  deep  as  in  the  larger  male 
1  mouth.'  2 

According  to  Helmholtz,  '  the  vowel  sounds  are  different 
from  the  sounds  of  most  musical  instruments,  essentially  in 
the  fact  that  the  strength  of  their  overtones  depends  not  only 
on  the  ordinal  number  of  the  overtone  but  above  all  on  its  actual 
pitch.  For  example,  when  I  sing  the  vowel  a  on  the  note 
e—^ '',  the  reinforced  tone  is  h^,  or  the  12th  partial,  and  when 
I  sing  the  same  vowel  on  the  note  b"^  it  is  the  second  one. '  ^ 

The  theory  of  Helmholtz  necessitates  the  assumption  of  an 
accommodation  of  the  resonance  tone  to  the  voice  tone  within 
quite  a  range ;  thus  as  the  voice  tone  rises  or  falls  the  mouth  i 
must  also  change  its  tone  or  be  able  to  extend  its  resonance  ' 
to  a  considerable   degree.     This   assumption  was   made   by 
Helmholtz,  the  range  of  accommodation  being  supposed  to 
extend  over  as  much  as  an  interval  of  a  fifth  in  music  each 
way  from  the  tone  of  best  resonance.     This  view  has  been- 
,      called  the  '  accommodation  theory.'     According  to  this  theory 
^     the  mouth  must  accommodate  itself  to  one  overtone  of  the 
cord  tone,  and  when  this  rises  or  falls  to  a  considerable  degree 

'  Helmholtz,  Die  Lehre  v.  d.  Topempfindungen,  5.  Aufl.,  170,  Braunschweig, 
1896. 

2  Hklmholtz,  as  before,  171. 
^  Hei,.\[ii(iltz,  as  before,  191. 


VOWELS  409 

it  must  readjust  itself  to  some  other  one  in  order  to  keep  the 
resonance  tone  within  a  limited  range. 

The  difference  between  the  theories  of  Willis  and  Helji^ 
HOLTZ  lies  chiefly  in  the  relation  between  the  mouth  tone  and 
the  cord  tone;   for  the  former  there  is  no  relation,  for  the 
latter   the   resonance   tone. is   one   of   the   overtones  of   the. 
cord  tone. 

Helmholtz  devised  an  apparatus^  of  electric  tuning  forks 
and  with  some  success  produced  Yowel-like  sounds  by  combin- 
ing different  sets  of  tones  (p.  291). 

'Willis's  description  of  the  acoustic  movement  in  the 
vowels  doubtless  coincides  closely  with  the  truth;  but  it  gives 
only  the  manner  in  which  the  motion  occurs  in  the  air,  and 
not  the  corresponding  reaction  of  the  ear  to  this  motion. 
That  even  such  a  motion  is  analyzed  by  the  ear  according  to 
the  laws  of  resonance  into  a  series  of  overtones  is  shown  by 
the  agreement  in  the  analysis  of  the  vocal  sound  when  it  is 
executed  and  by  the  resonators. '  ^ 

Helmholtz  was  greatly   influenced  in  his  theory  by  his    • 
views  of  the  action  of  the  ear. 

Tl'e  hypothesis  that  all  regular  vibratory  movements  reach- 
ing the  ear  are  analyzed  by  it  into  a  series  of  harmonics  of  the 
fundamental  period  is  an  assumption  that  seems  to  lead  natu- 
rally to  the  Helmholtz  theory.  This  assumption,  however, 
we  must  disregard  at  the  present  time ;  the  problem  concerns 
the  nature  of  the  vibratory  movement  characterizing  a  vowel 
and  the  solution  must  be  found  in  an  unbiased  analysis  of  the 
vowel  curve ;  the  question  of  how  the  ear  acts  is  a  separate 
one. 

•  The  Helmholtz  theory  was  for  a  long  time  accepted  in  the 
main  by  later  writers.  It  was  made  the  basis  of  Pipping 's 
first  analysis  of  vowel  curves.  

Pipping's^  work  with  Hensen's  instrument  (p.  20)  led  1 
him  to  the  following  conclusions. 

1  Helmholtz,  as  before,  191. 

2  Pipping,  Zur  Klangfarbe  der  gesmgenen  Vohile,  Zt.  f.  Biologie,  1890 
XXVII  77. 

% 


\J 


410  FACTORS   OF  SPEECH 

f   '  In  agreement  with  Helmholtz  I  have  found  that  each 
I  vowel  is  distinguished  by  one  or  more  regions  of  reinforce- 
ment of  constant  pitch.     The  intensity  of  its  partial  tone  is, 
caeteris  paribus,  greater  as  it  coincides  more  accurately  with 
the  range  of  reinforcement. 

'  In  regard  to  the  range  of  the  reinforcement  I  cannot  agree 
with  Helmholtz.  Helmholtz  does  indeed  state  that  the 
range  can  be  different  according  to  the  opening  of  the  mouth, 
the  firmness  of  walls  of  the  oral  cavity,  etc.  But  he  lays  so 
little  weight  on  this  difference  that  he  does  not  attempt  to 
use  it  in  the  characterization  of  the  different  vowels.  To 
judge  from  page  183  of  the  "  Lehre  von  den  Tonempfin- 
dungen, "  Helmholtz  thinks  that  the  range  of  reinforcement 
must  extend  in  general  at  least  a  musical  fifth  above  and 
below,  and  this  is  certainly  not  the  case. 

'  Sung  vowels  contain  only  harmonic  partial  tones. '  That 
is,  a  vowel  produced  by  singing  consists  of  a  series  of  tones 
whose  vibrations  stand  in  the  relations  of  1  :  2  :  3  :  4  :  etc. 

'  The  intensities  of  the  various  partial  tones  do  not  depend 
to  any  essential  degree  on  their  ordinal  numbers. '  That  is, 
in  distinction  from  most  musical  instruments  it  is  not  a  fact 
that  the  first  partial  is  much  the  stronger  and  that  the  higher 
partials  are  in  general  weaker. 

'  The  various  vowels  differ  from  each  other  in  ranges  of 
reinforcement  which  are-  of  different  numbers,  width,  and 
position  in  the  scale  of  pitch. '  That  is,  one  vowel  may  have 
two  ranges  of  reinforcement,  another  three,  etc.,  and  these 
ranges  may  differ. 

On  a  later  occasion  i  Pipping  believes  that  the  range  of  \ 
accommodation   may   exceed    even    the    limits    allowed   by  \ 
Helmholtz. 
.— -   The  first  point  at  issue  between  the  two  theories  may  be 
thus  stated:   is  a  cavity  tone   found  in  a  vowel  necessarily 
an  overtone  of  the  cord  tone? 
•  .Among  the  results  that  support  the  view  of  Willis  we 

1  Pipping,  Zur  Lehre  von  den  Vokalkldngeu,  Zt.  f.  Biologie,  1895  XXXI  573, 
583. 


VOWELS  411  - 

may   notice   those    obtained    by   Donders   with  the   Scott 
phonautograph  (p.  17). 

'Each  of  the  fourteen  vowels  when  sung  on  a  constant  tone 
produces  a  constant  curve!  .  .  .  For  each  vowel  the  form V 
of  the  curve  changes  with  the  pitch.  This  result  is  connected 
with  the  peculiarity  of  the  vowels,  that  their  timbre  is  deter- 
mined not  by  overtones  with  a  certain  relation  to  the  funda- 
mental, but  rather  by  overtones  of  a  nearly  constant  pitch. '  ^ 

This  last  statement  rests  on  the  fact  that  if  the  tones  of 
the  mouth  are  overtones  of  the  cord  tone  bearing  a  definite 
relation  to  it,  such  as  1st,  2d,  etc.,  the  curve  will  remain i/. 
the  same  in  form  no  matter  what  the  pitch,-  just  as  the  curve -^ 
of  vibration  for  a  violin  string  has  a  typical  form  which  per- 
sists in  spite  of  changes  in  the  pitch  of  the  string.  On  the 
other  hand,  if  the  tone  of  the  mouth  is  a  constant  one,  as 
Willis  assumes,  the  combined  vibration  produced,  by  the 
cord  tone  and  the  cavity  tone  will  change  for  any  change 
in  the  pitch  of  the  cord  tone.  Donders's  conclusion  seems 
indisputable. 

Hermann's  investigations  were  carried  out  by  transcribing 
the  curves  of  song  from  the  phonograph  (p.  39).  He  finds 
that  the  essential  fact  in  a  vowel  is  the  intermittent  or  oscilla- 
tory blowing  of  the  cavity  tone  by  the  cords.  Under  such 
circumstances  it  makes  no  difference  whether  the  cavity 
period  coincides  with  any  fraction  of  the  cord  period  or  not.^ 
Hermann  thus  supports  the  theory  of  Willis  in  asserting\ 
that  the  cavity  tone  is  completely  independent  of  the  cordj 
tone. 

Hermann  has  objected  to  the  overtone  theory  of  the  cavity  y^ 
tone  that  in  many  voices  it  is  so  high  above  the  cord  tone  ^ 
that  it  cannot  be  supposed  that  an  overtone  of  that  pitch  can 
possibly  be  present.     Thus  with  the  cord  tone  g  "^  the  vowel 
i  has  a  strong  cavity  tone  that  would  correspond  to  the  28th 

1  Donders,  Zur   Klangfarbe  der    Vokale,  Ann.   d.  Physik   u.   Chemie,    1864 
CXXXIII  528. 

2  Hermann,    Phonophotographische  Untersuchungen,  Arch.   f.   d.  ges.  Physiol. 

(Pfliiger),   1890  LXXIV  380,  38L 


\ 


412  FACTORS   OF  SPEECH 

or  29th  partial  of  the  cord  tone,  whereas  such  a  high  partial, 
if  present  at  all,  would  be  too  weak  to  be  heard.  ^ 

In  his  latest  investigations  Pipping  ^  finds  that  the  cavity  v 
tones  are  independent  of  the  cord  tone  and  abandons  the  J^ 
Helmholtz  theory. 

Similar  independence  of  the  cavity  tone  in  some  of  the 
vowels  when  sung  appears  in  the  work  of  Merritt-  (p.  27), 
Nichols  and  Merritt  (p.  28),  Bevier  (p.  49),  and  others. 
In  the  analysis  ^  of  the  curves  of  many  cases  of  the  diphthong 
ai  (App.  II)  in  words  spoken  in  the  chest  register  by  a  male 
voice,  I  find  that  the  cavity  tone  in  a  is  quite  independent 
of  the  cord  tone  in  pitch.  The  cavity  vibration  can  be  seen  A^ 
to  remain  of  constant  period  while  the  cord  tone  rises  through  J 
a  distance  of  several  octaves  within  a  single  vowel.  *-/ 

Hermann's  researches  *  on  the  modifications  of  tones  by%^ 
the  telephone  show  that  the  partial  tones  of  a  complex  are 
weakened  by  the  transmission  according  to  a  definite  rule:   "Js^ 
the  amplitudes  are  transmitted  in  relative  amounts  directly 
proportional  to  the  frequencies.^     Thus,  the   three   partials 
100,  200,  and  300  with  the  original  amplitudes  a,  h,c  would 
have  after  transmission  the  relative  amplitudes  f,  |,  ^.     The 
lower    the    original  tone    the    weaker  is    the   result.     Bass 
music  is  greatly  weakened  in  comparison  with  soprano.     In 
spite  of  this  difference  between  the  original  and  the  trans- 
mitted sound  the  vowels  retain  their  specific  characters ;  the 
relations  of  intensity  between  the  tones  of  a  vowel  are  there- 
fore not  essential  characteristics  of  the  vowel.  /  Thus,  the~\ 
mouth  tone  in  a  certain  vowel  may  differ  greatly  in  intensity  ) 
while  that  of   the  cord  tone  remains  constant  and  yet  they 
vowel  will  be  heard  as  the  same  one. 

1  Hermann,  Phonophotographische  Untersuchungen,  Arch.  f.  d.  ges.  Physiol. 
(Pfluger),  1894  LVIII  274. 

^  Pipping,  Zur  Phonetik  d.  finnischen  Sprache,  Mem.  de  la  Socie'te  finno- 
ougrienne,  XIV,  Helsingfors,  1899. 

^  Scripture,  Researches  in  experimental  phonetics  {first  series).  Stud.  Yale 
Ksych.  Lab.,  1899  VII  1 ;   On  the  nature  of  vowels.  Am.  Jour.  Sci.,  1901  XI  302. 

*  Hermann,  Die  Uebertragunq  der  Vokale  durch  das  Telephon  und  das  Micro- 
phon.  Arch.  f.  d.  ges.  Physiol.  (Pfliiger),  1891  XLVIII  543. 

*  Hermann,  as  before,  561. 


VOWELS  413 

In  the  same  research  Hermann  also  shows  that  the  rela- 
tions of  phase  have  no  influence  on  the  character  of  the  musi- 
cal sound  heard.  1 

These  results  of  Hermakn's  appear  irreconcilable  with  any—, 
vowel  theory  that  regards  the  mouth  as  a  resonator  strength- 
ening one  or  more  of  the  partial  tones  of  the  cord  tone.^ 

The  failure  to  produce  vowel  curves  by  adding  harmonics 
(p.  69)  and  to  produce  vowel  sounds  by  compounding  tones 
(p.  291)  have  already  been  mentioned.  To  these  may  be 
added  the  failure  of  wave  discs  representing  sums  of  har- 
monics to  give  vowel  sounds  when  used  with  a  slit  blast  in 
a  siren. (p.  89).  Curves  for  the  wave  siren  produced  by 
summing  harmonic  sinusoids  according  to  the  data  given 
by  AUERBACH  for  the  vowels  gave  no  satisfactory  results.^ 
Similar  curves  according  to  a  Fourier  analysis  (p.  71)  of 
the  vowels  made  by  Lahr  *  gave  ^  a  and  e  well,  o  and  u 
poorly,  i  not  at  all,  and  u  for  y. 

In  the  face  of  such  conclusive  evidence  it  is  hard  to  see 
any  point  in  which  a  decision  in  favor  of  the  theory  pro- 
posed by  Willis  and  developed  by  Hermakn  can  possibly 
be  attacked.  It  is  natural  to  assume  that  a  theory  found  to 
be  valid  for  one  vowel  will  be  valid  for  all;  it  is,  of  course, 
possible  that  other  laws  may  hold  good  in  other  vowels,  but 
until  this  possibility  is  proven  we  can  treat  all  vowels  on 
the  independent-tone  theory;  at  any  rate,  the  cavity  tone  is 
not  necessarily  an  overtone  of  the  cord  tone. 

Several  problems  concerning  the  physical  nature  of  vowels 

still  remain:  1.  the 'nature  of  the  cord  tone;  2.  its  method  of 

arousing  the  cavity  tones;  3.  the  nature  of  the  cavity  tones. 

These  will  now  be  considered.  '  "^ 

Willis  supposed  the  cord  tone  to  be  produced  like  a  reed 

1  Hermann,  as  before,  560. 

2  Hermann,  as  before,  566.  ,oo,  ytv 
B  KcENiG,  Bemerkungen  iib.  d.  Khnqfarbe,  Ann   d,  Phys.  u.  Chem ,  1881  XIV 

369  •  also  in  Quelques  exp&iences,  234,  Paris,  1882. 

4  Lahr,  Die  Grassmann'sche  Vokaltheone  im  Lichte  des  Expermentes,  Ann.  d. 
Phvs    u    Chem.    1886  XXVII  94. 

fE^CHHORN,  P..  Vokats>rene,  Ann.  d.  Phys.  u.  Chem.,  1890  XXXIX  148. 


I 


414  FACTORS   OF  SPEECH 

tone,  namely,  by  a  series  of  explosive  puffs.  That  this  may 
be  the  case  has  been  shown  by  the  curves  of  Hekmann 
(p.  39);  he  says  that  an  explosive  puff  followed  by  an 
interval  of  '  cord  silence '  (if  I  may  use  the  term)  is  one  of 
the  essential  characteristics  of  a  vowel.  Such  a  series  would 
be  similar  to  that  emitted  by  a  siren  with  holes  passing  before 
an  air  jet  (p.  89). 

This  view  is  also  supported  by  the  following  facts.  A 
vibratory  body,  whatever  its  natural  period,  when  acted  upon 
by  a  force  varying  harmonically,  must  itself  vibrate  with  the 
period  of  the  impressed  force.  If  the  variations  of  the  act- 
ing force  are  of  the  nature  of  a  sum  of  harmonics,  the  period 
impressed  will  be  that  of  one  of  them.  If  the  cords  acted 
like  most  musical  instruments,  their  vibrations  could  be 
properly  treated  as  the  sum  of  a  series  of  harmonics  and  the 
mouth  tone  would  necessarily  be  one  of  them.  The  forced 
vibrations  of  the  mouth  cavity  can  include  only  harmonic 
partials  of  the  larynx  note.^ 

It  has  been  shown  above  that  the  mouth  tone  is  inharmonic 
to  the  cord  tone  and  that  it  is  a  free  vibration.  It  follows 
that  the  cord  vibrations  are  not  of  the  nature  of  the  sum  of 
a  series  of  harmonics.  Hermann  draws  the  conclusion  that 
the  vibrations  of  the  cords  must  be  of  an  explosive  nature,  to 
which  a  harmonic  analysis  is  not  applicable.  To  this  it  has 
been  answered  that  when  the  cavity  tone  is  high  in  relation 
to  the  cord  tone,  the  treatment  by  analysis  into  a  series  of 
harmonics  may  not  be  applicable  and  that  this  may  not  dis- 
turb the  usual  views  of  resonance,  but  that,  when  the  natural 
period  of  the  vocal  cavity  is  not  distant  from  the  cord 
period,  the  cavity  must  vibrate  with  a  period  that  is  har- 
monic to  the  cord  period.^  Rayleigh  apparently  does  not 
regard  the  deductions  of  Hermann  as  conclusive.  The  issue 
seems  clearly  presented  in  the  curves  of  the  nature  of  those 
in  Plates  I  and  II.  In  the  first  part  of  the  vowel  a  in  '  I '  the 
cord  tone  rises  steadily  till  it  is  only  about  a  duodecime  below 

1  Ratleioh,  Theory  of  Sound,  2d  ed.,  II  §  397,  London,  1896. 
"  Rayleigh,  as  before,  §  397. 


VOWELS  415 

the  cavity  tone,  and  yet  the  latter  remains  constant  with 
no  tendency  to  become  one  of  the  harmonics  of  the  cord 
tone.  Continuing  along  the  curve,  we  find  that  beyond  the 
middle  the  period  of  the  cavity  vibration  is  somewhat  length- 
ened while  that  of  the  cord  vibration  continues  to  become 
shorter.  In  the  latter  third  of  the  curve  the  vibrations  ar^^ 
clearly  in  groups  of  twos,  alternate  ones  being  stronger.  As 
the  change  from  the  a  portion  to  the  i  portion  is  continuous 
without  anything  like  a  break  that  might  indicate  a  sudden 
readjustment  of  the  cords,  each  pair  of  waves  in  the  i  portion 
must  belong  to  one  cord  vibration  and  each  single  wave  must 
represent  a  cavity  vibration.  The  cavity  period  is  slightly  -~~ 
less  than  half  the  cord  period.  Thus,  even  when  the  two 
tones  used  in  forming  the  vowel  i  are  nearly  in  the  relation 
of  a  simple  musical  interval,  there  is  no  accommodation  of 
one  to  the  other  in  respect  to  period.  It  is  to  be  noticed 
that  the  first  vibration  of  each  pair  in  the  i  is  stronger  than 
the  second,  just  as  in  the  a  portion  the  first  vibration  is 
stronger  than  the  following  ones.  It  is  worthy  of  remark 
that  the  relative  strengths  are  not  the  same  in  the  two  cases, 
and  that  the  character  of  the  explosion  from  the  cords  must 
differ  to  some  extent  in  the  two  halves  of  ai.  Similar  condi- 
tions are  found  in  the  other  vowels. 

Such  relations  between  the  cord  vibrations  and  the  cavity 
vibrations  are  incompatible  with  the  theoretical  requirements 
of  the  supposition  of  the  sinusoidal  nature  of  the  cord  vibra- 
tion.    The  conclusion  seems  quite  justifiable  that  the  cords  i 
emit  a  series  of  puffs,  or  explosions  of  air,  instead  of  vibrat-  1 
ing   regularly  back   and  forth.     The   same   conclusion   was  \ 
reached  above  (p.  260)  from  a  study  of  cord  action. 

The  sharpness  of  explosion  is,  I  believe,  a  matter  of  degree.  \ 
Hermann  seems  to  consider  all  explosions  as  very  sharp ;  the 
intermittence  —  or  period  of  cord  silence  —  he  has  even  as-         y 
serted  to  be  an  essential  of  the  vowel  character.     That  the     / 
intermittence  is  not  necessary  can  be  seen  in  Hermann's 
curves  for  i,  1,  etc.  (p.  39).     In  my  curves  I  find  vowels  with 
all  degrees  of  sharpness  of  explosion. 


X 


416  FACTORS   OF  SPEECH 

I  would  amend  the  Willis-Hermann  view  by  saying  that 
the  cords  emit  a  series  of  puffs  whose  nature  may  vary  from 
the  sharpest  of  explosions  to  a  perfectly  smooth  sinusoid.  I 
would  also  add,  as  already  stated  (p.  94),  that  the  character 
of  the  sound  emitted  by  the  cords  depends  essentially  on  the 
na^re  of  the  puff. 

tx-^xhe  manner  in  which  the  cord  tone  arouses  the  cavity 
tones  can  now  be  definitely  stated. 
\  Willis  considered  the  mouth  and  cords  to  be  analogous 
to  a  reed  pipe.  Each  vibration  of  the  reed  sends  a  wave  of 
condensation  and  rarefaction  along  the  pipe.  When  the  pipe 
is  of  such  a  length  that  this  wave  is  reflected  back  in  such  a 
way  as  to  reinforce  the  vibration  of  the  reed,  the  cavity 
tone  is  a  loud  one.  Thus,  when  a  properly  adjusted  reso- 
nator is  placed  behind  a  vibrating  fork  the  tone  of  the  fork 
is  strongly  reinforced  (p.  14).  The  reinforcement  is  also 
strong  when  the  resonator  period  coincides  with  a  sub-multiple 
of  the  reed  period. 

Such  a  coincidence  between  the  periods  of  the  cavity  tone 
I  and  the  reed  tone  is  not  necessary.  Each  impulse  from  the 
reed  may  be  considered  as  striking  the  pipe  with  something 
of  the  nature  of  a  blow,  whereby  the  proper  tone  of  the  cavity 
itself  may  be  aroused  for  an  instant  (p.  285).  The  pipe  may 
thus  have  its  own  pitch  and  be  heard,  no  matter  what  rela- 
tion there  may  be  between  it  and  the  pitch  of  the  reed. 
When  the  blow  from  the  reed  is  rapidly  repeated,  both  the 
reed  tone  and  the  pipe  tone  will  be  heard  (p.  94). 

Such  a  method  of  producing  cavity  tones  has  been 
declared  to  be  impossible  by  Hensen,^  who  remarks  that  air 
from  a  reed  pipe  cannot  arouse  a  resonance  tone.  The  ex- 
periment on  which  he  bases  this  statement  consisted  in  placing 
a  resonator  at  the  end  of  a  reed  pipe.  At  a  certain  pressure 
of  air  the  pipe  sounded  its  own  tone,  at  a  different  pressure 
it  was  silent.  The  resonator  sounded  only  when  the  pipe 
was  silent.  Nevertheless  there  were  occasions  when  both  the 
pipe  tone  and  the  resonance  tone  appeared  together. 

1  Hensen,  Die  Barmonie  in  den  Vokaten,  Zt.  f.  Biol.,  1891  XXVIII  39. 


VOWELS  417 

To  these  experiments  and  deductions  Hermann  replied 
that  a  labial  pipe  can  be  used  to  sound  a  reed  pipe,  and  some 
experiments  were  made  to  demonstrate  the  fact.i 

I  have  attempted  in  another  way  to  show  that  a  series  of 
puffs  of  air  of  any  periodicity  may  be  used  to  sound  a  labial 
pipe  of  any  pitch. 

A  disc  with  its  edge  cut  into  waves  forming  approximately 
a  sine-curve  (Fig.  2)  was  rotated  by  an  electric  motor  at  any 
desired  speed.  Its  edges  passed  between  the  ends  of  two 
pieces  of  rubber  tubing  so  arranged  that  the  air  blown  into 
one  of  them  passed  directly  into  the  other  one  if  the  waves  of 
the  disc  permitted ;  the  position  was  so  chosen  that  the  waves 
of  the  disc  regularly  interrupted  the  air  current  completely. 
The  farther  end  of  the  rubber  tubing  was  flattened  and  placed 
so  as  to  blow  against  the  edge  of  a  piece  of  brass  pipe  stopped 
at  the  other  end.  In  this  manner  a  series  of  puffs  from  the 
disc  was  used  as  the  blast  of  a  pipe.  The  experiment  began 
with  the  disc  at  rest  and  the  air  passage  free.  A  current  of 
air  was  blown  through  the  tubing ;  the  pipe  gave  forth  a  tone. 
The  disc  was  then  set  in  rotation ;  the  tone  of  the  pipe  was 
regularly  intermitted.  As  the  disc  moved  faster,  this  inter- 
mittence  became  more  rapid.  Finally,  the  intermittence  itself 
was  heard  as  a  tone  in  addition  to  the  pipe  tone  (p.  94). 
Thus  an  intermittent  air  current,  such  as  is  employed  for  pro- 
ducing tones  directly  (p.  89),  can  be  used  to  produce  a  pipe 
tone  in  addition.  The  development  of  this  apparatus  into  a 
vowel  producer  has  been  mentioned  on  p.  293. 

I  have  succeeded  in  arousing  the  tone  of  a  closed  tube 
by  blowing  through  a  membrane  pipe  (p.  258).  The  pipe 
was  made  by  binding  a  piece  of  thin  soft  rubber  around 
the  end  of  a  glass  tube.  Two  opposite  points  of  the  thin- 
walled  rubber  tube  thus  made  were  each  caught  between  the 
thumb  and  finger ;  the  membrane  was  then  stretched  till  the 
sides  came  together.  A  blast  of  air  through  the  tube  set 
these  edges  in  vibration  and  produced  a  tone.     By  placing 

1  Hermann,  Weitere  Untersuchmgen  u.  d.  Wesen  d.  Vokale,  Arch.  f.  d.  ges. 
Physiol.  (Pfluger),  1895  LXI  195. 

27 


418  FACTORS   OF  SPEECH 

the  edges  at  the  right  spot  over  the  mouth  of  a  bottle  or  a 
test-tube  or  a  key  (Fig.  74)  the  tone  of  the  latter  could  be 
distinctly  heard  in  addition  to  that  of  the  pipe.  The  pitch  of 
the  membrane  tone  could  be  altered  at  will.  It  was  not  so 
easy  to  arouse  a  tube  of  low  pitch,  such  as  a  bottle,  because 
the  volume  of  air  passing  through  the  pipe  was  not  large. 

It  can  thus  be  regarded  as  definitely  settled  that  the  cur- 
rent of  air  from  a  reed  can  be  used  to  arouse  a  tone  in  a 
cavity  properly  adjusted  to  receive  the  air.  To  this  state- 
ment we  may  add  that  the  reed  tone  and  the  cavity  tone  may 
vary  independently  of  each  other,  but  that  the  cavity  tone  is 
loudest  when  its  pitch  is  higher  than  that  of  the  reed  tone. 


Fig.  306. 

Willis's  view  of  the  way  in  which  the  cavity  tone  was 
superimposed  on  the  reed  tone  is  very  explicit.  '  According 
to  EuLEE,!  if  a  single  pulsation  be  excited  at  the  bottom  of  a 
tube  closed  at  one  end,  it  will  travel  to  the  mouth  of  this  tube 
with  the  velocity  of  sound.  Here  an  echo  of  the  pulsation 
will  be  formed  which  will  run  back  again,  be  reflected  from 
the  bottom  of  the  tube,  and  again  present  itself  at  the  mouth, 
where  a  new  echo  will  be  produced,  and  so  on  in  succession 
till  the  motion  is  destroyed  by  friction  and  imperfect  reflection. 
« 

1  EuLER,  Conjectura  pht/sica  circa  propagationem  soni,  Opuscula  II ;  and  in 
Tentamen  novae  theoriae  musicae,  Petropoli,  1739. 


VOWELS  419 

.  .  .  The  effect,  therefore,  will  be  a  propagation  from  the 
mouth  of  the  tube  of  a  succession  of  equidistant  pulsations 
alternately  condensed  and  rarefied,  at  intervals  corresponding 
to  the  time  required  for  the  pulse  to  travel  down  the  tube  and 
back  again;  that  is  to  say,  a  short  burst  of  the  musical  note 
corresponding  to  a  stopped  pipe  of  the  length  in  question 
will  be  produced. '  ^ 

The  true  view  of  the  action  of  the  cords  in  producing  a 
cavity  tone  seems  to  be  the  following  one.  The  sudden 
puff  of  air  from  an  explosive  opening  of  the  cords  may  be 
considered  to  act  as  a  piston  compressing  the  air  before  it  in 
the  vocal  cavity.  The  air  acts  as  a  spring  by  its  resistance 
to  compression  and  drives  the  piston  back  beyond  its  position 
of  equilibrium ;  the  resistance  to  dilatation  draws  it  back,  and 
so  a  vibratory  movement  is  set  up.  Under  these  circum- 
stances the  air  acts  merely  as  a  spring;  the  form  of  the  cavity 
is  immaterial  and  the  period  of  vibration  remains  the  same, 
provided  the  capacity  is  not  varied.  The  single  impulse 
of  the  piston  thus  makes  the  cavity  a  source  of  vibration, 
whose  period  remains  practically  constant  but  whose  ampli- 
tude steadily  diminishes  from  loss  of  energy  mainly  by  com- 
munication to  the  external  air  (Fig.  4).  Such  vibrations  are 
seen  in  the  curves  for  a  in  Plates  I  and  II.  This  view  is  an 
adaptation  of  that  given  by  Rayleigh  for  resonators  in 
general  (p.  28).  «— 

The  question  still  remains  as  to  the  nature  of  the  tone  thus 
toduced  in  the  cavity. 

There  are  cases  in  which  the  Helmholtz  view  of  the 
action  of  the  vocal  cavity  might  seem  to  have  a  possibility 
of  correctness.  If  we  assume  (1)  that  a  uniform  condition 
has  been  attained,  (2)  that  the  natural  period  of  the  cavity 
does  not  differ  greatly  from  that  of  the  cord  period,  and  (3) 
that  the  cord  vibrations  are  not  of  an  explosive  nature,  it 
follows  that  the  effect  of  the  cavity  can  only  be  to  modify  the 
intensity  and  phase  of  the  partials  of  the  cord  note..  The 
partial  or  partials  nearest  to  the  natural  periods  of  the  mouth 
1  Willis,  as  before,  243. 


V- 


420  FACTORS   OF  SPEECH 

cavity  will  be  reinforced,  and  they  can  be  found  from  the 
speech  curve  by  the  Foueiee  analysis.  The  cavity  tone 
must  thus  have  a  period  of  one  of  the  overtones  in  the  cord 
tone. 

Under  the  assumptions  made  above,  the  vibration  of  the 
cavity  is  a  '  forced  '  one,  and  the  conclusion  concerning  the 
action  of  the  vocal  cavity  is  necessarily  correct.  ^  The  first 
and  second  assumptions  made  above  have  been  explicitly 
stated  by  Rayleigh,  who  concludes  that  both  the  Willis- 
Hbkmann  and  the  Helmholtz  ways  of  treating  the  action 
of  the  cavity  are  legitimate  and  not  inconsistent.  '  When 
the  relative  pitch  of  the  mouth  tone  is  low,  so  that,  for 
example,  the  partial  of  the  larynx  note  most  reinforced  is  the 
second  or  the  third,  the  analysis  by  Foueiee's  series  is  the 
^  proper  treatment.  But  when  the  pitch  of  the  mouth  tone  is 
high,  and  each  succession  of  vibrations  occupies  only  a  small 
fraction  of  the  complete  period,  we  may  agree  with  Hermann 
that  the  resolution  by  Foueiee's  series  is  unnatural,  and  that 
we  may  do  better  to  concentrate  our  attention  upon  the  actual 
form  of  the  curve  by  which  the  complete  vibration  is 
expressed. '  ^  The  two  forms  of  treatment  imply  that  the 
\  cavity  tone  is  to  be  considered  in  the  one  case  as  a  free 
\  vibration  of  the  air  in  the  cavity,  and  in  the  other  case  as  a 
forced  vibration.  Some  cases  of  i  in  my  study  ^  of  ai  may  be 
■  reconciled  with  the  Helmholtz  view,  the  resonance  tone 
being  an  overtone  of  the  cord  tone  and  changing  with  it. 
AH  cases  of  a  and  most  of  those  of  i  are  decidedly  inconsis- 
tent with  the  overtone  theory.  Possibly  the  variation  from 
the  overtone  theory  arises  from  the  explosive  manner  in  which 
the  cords  open.  The  general  description  of  their  action  for 
ai  probably  holds  good  even  when  the  cavity  tone  is  only 
about  an  octave  above  the  cord  tone;  each  puff  of  air  is 
stronger  at  the  start  and  fades  away,  setting  the  air  in  the 
vocal  cavity  into  free  instead  of  forced  vibration.  This  gen- 
eral characteristic  can  be  traced  in  each  ai  even  to  the  point 

1  Ratleigh,  Theory  of  Sound,  §§  48,  66,  322k,  397,  London,  1894,  1896. 

2  Rayleioh,  as  before,  §  397.  s  Appendix  II. 


VOWELS  421 

where  the  resonance  tone  is  slightly  lower  than  the  octave  of 
the  cord  tone. 

In  my  opinion  the  explosive  blow  theory  (free  vibration  of 
the  vocal  cavity)  and  the  overtone  theory  (forced  vibration) 
express  the  conditions  in  the  extreme  cases.  When  the 
puffs  have  infinitely  sharp  forms  the  former  is  necessarily  cor- 
rect ;  when  they  are  sinusoidal  the  latter  is  also  necessarily 
correct.  Puffs  of  forms  between  these  extremes  will  modify 
the  waves  from  the  vocal  cavity  according  to  their  forms. 
For  a  very  sharp  puff  the  vibration  in  the  speech  curve  will 
have  the  period  of  the  cavity  with  an  initial  amplitude  de- 
pending on  the  energy  of  the  puff;  the  vibration  will  fade 
away  rapidly.  For  a  puff  of  the  same  total  energy  the  initial 
amplitude  will  be  less  as  the  puff  becomes  less  sharp,  the 
period  remaining  that  of  the  free  vibration  of  the  cavity; 
the  vibration  will  fade  away  less  rapidly.  For  sinusoid  puffs 
the  cavity  vibration  will  have  an  amplitude  depending  on  the 
relation  between  the  natural  period  of  the  cavity  and  the 
period  of  the  puff;  for  harmonic  relations  it  will  be  greater,  for 
inharmonic  ones  smaller;  there  will  be  no  fading  away. 

We  are  thus  justified  in  defining  a  vowel  physically  as  a 
vibratory  movement,  consisting  of  a  series  of  puffs  of  more  or 
less  explosive  form  and  of  one  or  more  free  frictional  sinusoids  J 
(aroused  by  the  action  of  each  puff)  whose  periods  are  those/ 
of  the  natural  tones  of  the  cavities. 

Free  vibrations  (p.  2)  are  frictional  sinusoids  (p.  5)  when 
there  is  no  constant  supply  of  energy  (p.  14).  Since  the  soft 
walls  of  the  mouth  cause  great  damping  or  loss  of  energy,  the 
value  of  the  frictional  factor  k  (p.  6)  is  large  and  the  vibra- 
tions die  away  quickly.  The  rapidity  of  decrease  may  be 
clearly  seen  in  the  resonance  yibrations  in  the  first  portion 
of  '  I '  in''  Plate  II.  As  the  ^uffs  from  the  cords  become 
stronger,  the  free  vibration  lasts  longer.  As  the  puffs  come 
at  shorter  intervals,  the  last  vibration  does  not  have  time 
to  die  away  before  the  impulse  comes  from  the  next  puff. 
The  phenomenon  of  resonance  thus  appears,  as  shown  in 
Fig.  14. 


422  FACTORS  OF  SPEECH 

^We  will  now  consider  the  auditory  nature  of  a  vowel. 

A  sung  vowel  can  be  heard  to  include  at  least-. one  tone, 
namely,  the  voice,  or  cord,  tone.  Even  a  spoken  vowel  has 
some  general  pitch  character  to  it.  This  cord  tone  is  prac- 
tically lacking  in  whispered  vowels  (p.  274).  Since  the 
whispered  vowels  can  be  distinguished  from  other  sounds 
and  from  each  other,  and  since  they  seem  to  vary  in  pitch, 
it  is  evident  that  vowels  possess  other  tones  than  the  cord 
tone.  Since  these  vary  with  the  adjustments  of  the  vocal 
cavities,  we  may  call  them  '  cavity  tones.' 

It  is  clear  that  a  sung  vowel  consists  of  at  least  the  cord 
tone  and  one  cavity  tone.  Does  the  vowel  character  depend 
on  the  relation  between  these  two  tones  ? 

A  direct  proof  that  the  vowel  characteristic  cannot  lie  in 
such  a  relation  has  been  obtained  by  singing  vowels  into  the 
phonograph  going  at  the  usual  speed  and  then  reproducing 
'lihem  at  quite  different  speeds.^  A  change  in  the  speed  of 
the  record  not  only  changes  the  pitch  of  the  cord  tone  but 
also  changes  the  vowel.  In  Hermann's  experiments,^  with 
increase  of  speed  e  approached  the  sound  of  i,  u  that  of  o, 
and  finally  all  vowels  approached  a  sound  between  e  (ct)  and 
ce ;  with  decrease  of  speed  all  the  vowels  approached  a  bleat- 
ing sound  resembling  ce.  In  running  a  celluloid  phono- 
graph at  different  speeds  I  have  found  that  the  French  a 
in  '  pas  '  changes  to  e  as  the  speed  is  increased,  and  to  o  as 
it  is  decreased.  Experiments  of  the  same  kind  by  RoussE- 
LOT^  show  that  changes  in  speed  produce  systematic  modi- 
fications in  the  vowels,  the  amount  of  change  required  to 
reach  a  given  modification  being  different  for  different 
speakers.  With  decreasing  speed  the  vowels  appear  to  be- 
come as  indicated  in  the  following  list:  Hg  -^  o  -♦  Oj  ^  oe^ ;  aj 

1  Blake  and  Cross,  Helmhoitz's  vowel  theory  and  the  phonograph.  Nature, 
1878  XVIII  93;  Cross  and  Wendell,  On  some  experiments  with  the  phonograph 
relating  to  the  vowel  theory  of  Helmholtz,  Proc.  Amer.  Acad.,  1892  XXVII  271. 

2  Hermann,  Oeber  das  Verhalten  der  Vokale  am  neuen  Edison'schen  Phono- 
graphen,  Arch.  f.  d.  ges.  Physiol.  (Pfliiger),  1890  LXXIV  42. 

8  RoussELOT,  Principes  de  phonetique  expe'rimeutale,  226,  Paris,  1897. 


VOWELS 

423 

^    Eg    -> 

oi  -* «! ;  ei 

-^  63  -»  D  -*  CEi  ->  oe, ;    Co  ->  i„ 

-y'- 

<^i  ~*  CEg ;  ig  ->  gradually  weaker  ig  or  -+  y  ;  ccj  ->  gradually 

weaker 

OBj,  or  ^  cCg 

5  "^3  ^  gradually  weaker  ocg,  or 

-^y,  or 

->u;  y 

-^  gradually 

weaker  y  =*  oe^,  or  -^  gradually 

weaker 

y-^u; 

03  ^u;  Oi  - 

•^  O3  -*  u ;  u  ->•  gradually  weaker  v 

1.     The 

inferior 

numerals 

indicate    varieties    of    a   vowel 

as    in 

Ch.  XXIII. 

These  phonograph  experiments  show  not  only  that  an  im-        ^ 
portant  essential  of  the  vowel  character  does  not  lie  in  the    V\ 
relation  of   the  cavity  tone  to  the  cord  tone,  but  also  that 
it  does  lie  in  the  presence  of  a  tone  of  a  limited  range  of 
pitch. 

Similar  evidence  is  furnished  by  the  attempts  to  manufacture 
vowels.  When  a  band  of  metal  is  carefully  cut  so  that  its 
edge  reproduces  the  curve  of  a  vowel,  and  is  made  to  pass  in 
front  of  a  narrow  slit  from  which  a  blast  of  air  issues,  the 
vowel  itself  is  distinctly  heard  when  the  frequency  with 
which  the  waves  of  the  edge  pass  the  slit  is  the  same  as 
that  of  the  original  cord  vibrations,  and  therefore  when  the 
cavity  tone  is  of  the  original  pitch.  At  other  frequencies  the 
vowel  sound  appears  modified.  An  essential  characteristicY  ^ 
of  many  vowels  is  thus  a  fixed  cavity  tone.^ 

The  supposition  that  a  vowel  requires  a  cavity  tone  of  a 
certain  pitch  can  be  tested  by  removing  that  tone.  This 
has  been  done  ^  by  the  use  of  interference  tubes  adjusted  to 
kill  any  tone  with  its  even-numbered  overtones  or  with  its 
odd-numbered  overtones.  Most  vowels  (especially  a  and  o) 
became  nasalized  by  extinction  of  the  cavity  tone  and  its  ^ 
odd  overtones,  with  a  greater  or  less  change  of  the  special 
vowel  character.  All  vowels  with  high  cavity  tones  (e,  i, 
ce,  y,  ae,)  became  a  deep  indefinite  murmur  when  the  chief 
cavity  tone  was  removed.  With  the  extinction  of  its  higher 
cavity  tone  a  ^  o" ;  with  extinction  of  its  lower  one  a  ->  ae° 

1  Hermann,  Ueher  die  Priifung  von  Vokalkurven  mittels  der  Komg'schen  Wetlen- 
sirene.  Arch.  f.  d.  ges.  Physiol.  (Pfliiger),  1891  XLVIII  .'574. 

2  Sadbebschwarz,    Interffrem-Versuche   mit    Vokalkldngen,  Arch.   f.   d.  ges. 
Physiol.  (Pfliiger),  1895  LXl  1. 


^ 


424  FACTORS   OF  SPEECH 

though  rather  indefinitely.  The  vowel  ae  was  completely  anni- 
hilated by  loss  of  its  cavity  tone.  From  the  agreements  and 
differences  in  his  results  Saubeeschwarz  concludes  that 
the  vowel-characteristic  lies  in  tones  of  certain  relations  of 
pitch,  in  some  vowels  a  fixed  tone  being  the  most  prominent 
element,  in  others  a  certain  overtone  of  the  cord  tone. 

The  supposition  i  that  the  essential  of  vowel  character  lies 
solely  in  the  relations  of  two  or  more  cavity  tones  to  each 
other  and  that  these  tones  may  be  of  any  pitch  is  devoid 
of  the  slightest  foundation  (p.  292).  A  relation  between 
cavity  tones  of  fixed  pitches  may  be  suggested  ^  as  requisite 
for  the  vowel  character,  but  this  seems  hard  to  reconcile  with 
Hbemann's  telephone  experiments  (p.  412). 

The  conclusive  proof  of  the  relations  of  the  cavity  tones  in 
the  vowels  is  given  by  exact  determinations  of  the  vibrations 
necessary  to  produce  the  proper  effect  on  the  ear.  The  con- 
siderations presented  in  this  Chapter  have  shown  that  the 
vowel-character  —  that  is,  its  distinctiveness  to  the  ear  — 
depends  at  least  partly  on  fixed  cavity  tones. 

The  *■  essential  characteristic  '  means  that  characteristic 
which  is  most  effective  in  enabling  the  ear  to  distinguish 
certain  groups  of  sounds  that  we  designate  as  a,  e,  i,  etc. 
There  are  other  possible  groupings  of  vowel  sounds  and 
other  characteristics  of  them  all  and  singly.  One  character- 
istic that  varies  among  them  is  the  character  of  the  cord  puff. 
This  seems  to  differ  in  the  various  vowels.  It  has  already 
been  noted  (p.  291)  that  u  and  o  can  be  approximated  by 
using  tones  with  sinusoidal  puffs,  while  the  others  cannot. 

Generalizing  from  the  individual  peculiarities  of  different 
speakers,  I  would  say  that  a  sung  vowel  consists  of  a  voice 
tone  with  its  various  overtones,  and  of  various  cavity  tones, 
these  tones  being   in   pitch  independent  of   the  voice  tone. 

'  Lloyd,  Speech  sounds  ;  their  nature  and  causation,  Phonetische  Studien,  1890 
III  275,  278  ;  1890  IV  39 ;  1891  V  125  ;  The  genesis  of  vowels,  Jour.  Anat.  Phys., 
1^97  XXXI  233. 

^  M'Kendkick,  Observations  on  the  theories  of  vowel  sounds,  Proc.  Roy.  See. 
Edin.,  1897-1899  XXII  71,  87. 


VOWELS  425 

The  different  vowels  are  distinguished!,  by  a.  fixed  region 
of  pitch  for  eacb  vowel,  and  2.  by  certain  relations  among 
the  cavity  tones;.  It  should  be  added  that  these  distinctions 
are  not  perceivable  by  the  ear  directly,  but  go  to  make  up 
the  characteristics  that  distinguish  unit-sounds  from  each  ^ 
other.  ^^/^ 

Turning  now  to  the  motor  nature  of  vowels,  we  may  distin- 
guish between  whispered,  sonant,  and  surd  vowels. 

A  whispered  vowel  implies  1.  a  contracted  passage,  gener- 
ally at  the  glottis  (p.  274),  to  produce  a  fricative  noise ;  and  2. 
a  cavity  or  series  of  cavities  in  front  of  this  passage  through 
which  the  fricative  noise  passes.  A  slight  degree  of  sonancy 
often  seems  to  be  present  (p.  275).  The  character  of  the 
whisper  noise  varies  greatly. .  The  cavities  probably  resonate 
(p.  13)  to  periodic  impulses  picked  out  of  the  irregular 
fluctuations  in  the  rush  of  air. 

A  sonant  vowel  implies  a  vibration  of  the  vocal  cords  and 
a  fairly  constant  open  adjustment  of  the  cavities.  In  cases 
of  extirpation  of  the  larynx  an  artificial  larynx  may  some- 
times be  inserted.  A  vibrating  reed  takes  the  place  of  the 
vocal  cords. 

A  surd  vowel  consists  typically  of  a  cavity  or  series  of 
cavities  through  which  an  unobstructed  current  of  air  passes. 
There  is  none  of  the  glottal  friction  which  is  present  in  the 
whispered  vowels.  The  cavities  are  aroused  to  resonance. 
Surd  vowels  are  very  weak  sounds. 

We  thus  have  as  physiological  definitions:  whispered 
vowel  =  laryngeal  friction  +  faint  cavity  resonance ;  sonant 
vowel  =  cord  vibration  -|-  cavity  vibration;  surd  vowel  = 
breath  -I-  cavity  resonance.  These  are  typical  forms;  the 
actual  vowels  often  combine  them  in  succession. 

Speech  is  sometimes  possible  when  the  laryngeal  passage  is 
entirely  closed.     The  voice  of   Hickey^   in   speech  and   in 

1  Cohen,  Trans.  Phila.  County  Med.  Soc,  1892  XIII  302 ;  Trans.  Coll.  Phys. 
Phila.,  3d  series,  1893  XV  131 ;  Ein  Fall  von  gut  modutationsfahiger  Stimme 
u.  s.  w.  Arch.  f.  Laryngol.  u.  Rhinol.,  1894  I  276;  Allen,  Speech  without  a 
larynx,  Med.  News,  1894  Mar.  17. 


426  FACTORS   OF  SPEECH 

song  is  audible  at  a  distance  of  12  meters ;  it  appears  to  be 
a  true  voice  and  not  a  whisper,  perhaps  due  to  vibratory 
movement  of  some  edge  within  the  cavity.  Such  a  vowel 
consists  of  edge  vibration  +  cavity  resonance. 

In  such  cases  where  the  laryngeal  passage  is  entirely 
obstructed  a  peculiar  kind  of  whispered  vowel  may  be  pro- 
duced by  gathering  air  in  the  mouth  or  pharyngeal  cavities 
and  emitting  it.  Such  a  vowel  consists  of  mouth  or  pharyn- 
geal friction  -1-  cavity  resonance. 

In  cases  with  a  closed  larynx  and  an  external  tracheal 
aperture  a  metallic  reed  may  be  inserted  in  the  aperture 
whereby  a  musical  tone-  may  be  produced  while  a  vowel  is 
whispered  by  the  mouth.  Such  an  abnormal  vowel  would  be 
defined  as  reed  vibration  +  mouth  or  pharyngeal  friction  + 
cavity  resonance. 

The  supposition  that  spoken  and  sung  vowels  consist  of 
whispered  vowels  +  a  cord  tone  is  an  absurdity.  '  The  con- 
comitant resonances  [mouth  tones]  which  create  or  constitute 
vowel  qualitj'  are  animated,  primarily  and  essentially,  by  the 
irregular  noises  which  issue,  "together"  with  the  vocal  tone 
from  a  speaking  or  singing  glottis,  but  "without  "  it  from  a 
whispering  one.  Some  of  these  are  always  found  capable  of 
affording  just  the  appropriate  impulse,  and  of  kindling  the 
resonances  of  the  configuration  [mouth  cavity].'  ^  A  whis- 
pered vowel  produced  at  the  same  time  with  a  violin  note 
does  not  become  a  sung  vowel  by  the  addition.  Moreover, 
the  addition  of  the  cord  tone  necessarily  produces  a  vibration 
of  the  resonance  cavity  far  stronger  than  any  obtainable  by 
whispering  —  one  that  would  utterly  overpower  a  whisper  ele- 
ment. Finally,  in  ordinary  speech  there  is  no  whisper  action 
added  to  the  cord  vibration;  even  a  small  whisper  action 
in  the  cords  while  vibrating  produces  a  breathy  tone  (p.  273) 
readily  noticed  by  the  ear  as  abnormal. 

The  different  vowels  have  been  usually  defined  according  to 
tlje  relation  between  the  maximum  elevation  of  the  tongue 

1  Lloyd,  Speech  sounds:  their  nature  and  causation,  Plioriet.  Stud.,  1890  III 
277. 


VOWELS  427 

and  the  roof  of  the  mouth  +  certain  types  of  lip  action  +  the 
condition  of  the  nasal  opening.  The  place  of  the  maximum 
elevation  of  the  tongue  —  its  so-called  '  articulation  '  (p.  325) 
—  is  named '  velar  '  ('  guttural '  )  or '  palatal, '  according  as  it 
occurs  in  the  region  of  the  velum  or  the  hard  palate.  The 
size  of  the  opening  may  be  typified  as  '  high,  mid,  low  ' 
(referring  to  the  degree  of  elevation  of  the  tongue).^  In 
regard  to  another  distinction,^  the  division  into  '  narrow ' 
and  '  wide '  (or  '  primary '),  there  is  much  uncertainty  and 
dispute ;  even  the  existence  of  such  a  difference  is  denied.^ 
The  firmness  of  contraction  of  the  tongue  muscles  is  added 
in  the  terms  '  tense  '  and '  lax.'  The  lip  action  is  typified  as 
'neutral,'  'rounded'  or  'spread.'  Nasal  modification  is 
indicated    by  '  nasality. ' 

The  motor  relationships  of  the  vowels  have  been  indi- 
cated in  various  systems  with  more  or  less  accuracy.  These 
systems  are  useful  for  various  purposes,  but  have  led  to  the 
misconception  of  the  maximum  tongue  movement  as  the 
essential  of  the  vowel,  whereas  the  whole  course  of  the  ever- 
changing  movement  must  be  considered  (p.  325). 

Sweet's  system*  of  the  vowels  is  given  in  the  following 
list;  his  phonetic  characters  (Romic)  are  enclosed  in  quota- 
tion marks  :  unrounded,  back:  high,  'a,'  Gaehc  laogh;  mid, 
'  a,'  b«t,  father ;  low,  '  v,'  French  pas  ;  mixed :  high,  '  i,' 
Welsh  wn;  mid, 'e,'  eye,  better;  low,  'a,'  how,  sir;  front: 
high,  '  i,'  hit,  see ;  mid,  '  e,'  men,  say ;  low  '  aj,'  care,  man ; 
BOUNDED,  back:  high,  'u,'  pitt,  too;  mid,  'o,'  boy,  sow;  low, 
'0,'  not,  law;  mixed:  high,  'ii,'  Norwegian  hws ;  mid,  '6,' 
fellow  ;  (no  example  for  low)  ;  front :  high,  '  y,'  Fr.  htne  ; 
mid,  '  a,'  Fr.  pew ;  low,  '  oe,,'  Swedish  for.  It  should  be 
noted  that  the  English  key-words  refer  to  the  sounds  used 

1  Sweet,  Primer  of  Phonetics,  §  35,  Oxford,  1890.  _ 

2  Bell,  Visible  Speech,  40,  London,  1867 ;  Science  of  Speech,  14,  Washing- 
ton  1897  ■'  Sweet,  Primer  of  Phonetics,  18,  Oxford,  1890. 

3  Evans  On  the  Beli  vowel  system,  Phonet.  Stud.,  1889  II  1,  113;  Soames, 
Introduction  to  Phonetics,  §  96,  London,  1899;  references  in  Bretmakn,  Die 
phonetische  Literatur,  41,  Leipzig,  1897. 

i  Sweet,  as  before,  21. 


428  FACTORS   OF  SPEECH 

in  the  London,  pronunciation ;  some  of  them  differ  considei'- 
ably  from  those  commonly  heard  in  America. 

ViETOR  1  classifies  the  chief  vowel  types  on  mixed  auditory 
and  motor  principles :  A.  pure  vowels :  a.  guttural  vowels, 
1.  the  u  sounds,  2.  the  o  (o)  sounds,  3.  the  a  sounds;  b.  pal- 
atal vowels:  I.  unrounded,  1.  the  e  (ae)  sounds,  2.  the  i 
sounds;  II.  rounded,  1.  the  oe  sounds,  2.  the  y  sounds;  c. 
guttural-palatal  vowels ;  B.  nasal  vowels. 

The  system  of  the  Association  Phonetique  Internationale^ 
is  the  following: 


Pa 

LATAL 

Vela 

close 

I  Y 

i         li 

UI  u 

u 

half-close 

e  0 

e         0 

V  o 

medium 

3 

€  ce 

a         D 

A 

J 

half-open 

open 


A  further  development  of  this  system  has  been  proposed 
as  follows : 


Mouth 

Tongue 

articulation: 

PASSAGE :       Lips  : 

PALATAL 

VELAR 

-y^l-luZu^ded 

y 

i 

u 
i 

u 
m 

,                 ( rounded 
"'"'^           [unrounded 

V 

I 

u 

UI 

,    „   ,           rounded 
half  close  |uj,ro^„ded 

0 
e 

6 

0 
V 

i_  ij.               rounded 
half  open  ^  ^^^^^^^^^ 

8 

0 

n 

D 
A 

open 

se 

0 

very  open 

a 

Q 

All  the  vowel  systems  '  suffer  from  the  defect  that  they 
rest  mostly  on  inaccurate  observation  and  subjective  estimates 
—  especially  in  the  case  of  the  forms  of  articulation.  It  is  to 
be  hoped  that  .   .   .  experimental  phonetics  will  lead  also  to 

*i  ViETOK,  Elemente  d.  Phonetik,  4,  Aufl.,  Leipzig,  1898. 
"  Used  in  Le  maitre  phonetique  (edited  by  Passy)  and  a  number  of  books. 
2  Ideophonic  Texts  (edited  by  Pierce),  New  York. 


VOWELS  429 

an  exact  vowel-system  of  cultured  German,  English  and 
French.' 1 

The  nasal  vowels  have  been  mentioned  above  (p.  339) ; 
they  have  been  discussed  at  length  by  Rotjsselot.^ 

Great  differences  are  found  in  the  '  attack,'  or  '  on-glide  '  (I 
would  prefer  the  term  '  entrance ')  of  a  vowel.  In  German 
an  initial  vowel  regularly  begins  with  the  glottal  catch  (p. 
278)  ;  the  glottis  is  firmly  closed,  the  cords  are  stretched  to 
nearly  the  pitch  required  for  the  vowel,  and  the  vibration 
begins  suddenly  with  considerable  amplitude.  In  American 
speech  an  initial  vowel  begins  regularly  with  small  tension  of 
the  cords  and  with  small  amplitude.  •  This  appears  clearly  in 
the  curves  for  ai  (Plates  I  and  II),  a  (Plate  VIII),  an  (Plate 
X,  line  5),  and  in  the  cases  of  ai  discussed  in  Appendix  II. 
In  general  the  American  initial  vowel  begins  with  a  low  pitch 
and  rises  more  or  less  rapidly ;  in  exceptional  cases  it  is  con- 
stant or  falling,  as  in  the  interjection  of  satisfaction  a  (Plate 
VIII),  and  in  ai  '  eye,'  at  the  end  of  a  phrase  (Appendix 
II).  In  connected  speech  an  '  initial  vowel '  means,  of  course, 
a  vowel  at  the  beginning  of  a  phrase  after  a  pause.  French 
attacks  resemble  the  American  ones ;  Hungarian  attacks 
resemble  the  German  ones ;  in  German  Swiss  (St.  Gall)  they 
seem  to  vary.^  The  coup  de  glotte  of  singers  is  the  German 
attack  ;  for  Americans  it  is  an  artificial  action  that  must  be 
learned ;  it  sometimes  produces  nodules  on  the  cords  in 
Americans,  probably  due  to  inaccurate  and  too  energetic 
action. 

The  exit  of  final  vowels  (in  a  phrase)  seems  among  Amer- 
icans to  consist  regularly  in  a  fading  of  intensity  often  with  a 
fall  in  pitch.  This  is  clearly  seen  in  the  final  o  of  '  sparrow  ' 
(Plate  I),  i  in  ai  of  '  I,'  i  in  ai  of  '  my '  (Plate  II),  a  of  '  ha,' 
e  (a"^)  of  '  eh  '  (Plate  VII),  a  of  '  ah '  (Plate  VIII),  a  of  '  ah  ' 
{Plate  XI).     In  French  and  Hungarian  a  single  record  of 

1  ViETOK,  Elemente  d.  Phonetik,  4.  Aufl.,  64,  Leipzig,  1898. 

2  RoussELOT,  Principes  de  phou^ique  expe'rimentale,  S""'  partie,  532,  582, 

Paris,  1901. 

3  RonssELOT,  as  before,  484. 


430  FACTORS   OF  SPEECH 

each  1  seems  to  indicate  a  somewhat  less  gentle  exit  for  the 
isolated  vowel  ce. 

The  term  '  vowel '  is  often  used  in  contrast  to  '  diphthong.' 
The  supposition  that  a  vowel  is  of  constant  character  through- 
out its  duration  is,  however,  quite  erroneous,  many  of  the 
vowels  being  as  thoroughly  diphthongized  as  the  usually 
recognized  diphthongs.  The  term  'vowel'  is  properly  used 
to  indicate  the  class  of  open  sounds.  These  sounds  may  be 
of  all  degrees  of  constancy.  A  perfectly  constant  vowel  may 
be  termed  a  monophthong,  one  with  two  clearly  distinguish- 
able parts  a  diphthong,  one  with  three  a  triphthong,  etc. 
The  diphthongal  character  of  a  vowel  may  be  primarily 
settled  by  its  effect  on  the  ear ;  it  may  be  due  to  changes  in 
the  pitch  of  the  cord  tone  or  of  any  of  the  cavity  tones,  or  to 
changes  in  intensity. 

'  Diphthongization '  may  be  used  to  indicate  a  difference 
between  the  beginning  and  the  end  of  a  sound.  A  sound 
beginning  like  an  a  might  change  till  it  ended  like  an  i; 
such  a  changing  vowel  might  be  said  to  be  diphthongized. 
The  change  might  not  be  distributed  evenly  throughout  the 
vowel;  it  might  change  at  first  slowly,  then  more  rapidly, 
and  then  again  more  slowly.  A  case  might  occur  where 
the  sound  beginning  like  an  a  did  not  pass  evenly  into  i, 
but  changed  more  rapidly  in  its  interior ;  such  a  sound  might 
be  considered  as  a  4-  glide  +  i.  This  latter  case  is  gener- 
ally the  one  in  mind  in  discussions  of  diphthongs.  Again, 
a  vowel  might  undergo  little  change  during  most  of  its 
length  but  a  rapid  change  just  as  it  ended.  Thus  we  might 
have  a  +  glide.  Finally,  a  rapid  change  might  occur  at  the 
start,  after  this  the  vowel  being  as  constant  as  any  vowel 
ever  is.     Thus  we  might  have  glide  -I-  a. 

These  four  types  represent  cases  arbitrarily  selected  but  of 
all  the  possibilities  within  the  extremes  of  1.  a  perfectly 
constant  sound ;  2.  a  sound  beginning  in  one  way  and  ending 
in  another;  3.  a  sound  with  continuous  change;  4.  a  sound 
With  an  abrupt  change. 

1  RonssELOT,  as  before,  485. 


VOWELS  431 

If  we  add  that  the  beginning  may  be  any  one  of  the  infinite 
number  of  possible  vowels  and  the  ending  any  other  one, 
and  if  we  consider  that  the  four  factors  of  change  are  each 
infinitely  variable,  it  becomes  evident  that  the  number  of  pos- 
sible '  diphthongs  '  is  limited  only  by  the  possibility  or  prac- 
ticability of  distinguishing  among  them. 

Among  the  phenomena  of  diphthongization  we  may  note 
the  following: 

Absolutely  constant  vowels  never  occur  in  speech  except 
in  the  sense  that  their  changes  are  unnoticed.  When  the 
changes  become  distinctly  perceptible,  we  have  the  '  on-glide, ' 
the  interior  change,  and  the  '  off-glide  '  in  a  vowel.  A 
development  of  the  '  on-glide  '  produces  the  rising  diph- 
thong; of  the  '  off -glide  '  a  falling  diphthong;  of  the  inte- 
rior change  a  diphthong  of  two  more  or  less  nearly  equal 
elements. 

Just  what  forms  of  diphthongization  actually  appear  in  a 
language  must  be  settled  by  experiment.  Aside  from  Mar- 
TBNS's  study  (p.  20)  of  au  and  ai,  and  my  own  work  on  ai, 
I  know  of  no  experimental  study  of  diphthongs.  An  account 
of  the  latter  condensed  from  a  previously  published  mono- 
graph 1  is  given  in  Appendix  II. 

Curves  of  various  vowels,  diphthongs  and  triphthongs  are 
to  be  found  in  the  Plates  at  the  end  of  this  volume. 

References 

For  the  history  of  vowel  systems:  Michaelis,  Ueber  d.  Anordnung  d. 
Vokale,  Archiv  f.  d.  Stud.  d.  n.  Spraohen  u.  Lit.  (Herrig),  LXV,  LXVI ; 
also  separate  Berlin,  1881.  For  summary  and  discussion  of  various 
systems  :  Vietor,  Elemente  d.  Phonetik,  4.  Aufl.,  39,  Leipzig,  1898. 

1  Scripture,  Researches  in  experimental  phonetics  (first  series).  Stud.  Yale 
Psych.  Lab.,  1899  "VII  1. 


CHAPTER   XXIX 

LIQUIDS   AND   CONSONANTS 

'  Consonant  '  is  a  term  loosely  applied  to  sounds  that  are 
not  distinctly  vowels.  The  sounds  m,  n,  r\,  r,  1  are  often 
classed  as  '  liquids  '  or  even  as  '  semi-vowels.' 

"Vowels,  liquids  and  consonants  may  be  distinguished  by 
the  degree  of  openness  of  the  vocal  cavities ;  thus  the  three 
sounds  i  in  biova  'be  over,'  j  in  ju  'you'  and  j  in  lejn 
Germ.  '  legen  '  have  successively  narrower  passages  above 
the  tongue.  The  diminution  in  the  opening  is  accompanied 
by  increased  fricative  noise.  On  this  principle  m,  n,  ii  are 
liquids  and  j,  1  may  be  vowels,  liquids  or  consonants.  The 
three  typical  degrees  of  j  and  1  may  be  denoted  by  j„,  j„  j^, 

!»)   ^11  ^c- 

■  The  unfortunate  classification  of  liquids  solely  as  conso- 
nants has  led  various  writers  on  verse  to  speak  of  a  syllable 
containing  a  vowel  followed  by  a  liquid  as  short,  whereas  the 
total  vowel  quantity  is  really  long.  In  fact,  in  speech  the 
specific  vowel  may  be  omitted,  leaving  the  liquid  as  a  vowel 
between  two  consonants. 

The  liquids  are  probably  also  to  be  distinguished  from 
related  vowels  and  consonants  by  the  fact  that  they  undergo 
greater  changes. 

The  vowel  i  of  bit  '  bit '  undergoes  presumably  no  more 
change  between  its  beginning  and  end  than  the  other  vowels 
do;  the  liquid  j  of  ]u  'you'  undoubtedly  passes  rapidly 
through  a  considerable  range  of  change ;  the  consonant  j  of 
lejn  (Germ,  'legen')  is  again  of  a  more  constant  character 
^han  the  liquid.  The  character  of  the  liquid  ]  appears  in 
'  draw   your '  (Plate  I,  next  to  last   line)  ;   instead  of   the 


LIQUIDS  AND  CONSONANTS  433 

Strong  vibrations  found  in  all  cases  of  i  and  in  the  neigh- 
boring vowels  0  and  u,  it  shows  faint  ones  of  a  changing 
character. 

The  sound  w  in  wil  '  will '  is  the  liquid  form  of  u ;  it  is 
sometimes  called  '  consonant  u.'  The  final  sound  of  '  bow  ' 
in  Plate  I  seems  to  end  rapidly  by  some  articulatory  action 
in  the  mouth  rather  than  in  the  usual  fashion  for  vowels 
(p.  429)  ;  it  is  the  consonant  w  rather  than  the  vowel  u;  the 
word  is  thus  phonetically  bow  or  bouw.  This  addition  of  w 
is  due  to  the  fact  that  a  vowel  follows  ;  before  a  consonant 
the  word  would  presumably  be  bou  or  bo.  The  development 
of  such  a  hiatus-filler  is  a  common  linguistic  phenomenon. 

French  q  ('  consonant  y ')  as  in  '  lui '  also  seems  to  be  a 
liquid.     Perhaps  other  vowels  have  liquid  forms. 

This  view  of  the  liquids  as  involving  more  movement  than 
the  vowels  I  had  arrived  at  in  my  own  phonetic  work.  It  is 
strikingly  confirmed  by  Roussblot's  ^  simultaneous  tracings 
(p.  874)  of  lip  movement,  breath  record  and  speech  curve  for 
y  and  q,  and  of  breath  pressure  and  speech  curve  for  i  and  j, 
and  by  tongue  and  breath  curves  for  ei,  ej,  ia  and  ]a. 

The  essential  factors  in  consonants  seem  to  be  occlusion, 
explosion,  friction  and  roll.  These  are  combined  in  the 
most  varied  ways.  Occlusion  and  explosion  appear  in 
p,  b,  t,  d,  c,  J,  k,  g, ' .  Occlusion  without  explosion  ap- 
pears very  often  when  the  corresponding  sounds  occur  in 
certain  combinations ;  if  separate  letters  are  needed  for  these 
non-explosive  occlusives,  they  can  perhaps  be  obtained  by 
breaking  off  unessential  parts  of  the  type,  for  example, 
o,  D,  t,  a,  c,  ;,  K,  g.  The  occlusives  may  have  nasal  ex- 
plosions ^  instead  of  oral  ones ;  this  may  be  indicated  by 
w-modifiers,  thus  p",  b",  etc.  Friction  appears  as  the  most 
essential  factor  in  <t>,  p,  f,  v,  s,  z,  s,  z,  6,  S,  9,  j,  x^  Y.  h.  The 
roll  appears  in  the  various  forms  of  r.  Fricative  explosions 
of  the  occlusives  occur  in  various  forms  and  degrees. 

1  RonsSELOT,  Principes  de  phonetique  expe'rimentale,  2"'=  partie,  404,  637, 
Paris,  1901. 

2  RousSELOT,  as  before,  527. 

28 


434  FACTORS   OF  SPEECH 

The  attack  in  consonants  differs  in  different  cases.  For 
pa  and  sa  the  attack  seems  to  be  more  energetic  in  German 
than  in  French ;  ^  for  ba  it  is  less  energetic  in  German  be- 
cause the  explosion  is  weakened  by  the  probably  complete 
closure  of  the  glottis  during  the  surd  portion  of  the  b 
(Fig.  279). 

We  have  now  to  consider  the  phenomenon  known  as 
'  mouillure.'  Its  general  character  has  been  outlined  by 
SiEVBES.^  It  is  produced  by  the  adaptation  of  a  consonant 
or  a  group  of  consonants  to  the  articulation  of  a  palatal 
sound  (generally  i  or  j),  that  is,  by  a  rise  of  the  forward  part 
of  the  dorsum  of  the  tongue.  Such  a  rise  is  an  addition  to 
the  articulation  of  a  labial  sound ;  it  is  difficult  for  a  velar, 
a  postpalatal,  or  a  frontal  one,  but  is  easy  for  a  prepalatal, 
and  unavoidable  for  an  alveolar-prepalatal.  The  degree  of 
rise  may  vary.  In  some  cases  the  mouillure  appears  to  the 
ear  throughout  the  duration  of  the  sound  without  any  addi- 
tion at  the  end,  as  in  X,  n ;  in  others  it  appears  as  a  differ- 
ence only  at  the  end  ;  in  others  it  modifies  the  sound  and 
appears  also  in  the  release,  as  in  A-mouill^.  A  mouill^  sound 
is  not  the  same  as  the  corresponding  consonant  followed  by 
] ;  thus  ^  is  not  the  same  as  Ij,  n  as  nj,  etc.  All  the  mouill^ 
sounds  are  characterized  by  the  formation  of  a  narrow  passage 
between  the  predorsal  part  of  the  tongue  and  the  prepalatal 
region. 

The  mechanism  of  the  mouillure  has  been  established  by 
the  experiments  of  Lbnz  ("Figs.  307  to  323).^ 

For  aka,  eke,  iki  Lenz  obtained  by  means  of  an  artificial 
palate  (p.  298)  the  contacts  shown  in  Figs.  307,  309,  310.  They 
show  for  k  successively  more  anterior  contact  and  the  forma- 
tion of  a  channel  under  the  influence  of  the  adjacent  vowels. 
For  k  as  in  Fr.  '  qui, '  Ital.  '  chi, '  '  chiesa, '  the  contact 
was  still  more  advanced  and  the  channel  diminished  (Fig. 

1  RoussELOT,  as  before,  487. 
•      2  SiEVERS,  Grundzuge  d.  Phonetik,  5.  Aufl.,  185,  Leipzig,  1901. 

8  Lenz,  Zur  Phi/siologie  u.  Geschchte  d.  Palatalen,  Diss.,  Bonn,  1887;  also  in 
Zt.  f.  vergl.  Sprachf.,  1888  XXIX  1. 


LIQUIDS  AND   CONSONANTS 


435 


k  in  aka 

Fig.  307. 


k  in  aka 

Fig.  308. 


k  in  eke 

Fig.  309. 


k  in  iki 
Fig.  310. 


C 
Fig.  312. 


K 

Fig.  314. 


T 
Fig.  319. 


436  FACTORS    OF  SPEECH 

311);  the  sound  may  be  indicated  by  c.  It  is  evident  that 
a  slight  advance  of  the  tongue  would  close  the  entire  pre- 
palatal  region.  This  occurs  in  the  medio-prepalatal  contact 
shown  in  Fig.  313;  the  anterior  untouched  region  is  very 
small.  The  direction  of  pressure  is,  as  in  the  preceding 
cases,  mainly  upward.  The  contact  is  released  by  drawing 
the  tongue  down  and  back,  that  is,  by  starting  with  a  small 
groove  in  the  prepalatal  region  and  proceeding  backward 
until  the  release  is  complete.  The  breath  presses  through 
with  a  relatively  weak  explosion  and  a  following  short  rush; 
the  slower  the  movement  the  weaker  the  explosion  and  the 
stronger  the  rush.  This  k  is  the  so-called  ^-mouill^;  it  may 
be  indicated  by  k.  The  fricative  portion,  when  spoken  as 
an  independent  sound,  may  have  its  opening  at  the  front  or 
at  the  rear  of  this  prepalatal  position ;  in  the  former  case  the 
sound  resembles  a  <r  (specifically  a  backward  or  dorsal -palatal 
s),  in  the  latter  a  |  (specifically  a  forward  5).  Owing  to  the 
fact  that  the  curvature  of  the  tongue  is  greater  than  that  of 
the  palate  at  this  point,  it  results  that  the  upward  pressure 
produces  the  firmest  contact  not  in  the  middle  of  the  pre- 
palatal region  but  at  its  front  or  rear  edge.  The  release  of 
contact  would  thus  begin  either  at  the  rear  or  at  the  front  of 
the  region  of  contact;  in  the  one  case  the  fricative  addition 
to  the  sound  would  be  cr-like,  in  the  other  |-like.  The 
former  seems  to  be  the  usual  one  as  described  above.  When 
the  palatal  cr  is  spoken  alone,  the  region  of  contact  is  that 
bounded  by  the  white  lines  in  Fig.  315 ;  when  it  is  followed 
by  K  the  contact  covers  the  whole  portion  shaded  in 
Fig.  315;  the  region  of  contact  is  practically  the  same  as  for 
isolated  k  (Fig.  313),  though  slightly  greater,  owing  to  the 
fact  that  the  previous  position  of  the  tongue  for  <r  renders 
only  a  slight  movement  necessary  to  complete  the  closure. 
This  shows  clearly  the  nature  of  the  release  of  k. 

The  alveolar-prepalatal  contact  (Fig.  316)  marks  a  sudden 
ohange  from  the  previous  series.  The  pressure  of  the  tongue 
is  directed  forward  against  the  alveolae.  The  release  of  the 
large  contact  occurs  from  the  rear  by  formation  of  a  small 


LIQUIDS  AND   CONSONANTS  437 

groove  through  which  the  air  mshes  after  the  weak  explosion; 
the  sound  resembles  a  combination  of  t  and  |,  the  t  portion 
being  weaker  as  the  opening  is  slower.  The  sound  is  the  so- 
called  f-mouill^ ;  we  may  indicate  it  by  t.  On  account  of  the 
convexity  of  the  alveolar  region  its  closure  is  firmer  than  that 
of  K.  For  the  group  §t  the  closure  is  limited  to  a  small  supra- 
alveolar  region  (Fig.  317).  The  sound  ras  usually  produced 
has  a  contact  region  as  shown  in  Fig.  318;  the  likeness 
of  Figs.  817  and  318  indicates  that  the  release  of  t  is  like  |. 
The  sounds  of  Fig.  316  and  Fig.  318  are  absolutely  identical 
to  the  ear.  Fig.  318  shows  the  fricative  opening  already 
partly  formed.  It  also  shows  that  a  prepalatal  closure  is  not 
necessary  for  t;  nevertheless  the  closure  next  forward  from 
K  IS  necessarily  t,  as  the  tongue  cannot  make  the  prepalatal 
closure  without  the  alveolar  one. 

Lenz's  investigation  shows  that  the  passage  of  the  surface 
of  the  k  contact  forward  through  c  and  k  prodi^ces  a  change 
in  the  character  of  the  explosion,  whereby  it  receives  a  frica- 
tive addition  of  ct  or  |.  Such  a  change  in  the  pronunciation 
of  a  word  has  usually  been  erroneously  considered  as  the 
introduction  of  a  parasitic  ]  (consonant  i). 

The  sounds  k  and  t  are  in  respect  to  movement  neither 
pure  k  sounds  nor  pure  t  sounds,  but  are  somewhere  between 
them.  We  must  now  consider:  1.  the  nature  of  the  differ- 
ences between  the  group  k,  c,  k  (indicated  by  K)  and  the 
group  t,  T  (indicated  by  T) ;  2.  the  difference  of  k  from  k 
and  c,  and  of  t  from  t;  3.  the  mechanism  of  the  fricative 
addition;  4.  the  essential  characteristics  of  k  and  t. 

The  chief  difference  to  the  ear  between  a  K  and  a  T  cannot 
lie  in  the  tone  of  the  rear  mouth  cavity;  as  Lenz  points 
out,  this  would  produce  a  change  in  pitch ;  a  steady  fall  in 
pitch  is  observed  in  the  series  k,  c,  k  without  their  becoming 
the  same  as  T.  The  direction  of  the  expiratory  rush  of  air 
cannot  make  the  difference,  because  a  T  can  be  formed  by  the 
tongue-point  against  the  same  portion  of  the  palate  as  is  used 
in  K  without  sounding  the  same  as  K.  A  frontal-postpalatal 
T  may  have  the  same  pitch  as  a  dorsal-postpalatal  K,  but  they 


438  FACTORS   OF  SPEECH 

are  quite  different  in  sound ;  even  dorsal-alveolar  T  does  not 
resemble  a  K,  while  dorsal-alveolar  and  frontal-alveolar  T  are 
hardly  distinguishable.  Physiologically  the  difference  be- 
tween T  and  K  seems  to  lie  in  the  use  of  the  front  and  pre- 
dorsal  portions  of  the  tongue  for  T  and  that  of  the  medio-  and 
postdorsal  portions  for  the  K,  with  the  result  of  a  different 
action  in  the  two  cases.  As  Lbnz  points  out,  the  anterior 
portion  of  the  tongue  is  much  more  movable  than  the  posterior 
portion.  The  mediodorsal  portion  is  hindered  in  its  move- 
ment, especially  along  its  middle  line,  by  the  frenum, 
while  the  front  portion  has  (ordinarily)  free  movement. 
When  the  mediodorsal  portion  is  pressed  against  the  palate, 
the  chief  pressure  is  at  the  sides.  In  all  K-closures  the  con- 
tact is  looser  in  the  middle,  and  the  release  naturally  occurs 
first  along  the  middle  line.  The  K-explosions  have  thus  all  a 
scratchy  character,  due  to  the  gradualness  of  the  release  and 
the  consequent  rush  of  air  over  the  middle  before  the  tongue 
is  fully  away  from  the  palate.  When  the  anterior  portion  of 
the  tongue  is  closed  against  the  palate,  the  contact  is  firm  at 
all  points  and  the  release  may  occur  evenly ;  when  this  hap- 
pens quickly  the  explosion  is  sudden  and  there  is  no  noticeable 
rush  sound.  In  certain  contacts  the  gradual  release  is  un- 
avoidable, as  explained  for  k.  The  gradual  release  for  t  is 
not  a  necessity  of  the  contact  but  is  derived  from  an  addi- 
tional muscular  action.  Just  behind  the  region  of  closure  the 
tongue  makes  contact  along  the  sides,  tending  to  form  a  chan- 
nel in  the  middle ;  the  release  is  naturally  fricative. 

The  relation  between  T  and  K  may  be  illustrated  by  that 
between  the  bilabial  explosive  p  and  the  labio-dental  explo- 
sive p  formed  by  the  lip  against  the  teeth.  The  sound  of  p  is 
a  clear  explosive,  owing  to  the  sudden  relaxation  of  the  lips, 
while  that  of  p  is  a  scratchy  explosive,  owing  to  the  slower 
completion  of  the  explosion  due  to  the  irregularities  of  the 
teeth. 

«  The  difference  between  the  explosions  of  the  K  and  T 
sounds  lies  in  their  dullness  and  sharpness.  The  k  and  t 
differ  from   the  others  in  having  fricative   additions.     The 


LIQUIDS  AND   CONSONANTS  439 

groove  is  in  both  formed  in  the  prepalatal  region ;  this  occurs 
in  K  in  the  chief  contact  surface,  in  t  just  behind  this  surface. 

The  sounds  k  and  t  are  each  produced  by  a  single  con- 
tinuous movement  of  the  tongue;  they  may  be  said  to  be 
simple  speech  movements.  To  the  ear  they  may  appear  as 
simple  as  the  explosives  if  the  fricative  addition  is  weak. 
Increase  in  the  fricative  addition  makes  the  consonant  diph- 
thongs Kcr  and  t|.  Still  further  development  into  independ- 
ent sounds  requires  change  of  contact  and  produces  eg  or 
kx  and  ts. 

By  raising  the  lower  jaw  and  lifting  the  predorsal  portion 
of  the  tongue  against  the  alveolar  and  prepalatal  regions 
(Figs.  320,  321)  a  t^  can  be  produced  with  a  somewhat  (r-like 
fricative  addition.  (The  numerals  j,  ^,  g,  ^  indicate  succes- 
sive degrees  of  backward  contact.)  Still  further  progres- 
sion of  the  region  of  contact  may  bring  about  the  clear 
dorsal-alveolar  tg.  Thus  the  progression  of  the  contact  sur- 
face forward  gives  k-»c^K->T-*t.  Such  a  development 
is  relatively  seldom  in  the  history  of  sounds,  the  most  usual 
occurrence  being  an  independent  development  of  the  fricative 
addition  to  t  by  a  more  gradual  release  of  the  contact;  this 
produces  a  K-like  movement  in  place  of  the  T-movement, 
whereby  the  predorsal-alveolar  contact  is  first  opened  only 
along  the  middle  line,  sq  that  instead  of  tg  we  have  the 
combination  tgSg.  The  region  of  contact  for  tgSg  is  shown  in 
Fig.  322. 

Further  progress  of  the  closure  forward  and  downward  to 
the  teeth  occurs  by  raising  the  jaw  and  lowering  the  apex  of 
the  tongue  through  a  supradental  t^  till  finally  a  bidental  t^ 
is  reached.  The  gradual  release  of  the  supradental  t^  pro- 
duces a  s  addition,  that  of  tj  a  6  addition;  the  compound 
sound  becomes  tgS  or  tj6. 

The  unified  sound  c,  corresponding  to  the  compound  sound 
ts,  differs,  according  to  Lbnz,  from  t  in  having  the  medio- 
dorsal  portion  of  the  tongue  less  raised,  whence  it  results 
that  the  gradual  release  of  contact  covers  a  larger  space, 
producing  a  fricative  release  that  passes  rapidly  from  |  to  <r 


440  FACTORS   OF  SPEECH 

and  (T,  with  cr  usually  the  most  prominent  element.  A  c  sound 
does  occur  in  which  the  elements  |  and  o-  are  more  prominent 
than  cr.  It  is  quite  erroneous  according  to  Lbnz,  to  consider 
c  =  t  +  s  (or  more  accurately  t  +  d")  as  such  an  analysis 
separates  the  portions  artificially.  It  must  be  said,  however, 
that  the  degree  of  fusion  in  many  Yowel  diphthongs  is  just 
as  complete  as  in  c,  and  that  a  notation  such  as  ai  cannot 
usually  be  considered  to  indicate  distinctly  separated  sounds 
(p.  430).  The  contact  surface  of  c  is  shown  in  Fig.  323; 
the  white  line  incloses  the  surface  for  &  alone.  A  com- 
parison of  Figs.  318,  320,  323  shows  that  there  is  a  closer 
similarity  between  t^  and  c  than  between  t  and  tgSg. 

As  a  development  of  t  the  c  has  an  advantage  over  tgSg 
in  being  spoken  with  nearly  the  same  portion  of  the  tongue, 
that  is,  mediodorsal,  while  tgSg  uses  the  predorsal  portion. 
Whether  a  dialect  develops  t  to  6  or  to  tgSg  depends  upon 
circumstances;  only  one  of  the  developments  occurs  at  the 
same  time.  Lenz  suggests  that  the  choice  depends  on  the 
preference  for  similarity  of  the  acoustic  impressions  or  for 
that  of  the  sensations  of  movement.  If  the  former  prevails, 
T  -^  tgSg ;  if  the  latter,  t  ->  c. 

The  so-called  '  mouill^  '  explosives  k,  \,  t,  8  are  com- 
posed of  an  occlusion  with  a  fricative  release;  they  thus 
differ  from  the  explosives,  properly  so-called,  which  have  an 
occlusion  with  an  explosive  release.  With  nasal  openings 
there  arise  ji  and  n,  the  latter  being  the  w-mouill^  of  the 
Romance  and  Slavic  languages,  and  the  former  a  77-mouill^. 
A  relaxation  of  the  articulation  for  t,  6  by  a  side  contraction 
gives  surd  and  sonant  A,  or  Z-mouill^. 

The  audibility  due  to  the  explosion  as  in  t,  d,  c,  j,  k,  g, 
etc.,  is  lacking  in  m,  n  and  j\  on  account  of  the  passage  of  the 
air  through  the  nose,  and  in  1  through  the  side  openings;  the 
fricative  form  of  release,  which  is  distinctly  audible  in  t,  8 
and  K,  \,  is  scarcely  heard  in  ji,  ii  and  A. 

Roussblot's  palatograms  ^  of  k,  \,  t,  8  for  various  French 
dialects  are  closely  analogous  to  those  of  Lenz. 

1  RoussELOT,  Principes  de  phonc'tique  expe'rimentale,  2'"e  partie,  607,  Paris, 
1901. 


LIQUIDS  AND   CONSONANTS  441 

The  mechanism  of  the  mouillure  is  illustrated  by  Oussof's 
palatograms  ^  of  the  Russian  mouill^  labials.  They  all  show 
that  during  the  articulation  for  p,  b,  f,  v  the  tongue  jjlaces 
itself  in  the  j  position ;  the  release  is  thus  j -modified. 

Experiments  with  exploratory  bulbs  (p.  333)  show^  that 
the  r-mouill6  differs  from  the  ordinary  r  by  a  considerably 
greater  rise  of  the  tongue  in  the  dorsal  region,  while  the 
point  of  the  tongue  rises  slowly  instead  of  abruptly.  The 
w-  and  Z-mouill^  seem^  to  be  produced  by  more  extensive 
tongue  contacts.  It  is  to  be  remembered  that  these  two 
sounds  may  be  continuously  produced. 

These  explanations  of  the  so-called  '  mouill^ '  sounds  may  be 
completed  in  some  particulars.  The  term  '  mouiller '  means 
'  to  make  wet,'  'to  give  a  liquid  sound  to.'  It  refers  primarily 
to  the  auditory  impression.  Such  an  impression  of  softness 
can  be  produced  in  occlusives  by  retarding  the  explosive  re- 
lease ;  this  occurs  naturally  in  those  whose  articulations  are 
dorsal-prepalatal ;  it  may  be  produced  by  retarding  the  tongue 
in  the  release  of  other  articulations.  The  fact  that  forward 
K  and  backward  T  are  naturally  '  mouill^ '  sounds  has  led  to 
the  identification  of  the  motor-phenomenon  vfith.  the  auditory 
one.  A  sound  like  1  or  n,  produced  with  a  more  backward 
region  of  articulation,  is  said  to  be  '  mouilM.'  The  nature  of 
the  release  in  these  sounds  is,  in  my  opinion,  a  minor  matter ; 
the  continuous  '  I-  and  w-mouiU6 '  are  rather  to  be  considered 
as  members  of  the  1  and  n  series  that  to  the  ear  differ  merely 
in  their  cavity  tones ;  a  connection  with  the  occlusive  mouill^- 
sounds  arises  only  from  the  auditory  impression  of  softness. 

Sounds  like  c  and  J,  s  and  z,  etc.,  Rousselot  calls*  '  semi- 
occlusives.'  He  asserts  that  they  have  developed  from  the 
mouilld  consonants  by  further  relaxation  of  the  muscles  con- 
stituting the  '  vocal  hindrance.'  If  the  point  of  the  tongue 
remains  in  the  alveolar  region  with  the  dentals  t,  8,  or  if  it  is 
placed  there  with  the  palatals  k,  x,  the  release  is  modified,  and 
the  mouill^  sound  becomes  transformed  into  an  articulation 

1  Rousselot,  as  before,  604.  ^  RonssELOT,  as  before,  607. 

3  Rousselot,  as  before,  610.  *  Rousselot,  as  before,  618. 


442  FACTORS   OF  SPEECH 

that  appears  double  to  the  ears  of  those  who  cannot  produce 
it.  Persons  who  naturally  employ  the  semi-occlusives  cannot 
tolerate  ^  the  confusion  with  the  sound  groups  ts,  dz,  ts,  dz. 
Eousselot's  palatograms  and  records  with  exploratory  bulbs 
at  different  points  in  the  mouth  show  conclusively  that  the 
region  of  occlusion  is  much  further  back  for  c,  J,  s,  z,  than 
for  t,  d  (being  rather  that  for  t,  8)  and  that  the  occlusion  is 
weaker.  The  relative  proportions  of  occlusion  and  friction 
vary  from  complete  occlusion  in  t,  d,  to  complete  friction  in 

O^       Zf        O)       Zm 

Experimental  records  are  still  needed  to  show  just  where 
the  separation  is  to  be  made  between  c,  j,  s,  z,  and  the  cor- 
responding diphthongs  in  each  language.  For  Italian  c,  j 
JossELYN  has  shown  (p.  321)  that  the  fricative  element  is 
like  ]  and  not  like  s,  z.  He  seems  to  have  proven  that  the 
sounds  in  c,  j  are  too  closely  unified  to  be  treated  as  diph- 
thongs ;  perhaps  also  we  should  say  the  same  of  the  sounds 
represented  here  by  s,  z  but  on  p.  321  by  ts,  dz. 

Josselyn's^  experimental  records  of  Italian  articulations 
show  varieties  of  '  soft  c '  extending  from  a  purely  fricative  form 
to  nearly  a  k  (^-mouill^).  Indications  of  k  ->  k  were  even  found 
in  some  cases.  The  change  of  Latin  k  before  e  or  i  to  k  prob- 
ably occurred  in  the  same  manner  as  the  similiar  change  occur- 
ring at  present  in  Parisian  French  (p.  315).  The  further 
change  of  k  to  c  is  illustrated  by  Josselyn's  records. 

Physical  definitions  of  the  consonants  have  been  given 
by  Heemann  ^  on  the  basis  of  his  speech  curves  (p.  43). 

A.     Consonants  with  cord  action  (^phonic  consonants). 

1.  Smooth  semi-vowels:  1,  m,  n,  t].  These  are  sounds, 
without  noises,  having  one  or  more  fixed  characteristic  reso- 
nance tones  (formants)  like  the  vowels ;  they  differ  from  them 
in  not  having  their  force,  openness  and  distinctly  musical 
character. 

1  Dauzat,  Contributions  a  I'gtude  des  articulations  consonanttques,  La  Parole, 
1899  1619. 
•  ^  JossELTN,  jStnde  sur  la  phonetique  italienne,  67,  These,  Paris,  1900. 

3  Hermann,  Fortrjesetzte  Untersuchimgen  ii.  d.  Konsonanten,  Arch.  f.  d.  ges. 
Physiol.  (Pfluger),  1900  LXXXIII  8. 


LIQUIDS   AND   CONSONANTS 


443 


2.  Remittent  semi- vowels :  r.  The  various  forms  of  r 
have  the  same  properties  as  the  smooth  semi-vowels,  and  the 
additional  one  of  relatively  slow  periodic  changes  in  intensity. 

3.  Phonic  noise-continuants:  p,  v,  g,  z,  z,  j,  -y.  These  con- 
sist of  a  noise  accompanied  by  a  cord  tone,  the  characteristic 
tones  (formants)  in  the  noise  having  apparently  no  relations 
to  the  cord  tone. 

4.  Phonic  explosives:  b,  d,  j,  g. 

B.     Consonants  without  cord  action  {aphonic  consonants). 

1.  Aphonic  noise-continuants:  <j>,  f,  6,  s,  s,  9,  x-  These  are 
noises  of  very  variable  nature,  containing  certain  characteristic 
tones. 

2.  Aphonic  explosives:  p,  t,  c,  k.  These  have  a  silent 
period  of  occlusion,  usually  with  a  following  explosion. 

Brtjcke's  motor  definitions  ^  may  be  summarized  in  the  fol- 
lowing classification.  Where  two  letters  are  given,  the  for- 
mer indicates  the  surd,  the  latter  the  sonant.  The  laryngeal 
sounds  (h,  Arabic  hha,  Arabic  ain,  laryngeal  r)  are  placed  in  a 
separate  class. 

Simple  Consonants 


1st  Series  {lip) 

2d  Series  {front 
of  tongue) 

Sd  Series  (middle  and 
back  of  tongue) 

Explosives 

,  (  pi,  Ji  bilabial 
P'  "  \  p\  62  labiodental 

f  t\  rfi  alveolar 
,    ,  it^,  d^  cerebral 
*•  "  "i  t\  d^  dorsal 
«*,  d*  dental 

k,g 

(  fci,  g^  velar 

\  W,  g"^  palato-velar 

{  B,  g^  palatal 

Fricatives 

{ /■!,  wi  bilabial 
/,  ''^/2,y2  labiodental 

■  si,  zi  alveolar 
J  s2,  z2  cerebral 
°''  ^  "<  sS,  z3  dorsal 
,s*,z*  dental  (9, 

x,y 

5) 

i  X^>  y^  velar 

s  X^t  'iP'  palato-velar 

{  X3,  y3  palatal 

L-sounds 

\i,  /I  alveolar 
J    ,  ,  A.2,  p  cerebral 
'*■'  '  1  \3,  /3  dorsal 

A.4,  li  dental 

Vibrants 
Resonants 

(  ml  bilabial 
™  1  irfl  labiodental 

'  rji  alveolar 
I  n^  cerebral 
"  ]  nS  dorsal 
)!*  dental 

ttI  velar 

•ir2  palato-velar 

ifi  palatal 

1  Bkucke,  Grundzuge  d.  Physiologie  u.  Systematik  d.  Sprachlaute  fiir  Lin- 
^uisten  u.  Taubstummenlehrer,  1.  Aufl.,  Wien,  1856;  2.  Anfl.,  Wien,  1876. 


444  FACTORS   OF  SPEECH 

Complex  Consonants 
sx,  ^>J  in  various  combinations  of  the  forms  of  s,  x,  ^t  V- 

MOUILLE    SOUNDB 

ly,  nij  with  various  forms  of  I  and  n. 

Beucke's  treatment  was  a  great  achievement  for  the  pre- 
experimental  time.  Later  work  has  partially  remedied  its 
incompleteness  and  corrected  its  faults.  s%,  zy  (=  s,  z)  are 
no  longer  supposed  to  be  complex  sounds.  The  mouillure 
has  been  extended  to  other  consonants  than  I  and  n  and  is 
known  to  be  different  from  the  addition  of  a  parasitic  y  (j^. 
p  and  6,  t  and  d,  are  known  to  differ  in  other  ways  than  in 
regard  to  sonancy.  We  can  no  longer  accept  Beucke's 
view  that  for  the  consonants  as  for  the  vowels  —  with  the 
exception  of  the  diphthongs  — ■  the  letters  are  not  to  be 
considered  as  signs  for  active  movements  of  the  organs  of 
speech  but  as  indications  of  definite  conditions  and  definite 
adjustments  of  the  mouth  organs  and  glottis,  in  which  they 
are  found  while  the  expiratory  muscles  seek  to  press  out 
the  air. 

Vietoe's  classification  is  also  motor. ^  To  show  the  rela- 
tions between  the  groups  of  sounds,  I  give  his  complete  outline. 
Laryngeal  Articulation.  I.  Sounds  with  laryngeal  opening. 
II.  Sounds  with  laryngeal  narrowing  or  closure.  Mouth  Ar- 
ticulation: I.  Sounds  with  opening  of  mouth :  1.  sonants  : 
vowels  (p.  428) ;  2.  surds :  h.  II.  Sounds  with  narrowing 
or  closure  of  the  mouth:  1.  fricatives:  A.  gutturals  and 
palatals  :  (1)  uvular  r;  (2)  gutturals:  j  and  o;  (3)  palatals: 
j  and  f  ;  B.  dentals:  (1)  sibilant  sounds:  z  and  S,  z  and 
s;  (2)  3  and  p;  (3)  liquids:  r  and  I;  C.  labials:  v  and  /; 
2.  occlusives :  A.  without  nasal  resonance :  a.  gutturals  and 
palatals:  g,  k;  b.  dentals:  d,  t;  c.  labials:  5,  p;  B.  with 
nasal  resonance :  a.  gutturals  and  palatals:  »y,  w;  b.  dentals: 
n;  c.  labials:  m.  Vietoe's  j  corresponds  to  y  of  this  book, 
c  to  x»  J*  to  9,  dotted  n  to  n. 

1  ViETOR,  Elemente  d.  Phonetik,  4  Anil.,  Leipzig,  1898. 


LIQUIDS  AND   CONSONANTS 


445 


The  Association  Phonetique  Internationale  classifies  and 
represents  tlie  consonants  in  tlie  following  way.  (The  mis- 
leading "  g  "  has  recently  been  replaced  by  a  crossed  g.) 


Laryn- 

Gdt- 

Uvu- 

Velar 

Palatal 

Lingual 

Labial 

geal 

TURAL 

lar 

Plosive 

? 

qo 

k9 

cj 

td 

pb 

Nasal 

1 

J 

u 

m 

liateral 

I 

l 

1 

Rolled 

Q 

aK 

r 

Fricative 

h 

hR 

HB 

(WAl)xg 

(q)?j 

•I,  63,73 , 

zs 

£v      ru 
wAi    a 

The  steady  progress  in  our  knowledge  of  the  consonants 
has  lately  been  aided  by  experimental  researches.  The 
details,  as  far  as  summarized  in  this  book,  can  be  found  by 
consulting  the  Index. 


CHAPTER   XXX 

SOUND   FUSION 

The  person  producing  a  vocal  sound  is  not  distinctly  con- 
scious of  the  separate  muscular  movements  involved.  He 
has  a  more  or  less  definite  idea  —  derived  from  past  auditory 
and  motor  experiences  —  of  what  he  wishes  to  say,  and  he  wills 
to  do  it.  The  auditory  and  motor  experiences  from  the  past 
and  those  of  the  actual  production  of  the  sound  are,  in  ordi- 
nary speaking,  fused  in  his  mind  into  a  single  experience.  It 
is  only  by  attending  to  some  of  these  groups  of  elements  more 
than  to  others  —  that  is,  by  introducing  artificial  conditions 
—  that  they  can  be  made  to  appear  specially  prominent  to 
him. 

This  fusion  occurs  not  only  among  the  elements  at  the 
same  instant  of  time,  but  extends  over  intervals  of  time. 
Speech  actions  are  fused  into  '  experiences  '  that  may  cover  a 
whole  discourse,  a  paragraph,  a  sentence,  a  phrase,  a  word 
or  a  phonetic  element. 

To  the  ear  speech  is  one  continuous  flow ;  even  the  pauses 
are  just  as  effective  mental  elements  as  the  sounds;  an 
attempt  to  pick  out  elements  of  speech  by  the  ear  modifies 
and  alters  them  from  the  sounds  actually  occurring.  On  the 
motor  side  the  fusion  is  just  as  complete ;  there  are  no  dis- 
tinctly marked  volitions  for  successive  sounds,  but  a  course 
of  volition  resulting  in  a  course  of  movement. 

Speech  cannot  be  considered  as  made  up  of  separate  ele- 
ments placed  side  by  side  like  letters.  In  the  flow  of  speech 
it  is  just  as  arbitrary  a  matter  to  consider  certain  portions  to 
be  separate  sounds  as  to  mark  off  by  a  line  where  a  hill 
begins  and  the  plain  ends.     Moreover,  an  assignment  of  char- 


SOUND  FUSION  447 

acteristic  portions  that  would  be  allowable  for  disconnected 
sounds  or  for  some  occasions  would  not  be  allowable  for  others. 
Thus,  an  independent  surd  occlusive  (p,  for  example)  can 
not  be  distinctly  made  without  the  movement  of  closing  and 
the  movement  of  explosion.  The  closing  may  be  faintly 
audible,  the  time  of  complete  occlusion  is  one  of  silence,  the 
explosion  is  audible.  In  a  word^  however,  not  only  may 
the  time,  movement  and  sound  of  the  closing  be  fused  with 
the  preceding  vowel,  ^  but  even  the  period  of  occlusion 
itself  is  to  be  considered —  Gk^goieb^  points  out  —  as  the 
final  portion  of  the  preceding  syllable,  while  the  explosion 
begins  the  following  one.  In  ordinary  speech  a  division 
into  syllables  of  the  French  word  papa  would  not  be  pa-pa 
but  pa  I  *-<''a  where  the  1 1"  indicates  the  closing  and  occlu- 
sion of  the  p,  and  <p  its  explosion.  Even  in  such  a  case,  we 
must  add,  there  is  no  sharp  boundary  between  the  portions 
of  the  p,  owing  to  the  varying  relations  of  larynx  and  mouth 
action. 

Having  set  aside  the  view  of  speech  as  an  agglomeration 
of  elements,  we  must  attempt  a  consistent  treatment  on  some 
other  principle.  > 

In  all  speech  there  is  constant  variation  in  the  quantity  of 
auditory  and  vocal  energy  from  moment  to  moment.  This 
quantity  consists  of  the  sum  of  all  deviations  from  the  medium 
conditions  of  pitch,  intensity,  duration  and  difficulty  of  enun- 
ciation. A  rise  or  fall  of  pitch  beyond  the  general  tone  of 
the  discourse,  a  lengthening  of  a  sound,  an  increase  of  inten- 
sity, a  change  to  silence,  and  any  increase  in  the  difficulty 
of  fixing  the  mouth  to  produce  sounds  —  these  are  all  elements 
that  tend  to  make  a  sound  more  energetic.  These  elements 
in  their  varying  degrees  and  combinations  produce  a  total  of 
energy  that  varies  at  each,  instant.  The  effect  is  directly 
related  to  the  rapidity  of  change  from  the  medium  condition. 
The  variations  in  energy  may  be  utterly  irregular,  as  in  some 

1  ViETOR,  Elemente  d.  Phonetik,  4.  Aufl.,  297,  Leipzig,  1898. 

2  Gkbgoire,  Variations  de  dure'e  de  la  syllabe  frangaise,  La  Parole,  1899  I  161, 
263,  418, 


448  FACTORS    OF  SPEECH 

cases  of  prose,  or  may  show  a  great  degree  of  regularity,  as 
in  verse. 

We  may  try  to  treat  speech  as  a  phenomenon  whose 
energy  varies  with  the  time.  Such  a  curve  of  auditory 
impressiveness,  or  of  vocal  effort,  might,  for  some  phrase,  be 
the  imaginary  one  given  in  Fig.  324.  The  curve  of  energy 
rises  and  falls  in  a  more  or  less  regular  manner;  limits 
between  sounds  must  be  more  or  less  arbitrary.  Limits  be- 
tween syllables  must  be  also  very  arbitrary;  points  of  lowest 
energy  might  be  assigned  as  limits,  but  there  may  be  two 
neighboring  points  nearly  alike.  Points  of  maximum  energy 
are  frequently  assigned  as  the  most  important  parts  of 
syllables ;  but  in  the  case  of  two  neighboring  maxima  a  slight 


A\odtLal5etic9j[*s 


'j' 


Fig.  324. 


increase  of  one  over  the  other  would  hardly  justify  the 
utter  neglect  of  the  latter.  The  difficulties  and  the  solutions 
for  the  curve  of  energy  are  the  same  as  for  all  empirical 
curves  of  like  nature.  The  points  of  maxima,  minima  and 
flexion  all  have  their  values,  but  detailed  treatment  is  be- 
yond practicability.  Just  as  in  the  case  of  an  irregular  solid 
body,  we  are  driven  to  pick  out  points  at  which  we  can 
consider  the  whole  mass  to  be  located  without  altering  the 
result  under  discussion.  This  is  the  centroid  theory  of  the 
auditory  and  motor  nature  of  speech  that  corresponds  to 
the  centroid  theory  of  the  course  of  thought.  Thus,  for 
a  certain  purpose,  such  as  beating  time,  we  can  consider 
the  whole  flow  of  speech  energj^  in  Fig.  324  to  be  concen- 
trated into  three  material  points  whose  positions  are  so  de- 
termined according  to  the  actual  distribution  of  the  energy 
that  for  the  purpose  in  view  the  result  is  exactly  the  same ; 


SOUND  FUSION  449 

tlie    points   might   occupy   the   positions   indicated    by    the 

dots. 

The  curves  of  volition-energy,  of  muscular  work,   of  vibra- 
tion-energy in  the  air,  of  auditory  impressiveness  (sonority), 
etc.    for   a   given   portion   of   will  differ   from    each    other,' 
although   closely  related.   ,  No  experimental    determinations 
I  of  any  of  these  curves  have  yet  been  made,  although  some 
'  experiments  indicate  the  possibility  of    determining  the  audi- 
;  tory  and   motor  curves  of   total  energy  with  fair  accuracy. 
Other  experiments  in  connection   with  the   rhythmic    effect 
render  it  possible  to  locate  with  accuracy  the  position  of  the 
rhythm  centroids  (Ch.  XXXV). 

A  full  treatment  of  the  flow  of  speech  would  take  into 
account  various  factors  of  the  total  energy,  such  as  energy  of 
sensation,  energy  of  emotional  effect,  energy  of  association, 
!  etc.  For  three  such  factors  considered  in  combination  the 
centroids  would  be  like  those  of  an  irregular  mass  passing  by 
a  given  point,  or,  to  illustrate  more  concretely,  of  such  a 
mass  of  iron  passing  by  a  coil  of  wire  connected  to  a  galva- 
nometer whose  needle  indicates  the  effect^ 

It  is  perhaps  necessary  to  say  a  few  words  concerning  the 
concept  of  the  syllable.  The  assignment  of  the  limits  of 
syl-lables  as  the  moments  \where  during  continuous  expira- 
tion there  is  a  passage  through  a  sound  of  less  sound  quan- 
tity '  shows  some  hints  of  the  conception  of  speech  as  a  flow 
of  auditory  and  motor  energy,  but  misses  the  essential  point. 
For  example,  the  word  '  manly'  is  said  to  contain  two  sylla- 
hles ;  it  can  be  spoken  with  two  breath-puffs,  but  nobody  ever 
does  so  in  speech ;  its  curve  of  energy  may  show  various  max- 
ima and  minima,  but  it  can  hardly  be  said  that  a  minimum 
occurs  between  n  and  1.  The  word  '  manly  '  represents  con- 
tinuous action  of  the  breath  organs,  continuous  action  of  the 
vocal  cords  with  a  smooth  rise  and  fall  of  pitch,  continuous 
movements  of  the  lips,  tongue  and  velum  through  various  posi- 
tions. In  fact  the  word  is  a  continuous  sound-change  with 
no  limits  or  minima  of  any  noticeable  kind.  The  word  is 
indicated  by  letters  as  a  sum  of  separate  things,  but  the  ex- 

29 


460  FACTORS   OF  SPEECH 

perimental  results  in  similar  words  show  that  this  is  not  the 
case.  The  word  is  to  be  considered  as  a  fusion  of  a  series  of 
continuous  changes,  certain  stages  of  which  may  be  charac- 
terized as  m,  ae",  se,  ae",  n,  1,  i.  As  far  as  the  vocal  move- 
ments are  concerned,  the  word  is  just  as  continuous  as 
'  manned.' 

According  to  Meyer  ^  the  answer  to  the  question  of  how 
many  syllables  a  word  has  is  given  by  our  feeling  concerning 
the  number  of  syllables  into  which  it  can  be  made  to  fall, 
not  the  number  into  which  it  actually  does  fall  in  a  given 
case.  Meyer's  thought  that  a  word  is  monosyllabic  or 
polysyllabic  according  to  whether  it  can  be  spoken  in  the 
rhythm  of  speech  with  only  one  impulse  or  with  more, 
seems  to  have  some  relation  to  the  centroid  view  of  the 
flow  of  speech. 

I  do  not  believe,  however,  that  a  division  of  the  flow  of 
speech  into  separate  blocks  (termed  '  syllables ')  has  the 
slightest  justification  or  the  slightest  phonetic  meaning.  As 
long  as  speech  is  indicated  by  letters,  it  is  easy  to  divide  the 
letters  into  groups,  but,  as  has  been  pointed  out,  speech 
really  does  not  consist  of  any  such  elementary  blocks  of  sound 
as  the  letters  are  supposed  to  indicate,  or  of  any  such  large 
groups  as  syllables.  The  attempt  to  divide  speech  into 
syllables  might  be  compared  to  a  division  of  a  landscape  into 
hill-blocks  and  valley-blocks ;  there  can  be  no  dividing  lines 
drawn.  The  terms  '  hill  '  and  '  valley '  apply  to  character- 
istics of  the  land  and  not  to  separate  divisions. 

According  to  Sibvers  ^  the  ear  divides  the  flow  of  speech 
into  certain  portions,  that  is,  into  masses  of  sound  that  form 
relatively  close  unities,  which  we  call  syllables;  the  division 
rests  upon  discontinuities  (minima)  in  the  strength  of  the 
flow  of  sound.  If  instead  of  confining  the  first  statement  to 
the  ear  we  make  it  read  the  ■  ear,  the  vocal  impulses,  and 
all  their  associations  '  etc.,  and  if  we  add  to  the  second  that 

« 

1  Meter,  Die  Silbe,  Neuere  Sprachen,  1898  VI  479. 

2  SiEVEKS,  Grundziiged.  Phonetik,  5.  Aufl.,  198,  Leipzig,  1901. 


SOUND  FUSION  451 

the  division  rests  upon  all  factors  that  tend  toward  the  effect 
of  a  series  of  unities  in  the  flow  of  speech,  we  have  prac- 
tically the  centroid  theory  that  I  have  proposed.  A  word 
would  be  said  to  have  as  many  syllables  as  it  was  felt  to  have 
centroids.  A  syllable  would  then  be  defined  as  a  portion  of 
speech  within  which  a  centroid  is  located,  the  boundaries 
of  syllables  being  of  all  degrees  of  indefiniteness. 

Just  as  in  the  case  of  any  irregular  body,  we  can  find 
different  grades  of  centroids  by  limiting  the  consideration  to 
larger  or  smaller  portions.  There  are  thus  phrase-centroids, 
syllable -centroids,  sound-centroids,  etc. 

(Systematic  treatments  of  the  syllable  are  to  be  found  in\ 
the  works  of  Sievees,  Vietok,  etc. ;  so  little  experimental  I 
work  has  yet  been  done  that  a  discussion  is  hardly  in  place/ 
here.     To  what  has  been  said  I  will  merely  add  that  the  cen- 
troid treatment  of  speech  differs  from  what  may  be  called  the 
'  maxima-minima, '   or    '  apex-depression, '   treatment  mainly 
in  considering  the  whole  mass  of  speech  —  physically,  physi- 
ologically or  psychologically,  as  may  be  desired  —  in  locating 
the  critical  moment,  instead  of  locating  it  at  the  moment  of 
greatest  energy.     The  centroid  will  rarely  coincide  with  the 
maximum  of  energy. 

The  continuity  of  speech  action  is  strongly  impressed  on 
any  one  who  attempts  to  study  the  curves  of  connected 
speech  (Part  I).  There  is  often  no  possibility  of  assigning 
boundaries  to  phonetic  sounds,  words  or  phrases.  Thus,  in 
the  record  for  mailitlai  '  my  little  eye  '  in  Cock  Rohin  (p. 
126)  the  speech  curve  is  continuous  from  the  beginning  of  m 
to  the  end  of  the  last  i ;  at  various  places  along  the  record 
typical  m,  a,  i,  1,  vibrations  are  to  be  found,  but  the  change 
from  one  type  to  the  next  is  a  gradual  one;  this  condition 
shows  itself  through  the  whole  record.  It  cannot  be  said 
that  the  record  is  fully  represented  by  m,a,i,l,i,t,l^a,i,,  where  ^ 
indicates  a  glide,  unless  each  of  the  symbols  is  understood  to 
represent  a  typical  stage  of  a  continuous  process. 

Speech  records  of  all  kinds  seem  to  indicate  the  applicabil- 
ity of  the  concept  of  the  centroid,  or  center  of  unification,  of 


452  FACTORS   OF  SPEECH 

speech  action.  For  example,  the  speaker  considers  something 
he  wishes  to  say  and  executes  a  complication  of  movements 
which  we  indicate  by  '  my  little  eye.'  That  the  idea  he 
wished  to  express  required  a  certain  complication  '  my  little 
eye  '  and  not '  mit  meinem  kleinen  Auge '  or  ba  or  a  was 
due  solely  to  his  past  teaching ;  for  him  there  would  have  been 
no  essential  difference  between  '  my  little  eye  '  and  a  except 
in  the  amount  of  labor  involved.  For  him  and  for  all  pur- 
poses of  speech  this  complication  may  be  treated  as  having  its 
whole  effect  at  some  point  of  time;  in  '  my  little  eye  '  it 
might  perhaps  lie  at  the  moment  of  the  closure  of  the  t. 
Such  a  centroid  of  speech  movement  is  the  point  in  the 
flow  of  speech  at  which  the  total  speech  movement  may  be 
considered  to  have  occurred  without  changing  the  result. 

Centroids  may  be  found  for  portions  of  speech.  If  it  is 
found  practicable  to^  cut  off  certain  subordinate  portions  with- 
out introducing  too  much  error  into  the  results,  the  centroids 
may  be  found  for  such  portions.  Thus,  a  portion  may  be 
taken  from  the  speech  record  of  '  my  little  eye  '  that  may  he 
considered  to  cover  the  '  i ' ;  the  limits  must  be  arbitrarily 
assigned,  but  if,  for  the  purposes  of  the  investigation,  this 
does  not  introduce  too  much  error,  then  the  i  can  be  consid- 
ered as  definitely  limited.  This  i  will  be  found  to  be  a  phe- 
nomenon changing  in  its  nature  from  beginning  to  end.  For 
many  purposes  its  acoustic  effect  and  its  motor  production 
may  be  considered  to  be  located  entirely  at  a  definite  point  of 
time,  or  at  a  definite  centroid.  Similar  centroids  may  be 
found  for  other  portions  of  the  phrase. 

The  number  and  character  of  the  centroids  is  really  what  is 
indicated  by  a  phonetic  spelling.  Thus  '  mailitlai '  indicates 
that /or  the  purpose  in  view  — instruction  in  pronunciation,  or 
discussion  of  phonetic  change,  or  indication  of  parts  of  a  record, 
etc.,  etc.  — the  entire  speech  quantity  of  '  my  little  eye '  on 
the  particular  occasion  discussed  may  without  appreciable 
error  be  considered  as  occurring  at  nine  different  points  of  time 
and  as  consisting  of  nine  speech  elements  whose  characters  are 
indicated  by  m,  a,  i,  1,  i,  t,  1,  a,  i.    That  a  phonetic  notation 


SOUND  FUSION  453 

or  an  ordinary  spelling  indicates  a  construction  of  speech  out 
of  separate  fixed  elements,  like  a  house  out  of  bricks,  is  a 
notion  that. has  arisen  from  a  study  of  spellings  instead  of 
speech  itself.  A  person  speaking  from  printed  characters  or 
indicating  what  he  says  by  written  ones  has  no  such  notion ; 
to  him  the  letters  singly  or  in  groups  are  schematic  signs, 
or  ideograms  (p.  128),  that  roughly  indicate  a  desired  result. 

This  view  —  which  is  a  necessary  result  of  a  considera- 
tion of  the  general  phenomena  of  voluntary  action  —  seems  to 
have  been  what  Paul  had  in  mind.  '  An  actual  separation 
of  a  word  into  its  elements  is  not  only  very  difficult,  it  is 
actually  impossible.  A  word  is  not  a  placing  side  by  side  of 
a  definite  number  of  independent  sounds,  each  of  which  can 
be  expressed  by  a  letter  of  the  alphabet,  but  is  nearly  always 
a  continuous  series  of  an  infinite  number  of  sounds,  and  the 
letters  indicate,  in  an  incomplete  fashion,  nothing  more  than 
certain  characteristic  points  of  this  series. '  ^ 

From  the  linguistic  side  it  has  been  pointed  out^  that 
speech  movements  occur  as  unities;  that  there  may  be  a  unit 
volition  for  the  movements  required  for  a  certain  speech 
sound  and  also  unit  volitions  for  complex  groups  of  move- 
ments such  as  are  required  for  words  [and  phrases] ;  that  the 
unit  volitions  for  the  complex  groups  have  an  independent 
existence  and  are  not  the  sums  of  volitions  for  the  elements. 
The  unification  of  volitions  is,  according  to  Kaesten,  still 
more  elaborate ;  the  suffixes,  prefixes  and  other  parts  of  words 
become  merely  parts  of  a  unit.  Such  volitional  units  become 
associated  with  corresponding  auditory  units.  It  is  interest- 
ing to  note  that  recent  work  on  the  cerebral  cortex  (p.  86) 
indicates  separate  anatomical  centres  for  the  various  group 
movements. 

Certain  relations  of  similarity  become  established  among 
sounds  used  in  different  word-units  in  the  speech  of  a  person, 
a   community,  a   period,  etc.     The   properties   that  remain 

1  Patti,,  Principien  d.  Sprachgeschichte,  3.  Aufl.,  48,  Halle  a/S.,  1898. 
'  Kaksten,  Sprecheinheiten  u.  deren  Rolle  in  Lautwandel  u.  Laittgesetz,  Trans. 
Mod.  Lang.  Assoc.  Amer.,  1887  III  186  ;  also  in  Phonetische  Stud.,  1890  III  1. 


454  FACTORS   OF  SPEECH 

approximately  unchanged  in  different  units  may  be  called 
the  stable  ones.  The  average  properties  that  appear  in  the 
various  word-units  may  be  said  to  constitute  the  typical 
sounds.  The  properties  of  an  independent  sound  generally 
differ  from  those  of  a  typical  sound  in  connected  speech. 
The  sounds  used  in  actually  spoken  words  may  be  called 
specifio  ones. 

The  relations  between  the  typical  sounds  and  the  spe- 
cific ones  depend  on  sensory  and  motor  laws. 

The  first  topic  now  to  be  considered  will  be  the  differences 
between  typical  sounds  and  the  specific  sounds  in  connected 
speech.  I  shall  attempt  nothing  more  than  to  point  out 
some  of  the  more  important  facts  to  be  looked  for  in  experi- 
mental records.  (Fuller  and  more  systematic  treatments  of 
speech  fusion  are  to  be  found  in  the  works  mentioned  in  the 
References  at  the  end  of  this  chapter. 

The  articulations  of  a  sound  are  undoubtedly  very  much 
modified  by  the  neighboring  sounds  in  a  phrase,  by  the  idea 
expressed  in  the  sentence,  by  the  emotional  condition  of  the 
speaker,  etc.  According  to  Sievees  ^  phonetic  investigation 
should  begin  with  the  sentence  and  proceed  to  the  subdivi- 
sions, the  artificially  separated  sounds  being  only  abstrac- 
tions. /  The  physiological  methods  of  registration,  however, 
have  not  yet  been  sufficiently  developed  for  long  records, 
although  the  analysis  by  means  of  speech  curves  proceeds  in 
just  this  way  (p.  61).) 

One  result  of  fusion  is  the  tendency  to  ease  of  innerva- 
tion, motor  impulses  being  spared  whenever  possible.  One 
form  of  this  smoothing  is  found  in  the  general  law  that  con- 
tiguous articulations  maybe  modified  to  produce  easy  passage 
from  one  to  the  other.  This  adaptation  is,  of  course,  in- 
stinctive, or  '  unconscious '  in  the  usual  meaning  of  the 
word  (p.  381). 

An  effect  of  this  unification  is  seen  in  the  neglect  of  differ- 
ences in  speech  and  in  the  approximation  to  easj'  curves 
of  motion.  This  may  go  so  far  that  long  and  complex  move- 
1  Sievees,  Grundziige  d.  Phonetik,  5.  Aufl.,  8,  Leipzig,  1901. 


SOUND  FUSION  455 

ments  are  reduced  to  short,  simple  ones.  The  process  repre- 
sents economy  in  physical  movement  and  in  the  number  of 
changes  of  innervation.  Examples  are  furnished  by  every 
spoken  word;  experimental  results  may  be  found  through- 
out the  preceding  chapters. 

This  adaptation  shows  itself  in  avoiding  changes.  One  of 
them  is  the  omission  of  change  in  respect  to  sonancy.  Surds 
may  become  sonants  between  two  vowels,  as  in  soh.im 
'  saw  him  '  (pp.  24,  276)  and  in  the  numerous  examples 
given  on  pages  360  to  362.  Sonants  may  likewise  become 
surds  where  a  retention  of  sonancy  would  hinder  unification 
(p.   361). 

Illustrations  of  the  smoothing  off  of  tongue  movements 
may  be  seen  in  '  *anakts  ' ->  aj/af,  '  *nokts  '  ^  Lat.  'nox,' 
Lat.  '  octo '  -*  Ital.  '  otto. '  This  phenomenon  is  constant 
in  the  '  smoothing  '  of  the  two  elements  of  a  diphthong,  as 
ai  ->^  a  in  O.  Eng.  '  stan, '  ei  ->•  e  in  Swed.  and  Dan.  '  sten. '  ^ 
A  smoothing  of  the  tongue  action  also  changes  intervocalic 
explosives  to  continuants  as  in  Lat.  '  paganum  '  -^  Fr. '  paien  ' 
(see  also  p.  372). 

Velar  smoothing  may  be  assumed  in  the  nasalization  of 
consonants  and  vowels  when  adjacent  to  nasals.  Many 
experimental  illustrations  have  been  given  on  pages  345  to 
351,  and  359  to  365.  , 

Lip  smoothing  may  be  illustrated  by  Lat.  '  obstinatum '  -* 
Ital.  'ostinato. '  It  appears  also  in  the  communication  of 
lip  action  to  preceding  consonants  by  the  Russian  rounded 
vowels  2  (see  also  p.  364).  Smoothing  of  the  tongue-lip 
combination  appears  in  '  *entfangen '  ->  Germ.  '  empfangen. ' 

General  smoothing  off  of  all  vocal  innervations  and  move- 
ments may  be  said  to  occur  constantly.  It  finally  goes  so  far 
that  various  elements  disappear  altogether,  as  in  gmoin 
'  guten  Morgen  '  of  the  Germans,  sivple  or  siple  '  s'il  vous 
plait '  of  the  French,  daete,3  for  *daed3te  3  '  Dada  take  him  ' 
in  a  case  of  child  speech.     Numerous  examples  are  given  by 

1  Sweet,  History  of  English  Sounds,  22,  Oxford,  1888. 
^  Sweet,  as  before,  38. 


456  FACTORS   OF  SPEECH 

Passy:'  tsepa  '  je  ne  sais  pas,'  keseksa  '  qu'est-ce  que 
c'est  que  ga?',  sa"temnami  '  je  suis  enchants,  mon  ami,' 
etc.  Experimental  data  concerning  such  extreme  fusion  and 
condensation  are  not  yet  numerous,  owing  to  the  fact  that 
most  records  have  been  made  from  careful  speech  and  not 
from  rapid  conversation.  The  latest  form  of  zonophone 
(or  gramophone)  apparatus  (p.  53)  is  able  to  record  con- 
versation without  the  knowledge  of  the  person  speaking; 
it  may  be  useful  for  this  problem. 

Curiously  enough  the  effects  of  these  condensations  often 
remain  unnoticed.  Unconscious  movements  are  present  in 
speech  as  the  remains  of  sounds  that  have  been  consciously 
made  in  the  past  history  of  the  language  but  have  disap- 
peared. RotJSSELOT's^  tracings  for  a  case  of  the  Lorraine 
dialect  show  a  difference  between  ap  '  arbre  '  and  simple  ap ; 
the  larynx  ceased  to  vibrate  for  a  before  the  lips  formed  the 
p  in  the  former  case  and  not  in  the  latter,  the  historical  r 
being  represented  by  a  condition  of  silence,  or  unrecorded 
movement  (see  also  p.  365). 

Connected  with  and  yet  often  opposed  to  the  process  of 
condensation,  is  the  process  of  distinction  which  also  is  a 
result  of  fusion.  To  mark  off  unities  the  mind  requires  dis- 
tinctions; the  subordination  of  some  elements  implies  the 
elevation  of  others.  Illustrations  of  this  fundamental  law 
of  mental  action  will  probably  be  found  in  future,  experi- 
mental work.  The  lengthening  of  initial  consonants  for  the 
purpose  of  accent,  the  use  of  the  glottal  catch  before  strong 
initial  vowels,  the  retention  of  surd  fricatives  in  tonic  syl- 
lables, may  occur  for  this  purpose.  It  is  perhaps  an  instinc- 
tive desire  for  more  force  in  a  word  that  leads  to  the  surdation 
of  intervocalic  sonants,  as  in  O.  E.  '  etan  '  from  the  same  root 
as  Lat.  '  edere, '  or  to  the  pronunciation  ekzsekt  instead  of 
egzaekt '  exact.' 

In  general  it  may  be  said  that  the  less  the  importance  of 

'  Passy,  Changements  phonetiques,  123,  Thfese,  Paris,  1891. 
'  RonssELOT,  Les  modifications  phonetiques  du  langage,  143,  Rev.  des  pat.  gallo- 
romans,  1891  IV,  V;  also  separate. 


SOUND  FUSION  457 

a  speech  element  in  reference  to  its  function  in  expressing 
an  idea,  the  less  the  amount  of  volition-energy  given  to  it. 
Decrease  in  volition-energy  is  accompanied  by  decreased 
energy  of  movement,  by  decreased  time  given  to  it,  by  de- 
creased accuracy  of  coordination,  etc.  But,  on  the  other 
hand,  the  greater  the  mental  importance  of  a  sound,  the 
greater  the  amount  of  energy  given  to  it.  To  subordinate 
in  speech  what  is  subordinate  in  thought  is  but  one  example 
of  a  universal  principle  of  human  activity.  It  is  also  true 
that  neglected  or  unimportant  elements  of  all  organisms  and 
activities  generally  show  greater  tendency  to  variation  than 
the  important  ones.  In  speech,  for  example,  tonic  syllables 
will  resist  changes  that  influence  atonic  ones. 

The  close  relation  between  the  density  of  ideas  and  the 
distinctness  of  speech  has  been  asserted  by  Jespeesen  to 
'  account  alike  for  most  of  the  gradual  sound  changes  in  lan- 
guages, and  for  .   .  .  violent  curtailings. '  ^ 

Another  effect  of  fusion  is  found  in  changes  in  the  coordi- 
nations of  the  various  simultaneous  movements.  Examples 
of  the  almost  innumerable  experimental  illustrations  of  this 
principle  have  been  given  in  Ch.  XXVI ;  only  a  brief  sum- 
mary of  the  typical  cases  will  be  given  here. 

A  most  frequent  case  of  this  kind  occurs  in  the  lack  of 
completion  of  some  element  in  a  complex  set  of  movements. 
Another  case  occurs  in  beginning  some  element  too  soon. 

Tailure  to  properly  coordinate  breath  action  to  mouth 
action  may  result  in  the  defect  noted  on  p.  221.  Failure  to 
maintain  breath  pressure  sufficiently  long  during  final  occlu- 
sives deprives  them  of  their  explosions,  consequently  of  their 
full  audibility  and  ultimately  of  their  existence,^  as  in  Fr. 
'  tout '  -*  tu,  '  trop'  -*  tro.  Failure  to  begin  the  breath  action 
soon  enough  enfeebles  initial  fricatives  and,  if  sufficiently 
extended,  causes  them  to  disappear,  as  in  the  common  loss  of 
initial  h  in  Cockney  English  and  in  modern  Spanish. 

Failure  to  coordinate  cord  action  to  mouth  action  results 

1  Jespbksen,  Progress  in  Language,  55,  London,  1894. 
^  Passt,  Changements  phon^tiques,  164,  These,  Paris,  1891. 


458  FACTORS   OF  SPEECH 

in  the  partial  surdation  of  intended  sonants  and  in  the  partial 
sonation  of  intended  surds. 

The  cord  tone  frequently  begins  too  soon  or  lasts  too  long 
in  a  vowel  bounded  by  a  surd,  with  the  result  that  the  surd 
becomes  partly  or  wholly  sonant.  A  combination  of  both 
extensions  gives  sonant  h  in  soh.im  (p.  276). 

A  low  cord  tone  is  more  readily  lost  than  a  high  one. 
The  great  fall  in  pitch  at  the  end  of  a  phrase  in  French 
results  often  in  making  a  final  vowel  surd,  especially  in  the 
case  of  i,  u  and  y  (as  in  veky^  '  v^cu  ').  These  are  said  to 
be  still  very  audible  when  surd ;  but  for  u  this  does  not  agree 
with  Rotjsselot's  experiments  on  the  whispered  vowels  (p. 
114).  In  Portuguese  the  final  vowels  are  frequently  surd,  as 
in  ka^mphUo '  campo. '  Many  languages  have  only  surd  con- 
sonants as  finals.  In  German  and  Russian  all  final  explosives 
and  fricatives  are  regularly  surd ;  in  Icelandic  the  final  ex- 
plosives are  surd,  while  the  fricatives  are  more  or  less  sonant ; 
in  French  the  Latin  explosives  and  fricatives  have  all 
become  surd  at  the  ends  of  words  except  those  that  have  been 
followed  until  recently  by  a,  as  in  '  vif,  vive ;  '  in  Sanskrit 
the  final  explosives  and  fricatives  are  always  surd  unless 
the  following  word  begins  with  a  vowel,  as  '  tdt '  but  '  tdd 
dnnam ; '  in  Dutch  the  same  rule  holds  good  in  unaccented 
words,  as  in  '  is,  was, '  but  in  others  the  final  consonant  is 
surd  unless  followed  by  a  sonant  consonant.^ 

Progression  of  cord  action  may  add  sonancy  to  a  preceding 
surd.  Tardiness  in  beginning  the  cord  tone  would  cause 
initial  surdation  in  initial  sonants  (p.  361) ;  increasing  tardi- 
ness would  finally  make  them  entirely  surd  (Fig.  287). 
This  may  be  the  reason  for  such  changes  as  ■)(^eicro/j,at  from 
the  root  '  *ghend, '  '  f ero  '  from  '  *bhero. '  The  late  begin- 
ning of  the  cord  tone  regularly  produces  '  aspiration  '  in 
German  after  the  surd  explosives. 

The  alteration  of  the  mouth  articulation  before  the  cords 
cease  to  sound  gives  the  diphthongal  character  to  English 

^  Passt,  as  before,  160. 


SOUND  FUSION  459 

vowels  (pp.  103,  122).  It  occurs  also  in  the  Dutch  vowels  ' 
e,  o,  cEi,  062,  ^'  which  in  emphasized  final  syllables  become  ei, 
ou,  ce^i,  ce2U,  bI  [the  b  is  a  sound  difficult  to  define  precisely]. 
Anticipation  of  lip  action  may  labialize  the  preceding  sound, 
as  in  Fr.  t'^wa  for  'toi.'  In  this  word  the  cord  action  is, 
moreover,  tardy  and  the  w  is  partially  or  wholly  surd,  pro- 
ducing t*^/Aa  in  the  extreme  case. 

Initial  and  medial  consonants  often  differ  greatly.  Initial 
b  is  often  partly  surd  in  German  while  medial  b  in  same  word 
may  be  entirely  sonant.  Semi-surdation  and  semi-sonation  in 
French  have  been  illustrated  above  (p.  360) ;  the  frequent 
surdation  of  final  sonants  has  also  been  discussed;  numerous 
further  examples  have  been  collected  by  Rotjsselot.^ 

Any  change  in  the  tongue-lip  relation  will  produce  a  vowel 
not  exactly  like  the  one  intended.  A  relaxation  of  the  lip- 
rounding  for  u  with  maintenance  of  the  tongue  position  makes 
the  vowel  change  in  the  direction  of  the  vowel  in  the  Gaelic 
'  laogh  ' ;  the  change  can  be  imitated  by  speaking  u  while  the 
fingers  pull  out  the  corners  of  the  mouth. 

Examples  of  widely  spread  tendencies  to  change  of  lip  action 
while  the  tongue  action  is  preserved  have  been  collected  by 
Passy.3  Among  children  and  the  illiterate  there  is  a  marked 
tendency  to  change  the  rounded  palatals  to  neutral  or  wide 
ones,  oe,  y,  ce°  to  e,  i,  e",  as  in  kivet  for  '  une  cuvette,' 
e"  menje  for  '  un  meunier. '  This  change  is  a  common  one 
in  many  German  dialects,  as  in  South  German  git  for  '  gUte ' 
and  kena  for  '  konnen. ' 

Differences  in  motor  coordinations  intended  to  be  the 
same  may  be  found  in  all  experimental  records. 

Sounds  in  fused  speech  differ  from  the  typical  ones  on 
account  of  their  auditory  characters  also  (Ch.  IX). 

When  a  sound  ceases  to  impress  the  ear,  there  is  a  ten- 
dency to  neglect  it.     The  unflapped  j  is  auditorily  so  weak 

1  LoGEMAN,  Darstellung  des  niederldndischen  Lautsy stems,  Phonet.  Stud.,  1890 

III  283. 

2  RousSELOT,  Principes  de  plion^tique  expe'rimentale,    2™e  partie,    498,  Paris, 

1901. 

3  Passy,  as  before,  134. 


460  FACTORS   OF  SPEECH 

that  it  has  disappeared  in  a  large  number  of  English  words 
where  its  loss  makes  no  noteworthy  difference  in  the  auditory 
physiognomy  of  the  word,  as  in  pal  for  pajl.  This  can  be 
observed  constantly  in  American  children,*  who  say  biii  for 
'bring,'  toll  for  'trolley'  etc.,  because  the  faint  unflapped 
J  escapes  their  notice. 

It  is  generally  the  case  that  sounds  in  atonic  syllables 
tend  to  become  weakened  in  articulation  and  to  partly  or 
wholly  lose  their  sonancy,  and  finally  to  disappear.  This 
slurring  of  atonic  vowels  may  be  illustrated  by  '  glaedlice  -> 
gladly, '  '  cnihtas  -^  knights, '  '  populum  -^  peuple, '  '  facere  -* 
faire. '  Such  phenomena  are  perhaps  due  to  the  fact  that 
the  stronger  portion  of  the  word  is  sufficient  to  arouse  the 
entire  auditory  image  in  the  mind ;  in  such  a  case  the  speaker 
or  hearer  might  unconsciously  not  care  what  happened  to  the 
weaker  portion  and  would  instinctively  condense  it  as  much 
as  possible.  This  view  is  supported  by  the  experiments  of 
Bagley  (p.  131). 

Whenever  a  sound  element  catches  the  ear  —  more  or  less 
consciously  —  with  a  force  greater  than  what  would  usuallj' 
come  to  it  in  its  condition  at  the  time,  the  speaker  has  an 
impulse  to  give  it  more  prominence  by  increasing  some  of 
its  factors  of  energy,  such  as  length,  loudness,  abruptness, 
etc.  Thus,  wild  -^  wild  -*  waild  probably  because  for  some 
reason  the  I  before  1  caught  the  ear  and  was  prolonged  un- 
consciously (in  the  usual  sense,  p.  381)  and  unintentionally. 

The  development  of  glides  into  vowel  elements  is  probably 
partly  due  to  similar  reasons.  As  it  is  difficult  to  keep  the 
movements  properly  coordinated  in  a  long  vowel,  the  ending 
is  liable  to  be  different  from  the  beginning;  if  this  difference 
catches  the  ear  the  difference  readily  becomes  exaggerated. 

The  replacement  of  one  vocal  movement  by  another  that 
produces  approximately  the  same  sound  is  a  constantly  recur- 
ring phenomenon.  It  rests  upon  the  auditory  resemblances  of 
vocal  sounds.  These  have,  unfortunately,  received  little 
attention  and  almost  no  experimental  study,  although  very 
many  phonetic  changes  can  be  attributed  directly  to  them. 


SOUND.  FUSION  461 

The  attempt  to  assign  some  of  the  auditory  reasons  for  the 
motor  changes  has  been  made  by  Passy.  His  conclusions 
concerning  the  vowels  are  based  on  a  mistaken  theory  (p. 
289) ;  the  few  reasons  assigned  for  consonant  changes  are 
deserving  of  notice  as  attempts  in  the  right  direction. 

The  replacement  of  one  movement  by  another  that  produces 
a  sufficiently  similar  sound  is  seen  in^  Northern  French  fiXa 
'  fille  '  ->  fi],  bri^e,  '  briller  '  ->  brije ;  Lat.  '  plenum  '  -^  Ital. 
pjeno;  Cretan  avicd,  Attic  oKKri;  French  '  chevaux '  from 
'chevals;'  New  Zealand  pronunciations  of  English,  as  in 
rawiri  for  '  David, '  the  d  being  lacking  and  the  r  somewhat 
resembling  d.  The  close  resemblance  of  r  and  1  favors  the 
use  of  one  for  the  other,  as  in  O.  French  '  orme  '  from 
'  ulmum, '  the  Chinese  pronunciation  '  Melican  '  for  '  Ameri- 
can, '  etc.  The  resemblance  between  -y  and  uvula  r  in  Ger- 
man often  leads  to  interchange ;  the  resemblance  of  tongue  r 
to  uvula  r  may  even  lead  to  the  use  of  the  former  for  -y.^ 
The  close  resemblance  of  x  and  -y  to  uvula  r  is  suggested  by 
Hermann's  curves  of  x  and  uvula  r  in  Fig.  33;  the  flapping 
of  the  uvula  is  plain  in  the  curve  for  x- 

The  continual  occurrence  of  individual  differences  of  speech 
movement  held  within  the  limits  of  '  sameness  '  of  auditory 
effect  has  been  described  as  '  sound  compensation. '  ^  ^_, 

Some  of  the  phenomena  of  fusion  will  be  illustrated  in  the 
study  of  speech  curves  in  Appendix  II. 

Refekences 

For  fusion  in  speech :  Sievers,  Grundzuge  d.  Phonetik,  5.  Aufl.,  III. 
Abschnitt,  Leipzig,  1901;  Vietok,  Elemente  d.  Phonetik,  4.  Aufl., 
Liepzig,  1898;  Passy,  Changements  phonetiques,  These,  Paris,  1891; 
Paul,  Principien  d.  Sprachgesohiohte,  3.  Aufl.,  Halle  a/S.,  1898. 

1  Passy,  as  before,  145. 

2  ViETOR  Elemente  d.  Phonetik,  4.  Aufl.,  165,  Leipzig,  1898. 

8  Sheldon  and  Geandgent,  Sound  compensations,  Mod.  Lang.  Notes,  1888 
III  358. 


CHAPTER   XXXI 

PEOGEESSITE   CHANGE 

The  specific  sounds  in  speech  at  any  moment  vary  around 
an  average  in  each  of  their  properties ;  the  average  sound 
has  been  called  the  '  tj^pical'  one  (p.  454).  Any  change  that 
takes  place  in  the  typical  sound,  resulting  from  a  gradual 
change  in  the  conditions,  may  be  termed  a  '  progressive '  one. 
The  typical  sounds  of  an  individual  may  change  gradually 
throughout  life  under  the  influence  of  internal  and  exter- 
nal conditions.  Such  changes  we  may  term  '  personal '  ones. 
There  are  also  average,  or  typical,  sounds  of  a  community 
speaking  the  same  dialect;  the  progressive  changes  in  such 
types  may  be  termed  '  dialectal '  ones.  In  a  similar  way 
we  may  speak  of  '  national '  changes.  The  typical  sounds 
may  be  studied  in  respect  to  their  differences  as  the  locality 
differs  ;  we  then  have  progressive  '  geographical '  changes. 

The  work  of  the  experimental  phonetist  in  regard  to 
the  problem  of  sound  change  consists  in  establishing  what 
changes  actually  do  take  place  under  any  variation  of  con- 
ditions, in  correlating  them  with  similar  changes  of  various 
kinds,  and  in  deducing  them  from  more  fundamental  changes 
in  the  human  organism  and  its  activities. 

The  historical  data  concerning  the  changes  that  have  actu- 
ally taken  place  in  speech  sounds  have  been  collected  with 
great  care  and  completeness,  but  experimental  data  concern- 
ing the  action  of  the  vocal  mechanism  (in  the  widest  sense 
of  the  terra)  that  can  bring  about  such  changes  are  almost 
entirely  lacking.  All  hypotheses  concerning  the  historical 
changes  proceed  on  the  assumption  that  human  beings  were 


PROGRESSIVE   CHANGE  463 

always  subject  to  internal  and  external  influences  in  much 
the  same  way  as  they  are  to-day.  If  changes  are  produced  in 
speech  to-day  like  those  that  occurred  historically,  the  causes 
that  produce  the  present  changes  can  be  assumed  for  the 
historical  ones,  with  a  probability  increasing  with  the  re- 
semblance of  all  the  conditions. 

Some  of  the  various  causes  which  have  been  assigned  for 
the  small  differences  and  gradual  changes  in  sounds  will  now 
be  considered  briefly  in  order  to  point  out  what  the  experi- 
menter must  be  on  the  watch  for  in  all  his  records.  For 
the  various  principles  discussed  I  have  used  historical  cases 
merely  as  examples. 

The  dependence  of  differences  in  speech  sounds  on  differ- 
ences in  the  structure  of  the  vocal  organs  and  consequently 
in  their  activity  and  control  has  been  pointed  out  (Lotze, 
Benfey,  Merkel,  Scheeer,  Paul)  but  the  data  are  not 
yet  numerous  enough  for  generalizations.^  It  is  unquestion- 
ably true  that  the  vocal  organs  and  their  methods  of  control 
differ  in  individuals  and  that  there  are  just  about  the  same 
differences  and  likenesses  among  members  of  a  family,  of  a 
community,  and  of  a  nation  in  these  respects  as  in  respect  to 
their  faces.  The  family,  communal  and  national  similarities 
and  differences  in  speech  depend  to  some  degree  on  these 
factors.  Moreover,  although  an  infant  of  one  race  may  learn 
to  speak  to  apparent  perfection  the  language  of  another  race, 
we  may  expect  that  careful  experimental  records  wiU  show 
the  differences  that  are  unnoticed  bj'^  the  ear. 

No  extended  study  seems  to  have  been  made  of  individual 
differences  in  the  auditory  perception  of  speech  (Ch.  IX). 
They  are  perhaps  just  as  efficient  causes  of  change  as  the 
motor  ones. 

The  results  of  motor  weakening  are  familiar  phenomena. 
Persons  to  whom  occlusions  or  narrow  passages  are  more  dif- 
ficult on  account  of  the  structure  of  the  tongue  frequently 
relax  them  in  case  of  fatigue,  excitement  or  timidity.  In 
the  case  of  a  person  with  a  predorsal-alveolar  t  due  to  short- 
1  Obrtel,  Lectures  on  the  Study  of  Language,  193,  New  York,  1901. 


464  FACTORS   OF  SPEECH 

ness  of  the  frenum  linguae  (p.  237)  I  have  repeatedly  observed 
t->^9  in  such  conditions.  In  the  case  of  an  overworked,  ex-' 
cited  German  in  a  foreign  seaport  I  have  observed  si  -^  si  in 
his  pronunciation  of  Italian. 

The  use  of  a  mouillure  instead  of  a  sharp  explosion  I  have 
recorded  in  the  case  of  my  own  child  at  16  months  in  the 
words  kaer  '  cat, '  hoT  '  hot, '  the  |  explosion  being  clearly 
noticeable  (p.  437).  I  originally  recorded  the  words  as  kaetk 
and  hotk  (p.  119),  not  having  considered  the  possibility  of 
their  containing  the  mouill^  sound  t. 

Passy's  statement  1  that  children  never  change  explosives 
into  fricatives  is  certainly  incorrect  for  some  cases.  His 
supposition  that  it  is  easier  to  form  an  occlusion  than  a 
fricative  opening  is  refuted  by  observations  on  speech  during 
fatigue,  alcoholism,  etc.  A  weakening  of  the  occlusion  in 
explosives  seems  to  have  been  tlie  characteristic  of  many  of 
the  historic  changes;  thus,  Spanish  b,  d,  g  are  often  pro- 
nounced as  the  fricatives  p,  8,  -y. 

The  muscular  action  during  an  occlusive  may  become  less 
energetic  during  the  latter  part  of  the  occlusion.  When  the 
sound  continues  to  occupy  the  same  time,  this  leads  to  short- 
ening of  the  occlusion  and  lengthening  of  the  explosive  re- 
lease into  a  fricative  release.  If  the  process  goes  far  enough, 
the  occlusion  entirely  disappears,  leaving  a  fricative  in  place 
of  the  original  occlusive.  This  is  perhaps  the  process  that 
produced  the  changes  of  p  ^  <j)  -*  f ,  t  ->  6,  k  ^  X  or  h,  as  illus- 
trated by  Lat.  '  pallidus  '  —  Engl.  '  fallow  '  —  Germ.  '  f ahl, ' 
Lat.  '  capio  '  —  Goth.  '  haf  jan  '  —  Germ.  '  heben, '  Goth. 
*  sliupan'  —  O.  H.  Germ,  'sliofan,'  Lat.  'tres  ' — Eng. 
'three,'  Goth,  'bok'  O.  H.  Germ,  'buoh.' 

Lenz^  considers  the  historical  development  or -*  S -*  X 
to  be  the  result  of  a  decrease  of  energy.  The  laxity  of 
contact  for  6-  results  in  greater  fricative  surface,  including 
the  space  between  tongue  and  gums,  and  produces  |  -+  9  — >  X- 

1  Passt,  Changements  phcmetiques,  144,  Thfese,  Paris,  1891. 
'  Lexz,  Zur  Physiologie  v.  Geschichte  d.  Palatalen,  Diss.,  Bonn,  1887  ;  also  in 
Zt.  f.  vergl.  Sprachforsclmng.  1888  XXIX  51,  55. 


PROGRESSIVE   CHANGE  465 

Still  further  laxity  changes  the  fricative  sound  entirely;  it 
may  be  replaced  by  the  glottal  fricative  h  or  by  a  vowel. 
Lenz  asserts  that  in  the  last  case  a  substitution  is  required 
for  the  loss  of  friction  because  there  must  be  a  balance 
betvreen  the  breath  pressure  and  the  resistance  to  it ;  this  he 
considers  the  fundamental  law  of  all  formation  of  sounds. 
This  change  s  ->•  a  is  to  be  added,  although  Lejstz  does  not 
consider  s  ->^  o-  ^  o-  to  be  the  result  of  vi^eakening.  The 
entire  series  is  then  s  ->■  cr  (s)  -»  |  ->^  5  -*■  x  ->■  h  or  vowel. 
For  the  sonants  the  development  is  not  the  same ;  as  the 
articulation  is  diminished  in  force  the  opening  becomes 
larger  as  well  as  more  backward,  and  the  glottis  must  open 
in  order  to  furnish  an  equal  amount  of  breath ;  the  fricative 
gradually  becomes  surd,  or  the  friction  disappears,  leaving 
only  the  cord  tone  to  lengthen  the  neighboring  vowel.  Thus 
we  have  z  ^\  (z)  -^  .  .  .  ^  \  (instead  of  7)  ->^  h  or  vowel. 
As  examples,  Lenz  gives :  Fr.  mezo"  '  maison, '  Lorraine 
mozo°,  Remilly  moho" ;  Fr.  plezir  '  plaisir, '  Lorr.  piaezi 
-^pigehi;  Fr.  bus  'bouche,'  Remilly  box;  Fr.  mus  'mouche,' 
Remilly  mox- 

The  fact  that  the  sonants  b,  d,  g  more  readily  become  frica- 
tive than  the  surds  p,  t,  k  may  be  due  to  their  less  energetic 
contact  (p.  317).  In  German  the  g  has  often  become  frica- 
tive, (as  in  vavn  '  wagen,'  gejn  '  gegen ')  while  the  k  in 
corresponding  positions  has  been  retained. 

The  continued  weakening  of  consonants  leaves  finally  h 
for  the  surds  and  a  vowel  for  the  sonants,  as  in  Sanskrit 
'  45 was  '  ->  '  49wah,'   '  *sweks '  ^  Greek  e^,  Lat.   'filium  '  -> 

Span.  '  hi  jo.' 

The  weakening  of  the  rolled  r  produces  the  fricative  or 
liquid  J.  In  Southern  England  and  in  parts  of  America 
the  r  has  disappeared  to  a  great  extent,  having  become  j  in 
some  words,  a  in  others  and  entirely  omitted  in  still  others. 
In  Parisian  French  the  uvula  r  tends  to  become  -y.  Her- 
mann's curve  for  the  fricative  x  in  Fig.  33  (p.  42)  looks  like 
that  of  a  weakened  surd  uvula  r. 

An  excess  of  energy  in  articulation   often  occurs.     This 

30 


jim  FACTORS   OF  SPEECH 

may  be  due  to  increased  vitality  of  the  organism,  whereby  all 
movements  are  affected,  or  to  diminished  accuracy  of  control. 

Increase  in  the  energy  of  speech  movement  has  been  as- 
signed by  LenzI  as  the  cause  of  the  spontaneous  develop- 
ment of  palatal  fricatives  into  occlusives,  illustrated  by 
the  historical  change  of  j  to  5  and  its  later  stages.  The 
more  seldom  i  -*  8,  1  ^  X,  and  n  ->■  n  are  likewise  results  of 
increasing  energy  of  movement.  The  process  may  be  illus- 
trated by  examples.  It  is  a  familiar  fact  that  cotis.  +  e 
+  vowel  ->-  cons.  +  j  [or  5]  +  vowel  as  the  result  of  the 
narrowing  of  the  e-passage  between  the  tongue  and  palate 
so  that  e^i ->]-*]  [or  5].  A  further  narrowing  produces 
the  occlusion  with  fricative  release,  and  j  [9]  -*  8  [t]. 
Such  a  development  of  Lat.  ]  has  occurred  in  nearly  all 
Romance  languages. 

The  development  Lat.  nn,  II  -*  Span,  n,  A  results  from 
the  more  energetic  dorsal-alveolar  closure  (in  Lenz's  opinion), 
whereby  an  increase  of  contact  occurs  further  back  in  the 
mediodorsal-prepalatal  region.  Palatograms  ^  of  an  energetic 
dorsal-alveolar  1  show  contacts  between  those  for  ordinary  1 
and  A. 

The  air  from  the  glottis  passes  in  the  occlusives  into  a 
closed  chamber;  the  pressure  within  the  chamber  must  finally 
become  equal  to  that  in  the  thorax  and  the  vibration  of  the 
cords  must  cease  if  the  occlusion  is  sufficiently  prolonged, 
unless  the  energy  of  action  of  both  breath  and  occlusive 
muscles  is  increased.  Double  —  that  is,  long  —  occlusives 
tend  to  become  surd  (p.  367),  as  in  Italian  'addentro, 
aggettivo. '  ^ 

Economy  of  effort  —  motor,  sensory  and  associational  —  is  a 
fundamental  principle  of  the  human  organism ;  it  shows  itself 
in  varying  degrees  in  every  individual  and  in  every  activity. 

1  Lenz,  Zur  Physiologie  u.  Geschichte  d.  Palatalen,  49,  Diss.,  Bonn,  1887; 
also  in  Zt.  f.  vergl.  Sprachforschung,  1888  XXIX  55. 

^  Lenz,  as  before,  56. 

2  JosSBLYN,  iStude  sur  la  phonitiqm  italienne,  157,  Thfese,  Paris,  1900;  also  in 
La  Parole,  1900  11451. 


PROGRESSIVE   CHANGE  467 

The  principle  of  economy  has  been  proposed  in  explanation 
of  most  of  the  historical  changes  that  have  occurred  by 
weakening  or  increasing  the  articulatory  effort.  It  undoubt- 
edly does  explain  many  of  them,  but  many  others  are  just  as 
certainly  due  to  diminished  or  increased  vitality  of  the  ner- 
vous system.  The  slurring  of  articulations  due  to  diminished 
vitality — due  to  laziness,  as  Sweet  puts  it^  —  is  certainly 
quite  different  in  its  nervous  origin  from  that  due  to 
economy ;  both  cases  result  in  a  saving  of  labor,  but  the 
former  implies  a  poor  condition  of  nervous  activity,  while 
the  latter  is  evidence  of  a  good  one.  The  objections  to  the 
explanation  of  sound  changes  as  being  the  results  of  econ- 
omy have  generally  been  due  to  the  misconception  that  the 
economy  is  entirely  one  of  muscular  work,  to  the  expecta- 
tion of  large  and  sudden  results,  and  to  a  confusion  between 
economy  and  weakness.  That  an  adaptation  of  neighboring 
articulations  for  economical  production  actually  does  occur 
constantly  has  been  abundantly  shown  in  the  preceding 
chapter.  It  occurs  as  the  result  of  the  usual  instinct  to 
save  energy  quite  independently  of  an  increase  in  speed. 
The  economy  may  also  appear  as  an  auditory  one.  Distin- 
guishing differences  involves  labor  of  perception  (p.  121). 
When  a  difference  is  felt  to  be  too  sm'all  for  the  necessary 
clearness  of  perception,  the  tendency  to  economy  will  require 
its  exaggeration  (p.  122).  This  may  occur  even  at  the  ex- 
pense of  more  articulatory  effort ;  the  principle  of  economy 
will  strike  a  balance  between  the  two.  Economy,  in  its  true 
sense,  implies  efficient  activity  of  the  adjusting  organism; 
greater  economy  means  a  better  activity  of  the  nervous 
system. 

Increased  energy  of  articulation  may  result  from  economy, 
but,  like  all  other  human  activities,  it  may  be  due  directly  to 
increased  vitality  of  the  nervous  system. 

A  tendency  toward  extravagance  is  just  as  fundamental  a 
principle  of  organisms  as  economy.  Activities  are  constantly 
being  exaggerated  and  these  variations  may  be  seized  upon 

1  Sweet,  History  of  Language,  32,  London,  1900. 


468  FACTORS   OF  SPEECH 

and  developed.     We  may  expect  to  find  many  sound  changes 
that  arise  from  extravagance. 

The  nature  of  the  vocal  movements  depends  on  the  speed 
of  utterance.  A  speaker  ordinarily  makes  about  the  same 
effort  during  a  conversation  unless  he  wishes  to  produce  a 
difference  in  effect.  An  increase  in  speed  requires  either  an 
increase  in  effort  or  a  decrease  in  the  muscular  work  per- 
formed. For  an  expenditure  of  the  same  mental  energy  in 
a  given  time  an  increase  of  speed  involves  assimilation  of 
contiguous  movements  and  diminution  in  the  energy,  ex- 
tent, accuracy  and  duration  of  the  separate  ones. 

Speech  depends  directly  on  the  energy  of  the  idea  to  be 
expressed  by  it.  Various  observations  have  been  reported 
concerning  the  details.  Increase  in  energy  of  expiration  as 
well  as  in  emphasis  maj^  change  sonants  to  surds  because  of 
a  wider  opening  of  the  glottis,^  which  is  due  —  I  believe  — 
to  an  association  with  the  increased  breath  action  and  not 
to  any  necessity  for  letting  the  air  escape  at  the  moment ; 
thus,  emphatic  '  dead '  may  -^  d^edp  or  doCdoh. 

Sensory  or  motor  habits  in  the  succession  of  sounds  lead 
to  preferences  for  one  form  instead  of  another  ;  for  example, 
of  a  vowel  within  an  unfamiliar  group  of  consonants,  of  a 
familiar  succession  of  consonants  for  an  unfamiliar  one,  etc.^ 

The  influence  of  general  habits  of  expression^  has  been 
suggested  by  Wtjndt  ;  for  example,  the  habit  of  speaking 
with  open  mouth  among  the  Iroquois  is  given  as  the  cause 
of  the  absence  of  labials,  that  of  subdued  expression  among 
the  Chinese,  English,  Americans,  etc.  as  the  reason  for  some 
of  their  speech  peculiarities. 

The  differences  in  the  organism  of  the  child  (sensory, 
motor,  associational)  lead  him  to  attain  understandable 
speech  in  somewhat  different  ways  from  those  of  adults. 
These  habits  may  remain   to   some    degree   as  he   becomes 

,     ^  SiETERS,  Gruncjzuge  d.  Phonetik,  5.  Aufl.,  290,  Leipzig,  1901  ;   Vietor, 
Elemente  d.  Phonetik,  4.  Aufl.,  278,  1898. 

''  Oertel,  Lectures  on  the  Study  of  Language,  220,  New  York,  1901. 

8  WuNDT,  Volkerpsychologie,  1900  I  359,  403  ;  Oertel,  as  before,  198. 


PROGRESSIVE   CHANGE  469 

older  and  thus  make  his  speech  slightly  different.  The 
transmission  of  sounds  is  generally  practically  perfect ;  ^  but 
it  is  safe  to  assume  that  finer  methods  of  observation  will 
show  that  no  sound  is  ever  made  in  exactly  the  same  manner 
by  succeeding  generations.^ 

The  results  of  mental  and  bodily  processes  at  work  in  pro- 
gressive changes  may  be  summarized  by  'phonetic  laws.' 
These  are  based  on  the  principle  that  the  human  organism 
acts  according  to  laws  as  precise  and  vahd  as  those  of  the  rest 
of  nature ;  exceptions  to  a  phonetic  law  (in  this  sense)  indicate 
merely  that  the  law  has  not  been  properly  formulated.  The 
term  '  phonetic  law '  has  been  used  to  include  not  only  the 
mental  and  bodily  factors  but  also  inferences  concerning 
the  history  of  sounds ;  such  '  laws,'  as  frequently  pointed 
out,  are  not  the  same  as  natural  laws. 

The  changes  among  individuals  and  communities  that  are 
occurring  under  the  influence  of  surroundings  can  be  regis- 
tered by  experimental  means.  The  accumulation  of  phono- 
grams, palatograms,  breath  records,  tongue  curves,  etc.,  etc., 
from  an  individual  year  by  year  under  the  influence  of  a  cer- 
tain environment  or  internal  condition  would  indicate  the 
results  of  such  conditions.  Agreement  of  results  from  differ- 
ent cases  would  lead  to  definite  general  conclusions. 

The  influences  at  work  are  generally  very  complex  and 
very  slow ;  experimental  methods  may  often  be  devised  that 
accurately  determine  the  action  of  single  factors  or  of  many 
factors  in  a  brief  time.  Such  typical  investigations  of  con- 
crete sounds  have  been  made  by  Lenz,  Rotjsselot,  Laclotte, 
and  others. 

Investigations  of  more  general  problems  have  hardly  been 
attempted.  The  various  hypotheses  that  have  been  put  forth 
as  explanations  of  phonetic  changes  might  be  directly  tested 
by  reproducing  the  conditions  and  recording  the  speech 
results.     Thus  the  hypothesis  that  the  changes   known  as 

1  Sweet,  History  of  Language,  20,  London,  1900. 

''  RocssELOT,  Les  modifications  phon^tiques  du  langage,  349,  Rev.  des  pat.  gallo- 
rom.,  1 893  IV,  V ;  also  separate. 


470  FACTORS   OF  SPEECH 

Grimm's  law  are  the  results  of  increasing  rapidity  of  speech 
might  be  tested  by  recording  language  spoken  at  different 
speeds ;  the  finer  details  that  cannot  be  detected  by  the  ear 
could  be  measured  in  tracings  made  as  described  in  Part  I.  If 
increasing  rapidity  was  the  cause  of  the  historical  changes,  we 
can  confidently  expect  to  find  indications  of  such  changes  in  the 
phonograph  records.  Thus,  if  the  Indogermanic  '  *ghortus  ' 
changed  to '  chortus  '  and  '  hortus  '_  or  to  '  garto '  and  '  garten  ' 
as  the  result  of  increased  rapidity,  exactly  similar  changes 
of  a  less  degree  should  be  found  to-day  in  similar  words 
spoken  with  increased  rapidity  by  persons  ignorant  of  the 
object  of  the  experiment.  The  methods  of  registration  are 
now  delicate  enough  to  exhibit  the  details.  The  absence 
of  such  results  in  carefully  executed  experiments  would  tell 
heavily  against  the  hypothesis,  while  their  presence  could  be 
accepted  as  final  proof. 

Even  if  increased  rapidity  has  brought  about  some  of  the 
changes,  other  changes  have  probably  arisen  from  other 
mental  factors.  It  is  unquestionably  true  that  mental  and 
bodily  vigor  or  weakness  show  themselves  clearly  in  the 
speech  of  an  individual.  If  speech  records  on  individuals  in 
various  conditions  of  excitement,  health,  depression,  fatigue, 
etc.,  show  regular  relations  between  these  conditions  and 
certain  sound  changes,  and  if  similar  relations  are  found 
between  the  vigor  and  the  speech  of  communities  now  exist- 
ing, there  will  be  strong  presumption  of  similar  relations  in 
the  past  history  of  speech. 

The  experiments  may  be  extended  to  unusual,  abnormal 
or  pathological  ponditions  of  the  individual.  Thus  the  pro- 
gressive defects  in  coordination  of  muscular  action  whereby 
thickness  of  speech  is  caused  may  be  carefully  observed  in 
the  progress  of  alcoholic  or  etheric  intoxication.  The  effects 
of  rapidity  can  be  observed  at  each  degree  of  speed  in  the 
slowly  increasing  rapidity  of  speech  in  some  cases  of  mania. 
^  Various  other  conditions  may  be  obtained  by  administering 
drugs. 

It  is  quite  possible  that  experimental  data  may  definitely 


PROGRESSIVE   CHANGE  471 

confirm  any  one  of  the  hypothetical  causes  assigned,  but  the 
well-known  facts  of  mental  life  make  it  quite  as  possible 
that  all  these  causes  and  others  also  are  involved.  I  may 
add  here  that  arrangements  have  already  been  made  for 
making  gramophone  plates  of  speech  under  various  con- 
ditions of  excitement,  emotion  and  fatigue  so  that  the  curves 
can  be  traced  off  by  the  machine  described  in  Chapter  IV. 
Plans  are  also  being  developed  for  the  systematic  preparation 
and  preservation  of  speech  records  in  phonetic  libraries. 

References 

For  general  works  on  phonetic  change  with  references  to  monograph 
literature:  Paul,  Principien  d.  Spraohgeschiohte,  3.  Aufl.,  Halle  a/S., 
1898;  Passy,  Changements  phonetiques,  These,  Paris,  1891;  Wundt, 
Volkerpsychologie,  I,  Leipzig,  1900 ;  Oertel,  Lectures  on  the  Study  of 
Language,  New  York,  1901;  Sievers,  Grundziige  d.  Phonetik,  5.  Aufl., 
IV.  Abschnitt,  Leipzig,  1901. 


CHAPTER   XXXII 

MELODY 

A  DISCUSSION  of  the  melody  of  speech  should,  perhaps, 
include  a  treatment  of  melody  in  song,  particularly  the 
primitive  song  of  uncultured  peoples  and  the  spontaneous 
song  of  children.  The  unconscious  modifications  of  a  musi- 
cal melody  made  by  a  singer  should  also  be  treated  in  their 
dependence  on  different  conditions  of  activity  of  intellect 
and  emotion.  In  spite  of  the  great  importance  of  these 
topics  very  little  experimental  work  has  been  done.  Collec- 
tions of  phonograms  of  the  voices  of  singers  have  been  made 
but  have  not  been  studied.  Several  collections  of  the  songs 
of  the  American  Indians  have  been  made ;  one  of  these  was 
carefully  studied  by  Fillmore.  ^  The  present  chapter  will 
be  confined  to  a  study  of  pitch  in  speech. 

It  was  pointed  out  by  Aristoxenus  ^  that  the  difference 
between  the  tones  in  song  and  those  in  speech  lies  in  the  fact 
that  the  voice  in  singing  proceeds  by  jumps  from  one  note  to 
another,  while  in  speech  it  continually  slides  up  and  down. 
The  fact  has  been  thus  stated  by  Storm  :  '  Characteristic  for 
the  voice  in  speech  is  its  continual  gliding  through  several 
tones  whereby  these  do  not  impress  the  ear  as  clearly  differ- 
ent musical  tones  but  as  an  impure  mixed  unmusical  noise. 
.  .  .  The  character  of  speech  music  can  hardly  be  completely 

1  FiLLMOBE,  The  harmonic  structure  of  Indian  music,  Amer.  Anthropol.,  1899 
1297. 

2  Aristoxbnus,  Harmonica,  I  §  25,  p.  8,  Meib.  (the  passages  are  collected 
in  Johnson,  Musical  pitch  and  the  measurement  of  intervals.  Thesis,  Baltimore, 
1896);  ARiSTOXENns,  Harmonica,  I  §  28,  p.  8,  Meib.  (quoted  in  Johnson,  The 
motion  of  the  voice  in  the  theory  of  ancient  music,  Trans.  Araer.  Philol.  Assoc,  1899 
XXX  47);   GooDELL,  Chapters  on  Greek  Metric,  New  York,  1901. 


MELODY  473 

investigated  without  the  help  of  a  phonograph  or  a  similar 
instrument  which  records  and  measures  the  musical  glidings 
completely. '  i 

The  pitch  of  short  speech  sounds  is  hard  to  catch  by  the 
ear  not  only  because  each  sound  contains  many  tones  that 
influence  the  total  impression  (p.  95),  but  especially  because 
the  pitch  is  always  changing.  Even  from  a  long  sound  the  ear 
receives  only  a  vague  impression  of  pitch  when  it  is  a  chang- 
ing one.  These  difficulties  render  it  impossible  to  obtain  by 
the  ear  any  reliable  data  concerning  the  melody  of  speech. 
Experiments  by  Maktens,^  in  which  the  tone  of  a  siren  was 
made  to  fall  continuously  at  different  rapidities,  showed  that 
the  ear  heard  two  successive  tones  when  the  fall  of  pitch  was 
very  rapid,  three  when  less  rapid,  etc. 

A  problem  by  itself  is  that  of  th^  impression  the  ear 
receives  of  the  melody;  in  all  except  the  vaguest  generalities 
such  as  high  and  low,  rising  and  falling,  the  impression 
differs  from  the  actual  melody  produced.  Many  interesting 
and  valuable  observations  have  bfeen  recorded  of  the  impres- 
sions of  melody.  2 

An  impression  of  a  kind  of  average  pitch  may  be  obtained 
by  disconnecting  the  side  feed  of  the  reproducer  and  placing 
it  at  any -desired  point  on  a  phonograph  record.  It  thus 
repeats  continuously  the  sound  contained  in  one  turn  of  the 
groove.* 

Experimental  determinations  of  melody  have  been  made  by 
the  methods  described  in  Part  I. 

The  interesting  results  obtained  by  Maktens  (p.  19),  are 
summarized  in  the  following  Table.  In  the  Figures  (redrawn 
from  his  chart)  the  horizontal  distance  indicates  the  serial 
number  of  the  vibration;  it  may  be  taken  roughly  to  repre- 

1  Storm,  Englische  Philologie,  2,  Aufl.,  I  205,  Leipzig,  1892. 

2  Martens,  Ueber  d.  Verhalten  v.  Vokalen  u.  Diphthongen  in  gesprochenen 
Worten,  Zt.  f.  Biol.,  1889  XXV  297. 

3  Summary  by  Stokm,  as  before,  188. 

*  Makage,  Les  phonographes  et  I'etude  des  vof/elles,  Anne'e  psychologique, 
1899  V  226;  Thierrv,  Le  tonal  de  la  parole,  IV"'  Congr.  Interuat.  de  Psychol., 
Paris,  1900. 


474 


FACTORS   OF  SPEECH 


sent  time,  the  unit  decreasing  with  a  rise  in  pitch.  Martens 
leaves  no  spaces  for  the  intervals  occupied  by  the  consonants. 
The  proper  method  of  plotting  the  curve  of  melody  is  that 
described  in  Chapter  V.  These  curves,  however,  may  be 
considered  as  indicating  approximately  the  melody  of  the 
words. 

Table 


Phrase 


Voice        Sound    Length  Frequency 

IN  SEC.    Lowest  Average  Highest 


'  Vater  und  Mutter ' 

Male  voice, 

a 

0.231 

139 

165 

178 

(Fig.  325) 

71  years 

3 

0.331 

168 

185 

201 

U 

0.257 

164 

183 

201 

u 

0.123 

158 

187 

201 

3 

0.136 

139 

174 

189 

'  Der  Donner  roUt ' 

Male  voice, 

e 

0.162 

160 

173 

189 

(Fig.  326) 

29  years 

o 

0.126 

170 

183 

208 

3 

0.189 

201 

211 

221 

O 

0.226 

146 

160 

178 

'  Vater  und  Mutter ' 

Male  voice. 

a 

0.181 

362 

394 

453 

(Fig.  327) 

13  years 

3 

0.249 

342 

425 

447 

U 

0.118 

345 

377 

388 

u 

0.140 

428 

441 

453 

3 

0.262 

296 

338 

362 

'  Oh  neln '  (high) , '  oh  nein ' 

Male  voice, 

O 

0.226 

283 

334 

394 

(reproachfully) 

29  years 

ai 

0.283 

156 

242 

302 

(Fig.  328) 

o 

0.261 

133 

178 

197 

ai 

0.417 

103 

133 

158 

'  Lauf ,  mein  Kind ' 

Male  voice, 

au 

0.303 

144 

212 

273 

(Fig.  329) 

29  years 

ai 

0.239 

173 

195 

245 

i 

0.106 

197 

228 

238 

'  Back  sUsses  Brot ' 

Female  voice, 

a 

0.104 

307 

325 

342 

(Fig.  330) 

30  years 

Back 

0.366 
0.205 

y 

0.153 

312 

347 

370 

sii 

0.172 

e 

0.095 

288 

296 

324 

sses 

0.411 

T 

0.184 

o 

0.229 

273 

324 

348 

'  Bau  hiibsche  Hanser ' 

Female  voice. 

au 

0.328 

302 

326 

355 

(Fig.  331) 

13  years 

Bau 

"1 

0.342 
0.099 

y 

0.077 

318 

325 

336 

hiib 

0.194 

3 

0.105 

312 

323 

336 

sche 

0.215 

3i 

0.216 

292 

328 

351 

Hau 

0.152 

3 

0.083 

229 

252 

283 

ser 

0.203 

MELODY 


475 


a      /u 


Fig.  325. 


A      /r^° 


Fig.  326, 


Fig.  327. 


ai 


Fig-  328. 


aa 


'V 


Fig.  331. 


476 


FACTORS   OF  SPEECH 


PHEiSE 

Voice 

Sound 

Length 

Fkequenc 

Y 

IN  Sec. 

Lowest  Highest  Average 

'  Was  giebt  's  dort  f  ' 

Female  voice, 

a 

0.155 

329 

371 

431 

(Fig.  332) 

33  years 

was 

0.201 
0.517 

i 

0.145 

377 

463 

518 

giebt 's 

i  0.609 

T 

0.311 

o 

0.178 

273 

309 

342 

dort 

0.325 

'  Mein  kleines  Kind ' 

Female  voice, 

ai 

0.267 

292 

313 

336 

(Fig.  333) 

13  years 

mein 

1 

0.473 
0.064 

ai 

0.157 

307 

321 

336 

klein 

0.283 

e 

0.051 

304 

311 

318 

es 

0.073 

1 

0.073 

i 

0.116 

283 

309 

345 

Kind 

0.328 

Martens  made  no  application  of  his  results  to  speech 
melody.  They  seem  to  show  clearly  that  the  cord  tone 
never  stops  on  any  note  but  is  always  rising  or  falling;  even 
the  shortest  vowels  show  just  as  rapid  changes  as  the  long 
ones.  The  affirmative  phrases  end  in  a  vowel  of  a  lower  aver- 
age pitch  than  the  others  but  of  a  '  circumflex  melody. '  The 
last  vowel  in  the  commands  has  a  higher  average  pitch ;  the 
circumflex  form  of  melody  also  appears  in  them. 

In  regard  to  the  charts  of  the  course  of  the  cord  tone  given 
by  Martens  I  may  point  out  that  in  two  independent  words 
'  Mokka '  and  '  Mutter '  the  first  vowel  shows  a  rising  pitch 
and  the  second  a  falling  one ;  each  word  as  a  whole  may  be 
said  to  be  of  '  circumflex  pitch.'  The  phrases  also  have 
usually  a  circumflex  form  to  conform  with  which  the  word 
circumflexes  are  modified;  some  phrases,  however,  show 
other  forms. 

Schwann  and  Pringsheim^  have  made  phonautograph 
records  (p.  17)  of  French  words  and  phrases.  Measure- 
ments of  the  speech  curves  showed  that  as  a  rule  both  vowels 
in  a  two-syllable  word  were  spoken  at  the  same  pitch,  with 
the  same  intensity  and  with  the  same  duration.     A  word  at 


1  Schwann  und  Pringsheim,  Der  franzSsische  Accent,  Archiv  f.  d.  Stadium 
d.  neueren  Spr.  u.  Lit.,  1890  LXXXV  203. 


MELODY 


477 


Tig.  332. 


Fig.  333. 


the  end  of  a  sentence  differed  from  that  within  a  sentence  by 
having  a  lower  pitch  and  a  less  intensity.  An  isolated  word 
was  pronounced  like  a  word  at  the  end  of  a  sentence.  One 
.of  the  curves  of  melody  is  shown  in  Fig.  334;  the  hori- 
zontal axis  indicates  time  in  seconds. 


300- 
250- 
ZOO- 

i 

- 

'*'"*''■**-_ 

C      / 

ISO- 
100 

SO- 

il        est          mi         di            \ 

0 

0     0.1 

1 

0.2 

0.4     0.S     0.6 

/./      1.2     1.3     l.t     AS     I.e     1.1     1.6     1.9     2.0 

Fig.  334. 


PiPPiNa  (p.  121)  gives  melody  curves  for  a  number  of 
independent  Finnish  words ;  they  show  without  exception  a 
circumflex  pitch.  When  the  changes  in  pitch  are  not  of  a 
complicated  character,  we  can  consider  a  vowel  in  which  the 
average  is  higher  than  its  beginning  as  a  '  vowel  of  rising 
pitch '  and  one  in  which  the  average  is  lower  than  its  begin- 
ning as  a '  vowel  of  falling  pitch. '  Pipping's  dissyllabic  and 
trisyllabic  Finnish  words  showed  without  exception  a  vowel 
of  rising  pitch  in  the  first  syllable,  a  vowel  of  falling  pitch 
in  the  last  syllable,  a  vowel  of  steady  or  falling  pitch  in  the 


478 


FACTORS   OF  SPEECH 


middle  syllable  of  a  trisyllabic  word,  the  average  pitch  being 
lower  for  each  succeeding  syllable. 

The  curves  of  the  vowels  of  German  words  spoken  iso- 
latedly,  recorded  on  a  phonograph  and  measured  by  the  aid  of 
a  corneal  microscope,  have  been  studied  by  Meyee.^  In  a 
long  German  vowel,  under  the  conditions  given,  the  cord  tone 
begins  low  and  rises  (region  of  tone-rise),  remains  a  time  at 
a  maximum  (region  of  tone-maximum),  and  falls  (region  of 
tone-fall).  The  course  of  pitch  is  greatly  influenced  by  the 
neighboring  consonants;  the  more  emphatic  the  consonant, 
the  greater  is  its  influence  on  the  pitch-curve;  the  following 
consonant  often  cuts  the  vowel  oft'  at  or  near  the  maximum. 
With  short  emphasized  vowels  the  influence  of  the  conso- 
nants is  even  greater  than  with  long  vowels.  With  short 
unemphasized  vowels  the  cord -tone  has  only  the  region  of 
tone-fall.  Every  vowel  has  a  favorite  pitch  for  its  tone- 
maximum  in  this  descending  order:  u,  i,  o,  e,  a.  Emphatic 
consonants  raise  the  tone -maximum.  Greater  loudness  seems 
to  be  regularly  accompanied  by  higher  pitch,  on  the  prin- 
ciple —  I  may  suggest  —  of  greater  muscular  effort  in  one 
direction  being  accompanied  by  greater  effort  in  others. 

The  course  of  pitch  in  the  cord  tone  can  be  registered  with 
some  accuracy  on  the  breath-curve  by  a  short  tube  from  the 
lips  to  a  tambour.  Experiments  by  Vietor  ^  gave  results 
for  the  u  of  '  du  '  which  are  roughly  indicated  in  the  following 
notation : 


questioD 


warning 


The    breath-curves    for   these  forms   of  '  du  '  are    given  in 
Fig.  87  (p.  218).     Records  of  sentences  showed   that  em- 


1  Meter,  Zur  Tonbemegung  des  Vokals  im  gesprochenen  und  gesungenen  Einze- 
woTt,  Neuere  Sprachen,  1897  IV  Phonet.  Stud.  1. 

2  Vietor,  Elemente  d.  Phonetik,  4.  Aufl.,  293,  Leipzig,  1898. 


MELODY 


479 


phasis  on  any  portion  of  the  subject  or  the  predicate  raised 
its  pitch. 

Using  a  phonograph,  Marichblle  found  ^  melody  curves 
as  follows  (the  staves  are  of  the  treble  clef) : 


Qui  est  Ik     .  ?  C'est  Paul  .  .  C'est  Paul  .  t  Tiens  .  .     !      Voim  .  .  Jeau 


^^^-^^F^ 


Ah 


!    Jean  .       Re  .  .  ne  .  .  .  .  !    Fer  .  di  .  nand!     As  .  sez  .  .  .  .  ! 


Com  ment !  tu  n'as  pas  tra      va    illd 


(female  voice) 


P 


^ 


=5z: 


Tres  bien  .      .  !  Com    ment !  tu  n'as  pas  tra  vaille     .  .  !  (male  voice) 

Com       (1)     (■?)  n'as  pas      tra  .  .     va.  .  .  ilM .  .  .  . ! 

(voice  of  deaf  person). 

Fig.  335. 

The  curve  of  melody  (or  curve  of  pitch)  for  the  tracing  of 
Jefferson's  voice  in  Rip  Van  WinMe's  Toast  (p.  61),  as 
reproduced  in  Plates  III  to  XI  at  the  end  of  this  volume,  is 
given  in  Plates  XII  and  XIII. 

The  measurements  of  the  successive  periods  of  the  cord 
tone  were  made  and  computed  according  to  the  methods 
explained  in  Ch.  V.  The  plot  was  made  as  described  on 
p.  65.  The  dots  were,  however,  joined  by  straight  lines,  and 
a  smooth  curve  was  not  drawn  through  them  as  in  Fig.  44 ; 
the  successive  dots  are  more  readily  indicated  in  this  way  but 
the  general  course  of  the  cord  tone  would  be  more  truthfully 
represented  by  a  smooth  curve. 

Horizontal  distance  in  Plates  XII  and  XIII  indicates  time 


1  Marichblle,  La  parole  d'aprfes  le  trac^  du  phonographe,  Planche  U,  Paris, 
1897. 


480  FACTORS   OF  SPEECH 

at  the  rate  of  1°™  —  0.0035%  or  a  reduction  to  one  fifth  the 
size  shown  in  Plates  III  to  XI.  The  vertical  scales  indicate 
frequency,  or  the  number  of  vibrations  a  second.  Each 
group  of  words  refers  to  a  portion  of  the  melody-curve 
extending  from  its  beginning  to  a  group  of  large  figures  on 
the  horizontal  line ;  during  each  portion  the  horizontal  line 
remains  unbroken.  The  large  figures  indicate,  as  in  Plates 
III  to  XI,  the  portions  of  straight  line  in  the  original  tracings 
that  were  omitted  in  preparing  the  Plates ;  they  are  turned 
into  time  by  the  equation  1"™  =  0.0007^ 

The  interruptions  in  the  melody-curve  indicate  surds,  or 
very  weak  sonants,  or  pauses. 

The  curves  in  Plates  XII  and  XIII  indicate  a  very  low  and 
even  melody  of  speech  that  is  varied  at  times  for  emotional 
expression.  In  general  each  sentence  begins  low,  rises 
gradually,  and  then  falls,  but  variations  occur.  The  changes 
in  the  tone  are  generally  continuous. 

'  Come,  Rip '  shows  a  rise  at  the  end,  which  is  a  common 
inflection  for  a  cheerful,  animated  invitation.  '  What  do  you 
say  to  a  glass  ? '  shows  a  low  vowel,  then  a  rise  to  the  u  of 
'  you  ' ;  this  u,  however,  begins  to  fall  just  before  the  follow- 
ing word.  '  Say '  is  of  high  pitch,  as  is  frequently  the  case 
for  the  verb  of  a  question  ;  the  fall  at  the  end  of  '  you '  may 
have  been  a  kind  of  preparation  by  contrast  for  the  high  pitch 
of  '  saJ^'  The  highest  pitch  for  the  phrase  is  found  in  '  glass ' ; 
it  is  even  higher  than  in  'say,'  probably  because  of  the 
greater  emphasis  given  to  the  word  '  glass.'  The  pitch  falls 
toward  the  end  of  ae  in  'glass';  such  a  fall  is  usual  in  a 
sentence  beginning  with  an  interrogative  word  (or  phrase) 
that  is  not  specially  emphatic.  These  words  were  spoken  by 
Jeffeeson"  as  introductory  to  the  Toast  itself.  The  invita- 
tion is  followed  by  a  long  pause  of  2.86'  before  the  reply 
comes. 

The  Toast  begins  with  a  repetition  of  the  question  of  invi- 

.tation.     It  is  spoken  in  a  rather  soft  manner,  as  appears  not 

only  to  the  ear  but  also  in  the  small  amplitude  of  the  waves 

in  Plate  IV.     The  pitch  curve  is  fairly  level,  with  some  rise 


MELODY  481 

at  the  end  instead  of  a  fall.  This  rise  is  the  usual  ending  of 
a  repeated  interrogative  sentence.  The  general  pitch  is  lower 
than  that  of  the  invitation.     A  pause  of  0.41°  follows. 

The  exclamation  'huh'  is  a  kind  of  chuckle.  It  is  of  a 
very  high  pitch  but  small  intensity  and  short  duration.  It  is 
followed  by  a  pause  of  1.05\ 

'  Now  what  do  I  generally  say  to  a  glass  ? '  shows  a  very 
even  rise  and  a  very  gradual  fall ;  its  general  pitch  is  low. 
It  is  a  kind  of  bantering  statement.  The  long  pause  of  2.16' 
seems  to  express  a  simulated  expectation  of  a  reply. 

'  I  say  it  is  a  fine  thing '  is  a  decided  statement  with  em- 
phasis on  '  fine  thing.'  It  has  the  usual  circumflex  form  as 
far  as  '  a.'  If  the  sentence  had  been  completed  with  no 
further  emphasis,  the  pitch  would  probably  have  continued  to 
fall.  The  rise  in  pitch  for  the  specially  emphatic  '  fine  thing  ' 
adds  an  accessory  circumflex.  The  pause  of  1.78'  and  the 
fall  in  pitch  lead  the  hearer  to  suppose  the  sentence  finished. 

'  When  there  's  plenty  in  it '  is  muttered  as  a  joke.  Its 
pitch  is  not  lower  than  usual.  The  emphasis  on  '  plenty  in 
it '  gives  a  higher  pitch  to  the  latter  portion.  The  whole  state- 
ment has  the  usual  circumflex  form.  The  long  pause  of  2.90° 
is  presumably  occupied  by  the  first  sip  of  the  toast. 

The  soft  exclamation  of  satisfaction  'ha'  has  a  falling 
pitch.  It  is  followed  by  a  pause  of  1.79°.  The  'so'  ex- 
presses deep  satisfaction.  It  begins  moderately  high  and 
falls  steadily  in  pitch.  To  the  ear  it  has  a  peculiar  rattle  of 
a  low  pitch  as  if  some  particles  of  liquid  had  lodged  on  the 
edge  of  the  epiglottis,  as  is  sometimes  the  case  after  di'inking. 
This  peculiar  effect  shows  itself  in  the  alternately  louder 
and  weaker  character  of  the  groups  of  vibrations  shown  in 
Plate  VII.  Such  a  curve  could  be  produced  by  the  cord 
explosions  striking  against  a  mass  of  liquid  that  would 
vibrate  readily  at  a  sub-multiple  of  the  cord  period ;  the  por- 
tion of  liquid  would  rise  and  fall,  weakening  the  cord  tone 
on  alternate  periods.  It  is  quite  probable  that  when  speaking 
into  the  gramophone  recorder  Jeffeeson  produced  this  effect 
by  some  muscular  adjustment  (epiglottis,  ventricular  bands) 

31 


482  FACTORS   OF  SPEECH 

and  not  by  an  actual  sip  of  some  liquid.     '  So '  is  followed  by 
a  pause  of  2.00^ 

'  You  had  it  ten  years  ago,  eh  ? '  is  spoken  as  a  continuous 
sentence ;  there  is  complete  fusion  of  the  vowels  at  the  end. 
The  first  part  rises  rapidly  to  a  high  pitch.  The  circumflex 
form  is  marked,  the  fall  beginning  in  the  o  of  'ago.'  The 
'  eh '  has  a  circumflex  form  joined  to  the  o  curve.  In  spite 
of  the  complete  fusion  of  these  vowels  we  may  perhaps  con- 
sider '  eh '  as  a  stressed  tag  with  a  pitch-curve  of  its  owu.^ 
The  sound  indicated  here  by  '  eh '  begins  with  a  very  weak 
breathing  and  seems  slightly  nasalized ;  it  thus  inclines  some- 
what toward  h9°.  The  long  pause  of  2.45°  indicates  perhaps 
the  time  of  another  sip. 

'  Ah '  is  an  expression  of  satisfaction ;  it  appears  to  the  ear 
much  lower  and  smoother  than  the  'ha.'  The  following 
pause  is  very  short,  0.13'. 

'  That 's  fine  schnapps '  is  not  an  emphatic  statement  but 
expresses  a  decided  conviction  after  a  satisfactory  trial.  It 
shows  the  usual  initial  rise  for  a  declarative  sentence,  but 
instead  of  falling  at  the  end,  it  rises  slightly.  This  peculiar 
rise  seems  to  express  conviction  after  a  doubt.  The  figures 
333™™  after  '  that 's  '  indicate  the  portion  of  tracing  (tsf) 
left  out  in  the  original  record,  and  not  a  pause.  The  sen- 
tence is  followed  by  a  pause  of  1.92^ 

'  I  would  n't  keep  it  as  long  as  that '  has  the  usual  circum- 
flex form ;  it  is  followed  by  a  brief  pause  of  0.29'. 

'  Would  I '  is  used  to  turn  the  declaration  into  a  question. 
It  is  very  brief.     A  short  pause,  0.25%  follows. 

The  verj'  brief  and  faint  chuckle  '  huh,  huh '  is  followed 
by  a  pause  of  1.20'. 

The  introductory  'well'  —  presumably  spoken  as  the  glass 
is  lifted  —  rises  steadily  to  a  high  pitch.  It  is  followed  by 
a  long  pause  of  3.43'- 

'  Here  's  your  good  health '  rises  steadily  to  a  very  high 
^itch.  The  speaker  makes  a  rather  long  pause,  0.94',  perhaps 
for  emphasis.     He  then  completes  the  thought  in  his  mind  by 

1  Sweet,  New  English  Grammar,  II  39,  London,  1S98. 


MELODY  '  483 

'  and  your  family's.'  This  tag-phrase  has,  however,  some- 
what the  character  of  a  separate  sentence;  its  pitch-curve 
is  circumflex.     It  is  followed  by  a  pause  of  1.54^ 

The  invocation  '  and  may  they  all  live  long  and  prosper ' 
appears  to  have  the  solemn  steady  intonation  of  a  somewhat 
religious  utterance.  The  pitch-curve  shows  great  evenness  ; 
there  is  a  rise  at  the  beginning  and  a  fall  at  the  end.  The 
fall  appears  during  the  first  part  of  'prosper';  during  the 
last  part  the  cords  are  so  relaxed  that  they  produce  only 
a  few  rather  irregular  vibrations  (Plate  XI) ;  the  last 
syllable  appears  to  the  ear  almost  as  a  surd  or  whispered  one. 
It  is  followed  by  a  pause  of  1.74',  during  which  the  toast 
is  presumably  drunk. 

The  '  ah '  is  a  low,  soft  exclamation  of  gustatory  satisfac- 
tion after  the  toast.  The  peculiar  rattle  is  heard  as  in  '  so ' 
above ;  the  same  alternation  in  the  character  of  the  groups 
of  cord  vibrations  appears  in  Plate  XI.  The  pitch-curve 
shows  a  steady  fall.  The  last  vibrations  are  of  a  very  low 
pitch ;  they  appear  clearly  in  the  tracing  but  are  probably  too 
low  in  pitch  for  the  ear  to  catch  (p.  98). 

Several  series  of  experiments  have  been  made  on  the 
melody  of  speech  sounds,  the  average  pitch  of  each  sound 
being  noted. 

Rotjssblot's  records  ^  of  the  kind  shown  in  Figs.  284  to 
286  enabled  him  to  give  certain  average  frequencies,  as,  for 
example, 

mo"         po     V         pj     a     r     e 

240  220  220   210   210 

The  melodies  of  two  selections  of  his  dialect  were  worked  out 
in  this  way  and  expressed  in  musical  notation.  From  these 
results  RoussELOT^  concludes  for  French:  1.  In  ordinary 
voice  an  isolated  vowel  has  no  fixed  pitch  for  the  cord 
tone.  2.  Consonants  are  generally  higher  than  vowels. 
3.    Generally  the  approximation  of  a  vowel  and  a  consonant 

'  ]loussELOT,  Le.s   modifications  phonetiques  du  langage,  109,  Rev.  des  pat. 
gallo-rom.,  1893,  IV,  V;  also  separate. 
2  RoussELOT,  as  before,  40. 


484  FACTORS   OF  SPEECH 

raises  the  pitch  of  the  consonant  and  lowers  that  of  the 
vowel.  4.  The  voice  often  varies  gradually  in  pitch  in  a 
single  syllable.  5.  There  is  a  musical  rhythm  which  is  less 
influenced  by  the  physiological  conditions  of  speech  than  the 
rhythm  of  intensity  or  that  of  duration,  and  which  is  conse- 
quently better  adapted  to  render  the  shades  of  thought.  6. 
In  words  of  two  syllables  the  second  one  is  raised  in  pitch  in 
Roxtssblot's  dialect,  but  this  pitch  accent  is  less  firmly  fixed 
than  the  duration  accent.  7.  In  words  of  three  and  four 
syllables  the  musical  accent  of  rise  in  pitch  coincides  gener- 
ally with  the  accents  of  duration  and  intensity,  with  differ- 
ences sometimes  in  the  unstres"sed  syllables.  8.  Groups 
ending  in  an  atonic  have  the  pitch  accent  in  the  same  place  as 
the  historical  accent  even  when  the  atonic  has  become  longer 
and  louder  than  the  tonic  (as  in  kokote ;  frequencies :  480, 
600,  520;  periods  in  hundredths  of  a  second:  6,  11,  9  ; 
the  e  still  has  its  ancient  accent  shown  by  a  rise  in  pitch). 
9.  The  phrase  is  a  song  whose  measure  follows  the  intensity 
or  the  duration  of  the  syllables  and  whose  melody  chiefly 
follows  the  changes  in  thought.  10.  The  pitch  accent  falls 
readily  but  not  necessarily  on  the  more  intense  or  the  longer 
syllables. 

In  the  record  of  the  first  stanza  of  Cock  Rohin  (p.  58), 
I  find  the  average  periods  of  various  sonants  as  follows  (in 
thousandths  of  a  second) :  — 

Who   ki  lied   Cock   R  obi    n? 

3.3       5.1  4.2  1.8  5.3    5.6  8.4 

I,    s  ai  d   th  e   sp  a  rr  ow, 

18-4       5.3  5.3         5.3  2.8  5.2 

W  i  th    m     y     b  ow   a  nd    a  rr  ow 

5.3  2.1         5.3  5.6-3.6      7.0     5.3  4.2  2.5  7.0 

I    k  i  lied   C      o      ck     R  o   b    i   n. 

12-4      5.6  7.0-5.3   .  3.9  3.9  4.2  5.6  8.8 

In  studying  the  melody  of  a  vowel  we  may  for  some  pur- 
poses disregard  cavity  tones,  overtones  and  the  peculiar  char- 
acteristics of  the  cord  puffs  (p.   94,  260),  and  can  conven- 


MELODY  485 

iently  consider   the  tone  as  a  simple   sinusoid  (p.  2);   the 
equation  of  the  vibrating  particle  will  then  be 

y  =  F(t-)  sin  ^"^^ 


/(O 

where  y  is  the  elongation,  Fif)  the  amplitude,  and  f(t)  the 
period.  If  the  amplitude  is  constant  as  in  the  curves  of 
T'igs.  19  and  31  (though  this  is  rarely  the  case  in  a  spoken 
vowel),  we  have  F^f)  =  a. 

A  vowel  during  whose  course  the  pitch  remains  constant 
can  be  said  to  be  of  '  sustained '  pitch.  If  ^is  the  period  of 
vibration  of  the  cords,  we  have  in  the  ideal  case 

27r« 
y  =  F(f)siry~. 

Vowels  of  sustained  or  constant  pitch  are  not  very  com- 
mon in  the  cases  I  have  studied.  Most  vowels  seem  to  rise 
or  fall,  yet  some  of  them  are  approximately  constant.  The 
vowel  i  as  found  in '  see,'  'needle,'  'I,'  etc.,  is  approximately 
a  sustained  vowel  although  it  generally  falls  slightly.  The 
following  measurements  of  i  in  '  see  '  are  typical  ("  =  0.001") : 
2.3,  2.3,  2.4,  2.4,  2.8"^  ...  to  the  22d  vibration,  2.4- to  the 
42d  vibration,  2. 1'^  to  the  end  at  the  64th  vibration.  (^Cock 
Rohiii,  Series  I,  p.  58;  see  also  Appendix  II.) 

The  rather  unusual  case  of  two  vowels  of  sustained  pitch 
forming  a  diphthong  is  found  in  the  word  '  my '  of  the  phrase 
'  With  my  bow  and  arrow. '  The  a  has  a  constant  period  of 
5.6^  and  the  i  that  of  3.6"^.  The  a  has  also  a  constant  ampli- 
tude of  0.4™";  the  i,  beginning  with  0.5™  falls  to  0  as  usual 
in  ai  in  an  independent  word  (^Gock  Rohin,  as  before).  The 
diphthong  ai  is  of  nearly  constant  pitch  throughout  most  of 
its  length  in  two  cases  of  '  thy '  in  Lord's  Prayer,  Series  J 
(p.  58). 

Nearly  all  vowels  in  the  earlier  parts  of  words  in  the 
records  studied  (p.  58),  whether  preceded  by  a  consonant  or 
not,  are  characterized  by  a  rising  pitch.  In  such  a  case  the 
period  is  not  a  constant,  T,  but  a  function  of.  the  elapsed  time, 
fif).     A  typical  example  of  this  kind  of  vowel  is  regularly 


486  FACTORS   OF  SPEECH 

found  in  the  a  of  ai.  A  determination  of  the  particular 
form  of  /(O  for  various  vowels  is  a  highly  important  matter, 
as  different  vowels  and  different  manners  of  speaking  are 
possibly  characterized  by  different  forms  of  this  rise  in  pitch. 
Some  of  the  cases  of  a  suggest  the  form  /(O  =  ke^',  a 
formula  which  expresses  many  of  the  phenomena  found  in 
nature  (k  and  m  are  empirical  constants,  and  e  the  constant 
2.71828). 

When  the  rise  in  pitch  (decrease  in  period)  is  proportional 
to  the  elapsed  time,  we  have 

2-77^ 

where  T^  is  the  period  of  the  first  vibration  and  m  the  factor 
of  proportionality.  Such  a  vowel  is  found  in  the  a  of  the 
fourth  example  of  '  I '  in  Coch  Mobin,  Series  I.  During  an 
interval  of  180'^  its  period  is  shortened  by  5.5",  or  at  the  rate 
of  0.03^.  Its  cord  equation,  on  the  suppositions  made  above, 
would  be  (in  seconds) 

y  =  i-(0smg_^_Q3^- 

In  the  latter  portions  of  words  the  vowels  in  the  records  I 
have  examined  are  generally  nearly  constant  in  pitch,  with 
often  a  slight  fall  as  the  intensity  decreases.  Typical  ex- 
amples are  found  in  the  cases  of  i  in  ai  (Appendix  II).  This 
slight  fall  in  pitch  does  not  necessarily  indicate  a  relaxation 
in  the  tension  of  the  vocal  cords ;  as  the  force  of  the  expired 
current  of  air  decreases,  the  frictional  forces  involved  in  the 
cord  vibration  may  gradually  lengthen  the  period.  Yet  the 
amount  of  fall  is  generally  too  great  to  be  due  to  anything  but 
a  relaxation  of  the  cords. ^ 

Melody  is  used  as  a  speech  factor  in  different  ways.  As  a 
method  of  distinction  among  speech  sounds,  it  may  be  used 
like  any  other  speech  factor,  such  as  an  explosion  or  a  reso- 
nance.    In  Chinese  this  use  has  reached  a  high  degree  of  de- 

1  SOEIPTDKE,  Rfsearches  in  experimental  phonetics  (first  series],  Stud.  Yale 
Psych.  Lab.,  1899  VII  93. 


MELODY  487 

velopment,  the  pitch  of  the  cord  tone  being  used  phonetically 
just  as  all  languages  use  the  pitch  of  the  cavity  tones  in 
the  mouth  to  make  different  vowels.  The  words  that  to  us 
appear,  for  example,  as  ba  spoken  on  four  different  tones 
are  for  the  Chinese  perhaps  more  distinctly  different  than 
ba,  bo,  bi,  be  would  be  to  us.  I  have  observed  this  percep- 
tion of  the  cord  tone  as  a  characteristic  part  of  a  speech 
sound  by  an  infant  who  used  the  degrees  and  modulations  of 
intonation  for  each  sound  as  it  occurred  in  the  first  speaker 
from  whom  the  sound  was  learned.  In  most  European  lan- 
guages this  use  of  melody  to  distinguish  special  sounds  is 
subordinate  to  its  use  as  a  means  of  expressing  more  complex 
mental  states,  as  in  assertion,  question,  etc. 

The  preceding  account  has  treated  the  cord  tone  alone  as 
the  basis  of  melody ;  a  fuller  treatment  would  include  all  the 
relations  of  harmony  among  the  various  resonance  tones  and 
the  cord  tone ;  a  vowel  is  in  fact  not  a  melody  alone  but  a 
harmonized  piece  of  music.  Experimental  data  on  this 
subject  are  almost  entirely  lacking ;  the  harmony  in  vowels 
is  illustrated  in  Appendix  II. 

References 

For  observations  and  literature  on  speech  melody:  Sievers,  Grund- 
ziige  d.  Phonetik,  5.  Aufl.,  242,  Leipzig,  1901 ;  Storm,  Englische  Philolo- 
gie,  2.  Aufl.,  1,  203,  Leipzig,  1892;  Viktor,  Elemente  d.  Phonetik,  4. 
xVufl.,  290,  Liepzig,  1898  ;  Swbet,  New  English  Grammar,  II  37,  Oxford, 
1898  ;  Hempl,  German  Orthography  and  Phonology,  167,  Boston,  1897. 
For  literature  on  and  views  of  the  nature  of  melody:  Hblmholtz, 
Lehre  v.  d.  Tonempflndungen,  5.  Aufl.,  Braunschweig,  1896;  Stumpf, 
Tonpsychologie,  Leipzig,  1883-1890;  Wundt,  Grundziige  d.  physiol. 
Psychologie,  4.  Aufl.,  Leipzig,  1893;  and  the  large  monograph  litera- 
ture in  the  bibliographies  of  Zt.  f.  Psychol,  u.  Physiol,  d.  Sinn.,  Ann^e 
Psychol.,  and  Psych.   Rev. 


CHAPTER   XXXIII 

DURATION 

As  in  the  case  of  melody  the  treatment  of  the  duration  of 
speech  sounds  should  include  —  perhaps  begin  with  —  a  study 
of  these  sounds  in  song.  The  conditions  in  song  are  simpler 
than  in  speech,  owing  to  the  fact  that  a  norm  is  imposed  upon 
the  singer,  from  which  his  variations  are  to  be  treated  as 
measurable  expressions  of  his  personal  rendering.  Songs  are 
never  sung  —  or  intended  to  be  sung  —  exactly  as  written. 
Even  the  most  mechanical  popular  tune  is  rendered  differently 
by  each  individual,  the  differences  lying  mainly  in  the  duration 
of  the  elements,  in  the  stress  assigned  to  them,  and,  above 
all,  in  the  attack  by  the  voice  and  the  utterance  of  each 
sound.  In  artistic  performances  all  these  sources  of  varia- 
tion are  employed  —  mainly  unconsciously  —  to  express  the 
thought  or  emotion  of  the  singer.  Concerning  just  how  they 
are  varied  and  how  they  are  employed  there  are  at  present  no 
experimental  data.  Curves  of  various  songs  have  been  traced 
off  by  the  machine  described  in  Ch.  IV,  but  have  not  yet 
been  studied. 

The  duration  of  a  portion  of  speech  may  be  registered  1. 
automatically,  2.  by  a  special  movement  of  the  speaker,  3. 
by  a  movement  of  a  different  person.  The  results  of  investi- 
gations will  be  considered  in  connection  with  the  method 
employed. 

The  automatic  methods  consist  in  direct  registration  of  the 
voice  vibrations  (Part  I)  or  of  the  vocal  movements  (Part  III). 
The  time  occupied  by  the  sound  may  be  determined  by  any  of 
the  methods  used  in  such  cases. 


DURATION  489 


From  the  Tables  (pp.  474,  476)  of  the  results  of  measure- 
ments by  Martens  it  seems  clear  that  the  length  of  a  vowel 
in  a  given  word  varies  greatly  even  for  the  same  speaker. 
Thus,  for  '  Vater  und  Mutter '  Maetens  found  the  follow- 
ing durations  in  thousandths  of  a  second : 


M 


Male  voice 

71  years 

231 

331 

257 

'*         ** 

52     " 

269 



120 

K                    tt 

29      « 

183 

133 

121 

tt                    tt 

It       (t 

145 

122 

97 

tt                    (( 

It       tt 

205 

127 

150 

i(                    it 

28      " 

166 

213 

296 

tt                    U 

26      " 

318 

222 

117 

tt            u 

13      " 

181 

249 

118 

iTemale  " 

6      " 

177 

100 

56 

123 

136 

148 

94 

67 

179 

64 



98 



151 



116 



140 

262 

84 



We  see  here  all  sorts  of  variations.  Even  the  so-called  long 
a  in  '  Vater  '  on  three  occasions  was  found  to  be  shorter  than 
e.  The  so-called  short  u  of  '  und  '  was  often  longer  than 
a  of  the  '  Vater, '  but  was  often  also  extremely  short.  Other 
similar  cases  may  be  found  in  the  Table  on  pp.  474,  476. 

Measurements  of  the  lengths  of  the  speech  sounds  in  the 
Jeppbeson  records  were  made  by  an  assistant  under  my  guid- 
ance. The  completeness  of  the  fusion  of  sounds  in  connected 
speech  (p.  451)  made  it  impossible  to  assign  any  very  definite 
limits  to  most  of  the  sounds.  When  a  sound  was  next  to  a 
pause  or  a  surd,  its  limit  was  placed  at  the  extreme  vibration. 
Thus  the  first  vibration  of  a  in  '  Come '  (Plate  III,  hue  1)  and 
the  last  distinct  one  of  i  (hne  4)  gave  fairly  definite  hmits.  Yet 
the  curve  shows  quite  clearly  that  the  i-vibrations  began  to  be 
weakened  by  closure  for  the  p  somewhere  about  60°"°  from  the 
right  end  of  line  4  ;  faint  vibrations  can,  however,  be  detected 
at  about  15°™  from  the  end  ;  thus  even  in  a  case  like  this  it 
is  impossible  to  mark  off  the  limits  of  i,  i-p  glide,  and  p.  In 
other  cases  there  is  no  possibility  of  assigning  any  limits, 
because  the  sounds  are  fused  into  gradually  changing  ones ; 
thus  in  line  13  the  u  of  'to  '  changes  to  a  ' a,'  but  the  change 
is  a  gradual  one  beginning  far  back  in  the  u  and  extending 
throughout  the  a.'  In  fact,  there  are  not  two  sounds  u  and  a 
united  by  a  glide ;  there  is  a  changing  sound  which  at  some 


490 


FACTORS   OF  SPEECH 


one  instant  may  be  an  u  and  at  a  later  one  may  be  an  a,  and 
which  to  the  ear  (trained  to  various  associations)  gives  an 
impression  resembling  a  sequence  of  u  and  3.  In  spite  of 
these  facts  I  venture  to  give  figures  for  the  duration  of 
sounds  in  the  Jefferson  records  in  order  to  furnish  some 
approximate  data;  the  figures  are  subject  to  the  limitations 
just  explained ;  where  I  have  been  utterly  unable  to  decide  on 
a  limit  I  have  indicated  the  fusion  by  a  brace. 

The  phonetic  notation  is  used  in  the  following  list  merely 


m 

I 
i 

P 

■1 

h-w 
a 
d 

9    ) 

]     [ 
U    ) 

B 

e 
t 

SI 
fl 

se 
h-w 

3 

n 
t) 

s 
e 
t 

fl 


s 

-\ 

h 

■5! 

au 


1 

a 

0.22« 

a 

.11 

u 

.15 

a 

.21 

i 

J 

.33 

e 

n 

.19 

I 

.06 

a 

1 

.66 

i 

.24 
.24 
.10 

.31 

.14 
.57 

3.94 

.19 

.43 

.16 
.21 
.10 

.30 

.10 
.45 

.46 

.16 

1.28 

0  22 
.04 


i 
z 
a 
f 

I'l 

i 

"1     i 
hw  J 

e 

3 


.22 
.02 


1.33 


1 

8 

.14 

e 

.22 

t 

.07 

SI 

.25 

g 

.02 

1 

.11 

se 

.35 

s 

2.23 

a 
i 

.25 

s 

.11 

e  1 

i  i 

.25 

.05 
.16 
.04 
.13 
.10 

.33 

.10 

.29 
.10 

1.90 

.16 

.13 

.14 


.22 


.45 


3.07 


.49 
2.06 


.39 


.70 


.80 


.26 


.23 


fl 

■w 
u 
d 
n 

LI 


hshs 

;i 

e 

1 

i 
i| 


.14 
.12 
.09 
.24 

1.97 

.30 

.07 
.11 
.03 
.16 

.11 

.13 

.06 

.11 
.06 
.24 
.34 
.07 

.93 


.32  (?) 


.09(?) 

.30 
.13 

1.14 

.32 

3.56 


.29 


z 

.09 

u 

.24 

g 

.02 

u 

.16 

.03 

e 

.30 

1 

.07 

?l 

.97 

3 

.16 

n 

.16 

] 

U3 

.14 

f 

.12 

ee 

.23 

m 

.07 

3 

.06 

1 

.08 

i 

.13 

-1 

1.64 

ae 

.01 

m) 

.12 

e 

.16 

5 

.05 

e 

.31 

0    ) 

U  [ 

1.76 

i    ) 

V 

.10 

1 

.18 

o 

.62 

''  ) 

I' 

.34 

n 

p 

.10 

r 

a 

.30 

s 

1 

p 

i 

0 

1 

DURATION  491 

to  indicate  the  sounds  in  order  to  aid  in  marking  off  their 
duration  ;  it  is  not  intended  as  an  accurate  phonetic  analysis. 
For  example,  the  use  of  a  for  the  stressed  vowel  in  '  what ' 
does  not  necessarily  mean  that  the  sound  is  the  same  as  the 
a  in  'come'-;  to  the  ear  the  brief  vowel  in  this  case  seems 
related  to  a,  o,  and  a,  but  it  is  hardly  possible  to  decide  on 
the  degrees  of  likeness. 

General  averages  of  the  lengths  of  the  vowels  have  been 
made  for  Swedish  and  Finnish  by  Pipping  (references  on  p. 
20). 

The  graphic  methods  described  in  Part  III  are  also  used  for 
measurements  of  duration.  A  voice-key  (Fig.  66)  attached 
to  a  Depeez  marker  (Fig.  61)  can  be  used  to  register  the 
lengths  of  vowels. 

By  means  of  records  from  the  larynx  (p.  267)  and  the  nose 
(p.  219)  RoussELOT  was  able  to  establish  the  following  facts 
for  his  own  speech  ^ : 

1.  In  isolated  words  the  explosive  consonants  are  slightly 
shorter    than   the    fricatives    (a  pap  a,    afafa,    atata, 

8        9  12    15  9      13 

asasa,  asasa);  the  sonants  are  often  shorter  than  the  surds 

15     15  15     16 

(o°fo°,  o°vo",  o°to°,  oMo°,  etc.);  the  lengths  of  the  consonants 

18  15  14  13 

generally  diminish  with  increased  length  of  the  word;  the 
last  consonant  in  a  word  is  generally  lengthened ;  '  double 
consonants  '  are  really  long  and  strong  single  consonants ; 
consonants  in  groups  tend  to  occupy  less  time  than  the  sum 
for  single  ones.  The  numerals  in  the  above  examples  in- 
dicate hundredths  of  a  second. 

2.  In  records  such  as  d,  6,  o,  dp,  op,  op,  po,  p6,  po,  pdp, 
p6p,  pop  for  the  vowels  a,  e,  i,  o,  u,  y,  oe,  the  open  ( ' )  and 
close  (')  vowels  were  regularly  somewhat  longer  than  the 
medium  ones  (unmarked). 

'  The  first  lessons  I  received  in  grammar  taught  me  to  con- 
fuse quantity  with  timbre,  and  this  confusion  persists  in  my 

1  RonssELOT,  Les  modifications  phonitiques  du  langage,  81,  Rev.  des  pat.  gallo- 
rora.,  1891  IV,  V;  also  separate. 


492  FACTORS   OF  SPEECH 

present  appreciation  of  the  vowels  in  my  dialect.  I  perceive 
as  long  all  open  or  close  vowels,  as  short  all  medium  vowels. 
That  the  appreciation  contains  exaggeration  is  shown  by  my 
measurements.     But  it  is  correct  for  isolated  vowels.'  ^ 

3.  In  groups  of  two  syllables  the  last  vowel  of  the  group 
is  almost  always  the  longer  one;  the  difference  between 
long  and  short  vowels  is  often  rendered  almost  imperceptible 
by  an  approximation  of  both  to  a  medium  length. 

4.  In  groups  of  three  or  four  syllables  with  one  vowel 
checked  (papatpa)  as  compared  with  all  vowels  free  (pa- 
papa),  the  checking  tends  to  abbreviate  the  vowel. 

5.  Groups  of  syllables  show  a  decidedly  iambic  character, 

the  principal  forms  being  u_,u ,  _u ,  w  u , 

,_,_u  ,w  u ,_u  w  )  where    ^  indicates  very 

short,  ^J  short,  _  long,  very  long.     The  end  of  a  group  of 

syllables  is  always  an  iambus ;  the  first  part  varies  between 
iambic  and  trochaic. 

6.  In  groups  of  two  syllables  with  the  same  vowel,  both 
stressed  and  unstressed  vowels  are  long  when  open  or  close, 
and  short  when  medium. 

7.  In  groups  of  syllables  with  the  same  vowel,  the  vowels 
perceived  as  short  are  often  longer  than  those  perceived  as 
long. 

8.  A  vowel  naturally  short  is  strongly  abbreviated  when 
followed  by  a  long  vowel  (kute,  '  couteaux,'  12,  19);  when 
both  vowels  are  naturally  short  or  long  the  stressed  vowel  is 
the  longer  (mati  '  matin,'  7,  13;  otur,  '  autour,'  6,  14). 

9.  The  vowels,  except  a,  are  longer  after  f,  v,  s,  m  than 
after  b,  p ;  after  z  than  after  g ;  after  v,  z  or  z  than  after  f,  s 
or  s ;  after  p  or  k  than  after  b  or  g ;  after  k  or  g  than  after  p 
or  b ;  after  n  than  after  n.  The  vowel  a  is  shorter  after  m 
than  after  p,  b ;  after  v  than  after  f ;  after  p  than  after  b ; 
after  g,  k  than  after  b,  p.  The  vowel  a  is  longer  before 
sonants  than  before  surds;  before  f,  v  than  before  p,  b;  be- 
fore gutturals  than  before  dentals ;  before  dentals  than  before 
labials. 

'  PoussELOT,  as  before,  88. 


DURATION  493 

10.  Diphthongs  are  shorter  than  the  sum  of  the  two  sep- 
arate vowels  supposed  to  compose  them ;  a  stressed  diphthong 
equals  the  two  unstressed  separate  component  vowels. 

The  above  relations  appear  clearly  in  connected  speech. 
The  durations  in  hundredths  of  a  second  were  calculated 
from  experimental  records  (p.  359).  In  the  following 
illustration  of  connected  speech-  the  lengths  are  marked 
beneath  the  vowels  in  hundredths  of  a  second. 

a"ta"tyT  sa"t  akoe   kuk  y 

13  6  9   11  10  U      14    6  15  6  18      6    9  8    10 

ta  ekut  sa"t  oe   so"  su 

8    9    6  10  15  16  15  14  15    16  15 

'  Entends-tu  chanter  ce  coucou  ? 
Ta!  dcoute!  chante-t-il  son  saoul! ' 

RoussELOT  finds  in  the  records  of  connected  speech  that 
final  atonies  scarcely  exist  in  his  case  except  in  plural  nouns 
and  in  verbs  in  the  second  person.  In  only  two  cases  did  a 
final  9  appear;  these  were  under  exceptional  conditions. 

In  respect  to  the  duration  of  different  sounds  in  language 
the  ear  gives  little  correct  information,  as  is  shown  by  the 
graphic  records.  '  Vowels  which  I  believed  always  long  were 
often  short;  others  that  I  regarded  only  as  short  often  sur- 
passed in  length  those  I  considered  as  long. '  ^ 

Experiments  by  Binet  and  Hbnei^  with  Rousselot's 
microphone  registering  apparatus  (p.  267)  showed  that  in 
speaking  a  series  of  numerals  the  sound  before  a  pause  is 
lengthened,  this  being  supposed  to  indicate  that  it  is  easier 
to  change  from  one  motor  condition  of  articulation  to  an- 
other than  to  end  a  motor  condition.  Increase  in  velocity  of 
speech  shortened  the  pauses  rather  than  the  sounds.  Stress 
lengthened  a  sound. 

Using  a   mouthpiece  connected  to   a  Maeey  tambour   to 

1  RocssELOT,  as  before,  76. 

2  BiNET  ET  Henri,  Les  actions  d'arret  dans  les  phenomines  de  la  parole,  Rev. 
philos.,  1894  XXXVII  608. 


494  FACTORS   OF  SPEECH 

register  breath  impulses  in  French  sounds,  Wagner  ^  found 
that  long  vowels  occur  only  in  stressed  syllables  that  end 
with  a  consonant ;  that  all  such  vowels  are  long  when  followed 
by  a  sonant  fricative  or  ] ;  that  close  o,  velar  a,  and  all  the 
nasal  vowels  are  long  before  a  consonant;  that  the  other 
vowels,  i,  y,  u,  open  e,  ce,  o,  and  palatal  a,  are  generally 
short  when  stressed  and  followed  by  a  consonant  that  is  not 
a  sonant  fricative  or  j,  but  are  generally  half-short  within  a 
sound  group ;  that  consonants  before  a  pause  are  the  longest 
ones ;  that  such  consonants  are  not  influenced  by  the  length 
of  the  preceding  vowel. 

The  variations  in  the  duration  of  French  syllables  in  dif- 
ferent phonetic  combinations  have  been  investigated  by 
Geegoire.2  a  mouthpiece  connected  to  a  Maeby  tambour 
recorded  the  breath  explosions  and  the  cord  vibrations. 

Records  were  made  on  comparative  groups  of  the  follow- 
ing types :  '  pate :  pSteuse,  pSteuse :  p&te,  pate :  pateuse :  pate, 
pateuse  :  p§.te :  pateuse ; '  they  showed  that  the  monosyllable 
with  a  long  vowel  is  always  longer  when  pronounced  alone 
than  when  it  enters  into  a  dissyllabic  compound  ending 
in  another  long  syllable.  Examples  may  be  seen  in  the 
records  of 


pate 

33 

:  pateuse 
2! 

:  pate 

35 

pateuse 

:   pate  : 

pateuse 

20 

33 

20 

tgtard 

:  tete   : 

tetard 

21 

36 

20 

tete 

:   tetard   : 

tete 

37 

23 

39 

il  tate  : 

ils  taterent 

:  il  tate 

34 

iT 

34 

The  figures  give  the  number  of  hundredths  of  a  second  occu- 
pied in  each  case  by  the  syllable  pd,,  U  or  tS,.     The  ordinary 

1  Wagner,   Franzosische  Quantitdt,  Phonet.  Stud.,  1892  "VI  1. 
'^  Gregoike,    Variations  de  dur€e  de  la  syltabe  frangaise,  La  Parole,  1899  I 
161,  263,418. 


DURATION  495 

lelation  of  length  between  the  monosyllabic  fragment  and 
the  same  fragment  in  a  dissyllable  ending  with  a  long  syllable 
is  about  1:0.6  with  some  considerable  variations.  Thus  a 
comparison  of  x^-  :  x^-y-  shows  that  x^  <  x^. 

When  the  fragment  appears  in  a  dissyllabic  compound 
ending  in  a  short  syllable,  the  relation  is  approximately  the 
same.     Examples  are 


pate      : 

pateux 

:     pate 

36 

27 

38 

tete 

:     t8tu      : 

tete 

38  24  36 

Thus  x^-  :  x^-y  gives  also  x^  <x.^^. 

The  duration  of  a  monosyllable  remains  in  general  the 
same  when  it  is  made  the  final  syllable  of  a  polysyllabic 
word ;  for  example, 


prgte     : 

interprete 

:     prgte 

^ 

40 

"sf 

interprete 

;     prete     : 

interprete 

40 

40 

40 

Thus  ajj  :  V  .  .  .  yx^j  gives  x^  =  Xy  Before  a  suffix  added  to 
the  polysyllable  the  fragment  is  shortened  just  as  in  the  case 
of  a  monosyllable. 

In  comparing  similar  words  of  the  types  -  -  and  - "  it  was 
found  that  in  the  majority  of  cases  there  was  a  slight  length- 
ening of  the  first  syllable  in  the  trochee.  In  the  following 
example  the  first  of  each  set  of  figures  gives  the  time  of  the 
syllable  and  the  second  the  time  of   the  occlusion  of  the  t. 

p&  teuse     :     pS,  teux     :     pa  teuse 

21    15  26  19  23  17 

Thus  x^-y^    :  x^-y^'  gives  x^  >  x^. 

Ge^GOIEE  calls  attention  to  the  relatively  long  durations 
for  the  occlusions  (not  the  explosions)  of  the  occlusives.  In 
a  dissyllable  the  occlusion  (not  the  explosion)  comprised  in 
the  second  consonant  is  often  nearly  as  long  as  the  whole 


496  FACTORS   OF  SPEECH 

first  syllable.  The  shortest  occlusions  measured  from  0.10' 
to  0.18=;  many  reached  0.18'  to  0.20'  —  rather  large  figures 
in  comparison  with  0.30' to  0.32' for  the  preceding  vowels. 
The  occlusions  are  brief  moments  of  silence  that  are  not 
noticed  as  such.  Even  to  the  ear  a  word  like  '  p8.teux ' 
seems  to  be  one  continuous  flow  of  sound,  probably  because 
the  motor  activity  of  the  speech  organs  goes  on  just  as  vigor- 
ously during  the  occlusion  as  before  and  after,  and  by  associa- 
tion unifies  the  auditory  parts  in  the  hearer.  If  we  insist 
upon  dividing  words  into  syllables,  to  which  syllable  does 
the  occlusion  belong?  For  the  ear  Geegoiee  believes  the 
following  syllable  to  begin  with  the  explosion  while  the 
occlusion  belongs  to  the  preceding  one.  In  speaking  at  un- 
intentionally different  rates  the  duration  of  a  syllable  is 
increased  by  lengthening  sometimes  the  vowel  alone,  some- 
times the  occlusion  alone  and  sometimes  both. 

When  used  in  a  polysyllable,  a  long  syllable  is  shortened 
as  the  number  of  following  syllables  increases.  Thus,  the 
syllable  '  pon  '  in  '  pontife  '  becomes  shorter  in  '  pontificat ' 
and  still  shorter  in  '  pontificalement. ' 

For  a  short  syllable  analogous  results  were  found  in  all  the 
preceding  cases  that  have  been  .discussed. 
.  In  groups  of  words  in  ordinary  speech  a  monosyllabic 
fragment  alters  the  proportion  of  its  vowel  to  the  following 
occlusion  according  as  it  is  followed  by  a  vowel  or  by  a  con- 
sonant, although  the  total  of  vowel  -f-  occlusion  may  remain 
the  same.      A  typical  result  was 

p8.  te  sucree  pa  te  et  de  creme 

18  14  25  9 

In  this  case  the  complication  of  the  group  ts  for  some  reason 
shortens  the  vowel  and  lengthens  the  occlusion. 

In  discourse  the  union  by  contiguity  shows  its  effect  chiefly 
in  shortening  the  monosyllables. 

Geegoiee  also  shows  that  a  final  syllable  of  a  word 
becomes  longer  before  a  pause. 

Geeigoiee's   explanation   for  the  decrease  in  length  of  a 


DUPiA  TION  497 

syllabic  fragment  according  as  it  occurs  in  a  monosyllable,  a 
dissyllable  or  a  polysyllable  is  that  a  portion  of  the  accent  of 
the  monosyllable  is  transferred  to  the  other  syllables  in  com- 
binations and  that  the  '  language, '  foreseeing  the  effort  re- 
quired at  the  end  of  the  word,  shortens  the  earlier  portion. 

Records  of  the  breath  curve  (p.  219)  by  Vietoe  ^  for  his 
own  speech  (Nassau,  Germany)  gave  as  typical  lengths: 
extra-short  vowels  in  Kamm,  wart'  (0.08');  short  in  Pappe, 
Gwttenberg,  da!  (0.15);  half-short  in  Sckretar  (0.19,  0.18), 
mit,  mitteilen,  Packkorb,  TawfEeier  (0.20);  half-long  in 
Unthaten,  M«tra  (0.25);  long  in  Thaten,  GMtenberg,  thwst, 
Unthat,  bi'eten,  Bawmmeise,  Mitra,  Pape  (0.30);  extra-long 
in  Sekretar  (0.35),  That  (0.87),  war't,  thwt,  Fraw,  Maid, 
frew',  thw,  ivei,  kam  (to  0.42),  do  (0.45).  From  these  and 
similar  results  the  following  conclusions  were  drawn.  A. 
The  so-called  '  long  '  vowels  are  (I)  extra-long  when  tonic  in 
the  last  syllable  and  followed  by  no  consonant,  a  single  conso- 
nant, or  a  liquid  and  a  consonant;  (II)  long  when  tonic  in 
the  last  syllable  before  several  consonants,  .or  in  the  next-to- 
last  or  some  preceding  open  syllable  (before  a  single  con- 
sonant), and  also  long  when  having  post-tonic  secondary 
stress  when  the  tonic  vowel  is  extra-long;  (III)  half-long 
when  tonic  in  the  next-to-last  syllable  followed  by  several 
consonants,  or  when  having  post-tonic  secondary  stress 
when  the  tonic  vowel  is  long;  (IV)  half -short  when  hav- 
ing pre-tonic  secondary  stress.  B.  The  so-called  'short' 
vowels  are  (I)  half-short  when  tonic  in  the  last  syllable 
before  a  single  occlusive,  and  in  the  next-to-last  syllable 
before  a  double  or  long  occlusive ;  (II)  short  when  tonic  in 
the  last  syllable  with  no  following  consonant,  and  in  the 
next-to-last  or  some  previous  closed  syllable;  likewise  un- 
stressed e  =  9 ;  (III)  extra-short  when  stressed  in  the  last 
syllable  before  a  liquid  or  before  a  liquid  and  a  consonant. 
O.  The  diphthongs  show  the  same,  relations  as  the  long 
vowels. 

1  ViETOK,  Elemente  d.  Phonetik,  4.  Aufl.,  269,  Leipzig,  1898. 
32 


498  FACTORS   OF  SPEECH 

Similar  records  ^  for  an  Englishman  from  Sydney  (Aus- 
tralia) living  in  Marburg  (Germany)  showed  on  one  occa- 
sion half-long  vowels  in  bite,  pate  (0.25^);  long  in  pat 
(0.30);  extra-long  in  part  (0.41),  paid  (0.45),  bide  (0.49), 
pad  (0.55),  pard  (0.61);  on  another  occasion  short  in  beat 
(0.15^);  half-short  in  pat,  goddess  (0.20);  half-long  in  bead, 
gawdy  (0.25);  long  in  pate,  bite  (0.30);  extra -long  in  pad 
(0.35),  part  (0.86),  god,  gawk,  gawd  (0.42),  paid  (0.45),  pard, 
bide  (0.51);  on  a  third  occasion:  short  in  pate,  bite  (0.15), 
half -long  in  paid,  pad  (0.25) ;  extra-long  in  bide  (0.86).  The 
relations  between  the  lengths  of  the  vowels  before  the  sonant 
and  surd  explosives  were  pad  :  pat  ::  1.7:1;  pard  :  part  :: 
1.5  :  1,  or  1.4  :  1;  bead  :  beat  ::  1.4  :  1;  paid  :  pate  ::  1.7 
:  1,  or  1.4  :  1,  or  1.9  :  1;  bide  :  bite  ::  1.9  :  1,  or  1.6  :  1,  or 
2.1  :  1.  The  influence  of  a  sufQx  was  shown  in  god  :  god- 
dess ::  1.9  :  1;  gaud.  :  gawdy  ::  1.7  :  1.  Great  variations 
occurred  in  the  relations  of  such  pairs  as  paid  :  pad  ::  1  : 
1.2,  or  1.3  :  1,  or  1  :  1;  pate  :  pat  ::  1  :  1.2,  or  1.6  :  1;  bead 
:  bid  ::  1  :  1.5,  the  '  long'  vowel  being  sometimes  shorter 
than  the  '  short '  vowel  and  likewise  the  reverse. 

Records  ^  from  a  native  of  Lidge  (Belgium)  living  in  Mar- 
burg gave:  diwde  (0.50=),  towt,  doitx,  Aind.on  (0.27  to  0.31), 
viens-tM?  (0.19,  0.20),  Veaucoule  (0.16,  0.30). 

Records  by  Vietor  also  gave:  mit  (0.10=),  Ka.mm  (0.30), 
kawi  (0.29),  Hohenheim  (0.12),  Kawwer  (0.12),  kamen 
(0.14),  Baumeister  (0.15),  Bau??i??ieise  (0.33),  Tau^eier 
(0.38),  Bau/eier  (0.24),  Schi/e  (0.30),  Scha/e  (0.23), 
thusf  (0.18),  Baumeis^er  (0.05),  wart',  war't  (0.14),  ^S'ekretar 
(0.17),  Baummeise  (0.17).  Consonants  may  be  short  or 
long ;  a  consonant  need  not  be  longer  after  a  short  vowel. 

Meyer's  measurements  ^  of  Wagner's  records  *  of  the 
Swabian   dialect  showed   that   a  consonant  was  lengthened 

1  Vietor,  as  before,  271. 

2  Vietor,  as  before,  273. 

8  Meyer,  konzo'nantndaoer  "^im  doiftfn,  Maitre  phone'tique,  1901  XVI  114. 
*  Wagner,   Der  gegenwdrtige   Lauthestand  dts   Schwabischen  in  d.   Mundart 
von  Reutlirujen,  Program,  Reutlingen,  1889-91. 


DURATION  499 

after  a  short  vowel ;  the  ratio  of  consonantal  length  after  a 
long  vowel  to  that  after  a  short  one  was  for  final  surd 
occlusives  1  :  1.36,  for  final  surd  fricatives  1  :  1.20,  for  final 
nasals  1  :  1.13;  and  for  medial  surd  occlusives  1  :  1.15. 
Records  i  of  the  Italian  dialect  of  Bari  (Apulia)  showed 
that  the  length  of  t  after  a  long  vowel  (as  in  fata)  bore 
the  relation  to  that  after  a  short  one  (as  in  fata)  of  1  :  2.07. 
One  similar  case  in  Finnish  showed  a  relation  of  1  :  3. 39 
for  k. 

Kkal  and  Mares,  employing  a  telephone  whose  vibra- 
tions electrically  stimulated  a  nerve-muscle  preparation  (p. 
188)  arranged  to  write  on  a  smoked  drum,  were  able  to 
record  the  lengths  of  various  sounds.^ 

In  Bohemian  the  first  syllable  of  a  word  always  receives 
the  stress ;  '  long  '  and  '  short '  sounds  and  syllables  are  dis- 
tinguished; the  rhythm  of  verse  is  produced  by  the  word- 
stress  and  not  by  the  length  of  the  syllables.  The  results  of 
the  investigation  showed  the  following  facts : 

1.  Even  for  the  same  person  a  vowel  receives  different 
lengths  according  as  it  is  spoken  with  more  or  less  stress ; 

2.  The  'long'  vowels  are  on  the  average  a  little — ^but 
only  a  little  —  longer  than  the  average  short  vowels,  short 
and  long  often  occupying  nearly  the  same  time.  The  differ- 
ence between  '  long  '  and  '  short '  Bohemian  vowels  seems  to 
lie  rather  in  the  mode  of  expending  the  breath;  in  a  short 
vowel  the  beginning  is  strong  and  the  decrease  sudden;  in 
a  long  vowel  the  stress  is  more  nearly  even;  'legato'  and 
'  staccato '  more  appropriately  express  the  two  forms  than 
'  long  '  and  '  short. ' 

3.  Diphthongs  have  about  the  same  length  as  the  vowels, 
ou  being  a  little  longer. 

4.  Consonants  are  very  short.  With  a  group  of  conso- 
nants the  length  of  a  syllable  does  not  necessarily  increase; 

1  Meyer,  as  before,  115. 

2  KrAl  a  Mares,  Trvdni  hldsek  a  slahik  die  ohjehtivng  miry,  Listy  Filolo- 
gicke',  1893  IV  17;  the  explanations  and  summary  I  owe  to  Prof.  Frantisek 
Czada  of  the  Bohemian  University  in  Frag. 


500  FACTORS   OF  SPEECH 

syllables  ending  in  t  are  usually  shorter  than  those  with  the  t 
omitted,  thus  akt  may  be  shorter  than  ak. 

5.  In  scanning  verses  with  the  greatest  possible  evenness 
the  various  '  feet '  continually  vary ;  the  thesis  and  arsis  por- 
tions never  have  the  relation  1  :  1  but  approximately  31  :  30, 
33  :  32,  etc. 

Josselyn's  records  1  of  Italian  speech  showed  that  a 
double  consonant  was  simply  a  single  consonant  strength- 
ened and  lengthened  (p.  332);  its  effect  on  the  preceding 
vowel  was  to  deprive  it  of  about  a  third  or  a  half  of  its 
length.     Examples,  in  hundredths  of  a  second,  are 


c 

a 

P   0 

fata 

c 

a 

d  e 

1     e 

g  a 

26 

16 

24    26 

20 

20 

20 

19 

c 

a 

PP   0 

f    a    tt  a 

c 

a 

dd  i 

1      6 

gg  a 

14 

29 

10     37 

9 

36 

12 

32 

When  the  portion  of  speech  to  be  measured  is  a  long  one, 
less  accurate  but  less  laborious  methods  may  be  employed. 

To  obtain  the  duration  of  a  sentence  or  a  larger  unit  the 
method  analogous  to  one  familiar  to  navigators  and  astron- 
omers may  be  conveniently  employed.  The  recorder  watches 
the  face  of  the  speaker  who  sits  beside  a  clock  having 
a  seconds-hand.  At  the  first  word  he  turns  his  gaze  as 
quickly  as  possible  to  the  clock  and  notices  the  position  of 
the  hand;  at  the  last  word  he  again  notices  the  position. 
By  practice  this  method  can  be  made  accurate  to  ±l^ 
With  almost  as  great  accuracy  the  recorder  can  observe  the 
face  of  a  watch  while  listening  to  the  sounds. 

Experiments  by  Bourdon,^  presumably  made  by  observ- 
ing a  watch,  show  the  average  ordinary  length  of  a  syllable 
in  reading  French  to  vary  from  0.184'  to  0.234'.  The 
length  varies  somewhat  with  the  emotion  contained  in  the 
selection,  with  the  temperament  of  the  reader,  etc. 

1  JossELYN,  £tude  sur  la  phonet.  ital.,  146,  These,  Paris,  1900;  also  in  La 
Parole,  1901  III  226. 

2  Bourdon,  L'Expression  des  emotions  et  des  tendances  dans  le  langage, 
Paris,  1892. 


DURATION  501 

The  reaction  method  is  an  improvement  on  the  preceding 
one.  The  recorder  makes  a  movement  of  the  finger  at  the 
moment  the  speech  unit  begins  and  another  at  the  moment  it 
ends.  His  time  of  response,  or  reaction  time  (p.  206),  can 
generally  be  relied  upon  to  be  constant  within  0.1»  at  both 
beginning  and  end ;  a  record  made  in  this  way  thus  gives  the 
true  time.  The  time  between  the  two  movements  may  be 
registered  by  a  stop-watch,  by  a  chronoscope,  or  by  some  form 
of  the  graphic  method  (pp.  152,  206). 

The  phonograph  has  also  been  used  to  measure  the  inter- 
vals between  points  of  stress  (centroids)  in  prose  and  verse  of 
different  kinds.  This  is  accomplished  by  adding  a  contact 
wheel  to  the  axle  and  recording  electrically  the  number  of 
contacts  passed  over  between  one  point  and  another  in 
the  speech  record. 

Measurements,  of  feet,  lines,  etc.,  in  verse  by  means  of 
these  methods  will  be  considered  in  the  chapter  on  rhythm. 

Among  the  phenomena  found  in  investigations  of  mental 
time-estimates  we  may  notice  1.  that  judgments  of  the 
equality  of  two  successive  tones  or  empty  intervals  are  more 
irregular  with  some  persons  than  with  others;  2.  that  with 
some  persons  or  under  some  circumstances  the  first  tone 
seems  longer,  with  or  under  others  shorter;  3.  that  by  mak- 
ing a  tone  louder  it  can  be  made  shorter  without  any  appar- 
ent decrease  in  length;  4.  that  similar  results  are  found 
for  empty  intervals  marked  off  by  sharp  clicks;  5.  that  the 
apparent  length  of  an  interval  bounded  by  clicks  is  made 
greater  by  inserting  intermediate  clicks.  These  results  have 
important  phonetic  applications.  Further  investigation  is 
needed  of  the  manner  in  which  loudness  or  change  in  pitch 
can  be  used  to  replace  duration. 

The  experiments  on  speech  sounds  have  made  it  clear  that 
at  best  the  terms  '  long  '  and  '  short '  for  the  vowels  or  syl- 
lables of  a  word  can  mean  no  more  than  that  they  are  on  an 
average  long  and  short.  The  assignment  of  definite  relations 
of  average  length  as  two  moras  or  one  mora  likewise  means 
only  that  on  a  general  average  the  relation  will  be  more  like 


502  FACTORS   OF  SPEECH 

2  :  1  than  any  other  simple  expression.     The  actual  averages 
for  any  speaker  or  for  any  language  will  be  found  to  differ 
from  such  a  relation.     The  relations  of  duration  in  any  par- 
ticular word  may  be  entirely  reversed,  the  '  long  '  vowel  occu- 
pying perhaps  less  time  than  the  '  short '  one.     These  terms 
express  really  a  total  mental  effect  that  the  hearer  or  speaker 
feels  —  or  is  taught  to   feel  —  to   be   one   of  duration.     A 
•stronger  or  more    difficult  sound    may  produce   a   greater 
impression ;  a  person  is  readily  taught  to  lump  the  whole  as 
a  matter  of  duration  and  consequently  supposes  himself  to 
hear  the  sound  as  actually  longer  while  it  may  be  only  stronger 
or  higher.     The  illusion  is  a  familiar  one  to  psychologists. 
Such  an  illusion  of  considering  staccato  vowels  as  short  and 
legato  ones  as  long,  while  they  are  nearly  equal  in  duration, 
has  been  shown  (p.  499)  to  be  the  regular  thing  for  Bohe- 
mian.    In  fact,  the  terms  '  long  '  and  '  short '  are  really  terms 
for  certain   mental   impressions   that   might  more  safely  be 
expressed  by  some  such  general  forms  as  '  of  the  first  class  ' 
and  '  of  the  second  class, '  or  '  prime  '  and  '  double  prime, '  etc. 
'  Strong  '  and  '  weak  '  (referring  to  the  auditory  impressive- 
ness  and  not  to  loudness)  might  be  good  substitutes.     The 
amount  of  error  that  has  entered  into  the  teaching  of  lan- 
guages and  the  discussion  of  verse  by  supposing  that '  long  ' 
vowels   are   anything  more  than   auditorily  strong   ones   is 
Tery  great. 

Refeeekces 

For  a  general  treatment  of  the  length  of  speech  sounds:  Sievers, 
•Grundziige  d.  Phonetik,  5.  Aufl.,  254,  Leipzig,  1901.  For  duration  in 
Terse  :  see  Ch.  XXXV  (below).  For  a,  sketch  of  experiments  and 
literature  on  time-estimates:  Wundt,  Grundziige  d.  physiol.  Psychol.,  4. 
Aufl.,  II  408,  Leipzig,  1893;  Scripture,  New  Psychology,  Ch.  X, 
London,   1897. 


CHAPTER   XXXIV 

LOUDNESS 

Under  '  loudness  '  we  may  understand  that  property  in 
which  a  sound  (p.  109)  may  vary  while  its  pitch  and  dura- 
tion remain  unchanged.  The  term  '  stress  '  may  be  used  to 
express  the  motor  characteristic. 

Direct  measurements  of  the  loudness  of  speech  sounds  are 
still  impracticable.  The  loudness  of  a  sound  increases  — 
other  properties  being  constant  —  with  the  amplitude  of  the 
vibration,  but  not  proportionately ;  the  physical  energy  in- 
creases as  the  square  of  the  amplitude,  but  the  mental  loud- 
ness follows  some  quite  different  law  (p.  109). 

The  chief  factor  of  the  motor  stress,  the  breath  pressure, 
may  be  registered  by  any  of   the  ways  described  in  Ch.  XVI. 

In  Rousselot's  ^  experiments  the  rather  weak  French  stress 
was  found  not  to  have  an  absolutely  fixed  place ;  the  stress- 
accent  may  occupy  the  last  syllable  of  a  group,  and  it 
scarcely  leaves  this  place  in  energetic  pronunciation,  although 
it  tends  to  change  to  the  next  to  the  last  syllable  in  phrases 
spoken  in  a  soft  or  caressing  tone  or  in  phrases  forming  a 
conclusion. 

The  lungs  practically  always  contain  more  than  enough  air 
for  a  phrase  of  speech ;  the  breath  is  not  renewed  before  each 
■stressed  syllable,  but  only  for  whole  groups  of  them.  These 
facts  are  sufficient  to  dispose  of  the  supposition  ^  that  the 
weakening  of  unaccented  final  syllables  in  French  is  due  to 

1  RoussELOT,  Les  modifications  phonetiques  du  langage,  71,  Rev.  d.  pat.  gallo- 
Tom.,  1 893  IV,  V ;  also  separate. 

2  Marcou,  Influence  of  the  weakness  of  accent-stress  on  phonetic  change  in 
French,  Publ.  Mod.  Lang.  Assoc,  1890  V.  47. 


504  FACTORS   OF  SPEECH 

the  failure  of  breath;  this  weakening  is  rather  to  be  referred 
to  some  mental  preference.^ 

In.  the  records  studied  I  have  rarely  found  a  vowel  with  a 
constant  amplitude.  Vowels  at  the  beginnings  of  words  show 
invariably  a  rise  in  amplitude.  This  rise  may  continue  until 
the  vowel  ends  in  some  other  sound.  Such  is  the  case  in  a 
of  ai,  and  in  ae  of  '  and  '  in  '  thread  and  needle. '  Most 
independent  vowels  rise  to  a  maximum  and  then  fall.  Such 
vowels  might  possibly  be  called  vowels  of  circumflex  stress. 
Even  in  the  middle  of  the  word  the  vowel  has  a  tendency  to 
the  circumflex  form,  as  is  well  shown  in  most  cases  of  the  i 
of  ai.  The  rise  and  fall  may  be  quite  elaborate  as  in  the 
case  of  the  triple-circumflex  vowel  o  of  '  bow  '  (Plate  I); 
this  long  o,  however,  might  with  propriety  be  considered  a 
molecular  union  of  three  o's  in  succession.  These  changes  in 
amplitude  in  the  vowels  appear  clearly  in  an  inspection  of  the 
Plates  of  speech  curves  at  the  end  of  this  volume  ;  measure- 
ments of  some  are  given  in  Appendix  II. 

In  a  vowel  of  constant  amplitude  represented  by  the  sinu- 
soidal vibration  (p.  2)  we  would  have  F(f)  =  a  and 

.      2Trt 
,^«sm^^. 

In  a  rising  vowel  -F(i)  might  take  some  such  form  as  mt, 
which  expresses  a  proportional  increase.  We  would  then 
have 

In  a  circumflex  vowel  we  may  assume  the  amplitude  to  be 
of  sinusoid  form  whereby 

F(_t)  ^  E  sin 


2-ITt 


and 

„    .       27ri         .       i-jrt 
y  —  L  sm. . .  sin 


/(O 


1  WoNDT,  Volkerpsychologie,  I  ii  278,  Leipzig,  1900;  Oertel,  Lectures  on 
the  Study  of  Language,  318,  New  York,  1901. 


LOUDNESS  505 

where  E  would  be  the  maximum  amplitude  and  s  the  length 

of  the  vowel.     When  the  pitch  is  constant  the  curve  will 

have  the  form 

„    .       27ri        .       27r( 
y  =  E  sin .  sin 


T 

I  have  found  one  vowel,  e  in  '  said  '  in  the  line  '  I,  said  the 
sparrow,'  that  can  be  considered  as  a  circumflex  vowel  of 
approximately  constant  pitch.  The  equation  of  the  curve 
traced  from  its  record  (p.  58)  is  (in  seconds  and  millimeters) 

y-^-^  ^^^-0l08--^^^():0053- 

It  does  not  fill  a  complete  period  of  circumflexion  as'  it  is 
suddenly  cut  short  by  the  d. 

Among  the  hundred  or  so  English  vowels  that  I  have  in- 
spected, I  have  been  unable  to  find  one  that  can  with  any 
close  approximation  be  considered  as  steady  in  intensity  and 

constant  in   pitch.     A  vowel   of   the   form   y  =  a   sin  —^ 

must  be  a  rare  one.  Some  vowels  during  part  of  their 
course  are  of  this  form,  but  a  change  of  some  kind  seems 
characteristic  at  some  moment.  Even  such  approximations 
have  been  found  only  in  the  interior  of  words,  that  is,  with 
boundaries  of  consonants  or  of  vowels  with  the  vocal  organs 
already  in  action.  It  seems  to  be  the  rule  in  English  that  a 
vowel  following  a  pause  shall  be  a  rising  or  crescendo  one, 
and  one  preceding  a  pause  shall  be  a  falling  or  diminuendo 
one. 


CHAPTER   XXXV 

ACCENT 

Great  unclearness  prevails  in  the  usual  discussions  of 
accent  on  account  of  the  confusion  among  physical,  psycho- 
logical and  physiological  terms. 

Physically  the  three  properties  of  a  tone  to  be  considered 
should  be  the  duration,  the  pitch  and  the  energy  CP-  89) ; 
the  last  depends  on  the  pitch  and  the  amplitude  (p.  109), 
and  for  many  comparisons  where  a  proportional  scale  of 
energy  is  not  well  obtainable  the  amplitude  may  be  used. 

Mentally  the  case  is  utterly  different;  there  are  two  asso- 
ciated factors  of  accent:  auditory  and  motor.  The  one  prop- 
erty that  characterizes  auditory  accent  is  '  impressiveness ; ' 
this  may  arise  from  increase  in  loudness  but  also  from  de- 
crease, from  rise  in  pitch  but  also  from  fall,  from  lengthening 
of  the  duration  but  also  from  diminution  —  in  short  from  any 
change  that  produces  a  mental  effect.  Motor  accent  repre- 
sents volitional  work.  More  work  may  arise  1.  from  a  longer 
time  of  work ;  2.  from  greater  effort,  as  in  increasing  the  breath 
pressure,  or  as  in  intentionally  decreasing  it,  or  in  increasing 
the  tension  of  the  vocal  cords,  or  in  stronger  muscular 
movements  of  any  of  the  other  speech  organs;  3.  from  in- 
creased complexity  of  effort  as  in  less  familiar  sounds,  etc. 

Physiologically  the  variable  properties  are  in  expenditure 
of  muscle  and  nerve  energy.  The  work  of  a  muscle  is  some- 
thing quite  different  from  the  work  it  performs  in  displac- 
ing bodies;  a  large  amount  of  the  energy  is  expended  in 
heat,  etc.  The  phenomenon  of  the  breaking  down  of  nerve 
compounds  is  still  little  understood.     A  sudden   relaxation 


ACCENT  507 

in  breath  pressure  reduces  the  physiological  work  of  the 
muscles,  but  it  may  represent  increased  volitional  work  and 
correspond  to  a  very  emphatic  mental  effort.  A  rise  of 
the  larynx  tone  represents  a  steady  increase  of  muscu- 
lar work  and  innervation,  but  it  may  —  on  account  of  its 
gradual  character  —  fail  to  produce  any  auditory  or  motor 
emphasis,  or  may  even  produce  the  impression  of  decreasing 
emphasis  on  account  of  lack  of  the  change  that  is  required 
by  the  mind. 

The  term  '  accent '  may  profitably  be  restricted  to  its 
psychological  meaning;  an  accented  sound  is  thus  one  that 
impresses  the  hearer  more  strongly  or  that  requires  more 
mental  effort  on  the  part  of  the  speaker. 

The  first  duty  of  a  study  of  accent  is  to  determine  what 
mental  elements  are  involved. 

The  main  features  of  accent  have  been  outlined  by  SiE- 
VEES,^  who  has  discussed  the  pitch  of  a  sound,  the  pitch 
intervals  between  successive  sounds,  the  rise  and  fall  of  pitch 
within  a  sound,  the  tremolo,  the  increase  in  loudness,  the 
change  in  loudness,  etc.  Duration  is  considered  by  Sievees 
in  a  special  section  on  '  Quantity  '  separate  from  '  Accent.' 
It  will  be  noticed  that  the  point  of  view  is  mainly  auditory 
and  that  as  an  outline  of  auditory  accent  the  sketch  is  practi- 
cally complete.  Motor  accent  requires  a  consideration  of  the 
factors  of  volition  involved ;  these  would  also  find  expression 
in  changes  of  pitch,  intensity,  etc.,  but  in  relations  different 
from  those  of  the  auditory  factors;  the  factor  of  volitional 
work  would  need  to  be  added  as  a  special  one.  The  various 
treatments  of  accent  rest  upon  judgments  by  the  unaided  ear. 
It  is  unquestionably  the  fact  that  here,  as  in  all  the  senses 
without  exception,  attempts  to  specify  anything  beyond  the 
general  outline  just  given  can  result  only  in  a  statement  of 
illusions.  In  a  judgment  of  impressiveness  the  ear  is  unable 
to  distinguish  with  any  accuracy,  except  in  extreme  cases,  the 
factors  of  pitch,  loudness  and  length;  accents  stated  to  be 
<iue  to  increased  stress  may  often  be  due  to  changes  in  pitch 

1  SlEVEKS,  Grundzuge  d.  Phonetik,  5.  Aufl.,  215,  Leipzig,  1901. 


608  FACTORS   OF  SPEECH 

without  any  possibility  of  a  detection  of  the  fact  by  the  ear. 
This  diificulty  of  separating  the  two  factors  of  loudness  and 
change  in  pitch  has  been  strongly  emphasized  by  Sievbrs. 

The  inadequateness  of  a  treatment  of  accent  on  the  basis  of 
a  classification  into  accented  and  unaccented  syllables  has 
been  emphasized  by  various  writers.^  Accent,  we  may  say, 
is  a  continuous  property  that  runs  with  the  flow  of  speech. 

So  little  experimental  work  has  been  done  on  accent  that  a 
general  treatment  of  the  subject  beyond  the  outline  already 
given  would  be  out  of  place  here ;  I  shall  confine  the  remain- 
der of  the  chapter  to  a  summary  of  the  disconnected  experi- 
mental results  with  no  attempt  to  work  them  into  a  theory. 

Pipping  ^  distinguishes  three  factors  of  accent  '  in  addition 
to  psychological  phenomena  ' :  the  energy  of  articulation,  the 
energy  of  the  sound  waves,  the  intensity  of  the  auditory  sen- 
sations. His  calculations  of  the  average  physical  energy  of 
the  sound  waves  (intensity,  p.  109)  give  the  following 
relations : 
s     a 

5660 

The  average  pitch  of  each  vowel  is  also  indicated  in  five  cases ; 
in  mylyn  the  first  vowel  was  the  higher.  The  general  re- 
lation between  musical  accent  and  physical  intensity  appears 
clearly. 

In  an  investigation  by  Squike,^  records  were  made  by 
a  RoussELOT  voice-key  (p.  154)  of  the  repetition  of  the 
syllable  mi  by  school-children.  When  the  children  were 
asked  to  emphasize  the  first  syllable  and  then  every  alternate 
one  (trochaic  rhythm),  the  records  showed  the  emphatic 
syllable  usually  longer  than  the  unemphatic  one,  the  relation 
varying  from  approximately  87  :  31  to  1 : 1 ;  the  pauses  varied 
from  6 :  35  to  41 :  44. 

1  HiKT,  Der  indogermanische  Akzent,  11,  Strassburg,  1895. 
^  Pipping,  Zur  Phonetik  d.  finnischen  Sprache ;  Untersuchungen  mit  Hensen's 
Sprachzeichner,  227,  Mem.  de  la  Societe  finno-ougrienne,  XIV,  Helsingfors,  1899. 
8  Squire,  A  genetic  study  of  rhythm,  Amer.  Jour.  Psychol.,  1901  XIII  492. 


t     a     m 

a 

sad 

a     n 

m 

y 

1 

y 

4011 

1460 

15649 

2243 

672 

474 

/ 

<P 

gOt 

cO« 

■ACCENT  509 

When  the  second  syllable  and  then  every  alternate  one  were 
emphasized  (iambic  rhythm),  the  relations  of  length  varied 
from  61 :  69  to  56  :  36  ;  the  pauses  varied  from  27  :  74  to 
41 :  35.  When  the  first  syllable  and  every  third  following  one 
were  emphasized  (anapestic  rhythm),  the  general  type  of  rela- 
tions of  lengths  of  the  syllables  was  for  one  subject  67  :  61 :  44, 
for  another  37  :  39  :  81  and  for  a  third  41 :  30  :  83,  with  pauses 
in  the  typical  relations  of  17  :  16  :  84,  17  :  18  :  29  and  44  :  50  : 
52  respectively ;  the  variations  were,  however,  considerable. 
When  the  third  and  every  third  following  syllable  were 
emphasized  (anapestic  rhythm),  characteristic  relations  of 
length  were  for  one  subject  83 :  28  :  46,  for  another  39  :  33  : 
28,  and  for  a  third  31 :  29  :  47,  with  pause  relations  of  10  :  11 : 
35, 13  :  13  :  52,  and  32  :  41 :  58  respectively. 


Fig.  336. 


Experiments  on  the  relations  between  stress  and  duration 
and  between  stress  and  pitch  have  been  made  by  Miyakb.i 
The  voice  key  (p.  154)  was  connected  to  a  Dbpeez  marker 
(p.  92).  This  might  have  been  done  by  any  appropriate 
battery  arrangement;  it  seemed  most  convenient  to  connect 
the  key  to  one  of  the  sockets  of  a  four-socket  lamp  battery, 
while  the  marker  was  connected  to  the  other  so  that  the 
key  made  a  high-tension  shunt  around  the  marker  (p.  210, 
Fig.  81,  key  to  socket  0,  marker  to  socket  (7).  Any  other 
method  of  recording  voice  vibrations  might  have  been  used. 

1  MiTAKE,  Researches  on  rhythmic  action.  Stud.  Yale  Psych.  Lab.,  1902  X  22. 


510  FACTORS   OF  SPEECH 

The  subject  repeated  the  sound  a  continuously  in  what  he 
felt  to  be  a  trochaic  rhythm  (thus,  a'  a  a'  a  a'  a  .  .  .J,  or  an 
iambic  (a  a' a  a' a  a'  .  .  .),  or  a  dactylic  (a' a  a  a' a  a  .  .  .), 
or  an  amphibrachic  one  (a  a' a  a  a' a  .  .  .).  The  marker 
registered  the  vibrations  on  the  smoked  drum;  a  specimen 
record  with  time  line  in  0.01°  at  the  bottom  is  shown  in 
Fig.  336. 

The  following  summary  is  from  Miyake's  tables;  the  let- 
ters indicate  different  persons;  each  separate  record  is  the 
average  of  a  separate  experiment  of  ten  measurements. 

Subject.     Ratio  a'  :  a.      Ratio  a  :  a'.      Ratios  a' :  a  :  a.        Ratios  a  :  a'  :  a, 

0.92.1.00         1.00.0.82,0.81  0.83:1.00:0.79 

0.87  :  1.00         1.00    0.87     0.77         0.99  :  1.00  ;  0.93 


0.92  :  1.00  :  0.92 
0.85:1.00         1.00  :  0.76  •  0.63  0.90:1.00:0.92 

0.90:1.00         1.00    0.89:0.78  0.92.1.00.0.91 

„S       1.00:0  61         0  69:1.00 
°l      1.00  :  0.68         0.80  :  1.00 

From  the  table  we  may  generalize  as  follows:  1.  a 
stressed  syllable  was  always  longer  than  an  unstressed  one; 
2.  the  relation  between  the  two  varied  with  different  individ- 
uals and  on  different  occasions;  3.  in  a  dactyl  the  first 
unstressed  syllable  was  slightly  longer  than  the  last  one. 

Since  each  vibration  was  indicated,  the  records  used  in  the 
preceding  case  were  also  available  for  determining  the  pitch 
of  the  cord  tone  in  the  stressed  and  unstressed  syllables. 
For  example,  in  an  experiment  on  a'  a  with  subject  K,  the 
successive  periods  of  a  were :  7,  7,  7,  7,  7,  6,  6,  6,  6,  6,  6,  6, 

6,  5,  5,  5,  5,  5,  5,  5,  5,  5,  5,  5,  5,  5,  5,  5,  5,  4,  4,  4,  4,  4,  4, 
4,  4,  4,  4,  4,  4,  4,  4,  4,  4,  4,  4,  4,  4,  4,  4,  4,  4,  4,  4,  4,  4,  4, 
4,  4,  4,  4,  4,  4,  4,  4,  4".  The  successive  periods  of  a  were : 
8,  8,  8,  8,  8,  8,  8,  8,  8,  8,  8,  7,  7,  7,  7,  7,  7,  7,  7,  7,  7,  7,  7, 

7,  7,  7,  7,  7,  7,  7,  7,  7,  7,  7,  7,  7,  7,  7,  7,  7,  7,  7,  7-.     Or 
•  more  briefly  a':  1"  (5  times),  6"  (8  times),  5"  (16  times),  4"  (38 

times);  a:  8"^  (11  times),  1"  (82  times).  ["  =  0.001'.] 


ACCENT  511 

The  changes  in  the  lengths  of  the  periods  were  not  sudden 
but  very  gradual  in  this  record  as  well  as  in  all  other  records. 
The  accented  syllable  began  with  a  period  of  1"  and  changed 
gradually  through  6°-  and  5"  to  4°-,  which  was  reached  at  the 
30th  vibration  and  maintained  to  the  end.  That  is,  the 
pitch  rose  from  143  complete  vibrations  through  170  and  200 
to  250  per  second. 

The  unaccented  syllable,  on  the  other  hand,  began  with  a 
period  of  8"^,  and  reached  7<^  at  the  12th  vibration,  which  was 
kept  to  the  end.  That  is,  the  pitch  changed  from  125 
upward  to  143  complete  vibrations  a  second,  and  remained 
fixed  thereafter. 

The  results  of  various  experiments  are  shown  in  Plate  XIV 
at  the  end  of  this  volume;  the  specific  measurements  are 
given  in  the  original  monograph.  The  horizontal  axis  indi- 
cates time,  while  the  vertical  ordinates  give  the  numbers  of 
cord  vibrations  a  second.  The  space  between  the  curves 
corresponds  to  the  empty  interval  between  the  syllables. 

An  inspection  of  the  Plate  is  sufiScient  to  show  1.  that 
the  accented  syllable  had  a  higher  pitch  than  the  unaccented 
syllable;  2.  that  the  accented  syllable  began  in  general  with 
a  higher  pitch  than  the  unaccented  syllable ;  3.  that  even  in 
the  cases  where  both  accented  and  unaccented  syllables  began 
with  the  same  pitch,  the  former  glided  upward  higher  than 
the  latter ;  4.  that  the  pitch  of  the  accented  syllable  under- 
went greater  changes  than  that  of  the  unaccented  one;  5.  that 
the  pitch  of  the  accented  syllable  always  glided  upward;  6. 
that  the  pitch  of  the  unaccented  syllable  also  glided  upward 
in  the  majority  of  cases,  but  sometimes  glided  downward. 

MiYAKB  makes  the  following  observations : 

'  According  to  Mitford,i  the  strengthened  syllables  in 
English  have  an  acuter  tone  or  a  higher  note.  The  fact  can 
be  abundantly  proved,  he  supposed,  if  we  find  or  coin  a  word 
which  is  composed  of  syllables  without  variety  of  vowel  sound 
and  pronounce  it  with  a  strong  accent  on  either  syllable. 

1  MiTFORD,  Inquiry  into  the  Principle  of  Harmony  in  Language  and  of  the 
Mechanism  of  Verse,  Modern  and  Ancient,  57,  London,  1804. 


512  FACTORS   OF  SPEECH 

'  MiTFORD  supposed  that  when  we  pronounce  an  accented 
syllable,  we  raise  the  tongue  near  to  the  palate,  with  the  con- 
sequence of  the  rise  of  the  height  of  tone.  "To  produce  the 
proper  English  intonation,"  he  says,  "the  tongue  must  be 
raised  up  in  pronouncing  the  strengthened  syllable,  the  vibra- 
tion will  be  felt  more  about  the  palate  and  the  tone  will  be 
acuter,  it  will  be  a  higher  note."  The  change  of  the  position 
of  tongue  in  the  mouth  cavity  would  only  affect  the  resonance 
tone  and  not  the  cord  vibration.  It  thus  gives  no  explana- 
tion of  the  fact. 

'  MuLTiER  1  noticed  that  in  a  larynx  separated  from  the 
body  the  pitch  of  the  tone  might  be  raised  by  an  increase  of 
the  force  of  blast.  He  thought  that  one  of  the  modes  of  pro- 
ducing high  notes  without  increasing  the  tension  of  the 
vocal  ligament  is  to  blow  with  greater  force,  by  which  means 
the  notes  may  without  difficulty  be  raised  through  a  series  of 
semi -tones  to  the  extent  of  a  "  fifth. " 

'  Brucke  ^  supposed  that  in  strong  accentuation  the  vocal 
cords  are  more  stretched  on  account  of  the  strong  pressure  of 
the  air  and  come  closer  to  each  other  and  that,  as  a  conse- 
quence of  the  increase  of  the  tension  of  the  cords,  the  pitch 
of  the  tone  is  raised.  Scripture  ^  thinks  that  the  relation 
between  the  rise  of  pitch  of  the  cord  tone  and  the  increase 
in  the  force  of  the  puff  would  naturally  result  from  a  gradual 
tightening  of  the  vocal  muscles  which  is  due  to  associated 
habits  of  innervation  and  not  to  the  physical  effect  of  the 
air  pressure  in  stretching  the  cords. ' 

Muller's  supposition  concerning  the  relation  between 
pitch  and  intensity  arose  from  the  fact  that  a  thin  membrane 
under  a  constant  tension  gives  a  higher  tone  as  the  pressure 
of  the  blast  is  increased.  The  action  of  the  cords  as  now 
known   (p.  263)  indicates  that  the  two  properties  are  not 

1  MoLLER,  The  Physiology  of  the  Senses,  Voice  and  Muscular  Motion,  with 
the  Mental  Faculty,  trans,  by  Baily,  London,  1848. 

^  Bkucke,  Die  physiologischen  Grundlagen  der  neuhochdeutschen  Verskunst, 
3,  Wien,  1871. 

'  Scripture,  Nature  of  vowels,  Amer.  Jour.  Sci.,  1901  XI  302. 


ACCENT  513 

physically  interdependent  to  any  notable  extent.  A  rise  in 
pitch  is  the  result  of  increased  tension  in  the  vocal  cords, 
which  is  probably  brought  about  entirely  by  contraction  of 
the  cricothyroid  muscle  and  not  by  breath -pressure  on  the 
vocal  bands.  A  loud,  high  tone  represents  thus  not  only 
increased  respiration  work  but  also  increased  larynx  work. 

It  is  safe  to  say  that,  in  English  at  least,  increase  in  dura- 
tion and  rise  in  pitch  are  ordinarily  associated  with  increased 
stress,  and  that  these  associations  are  essentially  mental  ones 
and  not  interdependent  physical  or  physiological  phenomena. 
This  relation  seems  to  hold  good  in  general  for  initial 
vowels ;  it  may  be  seen  in  many  of  the  vowels  in  the  Jeffer- 
son records  (Plates  III  to  XI).  In  other  cases  a  change 
in  pitch  does  not  go  with  a  change  in  intensity ;  the  intensity 
may  even  decrease  while  the  pitch  remains  constant.  To 
keep  a  constant  pitch  with  a  changing  air  pressure  there 
must  be  continual  readjustment  of  the  vocal  bands.  As  the 
pressure  rises  the  tension  of  the  bands  must  decrease  or  their 
weight  must  increase  (p.  263).  As  these  adjustments  are  of 
considerable  difficulty,  it  naturally  results  that  loudness  and 
rise  in  pitch  readily  occur  together.  In  song  a  fixed  relation 
between  pitch  and  intensity  is  carefully  avoided. 

The  utter  inability  of  the  ear  to  distinguish  the  loudness, 
pitch  and  duration  factors  in  accent  has  been  strikingly 
illustrated  in  the  discussions  of  Lithuanian  accent.^  The 
discussion  has  stimulated  experimental  work. 

The  Lithuanian  and  Lettic  accent  is  mainly  one  of  stress, 
two  forms  of  accented  syllables  being  distinguished:  the 
broken,  or  rough  ('  gestossen '),  and  the  slurred,  or  soft 
■('schleifend ').  The  factors  of  loudness  (as  indicated  by 
breath  pressure)  and  duration  appear  in  records  made  by 
Schmidt- Wartenberg.2 

1  Literature  and  summary  in  Hirt,  as  belore,  102. 

^  Soiimidt-Wartenberg,  Zur  Physiol,  d.  litauischen  Akzents,  Indogerm. 
Forschungen,  1897  VII  211;  Phonetische  Untersuchungen  zum  lettischen  Akzent, 
Indogerm.  Forschungen,  1900  X  117;  Further  contributions  to  the  Lithuanian 
■accent  question.  Trans.  Amer.  Philol.  A.ssoc.,  1901  XXXII  xxiv. 

3.3 


514 


FACTORS   OF  SPEECH 


Records  of  the  dialect  of  Mariampol  show  that  the  medium 
long  quantity  does  not  exist  there,  and  that  Kueschat's  con- 
tested description  of  the  two  accent  varieties,  the  slurred  and 
the  broken,  is  true  with  regard  to  that  dialect  at  least.' 
In  a  curve  of  the  Lithuanian  but!  (Fig.  337)  the  'broken 
tone  '  u  shows  greater  intensity  at  the  beginning  followed  by 
a  sudden  fall  and  then  by  a  small  recovery  near  the  end  of 
the  u  due  to  a  slight  aspiration,  after  which  the  vowel  stops 

abruptly;  the  t,  indicated  by  the 
low  curve,  is  followed  by  the 
breath-rise  for  the  i.  A  curve 
for  budas  shows  a  similar  con- 
dition for  the  '  slurred  tone '  u 
without  the  final  aspiration  and 
with  a  more  gradual  ending. 

The  expiratory  curves  of  vari- 
ous Lettic  words  show  that  there 
exists  —  in  the  district  of  Wol- 
mar  —  a  third  variety,  the  '  fall- 
ing '  accent,*  by  the  side  of  the 
lengthened  intonation  and  the 
'  Stosston. '  It  is  this  falling 
accent  that  corresponds  histori- 
cally to  the  slurred  accent  ('  ge- 
schleifter  Akzent'}  of  Lithuanian 
speech,  not  the  '  Stosston  '  as  hith- 
erto supposed.  As  to  the  quan- 
tity of  the  three  accents  there  is 
no  difference.  The  lengthened  tone  is  rising  or  level  as  to 
expiration,  the  falling  tone  is  gradually  decreasing  in  inten- 
sity, the  '  Stosston  '  breaks  the  vowel  or  diphthong  into  two 
parts  by  means  of  an  energetic  explosive  utterance  of  the 
second  part,  which  may  be  preceded  by  a  closure  of  the  glottis. 


Fig.  337. 


1  Schmidt- Warteneekg,  Further  contributions  to  the  Lithuanian  accent  question. 
Trans.  Amer.  Philol.  Assoc,  1 901  XXXII  xxiv. 

2  Schmidt-Wartenberg,  Plionetische    Untersuchungen   zuni  lettischen  Akzent, 
Indogerm.  Forschungen,  1900  X  117. 


ACCENT  515 

In  the  case  of  diphthongs  this  second  expiration  lies  within 
the  glide.  The  curve  of  the  Lettic  put  (Fig.  337)  shows  the 
u  aspirated  at  the  end,  followed  by  the  closure  for  the  t  and 
its  explosion.  The  curve  for  put  (Fig.  337)  shows  the 
decrescendo  or  *  falling  '  accent  for  the  u  followed  by  the 
closure  for  t  and  its  explosion  as  before.  The  curve  for 
ka-ut  shows  a  rise  for  the  a  followed  by  a  small  decrease  for 
the  so-called  '  Stosston  '  and  a  rise  for  u,  the  t  being  indi- 
cated as  before;  the  'Stosston '  between  the  two  parts  of  the 
diphthong  seems  to  occur  without  complete  cessation  of 
breath.  This  "  Stosston  '  is  probably  an  incomplete  glottal 
catch  (p.  278). 

Gauthiot  has  studied  ^  the  relations  among  the  '  accent  of 
loudness,'  the  '  accent  of  pitch  '  and  the  duration.  The  first 
two  do  not  necessarily  coincide  and,  in  fact,  do  so  only 
in  certain  definite  cases.  Records  of  breath  pressure  show 
that  the  "  rough  '  accent  is  one  of  strong  initial  stress  suddenly 
decreasing  and  that  this  form  is  invariable.  The  '  soft ' 
accent  has  two  summits  of  stress,  one  at  the  beginning  and 
one  at  the  end  of  a  medial  or  final  vowel  ,■  in  an  initial  vowel 
the  first  summit  is  lost;  the  accent  of  pitch  and  the  duration 
remain  the  same  for  initial,  medial  and  final  vowel. 

Gauthiot's  records  show  that  there  are  two  main  classes 
of  vowels  in  respect  to  duration  —  long  and  short,  whose 
average  lengths  bear  the  remarkably  constant  relation  of  4  :  2. 
The  influence  of  the  accent  shows  itself  in  the  abridgment 
of  '  short '  vowels  to  '  extra-short '  ones  in  a  tonic  medial 
syllables;  these  vowels  may  perhaps  be  grouped  as  a  third 
class,  making  in  all  three  groups  with  the  relations  of 
duration  4  :  2  :  1.  These  extra-short  vowels  are  of  modern 
origin. 

Applications  of  these  facts  to  the  study  of  phonetic  changes 
in  Lithuanian  and  Greek  have  been  made  by  Gauthiot  and 
Meillet.^ 

'  Gadthiot,  De  I'accent  et  de  la  quantity  en  hiuamen,  La  Parole,  1900  II  143. 
2  Meillet,  J   propos  de  t'article  de  M.  R.  Gauthiot  sur  les  intonations  litu- 
amennes.  La  Parole,  1900  II  193. 


516  FACTORS   OF  SPEECH 

Researches  by  Wallin  ^  indicate  that  in  both  prose  and 
verse  the  average  emphatic  syllable  is  invariably  longer  than 
the  average  unemphatic  one,  that  the  ratios  between  the  two 
vary  with  different  persons  and  that  the  ratios  are  never  ex- 
pressible by  simple  numbers. 

Rbfeebnces 

For  complete  account  of  Indogermanic  accent  and  references  :  Hiet, 
Der  indogermanische  Akzent,  Strassburg,  1895.  For  the  individual  lan- 
guages :  Hempl,  German  Orthography  and  Phonology,  167,  Boston, 
1898  ;  SiEVERS,  Grundzuge  d.  Phonetik,  5.  Aufl.,  215,  Leipzig,  1901 ; 
also  the  works  mentioned  on  pages  307,  311,  314. 

^  Wallin,  Researches  on  the  rhythm,  of  speech,  Stad.  Yale  Psych.  Lab.,  1901 
IX  1. 


CHAPTER   XXXVI 

AUDITORY   AND   MOTOK   EHTTHM 

In  the  flow  of  speech  there  appears  a  phenomenon  that  is 
recognized  as  extending  through  all  the  mental  experiences 
of  the  individual;  this  is  known  as  '  rhythm.' 

As  an  auditory  phenomenon  rhythm  appears  in  certain 
relations  of  sounds.  These  may  be  illustrated  by  the  follow- 
ing experiments.  In  describing  them  I  shall  merely  indicate 
the  general  plan,  leaving  the  details  of  technique  to  the  skill 
of  the  experimenter.^ 

A  tone  may  be  sounded  for  a  definite  time  at  definite  inter- 
vals. The  result  is  a  'rhythm  of  sound  and  pause,'  or,  more 
briefly,  a  '  pause  rhythm. '  . 

Two  tones  of  the  same  quality  Avith  equal  energies  and 
durations  but  of  different  pitches  are  alternated  with  no 
silence  between  them.  The  result  is  a  'rhythm  of  pitch.' 
The  experiment  can  be  performed  by  a  contact  apparatus, 
forks,  telephones,  resistances,  etc.  It  can  be  illustrated  by 
using  two  organ  tones  or  two  voice  tones,  but  the  higher 
tone  will  have  a  greater  energy  for  the  saihe  blast  and  the 
mental  relations  of  duration  and  energy  impel  the  per- 
former to  falsify  the  equality  of  duration. 

Two  tones  of  the  same  quality,  duration  and  pitch,  but  of 
different  energies,  can  be  used  to  produce  a  'rhythm  of  inten- 
sity.' When  the  duration,  pitch  and  energy  are  the  same 
but  the  quality  different  (as  in  tones  from  two  different  musi- 
cal instruments,  or  from  two  different  voices),  the  result  is 
a  '  rhythm  of   quality. '     A  '  rhythm  of  duration '  is  also  a 

1  Apparatus  suggestions  may  be  found  in  Scriptuee,  Elementary  course  in 
psychological  measurements,  Ex.  XIII,  Stud.  Yale  Psych.  Lab.,  1896  IV  127, 
and  in  Scripture,  New  Psychology,  Ch.  X,  London,  1897. 


618  FACTORS   OF  SPEECH 

fundamental  form  arising  when  the  tones  are  of  different 
lengths;  it  cannot  be  readily  illustrated  by  simple  tones  xDf 
the  same  quality,  pitch  and  energy  without  introducing  a 
break  or  a  click  to  mark  off  the  first  from  the  second ;  this 
break  is  a  new  factor  that  modifies  the  results.  It  can  be 
readily  illustrated  in  combination  with  some  other  factor. 

Similar  experiments  may  be  made  with  three  or  more  tones. 

These  experiments  illustrate  the  fundamental  law  that 
rhythm  in  tones  is  dependent  on  changes  in  quality,  pitch, 
intensity  and  duration,  or,  if  by  r  we  indicate  the  rhythmic 
effect  (or  rhythtaic  feeling),  r  =f  {x,  i/,  z,  w)  where  x,  «/,  z, 
w  indicate  the  factors  just  mentioned.  Investigations  should 
be  made  on  the  strength  of  the  rhythmic  feeling  as  depend- 
ing on  each  one  of  the  factors  by  varying  one  while  the 
others  are  kept  constant  in  the  usual  way.  For  example, 
a  series  of  rhythms  graded  by  equal  steps  of  effective- 
ness might  be  established  by  adjusting  the  intensity  alone; 
the  law  connecting  the  two  factors  would  be  the  law  of  in- 
tensity rhythm.  Likewise  the  just  perceptible  difference 
(p.  100),  the  just  perceptible  change  (p.  101),  etc.,  might 
be  similarly  determined.  If  the  laws  of  rhythm  prove  to  be 
linear  functions  (e.  g.,  r  oc  log  x,  r  oc  x^,  or  similar  rela- 
tions), the  ultimate  expression  oi  r  —  f  (x,  y,  z,  w)  ought 
not  to  be  looked  upon  as  impossible.  It  must  be  borne  in 
mind  that  a;,  y,  2,  iv  represent  changes  from  the  average  (or, 
perhaps,  expected)  quality,  pitch,  intensity  and  duration,  and 
not  the  actual  amounts  of  these  quantities  themselves. 

On  the  assumptions  1.  that  the  rhythmic  feeling  increases 
or  decreases  with  increase  or  decrease  of  each  one  of  these 
factors  (or  ?  a  a;,  r  a  «/,  ?•  a  s,  r  oc  w)  and  2.  that  in  their 
effect  on  the  rhythmic  feeling  the  factors  x,  y,  z,  w  act  inde- 
pendently, we  can  deduce  the  following  laws : 

1.  The  total  rhythmic  effect  varies  with  the  total  change 
in  the  factors  of  rhythm ; 

2.  Any  factor  may  be  used  to  replace  another  in  producing 
the  rhythmic  effect. 

These  laws  are  of  fundamental  importance  for  the  theory 


AUDITORY  AND  MOTOR  RHYTHM  619 

of  verse ;  their  proof,  extension  or  refutation  forms  one  of  the 
most  important  problems  that  can  be  undertaken  by  experi- 
mental phonetics.  The  first  of  the  above  assumptions  is  a 
highly  probable  one.  The  second  is  still  unsubstantiated; 
it  may,  perhaps,  be  tested  by  establishing  equalities  between 
rhythmic  feelings  produced  by  different  factors ;  for  example, 
if,  in  a  rhythm  produced  by  a  combined  change  in  pitch 
and  intensitj',  a  decrease  in  one  of  the  factors  can  be  com- 
pensated by  an  increase  in  the  other  without  any  diminution 
in  the  rhythmic  feeling  (perhaps  without  our  perception  of  a 
change),  the  assumption  would  be  verified  for  the  particular 
case.  Some  experiments  on  tones  ^  have  shown  that  a  change 
in  pitch  can  be  used  as  a  substitute  for  or  as  an  intensifica- 
tion of  intensity. 

Stronger  forms  of  rhythm  may  be  produced  by  varying 
two  or  more  factors.  One  tone  may  be  made  higher  and 
louder,  or  higher  and  longer,  or  louder  and  longer,  or  higher, 
louder  and  longer  than  the  other  one. 

Complex  forms  of  rhythm  are  produced  by  using  several  de- 
grees of  one  factor,  as  in  ••••••  or  •••••••  •  etc. 

In  the  preceding  experiments  each  element  of  rhythm 
has  been  supposed  to  be  of  constant  character  throughout  its 
duration,  and  the  change  from  one  element  to  the  other  to  be 
sudden ;  thus,  a  pause,  quality,  pitch  or  intensity  rhythm  of 


Fig.  338.  Fio.  339. 


Fig.  340,  i'lG-  341. 

this  kind  would  be  of  the  character  indicated  by  Fig.  338. 
Another  typical  form  of  rhythm  would  be  one  in  which  one 
factor  rises  and  falls  evenly,  with  sudden  changes,  as  indi- 
cated by  Fig.  339.     Still  other  forms  involve  less  easily  de- 

1  Squire,  A  genetic  study  of  rhythm,  Amer.  .Tour.  Psychol.,  1901  XIII  560. 


520  FACTORS   OF  SPEECH 

scribed  changes,  such  as  in  Fig.  340  or  Fig.  341  or  Fig. 
342.  The  rhythmic  effect  depends  not  only  on  the  amount 
and  direction  of  the  change  but  also  on  its  rapidity  and 
regularity. 

A L 


Fie.  342.  Fig.  343. 

Very  sudden  changes  of  strong  rhythmic  effect  are  pro- 
duced by  alternations  of  sharp  noises  and  much  longer 
silences;  the  rhythm  would  be  as  indicated  in  Fig.  343. 
Most  of  the  experiments  on  auditory  rhythm  have  been  made 
on  such  a  scheme  by  use  of  sharp  clicks.  The  conditions  do 
not  closely  resemble  those  of  the  flow  of  speech,  but  the 
results  show  some  of  the  fundamental  facts  of  auditory 
rhythm. 

In  some  experiments  by  Bolton  ^  an  apparatus  was  so  con- 
structed that  a  sequence  of  sounds  was  produced  which  did 
not  vary  in  pitch,  intensity,  or  quality.  The  rate  at 
which  the  sounds  were  made  to  succeed  one  another  could  be 
varied  from  one  in  two  seconds  to  ten  in  one  second.  When 
a  person  listened  to  the  series  and  gave  his  attention  closely 
to  it,  the  series  seemed  to  break  up  into  groups  of  sounds ;  it 
did  not  appear  uniformly  continuous.  These  groups  con- 
tained a  larger  or  smaller  number  of  sounds  according  as  the 
rate  was  fast  or  slow.  If  the  rate  was  slow,  groups  of  two 
sounds  seemed  the  more  natural.  At  a  faster  rate  grouping 
by  threes  or  fours  was  more  easy  and  pleasing,  and  with  the 
fastest  rates  the  sounds  seemed  to  form  groups  either  by  sixes 
or  eights,  and  sometimes  the  sequence  seemed  to  rise  and  fall 
in  intensity  at  regular  intervals  of  one  second  or  more.  The 
grouping  was  not  distinct.  Whatever  the  rate,  the  sounds 
might  be  made  to  group  by  suggesting  to  the  subject  a  pen- 
dulum  or  some   other    rhythmical  instrument.     Groupings 

1  Bolton,  Rhythm,  Amer.  Jour.  Psychol.,  1893  VI  214;  the  following  account 
is  condensed  from  a  summary  in  my  New  Psychology,  Ch.  XI. 


AUDITORY  AND  MOTOR  RHYTHM  521 

might  be  suggested  by  counting  2's,  3's,  4's,  6's,  or  8's, 
accenting  the  first  sound.  It  was  difficult  and  even  impos- 
sible with  most  persons  to  group  by  5's  or  7's.  The  group- 
ing was  usually  accompanied  by  some  muscular  movement. 
Frequently  it  was  tapping  with  the  foot  or  fingers;  some- 
times it  was  beating  time  with  the  hand  or  the  thumb. 
Some  subjects  nodded  the  head,  others  counted  inaudibly, 
and  still  others  felt  indefinitely  localized  muscular  contrac- 
tions in  the  larynx,  diaphragm,  viscera,  scalp,  eyelids,  etc. 
Muscular  twitchings  were  to  be  seen  in  the  muscles  of  the 
face  and  limbs  at  times  when  the  subject  declared  he  felt 
nothing  of  the  kind. 

The  grouping  was  accomplished  by  placing  a  stress  or 
accent  upon  the  first  sound  in  a  group.  In  groups  of  three 
the  first  and  second  sounds  were  accented,  the  first  more 
strongly  than  the  second.  In  groups  of  four  the  first  and 
third  were  accented,  the  first  again  being  the  stronger. 
Groups  of  four  seemed  at  times  to  break  into  two  groups  of 
two  sounds  each,  groups  of  six  into  two  groups  of  three,  and 
groups  of  eight  into  two  groups  of  four.  In  groups  of  six 
the  accents  came  alwa3^s  upon  the  first  and  fourth,  and  in 
groups  of  eight  upon  the  first  and  fifth.  The  accents  were 
apparently  at  the  basis  of  the  splitting  up  of  the  longer 
groups,  and,  when  they  did  so  break  up,  the  subject  felt  a 
tendency  to  swing  forward  or  backward  or  from  side  to  side. 
This  invariably  suggested  the  pendulum.  Many  persons 
pictured  or  visualized  some  moving  object  which  seemed  to 
swing  or  revolve  as  the  sounds  were  grouped. 

When  the  various  rates  at  which  the  different  groupings 
were  felt  to  be  most  pleasing  and  natural  were  compared  and 
the  average  times  for  each  taken,  it  was  found  that  the  time 
limit  of  each  group  was  nearly  the  same  —  a  little  more  than 
a  second.  The  explanation  of  this  was  based  upon  the 
rhythmical  character  of  the  attention.  Attention  is  periodic, 
and,  when  it  is  concentrated  upon  a  continuous  series, 
becomes  quite  regular  in  its  period.  An  object  that  does  not 
change  cannot  be  attended  to  for  more  than  a  few  seconds. 


622  FACTORS   OF  SPEECH 

The  attention  will  pass  involuntarily  from  the  object  to  some 
one  of  its  parts  or  to  one  of  its  associates. 

The  experiments  showed  that  an  even  series  of  clicks  is 
subjectively  transformed  into  groups  by  accenting  some  of 
them.     Thus,  in  one  case  the  even  series 

would  be  subjectively  made  into 

•  •••••••• 

The  supposition  of  BOLTOX  is  that  this  accentuation  is  one 
of  intensity;  it  apparently  did  not  occur  to  him  that  it  might 
contain  other  factors. 

There  is  no  doubt  but  that  the  accentuation  includes  factors 
of  pitch  and  quality  also.  The  accented  sounds  receive 
different  characters;  a  series  of  clicks  from  a  telegraph 
sounder  is  heard  not  as  tick-tick-tick-tick  but  as  tick-tock-tick-tock 
(the  sounds  from  a  clock  differ  physically). 

WxJNDT  notices  1  an  apparent  lengthening  of  the  interval 
before  each  loud  click  in  a  series  of  alternate  loud  and  soft 
ones ;  thus  the  even  series 

•         ••••■••• 

appears  as 

^  ••••••••• 

A  short  interval  filled  with  clicks  or  mental  work  of  any 
kind  appears  longer  than  an  equal  empty  one ;  ^  thus,  in  such 
a  series  of  clicks  as 

a  h  c 

the  time  from  a  to  b  appears  longer  than  that  from  h  to  c. 
The  relation  is  reversed  for  long  intervals.  Louder  series  of 
clicks  appear  to  have  shorter  intervals.  A  stronger  click 
inserted  in  the  middle  of  an  interval  between  two  short  ones 
makes  the  first  half  appear  shorter.  A  louder  click  at  the 
beginning  of  an  interval  makes  it  seem  longer  than  the 
following  intervals  with  weaker  clicks.^ 

1  WuNDT,  Volkerpsychologie,  I  ii380,  Leipzig,  1900. 

2  Hall  and  Jastrow,  Studies  of  rhythm.  Mind,  1886  XI  62;  Meumann, 
Beitragezur  Psychologic  des  Zeitbewusstseins,  Philos.  Stud.  (Wundt),  1896  XII  127. 

'  ME0MANN,  Beitrdge  zur  Psychologic  des  Zeitsinns,  Philos.  Stud.  (Wundt), 
1893  IX  306. 


AUDITORY  AND  MOTOR  RHYTHM  523 

As  a  motor  phenomenon  rhythm  appears  in  repeated 
actions;  it  is  a  mental  activity  utterly  different  from  and, 
except  by  association,  entirely  unconnected  with  auditory 
rhythm.  It  is  convenient  to  use  the  term  '  rhythmic  action  ' 
or  '  motor  rhythm  '  in  contrast  to  '  auditory  rhythm. ' 

The  laws  of  rhythmic  action  may  be  illustrated  by  the  fol- 
lowing experiments. 

Eepeated  actions  tend  to  be  regularly  repeated.  This 
observation  has  been  carefully  tested  by  Smith, i  Squire^ 
and  MiYAKE.3 

In  a  series  of  experiments  in  which  children  repeated  the  • 
syllable  mi  six  times  in  succession,  Squire*  usually  heard 
an  involuntary  rhythm  produced  by  variations  in  duration, 
intensity  or  pitch,  but  found  no  rhythm  when  the  effort  of 
articulation  was  so  great  that  attention  was  necessarily 
directed  on  the  separate  syllables  and  when  two  syllables 
occupied  more  time  than  the  normal  pulse  of  attention  (time 
between  two  maxima  of  attention,  usually  2'  to  3'). 

In  Miyake's  experiments  two  Marey  tambours  were 
arranged  so  that  the  recording  point  of  one  of  the  tambours 
drew  a  line  on  the  smoked  surface  of  a  drum.^  The  subject 
was  required  to  hold  the  lever  connected  with  the  other 
tambour  between  his  thumb  and  index  linger,  and,  his  eyes 
being  closed,  to  move  it  up  and  down  at  intentionally  irregular 
intervals  at  a  rather  rapid  rate. 

The  experiments  were  made  on  three  subjects ;  a  specimen 
record  is  shown  in  Fig.  344.  The  height  of  the  curve  is 
related  to  the  amplitude  of  the  movement,  and  therefore  to 
the  intensity  of  the  exerted  muscular  energy,  while  the  hori- 
zontal distance  indicates  the  length  of  the  time  between  the 
successive   movements.     The  line   at  the   bottom   indicates 

1  Smith,  Rhythmus  und  Arbeit,  Philos.  Stud.  (Wundt),  1900  XVI  282. 

2  Squire,  A  genetic  study  of  rhythm,  Amer.  Jour.  Psychol.,  1901  XIII  497. 

8  MiYAKE,  Researches  on  rhythmic  action.  Stud.  Yale  Psych.  Lab.,  1902  X  1. 

'  Squike,  as  before,  516. 

5  Details  of  the  arrangement  are  given  in  Scripture,  Elementary  course  in 
psychological  measurements,  Ex.  VIII,  Stud.  Yale  Psych.  Lab.,  1896  IV  108, 
109,  and  are  shown  in  Fig.  71  above. 


624 


FACTORS   OF  SPEECH 


fifths  of  a  second.  It  was  observed  in  this  record  as  well  as 
in  the  others  (1)  that  there  is  a  constantly  recurring  tendency 
to  repeat  equal  intervals  in  succession,   (2)  that  the  same 


JW\11j^||JIjIJIiJWvJ^-.'J 


ftl^irw||JUilH^fv^^  xtmB 


[\M\imr^'^^'^-Awm  ' 


'l|Ljiu4uiy 


44Hi^4iMM(;^tM-* 


Fig.  344. 


intensity  of  the  nauscular  energy  is  also  often  repeated,  and 
(3)  that  the  weak  and  strong  intensities  often  alternate.  The 
attempt  at  irregular  action  thus  shows  a  persistent  tendency 
to  revert  to  action  regular  in  time  and  intensity. 


/     10    20    30    40    50    60    70    80    90    100  110    120  130  MO 


Fig.  345. 


The  records  obtained  in  the  above  experiments  show  the 
ojiaracteristics  of  arhythmic  action  under  the  various  circum- 
stances for  the  various  subjects.  Accurate  measurements  of 
the  lengths  of  the  intervals  could  be  better  obtained  by  another 


AUDITORY  AND  MOTOR   RHYTHM  525 

method.  A  Dbpeez  marker  (p.  92)  and  a  key  with  a  break 
contact  were  put  in  series  in  a  1="°  current.  The  pointer  of 
the  marker  was  rested  lightly  against  the  smoked  surface  of 
a  drum.  The  subject  was  asked  to  tap  the  key  at  intervals 
as  irregular  as  possible,  the  longest  time  between  two  succes- 
sive beats  being  limited  to  about  one  second.  He  was  seated 
comfortably  before  the  apparatus  and  his  eyes  were  closed 
during  the  experiments.  The  results  of  many  experiments  are 
averaged  in  the  diagram  (Fig.  345),  in  which  the  figures 
on  the  horizontal  axis  indicate  the  serial  number  of  the  tap 
and  those  on  the  vertical  axis  the  length  of  the  successive 
periods,  S  =  0.01^  being  the  unit. 

The  diagram  shows  the  following  facts :  (1)  there  are  repeti- 
tions of  equal  or  about  equal  periods ;  (2)  the  unequal  periods, 
which  occur  after  or  in  the  middle  of  a  group  of  the  repeated 
equal  periods,  are,  in  many  cases,  simple  multiples  of  the 
latter;  (3)  the  periods  from  12  to  17  are  most  frequent;  (4) 
rhythmic  alternations  of  long  and  short  intervals  also  occur. 

These  facts  seem  to  indicate  that  arhythmic  movements 
have  a  constant  tendency  to  become  rhythmic,  notwithstand- 
ing the  voluntary  effort  of  the  subject  to  execute  the  move- 
ments at  irregular  intervals.  The  subjects  of  the  experiments 
invariably  agreed  in  confessing  that  the  arhythmic  tappings 
required  strenuous  effort  and  that  the  performance  was  very 
fatiguing. 

The  involuntary  tendency  to  rhythmize  sounds  appears 
in  the  attempt  to  repeat  the  same  sound  monotonously.  It 
can  be  very  strikingly  shown  by  having  the  sounds  regis- 
tered in  a  phonograph  and  studied  at  leisure.  In  some 
experiments  of  this  kind  the  sounds  a  a  a  a  a  a  a  a  lo  lo  lo 
lo  lo  lo  lo  lo  were  spoken  in  what  was  intended  to  be  a  per- 
fect monotone.  Each  record  was  made  by  one  of  three  per- 
sons and  the  judgment  of  the  character  of  its  rhythm  was 
thereafter  made  by  the  other  two  while  listening  to  the  phono- 
graph. The  judgment  by  J  and  ilf  on  a  record  made  by  S 
was  that  it  was  '  spoken  in  trochee  with  emphasis  pro- 
duced by  increased  intensity  and  rise  in  pitch  ;^'  on  listening 


526  FACTORS   OF  SPEECH 

to  the  record  the  speaker  S  made  the  same  judgment.  A 
record  by  J"  was  judged  by  ilf  and  S  to  have  the  same  charac- 
teristics as  the  preceding  one.  The  record  by  M  (Japanese) 
was  judged  by  S  to  begin  with  syllables  of  qqual  emphasis 
and  to  end  with  trochaic  rhythm  produced  as  in  the  preceding 
cases,  but  by  J  to  have  an  iambic  character. 

Two  entirely  different  forms  of  regularly  repeated  action 
are  to  be  distinguished,  i  In  one  form  the  subject  is  left  free 
to  repeat  the  movement  at  any  interval  he  may  choose.  This 
includes  such  activities  as  walking,  running,  rowing,  beating 
time,  and  so  on.  A  typical  experiment  is  performed  by  tak- 
ing the  lever  of  a  Maeey  tambour  between  the  thumb  and 
index  finger  and  moving  the  arm  repeatedly  up  and  down; 
the  recording  tambour  writes  on  the  drum  the  curve  of  move- 
ment (Fig.  71).  Another  experiment  consists  in  having  the 
subject  tap  on  a  telegraph  key  or  on  a  noiseless  key  and 
recording  the  time  on  the  drum  by  sparks  or  markers.  Other 
experiments  may  be  made  with  an  orchestra  leader's  baton 
having  a  contact  at  the  extreme  end,  with  a  heel  contact  on 
a  shoe,  with  dumb-bells  in  an  electric  circuit,  and  so  on.^ 
For  this  form  of  action  I  have  been  able  to  devise  no  better 
name  than  '  free  rhythmic  action. ' 

In  contrast  with  this  there  is  what  may  be  called  '  regu- 
lated rhythmic  action.'  This  is  found  in  such  activities  as 
marching  in  time  to  drum-beats,  dancing  to  music,  playing 
in  time  to  a  metronome,  and  so  on.  A  typical  experiment  is 
that  of  tapping  on  a  key  in  time  to  a  sounder-click,  the 
moment  of  the  click  and  that  of  the  movement  of  the  finger 
being  registered  on  a  drum. 

Regulated  rhythmic  action  differs,  I  believe,  from  free 
rhythmic  action  mainly  in  the  manner  of  judging  the  coin- 
cidence of  the  movements  with  the  sound  heard  (or  light  seen, 
etc.).     This  view  puts  aside  all  purely  physiological  theories 

1  Scripture,  Observations  on  rhythmic  action,  Science,  1899  X  807;  also  in 
Stud.  Yale  Psych.  Lab.,  1899  VII  102. 

^  Scripture,  Thinking,  Feeling,  Doing,  2d  ed.,  Ch.  on  Rhythm  (in  press). 


AUDITORY  AND  MOTOR  RHYTHM  527 

of  regulated  rhythmic  action.  One  of  these  theories  ^  is  based 
on  the  assumption  that  the  labyrinth  of  the  ear  contains  the 
tonus -organ  for  the  muscles  of  the  body.  It  asserts  that 
vibrations  arriving  at  the  internal  ear  affect  the  whole  con- 
tent, including  the  organ  for  the  perception  of  sound  and 
the  tonus-organ.  Thus,  sudden  sounds  like  drum-beats  or 
emphasized  notes  would  stimulate  the  tonus-organ  in  unison, 
whereby  corresponding  impulses  would  be  sent  to  the  muscles. 
This  theory  has  very  much  in  its  favor.  It  is  undoubtedly 
true  that  such  impulses  are  sent  to  the  muscles.  Thus,  at 
every  loud  stroke  of  a  pencil  on  the  desk  I  can  feel  a  result- 
ing contraction  in  the  ear  which  I  am  inclined  to  attribute  to 
the  tensor  tympani  muscle  (p.  78).  Likewise  a  series  of 
drum-beats  or  the  emphasized  tones  in  martial  or  dance  music 
seem  to  produce  twitchings  in  the  legs.  Fere  has  observed 
that,  in  the  case  of  a  hysterical  person  exerting  the  maximum 
pressure  on  a  dynamometer,  the  strokes  of  a  gong  are  regu- 
larly followed  by  sudden  increased  exertions.^  Nevertheless, 
these  twitchings  are  not  the  origin  of  the  movements  in  regu- 
lated rhythmic  action.  For  many  years  I  have  observed  that 
most  persons  regularly  beat  time  just  before  the  signal 
occurs ;  that  is,  the  act  is  executed  before  the  sound  is  pro- 
duced. Records  of  such  action  have  been  published,^  but 
their  application  to  the  invalidation  of  the  tonus-theory  was 
first  suggested  by  Miyakb.  This  does  not  exclude  the  use 
of  muscle  sensations,  derived  from  tonus -twitches,  in  cor- 
recting movements  in  regulated  rhythmic  action,  although 
they  presumably  play  a  small  or  negligible  part  as  compared 
with  sounds. 

Another  argument  in  favor  of  the  subjective  nature  of 
regulated  rhythmic  action  is  found  in  the  beginning  of -each 
experiment  on  a  rhythm  with  a  new  period;  the  subject  is 
quite  at  loss  for  a  few  beats  and  can  tap  only  spasmodically 

1  EwALD,  Untersuchungen  iiber  d.  Endorgan  d.  Nervus  octavus,  294,  Wiesbaden, 

1892. 

^  Fere,  Sensation  et  mouvement,  35,  Paris,  1887. 

3  ScEiPTUBE,  Thinking,  Feeling,  Doing,  as  before  ;  New  Psychology,  182, 
London,  1897. 


528  FACTORS   OF  SPEECH 

until  he  obtains  a  subjective  judgment  of  the  period.  If  the 
tonus-theory  were  correct,  he  should  tap  just  as  regularly  at 
the  start  as  afterward. 

The  conclusion  seems  justified  that  regulated  rhythmic 
action  is  a  modified  free  rhythmic  action,  whereby  the  subject 
repeats  an  act  at  what  he  considers  regular  intervals,  and 
constantly  changes  these  intervals  to  coincide  with  objective 
sounds  which  he  accepts  as  perfectly  regular. 

In  free  rhythmic  action  there  is  one  interval  which  on  a 
given  occasion  is  easiest  of  execution  by  the  subject.  This 
interval  is  continually  changing  with  practice,  fatigue,  time 
of  day,  general  health,  external  conditions  of  resistance,  and 
so  on. 

'  It  has  long  been  known  that  in  such  rhythmic  movements 
as  walking,  running,  etc.,  a  certain  frequency  in  the  repeti- 
tion of  the  movement  is  most  favorable  to  the  accomplish- 
ment of  the  most  work.  Thus,  to  go  the  greatest  distance 
in  steady  traveling  day  by  day  the  horse  or  the  bicyclist  must 
move  his  limbs  with  a  certain  frequency ;  not  too  fast,  other- 
wise fatigue  cuts  short  the  journey,  and  not  too  slow,  other- 
wise the  distance  traveled  is  unnecessarily  short.  This  fre- 
quency is  a  particular  one  for  each  individual  and  for  each 
condition  in  which  he  is  found.  Any  deviation  from  this 
particular  frequency  diminishes  the  final  result. ' 

It  is  also  a  well-known  fact  that  one  rate  of  work  in  nearly 
every  line  is  peculiar  to  each  person  for  each  occasion,  and 
that  each  person  has  his  peculiar  range  within  which  he 
varies.  Too  short  or  too  long  a  period  between  movements 
is  more  tiring  than  the  natural  one.  This  law  appears  also 
in  some  experiments  made  by  Smith.  ^ 

It  is  highly  desirable  to  get  some  definite  measurement  of 
the  difficulty  of  a  free  rhythmical  action.  This  cannot  well 
be  done  by  any  of  the  methods  applicable  to  the  force  or 
quickness  of  action,  but  it  may  be  accomplished  in  the  manner 
described  in  Appendix  III. 

'  Smith,  as  before,  302. 


AUDITORY  AND  MOTOR   RHYTHM  529 

The  function  of  the  ear  in  free  rhythmic  action  has  been 
investigated  by  Miyake  i  by  a  method  and  with  apparatus 
that  seem  specially  adapted  to  the  determination  of  the  fun- 
damental laws  of  motor  rhythm.  Analogous  experiments 
should  be  made  for  song  and  speech. 

The  experiment  of  Miyake  consisted  in  tapping  on  a 
noiseless  key.  The  small  '  strap  '  key  used  in  this  experiment 
was  made  of  an  elastic  brass  strip 
B,  46°™  long  and  9"™  wide, 
mounted  on  a  wooden  block  E; 
a  brass  stop  C  kept  the  free  end 
of  the  spring  from  rising  more 
than  4""  from  the  block.  A 
slight  pressure  on  the  button  A  at  the  free  end  of  the 
strap  forced  it  nearer  the  block  and  broke  its  contact 
with  the  brass  stop.  Platinum  points  I>  were  used  to 
ensure  good  contact  between  the  strap  and  the  stop.  The 
key  was  put  in  a  rubber  bag  and  packed  in  felt  so  that  the 
sound  was  rendered  absolutely  inaudible;  the  key  was  thus 
a  perfectly  noiseless  one.  The  wires  F  G-  projected  from 
the  bag.  A  spot  on  the  surface  of  the  rubber  bag  under 
which  the  button  of  the  key  was  situated  was  marked  with 
a  sign.  It  indicated  the.  point  where  the  tapping  was  to 
be  done.  The  adjustment  of  the  key  was  such  that  the 
slightest  touch  broke  the  circuit.  This  highly  successful 
instrument  is  the  first  solution  of  the  problem  of  an  abso- 
lutely noiseless  key  breaking  contact  exactly  at  the  moment 
touched. 

For  producing  the  auditory  stimuli  a  pair  of  discharging 
points  were  connected  to  a  spark  coil.  The  two  brass  rods 
were  put  in  a  horizontal  line  with  a  distance  of  about  2™™ 
between  them  and  connected  to  the  poles  of  the  secondary 
circuit.  When  the  primary  circuit  was  broken,  a  sound  was 
produced  by  the  spark.  The  points  were  put  behind  a  black 
screen,  so  that  the  spark  could  not  be  seen  by  the  subject. 
The  general  plan  of  the  arrangement  is  shown  in  the  ac- 

1  MiTAKE,  as  before,  8. 
34 


530 


FACTORS   OF  SPEECH 


companying  diagram  (Fig.  347).  The  noiseless  key  K,  with 
condenser  0  around  the  break,  was  placed  in  the  circuit  with 
the  battery  B  and  the  primary  circuit  P  of  a  spark  coil. 
The  secondary  coil  S  was  connected  in  series  with  the 
metallic  registering  point  of  a  Pfeil  marker  (p.  91)  M, 
the  recording-drum  D,  and  the  discharging  points  J,  so 
that  a  break  in  the  primary  circuit  would  produce  a  dot 
(p.  12)  on  the  time-line  at  the  point  of  the  marker  and  also 
between  the  discharging  points  at  the  same  moment.  Thus 
the  movement  of  the  finger  on  the  key,  breaking  the  primary 


Fig.  347. 

circuit,  resulted  in  a  sound  of  the  spark  between  the  discharg- 
ing points  and  a  record  on  the  smoked  drum  D  simultaneously. 

A  switch  H  was  put  in  the  secondary  circuit  around  the 
discharging  points.  When  the  switch  was  closed,  the  short- 
circuit  prevented  sparks  at  the  discharging  points,  and  the 
tapping  on  the  key  was  not  accompanied  by  the  sound  of  the 
spark,  although  still  recorded  on  the  drum.  A  time-line 
was  drawn  on  the  drum  by  the  marker  M  run  by  a  fork 
(pp.  15,  91). 

The  key  and  the  discharging  points  were  placed  in  a 
special  quiet  room ;  the  rest  of  the  apparatus  was  in  another 
room. 


AUDITORY  AND  MOTOR  RHYTHM  531 

The  subject  with  closed  eyes  beat  time  with  the  index 
finger  of  his  right  hand  at  what  he  considered  to  be  a  con- 
stant interval.  The  rate  of  the  movement  was  left  entirely 
to  his  own  choice. 

The  average  time  chosen  by  the  subject,  his  immediate 
probable  error  p  (calculated  as  on  p.  201),  and  his  relative 
probable  error  r  =p/n  expressed  as  a  percentage,  are  given 
in  the  following  table  in  thousandths  of  a  second. 


With  Sound. 

Without  Sound, 

bject. 

Average 

Average 

' 

time. 

P 

T 

time. 

P 

r 

M 

519 

10.8 

2.1% 

575 

17.1 

2.9% 

H 

37.5 

13.6 

3.6% 

379 

20.5 

5.+  % 

Y 

718 

23.4 

3.3% 

838 

28.0 

3.2% 

C 

747 

12.1 

1.5% 

729 

21.3 

2.9% 

A  comparison  of  the  corresponding  probable  errors  in  the 
same  horizontal  line  will  show  that  those  of  the  free  rhythmic 
movement  with  the  sound  are  in  general  smaller  than  those  of 
the  movement  without  the  sound.  This  holds  true  for  both 
the  simple  and  the  relative  probable  errors.  The  general 
conclusion  may  be  drawn  that  free  rhythmic  movement  with 
the  sound  is  more  regular  than  that  without  the  sound. 

It  can  be  also  noticed  in  the  table  that  the  length  of  the 
period  is  in  general  shorter  in  the  movements  with  the 
sound  than  in  those  without  the  sound.  This  is  especially 
clear  in  the  cases  of  the  subjects  M  and  Y,  in  which  the 
periods  with  the  sound  are  always  shorter  than  those  without 
the  sound.  The  apparently  contrary  case  with  O  is  due  to 
one  erratic  set  of  results  differing  entirely  from  the  rest. 
This  general  difference  is  probably  due  to  the  fact  that  the 
interval  which  is  marked  off  by  the  muscle,  joint  and  skin 
sensations  and  the  auditory  sensations  appears  longer  to  the 
subjects  than  the  equal  interval  whicli  is  marked  off  by  the 
former  group  alone,  and  that  thus  the  subject  is  uncon- 
sciously influenced  by  the  relative  degrees  of  fulness  or 
emptiness  (p.  522). 

Another  problem  of  fundamental  importance  in  the  con- 


632  FACTORS    OF  SPEECH 

sideration  of  speech  and  song  as  motor  phenomena  lies  in  the 
relation  between  intensity  and  interval  in  rhythmic  action. 

Ebhaedt  ^  made  two  series  of  experiments  on  this  prob- 
lem. In  the  first  series  the  tapping  was  done  on  an  electric 
key,  and  in  the  second  on  a  piano  with  electric  connec- 
tions. The  records  were  taken  in  both  cases  on  a  kymo- 
graph (p.  198).  The  results  showed  that  the  interval 
following  the  emphasized  beat  was  lengthened  as  compared . 
with  that  which  followed  the  unemphasized  beat.  In 
Ebhaedt's  experiments  the  tapping  was  accompanied  by 
the  noise  of  the  instrument. 

Miyake's  work  2  includes  a  study  of  movements  without 
noise.  The  noiseless  key  (p.  529)  was  put  with  the  Ppeil 
marker  (p.  91)  in  series  in  a  1™  current.  The  metallic 
point  of  the  marker  was  connected  with  one  pole  of  the 
secondary  coil  of  a  spark  coil,  the  other  pole  being  connected 
to  the  base  of  the  recording  drum.  The  current  from  a  100- 
fork  (p.  15)  was  sent  through  the  primary  coil.  In  this  way 
the  beats  were  recorded  by  checks  in  the  line  on  the  drum; 
these  were  divided  by  the  sparks  into  equal  spaces,  each  of 
which  corresponded  to  ^-J-j  of  a  second.  The  subject  tapped 
with  his  -finger  (generally  with  the  index  finger  of  the  right 
hand)  on  the  noiseless  key,  according  to  the  following 
schemes : 

(a)  ■l'-2,  V-2,  l'-2,  .  . . 
lb)   1-2',  1-2',  1-2',  . . . 

(c)  l'-2-3,  l'-2-3,    . . . 

(d)  l-2'-3,   l-2'-3,  . .  . 

where  the  beat  to  be  emphasized  is  marked  with  the  sign  '. 
In  the  scheme  l'-2,  for  instance,  the  subject  was  asked  to 
emphasize  every  first  beat  of  the  rhythmic  group,  but  he  had, 
at  the  same  time,  to  try  to  keep  always  a  uniform  interval 
between  two  successive  beats,  not  only  between  1'  and  2,  but 

1  Ebhardt,  Zwei  Beitrage  zur  Psychohgie  des  lihijthmus  und  des  Tempo,  Zt.  f. 
Psych,  u.  Physiol,  d.  Sinn.,  1898  XVIII  99. 

2  MiTAKE,  as  before,  13. 


AUDITORY  AND  MOTOR  RHYTHM  533 

also  between  2  and  1'  although  he  was  to  think  of  the  groups 
as  in  pairs  l'-2,  not  2-1'.  The  speed  of  the  movements  was 
left  to  the  choice  of  the  subject. 

The  results  showed  that  the  lengthening  of  the  interval 
following  the  emphasized  beat  was  more  marked  with  the 
scheme  1-2'  than  l'-2.  The  average  ratios  of  the  two  inter- 
vals in  the  two  different  rhythmic  schemes  were 

l'-2  1-2' 

1'  to  2  :  2  to  1'  1  to  2' :  2'  to  1 

C.  W.     1.00  :  0.94  0.82  : 1.00 

M.  M.    1.00  :  0.93  0.90  : 1.00 

J.  K.      1.00  :  0.91  0.90  :  1.00 

The  expression  '  1'  to  2  :  2  to  1' '  means  the  ratio  between 
the  average  time  from  the  emphasized  first  beat  to  the  second 
beat  and  the  average  time  from  the  second  beat  to  the  empha- 
sized first  one. 

The  relative  lengths  of  the  long  and  short  intervals  are  not 
the  same  in  the  two  different  schemes;  the  interval  which 
comes  after  the  emphasized  beat  is  comparatively  longer 
in  1-2'  than  in  l'-2.  The  same  fact  was  observed  by 
Ebhaedt.^ 

Why  is  the  interval  following  the  emphasized  beat  length- 
ened more  in  one  rhythmic  scheme  than  in  the  other?  This 
can  be  accounted  for  by  assuming  another  factor,  besides 
emphasis,  that  lengthens  the  period  of  the  movements.  It  is 
due,  as  already  pointed  out  by  Ebhabdt,  to  the  formation  of 
the  rhythmic  group.  Rhythmic  movements  with  grouping 
differ  in  their  nature  from  those  without  grouping.  The 
latter  is  merely  a  series  of  repeated  movements  at  a  uniform 
interval,  in  which  every  single  movement  is  regarded  as  a  co- 
ordinate unit.  In  the  former,  a  series  of  the  movements  is 
divided  into  groups  containing  a  certain  number  of  move- 
ments as  their  content,  and  each  of  such  groups  is  regarded 
as  a  unit. 

Ebhaedt  supposed  that  at  the  end  of  the  rhythmic  group 

1  Ebhardt,  as  before,  99. 


534  FACTORS   OF  SPEECH 

a  suspension  of  attention  takes  place  and  that  the  moment  of 
suspension  can  be  considered  as  a  dead  time,  which  is  to  be 
added  to  the  length  of  the  foregoing  group.  We  are  not 
certain  whether  such  suspension  of  the  attention  takes  place 
or  not.  But  it  seems  to  be  more  probable  that  we  have  a 
tendency  to  insert  some  '  pause '  between  two  successive 
rhythmic  groups,  in  order  to  mark  off  the  groups  distinctly 
from  each  other.  The  '  pause  '  is  to  facilitate  the  formation 
of  the  groups. 

We  may  suppose  then  that  a  certain  length  of  '  pause  '  was 
inserted  between  the  groups  in  the  scheme  l'-2  as  well  as  in 
1-2',  and  that  because  the  interval  from  2'  to  1  of  the  scheme 
1-2'  is  lengthened  both  by  the  '  pause '  and  the  emphasis, 
it  is  made  considerably  longer  than  the  time  from  1  to  2', 
whereas  in  the  scheme  l'-2  the  time  from  1'  to  2  is  length- 
ened only  by  the  emphasis,  while  the  time  from  2'  to  1  is 
lengthened  by  the  '  pause,'  whereby  the  difference  between 
1-2'  and  2'-l  is  not  so  great. 

The  averages  of  the  ratios  for  the  schemes  l'-2-3  and 
l-2'-3  were 

l'-2-3  l-2'-3 

1'  to  2  :  2  to  3  :  3  to  1'  1  to  2' :  2'  to  3  :  3  tol 
M.  M.          1.00  :  0.60  :  0.94  0.60  : 1.00  : 1.00 

J.  K.  1.00  :  0.94  :  0.92  0.92  :  1.00  :  0.99 

C.  W.  1.00  :  0.98  :  0.95  0.99  :  1.00 :  0.97 

The  scheme  l'-2-8  shows  again  that  the  interval  following 
the  emphasized  beat  was  the  longest.  The  scheme  l-2''-3 
shows  likewise  the  same  tendency.  The  interval  3  to  1  is 
longer  than  1  to  2',  evidently  including  the  '  pause. ' 

If  l-2'-3  is  compared  to  l'-2-3,  we  find  that  there  is  a 
remarkable  difference  between  the  two  rhythmic  schemes  in 
regard  to  lengthening  of  the  intervals  between  the  groups. 
The  interval  3  to  1'  of  the  scheme  l'-2-3  is  not  so  much 
lengthened  as  3  to  1  of  l-2'-8.  In  other  words  the  '  pause  ' 
between  the  groups  is  longer  in  l-2'-3  than  in  l'-2-8.     This 


AUDITORY  AND  MOTOR   RHYTHM  535 

fact  indicates  that  the  length  of  the  '  pause  '  is  not  the  same 
in  all  rhythmic  forms.  It  depends,  probably,  on  the  amount 
of  difficulty  in  the  formation  of  the  rhythmic  groups.  The 
more  difficult  the  formation  of  the  groups,  the  longer  is  the 
pause.  In  the  case  l'-2-3  with  the  first  beat  of  a  group 
emphasized,  the  group  can  be  easily  marked  off  from  the 
preceding  or  the  following  groups,  and  the  rhythmic  group 
can  be  formed,  without  lengthening  very  much  the  interval 
between  them.  But  the  case  is  different  with  the  scheme 
l-2'-3,  where  neither  the  first  nor  the  last  beat  of  a  group  is 
emphasized.  Of  the  two  similar  beats  one  comes  at  the  end 
of  a  group  and  the  other  at  the  beginning  of  the  next  group ; 
the  two  successive  groups  can  be  marked  off  distinctly  only 
by  lengthening  the  interval  between  them. 

From  this  series  of  experiments  the  conclusions  can  be 
drawn  1.  that  the  interval  which  follows  an  emphasized 
beat  is  lengthened,  2.  that  the  interval  which  comeg  between 
rhythmic  groups  is  lengthened,  3.  that  the  lengthening  of 
the  interval  between  rhythmic  groups  is  not  equally  great 
in  all  the  rhythmic  schemes. 

It  will  be  noticed  that  the  forms  of  motor  rhythm  investi- 
gated were  the  trochee,  iambus,  dactyl  and  amphibrach;  it 
is  to  be  regretted  that  the  spondee  and  anapest  were  not 
included. 

Using  a  similar  method  Miyakb  extended  the  experiments 
to  the  sounds  of  speech ;  the  results  have  been  summarized  in 
the  preceding  chapter  in  their  bearings  on  accent. 

The  grouping  of  rhythmic  impressions  and  movements  by 
twos  is  easier  than  that  by  threes. ^  The  tendency  shows  itself 
in  the  preponderance  of  iambic  and  trochaic  verse  over  the 
anapestic  and  dactylic.  The  trochaic  and  dactylic  forms  seem 
easier  than  the  iambic  and  anapestic  ones. 

Researches  of  the  kind  described  in  this  chapter  have  as 
their   object   the  determination  of   the  fundmental   laws  of 

1  Bolton,  Rhythm,  Amer.  Jour.  Psychol,,  1893  VI  216;  Smith,  Rhythmus 
und  Arbeit,  Philos.  Stud.  (Wundt),  1900  XVI  217;  Sqciee,  A  genetic  study  of 
rhythm,  Amer.  Jour.  Psychol,  1901  XII  535. 


536  FACTORS   OF  SPEECH 

rhythm.     These  laws  appear  also  in  the  rhythm  of  speech  and 
help  to  an  understanding  of  its  complexities. 

References 

For  auditory  and  motor  rhythm :  Wundt,  Physiologische  Psychologie, 
4.  Aufl.,  II  83,  Leipzig,  1893;  Vblkerpsychologie,  1375,  Leipzig,  1900  ; 
ScKiPTURE,  New  Psychology,  Ch.  X-XI,  London,  1897;  Meumann, 
Untenuchungen  zur  Psychologie  und  Aesthetik  des  Rhyihmus,  Philos.  Stud. 
(Wundt),  1894  X  249  (full  references) ;  Riemann,  Katechismus  d. 
Musik,  Leipzig,  1888;  Musiklexikon,  4.  Aufl.,  Leipzig,  1894;  Wagner, 
Gesammelte  Schriften  und  Diohtungen,  2.  Aufl.,  VIII,  Leipzig,  1888  ; 
Westphal,  AUgemeine  Theorie  d.  musikal.  Rhythmik,  Leipzig,  1880. 


CHAPTER   XXXVII 

SPEECH   RHYTHM 

The  earliest  experiments  on  the  rhythm  of  connected  speech 
were  by  BRtJCKB,^  who  recorded,  with  a  marker  on  a  smoked 
drum,  the  movements  of  a  finger  in  beating  time  while  he 
recited  verses  in  iambic  hexameter,  and  in  alcaic  and  sapphic 
meters,  in  a  scanning  fashion ;  he  also  made  records  of  the 
movements  of  the  lips.  He  found  that  the  lengths  of  the 
successive  feet  were  equal,  as  far  as  his  apparatus  indicated ; 
this  was,  however,  not  fine  enough  to  detect  small  differences. 

The  records  of  Keal  and  Mares  ^  (p.  499)  for  various  lines 
of  verse  gave  results  like  the  following  (F  denotes  length  of 
foot  in  different  records,  T  length  of  thesis,  A  length  of  arsis, 
all  in  hundredths  of  a  second) : 


F^ 

T^ 

^1 

F^ 

F^        F, 

Louka  ko 

61 

30 

31 

92 

84        62 

sou  sece 

65 

32 

33 

87 

91        62 

n^  voiia 

67 

37 

30 

80 

83        65 

vd  tady 

61 

40 

21 

77 

78        66 

z^  pachy 

63 

38 

25 

80 

73        65 

ddvd 

— 

— 

— 

— 

—        — 

(ViNAKICKT, 

'The  sowed  field  sends  forth  perfume.' 

Nase     Labe     vody    vali  proudem  mocnym  v  ddlnon  zem. 
F,    51         52         47        59  66  67  57  — 

Fa    52         61         49        70  64  66  54  — 

(The  mighty  waves  of  our  river  Elbe  flow  far  into  the  world.) 

1  Brucke,  Die  physiologischen  Grnudlagen  d.  neuhochdentschen  Verskunst, 

Wien,  1871. 

2  KrAl  a  Mares,  Trvdnt  hldseh  aslabik  die  objehtivngmiry,  Listy  Filologicke, 

1893  XX  2.57. 


538  FACTORS   OF  SPEECH 

Their  results  indicate  that  even  with  the  same  person  the 
same  vowel  has  a  different  length  according  as  the  emphasis 
is  greater  or  less  when  a  verse  is  recited  in  a  scanning  fashion ; 
and  that  neither  in  intensity-verse  nor  time-verse  arc  the 
lengths  of  feet  ever  exactly  equal,  the  ratio  of  the  emphasized 
part  to  the  unemphasized  part  of  a  foot  not  keeping  a  relation 
like  1  :  1,  but  rather  like  30  :  31,  or  32  :  33. 

In  HtJEST  and  McKay's^  experiments  on  the  time  relation 
of  poetical  meters  the  subject  recited  poems  representing 
each  of  the  four  usual  meters,  iambus,  trochee,  dactyl  and 
anapest,  while  he  beat  in  unison  with  the  finger  on  a  pointer 
which  registered  the  lengths  of  the  beats  on  a  smoked  drum. 
It  was  found  that  in  iambic  meter  the  syllables  had  a  ratio 
of  about  1:2,  iu  trochaic  of  a  little  less  than  1.5  :  1,  in 
anapestic  of  about  1  :  1  :  1.  2,  and  in  dactylic  of  1.6  :  1.1  :  1. 
In  these  experiments  the  investigators  did  not  take  any 
records  of  the  spoken  sounds,  but  only  of  the  rhythmic 
strokes  of  the  hand. 

Since  even  in  scanning  the  syllables  do  not  have  simple 
relations  of  length,  it  is  justifiable  to  conclude  that  in  nat- 
urally spoken  verse  the  relations  differ  even  more  widely 
from  the  theoretical  ones.  Indeed,  what  is  known  of  the 
psychology  of  human  action  makes  it  quite  incredible  that 
any  such  simple  relations  as  1  :  2,  etc.  ever  occur  (or  have 
occurred)  regularly  in  actually  spoken  verse. 

The  problem  of  where  the  stroke  of  the  hand  occurs  in  beat- 
ing time  to  verse  was  investigated  by  Mbyee,^  with  the 
purpose  of  determining  the  position  of  the  thesis  in  rhythmic 
articulation.  For  recording  the  voice  he  used  a  mouth 
trumpet  ending  in  a  Maeey  tambour  (p.  219)  covered  with 
a  fine  rubber  membrane  to  which  a  small  straw  lever  ending 
in  a  light  pointer  was  attached.  The  beat  of  the  finger  was 
made  on  an  apparatus  comprising  a  plate  of  hard  rubber  con- 
nected by  a  string  to  a  time  marker  (p.  91).      The  subject 

1  Hurst  and  McKat,  Experiments  on  the  time  relation  of  poetical  meters,  Univ. 
of  Toronto  Stud.,  Psychol.  Series,  No.  3,  1899. 

2  Meyek,  Beitrage  zur  deutschen  Metrik,  Neuere  Sprachen,  1898  VI  1,  121. 


SPEECH  RHYTHM       ■  539 

recited  some  syllables  into  the  tambour  through  the  trumpet, 
while  he  beat  time  on  the  rubber  plate.  Thus  the  breath 
curve  and  the  moment  of  beating  could  be  recorded  simul- 
taneously on  the  smoked  drum.  In  all  cases,  except  where 
the  syllable  began  with  a  sonant  explosive  (b,  d,  g),  the  beat 
came  before  the  vowel.  Both  the  tambour  and  the  beating 
apparatus  used  in  the  experiment  had  considerable  latent 
times  which  could  be  only  roughly  estimated  to  be  about 
0.008^  for  the  former  and  0.025'  for  the  latter. 

More  accurate  experiments  have  been  made  by  Miyake.^ 
The  subject  spoke  into  the  voice  key  described  above  (p. 
154).  As  the  light  diaphragm  of  platinum  vibrated  very 
easily  at  a  short  distance  from  the  mouth,  it  recorded  the  first 
vibration  of  the  voice  with  a  latent  time  of  not  over  half  a 
thousandth  of  a  second.  The  voice  key  was  put  in  one  of 
the  circuits  of  a  lamp  battery  (p.  210)  and  a  Deprez  marker 
(p.  92)  in  the  other.  The  latent  time  of  the  marker  was 
less  than  I'',  as  had  been  previously  determined  by  frequent 
tests  (p.  92).  For  the  beating  apparatus  the  noiseless 
key  in  a  rubber  bag  (p.  529)  was  used.  The  tension  of  the 
key  was  very  small  and  the  slightest  touch  was  enough  to 
overcome  the  resistance  for  breaking  the  contact;  the  time 
lost  in  compression  of  the  finger  before  the  key  acted  was 
infinitesimal.  The  key  was  connected  to  the  primary  circuit 
of  a  spark  coil  (p.  12)  while  the  metallic  point  of  the  Deprez 
marker  was  attached  to  one  pole  of  the  secondary  circuit 
(p.  630).  The  arrangement  for  drawing  the  time  line  was 
the  usual  one  of  a  100-fork  (p.  15).  The  drum  was  run  by 
a  motor  with  a  storage  battery ;  a  very  constant  speed  was 
attained. 

The  subject  held  the  voice  key  in  his  hand  and,  putting  its 
mouth-piece  close  to  his  lips,  recited  a  syllable  in  a  scanning 
manner,  while  he  beat  time  on  the  noiseless  key  with  a 
finger  of  his  right  hand  (generally  the  index  finger),  the  rate 
of  the  recital  being  left  to  his  choice. 

1  MiTAKE,  Researches  on  rhythmic  action,  Stud.  Yale  Psych.  Lab.,  1902  X  39. 


540  FACTORS   OF  SPEECH 

The  following  syllables  were  used  by  different  subjects: 
(1)  a,  (2)  ,a,  (3)  ma,  (4)  ha,  (5)  pa,  (6)  ap,  (7)  ap,  (8) 
mam,  (9)  mam.  In  these  the  a  was  pronounced  like  a  in 
'  father. '  The  a  had  the  usual  smooth  English  entrance  (p. 
429).  The  'a  was  the  same  as  a,  but  with  a  slight  glottal 
catch  at  the  beginning  (p.  278).  Both  a  and  a  were  the 
same  in  quality,  but  a  was  shorter  than  a,  as  the  sign  indicates. 
All  the  consonants  were  pronounced  as  in  English. 

A  summary  of  the  results  of  the  experiments  is  given  in 
the  following  tables.  The  positive  signs  indicate  the  devi- 
ations when  the  beats  of  the  finger  came  before  the  vowel, 
and  the  negative  ones  those  when  the  beats  came  after  the 
beginning  of  the  vowel.  The  fourth  and  fifth  columns  in 
the  first  table  give  the  number  of  the  cases  in  which  the 
positive  and  negative  deviations  occurred. 

Sdmmakt  for  Sounds 

Average  time  of  beat        Number  of     -.t      u       i  i      xt      u        n 
before  vowel.  measurements.   Number  of +.    Number  of-. 

ma  +132  210  209  1 


pa 

+  143 

'206 

205 

1 

ha 

+  118 

190 

187 

2 

>a 

+  131 

170 

90 

0 

a 

+    52 

20 

107 

12 

ap 

+    59 

100 

92 

8 

ap 

+    52 

90 

65 

25 

mam 

4     57 

80 

80 

1 

mam 

+    62 

80 

78 

1 

Unit  of  measurement,  o-  =  0.001' 

Summary 

FOR  Individuals 

Subject. 

ma        pa          ha 

'a 

a 

ap 

ap 

mam   mam 

K 

+    76     +    96     +    56 

+  19 

+  30     +10 

+  54     +60 

E 

+  120     +  140     +  103 

+  132 

+  88     +94 

+  61     +64 

T 

+  169     +  181     +  133 

+  86 

M 

+  163     +  157     +  172 

+  130 

Unit  of  measurement,  a  =  0  001' 


The  tables  show  that  the  beat  of  the  finger  comes  before 
the  beginning  of  the  vowel  under  the  following  conditions : 
,(1)  when  the  vowel  is  preceded  by  a  consonant  and  is  not  fol- 
lowed by  any  other  sound;  (2)  when  the  vowel  has  the  glottal 
catch  at  the  beginning;  (3)  when  the  vowel  is  neither  pre- 


SPEECH  RHYTHM  541 

ceded  nor  followed  by  any  sound;  (4)  when  a  short  vowel  is 
followed  by  a  consonant;  (6)  when  a  long  vowel  is  followed 
by  a  consonant;  (6)  when  the  short  vowel  is  preceded  and 
followed  by  consonants;  (7)  when  the  long  vowel  is  preceded 
and  followed  by  consonants.  The  conclusions,  of  course,  are 
valid  only  for  independent  syllables,  but  they  probably  apply 
—  with  some  modification  —  to  those  in  connected  speech. 

It  will  be  observed  also  that  the  amount  of  time  by  which 
the  beat  occurs  before  the  beginning  of  the  vowel  is  not  the 
same  for  the  different  combinations  in  which  the  vowel  stands. 

The  results  for  the  subjects  ^and  ^show  that  the  length 
of  time  by  which  the  beat  occurs  before  a,  when  not  preceded 
by  a  consonant,  is  considerably  shorter  than  that  before  the 
vowel  when  preceded  by  a  consonant.  This  fact  indicates 
that  the  consonant  lengthens  the  time  between  the  beat  and 
the  beginning  of  the  vowel. 

The  amount  of  time  between  the  beat  and  the  beginning  of 
the  vowel  differs  with  the  different  consonants  which  precede 
it.  The  subjects  K,  E,  T  all  agree  in  making  this  differ- 
ence greatest  in  pa,  next  greatest  in  ma,  and  least  in  ha. 

The  amount  of  time  by  which  the  beat  is  ahead  in  'a  is  not 
very  different  from  that  in  ma,  pa  and  ha.  It  is  probably 
due  to  the  fact  that  the  glottal  catch  at  the  beginning  of  the 
vowel  is  of  the  same  nature  as  a  consonant  in  so  far  as  the 
complexity  of  action  of  the  vocal  organs  is  concerned. 

The  results  for  mam  and  mam  seem  to  indicate,  if  not  in 
a  very  conclusive  manner,  that  when  a  vowel  is  preceded  as 
well  as  followed  by  a  consonant,  the  beat  tends  to  come 
nearer  the  beginning  of  the  vowel  than  when  the  vowel  is 
preceded  by  a  consonant  but  not  followed  by  another. 

The  preceding  observations  show  that  the  finger  beat  occurs 
before  the  vowel.  But  where  does  it  come  in  respect  to  a 
consonant  which  precedes  the  vowel? 

Among  the  three  consonants  m,  p  and  h  which  formed  the 
objects  of  the  experiments  in  combination  with  the  vowel  a, 
the  last  two  (p  and  h)  could  be  found  in  the  records.  The 
curve   for   the   consonant   in  the  records  did  not  consist  of 


542 


FACTORS   OF  SPEECH 


vibrations  like  those  of  the  vowel,  but  of  a  smooth  deviation 
from  the  record  line,  due  to  the  air  pressure.  The  lengths  of 
the  consonants  could  thus  be  measured.  The  results  of  the 
measurements  may  be  summarized  as  follows: 


Finger  beat  with  ha 


bject. 

Average 
length 
oJh. 

Immediate 
absolute 
probable 
error. 

•Average  time 
of  beat 
before  h. 

Immediate 
absolute 
probable 
error. 

Number 
of  meas- 
urements. 

Number 

of+. 

Number 
of—. 

E 

39 

6.7 

+  51 

9.6 

30 

30 

0 

K 

116 

15.5 

-62 

23.8 

50 

1 

48 

Finger  beat 

WITH   pa 

bject. 

Immediate 
Average      absolute      Average  time 
length       probable        of  beat  be- 
ef p.            error.               fore  p. 

Immediate 

absolute 

probable 

error. 

Number  of 
measure- 
ments. 

Num- 
ber 

of+. 

Num^ 
ber 
of— . 

E 

48 

6.2 

+  69 

153 

50 

50 

0 

K 

58 

15.3 

+  15 

16.5 

60 

42 

17 

Summary 

bject. 

Average 
length  of  p. 

Average  time 
of  beat  before  p. 

Average 
length  of  h. 

Average  time 
of  beat  before  h. 

E 
K 

49 
59 

+  69 
+  15 

39 
117 

+  51 
—  61 

Unit  of  measurement,  (r  =  0.001'. 

The  following  points  may  be  observed  in  the  tables :  1.  for 
the  syllable  pa  two  subjects  agree  in  beating  time  before  the 
beginning  of  the  consonant;  2.  for  the  syllable  ha,  with  the 
subject  U  the  beats  come  constantly  before  the  beginning  of 
the  consonant,  but  with  jfiTthey  come  in  most  cases  after  the 
beginning  of  the  consonant,  about  midway  between  the  conso- 
nant and  the  vowel  which  follows  it. 

From  the  observations  reported  in  this  investigation  the 
final  conclusion  can  be  drawn  that  the  beat  of  the  finger  in 
connection  with  the  rhythm  of  speech  comes  before  the  vowel 
and  before  or  in  the  course  of  the  consonant  which  precedes 
the  vowel. 

MiYAKE  adds  the  following  observations  concerning  the 
point  of  emphasis  in  rhythmic  articulation.  The  question  is 
first  raised  as  to  the  relation  of  the  beat  of  the  finger  to  the 
point  of  greatest  emphasis.  Our  experience  seems  to  show 
that  when  we  recite  a  verse  while  we  beat   time  with   the 


SPEECH  RHYTHM  543 

hand,  the  point  of  the  highest  emphasis  in  the  rhythm  comes 
at  the  same  moment  with  the  beat. 

Although  it  is  not  certain  whether  the  innervations  of  the 
movements  of  the  hand  and  vocal  organs  proceed  from  their 
nervous  centers  at  exactly  the  same  moment,  still  we  may 
suppose  that  the  two  movements  are  so  closely  associated 
that  the  innervations  take  place  almost  simultaneously. 
But  when  we  attempt  to  determine  the  position  of  the  point 
of  emphasis  from  the  beat  of  the  finger,  we  find  that  it  cannot 
be  easily  done.  It  does  not  follow  that  the  movements 
themselves  are  executed  at  the  same  time  from  the  mere  sup- 
position that  innervations  of  the  movements  of  hand  and  vocal 
organs  take  place  simultaneously. 

Meyer  ^  supposed  that  the  movements  of  hand  and  vocal 
organs  would  take  place  at  the  same  moment,  provided  the 
nerve  fibers  which  transmit  the  impulses  are  equal  in  length. 
He  calculated  from  the  rate  of  nervous  transmission  that  the 
impulse  reaches  hand  aboat  0.015'  later  than  vocal  organ. 
Adding  the  latent  time  of  the  apparatus  to  this  lost  time  of 
nerve  transmission  he  arrived  at  the  final  conclusion  that  the 
point  of  emphasis  lies  in  the  course  of  a  sonant  consonant  or 
shortly  before  it  when  it  follows  an  explosive. 

The  diiference  in  the  length  of  the  nerve  fibers  is  not  the 
only  factor  which  disturbs  the  simultaneity  of  the  two  move- 
ments. KiJLPE's  experiments  ^  showed  that  we  have  difficulty 
in  moving  the  hands  at  the  same  time  to  react  to  a  single 
stimulus.  If  even  the  two  hands  — ■  alike  in  construction  and 
symmetrically  arranged  —  are  not  moved  simultaneously,  it 
must  be  still  more  difficult  to  execute  the  movements  of  two 
disparate  organs  like  the  hand  and  vocal  organs  at  the  same 
moment. 

Besides  these  differences  there  may  be  several  other  factors 
which  cause  the  deviation  of  the  two  movements.  The  differ- 
ence in  the  complexity  of  the  construction  in  the  two  organs 

1  Meyer,  Beitrage  zur  deutschen  Metrilc,  Neuere  Sprachen,  1898  VI  121. 
■'  KtJLPE,   Ueber  die   Gleichzeitigkeit  von  Bewegungen,  Philos.  Stud.  (Wundt), 
891   VI  514. 


5i4  FACTORS   OF  SPEECH 

might  be  one  of  such  factors.  The  condition  of  attention 
during  the  movements  might  be  another.  Therefore,  until 
we  know  all  the  conditions  on  which  the  simultaneity  of  the 
two  movements  depends,  we  cannot  state  exactly  the  relation 
of  the  point  of  emphasis  to  the  finger-beat  although  we  may 
conclude  that  they  do  not  differ  by  more  than  a  few  hun- 
dredths of  a  second.  '  Simultaneous,'  like  other  terms,  de- 
pends for  its  meaning  on  the  degree  of  accuracy  involved ; 
for  most  purposes  we  may  regard  the  finger  beat  as  simulta- 
neous with  the  point  of  emphasis  (centroid  of  speech  effort, 
p.  428)  although  the  relation  may  vary  in  different  indi- 
viduals and  in  varying  circumstances. 

If  we  assume,  then,  that  the  movements  of  the  hand  and 
vocal  organs  are  executed  simultaneously,  we  can  conclude 
from  the  foregoing  experiments  that  the  point  of  emphasis  in 
rhythmic  speech  comes  before  the  vowel  and  before  or  in  the 
course  of  the  consonant  which  precedes  the  vowel.  In  other 
words,  the  point  of  emphasis  in  rhythmic  articulation  lies 
at  the  beginning  of  the  movement  of  the  vocal  organs  for  the 
production  of  the  sound. 

The  length  of  time  between  two  points  that  are  felt  to  be 
emphatic  may  be  studied  by  the  following  method.  The 
speech  is  recorded  on  a  phonograph  in  the  usual  way  (p.  32). 
A  contact  wheel  is  then  prepared  by  under-cutting  the  teeth 
of  a  gear  wheel  so  that  the  bases  of  the  spaces  are  larger  than 
the  tops,  filling  the  spaces  with  rubber,  vulcanizing  it,  and 
turning  it  true.  This  wheel  is  placed  on  the  axle  of  the 
phonograph  and  a  contact  brush  is  applied  to  its  edge.  When 
an  electric  current  is  sent  through  it,  the  circuit  is  closed 
as  each  tooth  passes  under  the  brush.  A  magnetic  counter 
(EwALD  chronoscope,  p.  162)  placed  in  the  circuit  will  indi- 
cate the  passage  of  each  tooth  as  long  as  the  current  is  sent 
through  it.  Two  shunts  are  placed  across  the  circuit,  one 
around  the  counter  and  the  other  around  the  contact  wheel. 
Each  shunt  contains  a  key  held  down  in  contact  by  the 
finger.  On  releasing  the  former  key  the  counter  begins  to 
register  the  teeth    of  the   contact   wheel   as   they   pass   the 


SPEECH  RHYTHM  645 

brush;  on  releasing  the  second  key  it  stops.  A  simple  calcu- 
lation from  the  number  of  teeth  in  the  wheel  and  the  speed 
of  the  phonograph  gives  the  time  between  the  action  of  the 
two   keys. 

This  method  I  have  used  to  measure  the  intervals  between 
what  I  felt  to  be  the  points  of  emphasis  in  a  specimen  of 
French  verse.  By  measuring  the  so-called  '  feet '  separately, 
in  twos,  threes,  etc.,  an  idea  could  be  obtained  of  the  con- 
stancy of  the  method ;  there  was  rarely  any  difference  between 
the  total  time  for  two  or  three  feet  and  the  sum  of  the  times 
for  the  separate  feet. 

For  the  first  stanza  of  Le  sonnet  d'Arvers  spoken  by  M. 
Maitrb  I  obtained  the  results  indicated  by  the  figures  over 
the  lines  in  the  following  scheme.  By  measuring  the  time 
from  the  last  point  of  emphasis  of  one  line  to  the  first  of  the 
next  the  length  of  the  final  pause  and  the  following  initial 
syllable  was  obtained;  by  special  measurements  the  length 
of  this  initial  syllable  was  obtained  separately ;  the  pause  was 
found  by  subtraction. 

I  < 255 >  I  < 117 

<  .  .  3  .  .  >  I  <  .  .  .   135   .  .  .  >  I  < .  .  .  .  50  .  .  .  .  >  I  <  .  . .  .  70 >  I  < ...  73  ...  > 

He'las!    j'aurai  passe    prea  d'elle        inapercju 

>|< 212 >|< 110 

<  .  .  28  .  .  >  I  <  .  .  .  .  87  .  .  .  .  >  I  <  .  .  .  .  53 >  I  <  ....  72 >  |  < .  .  .  .  85  .  .  .  > 

Sans   cesse    a    ses  cotes      et      toujours  solitaire 

>  I  < 217 >  I  < 112 

<,.25..>  I  <...75...>  I  < 68 >  I  <.  ..58...>  I  < 51 > 

Et  j'aurai   jusqu'au   bout     fait     men  temps   sur  la   terre 


■  >     <  • 


183 > 

<  .  .  .  .  50  .  .  . .  >  I  < 57 >  I  < 60 >  I  < 67 > 

N'osant       rien  tlemander  et      n'ayantrien       reyu. 

Unit  of  measurement,  0.01^. 

Let  US  call  a  point  at  which  the  emphasis  is  felt  to  be 
located  a  '  centroid ' ;  and  the  time  from  one  centroid  to  the 
next  a  '  centroid  interval.'  The  centroid  intervals  within  a 
line  give  the  averages  a^  =  0.85%  a^  =  0.71%  as  =  0.72%  a*  = 
0.61'  for  the  respective  lines,  and  a  =  0.72'  for  all  four  lines. 
The  intervals  from  the  first  centroid  to  the  last  one  in  the 
same  line  are  5.  =  2.55%  h  =  2.12%  b,  =  2.17%  h  =  183%  and 
b  =  2.17'  for  all  four.     The  initial  intervals  for  each  line  are 

35 


546  FACTORS   OF  SPEECH 

ci  =:  0.02%  c^  =  0.28S  (73  =  0.25%  c^  =  0.50%  and  for  all  four 
c  =  0.34^  The  intervals  from  the  last  centroid  in  one  line  to 
the  first  in  the  next  are  d-^  =  1.17%  d^  =  1.10%  dz  =  1.12%  and 
for  the  three  cases  d  —  \  .13'.  The  pauses  between  the  lines 
measure  ei  =  0.73%  e,,  =  0.85%  es  =  0.51%  and  for  all  three 
e  =  0.70^  The  average  intervals  for  the  line  including  the 
internal  centroid  intervals  and  the  final  pause  are  /i  =  0.82% 
/,  =  0.73%  /a  =  0.62%  and  for  the  three  /=0.72=.  The 
lengths  of  the  lines  up  to  the  last  centroid  are  gi  =  2.58% 
g2  =  2.40%  ^3  =  2.42%  ^,  =  2.13%  or  for  all  four  g  =  2.38^ 
The  lengths  of  the  lines  including  the  final  pauses  are  (A,  = 
g,  +  e,  [i  =  1,  2,  3])  h,  =  3.31%  h,  =  3.25%  h  =  2.91%  and 
for  all  three  h  =  3.15'.  The  intervals  between  the  last  cen- 
troid in  one  line  and  the  last  in  the  next  are  k^  —  3.29%  Jc^  — 
3.28%  ^3  =  1.95%  and  for  the  three  cases  k  =  2.13'. 

When  one  phenomenon  occurs  more  regularly  than  another, 
it  may  be  assumed  to  be  more  characteristic  of  subject  investi- 
gated. On  this  principle  we  may  draw  several  important 
conclusions  concerning  this  specimen  of  verse.  Since  c?,  = 
«i  +  <^i  (j-  =  li  2,  3)  and  since  di  is  very  constant,  the  effective 
element  in  the  passage  from  line  to  line  is  the  time  between 
final  and  initial  centroids  ;  the  filling  of  this  passage-interval 
is  made  up  of  pauses  (which  are  effective  elements  both  in 
movement  and  to  the  ear)  and  sounds  adjusted  to  each  other. 
The  facts  that  d  >  a,  that  a  often  shows  considerable  varia- 
bility within  a  line,  and  that  the  length  of  the  line  (^  or  A)  is 
quite  constant,  seem  to  indicate  that  the  line  is  itself  felt  as  a 
unit  in  the  composition.  The  fact  that  g  and  h  are  almost 
equally  constant  (that  is,  have  the  same  probable  errors)  indi- 
cates that  a  line  may  be  considered  as  ending  either  with  the 
last  centroid  or  with  the  completion  of  the  pause. 

The  rhythm  in>  speech  may  be  studied  by  an  analysis  of  the 
speech  curve. 

A  short  portion  of  the  speech  curve  of  the  Cock  Robin 
record  (p.  58)  has  been  studied  in  reference  to  the  elements 
of  rhythm;  the  results  for  the  first  stanza  are  given  in  the 
following  tables. 


SPEECH  RHYTHM 


547 


The  first  column  gives  the  sounds  in  the  phonetic  transcrip- 
tion used  in  this  book.  The  second  column  gives  the  dura- 
tion of   each  sound  as  determined  by  measurements  of   the 


Line  1 :  •  Who  killed  Cock  Bobin  ? 


■9  So 

ijf 

•S  0) 

1 
1 

Remarks. 

0 

u  o  n 
Cm" 

W 

a 

^ 

h 

>I0 

Very  short  sound,  not  distinguishable  in 
the  record,  not  over  XO"  in  length. 

u 

189 

3.3 

0.4 

strong 

Forcible  vowel,  large  amplitude  in  earlier 
portion,  rises  somewhat  in  pitch,  average 
period  3.3. 

k 

119 

Appears  in  the  record  as  a  straight  line. 

i 

154 

1.8 

0.6 

strong 

Long  vowel,  large  amplitude  throughout, 
double  circumflex  in  amplitude.  The  high 
pitch  of  this  i  is  in  contrast  with  that  of 
'  killed '  in  the  4th  Line  (below). 

1 

74 

1  8 

0.1 

(d) 

0 

No  sound  of  d  can  be  heard  in  this  record; 

the  record  plate  speaks   '  Who   kiE   Cock 

Robin  ^  ' 

k 

53 

Appears  in  the  record  as  a  straight  line. 

a 

126 

42 

0.5 

weak 

Rises  somewhat  in  pitch  to  4.2  in  the 
main  portion,  weak  on  account  of  lowness  in 
pitch. 

The  vibrations  of  the  a  are  suddenly  cut 

k 

101 

short  by  a  few  vibrations  of  a  different  form 

that  rapidly  decrease  in  amplitude.    In  listen- 

ing to  the  record  plate  the  ear  hears  no  glide 

between  a  and  k ;  the  word  seems  to  be  sim- 

ply and  distinctly  kak  and  not  kaak. 

r 

74 

1.8 

0.3 

"Very  distinctly  and  heavily  rolled  r ; 
pseudobeats  are  apparent  in  the  tracing. 

a 

140 

5.3 

0.5 

strong 

Of  very  low  but  constant  pitch ;  steady 
rise  in  intensity  till  the  vowel  is  cut  short 
by  b ;  forcible  on  account  of  length  and 
amplitude. 

b 

49 

Straight  line  from  a  to  i. 

i 

56 

5.6 

0.3 

weak 

Short  but  distinctly  heard  ;  weak  on  ac- 
count of  shortness,  lowness  and  faintness. 

n 

74 

8.4 

0.2 

Falls  in  pitch  and  amplitude. 

1 

770 

curves  in  the  records.  The  third  column  gives  the  periods 
of  the  cord  tone,  and  the  fourth  gives  the  amplitudes  of  the 
vibration  in  the  tracing,  not  the  amplitudes  of  the  vibration 


548 


FACTORS   OF  SPEECH 


on  the  gramophone  plate  or  of  the  movement  of  the  vocal 
cords.  The  fifth  column  gives  what  I  consider  to  be .  the 
character  of  the  syllable  in  respect  to  being  '  strong  '  or 
'  weak  ' ;  the  judgment  is  based  on  the  sound  of  the  gramo- 
phone record,  aided  by  the  tables. 

The  analysis   of  the  first  stanza  of  Cock  Rohin  as  given 

Line  2  :  /,  said  the  sparrow. 


a 

-Si 

5S 

O 

03 
O 

1 
*>> 

Remarks. 

ai 

452 

18  to  4 

0,7 

strong 

Strong  by  length,  pitch  of  i  and   ampli- 

"1 

210 

tude  ;  tracing  given  in  Plate  II. 

s 

1 

Very  brief  sound,  no  trace  in  record. 

e 

105 

5.3 

0.5 

weak 

Rather  long  and  loud,  but  low  in  pitch. 

d 

81 

5.3 

0.1 

Pitch  falls  from  5.3. 

■s 

32 

1 

>0.1 

Very  weak  vibrations. 

3 

84 

5.3 

0.2 

weak 

sp 

273 

Impossible  to  distinguish  between  the  two 
sounds  in  the  tracing  ;  the  s  is  heard  as  a 
brief  sound. 

-? 

18 

1.9 

0.4 

Distinct  sound  different  from  the  follow- 
ing «e,  exaggerated  explosion  of  p  ? 

ae 

170 

5.3 

0.5 

strong 

Constant  very  low  pitch  but  steadily  in- 
creasing amplitude  ;  falls  suddenly  in  inten- 
sity during  5"  to  r;  strong  on  account  of 
length  and  amplitude. 

r 

11 

2.8 

0.2 

Clearly  marked  vibrations ;  the  rolling 
of  the  r  can  be  distinctly  heard. 

Very  long  vowel  of   constant  pitch,  but 

o 

294 

5.2 

0.6 

strong 

of  rismg  and  then  falling  intensity ;  strong 
by  length  and  amplitude  ;  followed  without 
pause  by  w  of  next  Line. 

Tracing  of  '  sparrow '  given  in  Plate  I. 

in  these  tables  shows  that  it  contains  not  only  an  intensity 
rhythm  but  also  a  pitch  rhythm  and  a  duration  rhythm. 
The  three  elements  —  length,  pitch  and  intensity  —  are  all 
used  to  produce  strength.  Thus  the  forcible  vowel  u  in 
Line  1  is  short  but  moderately  high  and  loud. 

The  strength  of  a  syllable  may  be  kept  the  same  by  increas- 
ing one  of  the  factors  as  another  one  decreases  (p.  549).     The 


SPEECH  RHYTHM 


549 


vowel  a  of  '  Robin  '  in  Line  1  is  strong  on  account  of  its 
length  and  intensity,  although  its  pitch  is  low.  A  syllable 
necessarily  short  may  be  made  as  strong  as  a  longer  one  by 
making  it  louder  or  higher;  or  a  syllable  necessarily  of  small 


Line  3  :    With  my  how  and  arrow. 


•S  "a 

11' 

laf 

all 

"3  a) 

|] 

c 

la 

in  mm.), 
yllabic  effect. 

Remarks. 

1 

(5  = 

&B 

OQ 

w 

108 

5.3 

o.s 

Amplitude  rises  from  0. 

i 

60 

2.1 

0.4 

strong 

Circumflex  sustained  vowel;   strong  by- 

« 

56 

■! 

0.1 

pitch  and  amplitude. 

m 

74 

5.3 

O.I 

a 

179 

5.6 

0.4 

1 

>    strong 

Both  parts  of  this  diphthong  are  nearly 
constant  in  pitch  and  amplitude ;  strong  by 

i 

112 

3.6 

0.5 

) 

length  and  amplitude. 

S! 

140 

'  My '  is  followed  by  a  brief  rest  in  order 

to  bring  out  the  b  distinctly.     The  b  makes 

no  curves  in  the  record. 

5 

490 

7.0 

0.4 

strong 

Extremely  long  vowel  of  very  low  pitch 
with  two  maxima  of  intensity ;  it  might 
be  considered  as  a  close  succession  of  those 
o's  ;  strong  by  length  and  amplitude ;  trac- 
ing given  in  Plate  I. 

"1 

11 

382  1 

7.7-5.3 
5.3 

The  ae  begins  at  a  very  low  pitch  7.7  and 

0.2 
0.1 

weak 

rises   steadily   to   5.3,  which   is   maintained 

throughout  the  n.     The  form  of  the  curve 

for  ae  ditf'ers  from  that  for  n,  yet  the  change 

is  so  gradual  that  it  is  impossible  to  assign 

any  dividing  line. 

d 

18 

Straight  line  in  the  record. 

9 

102 

5.3 

0.4 

'Jhis  extra  vowel  arises  from  the  attempt 
at  extra  distinctness  iu  speaking. 

ae 

189 

5.2 

0.3 

strong 

Strong  by  length  and  pitch. 

r 

39 

2.5  (?) 

0,1 

Kolled  r,  brief 

0 

331 

7.0 

0.6 

strong 

A  single  vowel  of  circumflex  intensity, 
strong  by  length  and  amplitude. 

1 

420 

intensity  may  be  strengthened  by  lengthening  it  or  raising  its 
pitch.  Thus,  the  short  i  of  '  with  '  in  Line  3  is  strong  on 
account  of  its  high  pitch  and  large  amplitude ;  and  the  weak 
ee  of  '  arrow '  in  Line  3  is  strong  on  account  of  its  high 
pitch  and  its  length.  This  might  be  called  the  principle  of 
substitution. 


550 


FACTORS   OF  SPEECH 


It  appears  necessary  to  attempt  some  interpretation  of  the 
foregoing   experiments    on  speech    rhythm.     As   previously 


Line  4 :  /  killed  Cook  Robin. 


■a 

11- 

S  3'= 

1 

Remarks. 

ai 

334 

12-4 

0.6 

strODg 

Strong  by  length,  pitch  of  i  and  ampli- 
tude. 

k 

125 

Straight  line  in  the  record. 

i  ; 

It  is  impossible  to  assign  any  definite  point 

i 

324 

5.6 

0,2 

weak 

as  the  limit  between  these  two  sounds  ;  weak, 

1^ 

low  i  in  contrast  to  the  i  in  the  first  Line 
above. 

d 

33 

This  d  is  distinctly  heard ;  compare  d  in 
first  Line  above 

9 

81 

4.9 

0.2 

Additional  vowel  due  to  the  extra  dis- 
tinctness in  speaking  the  d  ;  it  arises  from 
the  explosive  opening  of  the  mouth ;  the  pro- 
nunciation of  the  word  '  killed  '  is  different 
from  that  in  the  first  Line  chiefly  in  the  great 
difference  in  pitch  and  in  the  greater  distinct- 
ness of  the  d. 

k 

133 

Straight  line  in  the  record. 

a 

147 

7.0-5.3 

0.3 

weak 

Pitch  rises  from  beginning  to  end. 

k 

122 

See  the  same  word  in  the  first  Line  above. 

J 

60 

3.9 

0.6 

The  r  is  more  vowel-like  than  the  corre- 
sponding r  in  the  first  Line ;  the  strong  roll 
is  not  heard ;  the  curve  of  xa.  very  much  re- 
sembles in  period  and  amplitude  the  curve 
of  an   ai   in   '  thy '   turned  backward ;    the 

strong 

period  of  the  cord  tone  is  practically  con- 

stant ;  the  resonance  tone  of  the  mouth  un- 

dergoes a  continuous  change ;  any  assignment 

of  a  limit  between  the  two  sounds  must  be 

somewhat    arbitrary ;    Ja    is    apparently  a 

rising   diphthong;    the  sound   ja  is  strong 

a 

103 

3.9 

0.5 

by  length,  pitch  and  amplitude. 

b 

53 

4.2 

0.1 

The  b  cuts  off  suddenly  the  sound  of  a. 

i 

82 

5.6 

«... 

0.0 

The  i  is  heard,  but  not  so  distinctly  as  in 

weak 

the  first  Line  above. 

n 

74 

8.8 

Weak,  low,  diminuendo. 

-1 

955 

indicated  (p.  447),  speech  is  a  flow  of  auditory  and  motor 
energy  with  no  possibility  of  division  into  separate  blocks 
such   as    letters,    syllables,    words,    feet,    etc.,  except  in   a 


SPEECH  RHYTHM  551 

purely  arbitrary  manner  that  does  not  represent  the  actual 
case.  To  the  speaker  and  the  hearer  this  flow  may  be  treated 
in  its  rhythmic  effect  as  a  series  of  centroids  (p.  451).  This 
is  the  basis  of  all  comparisons  of  verse  with  rhythmic  clicks 
and  with  rhythmic  movements.  In  prose  the  centroid  is  the 
place  at  which  the  whole  effect  of  accent  can  be  placed; 
the  factors  that  make  accent  are  those  that  locate  the 
centroid.  In  verse  the  centroids  are  located  by  the  prose 
effect,  and  also  by  the  rhythmic  swing  of  the  movement  of 
the  verse  form  itself.  Experiments  with  beating  time  to 
verse  are  attempts  to  locate  the  centroids. 

Spoken  language  is  usually  classified  as  prose  or  verse.  It 
might,  perhaps,  be  better  to  say  that  in  spoken  language  there 
are  certain  elements  that  may  be  present  in  greater  or  lesser 
degrees;  the  forms  with  little  of  these  elements  are  termed 
'  prose  '  while  those  with  more  of  them  are  termed  '  verse, ' 
without  the  possibility  of  always  making  a  sharp  distinction. 
These  elements  include  rhythm,  melody,  and  probably  also 
agreeableness  of  quality,  etc.  The  speech  of  some  persons 
appears  to  be  totally  lacking  in  melodiousness ;  the  voice  has 
no  tunefulness,  the  words  come  out  without  inflection  and 
there  is  no  regular  distribution  of  the  emphatic  elements  in 
a  sentence.  Other  persons  naturally  speak  even  the  simplest 
sentences  in  a  melodious  manner;  the  pitch  of  the  successive 
syllables  rises  and  falls  pleasantly  and  the  points  of  emphasis 
are  evenly  distributed.  This  may  go  so  far  that  the  sponta- 
neous utterances  of  a  speaker  possess  all  the  charm  of  blank 
verse,  or  may  even  be  indistinguishable  from  it.  An  exam- 
ple of  such  speech  can  be  found  in  Jefferson's  rendering  of 
Rip  Van  Winkle's  Reverie  ;  it  is  contained  on  the  gramophone 
plate  numbered  699.  This  prose  speech  possesses  all  the 
beauty  of  verse  without  rime.  The  plate  has  not  yet  been 
traced  off  and  the  elements  that  produce  the  melodiousness 
are  still  undetermined. 

As  a  model  of  vocal  rhythm  we  may  assume  that  the  series 
of  vocal  sounds  is  divided  into  relatively  large  portions  of 
equal  lengths,  or '  measures ' ;  these  measures  are  divided  either 


552  FACTORS   OF  SPEECH 

into  two  portions,  thesis  and  arsis,  bearing  simple  relations 
of  length,  or  into  a  number  of  small  equal  portions  termed 
'  morae  '  or  XP°^°''  "^pSnoi.  The  relations  of  length  between 
thesis  and  arsis  will  be  as  2  :  1,  1  :  1,  etc.  Such  a  mathe- 
matical relation  was  called  by  the  Greeks  prjTO^,  which  has 
been  translated  as  'rational.'  A  rhythm  with  such  simple 
relations  of  length  may  be  called  a  '  rational  rhythm,'  ^  or, 
perhaps  preferably,  an  abstract  rhythm.  In  vocal  music  we 
would  expect  to  find  the  nearest  approach  to  the  relations  of 
abstract  rhythm,  although  even  here  measurements  will  show 
that  the  actual  relations  are  not  exact  or  constant. 

The  relation  2  :  1  for  thesis  and  arsis  does  not  occur,  ex- 
cept by  chance,  in  spoken  verse  ;  verse  rhythm  is  '  irrational.'  ^ 
The  traditional  doctrine  that  a  long  syllable  has  twice  the 
length  of  a  short  syllable  rests  upon  a  not  clearly  understood 
application  of  musical  expressions  to  actual  speech.^ 

In  prose  the  various  syllables  have  lengths  that  depend  on 
general  usage,  on  accent,  emotion,  etc.  In  verse  these  '  natu- 
ral '  lengths  may  be  more  or  less  modified.  The  actual  con- 
crete rhythm  of  a  particular  piece  of  verse  is  a  compromise 
between  the  natural  lengths  and  those  required  by  abstract 
rhythm.* 

According  to  SrEVBES,^  modern  spoken  verse  has  properly 
only  one  kind  of  time-division,  the  foot.  In  respect  to  time 
it  cannot  properly  be  divided  into  smaller  units,  or  morae  ;  and 
there  is  no  definite  relation  between  thesis  and  arsis.  The 
syllables  are  lengthened  or  shortened  so  that  the  desired  time 
is  occupied  by  a  foot.  An  attempt  to  speak  modern  verse 
with  regard  to  the  lengths  of  the  syllables  at  once  destroys 
its  character  as  verse  and  turns  it  into  a  hybrid  thing  known 
as  '  scanned  verse.' 

By  foot  SiBVEES  appears  ^  to  mean  the  time  from  one  mini- 

1  SiEVEES,  Metrische  Studien,  I.,  Abhandl.  d.  k.  sachs.  Ges.  d.  Wiss.,  philol.- 
hist.  Kl.,  1901  XXI  34. 

2  Aristoxenus,  see  Goodell,  Chapters  on  Greek  Metric,  Ch.  II,  New  York, 
1901 ;  SiEVERS,  as  before,  41. 

3  SiEVERS,  as  before,  41.  i  Sievers,  as  before,  42. 
■'■'  SiEVERS,  as  before,  43.                                    6  Sievees,  as  before,  49. 


SPEECH  RHYTHM  653 

mum  of  speech  energy  to  the  next ;  for  reasons  apparent  in 
Ch.  XXX  it  would  seem  preferable  to  define  the  foot  as  the 
time  between  two  centroids  of  speech  energy. 

In  place  of  the  unit-times  of  abstract  rhythm  we  have  to 
consider  the  number  of  syllables  per  foot  in  verse.  Modern 
so-called  iambic  and  trochaic  forms  of  verse  have  two  syl- 
lables per  foot,  anapestic  and  dactylic  three.  The  lengths  of 
the  syllables  in  no  wise  enter  into  consideration. 

The  time  of  a  foot  is  approximately  constant.  When  a 
two  syllable  foot  occurs  in  the  midst  of  three  syllable  feet,  it 
takes  approximately  the  time  of  the  others ;  and  contrariwise. 

The  simplest  English  poetical  line  seems  to  consist  of  a 
quantity  of  speech-sound  distributed  so  as  to  produce  an 
effect  equivalent  to  that  of  a  certain  number  of  points  of 
emphasis  at  definite  intervals. 

The  location  of  a  point  of  emphasis  is  determined  by  the 
strength  of  the  neighboring  sounds.  It  is  like  the  centroid 
of  a  system  of  forces  or  the  center  of  gravity  of  a  body  in 
being  the  point  at  which  we  can  consider  all  the  forces  to  be 
concentrated  and  yet  have  the  same  effect.  The  point  of 
emphasis  may  lie  even  in  some  weak  sound  or  in  a  surd  con- 
sonant if  the  distribution  of  the  neighboring  sounds  produces 
an  effect  equivalent  to  a  strong  sound  occurring  at  that  point. 
Thus  the  first  point  of  emphasis  in  the  third  line  lies  some- 
where in  the  group  of  sounds  '  mybow,'  probably  in  'b' 
between  '  y  '  and  '  o. ' 

With  this  view  of  the  nature  of  English  verse  all  the 
stanzas  of  Oock  Rohin  can  be  readily  and  naturally  scanned 
as  composed  of  two-beat  (or  two-point)  verses.  The  proper 
scansion  of  the  first  stanza  would  be : 

Who  killed  Cock  Eobin? 

«  • 

I,  said  the  sparrow, 

With,  my  bow  and  arrow 

I  killed  Cock  Eobin. 


554  FACTORS   OF  SPEECH 

The  study  of  this  and  other  specimens  of  verse  has  made 
it  quite  clear  that  the  usual  concept  of  the  nature  of  a 
poetical  foot  is  erroneous  in  at  least  one  respect.  Lines  in 
verse  are  generally  distinct  units,  separated  by  pauses  and 
having  definite  limits.  A  single  line,  however,  is  not  made 
up  of  smaller  units  that  can  be  marked  off  from  each  other. 
It  would  be  quite  erroneous  to  divide  the  first  stanza  of  Cock 
Rohin  into  feet.  No  such  divisions  occur  in  the  actually 
spoken  sounds  and  no  dividing  points  can  be  assigned  in  the 
tracing.  In  fact  there  does  not  seem  to  be  any  system  of 
feet  that  can  be  assigned  to  it  or  any  form  of  such  rhythm 
under  which  it  can  be  classified.  Yet  it  is  felt  distinctly  as 
verse  and  has  been  a  factor  in  forming  the  rhythmic  feeling 
for  verse  in  the  history  of  our  language  and  in  individuals. 
Treated  on  the  centroid  method,  it  is  perfect  verse  with  two 
centroids  to  the  line. 

In  verse  the  centroids  are  grouped.  One  group  may  form 
the  line,  another  the  stanza,  etc.,  or,  in  blank  verse,  the 
various  phrases  may  be  made  into  more  or  less  complicated 
groups. 

As  in  all  forms  of  rhythm  (p.  523)  there  is  a  tendency 
to  arrange  the  centroids  regularly.  Thus,  in  the  Sonnet 
d'Arvers  (p.  545)  the  internal  centroids  come  at  about  0.72^ 
apart,  the  line  centroids  at  about  2.13^ 

A  centroid  analysis  of  this  stanza  would  be  approximately 

Helas!  j'aurai  passe  pres  d'elle  inaperQu, 

•  •  •  • 

X  X 

Sans  cesse  a  ses  cQfces  et  toujours  solitaire, 

•  •  e  • 

X  X 

Et  j'aurai  jusqu'au  bout  fait  mon  temps  sur  la  terre, 
"  •  •  • 

X  X 

N'osant  rien  demander  et  n'ayant  rien  recu. 
•  •  •  • 

X  X 


SPEECH  RHYTHM  555 

The  small  dots  •  indicate  the  primary  centroids  (or  '  foot 
centroids '),  the  crosses  x  indicate  the  phrase  centroids,  and 
the  large  dots  •  the  line  centroids.  The  positions  of  these 
centroids  might  be  determined  by  having  the  listener  beat 
on  a  telegraph  key  at  the  moments  he  feels  them  to  occur.  I 
have  indicated  them  only  approximately  without  making 
measurements.  Influenced  by  the  rhyme  and  the  long  pause, 
I  feel  the  line  centroid  to  occur  during  the  last  word  in  each. 

The  distribution  of  energy  around  the  centroids  differs  in 
different  cases,  but  there  are  certain  typical  forms  of  distri- 
bution to  which  definite  names  have  been  given,  as  iambic, 
trochaic,   etc. 

In  much  English  verse  there  is  little  or  no  regularity  of 
distribution ;  just  so  many  centroids  are  grouped  into  a  line 
and  there  is  no  feeling  for  the  distribution  of  energy  between 
centroids.     In  a  stanza  like 

The  Cities  are  full  of  pride, 

•  •  • 

Challenging  each  to  each  — 

•  •  • 

This  from  her  mountain-side, 

•  •  • 

That  from  her  burthen  ed  beach 

•  •■  • 

(Kipmstg) 

it  would  be  quite  a  mistake  to  say  that  the  meter  is  iambic, 
anapestic,  trochaic  or  dactylic.  Even  if  this  particular  stanza 
might  be  said  to  be  mainly  dactylic  and  trochaic,  the  follow- 
ing ones  change  constantly.  In  the  minds  of  both  the  speaker 
and  the  hearer  the  only  rhythmic  essential  lies  in  the  presence 
of  three  beats  to  a  line.  Such  verse  should  be  called  2-beat, 
3-beat,  4-beat  verse,  etc. ;  an  attempt  to  force  on  verse  of 
this  kind  the  classical  schemes  cannot  have  the  slightest 
justification. 

In  other  cases  of  English  verse  there  is  a  careful  (generally 
unconscious)  regularity  in  the  distribution  of  energy.     Thus, 


556  FACTORS   OF  SPEECH 

And  the  stream  will  not  flow  and  the  hill  will  not  rise, 
And  the  colors  have  all  passed  away  from  her  eyes 

(Mooee) 

shows  clearly  a  regular  distribution  of  energy  with  a  slow 
rise  and  a  sudden  fall.     Again, 


Merrily  swinging  on  brier  and  weed 


(Bryant) 


appears  to  rise  suddenly  and  fall  slowly.  A  moderately  slow 
rise  with  quick  fall  appears  in 

The  way  was  long,  the  wind  was  cold 

(Scott) 

and  a  quick  rise  with  moderately  slow  fall  in 

Fifty  times  the  rose  has  flowered  and  faded. 

(Tenn-yson). 

These  are  specimens  of  the  types  known  as  anapest,  dactyl, 
iambus  and  trochee.  They  are  distinct  types,  although  the 
poet  may  sometimes  mix  his  forms  and  often  lapse  to  the 
form  of  simple  beat  verse.  In  some  specimens  of  English 
verse  the  distribution  of  energy  around  the  centroids  is  very 
carefully  elaborated  so  as  to  produce  effects  analogous  to 
those  of  classical  verse.  In  still  more  highly  developed 
forms  of  verse  the  poet  may  use  relations  of  duration  among 
the  syllables  to  produce  a  truly  quantitative  verse. 

Concerning  the  influence  of  rime  and  alliteration  in 
establishing  centroids,  and  concerning  the  relations  between 
the  natural  prose  rhythm  of  a  portion  of  speech  and  the  verse 
rhythm  into  which  it  is  fitted,  we  have  no  experimental  data. 

References 

For  verse  in  general  :  Aristotle,  Treatise  on  Poetry;  Mitford,  In- 
quiry into  Principles  of  Harmony  in  Language  and  of  the  Mechanism  of 
Verse,  Modern  and  Ancient,  London,  1804;  Pierson,  Metrique  naturelle 


SPEECH  RHYTHM  657 

du  langage,  Paris,  1884 ;  Sylvester,  Laws  of  Verse,  London,  1870  ; 
Grimm,  Zur  Geschichte  des  Reims,  Kleiners  Sohriften,  IV,  Berlin,  1887; 
Meumann,  Untersuchungen  zur  Psychologie  mid  Aesthetik  des  Rhylhmus, 
Philos.  Stud.  (Wundt),  1894  X  249,  393  (full  references)  ;  Kawczynski, 
Essai  oomparatif  sur  I'origine  et  I'histoire  des  rhythmes,  Paris,  1889; 
BiJCHEK,  Arbeit  u.  Rhythmus,  3.  Aufl.,  Leipzig,  1902.  For  classical 
verse  :  Goodell,  Chapters  on  Greek  Metric,  New  York,  1901  (references 
to  work  of  classical  and  modern  authors  will  be  found  here)  ;  West- 
PHAL,  Griechische  Khythmik,  3.  Aufl.,  Leipzig,  1885.  For  English  verse  : 
Guest,  History  of  English  Rhythms,  new  ed.,  London,  1882;  Schipper, 
Englisohe  Metrik,  Bonn,  1882-89  ;  Lanibr,  Science  of  English  Verse, 
New  York,  1880;  Poe,  Rationale  of  English  Verse,  Works,  VI,  84,  Chi- 
cago, 1875  ;  Goodell,  Quantity  in  English  Verse,  Trans.  Amer.  Philol. 
Assoc,  1885,  XVI,  78.  For  German  verse  :  Bruoke,  Die  physiologischen 
Grundlagen  d.  neuhochdeutschen  Verskunst,  Wien,  1871 ;  Minor,  Neu- 
hochdeutsche  Metrik,  1893;  Saran,  Ueber  Hartmann  von  Aue,  Beitr.  zur 
Geschichte  d.  deutschen  Sprache  u.  Literatur,  1898  XXIII  42 ;  Sievers, 
Zur  Rhythmik  u.  Melodih  d.  neuhochdeutschen  Sprechverses,  Verhandl.  d. 
XLII.  Versammlung  deutscher  Philologen  u.  Schulmanner,  370,  Leipzig, 
1894;  Sievers,  Metrische  Studien,  I.,  Abhandl.  d.  k.  sachs.Ges,  d.  Wiss., 
philol.-histor.  Kl.,  1901  XXI  No.  1 ;  Westphal,  Theorie  der  neuhoch- 
deutschen Metrik,  2.  Aufl.,  Jena,  1877.  For  French  verse  :  Lubarsch, 
Franzosische  Verslehre,  Berlin,  1879;  Kressner,  Leitfaden  d.  franz. 
Metrik,  Leipzig,  1880;  Passy,  Les  Sons  du  Franqais,  5™  ed.,  Paris,  1899. 


APPENDICES 


APPEIS^DIX  I 

FOURIER  ANALYSIS 

An  understanding  of  the  underlying  principles  is  desirable  but 
not  necessary  for  the  use  of  the  Foubibr  analysis.  The  follow- 
ing exposition  to  the  words  '  In  practice,'  on  page  566  may  be 
omitted  if  desired. 

The  theory  and  practice  of  the  analysis  have  been  well  pre- 
sented by  Hermann.* 

According  to  Fourier's  theorem  any  periodic  function  of  t 
may  be  represented  as  the  sum  of  a  series  of  harmonic  sine  and 
cosine  functions  as  follows  : 

o  o  o 

y  =  i^o  +  «!  •  cos  -^t  +  a^.  cos  -^,t  +  as .  cos  ~t  +  ■  ■  • 

+  bi .  sin  Y^  +  ^2-  S"i  rjf^  +  *8  •  sin  — ,«  +  •  •  •, 

where  a  and  &  are  the  amplitudes  of  the  harmonics,  T  the  period 
of  the  lowest  harmonic,  and  ^a^a.  constant  expressing  the  dis- 
tance of  the  curve  above  the  t  axis. 


By  putting  Vot.^  +  *i^  =  "n  '^'^2^  +*2^  =  c^,  .  .  ., 
and  T  —  *^'^  S'l'  T  —  *^°  S'^'  •  •  •' 

we  get 

2/  z=  Jao  -f  ci  .  sin  r  -^<  +  ffi  j  4-  C2 .  sin  (^t  +  qA  +  ■  ■  ■ 

We  thus  have  the  curve  expressed  as  the  sura  of  a  series  of  sine 
harmonics,  that  is,  of  sinusoids  with  periods  that  are  sub-mul- 
tiples of  the  longest  one.  The  quantities  qi,  q^,  .  ■  ■  indicate 
the  different  phases  of  the  sinusoids. 

1  Hekmann,  Phonophotographische  Untersuchungen,  IT.,  Arch.  f.  d.  ges.  Physiol. 
(Pfluger),  1890  XL VII  45. 


562  APPENDIX  I 

Such  a  series  can  well  be  used  to  find  the  partials  in  the  curve 
of  a  violin  tone  or  of  any  sound  of  a  similar  nature.  When  an 
empirical  curve  of  this  nature  is  given,  the  periods  and  ampli- 
tudes of  the  sinusoids  may  be  found  in  the  way  described  here. 

After  the  ordinates  have  been  measured  (p.  74),  the  computa- 
tion may  be  carried  on  as  follows.  The  length  of  one  period 
(group)  is  divided  into  n  parts  of  h  units  each ;  the  length  T  of 
the  period  is  thus  nh.  In  the  Fouriee  series  as  expressed 
above  we  substitute  distance  along  X  for  time,  whereby  nh  ^=  T 
and  x=t.     Thus 

2ir  Itt  1ir 

y  =  ^a„  H-  a-i .  cos  —x  +  a^  .  cos  -J-ya;  +  Sg  .  cos  o— r^;  +   •  •   • 

Itlt  IVth  Ihfh 

2ir  ,        .       _27r  ,  .      „2ir 

+  6, .  sm  —rx  +  02  .  sm  2—^x  +  0,  .  sin  3— =-x  -|-  •  •  •> 

nh  nh,  nh 

wherein  the  constants  ao)  <ht   ^ii  o-^t  621  ■•  •  are   determined  by 


,+  !i 


the  equations 

2    r^'T      277     ,         2    /"""         2,r     , 
a_  =  ^  I  ^  cos  r— ra;  ax  =  — -  I  V  cos  r^x  ax, 
nhj  „j         ^lA  nhj  a  nh 

~T 

2 


,  y  sin  r— ;^a;  <ia; 
nhJo  nh 

(r  =  0,  1,  2,  .  .  .  .). 

These  constants  are  to  be  approximately  determined  from  a 
limited  number  of  measurements  of  y  for  a  number  of  values 
of  x.  We  possess  the  set  of  values  Xo,  yo ;  Xi,  yx;  ^21  Vi'i  ■  ■  ■ 
from  which  we  must  calculate  «o.  Oi,  61,  a^,  b^,  •  •  •  The 
results  will  come  nearer  the  truth  the  greater  the  number  of 
ordinates  included,  being  absolutely  true  only  for  an  infinite 
number.  For  a  finite  number  the  integral  equations  are  changed 
to  sums  in  which  the  successive  values  of  x  run  through  the 
series  Xo  =  0,  x^  =  h,  x^  —  2h,  .  .  .,  whereby  the  successive 
values  differ  by  h,  or  dx  —  h.  We  substitute  h  for  dx  as  the 
expression  is  changed  from  an  integral  to  a  summation,  and 
cancel  h  in  both  numerator  and  denominator.  Another  simpli- 
fication arises  by  considering  the  whole  period  measured  to  be 
equal  to  2ir.  For  each  value  of  x  the  summation  will  reach  from 
a;  =  0  to  x=  {n  —  l)h,  and  the  expression  vh  is  substituted 
for  X,  whereby  we  mean  that  the  summation  is  to  be  extended 
from  v  =  Otov  =  ?i  —  1;  the  upper  limit  of  summation  is  thus 


FOURIER  ANALYSIS  563 

,.  =  M  —  1.     We  likewise  indicate  by  y^  the  corresponding  values 
of  y.     We  have  finally 

v  =  n  —  1 

2' 


ar  =  -  ^  2/„ .  cos  rvh, 


id  likewise 

1 

'  =  0 

V 

n  •< 

=  re-l 

1^  y-  ■  sin 

=  0 

0,  1,  2,  .  . 

•) 

The  successive 

coefficients 

are  thus 

«o  =  -(  2/o-cosO  +  2/1.  cos  0  +  2/2.  cos  0  + (-y„-i.cosoY 

2/ 

«!  =  -  (  2/o  •  cos  0  +  2/1 .  cos  A  +  2/2 .  cos  2A  +  •  •  •  ■> 

**  \  +  y„-i.cos  (n  —  l)h\ 

2/  '^ 

Ji  =  -  (  2/o  •  sm  0  +  2/i  .  sin  A  +  2/2 .  sin  2A  +  •  ■  •  s 

""^  +2/„-i.sin(«-l)AV 

2/ 
«2  =  -  (  2/o  •  cos  0  +  2/1 .  cos  2/i  +  2/2 .  cos  4A  +  •  •  •  v 

'^^  +2/„-i.cos2(»i-1)aV 

2  / 
62  =  -  I  2/0  •  sin  0  +  2/1 .  sin  2A  +  3/2 .  sin  4/i  +   •  ■  •  ^ 

'*^  -4- «     .-sin2(w-l)A  ], 


+  y„_i.sin; 


2  / 
ftj  =  -  (  2/0  ■  cos  0  +  2^1 .  cos  ill  +  2/2  •  cos  2ih  +   •  ■  •  \ 

'*\  +2/„-i.cos(n-l>'Aj, 

2/ 
6,-  =  -  (  2/0  •  sin  0  +  2/1  •  sin  iA  +  2/2  •  sin  2iA  +  •  •  •  \ 

'*\  +  2/„_i.sin(?i-l)iA  V 


By  inserting  in  the  original  equation  the  constants  of  ampli- 
tude thus  obtained  the  original  curve  is  resolved  into  a  series 
of  cosine  and  sine  harmonics.  By  uniting  the  two  series  as 
indicated  above,  the  resolution  into  a  single  set  of  harmonics  is 
obtained. 

Such  an  elaborate  computation  would  be  ordinarily  quite  im- 


564  APPENDIX  I 

practicable  without  various  shortenings,  of  which  Hermann  has 
suggested  a  number. 

Let  the  number  of  ordinates  be  w  =  40,  whence,  since  2:7  =  nh, 
h  =  9°.     Then 

tti  =  ^  (2/0  •  cos  0°  +  2/1 .  cos    9°  +  2/2 .  cos  18°  H h  2/39  ■  cos  351°) 

h  +  jV  (2/0  •  sin  0°  +  2/i ,  sin    9°  +  2/2 .  sin  18°  +  •  ■  ■  +  2/39  •  sin  351°) 

«2  =  A  (yo  •  cos  0°  +  2/1 .  cos  18°  +  2/2  •  cos  36°  H h  2/39  •  cos  702°) 

*2  =  A  (2/0  •  sin  0°  +  2/1 .  sin  18°  +  2/2  •  sin  36°  +  •  •  •  +  2/39  •  sin  702°) 

«i  =  ^  (2/0 .  cos  0°  +  2/1 .  cos  [i  X  9]°  -I-  2/2  ■  cos  [2i  x  30]°  +  .  .  .) 
*i  =  jV  (yo  •  sin  0°  +  yi .  sin  [i  X  9]°  +  ya  .  sin  [2i  X  30]°  +  •  .  •) 

There  are  thus  40  multiplications  for  each  a  and  b,  or  1600  mul- 
tiplications for  the  first  20  harmonics.  But  when  n  is  a  factor 
of  360,  the  siaes  and  cosines  repeat  themselves  (thus,  cos  702°  = 
cos  342°),  the  values  cos  18°,  cos  27°,  .  .  .  are  repeated  a 
number  of  times,  and  there  are  simple  relations  between  sines 
and  cosines  (thus,  cos  9°  =  —  cos  181°  =  —  cos  189°  =  cos  351°  = 
sin  81°  =  sin  99°  =  -  sin  261°  =  -  sin  279°).  The  result  is 
that  with  w  =  40  only  nine  trigonometric  values  are  needed  in 
addition  to  0  and  1,  making  a  total  of  eleven. 

These  eleven  values  are  then  to  be  properly  multiplied  with 
the  forty  values  of  y.  To  do  this  the  products  are  arranged  in  a 
table  as  indicated  on  this  page. 


Angle    0° 

9° 

18° 

27° 

36° 

45° 

54° 

63° 

72° 

81° 

90° 

Cosine    1 

0.99 

0.95 

0.89 

0.81 

0.71 

0.59 

0.45 

0.31 

0.16 

0 

y„  0.99y„  0.95)/„  0  89y„  O.Sly„  0.71 1/„  0.592/„  0,45l/„  0.31  y,  0.16si„  0 
y,  0.99t/i  0.95?/i  0.89i/i  0.81  j/i  0.712/,  0.59l/i  O.tSy^  0  31 !/,  0.16j/i  0 
j/2     0.991/2     0.95^2     0.892/2     OMy^     O.ny^     0.592/2     0-452/2     0.31^2     O.I63/2     0 


Vm   0.99  J/3S   0.95  2/39   0,895/39   0.81  j/39   0.71  yj,,    0.59^39   0.45 1/39   0.31 2/39   0.165(39    0 

The  smaller  figures  indicate  those  that  are  to  be  multiplied 
and  written  by  the  experimenter.  In  the  column  0°  all  the  values 
of  the  forty  ordinates  are  written;  in  the  column  9°  all  these 
values  multiplied  by  0.99  are  written ;  etc.  A  multiplying  table 
(p.  70)  is  of  great  use. 

To  obtain  ao  the  numbers  in  the  column  0°  would  be  added ; 
this  is  not  necessary  for  selecting  the  harmonics  and  is  omitted. 


FOURIER   ANALYSIS  565 

For  cti  add  the  first  main  diagonal  thus  +  {y^  +  0.99«/i  +  OMy^ 
+  •  •  •  +  0.16yo  +  0)  ;   then   the  diagonal  -  {O.l&y^  +  O.Slyi^  + 

•  ■  ■  +  2/20  ) ;  then  the  diagonal  —  (0.9%2i  +  0.95y22  +  •  •  •  4- 
O.I62/29  +  0)  ;  then  +  (0.16^31  +  O.3I2/32  +  •  •  •  +  Q-hy^^).  The 
diagonal  sums  are  to  be  taken  +  and  —  as  indicated ;  the  sign 
changes  always  at  the  right-hand  edge. 

For  a^  add  the  series  +  {y^  +  0.95?/i  +  O.8I2/2  +  OMy^  +  O.Sli/, 
+  0)  -  (O.3I2/6  +  0.592/7  +  •  •  •  +  2/i„)  -  (0.952/n  +  O.Slyi^  +  ■  •  • 
+  0)  +  (0.31yi,  +  0.59yi,  +  •  •  •  +  y,,)  +  (0.952/21  +  O.ily,^  + 

•  •  •  +  0)  —  etc.  The  successive  jumps  are  like  the  knight's 
move  in  chess. 

For  0,3  add  the  series  +  (2/0  +  0.892/i  +  0.592/2  +  O.I62/3)  — 
(0.31?/,  +  O.7I2/5  +  0.952/6)  -  (0.99?/,  +  O.8I2/8  +  QA5y,  +  0)  + 
etc.     The  successive  jumps  omit  two  columns. 

For  a^,  aj,  .  .  .  add  similar  series,  with  three  omitted  columns 
for  tti,  four  for  a^,  etc. 

For  bx  add  the  series  along  the  diagonal  +  (0  +  O.I62/1  +  0.31^2 
+  0-.452/S  +  .  .  .  +  2/i„)  +  (0.992/n  +  0.952/^2  +  •  •  •  +  Q.l&y^,  +  0) 
-  (O.I62/21  +  O.3I2/22  +  •  ■  •  +  2/30)  -  (0.992/31  +  ■  •  •  0.16^3,) ;  the 
sign  changes  always  at  the  right-hand  edge. 

For  62  the  numbers  are  taken  by  skipping  one  column  as  for 
«2  but  on  diagonals  downward  from  right  to  left.  For  b^,  bi, 
.  .  .  the  procedures  are  as  for  a^,  a^,  .  .  .  but  along  diagonals 
in  the  direction  for  bi  and  b^. 

Each  of  the  values  thus  obtained  would  need  to  be  multiplied 
by  ^g  to  give  ai,  a^,  .  .  .  b^,  b^,  .  .  ■  but,  since  only  the  relations 
between  the  ordinates  are  desired,  the  constant  multiplier  is 
omitted. 

o 

For  12  ordinates,  w  =  12  and  A  =  —  =  30°.    Then 

n 

m  =  J(2/o .  cos  0°  +  2/1 .  cos  30°  +  .  .  .    ) 
b,  =  ^(2/0  .  sin  0°  +  2/1 .  sin  30°  +  .  .  .     ) 


«,  =  ^(2/0 .  cos  0°  +  2/1 .  00s  (30t)°  +  .  .  .) 
5,  =  J(2/„ .  sin  0°  +  2/1  .  sin  (30i)°  +  .  .  .) 


For  cos  0,  cos  30°,  cos  60°,  cos  90°  we  have'  1,  0.87,  0.60,  0; 
from  which  the  values  of  all  the  cosines  and  sines  are  obtained 
by  prefixing  the  proper  signs. 


566  APPENDIX  I 

We  thus  have  the  scheme  : 


Angle 

0° 

30° 

60° 

90° 

Cosine 

1 

0.87 

0.50 

0 

y„  0.87y„  O.BOyo  0 

2/1  0.8Tj/i  0.501/1  0 

j/2  0.871/2  0.501/2  0 


j/u  0.87yu  0.50yu 


For  «!  take  the  first  main  diagonal  thus  +  (i/o  +  0.87yi 
+  O.5O2/2  +  0),  then  the  diagonal  —  (0.502/4  +  0.87yj  +  2/5), 
then  the  diagonal  —  (0.872/7  +  0.502/s  +  0),  then  the  diagonal 
+  (O.SOyio  +  0.87yn),  and  add  the  results.  For  a^  take  +  (2/0 
+  O.5O2/1)  -  (O.5O2/2  +  2/3  +  O.6O2/4)  +  (O.5O2/5  +  2/a  +  O.5O2/7)  - 
(O.5O2/8  +  2/9  +  O.5O2/10)  +  O.6O2/11.  Proceed  likewise  for  the  other 
values. 

In  practice  the  computation  proceeds  according  to  schedules 
prepared  once  for  all  beforehand  according  to  the  preceding 
principles.  The  use  of  such  schedules  can  be  illustrated  by  a 
case  with  12  ordinates. 

The  values  of  the  12  ordinates  are  written  in  the  first  column 
of  a  table ;  each  is  then  multiplied  by  0.87  to  fill  the  second 
column  and  then  by  0.50  to  fill  the  third. 

The  curve  shown  in  Fig.  49  gives  ordinates  with  values  as  in 
column  1  of  the  following  table.  Multiplication  by  0.87  gives 
—  after  the  last  decimal  is  dropped  —  the  values  in  column  0.87, 
and  by  0.50  those  in  the  last  column. 

The  computation  proceeds  according  to  the  following  schedule. 

1  0.87  0.50 


yn 

0 

0 

0 

y\ 

10 

8.7 

5.0 

ya 

31 

27.0 

15.5 

Vs. 

36 

31.3 

18.0 

Si 

30 

26.1 

15.0 

ys 

18 

15.7 

9.0 

y<s 

8 

7.0 

4.0 

Vi 

11 

9.6 

5.5 

Se 

26 

22.6 

13  0 

ys> 

35 

30.5 

17.5 

yio 

30 

26.1 

15.0 

i/11 

8 

70 

4.0 

FOURIER   ANALYSIS  567 

SCHEDnLE  FOE  12  Ordinatbs 
(Multipliers  :  1,  0.87,  0.50.) 
"1        "2        «s        "4        "6        Ob        6i        ia        63        h        h        ^e 

I'D  +  ■    •        +  ■    ■        +  .    .        +  .   .        +  .   .        + 

y^     ■  ■  ■  - + -•  ■  + - + 

Vi     ■■-   ■■-  +••    ■■-   ••-  +••    •  +  •    .- +  .    ._.    ... 

2"=  -■       ■■+      -      •  +  •      -•       ••+      -■      +-.       .-.       ..+      ... 

ye         -.  .      +..      _.  .      4...      _.  .      ^ y      ___ 

S'7  ■-•  ■  •+      -      .  +  .  _.  .  .  ._      .  +  .      _.  .       ...       ... 

ys  .  ._  .  ._      ^...       .  ._      .  ._  +..  ._.       ,^,       .      .       ._.  ._!_.       ... 

3/9  ■••  - + -..       - + _ 

S'lO              +  •■—     — ••       ••—      ••+  +■•       •  — +  .  .  +  .       ... 

m      ■  +  ■     •  •+ —    —    -•  •     . —    •-•    -. .     . —     . ._    ... 

The  squares  with  +  and  —  in  the  schedule  for  Oj  indicate  the 
figures  of  the  table  that  are  to  be  added  in  order  to  give  the 
value  0.1.  Thus,  for  a^  we  have  0  -f-  8.7  +  15.5  +  15.0  +  7.0  — 
16.0  -  15.7  -  8.0  -  9.6  -  13.0  =  -  16.1.  For  b^  we  have  5.0  + 
27.0+  36  +  26.1  +  9.0 -6.6 -22. 6 -35.0 -26. 1-4.0  =  +  9.9: 
The  schedules  for  a^,  a^,  .  .  .,  61,  b^,  63  .  .  .  are  used  in  like 
manner.  The  values  c^  =  Va^^  +  b^^  c^  —  Va^~+T^,  .  .  .  give 
the  relative  amplitudes  of  the  partials. 

With  these  schedules  the  values  obtained  from  the  table  are, 
for  the  curve  under  consideration : 


Squares 

gg  +  fr^ 

The  nearest  whole  number  is  taken  as  the  value  of  \/  «^  +  ^'^■ 
The  indices  attached  to  the  values  for  c  give  the  serial  numbers 
of  the  partials.  The  second  partial  is  thus  the  main  tone  present 
in  this  curve. 

To  save  the  labor  of  consulting  the  schedules  they  may  be  re- 
produced on  a  large  scale  as  diagrams  with  black  and  white 
squares,  the  white  squares  bearing  the  signs  +  and  —  as  re- 
quired. A  piece  of  tracing  paper  is  placed  over  the  first  diagram 
and  the  values  of  the  ordinates  are  written  in  the  first  column  y. 
The  following  column  is  then  filled  by  multiplying  (with  Zim- 
meemann's  tables)  each  value  of  y  by  the  number  written  above 
it.  The  following  columns  are  likewise  filled.  The  result  is  a  set 
of  figures  written  in  squares.  The  transparent  paper  is  now 
placed  over  the  diagram  %.     The  numbers  seen  over  the  white 


«1   *1 

a^       *2 

"3    *3 

°i         h 

"6    6s 

"a   h 

15.1  +9.9 

-98.0-  -7.0 

-13.0  +8.0 

—3.0  —1.8 

+4.1  -1.1 

+7.0  0 

228   98 

9604   49 

169   64 

9    3 

17    1 

49  0 

' V ■ 

■ — . — ' 

^ y ^ 

•^ — y — -* 

' — , — ' 

^' 1 ' 

326 

9653 

233 

12 

18 

49 

18 

98 

15 

3 

4 

7 

568 


APPENDIX   I 


squares 
and—. 


are  to  be  added,  with  careful  regard  to  the   signs  + 
The  paper  is  then  placed  over  the  diagrams  a^,  a^,  .  .  .  iu 


Schedule  for  24  Okdinates 
(Multipliers  :  1,  0.97,  0.87,  0.71,  0.50,  0.26.) 


3/1 


y« 
ys 

Va 

yio 
yii 

2/12 

yiB 
yii 

2/15 
^16 
2/17 
2/18 
2/18 
5/20 

y%i 

^22 

y23 


"1 

flj 

0-3 

a-i 

05 

as 

+ 

+ 

■     + 

•   •       +■ 

+ 

+ 

.+.... 

■  +  ■  ■ 

■   ■  + 

■  •  + 

•  + 

•  •  +  • 

■  •  •  •  + 

•  •- 

. 

— 

...  +  .. 

— 



.  . . 

....+. 

.  — 

— 

— 

■  •  +  • 

+ 

+ 

—  . 

■  — 

+  • 

■  ■  + 

■  +  ■  •  • 

_ 

_ 

. . 

■  + 

■  ■  + 



.  .  . 

.  .  .  ._ 

+ 

.— 

... 

+ 

•  + 

.       _. 

•  ■     +■  ■ 

....-(- 

— 

..+... 

— 

... 

•  ■  +  •  ■ 

.- 

■  ■  + 

— 

_ 

+  ■  ■  •  ■ 

— 

•        +• 

— .     .  ■  - 

+ 

... 

.  .  +  .  . 

-  — 

•  + 

— 

■  •  ■  ■  + 

■    — 

■  +  • 

— 

. 

■  + 

—  . 

...+.. 



.— 

+  ■ 

.— 

... 

+ 

- 

—  . 

■  + 

■       +• 

•  •  + 

— .... 

_ 

+ 

. . 

.— 

■  + 

.+.... 

.  .    .  +  . 

.  .  .  ._ 

_ 

.  .  - 

•  +  • 

+ 

. .  +  . . 



— 

.  . . 

..  +  ... 

•  ■  ■  •  + 
.  .  +  .  . 

•  + 

■  •  + 

+ 

7 

a,  Og 


ag 


"12 


2/0 

yi 

2/2 
2/3 
2/4 
2/5 


2/8 

2/10 
2/11 
2/12 
2/18 

yii 

2/15 

Via 

2/17 
2/18 

2/18 

2/20 
2/21 
2/22 


+  •  ■  •  • 

.  .  .  +  . 

•  ■    •  + 

.  +  .  .  . 

.  .  + .  . 
^ 

H 

.  .  +  .  . 

•  +  ■  •  • 

■  ■  ■  ■  + 

■  •  ■  +  • 

+ 
+ 
+ 
+ 
+ 
+ 
+ 
+ 

- 

+ 
+ 
+ 

+  • 
+  ■ 

+  ■ 
+  ■ 

+  • 
+  ■ 

+.             +• ■ ■         + 
....  +  .       .  +  .  .  .     + 

-.          ■ •  +  ■     + 

• +•               . ._     — 

.     — + 

■  +  ■         —    — 

-■       ...+.     + 

+  •     ..  +  ■•.     + 

■     + + + 

.+•       ■+■         + 
— +      + 

- +  ■     + 

+•     ..+■..     + 

succession ;  the  numbers  over  the  white  squares  are  likewise  to 
be  added  in  each  case.    The  values  for  a^,  a^,  a,,  .  .  .  are  written 


FOURIER   ANALYSIS 


569 


on  the  margin  of  the  paper.     In  like   manner   the  values   for 
h,  *2)  h,  -  ■  ■  are  obtained. 

Schedule  fok  24  Okdinates 
(Multipliers:  1,  0.97,  0.87,  0.71,  0.50,  0.26.) 
■'1  ^2  63  64  65  6„ 


Vo 

" 

Vl 

■  + 

....+. 

■  +  •  - 

•  ■  +  ■  - 

•  +  • 

+ 

2/2 

■  •  ■  +  • 

.  +  .  .  . 

+  ■ 

■  +  ■ 

■  +  • 

2/8 

...+.. 

+  •  ■ 

.  -u  . 

Vi 

..+... 

■  +  ■     ■ 



ya 

.  +  .  .  . 

■  +  ■ 

— 



+ 

+ 

2/6 

+ 

—  . 

2/7 

.+,... 

— 

— 

•  +  - 

+ 

... 

2/s 

.  +  .  .  . 

2/9 

■  +  ■ 

— 

•  +  • 

+  . 

2/10 

..—... 

+  • 

. . 

■  +  ■ 

2/11 

■  + 

.  .  .  — 

-  +  ■  ■ 

. . 

.+.... 

_. 

2/12 

Via 

...     ._ 

■•••+■ 

—  . 

■  ■  +  ■  ■ 



+ 

2/14 

... 

•  ■  +  ■ 

— . 

.  .  +  .  . 

... 

2/15 
2/10 
2/17 
2/18 

+  ■ 

— 

■  •   +•  ■ 
■•+■■■ 

-.    ... 

— 

+  . 

__ 

J/in 

... 

.  .  . 

.  +  . 

.  .  +  .  . 

_ 

— . 

2/20 

.  . 

.  . 

.  .  +  .  . 

•  •  +  . 

2/21 

— 

-■ 

—  . 

■  +  •  • 

+ 

2/22 

.  — 

.  . 

—  • 

.  —  .  . 

—  . 

2/23 

.  — 

.  .'  . 

. 

.  .  _  .  . 

—  .... 

_ 

2/0 
2/1 
2/2 


2/0 

2/7 

2/8 

2/0 

2/10 

y-Ll 

2/12 
2/13 
2/14 

Via 
2/10 
2/17 
2/18 
2/19 

3/20 

yai 
2/22 

2/28 


•  + +  ■  •  • 

■■+•■■         • + ■ 
+    ■■-■■.     ■ 

— + 

. . . .+     ..+... 

•  ■  + —  • 

+ _.  .  . 

+ 
-i-  ■  -i-  •  i 

•  — + +         ■  •  ■  ■ 

■  + 

■  ■  +  .       ■  +  .  ■                     ... 

■-■ 

•  —      ■  + 

■  +  •  ■     - 
•  ■  +  ■  • 

■  ■  ■  + 

+ — 

• •-          • •     ■+    

—  ■+■ • ■ 
••••+•        ■-•         + 

-  ■  ■  + 

._.  .     + 

■ +■              •+     

•  •- +  •  • 

-    • 

•  +  ■  • 

.  .  +  .     .  +  .... 

■  •  •-    ..  +  ...     . 

•  •  •  +  ■             ■     •  ■ 

•  +  ■  ■ 

•  —      •  +  ■             

+  ■           •  •  — 

•  •  •  + 

+ — 

■- +     

Schedules  are  given  here  for  12  and  24  ordinates.     These  will 
probably  be  sufficient  for  most  purposes. 


570  APPENDIX   I 

Hermann  writes  the  values  for  y  on  centimeter  paper  (with 
horizontal  and  vertical  parallel  lines  dividing  the  surface  into 
centimeter  squares),  and  then  cuts  out  squares  in  a  similar  sheet 
of  paper  so  that  when  this  is  placed  over  the  table  only  the 
numbers  needed  for  one  constant  can  be  seen.  Thus  there  is  a 
pattern  for  a^,  another  for  a^,,  etc. ;  the  pattern  for  b^  is  obtained 
by  turning  a^  over,  likewise  for  b^,  b^,  .  .  .  by  turning  over  those 
for  a^,  tti  .  .  .  Ko  patterns  are  needed  for  ai,  b^,  a^Q,  and  b^a- 

The  various  additions  and  subtractions  can  be  conveniently 
performed  on  the  margins  of  the  paper  on  which  the  table  is 
written.  The  final  sums  would  have  to  be  divided  by  the  num- 
ber of  ordinates  used  to  give  a-i,  bx,  a^,  b^,  .  .  .,  but  this  can  be 
omitted  as  only  the  relations  of  amplitude  are  desired.  More- 
over, for  a  like  reason  the  decimal  points  in  the  table  itself  may 
be  omitted,  as  this  simply  multiplies  all  numbers  by  100. 
After  several  analyses  have  been  made  it  will  be  found  that 
nearly  every  value  of  y  with  its  products  has  occurred  in  some 
previous  analysis ;  thus  the  results  can  be  copied  into  the  new 
table.  With  these  methods  a  complete  analysis  of  a  curve-period 
with  measurements  of  40  ordinates  and  computations  requires 
from  two  to  three  hours  of  work.  Although  the  measurements 
are  recorded  with  only  two  places  of  figures,  the  error  of  com- 
putation remains  much  smaller ;  the  error  of  measurement  ■'  is 
also  much  smaller  and  the  results  are  perfectly  trustworthy  to 
the  second  figure. 

The  results  do  not  generally  show  so  decided  a  prominence  of 
one  partial  as  in  the  case  worked  out  above.  An  example  is 
found  in  the  following  series  of  values  for  a  certain  period  of 
the  vowel  a  by  Hermann  : 

Ci  C^  C3  C4  C5  Cq  Gj  Cg  Cg  CiQ 

4.2    8.5     3.2     7.3     2.2    13.9    44.7    50.2    13.6    14.6 

The  6th  to  10th  overtones  are  most  strongly  represented.  If  it 
were  true  that  the  vowel  was  composed  strictly  of  a  fundamental 
and  its  overtones,  these  tones  would  be  selected  as  a  characteristic 
of  the  vowel.  It  is,  however,  established  that  in  general  the 
higher  partials  in  a  vowel  sound  are  not  harmonics  of  the  lowest 
partial.  An  analysis  into  a  series  of  partials  in  such  a  case  gives 
a  series  of  harmonics  in  which  those   nearest  the  inharmonic 

^  Hermann,  Phonophotographische  Untersuchungen,  IV.,  Arch.  f.  d.  ges.  Physiol. 
(Pfluger),  1893  LIU  44. 


FOURIER   ANALYSIS  571 

partial  appear  of  greater  amplitude,  while  those  further  away 
are  less  influenced.  To  find  this  inharmonic  the  weighted  mean 
(or  centroid)  of  the  neighboring  overtones  is  obtained  by  multi- 
plying each  amplitude  by  its  ordinal  number  and  dividing  by 
the  sum  of  the  amplitudes  : 

(6  X  13.9)  +  (7  X  44.7)  +  (8  x  50.2)  +  (9  x  13.6) 

13.9  +  44.7  +  50.2  +  13.6  =  ^•^^' 

The  number  7.63  gives  the  relation  of  frequency  between  the  in- 
harmonic and  the  fundamental.  The  frequency  of  the  funda- 
mental in  this  case,  98,  multiplied  by  the  number  7.53  gives 
the  frequency  of  the  inharmonic,  737. 

In  using  the  centroid  of  a  set  of  harmonics  to  indicate  the  in- 
harmonic partial  several  rules  should  be  observed :  ^  1.  when  a 
harmonic  of  large  amplitude  appears  with  neighboring  harmonics 
of  very  small  amplitude,  it  may  be  considered  alone  as  indicating 
approximately  the  partial ;  2.  when  the  strong  harmonic  is  accom- 
panied by  two  neighboring  strong  harmonies,  all  three  should  be 
considered;  3.  when  one  of  the  neighboring  harmonics  is  more 
than  twice  as  great  as  the  other,  only  the  former  should  be  con- 
sidered with  the  strong  harmonic. 

It  may  occur  that  a  harmonic  partial  of  very  small  amplitude 
may  lie  between  two  of  very  large  amplitude.  The  centroid 
method  is  applicable  here  also  and  the  inharmonic  partial  may 
even  coincide  with  an  overtone  of  small  amplitude.^  Attempts 
at  improving  Hermann's  formula  for  averaging  the  harmonics  do 
not  seem  to  give  any  advantage.'  Lloyd's  criticisms  *  of  the 
FouEiEE  analysis  I  am  unable  to  understand ;  they  seem  to  rest 
on  mistaken  views  of  the  nature  of  vowels,  and  of  the  analysis. 

The  results  of  a  Foueiee  analysis  may  be  graphically  expressed 
by  laying  off  the  distances  1,  2,  3,  ...  on  the  X  axis  to  repre- 
sent the  series  of  harmonics,  and  erecting  at  each  point  an  ordi- 
nate proportional  to  the  calculated  amplitude  of  that  harmonic. 
The  curve  of  Fig.  49  analyzed  into  a  series  of  harmonics  gave  the 

1  Hermann,  as  before,  50. 

'■*  Hermann,  as  before,  276. 

8  Pipping,  Zur  Lehre  v.  d.  Vokalkldngen,  Zt.  f.  Biol ,  1895  XXXI 564 ;  Lloyd, 
Interpretation  of  phonograms  of  vowels.  Jour.  Auat.  and  Physiol.,  1897  XXXI  240; 
Hermann,  Weitere  Untersuchungen  iiber  d.  Wesen  d.  Vokale,  Arch.  f.  d.  ges. 
Physiol.  (Pfluger),  1895  LXI  169,  181,  182. 

*  Lloyd,  On  the  Fourierian  analysis  of  phonographic  tracings  of  vowels,  Proc. 
Koy.  Spc.  Edinb.,  1897-99  XXII  97. 


572 


APPENDIX  I 


resulting  amplitudes  as  indicated  by  the  values  for  c  on  p.  667. 

The  resulting  plot  is  shown  in  Fig.  348. 

KouDET^  has  devised  a  computing  machine   for   determining 

the  values  of  the  coefficients  a  and  b.     It  consists  of  a  cardboard 

rectangle  ABCD  (Fig.  349)  covered 
with  millimeter  divisions  on  which  the 
axis  00'  is  traced  parallel  to  the  sides. 
The  side  AB  is  graduated  in  each  di- 
rection from  0'.  Points  are  marked 
on  00'  in  such  a  way  that  each  divides 
it  into  two  parts  whose  ratio  gives  the 
cosine  of  an  angle  of  the  first  quad- 
rant; thus,  OE:  00'  =  sin  30°  =  cos 
60°,  OK:  00'  =sin  60°  =  cos  30°, 
I  etc.     Perpendiculars  erected    at  these 

I        t        I        I     points  are   divided  like   the    line  AB. 

./      2'      3       *      ff      6    On  the   edge  AB  a   small    runner    of 

j-j^_  34g  metal  or  cardboard  is  placed ;  a  thread 

is  attached  to  a  pivot  at  0.    The  use  of 

the  instrument  may  be  readily  explained.    Suppose,  for  example,  12 

ordinates  to  have  been  measured  and  the  coefficient  a^  is  to  be 


o' 


Fig.  349. 


computed.     The  number  of  divisions  is  ra  =  12 ;  the  whole  period 
considered  as  27r  (p.  562)  and  divided  into  n  parts  gives  h  =  30° 

1  RouDET,  Abague  pour  I'analuse   des  courbes  pgriodiques,  La  Parole,    1900 
II17. 


FOURIER   ANALYSIS  573 

as  the  difference  between  successive  angles.  Thus,  remembering 
that  cos  120°  =  cos  240°  =  -  cos  60°,  cos  360°  =  1,  etc.,  we  have 
from  the  general  formula  for  «<  on  p.  563,  when  i  —  4, 

6«i  —  yo  —  yi-  cos  60°  —  y^  .  cos  60°  +  2/3  —  2/4  •  cos  60° 
—  2/5  ■  cos  60°  +  2/6  —  2/7  •  cos.  60°  —  y,  .  cos  60° 
+  2/9  —  2/xo  •  cos  60°  —  yu  . 

Let  2/o  =  8, 2/i  =  23,  etc.,  for  a  given  curve.  The  rider  is  moved 
upward  8  divisions  from  0'  toward  B.  To  obtain  y^  .  cos  60°  the 
thread  is  stretched  from  0  to  the  point  23  above  0' ;  the  distance 
above  00'  of  the  point  where  it  cuts  the  ^i^  gives  the  value  of 
2/1  .  cos  60°,  which  is  found  to  be  12.  Since  this  is  a  negative 
value,  the  rider  is  moved  back  12  divisions,  reaching  —  4.  The 
succeeding  values  are  found  and  added  in  like  manner. 

A  FouKiER  analysis  of  a  curve  may  be  executed  automatically 
by  the  harmonic  anal3'zer  of  Thomson  ^  or  of  Henrici.''  By  mov- 
ing the  point  of  the  instrument  over  a  period  of  the  curve  the  in- 
dicators of  the  machine  will  show  the  amplitudes  and  phases  of 
the  partials  contained  in  it.  Stkachet's  slide  rule  aids  in  ordi- 
nary computation. 

The  FouRiEK  analysis  furnishes  a  convenient  and  trustworthy 
method  of  determining  the  harmonic  sinusoid  components  of  a 
curve.  When  the  curve  is  the  product  of  vibratory  movements 
of  this  kind,  the  results  give  a  proper  analysis.  The  method 
gives  only  approximate  results  when  the  component  vibratory 
movements  are  inharmonic  or  non-sinusoid. 


Refeeences 

For  theory  of  the  Fourier  analysis  :  Fourier,  Th^orie  analytique  de 
la  chaleur,  Ch.  Ill,  Paris,  1822;  Thomson  and  Tait,  Treatise  on  Natural 
Philosophy,  §§  75-77,  Cambridge,  (1879)  1896.  For  list  of  modifications  : 
Pascal,  Repertorio  di  matematiche  superiori,  Milano,  1898  (trans,  by 
ScHBPP,  Leipzig,  1900).  For  discussion  of  applicability  of  harmonic 
analysis  to  speech  curves :  Ch.  XXVIII  above.  For  a  discussion  of  the 
relations  between  the  errors  of  measurement  and  computation  :  Hek- 

1  Thomson,  Harmonic  analyzer,  Proc.  Roy.  Soc.  Lond.,  1878  XXVII  371 ; 
also  in  Thomson  and  Tait,  Treatise  ou  Natural  Philosophy,  I  505,  Cambridge, 

1 896 

2  Henrici,  Ueber  Instrumente  zur  harmonischen  Analyse,  Dyck's  Katalog 
math.  u.  math.-phys.  Modelle,  Apparate  u.  Instrumente,  125,  213  ;  Nachtrag,  34, 
Munchen,  1892-93, 


574  APPENDIX   I 

MANN,  Die  Bedeutung  d.  Fehlerrechnung  bei  d.  harmon.  Analyse  von 
Kuroen,  Arch.  f.  d.  ges.  Physiol.  .(PAiiger),  1901  LXXXVI  92;  Kur- 
venanalyse  u.  Fehlerrechnung,  Arch,  f.  d.  ges.  Physiol.  (PflUger),  1902 
LXXXIX  600. 

For  pantographs  and  harmonic  analyzers :  Cokadi,  Zurich.  For  a  set 
of  computing  patterns  for  40  ordinates  and  a  supply  of  centimeter  paper : 
Prof.  L.  Hermann,  Physiologisches  Institut,  Kbnigsberg.  For  a  set 
of  schedules  for  12,  20,  24,  36,  and  40  ordinates:  E.  W.  Scripture,  New 
Haven,  Conn. 


APPENDIX  II 

STUDIES    OF   SPEECH   CURVES 

The  following  is  a  condensed  account  of  some  work  on 
the  speech  curves  obtained  as  described  in  Ch.  IV  and  ana- 
lyzed as  indicated  in  Ch.  V. 

The  words  first  studied  ^  were  those  of  "William  F.  Hooley, 
a  trained  speaker,  reciting  the  nursery-rhyme  entitled  The 
Sad  Story  of  the  Death  and  the  Burial  of  Poor  Cock  Mobin. 
The  record  is  contained  on  the  disc  numbered  6015  made  by 
the  National  Gramophone  Company  of  New  York. 

The  record  on  the  gramophone  disc  reads  as  follows : 

Now,  children,  draw  your  little  chairs  nearer  so  that  you  can 
see  the  pretty  pictures,  and  Uncle  Will  will  read  to  you  the  sad 
story  of  the  death  and  the  burial  of  poor  Cock  Eobin. 

Who  killed  Cock  Robin  ?  Who  '11  make  his  shroud  ? 
I,  said  the  sparrow,  I,  said  the  beetle, 

With  my  bow  and  arrow.  With  my  thread  and  needle 

I  killed  Cock  Kobin.  I  '11  make  his  shroud. 

Who  saw  him  die  ?  Who  '11  be  the  parson  ? 

I,  said  the  fly,  I,  said  the  rook. 

With  my  little  eye  With  my  little  book 

I  saw  him  die.  I  '11  be  the  parson. 

Who  caught  his  blood?  Who  '11  dig  his  grave? 
I,  said  the  fish,  I,  said  the  owl, 

With  my  little  dish  With  my  spade  and  trowel 

I  caught  his  blood.  I  '11  dig  his  grave. 

Who  '11  carry  the  link  ? 

I,  said  the  linnet, 

I  '11  fetch  it  in  a  minute. 
I  '11  carry  the  link. 

1  Scripture,  Researches  in  experimental  phonetics  (first  series),  Stud.  Yale 
Psych.  Lab.,   1899  VII   14. 


576  APPENDIX  II 

To  extend  the  treatment  to  prose  some  cases  of  '  I '  were 
studied  in  another  record  by  William  F.  Hooley,  entitled 
Gladstone's  Advice  on  Self-Help  and  Thrift,  being  disc 
number  6014  of  the  gramophone  series.  The  speech  begins 
as  follows: 

Ladies  and  gentlemen,  the  purpose  of  the  meeting  on  the 
14th  instant  may,  I  can  say,  be  summed  up  in  a  very  few  words  : 
self-help  and  thrift. 

Two  examples  of  this  diphthong  were  also  studied  in  the 
word  '  thj', '  as  it  appears  in  a  disc  numbered  668Z  (name  of 
speaker  not  given),  which  begins  as  follows : 

Our  Father  which  art  in  Heaven,  hallowed  be  Thy  name, 
Thy  kingdom  come  .  .  . 


Pig.  350. 

These  are  the  three  records  referred  to  on  p.  58  as  Coch 
Mobin,  Series  I ;  Self -Help,  Series  I;  Lord's  Prayer,  Series 
I. 

The  first  occurrence  of  ai  is  in  the  verse  '  I,  said  the 
sparrow. '  A  reproduction  of  the  curve  for  this  word  is  given 
in  Fig.  350.  Some  of  the  details  were  lost  by  the  engraver  in 
making  the  figure,  and  others  were  not  quite  correctly  repro- 
duced; the  original  curve  is  much  sharper  and  clearer.     The 


STUDIES   OF  SPEECH  CURVES  577 

beginning  of  the  record  appears  under  the  magnifying  glass 
like  the  drawing  in  Fig.  351.  The  dots  indicate  intervals 
of  l^-C^  =  0.0010. 

This  word  '  I '  occupies  an  interval  of  452".  It  is  preceded 
by  a  silent  interval  of  770",  or  about  |  of  a  second;  this 
is  the-fuU  stop  in  the  stanza  after  the  question  is  asked  and 
.  before  the  answer  is  given.  It  is  followed  by  a  silent  inter- 
val of  210". 

The  beginning  of  the  a  is  apparently  clear,  that  is,  it  is  not 
preceded  by  any  breathing.  The  vocal  cords  are  apparently 
adjusted  for  voice  production  before  the  expiration  begins; 
the  vowel  starts  with  a  light  vibration  of  the  cords.  There 
is  no  explosive  sound,  or  glottal  catch,  before  the  vowel. 

The  vowel  a  begins  with  a  movement  of  the  vocal  cords  by 
which  an  extremely  weak  puff  of  air  is  emitted.     This  puff 


Fig.  351. 

of  air  passing  through  the  cavity  of  the  mouth  arouses 
three  or  four  oscillations  of  the  air  contained  in  it.  There  is 
first  a  half-oscillation  of  weak  amplitude,  then  a  compara- 
tively strong  oscillation,  followed  by  very  weak  ones.  Even 
the  strongest  is,  however,  very  weak;  the  following  oscilla- 
tions are  so  weak  as  to  be  hardly  perceptible.  The  cavity 
vibrations  disappear  and  there  is  an  interval  of  silence  before 
the  second  puff  appears.  Then  the  cords  emit  another  puff  of 
air  a  trifle  stronger  than  the  first,  the  time  from  puff  to  puff 
being  18".  The  six  cavity  vibrations  are  slightly  stronger 
than  before.  The  period  of  silence  is  shorter  than  before. 
The  third  puff  occurs  11"  after  the  second  one.  The  cavity 
vibrations  are  a  trifle  stronger  still ;  there  are  seven  of  them 
with  a  brief  interval  of  silence!  The  fourth  puff  begins  at 
10"  after  the  beginning  of  the  third  one.  The  fourth  puff 
contains  eight  cavity  vibrations,  all  slightly  stronger  than  be- 
fore- there  is  no  interval  of  silence  because  the  fifth  puff 
'  37 


578  APPENDIX  II 

begins  just  as  the  last  cavity  vibration  of  the  fourth  puff 
ends.      The  interval  occupied  by  the  fourth  puff  is  9'^. 

It  is  a  characteristic  trait  of  this  particular  a  that  each 
group  of  cavity  vibrations  is  strongest  at  the  start;  this 
indicates  a  sudden  and  complete  opening  of  the  cords 
(p.  260).  The  quickest  opening  requires,  however,  a  'little 
time  and  there  must  be  a  measurable  change  from  no  passage 
of  air  to  full  passage ;  this  is  shown  by  the  weak  half  of  the 
first  cavity  vibration  preceding  the  large  half.  The  form  of 
vibration  probably  indicates  a  complete  closure  of  the  cords 
whereby  they  actually  touch  each  other  after  the  puff  is 
emitted. 

The  cavity  vibration  in  the  first  part  of  the  word  has  a 
period  of  1"  or  a  frequency  of  1000. 


Fig.  352. 

As  the  period  of  the  cord  tone  becomes  shorter,  the  num- 
ber of  cavity  vibrations  to  each  period  becomes  smaller. 
Beyond  the  30th  puff  of  the  cord  tone  the  cavity  vibrations 
show  a  lengthening  of  period.  In  the  39th  cord  vibration 
the  cavity  tone  reaches  a  period  of  2.2°'  or  a  frequency  of  about 
450 ;  it  thus  falls  more  than  an  octave  in  the  time  of  nine 
cord  puffs,  or,  in  this  case,  in  33"-  Here  the  cavity  tone  is 
nearly  but  not  quite  of  the  same  period  as  the  octave,  2'^,  of 
the  cord  tone,  4".  This  change  is  shown  in  the  hand-draw- 
ing, Fig.  352,  which  begins  with  the  31st  vibration.  This 
relation  between  cavity  tone  and  cord  tone  is  maintained 
to  the  end  of  the  word;  the  rest  of  the  curve  shows  the 
peculiar  alternation  of  waves  seen  in  the  last  two  vibrations 
in  Fig.  352. 

The  vibrations  up  to  the  31st  unquestionably  belong  to  the 
a.  In  the  vibrations  beyond  the  39th  both  the  cord  tone  and 
the  cavity  tone  are  constant,   except  for  a  slight  fall  at  the 


STUDIES   OF  SPEECH  CURVES  579 

end.  They  unquestionably  belong  to  the  i.  The  vibrations 
from  the  8lst  to  the  39th  show  a  constant  cord  tone  and  a 
falling  cavity  tone.  They  are  presumably  to  be  consid- 
ered as  belonging  to  the  '  glide. '  During  the  a  the  cords  have 
been  stretched  more  and  more,  until  at  the  31st  vibration 
they  reach  the  tension  required  for  the  i;  the  only  further 
change  necessary  is  the  lowering  of  the  cavity  tone. 

Beyond  the  portion  shown  in  Fig.  352  the  curve  shows 
strong  vibrations  so  nearly  alike  that  one  is  naturally  induced 
to  consider  each  one  a  cord  vibration.  This  would  not  be 
proper  because  close  inspection  of  Fig.  350  shows  that  suc- 
ceeding vibrations  differ  slightly,  while  alternate  ones  are 
alike.  This  likeness  of  all  the  cavity  vibrations  in  the  i  as 
contrasted  with  the  a  is  probably  due  also  to  a  difference  in 
the  action  of  the  cords;  this  difference  appears  more  clearly 
in  the  word  'eye  '  analyzed  below. 

With  the  understanding  that  no  definite  limit  can  properly 
be  made  between  one  sound  and  the  neighboring  one  in  this 
case,  we  may,  in  view  of  the  facts  just  mentioned,  consider 
the  a  to  have  occupied  the  time  203"  ending  with  the  30th 
puff',  the  glide  to  have  occupied  33'^  ending  with  the  38th  puff, 
and  the  i  to  have  occupied  the  remaining  216"^. 

The  cavity  tone  of  the  i  is  one  of  about  450  frequency. 
This  cavity  tone  is  much  lower  than  the  very  high  tone 
assigned  to  i  by  Hermann  and  others,  but  is  not  so  low  as 
those  assigned  by  some  other  observers.  There  is,  however, 
the  possibility  of  different  tones  in  the  vowels  from  different 
speakers,  and  also  that  of  several  cavity  tones  in  the  same 
vowel.  By  careful  examination  of  the  curves  I  find  them 
often  marked  by  small  additional  vibrations.  These  are 
frequently  quite  prominent  in  the  i  of  ai.  Their  fineness 
rendered  it  impossible  to  settle  on  any  definite  period  for 
them. 

Beginning  with  a  period  of  IS"',  the  cord  tone  changes 
slowly  through  11,  10,  9,  8,  7%  reaching  Q'  at  the  11th 
vibration,  b"  at  the  15th,  4''  at  the  30th ;  the  period  of  4'  is 
maintained  to  about  the  100th  vibration,  after  which  it  falls 


580  APPENDIX  II 

slightly  to  4.2'^  during  the  last  seven  vibrations.  In  other 
words,  the  pitch  glides  slowly  upward  from  a  tone  of  56 
complete  vibrations  per  second  to  one  of  200  a  second,  then 
more  slowly  to  one  of  250  a  second,  at  which  it  remains 
constant  except  for  a  slight  drop  as  the  diphthong  ends. 

The  changes  of  pitch  in  the  cord  tone  and  the  cavity  tones 
are  indicated  in  a  general  way  in  Plate  XV. 

The  amplitude  of  a  vibration  is  the  distance  from  the  posi- 
tion of  equilibrium  to  the  extreme  position  on  either  side ;  it 
is  thus  one-half  the  difference  in  altitude  between  the  crest 
and  the  trough  of  a  wave.  The  initial  cavity  vibration  of 
the  first  puff  of  this  a  has  an  amplitude  of  less  than  0.1™". 
This  slowly  increases  to  0.3™™  at  the  20th  vibration,  after 
which  it  sinks  only  a  little  to  the  38th.  Beyond  the  38th, 
that  is,  from  the  beginning  of  the  i,  the  amplitude  rapidly 
increases  from  0.3™™  to  0.7™™  at  the  50th  vibration;  there- 
after it  slowly  sinks,  becoming  0.3™™  at  the  60th  vibration 
and  0.2™™  at  the  80th,  0.1™™  at  the  88th  and  0  at  the  96th. 
The  maximum  for  the  i  is  2^  times  that  for  the  a.  The 
course  of  change  in  amplitude  is  given  in  Plate  XVI.  The 
horizontal  scale  is  greater  than  that  for  the  pitch  curve  in 
Plate  XV. 

The  word  ai  ends  by  a  gradual  cessation  of  the  expiratory 
impulse  with  hardly  a  noticeable  change  in  the  tension  of  the 
vocal  cords;  this  is  the  clear  ending  usual  in 'English.  The 
slight  fall  in  pitch  of  the  i  toward  the  end  indicates  a  change 
that  may  be  apparent  in  the  auditory  effect  of  the  word, 
although  it  cannot  be  distinguished  separately.  It  is  probably 
due  to  a  relaxation  of  the  cords. 

To  the  ear  the  sound  of  this  word  '  I '  appears  from  the 
record  '  colorless,  without  emotion,  without  inflectional  rise 
or  fall  within  the  word,  a  monotone  ' ;  '  a  mild  statement.' 
The  mildness  of  this  word  seems  related  to  its  length  and  its 
gradual  changes  in  pitch  and  intensity. 

In  the  original  monograph  the  details  of  several  other 
examples  of  ai  are  given  as  for  this  first  one.  The  curves 
of  pitch  for  all  of  them  are  given  in  Plate  XV,  those  of  am- 


STUDIES   OF  SPEECH  CURVES  581 

plitude  in  Plate  XVI ;  the  horizontal  scale  for  all  except  the 
last  two  figures  on  Plate  XVI  is  twice  that  used  in  Plate  XV. 

Thirteen  cases  of  '  I '  from  the  Cock  Rohin  record  were 
studied.  In  general  the  fundamental  characteristics  already 
considered  were  found  in  all.  Some  peculiarities,  however, 
are  to  be  noted. 

For  convenience  the  term  '  primary '  will  be  applied  to  the 
strongest  one  in  a  group  of  cavity  vibrations,  and  '  secondary ' 
to  the  others.  In  the  first  ai  the  primary  is  the  first  of  the 
group. 

In  the  4th  '  I,'  of  '  I  saw  him  die,'  one  of  the  secondaries 
appears  almost  as  strong  as  the  primary.  This  large  secon- 
dary keeps  at  the  same  distance  behind  the  primary.  As  the 
pitch  of  the  cord  tone  rises,  the  primaries  come  closer  to- 
gether ;  the  large  secondary,  being  at  a  constant  interval  be- 
hind the  preceding  primary,  thus  comes  steadily  closer  to  the 
following  primary  until  it  disappears  in  it. 

I  do  not  believe  that  this  larger  secondary  is  due  to  an 
overtone-vibration  of  the  cords.  The  curves  in  such  a  case 
would  show  the  first  overtone-vibration  always  half-way  be- 
tween the  two  primaries.  In  the  curve  for  this  vowel  the 
strong  secondary  keeps  at  the  same  distance  after  the  preced- 
ing primary,  while  the  distance  to  the  following  primary 
steadily  decreases. 

It  might  be  suggested  that  the  primary  and  the  strong  secon- 
dary may  represent  two  waves  of  a  lower  cavity  tone,  while 
the  primary  and  the  other  secondaries  represent  the  waves  of 
a  higher  one ;  the  lower  tone  would  have  a  period  of  S^^"  or  a 
frequency  of  about  286.  There  would  then  be  at  least  three 
tones  present  in  the  a :  the  rising  cord  tone ;  the  lower  cavity 
tone  of  286,  which  finally  coincides  with  the  cord  tone;  and 
the  higher  cavj||;y  tone  of  1000. 

This  large  secondary  appears  strongly  in  most  cases  of  ai 
in  the  Ooch  Rohin  records,  but  also  sometimes  weakly  (Fig. 
350  above ;  also  '  I '  in  Plate  II)  and  sometimes  not  at  all 
(see  table  of  tones,  p.  587;  also  'my'  in  Plate  II). 

Sometimes  the  first  period  of  the  cord  tone  is  shorter  than  the 


582 


APPENDIX  II 


following  one.  This  occurs,  for  example,  in  '  I  '11  make  his 
shroud,'  and  '  I  '11  be  the  parson.'  In  the  former  case  the  periods 
are  9.8%  11.6%  10.9%  9.8%  etc.,  and  in  the  latter  8.1%  10.-5% 
9.8%  8.8%  8.8%  8.1%  etc.  The  cords  seem  to  receive  an 
excess  of  tension  before  the  breath  begins,  and  to  be  then 
relaxed  to  the  tension  desired. 

In  one  case  the  fall  of  the  upper  cavity  tone  appears  to  take 
place  from  the  very  beginning  of  the  word ;  the  cavity  tone 
is  thus  steadily  falling,  while  the  cord  tone  is  steadily  rising. 


Fig.  353. 


This  occurs  in  the  a  of  '  I '  in  '  I,  said  the  fish.'  The  period 
of  the  cavity  tone  begins  with  1.4%  reaches  l.S"'  at  about  the 
10th  vibration,  1.8°^  at  the  40th  vibration  and  then  remains 
constant  to  the  end  of  the  word.  The  cord  tone,  however, 
starts  low  and  rises. 

The  curve  for  ai  of  '  eye  '  in  the  phrase  '  with  my  little 
eye  '  follows  immediately  on  the  last  vibration  of  the  final  1 
in  the  word  '  little.'  The  three  words  '  my  little  eye  '  are 
here  spoken  with  no  separation.  It  is  interesting,  in  pass- 
ing, to  consider  the  possibility  that  this  fusion  of  the  three 
words  goes   parallel  to  a  fusion  of   thought.     It  is  evident 


STUDIES   OF  SPEECH  CURVES  583 

from  the  very  tone  of  the  speaker  that  he  is  thinking  of 
one  thing,  a  certain  '  eye, '  and  that  the  facts  of  '  being  mine  " 
and  '  smallness '  are  not  of  any  particular  account  to  him 
(p.  126). 

The  curve  for  dai  in  '  Who  saw  him  die  ?  '  is  given  in  Fig. 
353.  The  word  begins  with  20  vibrations  belonging  to  the  d. 
These  vibrations  have  a  period  of  2.0'^  or  a  frequency  of  500. 
The  a  begins  promptly  and  loudly,  as  might  be  expected 
from  the  fact  that  the  expiration  is  already  in  progress  and 
the  cords  are  in  vibration.  The  cord  tone  of  the  a  in  the 
first  vibration  is  higher  than  in  the  subsequent  vibrations,  as 
might  be  expected  on  the  assumption  that  the  cords  are 
already  stretched  to  give  a  period  of  2.0"^  for  the  d,  and  must 


Fig.  354. 


be  relaxed  to  produce  the  lower  tone  of  the  a.  While  this 
relaxation  is  going  on,  the  cords  must  pass  through  all  inter- 
mediate positions  between  that  for  a  period  of  2.0''  and  that 
for  one  of  3.2"^.  This  occurs  to  a  large  extent  apparently 
within  the  time  required  for  one  vibration  of  the  d.  At  the 
same  time  the  mouth  is  changing  from  the  d  position  to  the  a 
position.  These  facts  seem  sufficient  to  explain  the  curve  at 
the  change  from  d  to  a,  shown  in  the  drawing.  Fig.  354;  the 
three  vibrations  on  the  left  are  the  last  of  the  d,  the  strong 
one  on  the  right  is  the  primary  cavity  vibration  of  the  first 
puff  of  the  a,  and  the  connecting  line  shows  the  curve  dur- 
ing the  glide. 

The  curve  of  dai  in  '  I  saw  him  die  '  is  given  in  Fig.  355. 
The  word  begins  with  11  vibrations  rapidly  increasing  in 
amplitude  from  0  to  0.4"  and  having  a  constant  period  of 
2.5"   or  frequency  of  400.     These  are  the  vibrations  for  the 


584  APPENDIX  II 

d;  they  resemble  those  of  dai  in  the  first  example.  The 
sudden  fall  in  pitch  after  the  d  is  quite  marked.  The  d 
curve  is  lost  at  once.  The  following  interval  of  1"  can 
hardly  be  said  to  be  the  first  vibration  of  a,  as  its  secondaries 
are  very  irregular  in  form;  during  this  interval  the  mouth 
is  changing  from  the  d  shape  to  the  a  shape.  The  peculiar 
form  of  the  vibrations  of  this  glide  is  well  shown  in  the  figure. 
The  a  curve  differs  from  that  of  most  cases  of  ai,  in  having 
less  difference  between  the  primary  cavity  vibration  and  the 
rest ;  the  first  and  second  in  a  group  are,  in  fact,  of  almost 
equal  intensity.     The  curve  changes  from  the  a  form  to  the 


Fig.  355. 


i  form  so  gradually  that  it  is  quite  impossible  to  place  any 
dividing  line;  each  element  of  the  diphthong  may  be  said 
roughly  to  occupy  half  the  total  time. 

The  curve  for  lai  of  '  fiy  '  in  '  I,  said  the  fly  '  is  shown 
in  Fig.  356.  No  specific  details  concerning  the  f  can  be 
derived  from  the  curve.  The  strong  vibrations  just  preced- 
ing those  of  the  a  are  presumably  from  the  1  sound.  They 
rise  rapidly  in  intensity  and  greatly  resemble  those  of  the  d 
in  the  two  cases  of  dai  above;  their  period  is  LO'^  and  their 
frequency  526.  Immediately  after  the  last  vibration  of  the 
1  there  follows  a  short  a  puff  with  the  primary  cavity  vibra- 
tion not  so  strong  as  in  the  following  puffs.     The  cord  ad- 


STUDIES   OF  SPEECH  CURVES 


b%l 


justment  seems  not  to  be  perfected  for  the  a  till  the  second 
characteristic  a  puff  occurs. 

The  curve  of  '  thj^ '  in  'hallowed  be  thy  name'  begins 
with  7  vibrations  belonging  to  3  having  a  period  of  2.5'  or 
a  frequency  of  400.  The  beginning  of  the  a  is  prompt  and 
loud. 

The  curve  of  '  thy '  in  '  Thy  kingdom  come  '  shows  6  faint 
vibrations  at  the  beginning  belonging  to  the  8  and  having  a 
period  of  2.8'^.     The  curve  of  the  a  suggests  a  more  gradual 


Fig.  356. 


opening  of  the  cords  and  a  less  explosive  effect.     There  is 
no  strong  secondary  of  the  kind  described  on  p.  581. 

A  comparison  among  the  curves  of  pitch  given  in  Plate  XV 
shows  that  general  resemblances  occur  among  most  of  the 
curves  of  pitch  for  the  cord  tone  in  the  cases  of  '  I. '  In 
'  eye  '  the  curve  differs  radically  from  all  the  other  examples ; 
it-  starts  with  a  moderately  high  pitch  and  falls  continuously. 
There  is  the  possibility  that  the  fall  in  pitch  in  this  word 
may  have  something  to  do  with  its  position  at  the  end  of  a 
phrase.  If  the  word  had  been  followed  by  a  long  pause,  it 
would  naturally  have  fallen  on  account  of  its  position  at  the 
end  of  a  sentence ;  the  pause,  however,  was  extremely  short 


586  APPENDIX  II 

and  we  cannot  very  well  assume  a  short  pause  as  the  equiva- 
lent of  a  full  stop  unless  we  give  up  entirely  the  theory  of  rela- 
tion between  punctuation  and  time.  It  is,  nevertheless, 
possible  that  this  theory  may  have  to  be  modified,  as  later 
researches  have  shown  that  comma  pauses  may  be  long  and 
semi-colon  and  colon  pauses  may  be  very  short.  The  upper 
cavity  tone  is  to  some  degree  stable  in  the  two  end  portions 
of  all  cases  in  Plate  XV,  but  undergoes  a  more  or  less  rapid 
change  within  the  various  words.  The  lower  cavity  tone 
is  constant  when  it  is  present. 

Both  the  ear  and  the  curves  indicate  that  the  first  part  of 
the  diphthong  in  the  cases  just  studied  is  to  be  considered  a 
form  of  a  as  in  '  parson.'  The  second  part  is  probably  i  as  in 
'  kin '  in  all  cases  except  the  second  '  thy.'  In  this  last  case 
the  cavity  tone  differs  greatly  from  all  the  others ;  the  sound 
may  be  e  as  in  'let.'  The  difference  between  the  two 
cases  of  'thy'  may  arise  from  the  following  sound;  the 
forward  contact  of  n  favors  an  i  while  the  backward  one  of 
k  favors  an  e. 

Various  words  like  '  ein, '  '  weisser, '  '  Eis, '  '  Zeiten, ' 
'  Schein,'  etc.,  were  closely  studied  in  the  tracings  from 
disc  number  1500,  Die  Lorelei  und  Der  Fichtenbaum,hj  W.  L. 
Elterichc.  When  examined  under  the  magnifying  glass,  the 
a  portion  of  the  record  showed  in  most  cases  curves  analogous 
to  those  in  the  cases  of  'I,'  whereas  the  i  portion  was  ex- 
tremely weak.  This  peculiarity  of  the  weak  i  in  the  German 
ai  and  the  very  strong  i  in  most  cases  of  the  American  ai 
gives  the  former  the  effect  of  containing  a  longer  a.  It  must 
be  noted,  however,  that  many  sounds  usually  treated  as  the 
same  are  really  different.  Thus  the  vowel  of '  weiss  '  in '  Ich 
weiss  nicht  was  soil  es  bedeuten  '  gave  a  curve  differing 
greatly  in  character  from  that  of  '  weisser  '  and  the  other 
words  mentioned  above.  Again,  some  of  the  cases  of  the 
American  ai  described  above  showed  a  weakening  of  the  i 
that  indicates  a  tendency  toward  the  German  form. 

The  analyses  show  that  ai  is  not  the  sum  of  the  two 
vowels  a  and  i,  but  an  organic  union  into  a  new  sound  ai. 


STUDIES   OF  SPEECH  CURVES  587 

There  is  no  necessary  pause  or  very  sudden  change  of  inten- 
sity or  change  in  pitch  or  even  change  in  character.  This  is 
what  would  be  expected  on  psychological  grounds.  The 
speaker  does  not  think  of  and  speak  two  sounds  separately 
but  only  one;  the  execution  of  this  one  impulse  by  two 
distinct  processes  would  be  unusual.  The  various  degrees  of 
perfection  of  the  synthesis  of  the  two  elements  would  corre- 
spond to  various  expressive  characters  of  the  resulting  sounds. 
In  so  far  as  they  can  be  considered  to  be  constant,  the 
cavity  tones  in  these  cases  of  the  a  and  the  i  were  found 
to  be  as  in  the  following  table. 

Tone  of 
d,  1,  ?S, 

/,  1st  example 

/,  2d 

I,  3d 

/,  4th       " 

J,  prose    " 

Ei/e, 

Die,  1st  example    500 

Die,  2d    "  400 

Fli/,  526 

Thy,  1st  example  400 

Thy,  2d     "  417 

The  following  view  of  the  physiological  action  of  the  vocal 
cavities  in  producing  ai  in  the  cases  studied  above  may  be 
proposed  tentatively.  The  depressed  position  of  the  tongue 
for  the  a  (Plate  XXV)  leaves  open  a  large  cavity  reaching 
from  the  teeth  to  the  vocal  cords ;  the  uvula  offers  no  great 
interruption.  The  lower  cavity  tone  of  the  a  may  be  con- 
sidered to  arise  from  the  vibration  in  this  cavity.  The  upper 
cavity  tone  of  the  a  may  be  supposed  to  arise  from  the  rear 
cavity,  that  is,  the  throat  cavity  from  the  cords  to  the 
slight  elevation  of  the  tongue  at  the  uvula.  As  the  a 
changes  to  i  (Platq  XXVI)  this  elevation  of  the  tongue 
moves  forward,  enlarging  the  rear  cavity  by  including  more 
and  more  of  the  mouth ;  this  continuously  lowers  the  upper 
cavity  tone  until  the  tongue  comes  to  rest  in  the  typical 
i  position. 


Tones 

of  the  a. 

Tones 

of  the  i. 

Cord, 

Lower 

Upper 

start. 

end. 

cavity. 

cavity. 

Cord. 

Cavity. 

56 

250 

286 

1000 

250 

450 

83 

250 

286 

1000 

250 

555 

131 

250 

286 

1000 

250 

500 

111 

286 

286 

1000 

286 

400 

102 

180 

360 

1000 

180 

360 

400 

160 

435 

1000 

160 

476 

179 

200 

1000 

200 

473 

217 

133 

1000 

133 

473 

160 

204 

256 

625 

256 

500 

143 

149 

588 

149 

416 

84 

143 

416 

143 

288 

588 


APPENDIX  II 


Another  theory  is  possible.  The  lower  cavity  tone  of  the  a 
may  be  assigned  to  the  trachea  (p.  294) ;  the  rise  and  fall  of 
the  larynx  may  explain  the  differences  among  the  various 
cases.  This  view  is  favored  by  the  constant  character  of  the 
tone  within  each  case  (see  dash-line  in  Plate  XV).  The 
higher  cavity  tone  for  a  is  then  to  be  assigned  to  the  mouth 
cavity.  The  resonance  tone  of  i,  as  found  in  these  records, 
is  probably  from  the  mouth,  the  effective  capacity  of  the 
rear  cavity  being  increased  from  a  to  i. 


n  -«t 

-& 

,. 

ll 

-^ 

I 

tS 

-^ 

1 

-4 

1            1 

1 

1 

S'^ 

■d 

1 

1 

1     -^ 

i  tf"^ 

1  * 

1        1 

■tt-d 

ttW^ 

* 

-S/^ 

its! 

ft"              1 

y^"^^^ 

^V^ 

'^A-^ 

1      1 

{m\» 

1 

ttJ  tt^ 

1 

4     iJ 

• 

w 

tt* 

a 

(I,  sa 
spa 

1 

i 

/ 

id  the 

rrow) 

-5'- 

-J 

a 

(Ik 
E 

,  1 

/ 

illed 
obin 

1 

i 
Cocl 

a 

^     (I 
th 

,  I 

/ 

saic 
efly 

1 

) 

a 
/ 

(I  saw 
die) 

1        II 

1 

i 

lim 

a 

/ 

(may,  I 

say) 

1 

i 

can 

a          i 

eye 
(with  my 
little  eye) 

T 

1                 1 

^ 

1            1 

■t'i       i 

^ 

<i         1 

N 

4 

• 

'           Jt 

'          4t 

**   1     '^ 

r 

V  ^ 

it^i 

3i_ 

ff^ 

1       1 

Mm 

4t--l 

'Mm' 

4*^ 

1 

1 

[/ 

-»• 

tj 

jj*    ) 

1 

Hj^ 

^ 

riV 

tt.  #•  ftiJ 

*       1        ' 

#• 

W. 

!    J 

^ 

1      «       /^' 

b-^ 

,  •  cJ 

1      •       «* 

1 

1 

1 

1 

«'__^ 

da  idailai  Sai  3a  i 

rfi'e  rfie  flij  thy  thy 

(Who  saw  (I  saw  him      (I,  said  the  fly)  (hallowed  be  (Thy  kingdom 

him  die?)  die)  Thy  name)  come) 


In  all  cases  of  ai  there  is  no  sudden  jump  of  the  cord  tone ; 
the  i  continues  the  cord  tone  of  the  a,  forming  with  it  the 
easiest  musical  interval,  a  unison.  This  tone  is,  however, 
different  in  different  Cases;  the  cord  tone  of  the  a  rises  to  a 
certain  point  selected  for  that  of  the  i.  The  selection  of  the 
pitch  of  the  cord  tone  for  the  i  is  influenced  by  the  preceding 
cavity  tones  of  the  a,  as  may  be  seen  from  the  table.     A 


STUDIES   OF  SPEECH  CURVES  589 

Study  of  these  tones  reveals  some  tendency  toward  musical 
relations  within  each  ai.  This  probably  is  one  of  the  factors 
of  the  musical  character  of  the  voice  of  this  speaker.  The 
musical  relations  are  roughly  indicated  in  the  accompanying 
notation ;  the  lowest  notes  indicate  the  cord  tone,  the  others 
the  cavity  tones. 

In  ai  of  '  die, '  in  a  manometric  flame  record  (p.  29)  sent 
me  by  Nichols  and  Mekeitt,  I  find  a  cord  tone  rising 
through  7.5,  5.2,  4.8,  4.6,  4.6,  4.6,  4.6,  4.6,  4.6,  4.6,  4.6, 
4.6,  4.6,  4.6,  4.6,  4.6,  4.6,  4.6'°°',  at  which,  point  the  record 
is  cut  off.  In  another  example  of  ai  in  '  die  '  the  cord  tone 
rises  more  slowly  through  6.1,  6.0,  5.8,  5.7,  5.6,  5.5,  5.5,  5.5, 
5.5,  5.5,  5.5,  5.5,  5.5,  5.5,  5.5,  5.5,  5.5,  5.5  (the  18th 
vibration),  at  which  point  the  record  is  cut  off.  The  begin- 
ning is  thus  like  that  in  the  cases  studied  above. 

A  curve  of  '  fly '  has  been  sent  me  by  Prof.  Beviee  (p.  49) 
with  the  explanation  that  the  a  appears  to  change  gradually 
through  ae  (as  in  '  hat ')  to  e  (as  in  '  let ') ;  that  the  two 
cavity  tones  of  a  are  of  600  and  1150  frequency ;  that  those  of 
e  are  of  about  600  and  1700 ;  that  the  entire  sound  lasts  0.32% 
including  0.09*  for  a,  0.11^  for  ae,  0.1 2=  for  e;  and  that  the 
maximum  amplitude  lies  in  the  a.  This  example  of  ae  re- 
sembles the  diphthong  of  the  second  '  thy '  above. 

Some  of  the  characteristics  of  fusion  (Ch.  XXX)  may  be 
illustrated  by  the  following  study  of  the  phrase  '  Who  '11  be 
the  parson?'  of  Oock  Robin,  Series  I.^  The  entire  curve  is 
given  in  Fig.  357;  an  inspection  of  the  curve  shows  the 
arbitrary  nature  of  the  divisions  into  vowels,  glides,  etc. 

The  breathing  h  probably  does  not  appear  in  the  record. 
The  vibrations  in  line  1  may  perhaps  be  considered  as  be- 
longing to  the  passage  from  h  to  u,  or  the  h-u  glide.  They 
show  cavity  vibrations  beginning 'with  a  period  of  2.8'  and 
shortening  to  2.5''.  It  is  impossible  to  say  definitely  whether 
or  not  they  are  in  groups  that  indicate  cord  vibrations.  The 
first  two   vibrations   in   line  2  have   periods  of   2.3°';    they 

1  In  the  following  phonetic  analysis,  of  a,  complete  phrase  I  have  been 
assisted  by  Miss  E.  M.,  Comstock. 


590 


APPENDIX  II 


Fig.  357. 


STUDIES   OF  SPEECH  CURVES  591 

are  also  cavity  vibrations.  Thereafter  the  cavity  vibrations 
remain  practically  constant  at  1.9"  and  are  found  in  groups 
clearly  indicating  a  cord  tone;   they  belong  to  the  u.. 

The  curve  for  the  u  (lines  2  and  3)  closely  resembles 
that  for  ai  in  its  general  character.  The  first  part  shows  a 
rising  cord  tone  and  a  nearly  constant  but  afterwards  falling 
cavity  tone.  In  the  latter  portion  the  cord  tone  is  approxi- 
mately constant  while  the  cavity  tone  falls.  The  change  in 
the  character  of  the  action  of  the  cords  appears  clearly  also 
as  in  ai  (p.  578).  It  is,  in  fact,  very  evident  that  this  sound 
is  somewhat  diphthongal  with  possibly  less  difference  be- 
tween the  two  elements  than  in  the  case  of  ai.  This 
diphthongal  character  of  the  English  u  is  well  known  to 
phoneticians;  the  sound  is   generally  indicated  as  uw. 

The  curve  at  the  beginning  of  the  u  shows  a  vibration  of 
6.3''  from  the  vocal  cords  acting  on  a  cavity  whose  period 
1.9'^  is  not  a  sub-multiple  of  the  cord  period.  As  the  cord 
period  is  gradually  shortened,  the  cavity  period  (remain- 
ing the  same)  steadily  modifies  the  form  of  the  resultant 
vibration,  and  the  curve  is  seen  to  change  its  form  gradually. 
The  relation  between  cord  tone  and  cavity  tone  is  closely 
analogous  to  that  in  the  a  of  ai. 

The  successive  vibrations  of  the  u  occupy  the  periods  of 
6.3,  6.1,  6.1,  5.6,  5.4,  5.4,  4.9,  4.9,  4.9,  4.9,  4.9,  4.6,  4.6, 
4.6,  4.2,  4.2,  4.2,  4.2,  4.2,  4.2,  4.2,  4.6,  4.6,  4.6,  4.6,  4.6, 
4.6,  4.6,  4.6,  4.6,  4.6,  4.6,  4.6,  4.6,  4.6°-.  The  total  time 
occupied  by  the  u  is  IQl". 

The  u  thus  shows  a  tightening  of  the  cords  to  the  tension 
necessary  for  a  tone  with  a  period  of  6.3%  and  thereafter  a 
gradual  increase  of  tension  to  a  maximum  represented  by 
4.2°'  ;  after  this  there  is  a  fall  to  4.6"^,  at  which  the  tone 
remains  constant. 

The  cavity  tone  begins  with  period  of  1.9",  or  a  frequency 
of  526,  or  at  approximately  <?.  It  is,  however,  not  constant 
throughout  the  u  in  this  case.  This  is  especially  evident 
during  the  last  part  where  the  cord  tone  is  constant.  In 
this   region   the  curve   steadily  changes  its  form  from   the 


592  APPENDIX   IT 

earlier  u  form  toward  the  1  form;  during  the  last  eight  or 
ten  cord  vibrations  it  is  difficult  to  say  whether  the  curve 
belongs  to  the  u  or  the  1.  The  cord  vibrations  of  the  u 
persist  in  their  own  constant  period,  however,  to  a  point 
which  can  be  detected.  We  are  thus  justified  in  attributing 
these  vibrations  to  the  u  although  the  mouth  cavity  has  been 
presumably  steadily  shaping  itself  for  another  sound.  The 
cavity  tone  thus  rises  toward  the  end. 

Repeatedly  observed  facts  of  this  kind  have  forced  upon 
me  the  belief  that  the  view  of  a  word  as  composed  of  a  set  of 
fixed  sounds  with  glides  between  them  is  a  somewhat  inade- 
quate one.  It  is  derived  from  the  attempt  to  get  away  from 
the  artificial  character  of  spelling,  but  it  still  largely  retains 
that  character.  The  usual  view  of  the  words  '  who  '11 '  would 
represent  them  as  composed  of  h — glide — u — glide — 1.  The 
vocal  organs  are  supposed  to  occupy  three  distinct  positions, 
the  glides  representing  the  intermediate  positions  during  the 
moments  of  change. 

A  somewhat  different  view  seems  better  fitted  to  the  actual 
curves.  The  unit  of  speech  is  sometimes  a  phrase,  some- 
times a  word,  and  never  a  vowel  or  a  consonant  unless  this 
is  at  the  same  time  a  word.  In  speaking  a  word  the  vocal 
organs  pass  through  a  series  of  positions  of  a  special  char- 
acter without  stopping  in  any  one  position.  Thus  the  words 
'  who  '11 '  represent  a  continuous  change  in  the  force  of  ex- 
piration following  a  definite  plan,  also  a  continuous  change 
in  the  tension  of  the  vocal  cords,  likewise  continuous  move- 
ments of  the  parts  of  the  mouth.  The  force  of  expiration 
rises  to  a  maximum  of  35''  in  the  h-u  glide,  continues  with 
slight  fluctuation  during  171'^  in  the  glide  and  u,  and  finally 
dies  away  at  277'^  at  the  end  of  the  1.  Before  the  breath 
begins  the  mouth  has  adjusted  itself  to  a  tone  of  a  period  of 
2.8";  this  position  changes  very  slightly  during  the  35°'  of  h  ; 
then  it  makes  a  rapid  change  through  2.3,  2.1  to  1.9'^  in  the 
u,  remains  constant  during  167%  and  rises  suddenly  to  the 
mouth  tone  of  the  1  (not  determinable  here). 

The  cord  tone  has  a  somewhat  similar  course.     It  begins 


STUDIES   OF   SPEECH  CURVES  593 

with  a  period  of  6.3''  in  the  u  at  39^  after  the  beginning  of 
the  word;  it  rises  steadily  to  4.2"^  and  then  falls  to  a  con- 
stant pitch  of  4.6"  for  the  latter  part  of  the  u ;  suddenly 
it  rises  to  2.1°-  for  the  1  and  remains  practically  constant 
for  71-. 

On  speaking  the  words  '  who  '11'  I  perceive  apparently  con- 
tinuous movements  of  the  lips  and  tongue;  they  do  not 
assume  fixed  positions  at  any  moment.  This  would  agree 
with  the  changes  just  described. 

There  are  thus  at  least  three  distinct  but  cooperating  con- 
tinuous processes  following  different  courses  throughout  the 
words,  namely,  the  force  of  expiration,  the  cavity  tone  and 
the  cord  tone. 

It  seems  therefore  somewhat  artificial  to  divide  the  words 
'  who  '11 '  into  3  or  5  sounds ;  we  may  preferably  say  that  for 
the  sake  of  discussion  5  stages  in  the  changing  sound  may  be 
picked  out  as  typical  of  the  whole  process.  To  illustrate  by 
an  analogy,  we  might  take  single  pictures  out  of  a  series  of 
views  of  a  runner  made  for  the  kinetoscope  and  treat  the 
whole  movement  as  made  up  of  a  series  of  positions  in  which 
the  runner  remains  at  rest.  This  treatment  has  its  advan- 
tages for  certain  cases,  but  we  should  never  lose  sight  of  the 
fact  that  the  true  movement  occurs  otherwise. 

This  view  is  not  inconsistent  with  the  fact  that  some  of 
the  elements  of  a  vocal  sound  may  remain  approximately 
constant  for  a  short  time.  Thus,  the  pitch  of  the  h-u  glide 
is  nearly  constant  —  as  far  as  our  methods  can  discover  — 
though  the  intensity  is  changing,  and  the  pitch  of  the  u  is 
fairly  constant  for  a  while. 

The  sound  1  apparently  does  not  begin  suddenly  but  arises 
from  a  modification  of  the  u.  The  u  itself  has  been  steadily 
changing  in  character  from  the  very  beginning;  during  its 
last  five  or  more  cord  vibrations  it  gradually  approaches  the 
form  of  curve  that  characterizes  the  1.  After  this  point  the 
curve  takes  the  1  form  which  differs  completely  from  that  of 
the  u  at  the  start  (Fig.  357,  line  4).  As  stated  above,  the 
explanation  is  presumably  (1)  that  the  cord  tone  remains 

38 


594  APPENDIX  II 

on  the  u  pitch  until  a  certain  moment  at  which  it  suddenly 
rises  to  the  1  pitch,  whereas  (2)  the  mouth  cavity  begins  to 
modify  itself  from  the  u  form  to  the  1  form  before  the  cord 
tone   changes. 

The  1  occupies  a  total  time  of  71".  It  shows  34  cavity 
vibrations  with  a  fairly  constant  period  of  2.1"  or  576  fre- 
quency. There  seems  to  be  a  grouping  by  twos  that  indicates 
a  cord  tone  an  octave  lower,  that  is,  of  4.2"  period,  or  238 
frequency.  The  form  of  the  vibration  steadily  changes  as 
shown  in  the  figure ;  there  is  a  change  either  in  the  tone  of 
the  mouth  cavity  or  in  that  of  the  cords. 

The  changes  in  pitch  in  these  words  '  who  '11 '  follow 
the  same  general  course  as  in  ai,  namely,  that  in  a  succes- 
sion of  sonants  (speech  elements  with  tones)  the  cord  tone  of 
a  sonant  tends  to  be  a  multiple  or  a  sub-multiple  of  the  cord 
tone  or  the  mouth  tone  of  the  preceding  sonant.  The  rela- 
tions are  not  exact  but  only  approximate.  The  mouth  tone 
2.5"  of  the  h  is  followed  by  a  cord  tone  for  the  u  having 
a  general  average  of  5.0"  or  an  octave  below  the  former. 
The  mouth  tone  of  the  u,  1.9",  is  followed  by  a  cord  tone  for 
the  1  of  pretty  nearly  the  same  period  2.1".  Such  relations 
are  what  would  be  expected  in  a  voice  —  at  any  rate  in  one 
that  was  not  unpleasant;  for  the  human  ear  finds  pleasure 
in  a  succession  of  tones  whose  periods  stand  in  certain 
relations.  Possibly  some  of  the  explanation  of  disagreeable 
voices  may  be  found  in  the  violation  of  this  law. 

In  the  spoken  words  on  the  gramophone  disc  the  sound  b 
follows  immediately  upon  the  1  without  pause.  The  speech 
curve  at  this  point  (Fig.  357,  line  5)  shows  no  measurable 
vibrations,  the  enlargement  not  being  great  enough  to  reveal 
the  details  of  the  weak  tone  of  the  b.  The  interval  occupied 
is  96". 

The  cavity  vibrations  of  i  (lines  6  and  7)  have  a  constant 
period  of  2.8",  or  a  frequency  of  857.  They  start  with  ah 
amplitude  of  0  and  rise  steadily  to  an  amplitude  of  0.2™™; 
at  the  end  they  fall  to  0  suddenly  in  four  vibrations  (line  8). 
They  are  grouped  in  twos,  indicating  a  cord  tone  an  octave 


STUDIES  OF  SPEECH  CURVES  595 

below  with  a  period  of  5.6'^,  or  a  frequency  of  179;  the  rela- 
tion is  like  that  often  found  in  i  of  ai.  The  glide  to  S  is 
seen  in  the  first  part  of  line  8. 

The  scale  of  enlargement  is  not  sufficient  to  give  definite 
information  concerning  the  waves  of  the  ?5  :  it  occupies  a 
time  of  56''- 

The  indefinite  vowel  9  of  '  the  '  rises  somewhat  rapidly  to 
its  maximum,  remains  at  an  even  amplitude  (line  9),  and 
drops  suddenly  to  0  in  the  last  4  vibrations.  It  has  a  pitch 
of  6. 7°'  on  an  average  and  a  maximum  amplitude  of  0.4™". 
The  entire  vowel  contains  12  cord  vibrations  and  occupies  a 
total  time  of  84'^. 

The  unstressed  vowel  9  of  '  the  '  is  cut  short  by  the  closing 
of  the  lips  for  p.  This  suddenly  reduces  the  amplitude  of 
the  vibrations  till  they  are  very  faint  (line  9),  yet  the  cords 


Fig.  358.  Fig.  359. 

continue  to  vibrate  after  the  closure  as  may  be  seen  from  the 
faint  vibrations  (lines  9  and  10).  The  sound  can  no  longer 
be  considered  to  be  the  vowel  9  and  cannot  in  the  usual  sense 
be  called  a  p.  It  may  be  treated  as  a  glide  although  it  occu- 
pies fully  two-thirds  of  the  interval  of  112°'  between  the  9  in 
'  the '  and  the  a  in  '  parson.'  If  the  period  of  sonancy  after 
'  the  '  is  to  be  considered  as  a  glide,  the  remaining  third  of  the 
112''  may  be  assigned  to  the  p  (line  10). 

The  word  '  parson '  appears  to  the  ear  to  have  an  inflec- 
tional force  of  the  form  indicated  in  Fig.  357,  as  often 
appears  at  the  end  of  questions;  the  circumflexion  appears 
to  lie  in  the  a  and  the  deep  fall  to  be  in  the  n.  The  word 
seems  to  contain  a  brief  r.  The  word  differs  from  the  same 
word  three  lines  later  (p.  575)  which  appears  to  the  ear  to 
have  a  deep  inflectional  tone,  at  first  level  and  then  falling 
as  in  deciding  a  matter;  this  is  indicated  in  Fig.  359.  The 
latter  word  seems  to  contain  no  r.     The  word  '  parson  '  is  in 


696  APPENDIX  II 

both  cases  apparently  continuous  with  the  word  '  the '  and 
would  be  phonetically  written  33parsn. 

The  vowel  a  in  this  case  occupies  a  period  of  180'-  It  is 
preceded  by  the  interval  of  112''  belonging  to  the  p  and  is 
followed  by  a  glide  of  12. 3^ 

The  a  shows  36  cord  vibrations.  The  pitch  rises  gradually 
as  shown  by  the  following  measurements  of  the  successive 
periods:  6.7,  7.0,  6.7,  6.0,  6.0,  6.3,  5.3,  5.3,  5.3,  5.3,  5.3, 
5.3,  4.9, '4.9,  4.6,  4.6,  4.6,  4.6,  4.6,  4.2,  4.2,  4.2,  3.9,  3.9, 
3.9,  3.9,  3.9,  3.9,  3.9,  3.9,  3.9,  3.9,  3.9,  3.9,  3.9,  3.9,  4.0, 
4.2.  It  contains  a  constant  lower  cavity  tone  with  a  period 
of  2.8°'  or  a  frequency  of  357.  The  upper  cavity  tone  is  one 
of  about  714  vibrations  per  second. 

The  amplitude  rises  through  the  first  four  vibrations  from 
zero  to  0.3™™  and  is  maintained  at  this  to  the  end. 

The  vowel  a  in  '  parson '  has  undoubtedly  a  diphthongal 
character.  The  first  portion  resembles  the  a  sound  discussed 
above  (p.  577)  in  the  rising  cord  tone  but  differs  radically 
in  the  falling  cavity  tone,  in  which  respect  it  is  somewhat 
like  the  a  in  '  die  '  (Figs.  353  and  355).  The  latter  portion 
(Fig.  357,  line  13)  is  related  to  the  earlier  portion  much  as 
the  i  is  related  to  the  a  in  ai  in  respect  to  amplitude,  the 
lowering  of  the  cavity  tone  and  the  maintenance  of  the 
cord  tone.  Although  this  latter  portion  is  not  so  long  as  in 
most  cases  of  ai,  the  resemblance  is  sufficient  to  justify  the 
statement  with  which  this  paragraph  begins.  The  sound 
might  be  written  af,  where  the  sign  t  indicates  a  brief 
vowel  not  yet  determined.  It  may  be  suggested  that  this 
brief  vowel  may  arise  from  the  weakening  of  the  r,  whereby 
a  vowel  sound  partially  or  completely  replaces  the  full  r. 
It  seems,  however,  to  be  a  general  rule,  that  in  English  the 
long  vowels  have  a  diphthongal  character. 

The  sudden  fall  in  amplitude  and  the  change  in  pitch  of 
the  vowel  indicated  by  f  is  continued  through  an  interval  of 
8.8"^  in  which  3  vibrations  with  a  period  of  2.4'^  appear  (line 
13,  middle).  During  this  time  the  tongue  is  presumably 
passing  to  the  r  position.  This  portion  might  be  called  the 
a-r  glide. 


STUDIES   OF  SPEECH  CURVES  597 

The  very  brief  r  is  distinctly  heard  in  the  word  'parson; ' 
it  occupies  a  time  of  63'^  (line  13  middle  to  line  14  begin- 
ning). The  r  shows  clearly  3  '  pseudobeats  '  (p.  19)  with  a 
period  of  19^  or  a  frequency  of  53.  The  vibrations  within 
the  beats  are  grouped  in  pairs  indicating  a  cord  tone  acting 
upon  a  cavity.  The  period  of  the  cord  tone  is  at  first 
constant  at  3.5'^  (frequency  286)  but  falls  slightly  in  the 
third  beat.  The  cavity  tone  has  a  period  apparently  con- 
stanb  at  1.4°-  (frequency  714).  Still  higher  cavity  tones 
are  probably  present.  The  explanation  of  this  curve  of  r 
seems  clear.  The  r  consists  of  a  cord  tone  with  a  frequency 
of  286  acting  upon  a  resonating  cavity  adjusted  to  a  fre- 
quency of  714,  The  tongue  is  adjusted  to  vibrate  with  a 
frequency  of  58 ;  this  vibration  of  the  tongue  closes  and  opens 
the  air  passage  so  that  the  intensity  of  the  sound  escaping 
from  the  mouth  is  regularly  varied  from  zero  to  a  maximum 
and  again  to  zero  at  the  rate  of  53  times  a  second. 

The  pseudobeats  with  the  cord  and  resonance  vibrations 
are  shown  in  the  curves  of  WbndelerI  and  in  those  of 
Nichols  and  Mbbritt  (p.  28).  The  German  rolled  r  of  Wen- 
DELER  has  a  much  longer  beat  period,  in  general  over  250'^ 
or  \  sec. ;  the  Finnish  r  of  Pipping  has  a  beat  of  J  to  |-  sec.^ 
The  American  rolled  r  of  Nichols  and  Meeritt  has  also 
apparently  a  long  beat-period  as  far  as  can  be  judged  from 
the  pictures.  The  brief  r  in  three  examples  given  by  these 
last  observers  seems  to  have  a  shorter  beat-period  than  that 
of  '  parson.'  The  cord  period  in  Wendelbr's  examples 
varies  apparently  from  2.3"  to  3.3''  (Wendeler's  own  com- 
putation of  a  frequency  of  200,  or  a  period  of  o'',  can  hardly 
be  correct) ;  the  cavity  tone  has  a  period  in  the  neighborhood 
of  1.7"^,  according  to  my  calculation  from  his  records.  The 
later  observations  of  Hermann  on  r  have  been  given  on 
pages  44  and  337. 

1  Wbndelbe,  Ein  Versuch,  die  Schallbewegung  einiger  Konsonanten  und  anderer 
Gerdusche  mit  dem  Hensen'schen  Sprachzeichner  graphisch  dnrzustellen,  Zt.  f.  Biol., 
1887  XXIII  303,  Tafel  II,  B. 

2  Pipping,  Zur  Phonetik  d.  jinn.  Sprache,  Unters.  mit  Hensen's  Sprachzeichner, 
Mem.  de  la  goc.  finno-ougrienne,  XIV  Helsingfors,  1899. 


598  APPENDIX  II 

The  s  follows  directly  upon  the  r.  The  vibrations  in  the 
curve  are  hardly  distinguishable  and  no  very  definite  limit 
can  be  set  to  them. 

The  n  follows  immediately  on  s  (Fig.  357,  line  14  to  end). 
It  occupies  an  interval  of  lOT".  The  successive  vibrations 
occupy  periods  of  4.2,  3.5,  5.1,  3.7,  5.3,  4.1,  4.1,  5.3,  4.2, 
4.9,  4.9,  5.3,  5.3,  5.3,  5.3,  5.3,  5.6,  5.3,  5.3,  5.6,  5.6,  5.3, 

6.7,  6.3,  6.7,  6.7,  7.0,  7.0,  7.0,  7.0,  7.0,  8.4,  8.8,  8.8,  9.1, 

8.8.  The  maximum  amplitude  is  0.1°™ 

The  tracings  on  Plate  I  were  made  with  the  double  record- 
ing lever  described  on  p.  59 ;  they  belong  to  Cock  Rohin, 
Series  II.  They  comprise  ohi  of  sohim  '  saw  him  '  (analyzed 
and  discussed  above,  pp.  63,  276),  o  of  bow  '  bow '  (see  also 
pp.  66,433),  au  of  Sraud  'shroud,'  o  of  'sparrow,'  oju  of 
'draw  your.'  A  preliminary  study  ^  of  these  curves  is  here 
condensed  and  continued.^ 

The  word  '  bow '  in  '  with  my  bow  and  arrow '  appeared 
to  the  ear  to  be  melodious  and  prolonged ;  it  might  even  be 
called  mellifluous.  The  tracing  (Plate  I)  gives  the  curve  of 
ow.  It  begins  with  three  faint  vibrations  that  presumably 
occur  as  the  mouth  begins  to  open.  Thereafter  the  vibrations 
follow  in  groups  of  four,  beginning  with  a  length  of  5.5"""  and 
decreasing  slowly  to  4.8""  in  the  middle  of  the  line ;  this  indi- 
cates a  cord  tone  of  rising  pitch.  The  cavity  tone  remains 
practically  constant  at  1. 5""  for  each  vibration,  or  a  period  of 
0.0024"  and  a  frequency  of  417. 

The  amplitude  rises  steadily  to  a  degree  that  indicates  con- 
siderable loudness ;  it  then  falls  rather  suddenly  (middle  of 
second  line).  The  vibratiors  beyond  this  point  show  so 
many  peculiarities  that  their  difficulties  can  best  be  attacked 
by  working  backwards  from  a  later  point  where  the  grouping 
is  more  regular.  About  one-third  of  the  distance  from  the 
middle  in  the  second  line  the  vibrations  fall  into  groups  hav- 
ing two  main  crests  with  two  subordinate  ones.  The  entire 
group  arises  presumably  from  one  cord  vibration.     This  con- 

'  ScEiPTUKE,  Speech  Curves,  I.,  Mod.  Lang.  Notes,  1901  XVI  72. 

^  Tu  this  I  have  been  assisted  by  Miss  E.  Jelliffe,  of  Mt.  Holyoke  Seminary. 


STUDIES   OF  SPEECH  CURVES  699 

elusion  is  drawn  because  further  on  to  the  right  the  group 
gradually  changes  to  two  main  crests  only,  a  typical  form  for  a 
cord  tone  accompanied  by  a  cavity  tone  nearly  an  octave  higher. 
Starting  from  the  strong  vibrations  (third  quarter  of  line  2), 
we  mark  off  backward  the  alternate  higher  vibrations  as  the 
points  of  maximum  for  each  cord  puff.  We  thus  have  the 
vibrations  in  pairs  ;  the  period  of  the  cord  tone  at  any  moment 
will  be  given  by  the  distance  between  two  such  marked 
vibrations. 

As  we  go  towards  the  left,  we  see  that  each  of  the  vibrations 
of  the  pair  shows  a  tendency  to  split  up  into  two  minor  vibra- 
tions; this  indicates  the  presence  of  higher  cavity  tones. 
Measurements  of  the  periods  of  the  cord  tone  show  that  it 
steadily  rises  in  pitch  from  the  middle  to  the  third  quarter  of 
the  line.  They  also  show  that  the  smaller  cavity  vibration 
keeps  very  closely  at  the  middle  of  the  cord  period,  though  in 
the  first  portion  it  is  generally  a  little  behind  the  middle  point. 
This  indicates  a  cavity  tone  in  general  an  octave  higher  than 
the  cord  tone,  but  a  little  lower  in  the  first  portion.  The  con- 
dition of  a  cord  tone  with  an  octave  cavity  tone  is  modified  in 
the  first  part  by  higher  tones  that  do  not  form  an  exact  har- 
monic interval  with  either  of  the  other  tones ;  these  give  rise 
to  the  minor  fluctuations.  The  higher  tones  are  of  changing 
pitch,  as  can  be  seen  by  the  steadily  changing  form. 

The  puffs  of  air  from  the  cords  are  not  generally  of  the 
even  nature  found  in  sinusoid  -nbrations ;  they  rather  re- 
semble more  or  less  sharp  explosions.  In  this  sound  they 
are  not  so  sharply  explosive  as  in  au  of  '  shroud '  or  ae  of 
'  sparrow,'  yet  the  puff  has  its  greatest  intensity  in  the  first 
part  of  the  interval  of  time  it  occupies. 

A  third  maximum  is  found  in  the  latter  portion  of  '  bow ' 
(third  line).  This  vowel  sound  is  to  be  considered  as  a  triph- 
thong; careful  listening  to  the  gramophone  plate  enables  the 
ear  to  hear  two  maxima  clearly  and  the  third  faintly.  The 
maxima  are  due  to  coincidence  of  the  cavity  period  with  a 
sub-multiple  of  the  cord  period  (p.  13).  As  a  triphthong 
the  sound  might  be  writen  cow  or  ouw. 


600  APPENDIX  11 

The  word  'shroud'  occurs  in  '  Who'll  make  his  shroud? ' 
The  portion  of  the  record  on  line  3  and  the  first  quarter  of 
line  4  gives  the  curve  of  the  r  with  one  pseudobeat  (p.  19) 
at  the  flat  place  in  line  4.  The  r-a  glide  after  this  is  followed 
by  the  long  record  for  au  reaching  to  the  middle  of  line  5. 
The  latter  half  of  line  5  contains  the  faint  vibrations  of  the  u-d 
glide,  the  still  fainter  ones  of  the  d-occlusion  and  the  strong 
ones  of  the  d-explosion.  After  the  occlusion  of  the  pseudobeat 
the  tongue  again  allows  the  cord-and-cavity  vibrations  to  appear. 
The  form  of  the  vibration  is  different,  indicating  a  changing  ad- 
justment of  the  mouth  from  the  r-position  to  the  a-position ;  this 
portion  is  to  be  considered  as  the  r-a  glide.  There  is  no  possi- 
bility of  definitely  limiting  the  r  from  the  a,  or'  of  marking  off  a 
distinct  r-a  glide ;  the  change  is  gradual  throughout  (p.  451). 
The  r  shows  a  rise  and  fall  of  amphtude.  The  occlusion 
during  the  one  pseudobeat  is  complete,  as  indicated  by  the 
entire  cessation  of  vibrations  near  the  beginning  of  line  4. 
During  au  the  cord  tone  rises  from  the  frequency  120  to 
111  and  then  falls  steadily  to  92.  The  diphthong  au  is  of 
circumflex  pitch.  It  is  of  crescendo-diminuendo  intensity,  the 
crescendo  being  gradual  and  diminuendo  rather  sudden.  In 
the  d  the  cord  tone  rises  to  109. 

The  word '  sparrow  '  occurs  in  '  I,  said  the  sparrow.'  The  ae 
of  '  sparrow '  begins  at  the  first  quarter  of  the  sixth  line ;  it  ends 
in  r  just  beyond  the  third  quarter  of  the  same  line.  The  o 
extends  over  the  remainder  of  this  line  and  the  whole  of  the 
next.  This  o  is  quite  different  from  that  in  'bow'  above. 
The  vowel  is  a  crescendo-diminuendo  sound ;  its  amplitude 
rises  slowly  to  a  maximum  and  then  falls  to  zero.  The  vowel- 
sound  in  '  bow '  has  three  maxima  ;  the  fall  from  the  maximum 
is  in  two  cases  very  sudden.  In  general  the  curve  of  the  o  of 
'  sparrow '  differs  greatly  from  that  of  the  o  of  '  bow, '  although 
there  is  some  resemblance  of  the  former  to  the  middle  portion 
of  the  latter. 

The  cord  tone  of  '  sparrow '  has  at  the  beginning  a  frequency 
of  125.  This  frequency  increases  to  202  and  then  falls  by 
degrees  as  low  as  136.     The  amplitude  increases  slowly,  then 


STUDIES   OF  SPEECH  CURVES  Qpl 

descends  suddenly  and  almost  reaches  zero  at  the  r ;  after 
this  the  amplitude  increases  again  quite  rapidly  and  contin- 
uously during  o  to  a  maximum,  and  then  gradually  decreases. 
The  words  '  draw  your '  occur  in  the  introduction  '  Now, 
children,  draw  your  little  chairs  nearer.'  The  last  five  lines 
of  Plate  I  give  the  curve  for  the  sounds  oju,  omitting  a  piece  at 
the  end.  The  recording-surface  was  run  at  about  three  times 
the  speed  used  for  the  previous  curves.  Measurements  of  the 
groups  of  vibrations  show  that  the  cord  tone  rises  from  about 
the  frequency  75  at  the  beginning  of  o  (line  8)  to  about  189 
(line  10,  first  quarter),  after  which  it  remains  practically  con- 
stant until  it  begins  to  fall  in  the  oj  glide  (line  10,  last  part). 
During  the  j  and  u  the  tone  seems  to  fall  steadily. 


APPENDIX  III 

FREE   RHYTHMIC   ACTION 

As  a  measure  of  the  irregularity  in  a  voluntary  act  we  may 
use  the  probable  error.  ^  When  a  series  of  measurable  acts 
are  performed  they  will  differ  from  one  another,  if  the  unit 
of  measurement  is  fine  enough.  Thus,  let  x-^,  x^,  . .  .,  x„  be 
successive  intervals  of  time  marked  off  by  a  subject  beating 
time,  or  walking,  or  running,  at  the  rate  he  instinctively 
takes.     The  average  of  the  measurements, 

x^  +  X2+  ■■■  +  x„ 
n 

can  be  considered  to  give  the  period  of  natural  rhythm  under 
the  circumstances.  The  amount  of  irregularity  in  the  meas- 
urements is  to  be  computed  according  to  the  well-known 
formula 


P  =  i\'^ 


2  +  V  +  -  +  <^ 


where  v^  =  x^  —  a,  v^  —  x^  —  a,  .  ,  .,  t)„  =  a;„  —  a  The  quan- 
tity p  is  known  as  the  '  immediate  absolute  probable  error. ' 
The  quantity 

.P 


r  =- 


the  '  immediate  relative  probable  error,'  expresses  the  prob- 
able error  as  a  fraction  of  the  average.     Both  p  and  r  are 

1  Scripture,  Observations  on  rhythmic  action,  Science,  1899  X  807 ;  also  in 
Stud.  Yale  Psych.  Lab.,  1899  VII  102. 


FSEE   RHYTHMIC  ACTION  603 

called    '  immediate  '    in   order  to  distinguish  them  from  the 
'  final '    ones, 

F  =  JL 
and 


Vn 


used  to  indicate  the  precision  of  the  average. 

If  all  errors  in  the  apparatus  and  the  external  surroundings 
have  been  made  negligible,  the  '  probable  error '  is  a  personal 
quantity,  a  characteristic  of  the  irregularity  of  the  subject  in 
action.  If,  as  may  be  readily  done,  the  fluctuations  in  the 
action  of  the  limbs  of  the  subject  are  reduced  to  a  negligible 
amount,  this  probable  error  becomes  a  central,  or  subjective, 
or  psychological,  quantity.  Strange  as  it  may  appear,  psy- 
chologists have  never  understood  the  nature  and  the  possi- 
bilities of  the  probable  error  (or  of  the  related  quantities, 
'average  deviation,'  'mean  error,'  etc.).  In  psychological 
measurements  it  is  —  when  external  sources  of  fluctuation  are 
rendered  negligible  —  an  expression  for  the  irregularity  of 
the  subject's  mental  processes.  Nervous  or  excitable  people 
invariably  have  large  relative  probable  errors;  phlegmatic 
people  have  small  ones.  Thus  a  person  vpith  a  probable  error 
of  25%  in  simple  reaction  time  will  invariably  have  a  large 
error  in  tapping  on  a  telegraph  key,  in  squeezing  a  dynamo- 
meter, and  so  on.  I  have  repeatedly  verified  this  in  groups 
of  students  passing  through  a  series  of  exercises  in  psycho- 
logical measurements.  I  do  not  believe  it  going  too  far  to 
use  the  probable  error  as  a  measure  of  a  person's  irregularity. 
This  is  equivalent  to  asserting  that  a  person  with  a  probable 
■error  twice  as  large  as  another's  is  twice  as  irregular,  or  that, 
if  a  person's  probable  error  in  beating  time  at  one  interval  is 
rj  and  at  another  interval  r^,  his  irregularity  is  rjr^  times  as 
great  in  the  second  case  as  in  the  first.  This  concept  is 
analogous  to  that  of  precision  in  measurements.  We  might 
-use   the   reciprocal  of   the   probable   error  as  a  measure  of 


604  APPENDIX   III 

regularity.  The  positive  concept,  however,  is  in  most  minds 
the  deviation,  variation  or  irregularity,  and  not  the  lack  of 
deviation,  the  non-variability,  or  the  regularity.  In  the  case 
of  the  word  '  irregularity '  the  negative  word  is  applied  to 
a  (^oncept  that  is  naturally  positive  in  the  average  mind. 

The  irregularity  in  an  act  is  a  good  expression  of  its  difS- 
culty.  Thus,  if  a  person  beating  time  at  the  interval  T  has 
an  irregularity  measured  by  the  relative  probable  error  R  and 
at  the  interval  t  by  the   relative  probable  error  r,  it  seems 

justifiable  to  say  that  the  interval  *  is  ^  times  as  difficult  as  T. 

If  Tis  the  natural  interval  selected  by  the  subject,  then  the 
artificial  interval  t  would  be  more  difficult  than  T,  and 
we  should  measure  the  diificulty  by  comparing  probable 
errors. 

It  is  now  possible  to  state  with  some  definiteness  the  law 
of  difficulty  for  free  rhythmic  action.  Let  T  be  the  natural 
period  and  let  its  relative  probable  error  —  that  is,  its  difii- 
culty  —  be  r.  It  has  already  been  observed  ^  that  any  other 
larger  or  smaller  period  (slower  or  faster  beating)  will  be  more 
difficult  than  the  natural  one  and  will  have  a  larger  probable 
error.  Thus  any  interval  t  will  have  a  relative  probable  error 
r'  which  is  greater  than  r,  regardless  of  whether  t  is  larger  or 
smaller  than  T. 

Continued  observations  during  several  years  enable  me  to 
give  an  idea  of  the  general  relation.  The  results  observed 
can  be  fairly  well  expressed  by  the  law 


-<i-^-^> 


in  which  T  is  the  natural  period,  r  the  relative  probable  error 
for  T,  t  any  arbitrary  period,  r'  the  relative  probable  error  for 
t,  and  c  a  personal  constant. 

This  may  be  called  the  law  of  difficulty  in  free  rhythmic 
action.     A  curve  expressing  the  equation  for  T=  1.0%  r  — 

1  ScKiPTURE,  The  law  of  rhythmic  action,  Science,  1896  IV  535. 


FREE  RHYTHMIC  ACTION 


605 


0.02^  and  c  =  1  is  given  in  Fig.  360.  It  will  be  noticed  that 
periods  differing  but  little  from  the  natural  one  are  not  much 
more  difficult  and  that  the  difficulty  increases  more  rapidly 
for  smaller  than  for  larger  periods.  In  plotting  this  curve  I 
have  assumed  unity  as  the  value  for  all  personal  constants. 
These  personal  constants  will  undoubtedly  vary  for  different 
persons,  for  different  occasions  and  for  different  forms  of 
action. 

In  case  it  is  desired  to  know  what  periods  are  of  a  diffi- 
culty 2,  3,  .  .  .,  w  times  that  of  T,  a  table  of  values  for  ^  may 


.10 


.08 


.06 


M 


■02 


1.0  1.5 

Fig.  360. 


ZO 


be  drawn  up  in  the  usual  way  and  tha  value  for  t  sought  for 
(with  interpolation)  which  gives  for  /  a  value  2,  3,  .  .  .  ,  n 
times  as  great.  Thus,  in  a  table  for  the  above  example  it  is 
found  that  the  periods  0.38'  and  2.6'  are  twice  as  difficult. 

This  law  can  be  stated  in  another  form  which  is  of  special 
interest  to  the  psychologist.  To  the  person  beating  time  a 
period  of  0  is  just  as  far  removed  from  his  natural  period  as 
one  of  00 ;  both  are  infinitely  impossible.  The  scale  of  seconds 
does  not  express  this  fact;  objectively  a  period  of  0  is  as 
different  from  a  period  of  1'  as  a  period  of  2'  would  be. 
Similar  considerations  hold  good  for  the  lesser  periods ;  the 
scale  by  which  the  mind  estimates  periods  is  different  from 


606  APPENDIX  III 

their  objective  scale.  This  difference  may  be  expressed  by- 
asserting  that  the  following  relations  exist  between  the  two : 

(t-Ty 

X  —  c- — — ^-, 

where  x  is  the  measure  on  the  mental  scale,  T  the  natural 
period,  t  any  other  period,  and  o  a  personal  constant.  By 
this  formula  the  various  periods  may  be  laid  off  according 
to  their  mental  differences  from  the  natural  period.  Every 
difference  from  the  natural  period  is  mentally  a  positive 
matter.     With  the  mental  scale  the  law  of  difficulty  becomes 

/  —  r  (1  +  car), 

where  r'  and  r  are  the  relative  probable  errors  for  t  and  T 
respectively,  x  the  measure  on  the  mental  scale,  and  c  a  per- 
sonal constant.  This  is  the  equation  of  a  straight  line.  The 
law  states  that  the  difficulty  of  any  arbitrary  period  is  directly 
proportional  to  its  mental  difference  from  the  natural  period. 
This  law  of  difficulty  as  depending  on  the  period  is,  of 
course,  only  one  of  the  laws  of  free  rhythmic  action.  It  is 
quite  desirable  that  other  la,ws  of  difficulty  and  of  frequency 
should  be  determined.  For  example,  observations  on  ergo- 
graph  experiments  tend  to  show  that  the  irregularity  and  the 
natural  period  both  change  with  the  weight  moved ;  they  also 
change  with  the  extent  of  the  movement. 


ADDITIONS    AND    COERECTIONS 

Page  24.  —  Hekmann's  earlier  records  were  made  by  a  beam  of  light 
reflected  from  a  mirror  attached  to  a  diaphragm  ;  see  first  four  refer- 
ences in  note  1  on  page  38. 

Page  32.  —  A  simpler  and  better  form  of  recorder  has  lately  been 
devised  for  the  phonograph.  The  sapphire  knife  is  fastened  to  a  mica 
diaphragm  with  no  intervening  link. 

Page  36.  —  The  earliest  reference  to  the  use  of  large  cylinders  for  the 
phonograph  seems  to  be  Dussaud,  De  V amplification  des  sons  dans  les 
phonographes,  C.  r.  Acad.  Sci.  Paris,  1899  CXXVIII  552. 

Page  37.  —  To  note  3  add  Boeke,  On  the  derivation  of  the  curves  of 
vowel  sounds  by  means  of  microscopical  research  of  their  phonograms,  Proc. 
Koy.  Soc.  Edin.,  1897-98  XXII  88. 

Page  42.  — ■  The  record  for  x  shows  pseudobeats  resembling  those  of 
uvula  r;  see  also  p.  461. 

Page  61.  —  Gramophone  (or  zonophone)  discs  are  now  made  of  large 
diameter;  the  records  are  remarkably  clear  and  truthful.  Discs  contain- 
ing typical  English  sounds  are  now  being  traced  off. 

Page  63.  —  The  statement  concerning  sohim  should  bo  corrected  as 
indicated  on  page  277. 

Page  75.  —  The  results  of  the  analysis  of  the  curve  in  Fig.  49  are  not 
correctly  given;  see  pp.  567,  572. 

Page  248.  —  The  pull  on  the  tongue  must  modify  to  some  extent  the 
adjustments  of  the  larynx. 

Page  313.  —  In  Figs.  192  and  198,  ca,  ja  should  be  xa,  xa. 


PHONETIC   SYMBOLS 

Some  of  the  less  frequently  used  symbols  are  not  included  in  this  list ;  their 
meanings  are  explained  in  the  text. 

The  following  language-names  are  abbreviated  to  their  initial  letters :  Ameri- 
can English,  British  English,  English,  French,  German. 


a  — A.  'yacht,  ah.' 

ae  — E.  'pat,'  A.  'pass.' 

b  — E.  b. 

p   —  Dutch  w. 

c   —  surd  palatal  occlusive. 

9   —  G.  '  recAt,  buc/ier.' 

5   —  E.  ch. 

d  —  E.  d,  F.  d. 

8   —  mouille  d. 

S    —  E.  sonant  th. 

e   —  F.  e,  e,  G.  eh,  a,. 

a  — E.  'her,  fungus,'  F.  'pre- 
mier,' G.  '  gebirge.' 

f    —  E.  f,  F.  f. 

g  —  E.  "  hard  "  g. 

■^  —  mouille  g. 

Y  — sonant  fricative  in  G. 
'  sa^e.' 

—  E.  h,  G.  h. 

—  E.  'pick,  pique,'  F. 'pique.' 

—  sonant  palatal  occlusive. 

—  North  G.  'jageT.' 

—  E.  '  yet;  F.  '  lieu.' 
-E.j. 


h 

i 

J 
J 
J 
J 

k  —  E.  k. 

K  —  a  k-sound  (k,  K,  c). 

K  —  mouille  k. 


X 

—  G.  '  acAt,  bucA.' 

1 

—  mouille  y^. 

1 

—  E.  1,  F.  1. 

A 

—  mouille  1. 

m 

—  E.  m. 

n 

—  E.  n,  F.  n. 

n 

—  mouille  n. 

11 

—  E.  'sinffer,  fireger,  sink.' 

r» 

—  mouille  t|. 

o 

—  F.  o,  G.  0. 

0 

—  E.  '  gnawed, 

B. 

'  nod.' 

oe 

—  F.  eu,  G.  6. 

P 

-E.p. 

<t> 

—  Japanese  f. 

r 

—  flapped  r. 

J 

—  unflapped  r. 

s 

—  E.  surd  s. 

cr 

—  mouille  s. 

V 

s 

—  E.  sh,  F.  ch. 

G. 

sch. 

0- 

—  mouille  s. 

t 

—  E.  t,  F.  t. 

T 

—  a  t-sound  (t, 

t). 

T 

—  mouille  t. 

e 

—  E.  surd  th. 

u 

—  F.  ou,  G.  u. 

V 

—  E.  V,  F.  v. 

w^ 

—  E.  'way;  F. 

'loi 

,  loMis.' 

A\  —  surd  w. 
y  —  F.  u,  G.  ii. 
q  —  F.  'lui.' 
z   —  E.  z,  F.  z. 


PHONETIC   SYMBOLS  609 


1^  —  mouilM  z. 

z  —  E.  '  vision,'  F.  j. 

r  —  mouille  I. 

'  — G.  'be()enden.' 


Smaller  letters  on  the  line  indicate  weak  sounds. 

''  —  aspiration,  as  in  G.  '  t()at().' 

"  —  nasal  modification  of  preceding  sound. 

"  —  labial  "  "         "  " 

'  —  palatal         "  ''         "  " 

^  —  sonant         "  "  " 

„  — surd  "  _"         "  " 

The  combination  ^„  means  that  the  sound  is  partly  sonant, 
partly  surd. 

1,  2, 5,  etc.  are  sometimes  used  to  indicate  different  varieties  of 
a  sound,  as  explained  in  text. 

Quantity  is  sometimes  roughly  indicated  by  the  macron  (long) 
and  breve  (short). 

Accent  is  occasionally  marked  by  an  acute  over  the  vowel. 


39 


^ 

S 

a 

a 

lO 

02  t-  CO 

t-  CO 

t— 

CO 

(M 

tHt-h 

t- 

c 

<D 

OJ 

.s 

-+ 

0  -*  CD 

0  C-1 

CO 

CM 

CO 

0  CO 

r^ 

T 

^ 

d 

S 

00 

00  00  <M 

CO 

03 

-f  ^  ^0 

CO  Ci 

CM 

c 

c 

a; 

rt 

CO 

CO  CM  05 

^ 

1—1 

GO  CO  -^ 

CM  c:^ 

Oi 

0 

& 

o 

o 

^ 

CO  CO  M 

C>4 

CM 

T— 1 

tH 

T— 1 

1-1 1-1 

i 

s 

0 

^2  Tg  ~» 

c    c 

'T!  9  J=-i 


4^  «* 


«     5 


O 
I— I 
H 
<1 

O 

a 
I— I 
m 


s-^  .=  .H  ^  g  -s- 

Hn        c«^                            n|m       i-h|m                             w|co 

i 

CDOCOCMOO'*c>OOCOCOiOO(M'*OCOC 

g  a|^6| g 

05^1— It— COCOO'+ICMOCOCOOOlOCMCDLOCi 

N 

OOO-TtiOt-LOCOOOit— lOCOCMTHOOJOOt- 

=-s-|a§  =  - 

-*COCOCO<MCMC<l<Mi-lTHTHi-(-i-lT-lr-l 

Frequency, 
half  vibra- 
tions (even 

tempera- 
ment) 

[French]. 

LqTjHOt-i-JTHCMTlHCMOC'Oi-lT-JCDCMT-HOiT 

coc<^oO'*-*Lra"o6cDc^o'^^t-^'^^05cooc 

t-THCDO<M—  M<C0O00OC0OCMCD»0-+IU 
CMCX)COCMlOCMCOi-HC^'^-r^t~COCOOC^t— u 
OOt-t-COiOiO^-+COCOCOC<l(MCMCMi-(rHT- 

Frequency, 
complete 
vibrations 
(even  tem- 
perament) . 

Tj;  CM  0  CO  T-H  tj^  CO  c<i  T-i  0  oi  0  uo  CO  CO  lo  0  T- 

OOCDo'tOCM't-^CMoicOOOT-icOr-I^cdOir 
C0O00OCDOCMCD".0-*iO00OC0C0t--b-t- 
1— lOSTtir- it-COCOOCJit— lOCOCO-rMOCJOOt- 
-*C0C0C0C5CMCMCMrHT-lT-lTHT-lT-H,-| 

t-      to      to      CO      «0      O      CD      '■-D      lO      lO      10      lo      !.-» 


Viergestrichene  Octave       Dreigestrichene  Octave    Zweigesi 

\:  i<  "■«  "^^"'^  "^  \  i<i  ~>S  ""^S^^^  "^  \  5^  %3  ^- 


Fol- 
lowed 
in  this 
book. 

Fourth  octave                        Third  octave 

Sec 

( 

>>,'^TtO   (MH 


03  <S  t~ 

O  O  '-O 

to  1— (  ;o 

T^l  Ttl  CO 


o  o 


o  t~ 

CO  <M 


■-ti  CO  en 

O  lO  oi 

CO  O  00 
CM  (M  tH 


O  O 

iC  CO 


CI  'O  -H 

id  ci  i-i 

T-(  W'  03 


CO  CO 

I—  in 


CO  CO  t-; 

b-'i-l  LO 
lO  lO  Tfl 


lO  CO 
00  -rt! 
CO  CO 


>»-.«, 


«  ttj' 


^ 


«  5>i=e, 


&  g  © 


'Ij 


OD      OS 

^il 

^.'^ 


S  S  3  S  s 


•^ 


L-^1-?^,-S»°'^'^  OCO^jT-jOOOOOCOCNOO^OOOCDCOiOOCMTjHOCOOOCqOCDCq 
r'OacOSO'.-OlO  ■^■*C0COCOCN(N(MC^T-lt-li-li-lTHTHT-l 


coMwq?ioM?q  iqOi-;u3oqt-_co(Noioco_05cot--rHicoo'ffl05C^coTHaooicoiotot- 

WtSMOOrtSlH-*  CO  O  lO  O  T-H  O  b-^  00  lO  b-^  LO  lO  O  OC?  rjH  t~^  CO  CN  (>i  lO  Oi  C<i  OO'  to'  CO  T-H  (>i  ^ 

(N!OU3-t«)COOIOCOt-lr-t-ailOOOT-IOOCOOOTtH<MCiiLO-^t-iait-COTtl(M<Moa3000Dt-CO 
MOat-lOeOMHO  OSCOt-COCOLOLO-^-^COCOCOOltMCMtMT-lT-l-i-liHTHT-lT-l 
J)(MHrlHnrtHr-i 


3COlOOH>00)NCO_  CNOlOCOOSCOt— -I— I'OOOCOOitMCOi— lOOOSCOLOCOt— O-^-t^dOOCOCO 

■  T(!ffldiddr^;i>-a5LOb-^L6Looo6Tj5i>^co(?4c^'Looi(No6cd<fflTH(N-^T-H-H^ 

ICOt-Nt-ffiCSi-IOOCOOO-^CMOSLO-^T-iast-CO-^tNC-lOOSOOOOt— COCOLO'*-^-*ICOCO 
005a)N-;'-'LOTj<TtlCOCOCOH<M(M(MT— li— Ii—ItHt— (tHt— I 


T      ■* 

CO 

CO 

^ 

ffJ 

■"?1> 

■t-J 

e«a 

<l 

«;> 

rS 

**w 

^ 

-.a 

"'«^-l 

•+0 

1       1 

s 

f^ 

r-.= 

^    ^ 

rsg 

GO 

s 

5. 

;s 

00 

5. 

5S 

CC 

CO 

5> 

00 

^ 
^-^ 

CO 

^i 

^ 

Contra  Octave 


Zireigestrichene  Odtsve     Eingeatrichene  Octave      Ungestrichene  Octave  Grosse  Octave 


Second  octate  First  octave 


Zero  octave  FirEt  negative  octave        Second  negative  octave 

0000000^^'-tr-<'-^'-''-'C«CaClC<lClMC3 


~    tji'-*~i  «  1^    ^  -<>    is    bs'^  'a  '>3 


INDEX 


INDEX 


a,  26,  28,  32,  39-43,  49,  114,  115,  122, 
221,  222,  223,  224,  227,  266,  287,  305, 
307,  312,  318,  321,  330,  332,  333,  336, 
339,  342,  343,  344,  352,  403,  595 

ai,  114,  122,400,  402,  576 

au,  114,  122 

a",  315,  339,  345,  359 

BE,  117,  330,  600 

B,  459 

Abdominal  breathing,  212 

Abstract  rhythm,  552 

Accent,  506-516 

Accessory  nasal  sinuses,  339 

Accommodation  in  vowels,  410 ;  in  the 
ear,  see  Tensor  tynjpani 

Accuracy,  of  judgment,  104;  of  move- 
ment, 385 

Acoustic  impressiveness,  114 

Acoustic  penetration,  115 

Action,  voluntary,  188 ;  rhythmic,  see 
Ehythmic  action 

Acusticus  nerve,  194 

a^wah,  465 

afwas,  465 

Adam's  apple,  339 

Adaptation,  454, 467  ;  see  also  Assimila- 
tion 

addentro,  466 

Addition  of  curves,  67-70 

Adjarian,  369 

Affricates,  120 

Age,  influence  on  highest  audible  sound, 
99 

aggettivo,  446 

ain,  274 

alTT6Kos,  372 

Air,  surplus,  224;  see  also  Breathing 

Air  transmission,  195 ;  see  also  Tam- 
bour 

Alcaic,  537 
Alexia,  86 
d\K^,  461 


Alliteration,  172 

American,  302,  305,  358 

Amphibrach,  535 

Amplitude,  2 

Analogy,  170 

Analysis,  immediate,  62-71  ;  harmonic, 
72-75,  561-574,  see  also  Fourier ;  in 
ear,  82;  of  tone  complexes,  112 

Anapest,  535,  553,  556 

Anterior  pillars,  232 

Anticipation,  165 

Anvil,  78 

Aphasia,  84,  128 

Aphonic  consonants,  443;  see  also  Surd 

Appendices,  559 

Arabian,  274 

Arches,  232 

Aristotle,  93 

Aristoxenus,  268,  473 

Armenian,  369 

Arsis,  537 

Articulation,  326,  427;  basis  of,  113 

Artificial  larynx,  258 

Artificial  palate,  298 

Arvers,  545,  554 

Aryepiglottic  muscle,  242 

Arytenoid  cartilage,  235,  244 

Arytenoid  muscle,  241 

Aschaffenburg,  146,  156,  157,  160 

Aspiration,  120 

Assertion,  218 

Assimiliation,  164-172,  372  ;  see  also 
Adaptation 

Assimilatory  condensation,  167 

Association,  of  ideas,  135-151 ;  of  move- 
ments, 377 

Association  fibers,  193 

Association  Phonetique  Internationale, 
428,  445 

Association  time,  152,  155,  208 

Associative  effectiveness,  164 
Associative  stammering,  158 


614 


INDEX 


Associative  suggestion,  115 

Atkinson,  330 

Attack,  429,  434 

Audible,  see  Lowest,  Highest,  Sliortest, 

Faintest 
Audiometer,  109 
Auditory  aphasia,  85 
Auditory  basis  of  speech,  113 
Auditory  economy,  121 
Auditory  habits,  113 
Auditory  ideas,  126  ;  see  also  Internal 

word 
Auditory  impressiveness,  448 
Auditory  learning,  181-186 
Auditory    memory.  See    Auditory 

learning 
Auditory  preference,  123 
Auditory  rhythm,  517 
Auditory  words,  83 
Auerbach,  106,  288,  413 
avKd,  461 

Aural,  see  Auditory 
Auricle,  76 
Auzoux,  192 
Average,  156,  201 


b,  47,  114,  131,  203,  224,  225,  226,  285, 
307,  317,  333,  339,  342,  344,  355,  357, 
358,  376,  594 

P,  47 

Babbington,  247 

Bagley,  131 

Balassa,  305 

Band,  ventricular,  242 ;  vocal,  242 

Bar,  98 

Barlow,  17,  607 

Basis  of  articulation,  113,  377  ;  of  audi- 
tory perception,  113 

Bass  register,  272 

Batteries,  20$ 

Beating  time,  538 

Beats,  99,  106 

Bell,  133 

Bergstrom,  158 

Berliner,  52 

Bert,  214 

Bevier,  49,  75,  412 

*bhero,  458 

Bigham,  181 

Binet,  157,  493 

Blake,  C,  18,  99 


Blake,  E.  W.,  24 

Blake  transmitter,  26T 

Blind,  132 

Boeke,  32,  37,  75,  607 

Bohemian,  499 

bok,  464 

Bolton,  520 

Bonn  dialect,  362 

bouche,  465 

Bourdon,  160,  500 

Brain,  connection  with  ear,  82  ;  speech 
centers  in  cortex,  83 ;  general  struc- 
ture, 193 

Breath,  268,  276 

Breathing,  212-228 

Breath  recorder,  220 

Breathy  tone,  273,  274 

briller,  461 

bring,  460 

British  English,  103 

Broca,  83 

Brondgeest  reflex,  382 

Browning,  168 

Briicke,  276,  443,  512,  537 

Brugmanu,  168 

Bulb,  192 

Buccinator  muscle,  231 

buoh,  464 


c,  437 

cq,  439 

g,  47,  114,  309,  328,344,  376 

c,  224,  304,  305,  307,  321,  333,  368,  439, 
441 ;  see  also  ts 

Cacuminal,  297 

Camera,  73 

Caual,  auditory,  76;  semicircular,  79 

Canine  muscle,  232 

capio,  464 

Cartilaginous  glottis,  240 

Catch,  see  Glottal  catch 

Cattell,  156 

Cavity  vibration,  281,  420 

Cellefrouin,  see  Rousselot 

Center  of  density,  126,  163 

Centers,  in  cortex,  83 ;  of  muscular 
control,  86;  of  speech,  86;  of  reflex 
action,  192;  in  the  bulb,  192;  of 
breathing  aud  laryngeal  movements 
246 

Ceutroid,  448 


INDEX 


615 


Centroid  interval,  544 

Cerebellum,  192 

Cerebral,  296 

Cerebrum,  192 

Certainty,  103 

Change,  progressive,  462-471 ;  just  per- 
ceptible, see  Just  perceptible  cliange; 
phonetic,  see  Phonetic  change 

Charriure,  247 

Chavanon,  24 

Cheney,  53 

Chest  register,  259,  260,  272 

Chest  tone,  222,  288,  294 

chevals,  461 

chevaux,  461 

Child  speech,  1 1 9,  460,  468 

Chin  key,  154 

Chlintement,  396 

Choana,  339 

Choice,  208 

Chondroglossus  muscle,  236 

Chord,  95 

chortus,  470 

Chronometer,  200 

Chronoscope,  152 

Circumflex  amplitude,  504 

Circumflex  pitch,  476 

Cities,  poem,  breath  pressure  in  recit- 
ing, 218;  studied  as  verse,  355 

Clockwork  drum,  198 
cnihtas,  460 

Cochlea,  79 

Cock  Robin,  58,  62,  63,  126,  218,  276, 

400,  484,  547,  553,  375,  595 
Comerius,  181 
Compensation,  461 
Complex  tone,  95 
Compound  tone,  95 
Compound  words,  127 
Comstock,  589 

Condensation,  167;  see  also  Smoothing 
Consciousness,  82,  107,  380 
Consonant  i,  see  j 

Consonant  intervals,  see  Musical  inter- 
vals 
Consonants,  432-445  ;  Hermann's  curves 

of,  43-49  ;  high  tones  in,  99 
Consonant  u,  see  w 
Constrictors  of  the  pharynx,  237 
Contact  wheel,  12,  91,  92 
Contamination,  166 
Contiguity,  135 


Contraction  of  muscle,  188 

Contrast,  135,  148 

Control  of  muscles,  86 

Convolutions,  83 

Coordination,  457 

Coradi,  73 

Cord,  192 

Cordes,  129,  142,  146 

Cord  tone,  267,  413 

Corniculate  cartilage,  240 

Cortex,  83,  193 

Corti,  81 

Costal  breathing,  42 

Coup  de  glotte,  428 

Cricoarytenoid  muscle,  241 

Cricoid  cartilage,  239 

Cricoid  muscles,  241 

Cricothyroid  muscle,  241 

Cumberland,  133 

Current  of  thought,  124 

Curtis,  112,  133,  206 

Curve,  sinusoid,  3 ;  frictional  sinusoid, 

6 ;  adder,  68 ;  specimen  for  analvsis, 

74 
Curves  of  speech,  1-75 
Cushion,  257 
Cushion  pipe,  258 
Czermak,  247,  257,  274,  276,  342,  343, 

344 


d,  47,  131,  224,  226,  285,  305,  316,  317, 

321,  333,  336,  339,  342,  344,  376 
dz,  307,  321,  442 
d2,  224,  304,  307 
8,  304,  316,    440 
6,  117,  305,  595 
d  mouille',  304,  305 
Dactyl,  535,  553,  556 
Danish  stod,  279 
D'Arsonval,  152 
David,  461 
dead,  468 

Deep  bass  register,  272 
Definiteness  in  movement,  204 
Deprez  marker,  92 
Demeny,  353 
Dennert,  94 
Density,  126,  163 
Depth  of  breathing,  213 
Desonation,  203 
Diagram,  sagittal,  296 


616 


INDEX 


Dialectal  progressive  change,  462 

Diaphragm,  212 

Difference,  see  Just  perceptible  differ- 
ence, Imperceptible  difference 

Difference  tones,  99 

Differences  in  auditory  perception,  463 

Differences  in  structure  of  vocal  organs, 
463 

Differential  audiometer,  109 

Digastricus  muscle,  234,  335 

Diminished  vitality,  467 

Diphthong,  430 

Diphthong,  nature  of,  20 ;  rise  from 
long  vowel,  103,  122 

Discrimination,  208 

Discrimination  of  speech  sounds,  113 

Dissimilation,  164,  172,  203 

Distinction,  456 

Disturbance  in  brain,  87 

Dodart,  255 

Dodge,  128 

Donders,  268,  288 

Double  occlusives,  466 

Double  octave,  104 

Drum,  7,  198;  continuous-paper — ,  8 

Duodecime,  107 

Duration,  89,  91,  488-502;  method  of 
measuring,  500 

Duration  rhythm,  517 

Dussaud,  607 

Dutch  vowels,  32  ;  diphthongal,  459 


e,  26,  39,  43,  103,  114,  115,  117,  122, 
222,  227,  266,  287,  302,  305,  306,  307, 
309,  312,  318,  321,  330,  332,  333,  339, 
343,  344,  352,  404,  466 

ei,  103,  122,  332 

e»,  315,  318,  339,  346 

a,  117,  305,  328,  329,  465,  595 

Ear,  76-88;  function  in  rhythmic  ac- 
tion, 529 

Ear  bones,  78 

Ear  drum,  77 

Ease  of  innervation,  454 

Ebbinghaus,  178 

Ebhardt,  532 

Economy,  121,  172,  466 

Edison,  32 

ef.  465 

Electric  fork,  see  Fork 

Electric  motor,  see  Motor 


Electrical  resistance,  see   Resistance 
Element,  see  Phonetic 
Elements  of  speech,  113-125 
Elevator  of  velum,  232 
Emotional  tinge,  89,  111,  174 
Emotions,   effect  on  muscular  control, 

390 
Energy,  decrease  of,  463 ;  increase  of, 

465,  467 
Energy  of  sound,  109 
English  vowels,  diphthongal,  458 
enhance,  168 
Entrance,  429 
Entrance  of  sounds  into  consciousness, 

107 
Epiglottis,  229,  240,  246 
Equality  judgments,  104 
Erdman,  128 
Error,  of  execution,  201  ;  of  perception, 

202  ;  of  movement,  202 
Euler,  418 
Eustachian  tube,  78 
Ewald,  152,  258,  261 
Exaggeration,  467 
Exaggeration  of  differences,  122 
Excess  of  energy,  465 
Execution,  error  of,  201 
Exit,  429 
Bxner,  106,  249 

Expenditure  of  breath,  see  Breathing 
Expiration,  212,  220 
Exploratory  bulbs,  332 
Explosive,  223,  224 
Explosive,  mouiUe,  440 
Expression,  468 
External  association,  157 
External  ear,  76 

External  pterygoidal  muscle,  230 
Extravagance,  467 


f,  47,  89,  114,  117,  224,  226,  302,  307, 
315,  317,  329,  333,  336,  342,  376 

Faber,  290 

facere,  460 

Facialis  nerve,  1 94 

Factors  of  speech,  399 

fahl,  464 

Faintest  audible  tone,  109 ;  audible 
speech  sounds,  114 

faire,  460 

Faist,  105 


INDEX 


617 


fallow,  464 

Falsetto,  118  ;  see  also  Head  register 

Familiar  habits,  468 

fate,  103 

Fatigue,  205 

Faults  of  perception  in  speech,  113-125 

Favored  association,  160,  170 

Fechner,  104,  109 

Fedor,  117 

Feueiitra  ovalis,  78 

Fenestra  rotunda,  80 

fero,  458 

Ferrari,  1 60 

Ferrein,  255 

Fihers,  193 

Fiftli,  104 

filium,  465 

fille,  461 

Fillmore,  426 

Filial  vowels,  203 

Final  surplus  air,  227 

Finger  movements,  200 

Finnish  vowel  harmony,  121,  204 

Firnmess  of  association,  159 

Flechsig,  380 

Fluctuation  of  effort,  202 

Fluorescent  screen,  238 

Foot,  defined,  553 

Foot,  inverse,  537,  538,  552 

Force  of  movement,  383 

Forced  vibration,  420 

Foreign  language,  see  Learning 

Forgotten  associations,  147 

Fork,    1 5 ;  pure   tone,    89  ;    for   lowest 

tone,  93  ;  for  highest  tone,  98 
Formant,  39 
Formation  of  speech  associations,  175- 

187 
Formula  of  sinusoidal  vibration,   2,  4  ; 

of  frictional  sinusoid,  6 
Fourier,  72,  73 
Fourier  analysis,  72,  559-574 
Fourth,  104 

Free  rhythmic  action,  602 
Free  rise  of  ideas,  148 
Free  vibration,  2,  286 
French,  249,  251,  357 
French,  acoustic  penetration  of  various 

sounds,  114 
French  palatograms,  312 
Frencli  vowels,  26 
Frenum  linguaj,  237 


Frequency,  4,  64,  65 

Frequency  of  association,  149 

Fricative,  223,  224 

Fricatives  — >•  occlusives,  466 

Friction,  5 

Frog  muscle,  experiment  with,  \i 

Frontal  lobe,  192 

Functional  association,  149,  167 

Fundamental,  72,  96 

Fusion,  446 


g,  47,  119,  131,  203,  224,  226,  285,  302 

315,  317,  321,  333,  340,  342,  344 
\,  440 

7,  224,  461,  465 
(J  mouille,  305 
Gad,  220 
gadge,  168 
Galen,  255,  391 
Galilei,  94 

Galle'e,  336,  355,  370 
Galton,  98 

Garcia,  247,  260,  266 
Gauthiot,  515 
gegen,  465 
Gelle',  106 

General  voluntary  control,  392 
Genioglossus  muscle,  235 
Geniohyoid  muscle,  234,  335 ;  tambour, 

335 
Gentzen,  342 

Geographical  progressive  change,  462 
German,  357  ;   acoustic  impressiveness 

in,  114;  weakest  audible  sounds  of, 

114 
German  palatograms,  308 
*ghend,  450 
*ghortus,  470 
gladly,  460 

Gladstone,  see  Self-Help 
gliedlice,  460 
Glass  recorder,  9 
Glass  tubing,  217 
Glossopalatine  arch,  232 
Glossopalatine  muscle,  233 
Glossopharyngeus  nerve,  194 
Glottal  catch,  119,  223,  268,  278,  429, 

515 
Glottis,  240,  245 
Goldscheider,  128,  224 
Gramophone,  52-61,  575,  607 


618 


INDEX 


Gramophone  tracing  apparatus,  55-61 

Grandgent,  327 

Graphic  chronometer,  200 

Graphic  method,  188,  211 

Graphic  recorder,  9 

Grassmann,  407 

Gre'goire,  447,  494 

Grimm's  law,  470 

Groan,  215 

Grutzner,  265,  266,  308 

Guicciardi,  160 

Guttural  vowels,  427 

Gutzmann,  343 

Gyrus  angularis,  86 


h,  114,  119,  120,  171,  276,  457,  589; 
sonant  h,  24,  276 

Habits,  468 ;  auditory,  113  ;  speech,  119  ; 
association,  152-174;  interference  of, 
158 

hafjan,  464 

Hagelin,  316 

Hair  cells,  81 

Hallucination,  115 

Hamburg  dialect,  362 

Hammer,  78 

Hansen,  132 

Haplology,  167 

Hard  palate,  229 

Harmonic  analysis,  72-75 ;  analyzer, 
see  Synthesis;  series,  13,  72;  vibra- 
tion, 2 

Harmonic  dissimilation,  172 

Harmony  of  vowels,  121,  204,  372,  588 

Head  register,  260,  272 

Hearing,  76-88 ;  function  in  rhythmic 
action,  531 

heben,  464 

Helmholz,  405 ;  on  cord  action,  268  ;  con- 
sonants, 106  ;  difference  tones,  99  ; 
ear,  97  ;  summation  tones,  100;  vowel 
instruments,  291 ;  vowel  tones,  287 

Hemispheres,  192 

Henri,  157,  493 

Henrici,  573 

Hensen,  18,  269,  416 

Herbart,  135 

Hermann,  307,  405,  411,  422,  442,  561, 
570,  571,  579,  607;  on  analysis,  75; 
cord  action,  268  ;  intermittent  tones, 
95  ;  tracings,  38-49 


Hexameter,  537 

Hiclcey,  425 

High  vowels,  427 

Highest  tone,  98 

hijo,  465 

Hipp,  152 

Hirt,  513 

Hochdorfer,  327 

Hodge,  393 

Hooley,  575 

hortus,  470 

Hungarian    palatograms,    306 ;    vowel 

harmony,  121,  204 
Hurried  movements,  387 
Ilurrieduess,  204 
Hurst,  538 

Hyoglossus  muscle,  235 
Hyoid  bone,  233 
Hypoglossus  nerve,  194 


i,  26,  39,  43,  64,  103,  114,  115,  122,  222, 
223,  224,  227,  266,  287,  302,  305,  306, 
.  307,  314,  318,  321,  330,  332,  333,  336, 
339,  342,  343,  344,  376,  432,  594 

i  ->8,  466 

i,  consonant,  see  j 

Iambus,  535,  537,  553,  556 

Idea,  defined,  126,  132,  136,  137 

Identification  of  similar  sounds,  120 

Ideogram,  128 

Ideo-motor  associations,  389 

Ideophone,  132 

Ideophonic  texts,  428 

Imitation,  218 

Immediate  probable  error,  155 

Imperceptible  difference,  103 

Impressiveness,  448 

Incisivus  muscle,  231 

Incus,  78 

Independent  sounds,  454 

Inductorium,  189,  207 

Inferior  longitudinal  muscle,  235 

Inner  ear,  78 

Inspiration,  212 

Instruction,  see  Learning 

Intensity,  89,  91,  109,221 

Intensity  and  interval  in  rhythmic  ac- 
tion, 532 

Intensity  rhythm,  513 

Interference  experiments,  423 

Interference  of  association,  158 


INDEX 


619 


Intermittent  tone,  94 

Internal  association,  158 

Internal  ear,  see  Inner   ear 

Internal  pterygoidal  muscle,  230 

Internal  speech,  132 

Internal  word,  132 

Interrupter,  267 

Intervals,  104 

Intonation,  251 

Inverted,  297 

Involuntary  whispering,  132 

Irish,  305 

Irrational  rhythm,  552 

Irregularities  in  pitch,  202 

Irregularity,  measure  of,  602 

Italian,  347,  365 

Italian  palatograms,  321 


j,  47,  131,  328,  333,  344,  432 

j  [9]  ->  8  [t],  466 

],  224,  306,  307,  316,  317,  318,  324,  329, 

368,  376,  432,  601 
]  -^  S,  466 

J,  304,  305,  321,  368,  441  ;  see  also  dz 
Jaw  registration,  355 
Jefferson,  479,  489,  551 
Jefferson  record,  61,  276 
Jelliffe,  598 

Jespersen,  296,  353,  457 
Josselyn,  118,  321,  347,  350,  365,  442, 

500' 
Jost,  178 
Just  perceptible  difference,   100,   104, 

111,  114 


k,  45,  114,  119,  120,  131,  203,  224,  226, 
285,  302,  306,  307,  315,  317,  321,  333, 
342,  344,  376,  434 

k,  see  also  k  mouille 

k  — >  X  or  h,  464 

K,  437 

Ko-,  439 

KX,  439 

X,  46,  114,  224,  328,  344,  461,  465,  607 

J,  436 

g->c  -^X. ''64 

k  mouille',  305,  315,  436,  438,  440,  442 

Karsten,  453 

Kempelen,  290 

Kemsies,  184 


Key,  154,  207 

X^lpofiai,  458 

XP^voi  TrpwTot,  552 

Kinetocamera,  353 

Kingsley,  298,  302 

Kirkpatrick,  181 

Klunder,  270 

Knights,  460 

Kojnig  phonantograph,  17;  manomet- 
ric  flames,  26 ;  synthesis  of  curves, 
68 ;  intermittent  tones,  94 ;  highest 
tone,  98 

Koppel,  168,  171 

Koschlakoff,  262 

Krapelin,  147,  160 

Krdl,  499,  537 

Kriiger,  99 

Kiilpe,  543 

Knrschat,  514 

Kymograph,  198 


1,  19,  43,  114,  117,  120,  131,  203,  227, 
304,  307,  308,  310,  316,  318,  321,  333, 
344,  432,  592 

1  ->  X,  466 

S,  119,  224,  307,  316,  318,  324,  440, 
466 

/  mouille,  see  A 

Labials,  mouille,  441 

Labialization,  364 

Labyrinth,  79 

Laclotte,  122,  372 

Lahr,  413 

Lamp,  batteries,  209 

Language  habits,  156 ;  see  also  Pho- 
netic basis 

Lantern  recorder,  9 

laogh,  459 

Lapses,  117,  130,  163 

Laryngeal  ventricle,  243,  265 

Laryngoscope,  247 

Laryngostroboscope,  249 

Larynx,  229,  239 

Larynx,  registration  from,  266-268 

Latent  time,  92 

Laugh,  215 

Lautstottern,  158 

Law  of  free  rhythmic  action,  605 

Laws  of  association  of  ideas,  135 

Lax  and  tense,  384 

Lay,  182 


620 


INDEX 


Learning  associations,  150;  languages, 
175-186 ;  new  sounds,  205  ;  sounds, 
124;  syllables,  113,  175,  words,  133 

Least  perceptible, change,  see  Just  per- 
ceptible change 

Least  perceptible  difference,  see  Just 
perceptible  difference 

Lebedeff,  25 

Lehraann,  133 

Lenz,  296,  308,  434,  464,  466 

Lettic,  513 

Lichtheim,  86 

Lieben,  51 

Ligamentous  glottis,  240 

Likeness,  103 

Lines,  in  verse,  554 

Linguistic  unit,  126 

Lip  key,  154 

Lip  position,  352 

Liquids,  432-445 

Lispers,  395 

Lithuanian,  513 

Lloyd,  291,  424,426,  571 

Lobes,  192 

Logograph,  17 

Long,  501 

Longitudinal  fibers,  193 

Longitudinal  muscles  of  tongue,  235 

Lord's  prayer,  58,  485,  576 

Lost  sounds,  364 

Loudness,  502-505 

Low  vowels,  427 

Lowest  tone,  93,  98 

Lubrifactiou,  264 

Ludwig,  257 


m,   19,  27,  44,  114,  117,  224,  307,  317, 

333,  340,  342,  343,  355,  358,  432 
Mach,  106 
McKay,  538 
Mackenzie,  273 
Magnetic  marker,  see  Marker 
maison,  465 
Major,  95,  104 
Malleus,  78 
Manometer,  225 
Manometric  fiame,  26-31,  73 
Marbe,  160,  170 
Marcet,  220 
Mares,  499.  537 
Marey  pneumograph,  211 


Marey  tambours,  195 

Marichelle,  51,  479 

Marker,  91-93,  207 

Martens,  475,  489 

Martens,  phonantograph  curves,  19 

Masseter  muscle,  230 

Mayer,  108,  130,  143,  144,  163 

Measure,  551 

Median  septum,  234 

Mediate  association,  145 

Medulla,  see  Bulb 

Meillet,  515 

Meinong,  105 

Melica,  461 

Melody,  472 

Membrana  "basilaris,  80 

Membrana  tympani,  78 

Membrane,  257 

Memorization,  175-186 

Memory,  123,  137 

Mental  intensity  of  sounds,  109 

Mental  work,  101 

Meutalis  muscle,  232 

Meringer,  130,  163 

Merkel,  327 

Merritt,  28,  589 

Mersenne,  94 

Metathasis,  172 

Method,  graphic,  188 

Method  of  teaching,  see  Learning 

Meunier,  320,  398 

Meyer,  105,  106,  450,  478,  538,  543 

Michels,  173 

Microphone,  267 

Middle  ear,  77 

Middle  register,  272 

Mid  vowels,  427 

Minor,  104 

Misprinted  words,  128 

Misreadiugs,  see  Mistakes 

Mistakes  of  perception,  128-132 

Mitford,  571 

Miyake,  279,  509,  529,  539 

Model  to  illustrate  vibration,  6 

Mora,  501,  551 

Morgagni,  243 

Mosso,  393 

Motor,  for  drums,  10 

Motor  aphasia,  84 

Motor  economy,  123 

Motor  learning,  183,  186 

Motor  nerves,  191 


INDEX 


621 


Motor  weakening,  463 

Motor  words,  83 

mouche,  465 

Mouillc  sounds,  304,  305,  307,  315,  316, 
318,  440,  441  ;  see  also  iC,  n,  t,  8 

Mouillure,    434,    441,    464;     see    also 
MouilM  sounds 

Mouth,  breath  pressure  from,  217 

Mouth  mapping,  see  Tongue  positions 

Mouthpiece,  219 

Movement,  84 ;  error  of,  202 

Mucous  membrane,  243 

Mucus,  244,  265 

Muller,  113,  128,  175 

MuUer,  C,  257 

Muller,  J.,  257,  264,  512 

Munsterburg,  129,  160,  181 

Muscle,  aryepiglottic,  242 ;  arytenoid, 
241 ;  buccinator,  231  ;  canine,  232  ; 
chondroglossus,  236  ;  cricoarytenoid, 
241  ;  constrictor  of  pharynx,  237 ; 
digastricus,  234 ;  elevator  of  the 
velum,  232 ;  external  pterygoidal, 
230 ;  gastrocnemius,  188;  genioglos- 
sus,  231 ;  geniohyoid,  334  ;  glossopala- 
tine,  233  ;  hyoglossus,  235  ;  incisivns, 
231 ;  inferior  longitudinal,  235  ;  in- 
ternal pterygoidal,  230 ;  masseter, 
230 ;  mentalis,  232 ;  mylohyoid,  234  ; 
oblique  arytenoid,  242;  orbicularis 
oris,  230 ;  phstryngopalatine,  233 ; 
petrygoidal,  230 ;  quadratus,  231  ; 
risorius,  232  ;  stapedius,  79 ;  sterno- 
hyoid, 242 ;  styloglossus,  234  ;  stylo- 
pharyngeal, 242 ;  superior  longitudi- 
nal, 236  ;  temporal,  230 ;  tensor  of 
the  velum,  233  ;  tensor  tympani,  78 ; 
thyroarytenoid,  240;  thyrohyoid,  242; 
transverse  arytenoid,  241;  transverse 
lingualis,  236  ;  triangularis,  231 ; 
uvula,  233  ;  vertical  lingualis,  236 ; 
vocal,  240  ;  zygomatic,  232 

Muscles,  control  of,  86 ;  curve  of 
contraction  of,  189;  nature  of,  188 

Muscles  of  the  ear,  78 

Muscles  of  the  face,  230 

Muscles  of  the  larynx,  240 

Muscles  of  the  pharynx,  277 

Muscles  of  the  tongue,  234 

Muscles  of  the  velum,  232 
Muscular  process,  240 
Musehold,  258,  259 


Musical  intervals,  104-106 
Myograph,  189 
Mylohyoid  muscle,  234,  335 


n,  1 9,  27,  44,  1 14, 1 1 7,  203,  224,  302,  306, 
307,  316,  317,  324,  333,  336,  339,  342, 
343,  432,  597 

n-J-ii,  466 

n,  224,  306,  307,  316,  318,  324,  339,  440, 
466 

1),  117,  303,  307,  324,  339,  342,  343,  432 

Jl,  440 

n-mouille',  440 

i)-mouille',  440 

Nagel,  29 

Narrow  vowels,  427 

Nasal,  224 

Nasal  cavity,  229,  339 

Nasal  olive,  219 

Nasal  sinuses,  see  Accessory  nasal  si- 
nuses 

Nasal  twang,  347 

Nasal  vowels,  339 

Nasal  whispering,  132 

Nasalization,  346,  359 
Nasopharyngeal  meatus,  339 
National  progressive  change,  462 
Natural  interval  in  rhythmic  action,  528 
Natural  period,  2 
Natural  rate,  204 
Neale,  305 

Neglect  of  a  sound,  459 
Neglect  of  difference,  122 
Nernst,  51 

Nerve,    acnsticns,    194;    facialis,  194; 
hypoglossus,  194 ;  glosaopharyngeus, 
194;  laryngeal,  246;  motor,  191  ;  of 
ear,  81-82  ;  sciatic,  190;  sensory,  191 ; 
trigeminus,  194 ;  vagus,  246 
Nerve-muscle  preparation,  190 
Neutral,  427 
Nichols,  28,  589 
Nichols  and  Merritt,  412 
Noise,  89 
Noiseless  key,  529 
Nose,  registration  of  breath,  217 
Nostril,  229,  339 
Note,  256 ;  see  Tone 
nothing,  117 

Nourishment,  effect  on  vocal  action,  392 
nuffin,  117 


622 


INDEX 


o,  26,  29,  39,  43,  66,  103,  114,  115,  122, 
222,  223,  224,  227,  266,  287,  305,  307, 
315,  320,  321,  329,  333,  336,  339,  342, 
343,  344,  598,  600 

oi,  122 

ou,  103 

o°,  315,  339,  346 

3,  39,  63-67,  329-330,  339,  343,  352,  403, 
404,  600,  601 

oi,  114 

ce,  39-43,  114,  115,  287,  306,  307,  309, 
314,320 

oe",  315,  339,  345 

Objectivity,  89,  111 

Observation  of  organs  of  articulation, 
238 

Observation  of  larynx,  239 

Occipital  lobe,  192 

Occlusiveness,  466 

Octave,  104 

Oertel,  113,  262 

Ohm,  97 

Olive,  219 

On-glide,  429 

Oral  cavity,  229 

Orbicularis  oris  muscle,  230 

Organ  of  hearing,  76-88 

oriie,  461 

Orth,  143 

Ossicles,  78 

Oval  window,  78 

Overtone,  72,  96,  256 ;  in  musical  inter- 
vals, 106 


p,  45,  114,  131,  203,  224,  226,  285,  307, 
317,  333,  344,  355,  357,  358,  374,  595 
p-^<|>->f,  464 
p,  438 

Palatal  vowels,  427 
Palate,  229 
Palatogram,  296 
Palatine  tonsil,  232 
pallidus,  464 
Pantograph,  73 
Parietal  lobe,  192 
Parisian  dialect,  312 
Partial,  72,  106,  256 
Passy,  459,  461,  464 
Paul,  149,  166,  453 
Pause,  in  rhythmic  groups,  534 
Pause  rhythm,  517 


Pearson,  68 

Pendnlar  vibration,  see  Sinusoid 

Pendulum  chronoscope,  152 

Penetration,  acoustic,  115 

Perception,  208 

Perception,  errors  of,  202 

Perception,  dependence  on  production, 
118 ;  of  sounds,  89  ;  of  speech,  75  ;  of 
speech  elements,  113-125 

Perceptive  economy,  123 

Periodic  change,  95 

Periodic  time,  2 

Persistence  of  sounds,  107 

Personal  progressive  change,  462 

peuple,  460 

Pfeil,  91 

Pharyngeal  cavity,  see  Pharynx 

Pharyngopalatine  arch,  232 

Pharyngopalatine  muscle,  233 

Pharynx,  77,  229,  338 

Phase,  4 

Phonautograph,  17-24 

Phonetic  basis,  113 

Phonetic  change,  114,  116,  118,  123, 
127,  158,  169,365 

Phonetic  element,  1 27 

Phonetic  laws,  468 

Phonetic  spelling,  452 

Phonetic  unit,  126,  132 

Phonic  consonants,  442 

Phonogram,  37 

Phonograph,  32-51 ;  607 

Photography  of  manometric  flames,  27 

Photography  of  the  larynx,  249 

Physical  definition  of  a  vowel,  400 ;  of 
the  consonants,  442 

Physical  intensity  of  sound,  109 

Pictures,  use  of,  187 

Pillars,  232 

Pillsbury,  128,  129 

Pilzecker,  113 

Pipping,  409,  477,  491,  500 ;  analysis, 
75  ;  Finnish  vowels,  21 ;  on  nature  of 
vowels,  23  ;  on  r,  24 ;  on  sonant  h, 
24 ;  phonautograph,  20 ;  Swedish 
vowels,  21 

Pitch,  64 ;  irregularities  of,  202  ;  nature 
of,  89-94 ;  of  speech  sounds  as  per- 
ceived by  ear,  473  ;  range  of,  97 

Pitch  rhythm,  517 

plaisir,  465 

Planck,  105 


INDEX 


623 


plenum,  461 

Pneumograph,  214 

Poltern,  387 

Pomeranian  dialect,  362 

Pons,  86,  192 

populum,  460 

Posterior  pillars,  232 

Postponement,  165 

Poulsen,  51 

Practice,  205 

Practice  of  Fourier  analysis,  566 

Precision  of  movement,  386 

Preece  and  Stroh,  18,  69 

Pressure    of    treath,     see    Breathing 

Preyer,  105 

Principle  of  substitution,  549 

Pringsheiiu,  476 

Probable  error,  149,  155,  166,  602 

Probableness,  201 

Production  of  speech,  188-398 

Progressive  change,  462 

Prominence  of  a  sound,  460 

Propagation  of  vibration,  4 

Prose,  551 

Pseudobeats,  19 

Psychophysic  law  ;  for  pitch,  93 

Pterygoidal  muscles,  230 

Puffs,  90,  94,  96 

Pulls,  200 

Pure  tone,  89 

Pythagoras,  93 

Quadratus  muscle,  231 
Quality  rhythm,  517 
Question,  218 

Quickness  of  movement,  387 
Quickness  of  response,  386 

1',  19,  24,  28,  44,  114,  117,  131,  203,  204, 
304,  307,  308,  310,  318,  321,  328,  329, 
336,  344,  432,  461,  465,  597 

J,  432,  459,  465 

r  mouille,  441 

Range  of  voice,  272 

Rate  of  breath  expenditure,  221 

Rational  rhythm,  552 

Rayleigh,  414,  420 

Reaction  time,  206 

Reading,  132 

Receiving  tambour,  196 

Recognition,  of  speech  sounds,  113;  of 


tones,  1 06  ;  of  words  and  letters,  128; 
of  v/ords  and  objects,  182 

Recording  drum,  198 

Recording  tambour,  196 

Rectification  of  tambour  records,  197 

Reed,  257  ;  for  lowest  tone,  93 

Reflex  activity,  191 

Reflex  centers,  191 

Reflex-tonus,  382 

Register,  252,  272 

Registration  of  movement,  195 

Regulated  rhythm  in  action,  526 

Regulation  of  movement,  202  ;  see  Reg- 
ulative sensation 

Regulation  of  muscular  movement,  191 

Regulative  sensations,  191,  325 

Reissner,  80 

Repetition,  178 

Replacement  of  sounds,  460 

Resistance,  10 

Resonance,  13,  73 

Resonator,  14,  73 

Re'thi,  262 

Rhythm,  179;  auditory,  517;  experi- 
ments on,  508 ;  laws  of,  518 ;  of  breath- 
ing, 213 

Rhythmic  action,  free,  602 

Rhythmic  grouping,  533 

Ribs,  212 

Right  and  wrong  cases,  104 

RigoUot,  24 

Rime,  172 

Rip  Van  Winkle's  Toast,  61,  479 

Risorius  muscle,  232 

Rontgen,  237,  337,  341 

Rosapelly,  226.  267,  358 

Roudet,  221,  226,  572 

Rounded,  427 

Rousselot,  114,  115,  116,  217,  219,  223, 
267,  274,  304,  312,  316,  335,  347,  354, 
3.57,  362,  365,  374,  396,  422,  429,  433, 
440,  441,  456,  458,  459,  483,  491,  502 

Roy  manometer,  225 

Russian  mouiM  labials,  441 

Russian  vowels,  25 


s,  46,  76,  89,  114,  117,  119,  120,  223, 
224,  304,  305,  310,  316,  321,  328,  329, 
394,  597 

s  — >  (T  — »  (T  — )^  I,  465 

(T,  436 


624 


INDEX 


s,  46,  114,  119,  223,  224,  304,  305, 
307,  308,  310,  316,  317,  321,  328, 
333,  344,  395 
«r  — >-c— >  Xj  "^^^ 
s,  44l' 
Sacculi,  79 

Sagittal  diagram,  296 
Samojloff,  25,  29 
Santorini,  240 
Sapphic,  537 
Saubevschwarz,  423 
Scanuiiif,'  speech,  192 
Schedule  for  Fournier's  analysis, 

569 
Schiller,  183 
Schischmanow,  105 
Schmidt-Wartenberg,  513 
Schneebeli,  18,  75 
Schuh,  432 
Schiilze,  104 
Schumann,  175 
Schwann,  476 
Sciatic  nerve,  190 
Scott's  phonautograph,  17 
Second,  104 
Seebeck,  94,  97 
Seelmann,  279 
Self-help,  58,  576 
Semicircular  canals,  79 
Semi-occlusives,  441 
Senn,  247 
Sensation,  84 
Sensiti'i'eness    to    difference,    113; 

also  Just  perceptible  difference 
Sensorj""  motor  control,  387 
Sensory  nerves,  191 
Septum,  median,  234 
Seventh,  104 
Sharpe,  111 
Short,  501 

Shortest  audible  tone,  106 
Shortest  audible  vowel,  107 
Sievers,  113,  434,  450,  454,  507,  552 
Sigh,  215 

Similarity,  135,  148 
Simple  reactions,  207 
Simple  tones,  95 
Simultaneous  action,  543 
Simultaneous  movements,  357-378 
Sinusoid,  2 

Sinusoidal  vibration,  2 
Siren,  89 


306, 
329, 


567, 


Sixth,  104 
sliofan,  464 
sliupan,  464 
Slurring,  204,  467 
Smith,  179,  528 
Smoked  drum,  see  Drum 
Smoothing  of  articulation,  454 
Sniff,  215 
Sob,  215 

Soft  palate,  see  Velum 
Sonant,  223,  226,  227,  251 
Sonant  h,  24,  276 
Sonation,  360,  365 
Song,  215 

Sonnet  d'Arvers,  545 
Sonority,  see  Auditory 
Sound,  89 

Sound  compensation,  461 
Sound  fusion,  446 
Southern  British  English,  103 
Spark  coil,  12 
Speaking,  215 
Special  association,  163 
Specific  sounds,  454 

Speech,  basis  of,  113  ;  centers  in  cortex, 
83;  curves  of,  1-75;  ideas,  126-134; 
perception  of,  76-88 ;  production  of, 
188-398 
Speech  curves,  studies  of,  575-601 
Speech  elements,  perception  of,  113-125 
Speech  rhythm,  537-557 
Speed,  467,  468 
Spelling,  182 

Spelling  pronunciations,  168,  170 
Spinal  bulb,  192 
Spinal  cord,  86,  192 
Spirant,  see  Fricative 
Spirometer,  221 
Spontaneous,  see  Free  rise 
Spread,  427 
Squire,  508 
Stammering,  118 
Standard,  7 
Stapes,  78 
Stapedius,  79 
Steffens,  180 

Stereoscopic  photography  of  larynx,  249 
Stern,  101 

Sternothyroid  muscle,  242 
Stirrup,  78 
Stod,  279 
Stopwatch,  152,  160 


INDEX 


625 


Stork,  261 

Storm,  423 
.Stosston,  514 

Strachey,  573 

Straw-bass  register,  272 

Stress,  502 

Striug,  72,  255 

Stroboscope,  249 

Stroh,  18,  69 

Strong,  502 

Structure  of  larynx,  279 

Structure  of  vocal  organs,  differences, 
and  their  effect  on  progressive  change, 
463 

Stumpf,  105,  106 

Stuttering,  158 

Styloglossus  muscle,  234 

Stylopharyngeal  muscle,  242 

Substitution,  principle  of,  549 

Successive  movements,  317-378 

Suggestion,  115 

Superior  longitudinal  muscle,  238 

Surd,  223,  226,  227,  251 

Surd  and  sonant,  304,  317,  367 

Surdation,  360,  365 

Surplus  air,  227 

Sustained  pitch,  485 

Swain,  261 

Swedish  vowels,  24 

Sweet,  427,  467 

*sweks,  465 

Syllables,  449;  learning,  113,  178;  nor- 
mal, 175 

Syntax,  163 

Synthesis,  67-70 

Synthesis  of  vowels,  290 


t,  45,  114,  119,  120,  123,  127,  131,  224, 
226,  285,  302,  305,  306,  307,  308,  310, 
316,  317,  321,  326,  333,  336,  344,  437 

t  ->•  9,  464 

t",  120 

ri  439 

ts,  120,  123,  306,  307,  321,  439 

ts,  304,  306,  307,  439 

t9,  439 

T,  437 

T,  304,  see  /  mouille 

T,  306,  307,  316,  437,  438,  440 

8    117,  304,  329 

t  mouille',  304,  305 


Talking  machine,  use  of,  29 ;  see  also 
Gramophone,  Thonautograph,  Phono- 
graph 

Tambour,  195,  219 

tad  innam,  458 

tat,  458 

Teaching,  see  Learning 

Techmer,  308 

Telephone,  207 

Temporal  lobe,  192 

Temporal  muscle,  230 

Tense  and  lax,  384,  427 

Tensor  of  the  velum,  233 

Tensor  tympani,  78 

Tests  for  formation  of  associations,  176 

Tetanic  contraction,  189 

Tetanus,  189 

than,  117 

Theodor,  117 

Thesis,  537 

Third,  104 

Thompson,  573 

Thorax,  212 

Thought,  see  Current 

Thought,  defined,  126 

three,  464 

Thudichum,  352 

Thumb,  160,  170 

Thyroarytenoid  muscle,  240 

Thyroepiglottic  muscle,  242 

Thyrohyoid  muscle,  242 

Thyroid  cartilage,  239 

Thyroid  prominence,  239 

Timbre,  89,  96,  97 

Time,  see  Reaction  time 

Time  estimates,  501 

Time  marker,  see  Marker 

Time  of  association,  152 

Tone,  268  ;  defined,  89  ;  difference,  99  ; 
faintest  audible,  109  ;  highest,  98;  just 
perceptible  change,  101 ;  just  percep- 
tible difference,  100;  lowest,  93,  98; 
shortest  audible,  106  ;  simultaneous 
tones,  105,  106 

Tones,  of  the  vocal  cavities,  281 

Tongue,  guidance  of,  325;  position 
and  movement  of,  325-327  ;  sensation 
from,  325 

Tongue  contacts,  296-324 

Tongue  tambour,  335 

Tonsil,  332 

Tonus,  382 


40 


626 


INDEX 


Trachea,  212,  229 

Transmission,  see  Air  transmission 

Transmission  of  sounds,  469 

Transverse  fibers,  193 

Transverse  lingualis  muscle,  236 

Trautmann,  289 

Trautscholcl,  156 

Tremolo,  108 

tres,  464 

Triangularis  muscle,  231 

Trigeminus  nerve,  194 

Trill,  108 

Trochaic,  see  Trochee 

Trochee,  179,  535,  553,  556 

trolley,  460 

Tuning  fork,  see  Fork 

Turbinal  bodies,  339 

Tympanum,  27,  99 

Typical  sounds,  454 

u,  26,  39,  43,  103,  114,  11.5,  222,  227, 
266,  287,  305,  306,  307,  315,  320,  321, 
329,  332,  333,  336,  339,  342,  343,  344, 
590,  601 

u,  consonant,  see  w 

ulmum,  461 

Uncertainty,  201 

Unconscious  modification,  115 

Unconscious  movements,  206 

Unconscious  whispering,  132,  456 

Unfamiliar  habits,  468 

Unintentional  movements,  206 

Unison,  104 

Unit,  see  Phonetic  unit 

Unnoticed  association,  147 

Unnoticed  variations,  123 

Unvoiced,  see  Surd 

Urbantschitsch,  108 

Utricle,  79 

Uvula,  232,  233 

Uvular  r,  461 

V,  47,  119,  223,  224,  225,  302,  307,  317, 

333,  342,  360,  376 
Vagus  nerve,  194 
Variation,  102,  201 
Velar  vowels,  427 
Velum,  229,  232,  338-352 
Ventricle,  243 
Ventricular  band,  243,  265 
Ventriloquism,  355 


Ventriloquistic  speech,  227 

Verdin,  221 ;  pneumograph,  214 

Verse,  551 

Vertical  lingualis  muscle,  236 

Vibrating  springs,  7 

Vibration  model,  6 

Vibratory  movement,  1 

Vietor,  218,  308,  309,  377,  428,  444,  478, 
497 

vif,  458 

Visual  learning,  181-186 

Visual  memory,  181-186 

Visual  words,  183 

Vitality,  467 

vive,  458 

Vividness  of  impression,  185 

Vocal  band,  243,  251-280 

Vocal  cavities,  tones  of,  287 

Vocal  control,  379-398 

Vocal  cord,  see  Vocal  band 

Vocal  harmony,  204,  272 

Vocal  muscle,  240 

Vocal  organs,  229-238 

Vocal  process,  240 

Vocal  reaction,  208 

Vocal  tambour,  219 

Voice  key,  154 

Voice  tone,  see  Cord  tone 

Voiced,  see  Sonant 

Voices,  soft  and  sharp,  265 

Voigt,  99 

Volition,  205,  208 

Volume  of  air  expended,  219 

Voluntary  action,  188 

Voluntary  centers,  192 

Voluntary. contraction,  190 

Von  Lieben,  51 

Vowels,  auditory  nature,  422 ;  depen- 
dence on  speed  of  reproduction,  422  ; 
desouation  of  final,  203  ;  diphthongi- 
zatiou  of,  103  ;  expenditure  of  breatli 
during,  223;  harmony  of,  121,  204, 
272;  long,  20  ;  motor  nature  of,  425  , 
natui-e  of,  19,  23,  39,  94;  physical 
nature  of,  391 ;  pitch  of,  see  Melody ; 
relations  of  loudness  of,  504  ;  relaxa- 
tion of,  224 

Vowels,  Finnish,  24 ;  French,  26  ;  Ger- 
man, 39-43  ;  Russian,  25  ;  Swedish,  24 

w,  131,  318,  329,  355,  369,  433 
Wageu,  465 


INDEX 


627 


Wagner,  494 

Warning,  218 

was,  458 

Watch,  see  Stopwatch 

Wavelength,  5 

Weak,  502 

Weakest  audible  tone,  109;  audible 
speech  sounds,  1 14 

Weeks,  226, 345 

Wehnelt,  237 

Wendeler,  337,  595  ;  phonautograph  re- 
cords, 18 

Wernicke,  83 

Wheatstone,  407 

Wheeler,  158 

Whitney,  169 

Whisper,  268 ;  mechanism  of,  274  ;  pres- 
sure in,  226  ;  weakest  audible  sounds, 
114 

Whistle,  98 

Wide  Towels,  427 

Wieu,  111 

Willis,  290,  399,  405,  416 

Wiltse,  116 

Wifasek,  105 

Wolf,  114 


Wolmar,  514 

Word,  126 

Word  agraphia,  85 

Word  blindness  (alexia),  86 

Word  deafness,  85 

Word  dumbness,  84 

Word  movements,  see  Motor  words 

Written  words,  83 

Wundt,  141,  468 


y,  39,  43,  114,  115,  224,  287,  306,  307, 

309,  314,  320 
^,  320,  433 


z,  47,  114,  117,  223,  224,  305,  316,  333, 
344,  360,  376 

z,  47,  119,  223,  224,  304,  305,  316,  317, 

321,  333,  344,  360 
z,  441 

Zimmermann,  65,  567 
Zonophone,  607 
Ziind-Burguet,  394,  396 
Zygomatic  muscle,  232 


(First  seven  liues,  1mm  =  O.OOlCi  ;  last  Bve  lines,  Imm  =  0.0007».)  PLATE    I.      Cui' 


Ul'ves 


irresfm"'  Cock  Rohin,  Series  II. 


(1  Cock  Rohin,  Series  II. 


MAA/n/W 


ArVV^ 


WVWIMAAAAA/VWWWV^ 


what  do  you 


■'v^/V 


/vv 


AAAA/VVVVV 


vv/v 


v-^\A.-y^A-V\AA/\A^ 


^^  /VV\/VV\/V^A /'V'VYAA/V 


(lramzzO.OO(n».) 


PLATE   III. 


Rip  Van  Winkle's 
(BlocV 


(Imm  =  0.0007b.) 


PLATE   IV.     Rip  Van  Wi 
(I 


s  Toast,  by  Joseph  Jefferson. 
II.) 


(Imm  =  0.0007«.; 


PLATE   V.     Hip  Van  Winkle: 
(Hlocl 


Toant,  by  Joseph  Jefferson. 
III.) 


(Iram  =  0.0007«.) 


PLATE   VI.     Rip  Van  Win. 
(Bl 


e's  Toast,  by  Joseph  Jefferson. 
k  IV.) 


(Imm  =  0.0007'.) 


PLATE   Vir. 


Rip  Va 


^^--y^^/^    '  -^  \f  ^  y  ^\r^'-^^~~^\/^ 


fine  schnapps. 


-T-y  r^ -/"--', 


-yU^^^-  ^^^^^y ^■.._J^- . 


That's 


I   wouldn't   keep  it  as   longf  as  that. 


^^^-^-''^_^■ 


(Iram  =  0.0007».) 


PLATE   VIII.     Rip  y 


e's  Toast,  by  Joseph  Jeffekson. 
i  VI.) 


'•'^\/-^\/^-^\/^y\r^,/ 


r^~-  r-^,  r^-J-^\ 


--j-^\r-JAf--J'^V-^^\f-^  y--./— ^^v/ 


~^,  r\ — -^/^-- 


xAAAAMAM/^^WWVWVVAAAA/ 


,/  V  V  V  ^  -^ 


— ^ — ~_^.,.~ ' 


would   I? 


Hulit  huh* 


^^^A^nA-n/ 


/w^M^V\A 


aV\/v^A/Ma-AA''AA'Aa- 


^/^--Aa-^IaAa^v/^A 


(Imm  =  O.OOOT'.) 


PLATE   IX.     Rip  Van  Winkle^ 
(Block 


(lmm  =  O.0OOTs.) 


PLATE   X.     Rip  Van 


s  toast,  by  Joseph  Jefferson. 
.  VIII.) 


(1mm  =:  0.0007b.) 


PLATE  XI. 


Rip  Van  WM 
(Bl( 


,  Yan  Wife's  Toast,  by  Joseph  Jefferson. 
(Block  IX.) 


COME  RIP 


340' 


I7S 
ISO- 
I2S 
100 


I7S 
ISO 
125 

too 


SAY  TO  A  GLASS? 


200 

toe 

t7S 

_^-o^           '" 

/\                                 A 

ISO 

^ — 

V"^     "0 

"•    ■^^-'\^j^-^ — V\ — ^ 

125 

^ 

12$ 

^         ~^~\ 

100 

— ^- ^^ ,_^^ 

100- 

N^.^ 

75 

- 

'""^^ 

2S 

0 

WHAT  DO  YOU 

298'"« 

2007 

■  7t' 

ISO- 
OS 
100' 
71- 

so- 
il' 


795' 


175 
lU 

tis 

100 

75 

so 

25 

-      0 


3287' 


WHAT  DO  I 


ISO' 


175 

ISO 

I2S- 

100' 

75 

50 

25 

-      0 


SAY 


108' 


175 
ISO 
I2S 
100 
75 
SO 

■      0 


TO  A  CLASSr 


585' 


171- 

ISO- 

fis- 

100' 
7S- 
10- 
IS- 


HOW  WHAT  DO  I  GEHERALLY 


128' 


t7f- 
M4- 

ni 

aoo- 
in- 

ISO' 
IK- 
100- 
»!■ 
SO- 
tS' 


SAY  TO  A  GLASS! 


■  so- 
us 

100 
75 

0 


140- 


ISO' 
IIS' 
100' 
7S' 
SO' 
25' 
-     0' 


SAY  IT  ISA 


175- 
150 
125 
100 
75 
SO- 
SO""  IS 
0 


s_,r^>_A^^-^      '" 

y^-^-^~^-y\^.^^                                  "*■ 

^V^iso 

y                     ^"^^''"^-\_                "*■ 

125 

^                                                                ^.^^_,^               125- 

100- 

^-\  100' 
75- 

FIHE  THIHG 

so 

25 

25 

WHEH  THERE*S  PLEHTY  IH  IT 


ISO 
125 
100 


PLATE    XII.     Curres  of  Pitch.     (Ch.  XXXII.) 


,vA/~A 


TEN  YEARS  AGO    EH? 


200 
175 
150 
125 
100- 


200 
1>5 
150 
125- 
100 
7$ 

3495-''  " 

0 


^'^    -^ 

~^-^ 

150 

•S^             125 

100 

FINE  SCHNAPPS 

2749MM 

I  WOULDN^T  KEEP  IT  AS  LONG  AS  THAT 


150- 
I2S' 
100- 
75- 
50- 
25- 
0 


PLATE    XIII.      Cin-r.s  of  Pitch.     (Ch.  XXXII.) 


250 
200 
ISO- 
100- 

50 


250 
200 
ISO 
100- 
50 


250- 
200- 
ISO 
100- 
50- 


Z50- 
ZOO 
ISO 
100 
50 


r 


zoo        400        600        800        WOO 


b       zoo     4bo     600      800      lo'oo 


zoo       400        6d0        800        lo'oo 


b  zoo       4do       600        800 


1000 


Z50 
ZOO- 
ISO 
100 
50 


zoo       400       600        800        1000      1200 


Z50 
ZOO- 
ISO 
100 

50- 


200        400        600        800        1000 


Z50 

zoo- 

150- 
100 

so 


250- 
200- 
150- 
100- 
50- 


Z5lf- 

zoo- 

150- 

100- 

50- 


0 


Z50- 
200- 
150- 
100 
50 


ZOO        400        600        800        WOO 


zoo       400       600        800       WOO 


ZOO        400        600        800        WOn 


r 


250 
200 
ISO 
100- 
50- 


ZOO        400        600        800        WOO       1200       1400 


ZOO        400        600        800        WOO       I20O       1400       1600 


Z50 
ZOO 
150- 
100 
SO 


ZOO        400        600         800        1000       IZOO       1400       1600 


250- 
200- 
150- 
100- 
50 


ZOO        400        600        SCO        1000  0  200        400        600         800        WOO       1200       1400       1600 

TLATK    XTV.      Ciims  of  l^ilrh  and  Ihiralion  it,  Uhijllimic  Sounds.      (Ch.  \X\V.) 


2JSD- 
ZOO 
ISO 
100- 
50- 


ZSO- 
ZOO- 
ISO- 
100 
50 


ZSO 

zoo 

ISO 
100- 
50- 


250 
200- 
ISO- 
100 
SO 


r 


ZOO        400        600         800        1000       1200       1400       1600       1600 


a 

a' 

• 

/ 

6   zoo 

400 

600    800 

lo'oo 

1200 

1400 

1600 

ib'oo 

ZOO       4io        6d0        800        woo      1200       1400       1600       IBOO 


zoo       400        600        800        WOO      1200       1400       1600       1600 


/  (I,  said  the  sparrow) 


/  (I  saw  him  die) 


a  1 

'lie  (Who  saw  him  die  ?) 


/  (I  killed  CocH 


a  1 

/  (may,  I  caii 


die  (I  saw  hii 


thy  (hallowed  he  Thy  name) 


PLATE  XV.     Curves  of\ 

Cordi 

?  Reso 


Robin) 


I  (I,  said  the  fly) 


eye  (with  my  little  eye) 


die) 


a  1 

fly  (I,  said  the  fly) 


a  1 

thy  (Thy  kingdom  come) 

itch.     (Appendix  II.) 

ne. 

ance  tones. 


zoo  Joo  too 

I  (I,  said  the  sparrow) 


7  (I,  said  the  fly) 


aoo  100  too 

I  (may,  I  can  say) 


die  (Who  saw  him  die  ■?) 


fly  (I,  said  the  fly) 


'00  ido  joo 

I  (I  killed  Cock  Robin) 


'Of  lio  jio 

I  (I  saw  him  die) 


/io  i.!>o  JOO 

eye  ( with  my  little  eye) 


— r 
roa 


iha 


100  Joo 

die  (I  saw  him  die) 


roa 


thy  (hallowed  be  thy  name) 


Tiy  kingdom  come) 


,vA/~A 


TEN  YEARS  AGO    EH? 


200 
175 
150 
125 
100- 


200 
1>5 
150 
125- 
100 
7$ 

3495-''  " 

0 


^'^    -^ 

~^-^ 

150 

•S^             125 

100 

FINE  SCHNAPPS 

2749MM 

I  WOULDN^T  KEEP  IT  AS  LONG  AS  THAT 


150- 
I2S' 
100- 
75- 
50- 
25- 
0 


PLATE    XIII.      Cin-r.s  of  Pitch.     (Ch.  XXXII.) 


250 
200 
ISO- 
100- 

50 


250 
200 
ISO 
100- 
50 


250- 
200- 
ISO 
100- 
50- 


Z50- 
ZOO 
ISO 
100 
50 


r 


zoo        400        600        800        WOO 


b       zoo     4bo     600      800      lo'oo 


zoo       400        6d0        800        lo'oo 


b  zoo       4do       600        800 


1000 


Z50 
ZOO- 
ISO 
100 
50 


zoo       400       600        800        1000      1200 


Z50 
ZOO- 
ISO 
100 

50- 


200        400        600        800        1000 


Z50 

zoo- 

150- 
100 

so 


250- 
200- 
150- 
100- 
50- 


Z5lf- 

zoo- 

150- 

100- 

50- 


0 


Z50- 
200- 
150- 
100 
50 


ZOO        400        600        800        WOO 


zoo       400       600        800       WOO 


ZOO        400        600        800        WOn 


r 


250 
200 
ISO 
100- 
50- 


ZOO        400        600        800        WOO       1200       1400 


ZOO        400        600        800        WOO       I20O       1400       1600 


Z50 
ZOO 
150- 
100 
SO 


ZOO        400        600         800        1000       IZOO       1400       1600 


250- 
200- 
150- 
100- 
50 


ZOO        400        600        SCO        1000  0  200        400        600         800        WOO       1200       1400       1600 

TLATK    XTV.      Ciims  of  l^ilrh  and  Ihiralion  it,  Uhijllimic  Sounds.      (Ch.  \X\V.) 


2JSD- 
ZOO 
ISO 
100- 
50- 


ZSO- 
ZOO- 
ISO- 
100 
50 


ZSO 

zoo 

ISO 
100- 
50- 


250 
200- 
ISO- 
100 
SO 


r 


ZOO        400        600         800        1000       1200       1400       1600       1600 


a 

a' 

• 

/ 

6   zoo 

400 

600    800 

lo'oo 

1200 

1400 

1600 

ib'oo 

ZOO       4io        6d0        800        woo      1200       1400       1600       IBOO 


zoo       400        600        800        WOO      1200       1400       1600       1600 


/  1 1,  said  the  sparrow) 


a  : 

/  (I  killed  C( 


/  (I  saw  him  die) 


/  (may,  I 


liic  (Who  saw  him  die  ?) 


die  (I  saw 


thy  (hallowed  be  Thy  name) 


PLATE  XV.     Curves 
Co 

::V 


V 


[IHslkRobin), 


a  1 

I  (I,  said  the  fly) 


a  1 

eye  (with  my  little  eye) 


jllmlm  die) 


fly  (I,  said  the  fly) 


thy  (Thy  kingdom  come) 

^J  Pitch.     (Appendix  II.) 

,(('  tone. 

'  Ijonance  tones. 


10 

t 

i- 

* 

i 


I  (I,  said  the  sparrow) 


I  (I,  said  the  fly) 


zoo  3  00  ^OO 

I  (may,  I  can  say) 


100  zoo  iopj  too  roo 

die  (Who  saw  him  die  ?) 


2- 


r 


fly  (I,  said  the  fly) 


/(I  killed  Cock  Robin) 


100  iho  jio 

I  (I  saw  him  die) 


/io  lio  JBO 

eye  (with  my  little  eye) 


200  JOO 

die  (I  saw  him  die) 


roo 


thy  (hallowed  be  thy  name) 


;  ;  ;  m  ja  . 


i :  ich  in  schi 


s :  i  in  id 


PLATE  XVII. 


u:um  mut ., 


u  ;  u  in  mutter.. 


o  :  o  in  sohn. 


o  :  0  m  Sonne. 


PLATE  XVin. 


PLATE  XIX. 


PLATE  XX. 


y  :  ic  in  hiite 


oe  :  o  ih  hohle . 


PLATE  XXI. 


y  :  M  in  hiite 


oe  ;  a  in  hohle . 


oe  :  £>  in 


PtATE  XXII. 


»  ;  i-  in  rid. 


"vf-.tu  in  wet 


]  :_y  in  yet. 


^:  sk  in  shut. 


PLATE  XXIII. 


u ;  latter  part  o£  win  pool. 


o  .  latter  part  cf  o  mpok 


PLATE   XXIV. 


PLATE  XXV. 


PLATE  XXVI.