ARTICLE III.—­OF INFLECTIONS.

INFLECTIONS are those peculiar variations of the human voice, by which a continuous sound is made to pass from one note, key, or pitch, into an other.  The passage of the voice from a lower to a higher or shriller note, is called the rising or upward inflection.  The passage of the voice from a higher to a lower or graver note, is called tbe falling or downward inflection.  These two opposite inflections may be heard in the following examples:  1.  The rising, “Do you mean to go?” 2.  The falling, “When will you go?”

In general, questions that may be answered by yes or no, require the rising inflection; while those which demand any other answer, must be uttered with the falling inflection.  These slides of the voice are not commonly marked in writing, or in our printed books; but, when there is occasion to note them, we apply the acute accent to the former, and the grave accent to the latter.[475]

A union of these two inflections upon the same syllable, is called a circumflex, a wave, or a “circumflex inflection.”  When the slide is first downward and then upward, it is called the rising circumflex, or “the gravo-acute circumflex;” when first upward and then downward, it is denominated the falling circumflex, or “the acuto-grave circumflex.”  Of these complex inflections of the voice, the emphatic words in the following sentences may be uttered as examples:  “And it shall go h~ard but I will use the information.”—­“O! but he pa~used upon the brink.”

When a passage is read without any inflection, the words are uttered in what is called a monotone; the voice being commonly pitched at a grum note, and made to move for the time, slowly and gravely, on a perfect level.

“Rising inflections are far more numerous than falling inflections; the former constitute the main body of oral language, while the latter are employed for the purposes of emphasis, and in the formation of cadences.  Rising inflections are often emphatic; but their emphasis is weaker than that of falling inflections.”—­Comstock’s Elocution, p. 50.

“Writers on Elocution have given numerous rules for the regulation of inflections; but most of these rules are better calculated to make bad readers than good ones.  Those founded on the construction of sentences might, perhaps, do credit to a mechanic, but they certainly do none to an elocutionist.”—­Ib., p. 51.

“The reader should bear in mind that a falling inflection gives more importance to a word than a rising inflection.  Hence it should never be employed merely for the sake of variety; but for emphasis and cadences.  Neither should a rising inflection be used for the sake of mere ‘harmony,’ where a falling inflection would better express the meaning of the author.  The sense should, in all cases, determine the direction of inflections.”—­Ib.