MAKING A BUNSEN BURNER SPEAK.

Auckland Star, Volume LIII, Issue 309, 30 December 1922, Page 15

MAKING A BUNSEN BURNER SPEAK.

. I Investigation into the speech sounds of exotic languages, in many cases Afri- i can, has been undertaken by the London University College, the Senate of which has passed a comprehensive scheme. This means that savage languages which have never been written down will be studied in tbeir phonetic structure and recorded, and the material will then ;be at the service of those institutions j that desire to teach such languages. | To study the phonetic structure of a language —to make a sure analysis of the I sounds of a human voice—the phonetic laboratory contains ingenious appliances, i These are instruments for recording and analysing sounds only. But there are others for one to practice making sounds. Perhaps the most wonderful of these, and probably the simplest, is an adaptation of tlie Buii9en burner to respond to the human voice. At a certain height the flame will only respond —by flickering —to tbe vowel "A." It will not respond to a nasalised "A" nor to a mere blow. Another instrument is a revolving disc, which shows a band of light to correspond with the vowel produced by the speaker. There is also a phonoscope, invented by M. Lioret, of Paris, for the son of the King of Spain, in which the speaker can see what letter be has spoken. Thus the peculiarities of a language are studied (through a native.