Encyclopaedia Americana: a popular dictionary of arts, sciences, literature, history, politics and biography, brought down to the present time : including a copious collection of original articles in American biography : on the basis of the seventh edition of the German Conversations-Lexicon (Volume 13).
- Date:
- 1830-33
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: Encyclopaedia Americana: a popular dictionary of arts, sciences, literature, history, politics and biography, brought down to the present time : including a copious collection of original articles in American biography : on the basis of the seventh edition of the German Conversations-Lexicon (Volume 13). Source: Wellcome Collection.
Provider: This material has been provided by the National Library of Medicine (U.S.), through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the National Library of Medicine (U.S.)
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![voice in animals and men, we refer the reader to Bliinienl)acli's Mamial of Comparative Anatomy (translated by W. Lawrence, revised by Coulson, London, 1827). Respecting the sounds of human language, by the various combinations of which such a variety of words is pro- duced, we will add a few remarks. Be- sides the lungs, the windpipe, &c., the linely-arched roof of the mouth, and the ])liabihty of the lips (enabling us to give a great variety of forms to the mouth, which are almost the sole means of givmg Their peculiar chai-acter to the different vowels), are of the greatest importance. Under the aiticles on the separate letters the reader will find an account of the way in which the sounds represented by them respectively are produced. The modi- fications of voice, easily made (says Mr. Araott, in his Elements of Physics), and easily distinguishable by the ear, and, therefore, fit elements of language, arc about fifty in number; but no single lan- guage contains more than about half of them. They are divisible into two very distinct and nearly equal classes, called vowels (q. v.) and consonants. (q. v.) In the article Consonant, the natural division of words is shown to cease with syllables: they are one sound, and the division into vowels and consonants, ingenious and use- ful as it is, does not, in fact, exist to the degi-ee which we usually take for granted, from the circumstance of considering them as totally distinct from early child- hood. Consonants are, generally speak- ing, only the beginning or end of vowels; i. e. the mouth must in some way be opened to produce a vowel sound, and closed to conclude the vowel sounds; and this mode of opening or closing gives rise to that which we call a consonant. The circumstance that consonants cannot be pronounced without the aid of vowels, shows, that the strict division into vowels juid consonants is one which nature has not made. Mr. Arnott says (p. 488 of the American ed.): To explain the second class of the modifications of sound, called Labial. Palatal. Guttural. P T K B D L G M N ng on F th S sh ch H V th Z J gh pr R ghr consonants, we remark, that while any continued or vowel sound is passing through the mouth, if it be interrupted, whether by a complete closure of the mouth, or only by an approximation of parts, the effect on the ear of a hstener is so exceedingly different, according to the situation in the mouth where the inter- ruption occurs, and to the manner in which it occurs, that many most distinct modifications thence arise. Thus any continued sound, as a, if arrested by a closure of the mouth at the external con- fine or lips, is heard to terminate with the inodification expressed by the letter p; that is, the syllable ap has been pro- nounced: but if, under similar circum- stances, the closure be made at the back of the mouth, by the tongue rising against the palate, we hear the modification ex- pressed by the letter k, and the syllable ak has been pronounced: and if the closure be made in the middle of the mouth, by the tip of the tongue rising against the roof, the sound expressed by t is pro- duced, and the syllable at is heard: and so of others. It is to be remarked, also, that the ear is equally sensible of the pe- culiarities, whether the closure precedes the continued sound or follows it; that is to say, whether the syllables pronounced are ap, at, ak, or pa, ta, ka. The modifi- cations of which we are now speaking appear, then, not to be really sounds, but only manners of beginning and ending sounds; and it is because they can thus be perceived only in connexion with vo- cal sounds, that they are called conso- nants.—We refer the reader to Mr. Ar- nott's work, for further remarks on the pronunciation of the various vowels and consonants, and add here only his table of articulations, in which, if we consider the perpendicular line on the left as the opening of the mouth, and the line on the right as the back part of the mouth, the four divisions indicate the places where the letters are pronounced.—See the arti- cles on the lettei-s and on writing. Mute. Semi-mute. ■< Semi-vowel or nasal. Aspirate. Vocal aspirate. Vibratory.](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b21136828_0017.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
