PRONUNCIATION

OF THE

FRENCH LANGUAGE.

OF THE VOICE.

THERE are so many persons who are convinced that the voice is an insurmountable obstacle to the acquisition of any living (and especially the French) language, that I have thought it advisable to give here a short description of the voice, and the mode of action of the several organs by which it is produced and modified.

All animals have been provided by their Creator with a faculty which enables them effectively to express their numerous sensations or sentiments. In some that faculty is confined to various movements of part or the whole of their bodies; but as we rise in the creation, the sensations and wants of the creatures being more varied, and thereby more numerous, the power of expressing them is no longer confined to mere gesture; it consists also in various combinations and modifications of sounds, which in man are called the Voice.

Were I to speak as a physiologist, my first duty now would be to enter into the full particulars on the anatomy of the organs of the voice; but as I have only to consider the subject as a linguist, I shall therefore omit here all that which is foreign to the subject.

Almost every one, however little conversant with common things, knows that we live in a fluid (the air) which surrounds

B

us on every side, and one of the properties of which is to rush (unless prevented by mechanical means) into all spaces left vacant by other bodies. Now it is clear that when, by the action of certain muscles of the organs of respiration, the cavity of the chest is enlarged, the pressure of the atmosphere will force some air into the air-cells of the lungs through the mouth, nostrils, and the windpipe; this act is called inspiration. The term expiration has been adopted to express the action by which the air makes its egress out of the lungs. Both the actions of inspiration and expiration are denoted by the term respiration.

We have now seen that the lungs, at least as far as the voice is concerned, do Lothing but receive and expel the fluid or gaseous substance required in the production of sound. The air, on leaving the lungs, passes into the bronchia, and then into the trachea, or windpipe. The air having gone through the trachea now reaches the larynx, which is situated at the upper part of the trachea, and wherein the numerous experiments made by several physiologists have proved that the voice is produced. Indeed, if a hole be made in the trachea, and air be blown into it from the end nearest to the lungs, no sound will be produced, because the air is sure to escape through the hole before it reaches the larynx; but if the hole be made in the vocal tube, above the larynx, a sound will be distinctly heard; which proves not only that the sound is produced in the larynx, but also that it is produced during the act of expiration.

It would be far too long, and at the same time almost useless, to examine into the mode of action of all the parts which compose the larynx; it will be found sufficient for my purpose to consider the following; namely, the true and the false vocal chords, the thyroid and the arytenoid cartilages, and the rima glottidis, or glottis, with its ventricles.

When the air coming from the lungs has reached the larynx, the tube through which it passes has become smaller, and also of a different shape; so that the air, as it strikes against the

lower, or true vocal chords, causes them to vibrate; and these vibrations being communicated to the air, render it sonorous at the will of the speaker. Indeed, should any person not have the will to produce a vocal sound, none could be heard, seeing that the vocal chords can only vibrate when they are in a certain state of contraction, or of relaxation, under the command of

that person.

Observe also, that the vocal chords having one of their extremities fixed on the thyroid, and the other attached to the arytenoid cartilages, the latter of which serves to stretch or relax the vocal chords, man may produce different sounds, according to the degree of tension of the vocal chords.

The open space between the upper and lower parts of the larynx is termed the rima glottidis, or glottis; the smaller the aperture between the vocal chords, the more shrill the voice becomes; on the contrary, the greater that aperture the more deep-toned is the voice.

I have not been able to ascertain the use of the ventricles of the glottis in the production of sound; nevertheless, it has been affirmed by most of the physiologists who examined into the matter, that these ventricles served to render the sound more harmonious.*

I now come to the false vocal chords. It had been long supposed, that the vocal sound was produced at the upper part of the ventricles of the larynx; but numerous experiments have proved that the upper chords are not those which produce the vocal sound, seeing that they can be even entirely removed without preventing the production of the vocal sound; whereas a lesion of the lower chords affects the voice, and their removal, as well as their ossification, always caused dumbness. It may, however, be asserted, that the author's own experiments have

* I should not, perhaps, be far wrong if I were to assert, that the ventricles of the glottis are to the vocal chords what the hollow body of the violin is to the strings that are upon it.

trubéletes of the glottis, greatly influences

The heath, the tongue, the ips, mi Lise or ve fan wanle of the mouth, rugh which we Here again I would Erect

ày thế mtxa, an appendix, as it were, of the soft Pamidis of which is to prevent, by its elevation

during deglutition, any food from going into the nostrils. Some physiologists pretend that the uvula greatly modifies the sounds coming from the larynx; but as this is only probable, and nothing has been brought forward to prove the above assertion, I must let the matter stand as it is.

It is now clear, that in order to produce a pure vocal sound, or vowel-sound, it is sufficient that air be emitted from the lungs, and made sonorous in the larynx, without moving during its emission any other organ of the voice, from the moment that the sound begins to be produced in the larynx, till that sound is over. (See pp. 24 and 55.)

The office of the organs of the voice in the production of pure vowel-sounds has been well compared to that of the pipes of an organ. Indeed, these do not act themselves, they simply receive the air which, being forced through them, produces the required sound. It is just so in giving the vowel-sound with the voice; it is heard as long as the organs put in action to make it are kept in the same position. Consonants, on the contrary, are the result of the motion of some of the organs of speech, called into action in order to modify the sounds which are produced in the larynx. This remark will, I hope, readily show the impropriety of such expressions as these, "the sound of a consonant," "a sounded consonant," &c., which, notwithstanding the derivation and actual meaning of the word consonant, are found even in the best educational works for the use of English students.

Correct pronunciation, unless learnt in infancy, is a most difficult thing to acquire, and can only be learnt from the living voice; and even then not efficiently, unless the teacher, in addition to a good pronunciation, possesses a thorough acquaintance with the rules that govern it.

It is impossible to learn from a book alone what sounds have been given by usage to such letters, or combinations of letters, as the book presents to the eye. It therefore becomes necessary