INTRODUCTION.

THE following scheme of exercises in orthoepy is intended as a manual for the daily practice of those who use this volume, to secure correct habits of articulation and pronunciation. Every lesson in reading should be prepared for by an exercise in this manual, even though a short one. The reading is sure to be executed better if the organs of speech be brought into vigorous play by some previous exercise of this sort. The definitions and explanations are meant for the teacher, who must make his pupils first acquainted with the sounds by hearing, before any description can be understood. As a blind man cannot understand any definition or theory of colors, so - precisely so — no one can learn any thing of the theory of spoken language, the mechanism of speech, until his ear is able to recognize, with discrimination, the sounds employed in speaking. It is quite possible that even some teachers will find it difficult to keep the distinction clearly in mind, between the orthographic and orthoepic forms of words. But any one who wishes to understand the subject will test every proposition by repeated experiments with his own voice. To facilitate that object, examples are given in print, whenever the point to be brought out could be made certainly evident by any intelligible contrivance of orthography. Such examples, if understood, should be attentively practised; and if not, should be practised attentively till they are understood. Let it be kept in mind that the example is an example of sound only,

and is to be spoken, therefore, before it is an example of any thing. The sound is represented by letters in Italic type. If the example be represented by a consonant letter, do not give the alphabetic name of the letter, but its proper sound.

§ 1.

Orthoepy treats only of the sounds used in the words of a spoken language. The representing of such sounds to the mind, through the sense of sight, by written or printed words, belongs to orthography. The primary elements of orthoepy, then, are sounds, not letters.

NOTE. This definition must be distinctly understood, and kept in mind. Letters are the elements of orthography, and, to avoid confusion, we abandon the terms letter, vowel, consonant, diphthong, &c., to their use in that department of English grammar. It is considered possible that, at some time, in some original language, every letter stood for, or suggested, some one sound only, and every sound was thus suggested, or represented, by some one letter only. But this is very far from being the case with English orthography at present. Accordingly, in attempting to represent orthoepic elements by letters which stand sometimes for one sound, sometimes for another, and sometimes for none at all, it is necessary to select, for this use, word in which the representative letter shall suggest a known sound, that is to say, a sound learned from an instructor by hearing and imitation. This method is used in the following pages, the representative letter, or letters, being in Italic type, and separated from the other letters of the word by a hyphen. Thus e-ve signifies a single orthoepic element, namely, the sound properly given to letter e in the word eve; l-oo-k represents the sound given to the letters oo in the correct pronunciation of the word look. It should be remembered that this roundabout process, or some other still more artificial, is made necessary, not by any confusion or uncertainty in the sounds themselves, but by the irregularities and complications of English orthography. For in actual speech the elements may all be distinctly articulated separately. Thus, in the following exercises, in speaking the element e-ve one sound only is uttered — that, namely, which is given to e in the word; so of all the rest.

Let it be an invariable rule to designate an element, in speaking, by simply producing it. Instead of saying, "the sound of a as heard in at," for instance, say "a-t," giving the sound which a represents

in the word, singly, exactly, and without circumlocution. This habit will soon lead to an appreciation of the fact that orthoepy is naturally prior to, and philosophically independent of, orthography.*

$ 2.

1. The sounds of a spoken language depend on the action. of various organs. Some are produced by a mere expulsion of voice, while the mouth is held open in a certain position. These are simple vocal sounds; as, e-ve, a-h, o-n. Others require a change in the opening of the mouth while the voice is sent out. These are compound vocal sounds; as, a-le, i-ce, oi-l. The vocal sounds are all called tonic elements.

2. Other sounds are produced by shutting, more or less closely, and then opening, certain parts of the mouth, while the voice is forced out; as, b, g, z. These are called subtonic elements, because they have only an obstructed vocality.

3. Others are produced by such an action of the mouth, while breath only, not voice, is forced out; as, ƒ, k, s. Such are called atonic elements, because they have no vocality.

4. The subtonics and atonics may be classed together as articulates, because the articulation, that is, the actual or approximate contact, of the organs by which they are formed, respectively, is a common characteristic distinguishing them from the tonics.

5. Some articulates are of indefinite length, their sound being obstructed uniformly; that is, alike from beginning to end; e. g., v, f, z. Others are slightly extendible, their sound being nearly closed at a certain moment of its duration; e. g., y, w, r, (initial.) Others still the abrupt elements are marked by an entire occlusion and explosion of their sound; that is, an actual contact and compression, followed by a sudden separation, of the articulating organs; e. g., b, p, t.

* It will also lead to an appreciation of the fact that English orthography is most unphilosophically independent of orthoepy. For most of its specific derelictions, however, etymology must be held to answer, as, at the very least, an avowed accessory after the fact.

The indefinite and extendible elements are sometimes called continuants; and the abrupt, explodents.

6. The articulates are further classed according to the organs which are chiefly concerned in their articulation; as, palatals, linguals, &c.

$ 3.

1. The form of an element is that individual peculiarity of the sound which is determined by the form of the mouth while the element is produced; that is, by the position of all the organs concerned in producing it.

as,

2. Elements may be of the same form, but different powers;

b and p.

3. Elements are similar in form, whether of the same or different powers, when they are produced by nearly the same forms of the mouth; as, e-ve and i-n, or t and n.

4. An intermediate form is one through which the mouth most easily passes in changing from one form to another: e. g., a-t is intermediate with respect to a-le and a-h. Between z and y, zh is intermediate.

5. A compound form is one which is produced when any two, with the intermediate forms, are united in one sound; e. g., i-ce, compound of a-h and e-ve, as extremes, with the intermediate forms u-p, e-rr, e-nd, i-n; j, compound of d and y as extremes with zh intermediate.

NOTE 1. The term diphthong should be discarded in English orthoepy, because there is no tonic compounded of two sounds only. This may be proved as a fact by experiment. Take a-le, or o-ld, for example, which have less change of form than any other compounds. It will be found impossible to change the mouth directly from the initial form of a-le (e-nd nearly, but more open) to its final one (e-ve), without passing through the form i-n. It is equally impossible to avoid the form 1-oo-k between the initial and final forms in o-ld. In both cases, then, either the sound must be interrupted, while the mouth is passing through the intermediate form, in which case no compound would result, but two elements, in two separate syllables; or, if the sound be continuous, it inevitably receives the intermediate form.

NOTE 2. The components of a compound element are not always

equal, nor equally perceptible. Each has its due proportion, in correct speaking; and there are no faults of articulation more common or difficult to correct than those which arise from a neglect of this proportion. The time of a compound element is occupied chiefly on the intermediate forms, although its extreme forms are commonly more distinctly heard. This is owing to the fact that, while the ear readily observes the precise moment of the beginning and ending of the sound, it cannot detect any precise moment when the sound changes from one of its component forms to another. To call these elements compound is, therefore, hardly a correct, certainly not an adequate, description; for in producing them the mouth does not pass through the successive forms by so many (discrete) steps, but by a certain (concrete) course of change; passing through, but not pausing in, the forms which can be recognized as similar to certain simple elements.

NOTE 3. The compound tonic elements are the source of the more common faults in the articulation of singers. The dialect of song now in fashion in this country and England appears to be of foreign origin, and was adopted at the first, without doubt, by mere imitation, not for any considerations of propriety or grace. Of course it is easier to follow this dialect than to master all the true English elements with the requisite power of sustaining them in tune. But it would be easier still, if that is a ground of choice, to sing only the four simple tonics used in solfeggi. This is not the place to inquire whether proper musical expression may not dispense with words altogether. It is only suggested, that, while words are used in song, not for their sound only, but for their meaning also, it seems desirable that their natural sounds should be distinctly preserved, that the orthoepy of song should be, as it certainly may be, an improvement, not a caricature, of that of speech as much more accurate and graceful as its intonation is more melodious and its rhythm more marked and impressive.

$ 4.

1. The abrupt subtonics, when fully articulated separately, have, at the precise moment after the occlusion is suddenly broken, a short and obscure vocal sound, which is called a vocule.

2. The abrupt atonics have the same peculiarity, though with them it is only an explosive jet of breath.

3. The extendible and indefinite elements sometimes have a very slight vocule.