The succession of the seven sounds of any one series, to which the octave is usually added, is called the Natural or Diatonic Scale. In speech, as in music, it consists of five tones and two semitones, the latter being the spaces between its third and fourth and its seventh and eighth degrees. But a progression may also be formed by semi tones : these have only half the extent of pitch which the full tones have : like them, they may be carried upwards or downwards, and they often occur in the form of waves. They serve for the expression of animal distress.
But the succession of discrete sounds may be exhibited under still more minute divisions. These consist of a transition from place to place in pitch, over intervals much smaller than a semitone, each point being, as it were, rapidly touched by a short and abrupt emission of voice. This description may be illustrated by that noise in the throat which is called gurgling, and by the neighing of a horse. The analogy here regards principally the momentary duration, frequency, and abruptness of sound, for the gurgling is generally made by a quick iteration in one unvarying line of pitch, whereas in the scale now under consideration each successive pulse of sound is taken at a minute interval above the last, till the series reaches the octave. The precise extent of these small intervals it is very difficult to estimate. They.may however be carried concretely through the wider interval of the scale, provided they do not lose their distinctive character of momentary time and abruptness of utterance. These concretes are used both in laughter and in crying. In the descending scale, the direction not only of the radicals but of the vanishes is downwards. Intonation is the act of performing the movements of pitch through the several scales.
There art then four scales of pitch for the speaking voice : 1. The Concrete, in which from the outset to the termination of the voice there is no appreciable interval, or interruption of continuity.
2. The Diatonic, the transitions of which are principally by whole tones.
3. The SeMitonic, or Chromatic, consisting of an entire succession of semitones.
4. The Tremulous, consisting of minute intervals smaller than the eemitonc.
The alphabet i9, in our grammars, usually divided into vowels, con sonants, mutes, and semivowels; but it will be more useful to class the elements according to their use in intonation. As the number of
these elementary sounds iu the English language exceeds the literal signs, and some of the letters are made to represent various sounds without any rule of discrimination, it is necessary to use abort words of known pronunciation, containing the elementary sounds, with the letters which represent them marked in italics. The ele ments of articulation are thirty-five, and they may be arranged under three general heads.
1. The first division embraces those sounds which display the pro perties of the radical and vanish in the most perfect manner. They arc twelve in number, and arc heard in the usual sound of the separated italics in the following words a-rt, a-u, a-le, o-ur, i-ale, o-ld, ec-1, arse, e-nd, /-n.+ From their forming the purest and most plastic material of intonation, these are called Tonic sounds. They have a more musical quality than the other elements ; they are capable of indefinite prolongation ; admit of the concrete and tremulous rise and fall through all the intervals of pitch, and may be uttered more forcibly than the other elementary sounds, as well as with more abruptness.
II. The next division includes a number of sounds possessing vari ously among themselves properties analogous to those of the tonics, but differing in degree. They amount to fourteen, and are marked by the separated italics in the following words :—B-ow, dare, r-ile, r-one, y-e, th-en, a-s-ure, si-sq, love, m-ay, r-ot, raw.
Frvni their inferiority to the tonics in all the emphatic and elegant purposes of speech, whilst they admit in some measure of being into nated, or carried concretely through the intervals of pitch, they are called subtonic sounds.
III. The remaining nine elements are aspirations, and have not that sort of sound which is called vocality. They aro produced by a cur rent of the whispering breath through certain positions of the ennncia tive organs. They are heard in the words—U-p, ar-k, i f, ye-8, A-e, erh-eat, :A-in, push.
As they admit of little or no pitch, and supply no part of the con crete when breathed among the constituents of syllables, they are termed the Atonic sounds.