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2. The pure is the full, distinct tone, which, above all others, is agreeable to the ear. In this quality the inspirations are deep and full, and the breath is given out slowly, the whole being converted into the greatest possible amount of sound. It is in strong contrast with the aspirate, which takes in a small supply of air and sends out much, thereby making little vocality.*

Example.

"The quality of mercy is not strain'd;
It droppeth, as the gentle rain from heaven
Upon the place beneath: it is twice bless'd;
It blesseth him that gives, and him that takes:
"Tis mightiest in the mightiest; it becomes
The throned monarch better than his crown:
His sceptre shows the force of temporal power,
The attribute to awe and majesty,

Wherein doth sit the dread and fear of kings;
But mercy is above this sceptred sway;

It is an attribute to God himself:

And earthly power doth then show likest God's,
When mercy seasons justice."-SHAKSPEARE.

3. The orotund is the intensity and dignity of the pure tone, known by its depth, rounded fullness, and power. "It is the pure tone rounded in the mouth and deepened in the chest."

Example. "On the earl's cheek the flush of rage

O'ercame the ashen hue of age;

Fierce he broke forth: 'And darest thou, then,
To beard the lion in his den,

The Douglas in his hall?

And hop'st thou hence unscathed to go?

No! by St. Bride of Bothwell, no!

Up drawbridge, groom! What! warder! ho!

Let the portcullis fall!'"-Scott.

4. The pectoral, or hollow tone, arises from feeble organs, ill health, diffidence, constraint, or the like, but it is oftener the result of weak action of the abdominal muscles in giving the primary impulse to vocal expression. Its pitch is low, with the resonance in the chest.

* That vocal utterance which produces smoothly and without apparent effort the greatest number of distinct sounds with the least amount of breath, or material for sound, is the most perfect for emotional speaking, for it allows an uninterrupted climax.

Examples.

"You may, if it be God's will, gain our barren and rugged mountains; but, like our ancestors of old, we will seek refuge in wilder and more distant solitudes, and, when we have resisted to the last, we will starve in the icy wastes of the glaciers. Ay, men, women, and children, we will be frozen into annihilation together ere one free Switzer will acknowledge a foreign master!”

"The skies they were ashen and sober,

The leaves they were crisped and sear,
The leaves they were | withering and sear.
It was night in the lonesome | October
(Of my most immemorial year).
It was hard by the dim | Lake of Auber,
In the misty mid-region of Wier;

It was down by the dank tarn of Auber,

In the ghoul- haunted woodland of Wier."-POE.

5. The guttural, or rough, grating voice, seems to issue from an obstructed throat. "The immediate organic cause of this bad quality of tone is an improper pressure of the muscles around the larynx and the root of the tongue, causing the voice, in the one case, apparently to issue from the pharynx, or swallow, instead of the larynx; and, in the other, to originate in the upper part of the throat only, cut off from communication with either the chest or mouth."-RusSEL. It expresses hate, contempt, malignity, rage, etc. Example.

"The curse my noble father laid on thee

When thou didst crown his warlike brows
With paper."-SHAKSPEARE.

6. The nasal is a tone which seems to come through the nose. Organically it is made by allowing the voice to drift with force against the nasal passages while they are partly closed, and the veil of the palate is too low. It is voice with little or no resonance in the nose.

Example. "I tell you what, I'll build one shay to beat the taoun,

'N the keounty, 'n all the kentry raoun';

It shall be so built that it couldn' break daoun.”

O. W. HOLMES.

7. The oral is a voice seemingly distant, as if coming from another room, a box, or closet, and partakes of ventriloquy in its effect. It can be produced by making the mouth-cavity high and narrow, pressing the cheeks closely against the well-opened teeth while speaking, and forcing the sound upward as it escapes. The veil of the palate is high in producing the oral.

Example.

"Then fear not, doubt not, which thou wilt,

We'll try this quarrel hilt to hilt."-SCOTT.

8. The falsetto. In the falsetto voice, the vocal ligaments do not meet in their entire length, either a posterior or an anterior portion of them remaining apart.* It arises from feebleness, fatigue, indifference, affectation, and the like. In music, this voice is called treble, and begins about two octaves above the lowest note of the voice, where, in ascending the musical scale, the voice is said to "break." All notes above this "break" are falsetto, and those below, natural. In producing this quality, the veil of the palate is high, and the uvula is contracted into the veil and completely hidden from sight. It expresses irritability, scolding, invective, etc.

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Example.

'Billy! where are you, Billy? I say, come home to your best of mothers. I'm scared when I think of them Cabroleys, they drive so; They'd run over their own sisters and brothers.

Or maybe he's stole by some chimney-sweeping wretch, to stick in narrow flues and what not,

And be poked up behind with a picked pointed pole, when the soot has ketched and the chimbly's red hot.

Oh, I'd give the whole wide world, if the world was mine, to clap my two longin' eyes on his face;

For he's my darlin' of darlin's, and if he don't soon come back, you'll see me drop stone dead on the place.”—HOOD, The Lost Heir.

Nasal sound-units (m, n, ng) are emitted through the nose, while the quality of voice known as nasal is produced when the nasal passages are partially closed.

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ELEMENTS OF LANGUAGE.

LANGUAGE is the expression of thought and feeling. It may be oral, or expressed by sensible signs.

Oral language is expression by vocal sounds—articulate, as in speech; or inarticulate, as in sighs, sobs, groans, etc. Sensible sign-language is expression by gesture, as in the language of mutes, etc., or by letters, which appeal to the sense of sight, as in written or printed composition.

Every indivisible portion of language is a primary element or unit of language, and every unit has a sound, or a sign and name. In written or printed language every sign (letter of the alphabet) has a name, and represents one or more units of sound; but, unfortunately, every unit of sound has not a name nor a visible sign. The sign h, for instance, has a sound, as heard in hat, and a name, aitch; but the sound of a, as heard in ǎt, has no name, neither has it a sign distinguishing it from a, as heard in the words fäte, fär, fall. Diacritical marks, which indicate the precise sound required, are sometimes used in dictionaries and spellingbooks; but these marked letters scarcely assume the dignity of distinct signs, and are so seldom found in print as to furnish quite inadequate assistance to native or foreign students in the acquisition of the English language. The letter a, for example, may stand for any one of seven sounds, unless it receive some one of the following marks, ā, ǎ, ä, a, a, a, â, to indicate the required sound, and, since these added marks are neither in general use in scientific or literary works, nor uniform in dictionaries, thousands of words must be arbitrarily learned. Again, as if to add to confusion, there are from one to fourteen single and compound signs to represent a solitary sound, and there are some sounds without any signs. (See Table, "Elements of Language." Note the pure sounds or units of speech, the sounds that are common to several signs, and their equivalents, etc.) There are about thirty-six sound-units, twenty-six sign-units, and twenty-six names for the signs.

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