The name of Abrupt sounds is also given to three of the subtonics and three of the *tonics, namely, b, d, g, p, t, k, since they confer an e.rploeire character on the following tonic, the breath bursting out after a complete occlusion.: To conformity to the above division of the letters, and with especial reference to the time which is occupied in pronunciation, syllables are divided into three classes--let, Immutable, such as at, op, ek, hap-less, pit-fall, ac-erp-tance ; 2nd, Mutable, as yes, what, gratitude, destruc tion ; 3rd, Indefinite, as go, thee, for, day, man, till, de-lay, be-guile, extreme, er-ro-neous. It is the peculiar nature of this last class of syllables, that to whatever necessary degree their quantity is prolonged, their character is still preserved, while the mutable and immutable in some cases almost lose their identity by too great an addition to their time. The use of these distinctions will appear in the sequel.
Thus much having been premised, it will be the more easy to under stand the general divisions of vocal eound. All the varieties of sound in the human voice may be referred to the following general heads :— Quality, Force, Time, and Pitch. § I. The terms by which the Quality or kind of voice is distinguished are rough, smooth, harsh, full, thin, slender, soft, musical, and some others of the same metaphorical structure.
There are three different aorta of voice, the natural, the falaette, and the orotund, to which must be added the whisper, which, strictly speak ing, is not ram. The is that which we employ in ordinary speaking. It includes a range of pitch from the lowest utterable sound up to that point at which the voice is said to break. At this point the natural voice ceases, and the higher parts of the scale are made by a shriller kind, called the falseite, of which the cry, the scream, the yell, and all shrillness are various modes. The name of orotund (from os rosundsan) is given to that natural or improved manner of uttering the elements, which exhibits them with a fulness, clearness, strength, smoothness, and a ringing or musical quality rarely heard in ordinary speech, and which is never found in its highest excellence except as the effect of long and careful cultivation. This voice is highly agree able to the ear ; it is possessed by actors of eminence, and is peculiarly adapted to set forth the beauties of epic and tragic composition. The whisper is the constituent of the atonic elements ; but all the tonics, and the greater part of the eubtonics, may likewise be uttered in this mode of sound. The subtonics r, z, w, then, zh, when whispered, are not respectively different from the !denies f, s, teh, thin, sh.
II. For the specifications of Force we use the words strong, weak, feeble, loud, soft, forcible, and faint. These are indefinite in their indication, and without any fixed relationship in degree.
III. Time, in the art of speaking, is divided into long, short, quick, slow, and rapid. Those distinctions may suffice for the common purposes of discourse; if more precision is required, a notation will be found in Mr. Steeleli Prosodia Rationalis.' The distinction of immutable, mutable, and Indefinite syllables has reference to time, and ham been already treated of.
IV. The meaning of the term Pitch, as applied to speech, has been already explained.
We come now to the application of these elements and distinctions to the practical purposes of reading and speech.
In plain narrative or description, the concrete utterance of each syllable is made through the interval of a tone, and the successive concretes have a slight difference of pitch relatively to each other. The appropriation of these concretes to syllables, and the manner in which the succession of their pitch is varied, are exemplified in the following notation :— If these lines and the enclosed spaces be supposed, each in proximate order, to denote the difference of a tone in pitch, the successions of the radical points, with their issuing vanish, will show the places of the syllables of the superscribed sentence in easy and unimpassioned utterance, though it is not denied that a somewhat different arrange ment might also be agreeable. The perception of the successions here exemplified is called (in a restricted meaning of the term) the melody of speech.
In simple phraseology, which conveys but little feeling or emphatic sentiment, most of the syllables, except one or two of the last in the sentence, consist of the upward radical and vanishing tone. The succession of these concrete tones is made with a variation of pitch, in which any two proximate concretes never differ from each other more than the interval of a tone, nor do there occur more than throe successive tones in one direction either upwards or downwards. This is called the diatonic melody. The rise of each separate syllable is called the concrete pitch of melody, and the place which each syllable assumes above or below the preceding, the radical pitch. The current melody of sentences in plain discourse admits of considerable variety, but the forms of radical pitch are all reducible to a limited number of aggregates of the concrete tones, which may be called the phrases of melody. Their forms are pointed out in the notation of the following lines: The melody of the cadence, as distinguished from the current melody, is formed on the two or three last syllables of a sentence, and is effected by a descent of radical pitch through three conjoint degrees, with a downward concrete always on the last, and frequently on the preceding. One form of the cadence has been illustrated in the sentence, the notation of which has been given above ; but there aro various forms according to the component parts and the sense.