INTRODUCTION.

THE VOICE IN ELOCUTION.

"There is in souls a sympathy with sounds."

FORCE.

COWPER.

Or the fourteen vowel sounds in our language, some require for their enunciation more force than others. Thus the sound of a as in ah, and that of o as in oh, are louder than that of oo in foot or i in fit. So the diphthong sound ou as in growl is a little stronger than that of u as in tune. A strong sound is naturally fit to express strength; a weak one to express weakness.*

A similar difference exists among the twenty-two consonants. Thus the sounds of r, gr, h, str, thr, are strong. This fact will be perceptible in the articulation of rave, rail, rend, rip, rear, roar, grapple, grasp, grind, gripe, groan, growl, harsh, haul, horrid, strain, strangle, strive, stress, strike, struggle, thrash, thrill, throw, throb, thrust, throttle. But the sound of is weak; as in lave, lay, lick, linger, lisp, loll, love, lull,

* The difference in the fitness of vowels to express loud or soft sounds is seen in comparing words whose consonants are the same or nearly so. The stronger vowel usually expresses the louder sound. Compare croak, crack, and the obsolete crick; squall and squeal; snore and sneer; snort, snuff, and sniff; snarl and snivel. Or the strong vowel expresses greater force. Compare spout and spit, groan and grin, strong and string, master and mistress, thank and think, glare and glitter. In some other languages this difference is more perceptible than in ours. In some of the languages of the Scythian stock, as in the Magyar and the Turkish, the heavy vowels, a, o, u, are called masculine; the light, e, i, o, u, feminine. In the Mantchoo, we find ama meaning father, eme mother; kaka is male, keke female; amka father-in-law, emke mother-in-law; kankan a strong spirit, kenken a feeble