In classifying the different varieties of voice, we have considered them only in their rudimentary state. Ability to name and distinguish the several tones of voice is the starting point. We have an image more or less perfect, leaving the mould; we have a canvas containing the design, but not the embroidery--the mere outline of an instrument, a body without a soul. The voice being the language of the sensitive life, the passional state must pass entirely into the voice.
We must know then how to give it an expression, a color answering to the sentiment it conveys. But this expressive form of the voice depends upon the sound of its vowels.
There is a mother vowel, a generative tone. It is a (Italian a). In articulating a the mouth opens wide, giving a sound similar to a in arm.
The primitive a takes three forms. The unaccented, Italian a represents the normal state; a with the acute accent (') represents the eccentric state; a with the grave accent (`) represents the concentric state.
These three a's derived from primitive a become each in turn the progenitor of a family with triple sounds, as may be seen in the following genealogical tree:
| Á | A A | À |
| --------------------------- | ||
| é | o | e |
| è | au | eu |
| i | ou | u |
| Eccentric. | Normal. | Concentric. |
This is the only simple sound, but four other sounds are derived from it. The three a's articulated by closing the uvula, give the nasal an. Each family also gives its special nasal sound: in for the eccentric voice, on for the normal state, un for the concentric. All other sounds are derived from combinations of these. The mouth cannot possibly produce more than three families of sounds, and in each family it is a united with the others that forms the trinity.
The variety of sounds in these three families of vowels arises from the difference of the opening of the mouth and lips in articulating them. These different modes of articulation may be rendered more intelligible by the subjoined diagrams:
â is pronounced with the mouth very wide open, the uvula raised and the tongue much lowered.
