Public Speaking | Page 8

slightly raised--never more than
is absolutely necessary.
No connected group of words should be delivered in a monotonously
level pitch. The voice must rise and fall. These changes must answer
intelligently to the meaning of the material. Such variations are called
inflections. The most disagreeable violations of required inflections are
raising the voice where it should fall--as at the completion of an idea,
and letting it drop where it should remain up--as before the completion
of an idea, frequently answering to a comma. Other variations of pitch
depend upon emphasis.
Emphasis. Emphasis is giving prominence to a word or phrase so that
its importance is impressed upon a listener. This result is most easily
secured by contrast. More force may be put into its delivery than the
rest of the speech. The word may be made louder or not so loud. The
voice may be pitched higher or lower. The word may be lengthened.
Pauses will make it prominent. In speaking, combinations of these are
employed to produce emphasis.
While all qualities of speech are important, emphasis is of cardinal
value. Listeners will never recall everything that a speaker has said. By
a skilful employment of emphasis he will put into their consciousness
the main theme of his message, the salient arguments of his contention,
the leading motives of action. Here again is that close interdependence
of manner and material referred to in the preceding chapter. In later
chapters will be discussed various methods of determining and securing
emphasis of larger sections than mere words and phrases.
Phrasing. Somewhat related to emphasis is phrasing. This is the
grouping together of words, phrases, clauses, and other units so that
their meaning and significance may be easily grasped by a listener. As
has been already said, pauses serve as punctuation marks for the hearer.
Short pauses correspond to commas, longer ones to colons and
semi-colons, marked ones to periods. Speakers can by pauses clearly
indicate the conclusions of sections, the completion of topics, the
passage from one part of the material to another, the transfer of

attention from one subject to its opposite. Within smaller range pauses
can add delightful variety to delivery as they can signally reinforce the
interpretation. No speaker should fall into the habit of monotonously
letting his pauses mark the limit of his breath capacity, nor should he
take any regular phrase, clause, or sentence length to be indicated by
pauses. In this as in all other aspects variety is the charm of speech.
Enunciation. No matter what handicaps a person may have he may
overcome them to secure a distinct, agreeable enunciation. Care in
enunciating words will enable a speaker to be heard almost anywhere.
It is recorded that John Fox, a famous preacher of South Place Chapel,
London, whose voice was neither loud nor strong, was heard in every
part of Covent Garden Theatre, seating 3500, when he made
anti-corn-law orations, by the clearness with which he pronounced the
final consonants of the words he spoke.
One of the orators best known to readers is Edmund Burke, whose
speeches are studied as models of argumentative arrangement and style.
Yet in actual speech-making Burke was more or less a failure because
of the unfortunate method of his delivery. Many men markedly inferior
in capacity to Burke overcame disadvantageous accidents, but he was
frequently hurried and impetuous. Though his tones were naturally
sonorous, they were harsh; and he never divested his speech of a strong
Irish accent. Then, too, his gestures were clumsy. These facts will
explain to us who read and study leisurely these masterpieces why they
failed of their purpose when presented by their gifted but ineffective
author.
Pronunciation. Enunciation depends to a great degree upon
pronunciation. The pronunciation of a word is no fixed and
unchangeable thing. Every district of a land may have its peculiar local
sounds, every succeeding generation may vary the manner of accenting
a word. English people today pronounce schedule with a soft ch sound.
Program has had its accent shifted from the last to the first syllable.
Many words have two regularly heard pronunciations--_neither,
advertisement, Elizabethan, rations, oblique, route, quinine_, etc.
Fashions come and go in pronunciation as in all other human interests.

Some sounds stamp themselves as carelessnesses or perversions at once
and are never admitted into educated, cultured speech. Others thrive
and have their day, only to fade before some more widely accepted
pronunciation. The first rule in pronunciation is to consult a good
dictionary. This will help in most cases but not in all, for a dictionary
merely records all accepted sounds; only partly can it point out the
better of disputed sounds by placing it first. Secondly, speech is a living,
growing, changing thing. Dictionaries drop behind the times
surprisingly rapidly. The regularly accepted sound may have come