New-York tribune., 1903-01-18
VOICES AND MONSTERS.
YALE HOPES TO SAVE SOME OF BOTH
FROM OBLIVION.

New-Haven Conn. Jan. II (SpeciaD-D1alect
that part of human speech which denotes man
country or habits, after pushing into the htera-
ture of the bookshop and the stage ana iiahiiis
itself a general nuisance, has advanced oe-
.idad stem in finding its way into one of the
rXperime ntal laboratories at Yale UmVefSi's'
There if will be collected in great, soho chuhhs
end endless variety; it will be preserved ps
various mechanical means, and studied untii
there is not q fractional lhhectloh uhie'
and uncatalOgued.
What a great and glorious thing IL Will pe lo'
the novelist and actor! No longer will it be
,ocaesarv for the novelist to study the speech of
HE dialect characters as it leaps from lips, or
Gronc as the case may be. The Yankee tWanS
and the South Carolina drawl can be drawn on
demand like books from a library. Ihere are
endless possibilities-a dozen different dlaiectS
on the same page, for instance, and all OF 'leih
perfectly true to life. Even dialect spelling Will
become a thing of rule and not of fancy, as at
present.
Actors of a future generation can journey 10
New Haven and learn just how Hackett Salu IL
% make the matinee girls weep. Actresses, by
fl ling out a slip properly, may listen to Ethei
Barrvnore's laugh just she laughed it on
broadway.
All this comes under the department of ex-
the work is well under way 1t includes the
stldv of voice curves the investigation of the
physiological action of the vocal organs and the
application of theories evolved to practical
enGs.
This is one of two Yale departments of original
scientific research which have just received
financial aid from the Carnegie institution at
Washington. Professor E. w. Scripture is en-
gagged in the work. The other department aided
by Mr.. Carnegie's munificence is that presided
over by DR.. J. l.. Workman, who is conducting
researches on the famous collection of vertebrate
fossils left to the university by Professor Q. c.
Marsh
Yales work in experimental psychology has
for several years attracted general attention
among psychologists in this country and Europe
Herrick Hall, formerly the old Commons, is now
given up largely to the laboratories, workrooms
and experiment quarters for psychology. Pro-
fessor Scripture is at present engaged almost
solely on researches in experimental phonetics.
In other fields of psychology at Yale assistants
are engrossed with other researches-on the In
voluntary movement of the tongue while think
ing, motor education, on the discovery of
new color which will be safe for railroad signals,
on movements made in writing, and a safe
test for color vision. The Carnegie fund will be
exclusively applied to the development of the
studies in voice curves
1t has already been proved possible, by the
inventors of the phonograph and the graphic
phone, mechanically to catch the speaking
voice and preserve it for future reproduction.
But beyond that attempts have hitherto been
made on any large scale scientifically to analyze
the voice in its different shades Cf dialect and
emotion. For practical purposes only the
crudest-judged by scientific NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS.
have as yet been used to study the voice, the
eIocutonists and the singing masters having
thus far limited their studies TO actual auricular
evidence With the development of the new
mechanism it is now possible to analyZe scien-
tffcally the spoken tones by tracing them from
the gramophOne disks upon paper as to show
the speech curves accurat tely, and then, by
means of skilful technical examination, get
down to basic principles The toast Of Rip Van
Winkle as spoken by Joseph Jefferson is already
"frozen' plate after plate of tracings, and
work is now proceeding Senator Chauncey
II Depews "Forefathers Day Address" Be
sides these two number of traCingS have been