A Northern habit of forming, or rather deforming the II, consists in giving a degree of guttural compression to the breath, by approximating the base of the tongue and the soft palate, producing the effect of the Scotch ch, which otherwise is not used as an initial sound. There is something in this Highland peculiarity extremely harsh and grating to English ears. It should be studiously avoided, and easily may be,-by all who aim at propriety in speaking English.

Let the Stammerer study attentively the characteristics of the letter H. It is invariably a severe stumbling-block. He will find that, in his fruitless efforts to pronounce it, or rather to pronounce the vowel after it, his chest is bearing down with collapsing force, and the breath welling out in heavy spouts from his convulsed glottis. A useful exercise to check this, consists in prolonging an expiration as much as possible. Let the lungs be fully inflated, by expanding the chest to its utmost breadth, and then let the breath be emitted slowly, softly, and equably in one unbroken streamlet. After a little practice, the whispered expiration will be continuable almost as long as a vocal one, a vowel. The junction of this breathing with the vowels must next be aimed at. Thus :—alternate, in the prolonged expiration, the voice and the whisper of the same formation, h-e-h-e-h-e, &c.; h-o-h-o-h-o, &c. If the difficulties with initial vowels have been first worn off, the Stammerer will not be long in subduing this,—perhaps the most troublesome feature in his impediment. Habit,—strong habit,— will, for a time, baffle his skill, or try it sorely; but steady perseverance will overcome even the tyranny of habit.

EXERCISES.

Initial.-Heap, heave, hillock, hymn, hatred, heinous, heterodox, hairy, habitable, hand, hasp, hearken, halve, her, hum, hurl, hospital, haughty, horsemanship, horal, hopeful, homely, hood, hoof, who.

Medial.-Abhor, ahoy! behold, behest, behemoth, dishearten, enhance, forehand, heigh-ho! inhibit, mahogany, manhood, nihility, out-Herod, outhouse, parhelion, perhaps, prehensile, rehearse, unhappy, vehement.

In the following words, though H is written, the vowels are not aspirated :— Heir, heirship, heirloom, &c.; honest, honesty, &c.; honour, honourable, &c. ; hostler; hour, hour-glass, &c. ; humble, humbly, &c.; humour, humourous, &c.

R

DICTIONARY OF ENGLISH SOUNDS.

SECTION SECOND-ARTICULATIONS.

We have already explained the leading General Principles of Articulation, and given a complete scheme of the Articulate Elements of our Language. We shall now proceed to offer some Practical Observations on each of these elements, with reference to their formations, defects, combinations, &c., and to furnish sets of Exercises, in the practice of which the student will be enabled to acquire perfect mastery over the INSTRUMENT of SPEECH.

This department of our work will, we trust, be of especial service to Teachers, Parents, and others who have the management of children, in enabling them to prevent, or check by timely skill, the formation of habits of Defective or Uncouth Articulation, and to direct the vocal efforts of children in such a way as to insure their speaking with fluency, grace, and distinctness.

To the Lisping, Burring, Mumbling, and Mouthing "children of a riper growth," who are conscious of their cacophonies, and desirous to correct them, these Observations and Exercises furnish the means of removing such articulative blemishes. To the Public Speaker they offer Principles and Praxes such as, in application, cannot fail to give Articulation its highest effectiveness.

The Stammerer will find many remarks under the different Elements, which will be of much service to him, both as directory and cautionary assistances. An intelligent and a practical acquaintance with the Mechanical Principles of Speech is the only rational foundation for a system of cure. We cannot better advise the Stammerer than bid him study well the Natural Principles of Speech. Knowing them familiarly, he must be dull indeed who does not work out a large measure of improvement from them.

For perfect freedom from impediment, however, Oral Instruction, and the vigilant eye and ear of a master-who can "follow Nature” in his Art—may be, in almost all cases, necessary. To no Art must the Poet's definition of "True Art" be more strictly applicable than to the ART of SPEECH as applied for the eradication of Stammering. It must be, merely, " NATURE-to advantage dressed." The following Table exhibits the Articulations in the order in which we shall now treat of them :

P

OBSERVATIONS.-The formation of this letter consists, 1st, in a firm and equal contact of both lips, so as to retain the breath perfectly behind them while it is compressed within the mouth; and, 2nd, in an equal and rapid disjunction of the lips to allow the compressed breath to escape-which it should do with a degree of distinct explosiveness. If the contact of the lips be not sufficiently firm to stop the breath, the letter will strike the ear like F; and if their action be heavy, the p will be altogether inaudible when final, and very ungraceful, and injurious to distinctness in other situations.

While the lips are in contact, there should be no pouting, or motion of any kind; their separation should be by one light and uniform action, so that the whole lips may be simultaneously disengaged; for if they are projected and pushed asunder-as they not unfrequently are-the features are needlessly deformed, and many faults, both of articulation and expression, are created. P before For V, is in this way rendered an impossible combination, or at least an excessively ugly one in the attempt; and many of the vowel sounds also suffer in quality from the contracted and rounded aperture of the mouth. The corners of the lips must be brought apart, or all the vowels from ee to ah will be more or less injuriously affected. Besides, the habit of forming the labial-articulations in this loose and wriggling way interferes much with the expressive power of the lips in the manifestation of feeling. The mouth is the best and most expressive index of emotion, and that whose signs are least capable of suppression. The eyes have been called the "windows from which the soul peeps forth ;"we should call the mouth the door by which she actually comes forth. But if, by ungainly habits of speech the delicately-varying expressiveness of the mouth may be defeated, how important—to the orator and physiognomist at least— must be the power of regulating the articulative motions of the lips.

Where there exists any fault in the formation of this letter, we should prescribe the following Exercise, which will be found easy and highly improving. Practise words containing the letter P in the four situations indicated in the Table, and keep the lips in firm contact for some seconds at each P,-observing, that while the pressure of breath is continued, there is no motion of any kind in the lips. Observe, also, that there is no escape of breath by the nostrils.

This exercise will subdue, and, with a little care, soon remove the tendency to labial mal-articulation. It will be found very useful to Stammerers, who experience difficulties from want of power over the facial muscles. The lips, in many cases of Stammering, are so tremulous and feeble in their motions, that they cannot retain the breath under the slightest pressure, but start off again the instant they meet, causing repetitions of the labial syllable-pa-pa-papaper. Sometimes the upper lip is held so loosely, that in the effort to separate the lips it will descend with the lower lip, as if glued to it, dragging down the nostrils, and deforming the whole countenance. The upper lip should have

as little motion as possible, and it should never be depressed below the edges

of the upper teeth.

The letter P presents another difficulty to Stammerers, from an upward pressure of the lower jaw locking the under teeth within the upper range, while the lips are in contact. This renders a downward 'motion of the jaw, as well as of the lip, indispensable to finish the letter; and the teeth are thus forcibly jerked down, again to be jammed upwards in fruitless repetitions: and often, instead of disengaging the jaws by the descent of the lower teeth, the Stammerer puts the effort of separation into the head, and tosses it backwards, or draws it from side to side. P is a formidable difficulty under such circumstances; but a careful study and practice of the correct formation of the letter will soon remove this source of impediment, and correct any fault that may interfere with grace or distinctness.

P is an obstruction of breath only; there is no effort of voice in its formation; it has no sound but the explosion of breath which finishes it. A fault is often created by the too forcible conjunction of the lips, which gives a degree of audibility to their meeting; and this, in an aggravated degree, accompanied by deficient glottal power, often produces Stammering of a very heavy and convulsive kind. The lips, and the organs of articulation generally, should assume the position required for the different formations, gently, smoothly, and slowly, -retain it firmly while the breath is compressed behind or between the articulating organs, and by an energetic disjunction, give off the explosive effect of the articulation with rapidity. The letter P having no other element of audibility than this explosion, can never be deprived of it without producing indistinctness or difficulty.

We may express in a sentence the great leading characteristics of good and bad articulation. The energy of vocal action is disjunctive in good speaking, and conjunctive in heavy or impeded utterance; that is to say, the contact or approximation of the organs is light in the one case, and heavy in the other;-the general direction of the actions is downwards from articulations to vowels in good speech; and in indistinct or stammering speech, the force of the actions is upwards from vowels to articulations. In order to be clearly understood, with reference to the letter P, then, we observe, that it is not made by the conjunction of the lips, but by their separation; and this of course implies that they must be in contact before they can be disjoined. If the Stammerer, and the Mumbler, and all classes of bad speakers, could apprehend and apply this principle of articulation, they would soon rejoice in distinctness and fluency.

We must farther observe, that in separating the lips there must be no jerking of the jaw. If a vowel follow the P in the same syllable, the teeth should descend for the vowel as freely as possible, but the P itself must have no motion of the teeth, either upwards when the lips meet, or downwards when they scparate. The teeth should remain apart even when the lips are in contact. If while the lips are in the articulating position, the tongue be advanced towards them, it should feel that the teeth are apart, and that however great may be the pressure of breath, the teeth remain perfectly steady.