ill more particularly to the
sounds of language.

All musical tones, including the phonetic sounds of words, have four
characteristics: pitch, loudness or intensity, quality or tone-color,
and duration. The last, of course, needs no definition.

* * * * *

_Pitch_ is dependent on the number of vibrations per second. The greater
the number of vibrations, the higher the pitch and the more 'acute' the
tone. The lowest pitch recognizable as a tone (as distinguished from
noise) is 8 vibrations a second; the highest pitch the ear can hear is
between 20,000 and 30,000 a second. In normal English speech among
adults the voice ranges from about 100 to 300 vibrations, but in
animated speaking this range is greatly increased.

* * * * *

_Loudness_ is a comparative term for the strength of the sensation of
sound in the ear. It is determined by the energy or intensity of the
vibrations and varies (technically speaking) as the product of the
square of the frequency and the square of the amplitude(_I=n^{2}A^{2}_).
But for ordinary purposes it is sufficient to regard loudness and
intensity as the same. The distinction, however, is clear in common
practice; for whether one says "father" loudly or quietly, there is a
relatively greater intensity of sound in the first syllable than in the
second. In speech this intensity is called _accent_ or _stress_.

The third characteristic, variously called _quality_, _timbre_,
_tone-quality_, _tone-color_, is that which distinguishes sounds of the
same loudness and pitch produced by different instruments or voices. It
is the result of the combination of the partial tones of a sound, that
is, of the fundamental and its overtones. In music, tone-quality is of
the utmost importance, but as an element of speech rhythm it is
practically non-existent, and may be wholly neglected, though it plays,
of course, a prominent part in the oral reading of different persons.[2]

+--------------------------------------------------------------+
| [2] There is, however, another phenomenon (to be discussed |
| later) called by the same name, 'tone-color,' but having |
| only a metaphorical relation to it. Many words--_father_, |
| _soul_, _ineluctable_, for example--have emotional |
| associations which stand to the literal meaning somewhat |
| like overtones to the fundamental. This tone-quality of |
| la