The physiological & pathological relations of the voice and speech / by John Syer Bristowe.

Date:
1880
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The physiological & pathological relations of the voice and speech / by John Syer Bristowe. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. The original may be consulted at the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh.

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    assumed that such words as w-ail, w-eed, and tv-ind, might properly be spelt oo-ail, oo-eed, and oo-ind; and such words as y-acht, y-outk, and y-oke, be spelt e-acht, e-outh, and e-oke. It must be admitted that, in passing rapidly from the sound of oo or e to that of some other vowel, there is a very great tendency in the organs of articulation to utter, in the one case the distinctive sound oiy, in the other that of w. But that the con- sonantal sounds of w andj;/are really distinct from those of 00 and e is obvious, when we compare the sounds of w-oo and y-e with those of their supposed equivalents 00-00 and ee-e, or when we contrast such words as ooze and woos, and ear and year. There can be no doubt, indeed, that w and y do really represent true and peculiar consonantal sounds. The true labial continuous consonants are the English IV and the German w and v, which latter are respectively very closely related in sound to the English V and f. In the utterance of the German varieties of v and / the lips are brought into close approximation, leaving only a longish linear chink between them, through which the breath is emitted with sufficient force to produce a manifest rustling sound. The v (the German zu) is a sonant letter; the / (the German v) is its surd modification. The sound of the English vocal w differs from that of the vowel oo mainly in the fact that the fundamental vowel-sound is produced in the larynx, and receives its colouring from the oral cavity, while the distinctive