Balder Ex-Libris

Author : Godwin Joscelyn
Title : The mystery of the Seven Vowels In theory and practice
Year : 1991

Link download : Godwin_Joscelyn_-_The_mystery_of_the_Seven_Vowels.zip

Few things in our daily lives are more mysterious than the vowels; few things more essential than these forms through which we shape our speech. As close to us as our own breath, almost as intimate as our thoughts, the vowels are hidden by their very proximity, like the object one searches for while clutching it in one's hand. Yet once they are noticed, paths open up on every side, leading to unsuspected revelations of sound, sense, and symbolism. This small book, which I believe is the first one on the subject in English, is intended to point out some of those paths. Without the vowels, we would be in a sorry state, having to talk to one another in hums and clicks, hisses and groans, as the beasts do : a possibility, but not an alluring one. A... E... I... 0... U... As we listen to the familiar sounds, which the inner ear of our imagination is even now forming as we read them, we may wonder what it is that actually distinguishes one vowel from another. It is not in the air coming from the lungs, which is the prime matter of our speech. Nor is it to be found in the vocal chords that flank the airpassage and vibrate with the current of breath to sound high notes or low. It is in the mouth that tone is transmuted into word, music into meaning. This is the vestibule of the body, open on one side to the world, and on the other to those dark chambers which so few of us understand or are even aware of. The mouth has a dual role, and its two functions mirror each other. First, it is the place where food is worked on by teeth and tongue and converted into fit nourishment for the body. Second, it is the place where the raw sounds of our vocal chords are worked into language, fit nourishment for the world of ideas that surrounds us. ...