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4 SPEECH. |
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narrowed, especially in the London district. Defective articulation is often present in the sounds of B (trilled), 8 and SH.
6. Indistinct Speech.—Many speakers fail to make themselves heard distinctly and easily because they allow their voices to fall off at the end of each phrase, in which case the last sound or even the last two or three sounds have to be guessed by the hearers.
Words are often mispronounced or run one into another, and the small words and the unaccented syllables of a word are too often imperfectly sounded. It will be easily noticed that in such cases the speakers make too little use of their articulatory apparatus. It is quite possible to follow some speakers if great attention is paid, but many words and sounds have to be guessed. A really good speaker will make each sound so clear, that it can with ease be recognised apart from the context, and this applies to the unaccented syllables as well as to the accented.
7. Ponderous Speech.—The drawl, so noticeable in clergymen, is due to a somewhat ponderous sustaining of the voice upon vowel-sounds, which are not too well moulded, and to a slurring of the consonants. Teachers are often guilty of the opposite fault, for in their endeavour to be distinct they so laboriously articulate their consonants, that the unvoiced sounds predominate and give an unmusical quality to their speech.
Both these faults produce that irritability of throat which is known by the name of " Clergyman's sore throat," but should be styled " Voice-user's throat." |
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