cerned among the elements of scattered languages, they are all representable by means of radical signs no greater in number than the letters of the English alphabet.*

* See text-books of Visible Speech.

VI. THE FUNCTION OF THE

ARTICULATION.

PHARYNX IN

Many of the principles originally evolved in the Author's "New Elucidation of the Principles of Speech and Elocution," published in 1849, have since been reproduced under various authorships; but one principle of primary importance seems to have escaped similar appropriation. This is the function of the pharynx in articulation. This subject was thus introduced in the work above referred to:

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"All actions of the vocal organs which partially or wholly obstruct, or which compress, the breath or voice, are called Articulations (or Consonants). The necessary effect of such obstruction or compression is a degree of explosiveness in the breath when the conjoined or approximated organs are separated. Hence arises an element of audibility produced by or within the mouth. When the current of unvocalised breath is altogether stopped by organic contact -as in p, t, k, the only audibility that the letter so formed can have is the puff or explosion which follows the separation of the organs. This must, therefore, be clearly heard or the letter is practically lost. In the mode of producing this little effect lies one of the most important principles of speech- — a principle on the right application of which depends much of a speaker's distinctness, and all his ease. Here lies the point of importance. If only the breath in the mouth, and not any from the lungs, be ejected, a distinct, sharp, quick percussion will be heard, which gives to these breath-articulations all the audibility of which they are susceptible. The want of pharyngeal power manifests itself by distension of the lips and cheeks for pand b; by incontinency of breath for t, k, d, g; by laborious actions of the chest to create the explosive audibility of these letters; by scattering the saliva for s, f, and other continuous elements; and by general indistinctness of articulation. It is the want of power to retain the breath after consonants which causes the great difficulty that stammerers experience in joining consonants to succeeding vowels. They will often get smoothly over the consonant and stumble at the vowel. They must bear in mind that the breath in articulation is exploded from the mouth and not from the chest. The space within which the air is compressed is above the glottis, and the effect of the compression must not be communicated below the glottis."

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These quotations show something of the scope of pharyngeal action in articulation. Forty years of professional practice have confirmed these early views as to the fundamental importance of this subject. The theory is therefore confidently reiterated, that: Consonantal action should be entirely oral and pharyngeal, and that the purity of the voice should not be interfered with by the actions of the mouth. The voice-organ and the articulating organs are entirely separate and independent; and the elements of their respective utterances are not coalescent, but merely sequent, however rapid and close may be their apparent connection. The quality of distinct, sharp, clear-cut articulation depends on the due separation of the functions of the vocalising and the articulating organs. The vocal sound seems to be unbroken, because the actions of the tongue and the lips, while interwoven with it, do not interfere with it.

Singing exemplifies this perfectly, in the delivery of great artists, whose tones flow on in uninterrupted purity, while every syllable of the concurrent language is heard with absolute precision. But this perfection is rare. And equally rare is that light and crisp articulation in speech, which gives such a refined pleasure to the hearer, although the source of it he may not divine, nor the speaker himself be conscious of it.

All singers and all speakers may attain this bright excellence of articulation by forming consonants with the economic impulses of the pharynx, instead of the wasteful expulsions of breath from the chest. Music has furnished us with charmingly suggestive "songs without words," but singers should be ashamed to merely instrumentalise their songs upon the organ of voice, thing and the words nothing.

as if the music were everyThis unintellectual theory is

sometimes avowed by singers; but it only displays ignorance of the highest art in song.

The element of audibility in oratory, as in singing, is the voice; but the voice carries with it to the remotest corners of church, hall or theatre, the articulations of the mouth, which, of themselves, would be inaudible over such an area. Let the fact be noted that this beautiful result, when most perfectly attained, does not involve laborious effort, but, on the contrary, is accomplished with a minimum of labour and fatigue, on the part whether of speaker or singer.

The conversational voice is seldom purely sonorous; being depraved in quality by a slurring breathiness of consonants. When the speaker carries this conversational voice into oratory he cannot make himself understood by hearers a few feet from the platform. His syllables run together into a confused mass, which requires the closest attention to disintegrate it into sense. A speaker trained to the proper use of the pharynx in articulation or one who has happily acquired the knack instinctively — is clearly intelligible at the farthest limits to which his voice can reach; and he has, besides, a power of adapting the volume of sound to the space to be filled, by the unfatiguing impulses of the diaphragm. Many speakers with stentorian voices that could fill the largest hall, attempt in vain to speak intelligibly, even to a small audience; while others, with comparatively thin, small voices, find no difficulty in speaking satisfactorily to a large assemblage. The difference lies altogether in pharyngeal action, which, in the latter class, clearly defines every syllable of sound; while, in the former class, what reaches the ear is little more than noise.

"It is difficult to make this subject sufficiently clear by a brief description; and it would be still more difficult, perhaps, to get the generality of readers to study a lengthened explanation; but, with a little thought and a little experiment, what has been said will suffice."*

The practical value of the theory of pharyngeal action, above outlined, cannot be too strongly impressed on professional students. It is, indeed, the key to excellence of articulation, in speech or song.

*"A New Elucidation," etc., p. 42.