the respective individuality of b, d and g. The vocality of b, d and g, in ordinary speech, has less time and intensity, and is consequently less perceptible than that of v, then, z, zh and r, but it is the same in kind. It is the vocality alone of b that distinguishes it from p.

I have enumerated y and w as the initial sounds of 'ye' and 'wo,' because 'y' is a vocality, like that of the other subtonics, mixed with an aspiration made over the tongue, when raised near the roof of the mouth and because 'w' is a similar vocality mixed with a breathing through an aperture in the protruded lips. As b, d, g and zh are made by joining vocalities, instead of aspirations, with the organic positions of p, t, k and sh; so y and w are severally the mixture of vocality with the pure aspiration of 'h' as heard in 'he,' and of 'wh' as heard in 'whirl'd' The addition to the aspiration changes these words respectively to 'ye' and 'world. '

This vocality of the subtonics, whether pure or mixed, nasal or oral, is variously modified by the nose, tongue, teeth and lips. For, an entire or partial obstruction of the current of breath through the mouth, and a subsequent removal of the obstruction, produces the peculiar sound of the subtonics. Now it is in the portion of the subtonic sound, heard after the restoration of the free passage through the mouth, that the character of the vocality, in some of these elements, may be most easily perceived. This vocula or little voice, if I may so call it, is mentioned by writers as being necessary to complete the utterance of the class of mutes, so named: but it may be heard more or less conspicuously at the termination of all the subtonics. It is least perceptible in those which have the most aspiration. In ordinary utterance it is short and feeble; and is most obvious when employed in forcible or affected pronunciation. When the subtonics precede the tonics in words, they lose this short and feeble termination, and takes in its place the full sound of the succeeding tonic, thus producing an abrupt opening of the tonic.

I have called this last vented sound of the subtonics the Vocule; and have been thus particular in noticing and naming it, because I shall hereafter use the term and consider the power of the function, in treating of the expression of the voice.

The five tonic sounds to which the vocalities of the subtonics

bear a resemblance, are ee-l, oo-ze, e-rr, e-nd, i-n. Y-e and w-o have respectively something like a nasal echo of ee-1 and oo-ze. B, d, g, v, th-en, z, zh and r resemble e-rr; l, m, and ʼn have something of the sound of e-nd; and ng, of i-n.

I said the subtonics are subordinate to the tonics in their properties and uses. The kind of sound is less agreeable. That clearness and brilliancy of the tonics, is obscured in the purest of them, and in some it is destroyed, by the aspiration. They are severally capable of more or less prolongation, and may be carried through the concrete and tremulous variation of pitch. None admit of much force in their vocality; nor can abruptness be given to them without extraordinary effort. Now these last named insufficiencies prevent the subtonics from forming, like the tonics, the proper radical movement: the characteristic of which consists in its opening full and abruptly. When therefore a subtonic precedes a tonic, as in the syllable vain,' the vocality of y' compared with 'a' is so feeble, that upon a common effort of utterance, it does not exhibit the strong and sudden opening of the radical. It does indeed make part of the syllable, but to whatever degree it may be prolonged, it still continues on one line of pitch until the tonica' opens and rises with the true character of the radical. I do not say, the subtonics can not form radicals, for all of them, when separately uttered, may be carried by the concrete movement, through every interval; and even in conjunction with tonics, a strenuous effort may give them somewhat of the radical abruptness. But in ordinary pronunciation, they are scarcely appreciated as a part of the initial concrete.

This want of force and abruptness in a subtonic does not prevent it from fulfilling the purpose of the vanish, when it succeeds a tonic. Thus in the syllable vain,' the 'a,' as we have said, begins the radical, and after rising through a portion of the interval, glides into the subtonic 'n,' which carries on and completes the vanish.

The remaining nine elements are Aspirations, and have not that sort of sound which I have called vocality. They are produced by a current of the whispering breath through certain positions of parts, in the internal and external mouth. They are heard in the words,

U-p, ou-t, ar-k, i-f, ye-s, h-e, wh-eat, th-in, pu-sh.

From their limited power of variation in pitch, even when uttered singly, with the designed effort to produce it, and from their supplying no part of the concrete when breathed among the constituents of syllables, I have called them Atonic sounds.

If any one will take the trouble to compare the mode of their production with that of some of the subtonics, he will find them respectively identical in all their accidents, except that of vocality, which is wanting in the atonics.

B. D. G. V. Z. Y. W. Th. Zh. Ng. L. M. N. R. P. T. K. F. S. H. Wh. Th. Sh.

This whispering imitation is not made on all the subtonics. Yet the five exceptions do not altogether destroy the idea, that nature has her nisus towards a general rule of duplicature in these creations. The m, n, and ng are purely nasal, and when their vocality is dropped, the attempt to utter them, by the mere breathing of the atonics, produces in each case similar snuffling expirations. Yet even this snuffling, though no reputed element of speech, is constantly used before the vocality of n or m or ng, as the inarticulate symbol of a sneer. The two remaining subtonics and r, in perfect. English speech, are unmatched by atonics. But the aspirated copy of thel, produced by a kind of hissing over the moisture of the tongue, is not a very uncommon deformity of utterance: and a true atonic parallel to the r, heard in what is called the burr,' is perhaps a still more prevalent defect of utterance.*

The atonics, from the deficiency which suggested their name, afford no basis for the function of the radical and vanish. Most of them have a perceptible vocule, which consists in a short aspiration like the whispering of e-rr. There is no musical quality in their sound. They do furnish time to speech, Though inferior in most of their

but on a wretched material. qualities to the other elements, yet I shall show in treating of the expression of speech, that the Aspiration is both significative, and emphatic.

* Bishop Wilkins, in his Essay towards a real character,' has enumerated the aspirated and r among the provincial vices of speech, and has allotted literal symbols to them.

H

The enumeration made under the preceding divisions, includes all the elementary sounds of the English language, which have been noticed by observant authors.

There are three of the subtonics and three of the atonics,b, d, g, p, t, and k, that have eminently an explosive character; the breath bursting out after a complete occlusion.

From their serving peculiar purposes in speech, I have set them in a selected subdivision, and called them Abrupt sounds. In the beginning of a syllable they produce a sudden opening of the succeeding sound; and at the end they exhibit their final vocule. The office of these abrupt elements, in the art of speaking, will be shown in treating of expression.

The foregoing arrangement of elementary sounds was devised to display their relationships to intonation. For a closer view of this subject, I shall describe particularly the structure and functions of the Tonics. This detail was separated from the general view, in order to avoid distracting the reader's attention from the drift of that classification, by the interesting development which has been deferred to this place.

In illustrating the nature of the radical and vanishing movement, by the tonic a-le, it was stated that this element consists of two sorts of sound, and that when uttered with inexpressive effort, the voice rises through the interval of a tone; the radical beginning on 'a,' and the vanish diminishing to a close on 'e.' Now as all the tonic sounds necessarily pass through the radical and vanish, they demand an analysis relatively to that concrete function of pitch.

These seven of the tonic elements,

a-we, a-rt, a-n, a-le, i-sle, o-ld, ou-r,

have different sounds for the two extremes of their concrete movement.

The remaining five,

ee-l, oo-ze, e-rr, e-nd, i-n,

have each, one unaltered sound throughout their concrete

movement.

The tonics are therefore properly divided into Diphthongs and Monothongs.

A-we has for its radical, the sound of 'a' in awe: and for its vanish, a short and obscure sound of the monothong 'e-rr.'

A-rt has for its radical the sound of 'a' in art its vanish like that of the preceding, being the monothong 'e-rr.'

The radical of a-n is the sound of 'a' in an. Its vanish is the same in degree and sort with the last.

The sound of each of these elements has heretofore been considered as homogeneous throughout: for their vanish being very faint in ordinary utterance, it has escaped perception. But it may be heard by using these elements severally, with earnest interrogation. They will each terminate at a high pitch, in a feeble sound of e-rr.'

A-le, I have said before, has its radical, with the distinct sound of the monothong ee-l for its vanishing movement.

I-sle has its radical, followed in like manner by a vanish of the monothong ee-l. The dipthongal nature of 'i' has long been known, and the discovery of it is attributed to Wallis the grammarian. It is described by Sheridan and others, as consisting of a-we and ee-l: the coalescence of the two producing the peculiar sound of 'i.' In this account, it is admitted that the element is peculiar; I can therefore see no need of reference to a-we, in the theory of its causation. A skilful ear will readily perceive that the radical of i-sle is a peculiar tonic, and will so report thereon, without having recourse to the absurd supposition that an unheard sound is changed into another audible one.

O-ld has its radical in the sound of 'o,' formerly supposed to be homogeneous. Its vanish is the distinctly audible sound of the monothong oo-ze.

Ou-r has a radical, followed in like manner by a vanish of the monothong oo-ze. That the first sound of this diphthongal tonic is not a-we,' but a radical of its own, may easily be proved by a discriminating ear: and a trial with the voice will show, that a-we does not unite with oo-ze, by that easy gliding transition which is heard in the junction of the true radical of ou-r with the same oo-ze.

I have been at a loss what to say of that sound which is signified by 'oi' and 'oy,' as in 'voice' and 'boy.' It may be looked upon as diphthongal tonic, consisting of the radical a-we and the vanishing monothong i-n, when the quantity of the element is short, and ce-l when long. But from the habit of the voice, it is difficult to give a-we without adding its usual