1 m4^^i.MW'i V< ' " <=3 Q- - ux Z n U ' ^ 'G- C D E F G A B C ut re mi fa sol la SI ut do re. mi fa sol la SI do It will thus be observed that this natural scale as already indicated (page 62), consists only of seven notes, for when, after singing or playing these seven notes, the series is continued, another scale similar to the first is repeated, according to the extent of the voice or the instrument. The last of the above notes, C, being the eighth from the first, is called its octave, and the whole series is called an octave. The mode of applying to these seven notes certain syllables, which contain the first five vowels, is called the art of solmization, or sol-fa-ing. The syllables, ut, re, mi, fa, sol, la, selected by Guido d'Arezzo, from a stanza of a hymn to St. John the Baptist, were found insufficient when the hexacord system was abandoned, and the syllable si was added by Le Maire, a French musician. The syllable ut was finally rejected by the Italians, and c?o, which is also adopted in England, substituted for it. When these notes or sounds are used in such suc- cession, that a pleasurable feeling is produced in the g2 100 PHILOSOPHY OF VOICE AND SPEECH. mind, the tune produced is said to be melodious ; and it is almost certain that the pleasure arising from mu- sical sounds is the result of the equal times of the vibrations which produce them, and of the equal length of the sonorous waves which reach the ear through the atmosphere. When two or more notes are produced at the same time in an agreeable manner, harmony is formed. The difference between melody and harmony, in relation to the perceptive power of man, seems to be, that me- lody, being natural musical language, is appreciated by most human beings ; while harmony is in most cases understood only by persons who have cultivated music as an art. There are many persons who, without ever having had any instruction in the science of music, have natu- rally such a nice perception of musical sounds, and appear so instinctively to be sensible of metrical pre- cision, that they feel distressed at dissonance, and pleased at harmony. Persons so constituted are said to have a good ear. A- curious paper has just been communicated to the French Academy of Sciences, by M. Jobart, touching a sound corresponding to the note la (the note A in the English notation), which is heard by some persons in shaking their heads rather smartly from right to left. M. Cagniard de la Tour* had been the first to remark * Fabricius ab Aquapendente had already maintained that he possessed voluntary power over the muscles of the tym- panum, and could at will produce a peculiar noise in his ears. Mayer knew a person who possessed this power in such a degree, that another person could distinctly hear the sound. Miiller PRODUCTION OF THE VOICE. 101 the fact, and although he was known to be an exact observer, the announcement was received at the time with incredulity, because the experiment was generally repeated under unfavourable circumstances, by being interrupted by other slight sounds, such as the rustling of a cravat, &c. M. Jobart has' investigated the sub- ject physiologically, and has ascertained that the sound is caused by the striking of the malleus upon the incu^ in the interior of the ear. It is well known that the manubrium of the malleus is attached to the centre of the tympanum, and that it is kept in equilibrium by elastic fibres. Now, in shaking the head, the malleus may, in touching the bone of the incus, produce a slight metallic sound, which all who have heard it, say, agrees with the note la, in music. " Those," says Mr. Jobart, " that hear the note in both ear, are endowed with a perfect sense of hearing, and are born musicians. Those who hear the note in one ear only possess the sense in an imperfect degree, just as those who have one eye weaker than the other frequently mistake one colour for another. Those whose ears emit different notes not in unison, are not only bad musicians, but they actually hate the art. From this fact, M. Jobart deduces a consequence, which, if verified by experience, may be extremely useful in selecting a profession for has the same power of producing a sound at will in either ear ; and one of the most eminent English writers has just informed the author that, by shaking his head for a second, he hears distinctly a metallic A natural, but much more strongly in the left ear than in the right. g3 102 PHILOSOPHY OF VOICE AND SPEECH. a child, by first ascertaining whether the subject hear^ the note in question equally in both ears. Register of the Voice. — Many persons have the power of producing three varieties of notes, viz., the chest-voice, voce di petto , the head voice, voce di testa^ and the falsetto. The chest-voice, or the natural register, is that which is most under our control, and in which we usually speak and express ourselves. The head voice is by some physiologists and music masters, distinguished from the falsetto ; there being many singers who possess a register which can neither be said to belong to the chest notes nor to the falsetto. This intermediate register, which is softer and weaker than the chest-voice, forms the transition to the falsetto. According to Liskovius, the ligaments are in the production of the head-notes more stretched than in the production of the chest-notes. This modification of the voice only occurs in such notes which can be produced both by the chest and falsetto voice ; and the artist avails himself of it in the gradual transition from one note to the other. The peculiarity which consists in a kind of soft and tender piano, retaining at the same time its harmonious quality has also been termed mezza voce, for the beauty of which Jenny Lind, Sontag, and Catalan! were much admired. The falsetto, which differs from the chest-voice, not merely in pitch, but in quality, has given rise to con- siderable difference of opinion in regard to the mode PRODUCTION OF THE VOICE 103 of its production. Some have maintained that the vocal cords vibrate only half their length, and that the rima is partly closed. Lehfeldt first observed the fact, that in the production of the falsetto, the thin borders only of the glottis vibrate. Miiller and most physiolo- gists are of the same opinion. Peterquin and Diday, {^Gazette Medical)^ however, contend that the falsetto notes are Jlute notes, not produced at all by the vibra- tion of the vocal cords, but by the vibration of the air as it passes through the glottis, the glottis changing from a reed to a flute-like instrument, whilst in the production of the chest-voice, the whole breadth of the cords is thrown into vibration. The falsetto voice certainly acquires in many cases a flute or flageolet-like tone, hence called flautino, and is chiefly employed in the highest sounds. The frequent employment of these notes gives, from the straining of the cords beyond their natural condition, pain to the singer, and is not unfrequently disagreeable to the listener. Physiologists difier as to females possessing falsetto voices ; the higher notes in the female register are by some music masters called the head-voice ; still the flute-like timbre of the highest notes evi Jently have the characteristic of the falsetto. Others consider that the falsetto is a defect of the voice ; this may be the case when the chest-voice has not the normal compass, but not otherwise. Garcia, as it appears from an article in the Gazette hehdom. No. 46, 1855, is able to hold in the pharynx a foreign body without much inconvenience. In this manner he introduces a speculum, which enables him. 104 PHILOSOPHY OF VOICE AND SPEECH. or a second person by means of an external mirror, to observe tbe changes in the glottis. Segond, who reports the various observations made in this manner, says that he is now convinced that the superior liga- ments which formerly he considered as concerned in the falsetto, influence only the timbre of the voice, whilst the lower ligaments are the essential organs of the voice. During the transition from a chest-note into the falsetto, the ligaments approached each other and vibrated in their whole depth ; they became relaxed in the falsetto and touched only at their edges, while the lateral parts were raised by the current of air. Extent oe the Voice. — The compass of the voice varies in different individuals from one to three and a half octaves, the ordinary compass being about twelve notes. A good singing voice includes about two, or two and a half octaves. Some distinguished female singers are able to bring out an octave more.* The entire scale of the human voice, the compass of the male and female voices being taken together, includes four octaves. But the male and female voices commence and ter- minate at different points ; the lowest note of the female voice being about an octave higher than the lowest note of the male voice, while the highest note of the male voice is an octave lower than the highest note of the female voice. * Sessi, a young female singer, had a compass of three octaves and three notes, and Catalan!' s voice included three and a half octaves. PRODUCTION OF THE VOICE. 105 The following table exhibits the entire scale of the human voice and the mean extent of its varieties. j Soprano I I I Alto I I 1111111222222233333334 CDEFGABCDEFGABCDEFGABCDEFGABC J I I Tenor In this table, the scale is commenced at the C of the eight-feet organ pipe, or the fundamental of the fourth string of the violoncello. The intermediate voices, viz., the barytone in males begins at A, and reaches F2 or higher. The mezzo- soprano begins at Al and reaches A3 or higher. The compass of the voice of an individual depends both on the elasticity of the vocal cords and their tensile capacity, and on the functional powers of the muscles concerned. Well organised vocal cords of an adult will admit of being so stretched as to increase one third in length, and exhibit a compass from two to two and a half octaves. The voice, however, does not merely depend on the increase of the length, but also on the lateral tension of the cords. It may also happen that though the vocal cords are in excellent condition, the muscles may be incapable of effecting the requisite tension. 106 PHILOSOPHY OF VOICE AND SPEECH. According to Miiller, the mean length of the vocal cords* is as follows : — Male larynx. Female larynx. Boy of 14 years. Mean length of the vocal cords ) in repose j Mean length of the vocal cords ) in the state of greatest tension j 23i 12| 15| 10-5 14-5 From these measurements, it appears that the relative length of the vocal cords in the male and female larynx are as three to two, both in the extended and relaxed state. As the compass of the voice may be extended above the medium note, by the use of the falsetto, so may it be extended in depth. When the singer, especially the basso, descends below the deepest note of his natural voice, the tone is no longer sonorous, but rattling, and becomes gradually (about an octave below the medium note) so faint that the number of vibrations can no longer be recognised. To produce the gravest tone of the voice, the larynx is depressed about half an inch below its mean position, by which the rimais opened in its whole extent, and the tension of the ligaments is very slight. Generally speaking, the notes will be deeper and more weak, the fainter the impulse of the air. When the larynx is in the lowest position, the tone becomes from a diminished action of the air not only deeper, but * The numbers indicate millimetres. A millimetre is about ■^ of an English inch. PKODUCTION OP THE VOICE. 107 scarcely audible. Again, in ascending from the lowest to the highest chest-notes, the larynx gradually rises until it reaches about half an inch above its mean position, and the aperture of the rima diminishes in breadth in proportion as the larynx ascends ; and as generally the tone is rendered more acute, by a more forcible impulse of air ; we may ascend from pianissimo to fortissimo by gradually increasing the air current. Classification of Voices. — As males, as well as females, differ in the pitch of their voice, musicians distinguish three principal kinds of male voices; the bass, the barytone, and the tenor ; and three kinds of female voices : alto, mezzo-soprano, soprano. The bass, which is the lower voice, is almost entirely a chest voice, it surjf&sses all others in power, but exhibits a considerable degree of roughness. The tenor, which has received this name from being the chief sustaining voice, is softer, more flexible, and expressive than the bass. Some of its higher notes belong to the head voice. The barytone is the intermediate voice between the bass and the tenor. The alto'^" is the lower female voice, and, as all its sounds are from the chest, their tone is fuU, but mellow. The mezzo-soprano is like the barytone, the inter- mediate voice between the alto and soprano. The soprano [discanto) is the higher female voice, * Literally, alto means high voice, jfrom being higher than the tenor, which was considered the leading voice. 108 PHILOSOPHY OF VOICE AND SPEECH. the tones of which, though not so full as that of the alto, excel it much in freshness, and in the power of expressing the passions. The highest sounds of it belong to the falsetto. These various kinds of voices depend both on the dimensions and length of the vocal ligaments. Other circumstances must, however, also be taken into con- sideration. An elastic ligament of a certain thickness will yield a deeper tone than a ligament of the same length and tension, but thinner in structure. The cords of old people are, as Harless found, much thinner, while those of children are much thicker in proportion to their length. The character of the voice is also, besides this, determined by the elastic capacity of the cords. Stretched ligaments must, cceteris paribus^ yield a higher normal sound than slackened cords ; and it is chiefly upon this difference that the varieties of tenor, barytone, and bass, in men, and alto, mezzo-soprano, and soprano depend. The ligaments of high tenors and sopranos are, according to Merkel, generally proportionally thinner, though not narrower than those of bass and alto singers. It is difficult to say which of the varieties of voice just noticed is to be considered as the most perfect. Many physiologists and musicians give in males the preference to the barytone, and in females to the mezzo- soprano. The barytone is not only intermediate be- tween the deep bass and the somewhat effeminate tenor, but is generally , distinguished by greater compass, metal, and flexibility. The barytone seems to be the normal male voice ; and the most celebrated male PKODUCTION OF THE VOICE. 109 singers, although they made sometimes their debuts as tenors, possessed in reality barytone voices. For the same reason the mezzo-soprano is preferred in females. Catalani, Mara, Malibran, Heinefetter, Clara Novello,- were mezzo-soprani. It is moreover undeniable that barytones and mezzo-soprani usually preserve their voices unimpaired to a late period of life. Pasta, Catalani, Mara, delighted audiences long after they had reached three scores and ten. Influence of the Auxiliary Organs on the Voice. The Trachea. — The variation of length of the trachea, as the prefixed tube, seems to have but little influence on the note produced in the larynx ; although it exer- cises a marked effect on the height of notes produced by tongues of caoutchouc or arterial tissue. It is, however, admitted that the elongation of the super- added tube above the glottis, facilitates, by the descent of the larynx, the formation of deep notes, whilst its shortening by the ascent of the larynx, favours the production of high notes. The Ventricles. — The chief office assigned to these cavities is to afford sufficient space for the vibration of the vocal cords. The ventricular sacs appear, more- over, to supply the vocal cords with the requisite moisture, whilst they are vibrating. Savart maintained that the air may vibrate in the ventricles, independent of the vibration of the glottis, and may produce sounds in such cases, when the other elastic parts are incapable of sufficient tension. 110 PHILOSOPHY OF VOICE AND SPEECH. The resonance of the human voice is much influenced by the state and size of the ventricles of the larynx, the fauces, the oral and nasal cavities, and the develop- ment of the frontal sinuses. Professor Owen is of opinion that the want of resonance, for which the voice of the Australians is remarkable, is probably owing to the fact that the frontal sinus is not fully developed in that race. The parts above the glottis may thus, with regard to resonance, be considered as producing the same effect as a short speaking tube. It may also be stated that, during the production of the chest-notes, the whole thorax resounds, and its vibration may be felt on placing the hand on the chest. The influence of the epiglottis on the voice appears to be, that by being pressed down so as to cover the larynx, the notes are rendered deeper and somewhat duller. " In uttering deep notes," says Miiller, " we evidently employ the glottis in this way ; such, at least, seems to me the object of the depression of the tongue when, endeavouring to produce very deep notes, we press down the head." Bennati observes that the soft palate rises and assumes an arched form in grave sounds, and sinks in acute sounds. The uvula maintains its normal position in grave tones, but nearly disappears from sight in the highest acute sounds. The importance of the uvula in the formation of the voice is considerable ; if it be of an abnormal size or deficient in contractile power, the quality and intensity of the voice greatly suffers. The tonsils, according to the same authority, swell PRODUCTION OF THE VOICE. Ill and approacli each other in high tones ; large tonsils thus favour the falsetto voice, but interfere with the quality of the chest notes. The tongue, in relation to the voice, is less active in grave sounds, when it maintains its usual position. In acute sounds, as in the falsetto, the edges of the tongue rise and form nearly a conical cavity, the apex of which is the tip of the tongue. Singers possessing a full chest-voice have usually a large tongue. Mutation of the Voice.— It has been seen that the larynx of boys resembles that of females; the vocal cords in boyhood being only two-thirds of the length they subsequently acquire. Between twelve and sixteen in girls, and fourteen to eighteen in boys, the larynx enlarges, and the voice undergoes a change both in timbre and compass. As the alteration in the vocal apparatus of girls is not so great, the change is not so marked. Girls generally preserve the kind of voices they possessed before mutation, but the compass extends both in depth and height ; nor does it unfrequently happen that a soprano changes into an alto voice, the reverse being rarely the case. The alto and soprano voices of boys become, when properly developed, bass, barytone, or tenor. In some boys the change is effected in a few days,''^, in others many weeks and months elapse before the character of the voice is formed. During, and for some time after * It is said that the celebrated Lablache found his voice changed into an excellent bass in a single night, after having on the previous day taxed his voice to the utmost at a festival of the church. 112 PHILOSOPHY OF VOICE AND SPEECH. the change, the voice is unsteady and crowing, and remains so until the new tones are brought under perfect control. The full developement of the voice keeps pace with that of the body, and may, with proper care, be preserved in its full integrity until the fortieth or fiftieth year, rarely until a later period. There obtains, among physiologists and music masters, a great difference of opinion with regard to the cultiva- tion of the voice during the critical period of its change. Some maintain that the voice should not be exercised at all at this period of life. The majority, however, are of opinion, that provided due caution is observed, the exercises need not be entirely suspended. It is of considerable moment that both the master and the pupil should closely watch the predominating quality of the voice which is likely to be the result of the change, and to adapt the exercises accordingly. All efforts to force the voice should be strictly avoided. Even after the change has taken place, and the quality of the voice is determined, male singers should be cautious of forcing the acute tones. Some considerable time after the full development of the chest-voice, the cultivation of the falsetto — ^if this register exists — may with due caution be proceeded with. It may at the same time be mentioned that not only is the falsetto of the male voice, when forced, injurious to the voice, but at present but little cherished. Inspiratory Voice. — The production of the voice is not, as was formerly believed, necessarily connected with expiration, for man can both speak and sing during inspiration. The tones so produced are generally harsh PRODUCTION OF THE VOICE. 113 and unequal, and as the glottis dilates in inspiration, the phonetic process must be more difficult and fatiguing. This inspiratory voice differs from the normal voice in being about an octave higher. According to Segond, it has two registers; that of the chest-voice is more extended in the low notes than that of the normal voice, and that of the falsetto in the high ones. The articula- tion of many letters is altered, if formed during inspira- tion ; and some, especially r, cannot be produced. The voice of some batrachians is solely inspiratory ; and the variety and continuity of the notes of singing birds may be explained by the fact that the voice is produced both during expiration and inspiration. To this must be added the influence of the volume of air extended through every part of the bodies of birds, and which can be forced into the larynx after the air in the lungs is nearly exhausted. Besides the sounds produced in the larynx, there are other sounds which may be produced either in the posterior or anterior part of the tube above the larynx. The vibrations of the arches of the soft palate, cause snoring. A variety of sounds may also be produced by the air being pressed between the lips, which are thus made to vibrate. The pitch of the notes thus produced will depend on the comparative tension of the lips, which, in such cases, represent a reed instrument. The musical sound called whistling^ which is produced in the oral cavity, was by Munke* considered as the effect of the vibration of the edges of the lips. That whistling * Gehler's Physikal. Worterbuch. 114 PHILOSOPHY OF VOICE AND SPEECH. is not entirely owing to the vibration of the lips, is easily proved, as the sounds may be produced though the lips are covered or touched. There appears but little doubt that in whistling, which may be produced both during inspiration and expiration, the air is the source of sound, being thrown into vibration by the friction against the borders of the aperture of the mouth. Miiller agrees in his theory of whistling with Caignard la Tour, but he is of opinion that the latter has attached too little importance to the influence of the oral cavity. "Whistling, as Savart has shown, bears a great analogy to the sounds of a pipe or flute, and the difierence be- tween the two sounds appears to be, that, in whistling, the whole column of air is in constant motion through the orifice ; while in a pipe the air vibrates merely in the tube, and does not move as a current. Timbre of the Voice, By Timbre (stamp) is understood the peculiar cha- racter, quality, or clang of the voice, by which every individual is known. Geofiray Saint Hilaire, Dutrochet, and Magendie, are of opinion, that just as the timbre of a violin depends not merely on the nature of the material, but also on the proportions of its parts, so does the timbre of the voice depend on the form and hardness of the cartilages of the larynx. Thus the larynx of the child being soft, the voice is shrill and squeaking. In the adult, the parts become denser, and the voice is properly developed, whilst the cracked and PRODUCTION OF THE VOICE. 115 disagreeable voices of old people are the result of partial ossification of the cartilages. The timbre of the voice, does not, however, merely depend on the structure and shape of the cartilages. The form and development of the vocal cords, the dimensions of the ventricles of the larynx, the dis- position of the buccal and nasal cavities, the shape, position, and form of the tongue, soft palate, and the teeth; all these, separately or in combination, con- tribute more or less to give to the voice its character. As the causes may thus be said to be infinite, and as the timbre is the result of their combined action, it is not astonishing that two voices are rarely, if ever, found to be absolutely alike. Timbre and pitch are frequently confounded by writers. The distinguishing characteristic of the pitch of a note, is the number of vibrations by which it is produced, independent of the nature of the vibrating body; the pitch consequently represents quantity^ while the timbre represents the quality of the sum of the vibrations. Pitch thus designates the degree in musical sounds whether grave or acute ; timbre, the peculiar clang, or as it has been called, the colour of the sound. Blandet (Compte rendu, Sept., 1846) considers that the pharynx and the tonsils exercise a great influence on the timbre. ITie excision of the tonsils causes the loss of four upper, and the gain of two lower notes. The thyroid cartilage may laterally be so compressed that three upper notes may be gained, and two falsetto notes may be changed into chest-notes. The superior h2 116 PHILOSOPHY OF VOICE ATs^D SPEECH. ligaments vibrate also, and only increase the sound. Blandet further observes, that one vocal cord may be destroyed by disease, and the voice not lost, so that man can speak with one cord as he can see with one eye, or hear with one ear. Nasal timbre. — In the normal state, the sound pro- duced in the larynx escapes both by the mouth and the nostrils. When either of these two passages are closed, or when any one attempts to speak or sing more than usually through one channel, the tone acquires that disagreeable quality called the nasal timbre. The defect arises therefore from two opposite causes. When the dorsum of the tongue is raised, and the soft palate descends, the air can only partially flow out by the buccal cavity, in which case the current passes through the internal nostrils into the nasal cavities, and escapes by the anterior nares. This is properly called the nasal twaiig, and the common expression, " speaking through the nose," is sufficiently correct. The same effect on the tone is produced by obstructions in the nasal fossae, either from inflammation of the mucous membrane, or by holding the nose, by which the sound is prevented from escaping by the nares. In this case, the person does not speak through the nose at all, but through the mouth. By altering, therefore, momentarily, the normal action and position of the auxiliary vocal organs, many persons can, for a certain time, imitate the timbre of the voices of other individuals. Dr. Carpenter {Principles of Physiology) makes the following striking remarks on the precision with which the degree of muscular contraction in the glottis can be PRODUCTION or THE VOICE. 117 adapted to produce a designed effect. " The natural compass of the voice in most persons who have culti- vated the vocal organs, may be stated at about two octaves, or twenty-four semi-tones. Within each semi- tone, a singer of capability could produce at least ten distinct intervals ; so that of the total number 240 is a very moderate estimate. There must, therefore, be 240 different states of tension of the vocal cords producible by the will ; and as the whole variation in the length of the cords is not more than one-fifth of an inch, even in man, the variation required to pass from one interval to another will not be more than 1- 1200th of an inch. And yet this estimate is much below that which might be made from the performance of a practised vocalist. It is said that the celebrated Madame Mara was able to sound 100 different intervals between each tone. The compass of her voice was at least three octaves, or 21 tones ; so that the total number of intervals was 2,100, all compressed within an extreme variation of one-eighth of an inch ; so that it might be said that she was able to determine the contraction of her vocal muscles to nearly the seventeen-thousandth of an inch." Some physiologists have endeavoured to calculate the changes of which the human organ of voice is susceptible, on the assumption that the number of changes must at least equal the number of muscles employed. Considering that at least seven pair of muscles belong to the larynx, and that they can act singly, or in pairs, or in combination with the whole, or with part of the next, they are, according to Dr. Barclay's estimate, capable of producing upwards of h3 118 PHILOSOPHY OF VOICE AND SPEECH. sixteen thousand different movements. When to the proper muscles of the larynx are added those attached to the cartilages and the hyoid bone, which may act independently, or in co-operation with those of the larynx, the estimate would have to be very largely augmented. But as all the respiratory muscles have directly, or indirectly, an influence in the production of the voice, the changes which they are capable of pro- ducing in the relative position of the vocal organs, will scarcely admit even of an approximate calculation. The number of movements of which the vocal apparatus is susceptible, and the varieties of tone which it can produce may be said to be beyond conception. From the foregoing account of the anatomy and physiology of the human organ of voice we cannot but come to the conclusion, that it is of too complex a character to admit of a definite place being assigned to it among the instruments produced by art. Strong arguments, supported by experiments, may be adduced in favour of each of the three principal theories which compare the larynx either to a wind, stringed, or reed instrument. That the larynx bears a closer resemblance to reed, than to wind and stringed instruments is suffi- ciently established, and generally admitted ; yet though " amongst them, it is not of them,'' but stands alone, combining in a wonderful manner the excellencies of all known instruments. Miiller, the great expounder of the reed-theory, is at last forced to admit that " Al- though the organ of the voice belongs to the class of reed instruments, and though these reeds, when com- bined with a system of compensating pipes are, with PKODUCTION 01* THE VOICE. 119 the violin, tlie most perfect of instruments, yet still the vocal organ is more perfect in being capable of giving, with one tube, all the notes and all the possible variations of the scale, while in the most complete instrument constructed of reed-pipes, each note requires a special pipe." And such must ever be the result when the most perfect instrument conceived by the human brain, and executed by the human hand, is placed in juxtaposition with, and compared to a living organ, the work of Unerring Wisdom. The Voice of Animals. In the mammalia the fundamental structure of the larynx generally resembles that of man, and the mode of producing the voice is nearly the same. The inten- sity of the sound and peculiarity of timbre by which the voices of the various mammalia are distinguished depend on the dijfferent degree of development and some peculiarity of structure of the respective organs. Some few species only are mute, as the armadillo, the giraffe,''^' &c. The vocal organs of the mammalia, and especially of the quadrumana, have been studied and described by Cuvier, Lehfeldt, and especially by Brandt. The intensity of the voice is in some animals much increased by peculiar organs of resonance. Some of the "howling monkies " of America, although by no * The vocal ligaments are said to be absent in the giraffe. 120 PHILOSOPHY OF VOICE AND SPEECH. means of a large size, possess voices which may be heard at a distance of a couple of miles. This power is owing to certain pouches connected with the larynx and to a large drum-like development of the hyoid bone.* Voice of Birds. The vocal organs of the feathered tribe diifer essentially from those of all other classes, in being furnished with a double larynx. The larynx on the top of the trachea is partly carti- laginous and partly osseous : but its chief function appears to be the regulation of the respiratory process. The inferior larynx, which is situated at the bottom of the trachea, is formed by several of the lowest rings of the windpipe. This lower larynx varies exceedingly both in form and structure, and is, with few exceptions, as in the case of some vultures, always present. The larynx has special muscles, by which the distance between the vocal cords may be increased or diminished. Singing birds have five pair of these muscles, and possess at the inner edges of each compartment of the larynx an additional membraneous fold, the semi-lunar membrane, as it was called by Savart, which is of con- siderable size in birds which can be taught to speak. Some who have but little power of modulation, as birds of prey, have only one ; others have no special muscle to shorten the trachea, as the yallinae. Savart's researches on the vocal organs of birds are very complete. That the voice of birds is produced in the inferior larynx is amply proved by the fact, that a fowl may be * See Humboldt's Zool. Observ, I., p. 9. . PRODUCTION OF THE VOICE. 121 able to utter cries after the trachea is divided, or even its head cut off. In reptiles and amphibia, the voice is produced in the larynx: but their vocal organs exhibit a con- siderable difference in structure. Henle has given a minute description of the anatomy of the various families. In reptiles, the larynx of the mammalia is in an imperfect, or rather rudimentary state, and is chiefly developed in the male. The roar of the alligator and crocodile, and the croaking of the frog, are both produced by the vibration of their vocal cords. Serpents have no vocal cords ; and the hissing sounds which they produce are occasioned by the passage of the air through the narrow opening of the glottis. In the gecko (a nocturnal lizard), which possesses a very capacious voice, the vocal cords are more developed than in the crocodile. Sounds of Fishes, — Most fishes are dumb. There are, however, some exceptions, as the triglae, pogonias, &c. The former emit, on being taken out of the water, a grunting sound. The pogonias, which have received the name of tamhour, produce continuous sounds in the water. The hypothesis that the muscle peculiar to the air-bladder, which in these animals is very large, has a share in generating the sound, offers no satisfactory solution ; as the coitus^ which has no air-bladder, also emits a sound on being pressed. An interesting paper was communicated a few months ago to the Academy of Sciences, by Dr. Dufosse, who has endeavoured to ascertain the nature of such sounds, and that of the orgq,ns which produce 122 PHILOSOPHY or VOICE AND SPEECH. them. From the dissection of upwards of two hundred individuals of the ophidium tribe, Dr. Dufosse deduces the fact that the males only are provided with an air bladder capable of producing sounds by the aid of one or two moveable bones ; whereas, the female, although possessing an air bladder like the other sex, has neither bones nor muscles calculated to press or act on it so as to cause the emission of any voluntary sound. This anatomical difference leads to the con- clusion that there exists an acoustic communication between the individuals of the two sexes, and that, perhaps, fishermen may derive advantage from this circumstance, in the way that birdcatchers do. Dr. Dufosse, however, establishes a distinction between voluntary and involuntary sounds ; thus, if a tolerably sized fish be taken out of water and left to die, it will emit certain irregular and accidental sounds, which are merely the result of the convulsive motions which precede death. The voluntary sounds, on the con- trary, are produced in two ways — either by rubbing together the upper and lower bones of the pharynx, or by the play of certain organs expressly for the purpose. If a mackerel, for instance, be seized by one of its fins with a pair of pincers, it will struggle to get away, but emit no sound ; if, on the contrary, it be seized with the hand by the lower part of the body, it appears to lose all energy, it ceases to struggle, and emits a moan. If it be taken out of the water and its mouth opened, so as to see the pharynx, it will con- tinue to moan, and it will be distinctly perceived that the sounds are produced by the friction of the bones PRODUCTION OF THE VOICE. 123 of the pharynx ; the air bladder may be pierced through with impunity, the moans still continue. This is a voluntary sound of the first kind ; Dr. D. does not, for the present, quote any examples of the sounds of the second kind, but leads us to believe that he will soon publish another paper on the subject. Sounds of Insects. — The sounds produced by a large number of insects were commonly attributed to the motion and vibration of the wings during flight. Burmeister, however, has shown that in many of them, such as bees and flies, the sounds are not solely owing to friction, but are produced by the air passing rapidly through the thoracic air holes. The sound thus pro- duced is called humming, or buzzing, while when caused by friction it is termed stridulation.* Some insects, as the death watch (anoUum) produce, by striking hard substances with their mandrils, a sound resembling the tick of a watch. The death-head moth {sphinx atropos) emits, on being handled, a plain- tive sound. Huberf avers that this moth invades, and plunders with impunity, a hive containing an army of bees, notwithstanding their watchfulness and pugnacity. To account for this phenomenon, he conjectures that this insect possesses, like the queen bee, the faculty of emitting a certain sound which strikes bees motion- less, and uses it by acting first on the sentinels at the entrance, and then on the bees within. The same * Goureau (Essai sur la Stridulation des Insectes) remarks that those insects which generate sound by friction are mu- sicians and not singers, and that insects make use of their voices to communicate certain sensations. t Observations on the Natural History of Bees. 124 PHILOSOPHY OF VOICE AND SPJIKCH. author also relates that he witnessed the introduction of a strange queen into a hive. The bees at first appeared much excited, and began to bite and pull her, until she emitted a certain sound, when the bees all hung down their heads and remained motionless. Dr. Bevan ( On the Honey Bee) throws some doubt on Ruber's statement, but he admits that when the queen bee pipes, prior to the issue of an after-swarm, the bees that are near her remain still, with a slight inclination of their heads, but whether the royal voice impresses the bees with fear or veneration, he will not undertake to decide. Some insects, as the male cicada of Brazil, can, by certain organs, which are situated internally, produce sounds which are audible at a considerable distance. The essential part of the sound producing organs seems to be a tense membrane stretched across a cavity in the last segment of the thorax on either side, acted upon by opposing bundles of muscular fibres. Other ex- ternal plates increase the sound by resonance ; " and so effectually do they act," says Dr. Carpenter, " that a certain cicada of Brazil is said to be audible at the distance of a mile, which is, as if a man of ordinary stature possessed a voice that could be heard all over the world. That all these diversified sounds serve the purpose of mutual communication, can scarcely be doubted by any person who has observed, how admirably in nature the means are always adapted to the end proposed. CHAPTER VIII. ON LANGUAGE IN GENERAL. Language in its widest sense signifies a mode of expressing to other beings certain internal sensa- tions, emotions, and ideas. As this may be effected either by addressing the ear or the eye, language admits of a division into visible and audible language. Visible language includes all modes of cormmunication by signals, pictures, letters, fingers, flowers, gestures, &c., and in this sense we speak of the language of flowers, of the eyes, &c. Audible language includes the expression of the feelings both by articulate and inarticulate sounds, and may be distinguished as natural and artificial language. Natural Language. Most animals, it has been seen, possess in a greater or lesser degree the power of making known their sensations by means of inarticulate sounds or cries. 126 PHILOSOPHY OF VOICE AND SPEECH. The CEY may therefore be considered as the universal language of the animal creation. It is purely instinc- tive, being independent of all experience ; it differs in every species, and evidently belongs to the specific organization. This natural language of animals is probably more extensive than is generally admitted. The vocabulary of the common cock and hen is, by Dr. Mason Good, considered richer than that of the other tribes of birds, probably because we are better acquainted with it. Certain it is that the cock has a different cry for announcing the morning, for his love-speech, and for his shout of victory ; while the cries of the hen, after laying, differ from that when the brood is hatched ; and both are unlike to cries emitted by her when her progeny are in danger. Dupont, a French author, who has spent many years in studying the languages of animals, asserted that he understood 12 words (if so they may be called) of the vocabulary of pigeons ; 12 of that of common fowls ; 22 words of cattle language ; 13 of dog language ; 14 of cat language ; while he believed that he completely understood the language of rooks. The Human Cry. — The mechanism of the vocal apparatus in the formation of the cry is not essentially different from the ordinary phonetic process. It is almost entirely produced in the larynx, and consists in man chiefly of vowel sounds, requiring little assistance from the organs of articulation. The human cry appears to consist of a rapid transition from the notes of the chest-voice into the falsetto, the chest-note being usually of short, and the falsetto of longer dura- LANGUAGE IN GENERAL. 127 tion. The production of acute sounds in the cry are the result of a stronger impulse of the expired air, combined with a greater tension of the vocal cords. The cry is, perhaps, the first mental manifestation of the new-bom child, by which it gives expression to its feelings and wants ; and by its agency, man might, like the lower animals, establish — on a very limited scale, no doubt — relations with his fellow beings. Every emotion has its appropriate vocal expression. The cries of admiration, joy, and grief — the scream of terror, the shout of victory, &c., are perfectly distinct, differing in pitch, loudness, and duration. Without going so far as Colombat, who has attempted a notation of the cries arising from various pains, so that he was able to distinguish between the cries resulting from the appli- cation of the knife, the actual cautery and other opera- tions, it is certain that the cry of pain is not uniformly the same ; and that an experienced physician is fre- quently able to judge, from the peculiarity of the cry, of the nature and seat of the disease. Broussais ob- served that every suffering organ has its peculiar cry. Colomhafs Notation of Various Cries. I 7-=^!- ^- m ^ -1- No. 1. Expresses the cry caused by the application of the actual cautery, or from bvirning. No. 2. The cry from the application of the knife in surgical operations. No. 3. The cry proceeding from violent emotion. No. 4. The cry caused by sudden danger. No. 5. The cry in parturition. No. 6. The cry of joy. 128 PHILOSOPHY OF VOICE AND SPEECH. Artificial or Articulate Language. By articulation, with regard to speech, is, in a gene- ral sense, understood the modification which the vocal sounds undergo by means of the organs placed above the larynx, including the lips, the teeth, the nose, &c. That the faculty of speech does not entirely depend on the state of the organ of hearing and vocal appara- tus is rendered manifest from the fact that many idiots are incapable of speech, notwithstanding that their organs of speech are well developed and capable of performing their function. Speech, therefore, includes articulation, but articulation does not necessarily include speech. Moreover, several species of animals, birds especially, possess, as will be presently shown, not merely great vocal, but well developed articulating powers. The vocal powers of the mocking bird, Turdus poly- glottus, (Lin.) are so marvellous that we can scarcely credit them ; but that all who have seen and heard them describe them nearly alike. Wilson says of him, that a bystander destitute of sight would suppose that the whole feathered tribe had assembled together on a trial of skill, so perfect are his imitations. He many times deceives the sportsmen, and even birds themselves are frequently imposed on by this admirable mimic. In confinement he somewhat loses in power and energy, and his song, though still very beautiful, falls, according to Audubon, far short of his " wood-notes wild." The same author says that his imitative powers are amazing, LANGUAGE IN GENERAL. 129 as he mimics with ease all his brethren of the forest and the water, as well as quadrupeds ; he never met with an instance of one who imitated the human voice, although he had heard that this bird possessed that power. Talking Parrots. — The ash-coloured or grey parrot, Psittacus erythacus^ is, if not conspicuous for brilliancy of its plumage, distinguished above the rest by its docility and powers of mimicry and distinctness of articulation. Large sums have been given for peculiarly talented individuals of this tribe. A parrot purchased in 1500 by a cardinal, for 100 gold pieces, could repeat the whole of the apostles' creed. Various anecdotes of this bird are related in Willoughby's work on orni- thology, and the high prices mentioned at which some celebrated parrots were bought. Parrots, like some other birds, live to a great age. Le Vaillant mentions one that had lived in a family ninety- three years,at which time it was in a state of decrepitude. When young, it had been distinguished for its collo- quial powers and distinct articulation. It was also so docile that it fetched, when called upon, its master's slippers, called the servants, &;c. Its memory began to fail at sixty, when it lost the power of acquiring new words, and began to speak at random, intermixing in an irregular manner old and new phrases. Colonel 0' Kelly's parrot, which he had purchased for one hundred guineas, possessed the most extra- ordinary imitative talent. This bird could sing a number of songs in perfect time and tune. It would beat time while it whistled, and if it mistook a note, it would revert to the bar where the mistake occurred, 130 PHILOSOPHY OF VOICE AND SPEECH. and finish the tune with great accuracy. The parrot not only repeated a great number of sentences, and answered questions, but expressed her wants articu- lately, and gave her orders apparently in a rational manner. " There is a legend," says Baron Humboldt,* " amongst the Guareke Indians, that the brave Atures, when closely pursued by the cannibal Caribs, took refuge in the rocks of the cataracts — a mournful place of abode in which this oppressed race perished, together with their language. There still lives, and it is a singular fact, an old parrot in Maypures^ which cannot be understood, because, as the natives assert, it speaks the language of the Atures." The parrot of Atures, has been made the subject of a poem, by Professor Ernst Curtius. The following stanzas, are from Mr. Edgar Bo wring's elegant transla- tion of this charming composition. THE PARROT OF ATURES. Where, through dese»ts wild and dreary, Orinoco dashes on, Sits a parrot old and weary, Like a sculptured thing of stone. Where yon billows wild are breaking, Sleeps a tribe for evermore, Who, their native land forsaking, Refuge sought on this lone shore. * Views ol nature by Alex. V. Humboldt, translated and ublished by Bohn. LANGUAGE IX GENERAL. 131 As they lived, free, dauntless ever. So the brave Aturians died ; And the green banks of the river All their mortal relics hide. * * * * All, alas ! are lifeless lying, Stretched upon the grassy bed ; Nor can all his mournful crying, E'er awake the slumbering dead. Still he calls with voice imploring. To a world that heeds him not ; Nought replies but waters roaring — No kind soul bewails his lot. Swift the savage turns his rudder, When his eyes the bird behold ; None e'er saw without a shudder, That Aturian parrot old. There are but few \vell authenticated cases on record, with regard to the articulating capacity possessed by other animals. The speaking dog, described by Leibnitz> could pro- nounce the whole alphabet, excepting the letters m, n, and X. In the History of the French Academy of Sciences (1715), to which Leibnitz communicated this interesting phenomenon, may be found the following passage : — " We learn that there exists at this moment at Zeitz, in Saxony, a dog which can speak ; a fact we shouM not venture to announce, without such an authority as Leibnitz. The dog, a common mastiff, once produced, in the hearing of a boy, certain sounds, resembling German words, which induced the boy to give him i2 132 PHILOSOPHY OF VOICE AND SPEECH. further instructions. The teacher, who it appears had very little else to do, spared neither time nor trouble, and as the pupil was evidently talented, the progress was so satisfactory, that after some years he could pronounce about thirty words, including some foreign, such as the, cafe, chocolat, assemblee. It is necessary to observe that the dog, when he went first to school, was already three years old, and it must be added that he only repeats the words after his master, and not spontaneously." The same story is related in the Acta Eruditorum. Another speaking dog, at Berlin, men- tioned in the Breslauer Sammlungen^ 1719, and Biblio- theque Germanique, 1720, could pronounce sixty words, but none containing more than three syllables. In 1718 an Austrian exhibited a dog in Holland which could pronounce all letters except 1, n, m. It certainly cannot, as already, observed, be denied that in a state of nature the voices and intonations of animals are significative, and convey intelligence to each other. It may also be admitted that animals are not altogether ignorant of the meaning of the words addressed to them, but it would be going too far to say that animals speak in the real sense of the word. Speech is audible thought ; the thought must precede and generate the word. Many of the marvellous stories recorded of parrots, which are said to have given rational answers to questions, were evidently the result either of chance, or of what they had been taught to repeat by rote. CHAPTER IX. VENTRILOQUISM AND SPEAKING MACHINES. In treating of the timbre, it was stated that this natural quality of the voice may, by altering the con- dition of the vocal tube, be considerably modified ; hence some persons are able to imitate, not merely the timbre of voices very difierent from their own, but also the timbre of various instruments. This factitious voice has received the name of ventriloquism or engastrimism — designations which might with great propriety be discarded, as they only tend to perpetuate erroneous ideas. The word polyphonism, which has been pro- posed as a substitute for ventriloquism is much less objectionable. The Latin veniriloquus, and the Greek engastrimuthos (in-belly- speech) were designations given to persons whose voices appeared to proceed from and to be i3 134 PHILOSOPHY OF VOICE AND SPEECH. articulated in the stomach or belly. Hippocrates mentions it in his fifth book on epidemics as a disease. The engastrimuthoi of the Greeks were diviners who delivered oracles without moving the mouth and the features, so that it appeared that some demon of which they were possessed, had spoken within their body. To this class may have belonged the pythonesses or priestesses of Apollo. Divining by a familiar spirit seems to have been early prevalent among the Jews, as it is expressly forbidden in the scriptures. Many theologians are of opinion that the witch of Endor* was only a clever ventriloquist. The Christians, although they made less use of ventriloquism than the pagan priests, did not entirely abandon the practice. The persons gifted with this power were alternately looked upon as inspired beings, whose mission it was to reveal God's word, and at another time they were considered as the children of Satan, and according as either opinion prevailed, they were either venerated or burnt. Bordeu, a learned critic, of the sixteenth century, gives a detailed description of a ventriloquial illusion practised by Louis Brabant, valet-de-chambre of Francis the First. Having been denied the hand of his lady- love by her father, Brabant tried, soon after the father's death, to obtain the assent of his widow by the aid of ventriloquism. He consequently entered her house, when the widow heard the well-known voice of her * Archbishop Eustache says in a treatise on the subject that the speech of this witch proceeded from the least noble part of her person. VENTRILOQUISM AND SPEAKING MACHINES. 135 departed husband exclaiming " Give my daughter to Louis Brabant. I am suffering severely in purgatory because I opposed the marriage. If you do what I recommend, I shall ascend to heaven." The widow immediately consented, and the marriage took place. The same Louis Brabant obtained, by similar means, from a rich unscrupulous banker named Cornu, 10,000 crowns for the purpose of purchasing the freedom of Christian slaves. It appears from the narra- tive, that the first attempts to frighten the banker out of his money were partial failures, and it was not until all the saints of the calendar were invoked, overwhelm- ing with their tumult the reluctant miser, that he parted with his money. The Abbe de la ChapeUe must be considered as one of the first authors who threw some light on the subject. In his work {le Ventriloque, ou Vengastrimyih, published 1772), the abbe gives a description of the freaks of St. Gilles, a grocer, at St. Germain-en-Laye, and of a certain Baron Mengen, of Vienna. The Royal Academy of Sciences considered the subject sufficiently interest- ing to send MM. Leroy and Fouchy, as commissioners, to St. Germain ; and the grocer not only displayed before them all his feats, but imparted to them, in the most candid manner, all the secrets of his art, showing that he possessed a great power of imitating all kinds of sounds, and to modify them in such a manner that they appeared to come from other places than from his mouth. Baron Mengen also confessed that, in early life, he had a passion for imitating the voices of persons and the cries of animals ; he, like St. Gilles, attributed 136 PHILOSOPHY OF VOICE AND SPEECH. his art altogether to mimicry, and to his power of managing the breath, by respiring as seldom as possible. St. Gilles's art must have been of no common order, as by means of it he succeeded in converting a cele- brated abbe, who was a great pluralist and a sordid miser, to renounce the vanities of this world, and to do penance for the rest of his life. It is scarcely necessary to state that this imitative voice, which is now used only for amusement, is not produced in the belly ; nor has the ventriloquist, as some writers thought, a double or a triple larynx. The art of the ventriloquist consists, in the first place, in the ability of imitating many sounds accu- rately, so as to counterfeit the cries of animals and the voices of persons. The essential quality requisite in ventriloquism, is the capacity of the performer skilfully to create illusions, as regards the direction and the distance whence the sounds proceed. Sound, as has already been intimated (p. 59), seems to be subject to tlie same law as light ; that it diminishes in force in proportion to the square of the distance. The intensity of familiar sounds from certain distances being known to us by experience, we judge of the distance of the sound by its loudness or faintness. The ventriloquist generally preserves the timbre and pitch of the voice he imitates, but by skilfully graduating the intensity of the sound, either by increasing or reducing its loud- ness, he contrives to create in the mind of the listener the idea of an increasing or decreasing distance of the source whence the sound proceeds. The same effect is obtained on the stage — the music of an approaching VENTRILOQUISM AND SPEAKING MACHINES. 137 army, faint at first, but gradually increasing in inten- sity, produces in the audience the illusion that the band comes from a considerable distance. The direction whence a sound proceeds is much more difficult to be judged of, and, under certain circum- stances, as all sportsmen know, it is almost impossible to arrive at any certainty respecting it. The ventri- loquist, therefore, in most cases, by looking or listening in certain directions, himself suggests to the minds of the audience where the sound proceeds from. If the ventriloquist, in addition, is capable of producing vari- ations in loudness, by rapid transitions from the chest to the falsetto notes, the illusions are more perfect. It appears, therefore, that the pretensions of some ventriloquists that they possess a peculiarly constructed vocal apparatus, or that the faculty is a gift of nature, has no foundation in fact. The mechanism chiefly consists of a deep inspiration, by which the lungs are filled with a large mass of air, which is gradually and slowly expired during articulation. To well manage the breath, and to respire as rarely as possible, is an essential requisite of the art. Owing to the slow expiration the process is fatiguing, and many ventri- loquists are frequently heard to cough during the per- formance. Every one must have observed that common ventri- loquists rarely show their front face, which is usually turned away from the audience. Great artists, however, possess the power of producing all effects without any apparent movement of their features, and look the audience in the face. When it is considered that we all 138 PHILOSOPHY OF VOICE AND SPEECH. can speak and sing with the jaws closed, without much disturbing the facial muscles, it is not astonishing that the practised ventriloquist, who, in showing his face, avoids the labials p, m, b, as much as possible, or produces them with the least apparent motion, should be suc- cessful in deceiving his audience. Every person can, by practising, acquire the art ; his progress in it, however, will depend on the com- pass of his voice, on the degree of flexibility of the trachea, especially of the cartilages of the larynx, and on the nervous susceptibility of their muscles. Finally, it may be stated that the opinon enunciated by Amman, Haller, Segond, and other celebrated phy- siologists, that ventriloquists chiefly articulate during aspiration is proved to be erroneous. Now and then they may, in order to produce a change in the timbre and the enunciation, avail themselves of the inspiratory voice, but this is the exception and not the rule. The voice in ventriloquy is, like the natural voice, formed in the larynx during expiration^ and is modified in the throat and fauces by means of their respective muscular apparatus, over which the ventriloquist has, by con- stant practice, acquired perfect control. Speaking Machines. That the ancients were more advanced in mechanical philosophy than we give them credit for, is sufficiently proved by the ingenious contrivances which their priests invented to delude the people. They had their VENTRILOQUISM AND SPEAKING MACHINES. 139 speaking or singing statues, representing the gods, uttering oracular responses. The speaking head of Orpheus, in the island of Lesbos, was celebrated, not only in Greece, but even in Persia. There is but little doubt that the answers were conveyed to it by the priests, through pipes, as may have been the case with the tripod at Delphi. A similar deception was, according to Reitz,* practised on King Charles II. by an Englishman, Thomas Irson, who exhibited a wooden head which answered questions whispered into its ear. The astonishment of the king vanished on its being discovered by a page, that a priest in an adjoining room answered through a pipe, which opened in the mouth of the figure. These machines were generally so contrived that an assistant was required, who was generally concealed in an adjacent apartment. Some figures, however, were sufficiently large to contain, within a box, a child or a woman. The most ingenious mechanism of this kind, exhibited about forty years ago, went by the name of the Invisible Girl. This machine consisted mainly of a hollow copper ball, about a foot in diameter, suspended from wires. Into the ball were fixed the extremities of four trumpets. A spectator proposed a question by speaking into one of these trumpets, when immediately an answer was returned, in a weak voice, from all the trumpets. The actual speaker was a full grown woman in a neighbouring apartment, who was able, through a * See Beekmann's History T)f Inventions, translated by Johnston. 140 PHILOSOPHY OF VOICE AND SPEECH. small hole to see what was going on in the exhibition room, and conveyed her answer through a tube, which passed beneath the floor. Whether the speaking head of brass, said to have been constructed by Gerbert, afterwards Pope Sylvester II., a.d. 1003. was upon a similar principle, is not known. The androides, con- structed by Albertus Magnus, in the thirteenth century, is said not only to have moved, but spoken. Many stories are told of this machine, which so terrified Thomas Aquinas, the celebrated pupil of Albertus, that he broke it in pieces ; upon which the philosopher exclaimed " PeruV opus triginta annorum.'^ If it be true, as implied in the above exclamation, that it was the work of thirty years, it must have been very complex ; and it is not at all impossible that, from Albert's knowledge of mechanics, the machine, by means of the air, and imitation of the vocal apparatus, produced sounds resembling those of the human voice. One of the most celebrated automata, which produced musical sounds, was exhibited by Vaucanson, at Paris, in 1738, when a particular account of it was published and approved by the Academy of Sciences.* The figure was about 5j feet high, and represented a flute player, which was capable of performing twelve tunes by wind issuing from its mouth into a German flute, the holes of which it shut and opened with its fingers. Besides another figure, which played on the shepherd's pipe, and beat a drum with the right hand, he exhibited a duck of the natural size, which moved its wings, * Le Mechanisme du Fluteur Automate, par Vaucanson, Paris, 1738. Vaucanson died in Paris, in 1782. VENTRILOQUISM AND SPEAKING MACHINES. 141 quacked like a duck> ate corn and drank water, and, after some time, dropped something resembling the excre- ment of a duck. In the cathedral of Strasburgh, may be seen a cock, which flaps its wings, and crows three times every time the clock, with which it is connected, Strikes twelve. Professor Beckmann, whose " History of Inventions," published in 1782, has afforded abundant materials to all subsequent writers on the progress of mechanical arts, speaks in disparaging terms of the speaking machines of his time, which he describes as follows : — " The figure, or only a head, is often placed upon a bo?:, the forepart of which, for the better deception^ is fitted with a pair of bellows, a sounding board, cylinder, and pipes, supposed to represent the organs of speech. At other times the machine is only like a wig maker's block, hung round with a Turkish dress, furnished with a pair of arms, and placed before a table, and sometimes the puppet stands upon the table, or against the wall. The sounds are heard through a speaking trumpet, which the figure holds in its mouth. Some afl^nn that the voice issues from the machine, others that the juggler answers himself, by speaking as a ventriloquist ; and some believe that the answers are given by a man somewhere concealed. The violence with which these opinions are maintained, exposes the juggler often to the danger of losing his life ; for when the illusion is detected, the populace, who in fact suffer themselves willingly to be deceived, and who even pay the juggler for his deception, imagine that they have a right to avenge themselves for being imposed upon. At present 142 PHILOSOPHY OF VOICE AND SPEECH. this art is well understood. Either a child or a woman is concealed in the juggler's box, or some person, placed in a neighbouring apartment, speaks into the end of a pipe, which proceeds through the walls to the puppet." This description seems perfectly applicable to the machines which were then exhibiting, for it was not until 1 780 that successful attempts were made to produce what may be called legitimately articulating automata. It appears that the Academy of Sciences of St. Peters- burgh offered a prize for the best essay on the nature of the vocal sounds, which prize was gained by M. Kratzen- stein,* who proved that all vowels could be produced by reed tubes of peculiar forms. Wolfgang von Kem- pelen, a celebrated mechanician of Vienna, whose chess-playing automaton created a great sensation, was engaged in these researches at the same time. Kem- pelen employed conical tubes with a reed at its upper narrow extremity. After some years labour he con- trived to produce from his apparatus some words and sentences. Both Kratzenstein and Kempelen published the results of their experiments ;f Kempelen's treatise con- tains many original thoughts and illustrations. In one of his earliest experiments performed with a machine, resembling a wine glass, the handle of which was perforated and provided with a reed, Kempelen obtained vowels by covering its mouth with his left * Tentamen coronatum de voce, Petrop. 1780. f The essay of Kratzenstein presented to the Academy of St. Petersburg appeared in the Journal de Physique, vol 21. Kempelen's treatise " Le Mecanisrae de la parole,^ &c." was published at Vienna, 1791. YENTRILOQUISM AND SPEAKING MACHINES. 143 hand. " I began," he says, " by obtaining several vowels in proportion as I covered the opening more or less with my left hand. But I could not obtain them except I changed the positions of my hand and fingers in rapid succession. If I retained my hand in any one position for any length of time, I seemed to hear nothing but A. I was not slow in deducing from this, that the sounds of speech are only rendered distinct by the rela- tion existing between them, and do not become perfectly clear until they are connected into entire words." In Kempelen's machine the sound was produced by an ivory reed, covered on the side, which vibrated against the edges of the aperture with very thin leather. The reed was placed between the wind-chest and a narrow part of an india-rubber funnel. Kempelen says of his machine, that it readily pro- nounced French or Italian words ; but long German words, on account of the consonants which so frequently occur in them, gave him much trouble, and rarely succeeded well. The machine could produce but few entire phrases, as the bellows were not sufficiently large to furnish the requisite quantity of wind. At the very time when Kratzenstein and Kempelen constructed their machines. Abbe Mical, a skilful mechanician, exhibited in 1783, to the French Academy of Sciences, two colossal brazen heads which uttered words and entire sentences. According to Rivarol's description, Mical had applied to one head a set of keys, which were acted upon by pins fixed on a cylinder, so that a number of phrases were produced as tunes are upon a barrel organ. To the other head was attached 144 PHILOSOPHY OP VOICE AND SPEECH. a key-board like that of a piano, the keys corresponding to the different sounds and tones of the French lan- guage, reduced by the inventor to a small number. In the report given to the Academy by Vicq d'Azyr it does not appear that the machine was much superior to that of Kempelen, which was exhibited in Paris at the same time. The inventor, disappointed in his expectations, broke them to pieces, and died shortly after. On verifying Kempelen' s experiments, Willis* found that by making the bell shallower, and covering it by a piece of wood, instead of the hand, he could produce all the five vowels placed in this order u, o, a, e, i. The success of the attempt induced him to try the effect of cylindrical tubes of different length, and he found that by forcing a current of air upon a reed in a pipe, the vowels are as the tube is lengthened or shortened produced, not as they are usually placed, a, e, i, o, u, but in the following order, i, e, a, o, u, which succes- sion is manifested in the mi-e-a-o-u-ing of a cat. The most ingenious machine of this kind, a remark- able result of preservance and contriving skill, was exhibited about twelve years ago, by the inventor, Mr. Joseph Faber, of Vienna, in the Egyptian Hall, London. The name which Mr. Faber gave to it was Euphonia, and it certainly imitated in a more perfect manner than any hitherto produced, the human voice and language in speaking and whispering, as well as singing. The machine to which there was attached an arti- * On the vowel sounds, and on reed organ pipes, Transac- tions of the Cambridge Philosophical Society, vol 3, 1829. VENTRILOQUISM AND SPEAKING MACHINES. 145 ficial head and bust, resembled a small chamber organ, from which it was distinguished by having only one tube, through which the air was forced into the arti- ficial larynx, from a wind-bag under the control of the foot. Thus by means of bellows, pedal, and keys, which the professor played like the keys of a piano, the automaton was prompted to speak or to sing. The mouth of the automaton had the exact dimensions of the human organ, and could by a peculiar mechanism, be brought into any position requisite for the production of articulate sounds. A wind-bag represented the lungs, which forced the air through an elastic tube, into the artificial larynx. In this organ the sound was, as in the living body, produced by the vibrations of elastic lamellae, from which the sounding air-current passed into the cavity, containing the tongue, lips, and gums. The upper jaw was fixed, the lower moveable. The internal surface was covered with india-rubber ; and the nasal canal consisted of the same material. By closing or opening this canal, its influence upon the production of certain letters, such as m, n, ng, could be plainly perceived. Sixteen keys governed the requisite movements. For the production of many letters several keys had to be struck simultaneously. The closure of the nasal cavity by an artificial velum, and the shortening and tension of the vocal cords, were pro- duced by a separate mechanism. Fourteen of the keys produced, severally, the fol- lowing sounds : a, o, u, e, i,* 1, r, f, w, s, sch, b, d, g, * As pronounced in the continental, especially the German and Italian languages. 146 PHILOSOPHY OF VOICE ATfD SPEECH. (or p, t, k). One key produced by changing the shape of the glottis, the aspirates h, ch. Another key, by opening the nasal tube and permitting the air partially to pass through it, changed b (p) into m ; d (t) into n ; and g (k) into m, ng * To produce a, 6, ii, as pronounced in the French words /jerc, peu, sure, a and e, o and e, u aiid e, were struck simultaneously. Similar sounds were produced on striking at the same time, a and i, o and i, u and i. To produce the diphthongs au, au, eu, ai, ei, oi, ui, the respective keys were struck in rapid succession. The intensity of the sounds, the hardness and soft- ness of the consonants, and the accents of the syllables were all the results of a corresponding stronger or weaker pressure upon the bellows, and of a rapid or slow touch of the keys. A moderate change of the pitch was effected by the same means. To produce, however the * It is not a little singular that about six years before Mr. Faber exhibited his machine, there appeared in the London and Westminster Review an article, generally attributed to Professor Wheatstone, containing the following remarks. "The positions of the organs for the three sounds, m, n, ng, are exactly the same as for b, d, g, only in the former, the soft palate is depressed, so as to allow the voice to escape through the nostrils ; by this the articulation is rendered continuous. If on a speaking machine, therefore, these three sounds were perfect, the addition of a single key would convert them into six elementary sounds. To imitate all the usual articulations of speech, a machine would not require such complicated motions as might at first be supposed. The difficulty in the construction of such a machine is reduced to the perfect mutation of eleven sounds and the vowels." Faber's machine as will be seen, had just sixteen keys, in- cluding those for the vowels. It may here also be stated that a speaking machine, made by Prof. "Wheatstone, from Kempelen's description, with some improvements, is or was in the collec- tion of Philosophical Instruments of King's College, London. VENTEILOQUISM AND SPEAKING MACHINES. 147 high notes of a soprano, or the low notes of the bass, the glottis \vas either narrowed or rendered wider by a separate contrivance. When the glottis was widely opened, the voice was reduced to a mere whisper, while when the operator dwelt long upon a key of a vowel sound the automaton sang. Although chiefly calculated for the Teutonic tongues, the machine conld be made to speak in all languages ; it was, however, not easily handled, and required the constant attention of the inventor. This remarkable work, a singular combination of inductive reasoning and mechanical skill, the result of seventeen years of hard work, appears to have shared the same fate as Mical's speaking heads ; for it was destroyed by the inventor in a paroxysm of passion, owing to his having met with but little encouragement in America, where he had hoped to secure for himself an independence. k2 CHAPTER X. GENERAL SURVEY OF THE ELEMENTS OF SPEECH. The production of the voice in general, as has been shown in a preceding chapter, is the result of certain actions in the larynx, by which the air is made to vibrate, and in its turn puts the vocal ligaments into a state of vibration. The voice thus produced, which may be considered as the raw material, is again, by the j action of the throat, the palate, the lips and the teeth, modified and moulded into articulate sounds — the elements of speech. These articulate sounds are visibly represented by certain marks, lines, or characters, called the letters of the alphabet, which will be treated of separately in a subsequent chapter. For the present it may be suffi- cient to state that in speaking of the sound of a letter, it is merely intended to designate thereby a certain modification, which the letter in question represents. ELEMENTS OF SPEECH. 149 Articulate Sounds. Articulate, or speech-sounds, are commonly divided into two classes — vowels and consonants, possessing the following characteristic distinctions : — The vowels or vocal sounds formed in the larynx, are considered as simple modifications of the voice — the effect of the altered shape of the buccal cavity — and pass out without meeting with any material interruption ; while the consonants are produced by the stoppage of the sounding air-current in some part above the larynx. These different vowels are, according to Kempelen, the result of differences in size of the oral canal — the space between the tongue and palate — and the oral openings. The dimensions of these parts in the production of the different vowels pronounced long are as follows : — Size of Size of oral opening. oral canal. a (as in bar) 5 3 e (as in prey) 4 2 * (as in marine) 3 1 o (as in old) 2 4 lute) 1 5 u as in From these dimensions it would appear that the aperture of the lips (the oral opening) is smallest in the pronunciation of w, and gradually increases in pro- nouncing successively o, e, c, a ; while the aperture of the oral canal (the throat), is smallest in the pronuncia- tion of «, gradually enlarging in pronouncing e, a, o,u. The correctness of these measurements, especially in relation to the formation of « and e, has been questioned k3 150 PHILOSOPHY OF VOICE AND SPEECH. by Professor Purkinje. The production of these vowels depends chiefly on the cavity of the throat, between the tongue and the larynx ; in both cases this space is large, but largest in the pronunciation of e. It appears, however, to the author, not a little remarkable that Purkinje, Kempelen, and most writers, physiologists, as well as grammarians, consider the action of the lips quite as essential to the formation of the vowels as that of the throat. Such is evidently not the case, for all the vowels can be pronounced distinctly, though, per- haps, not with the same precision — the oral opening remaining the same, and the lips unconcerned. The Vowels. — The number and the sounds of vowels vary in different languages. In some of them, as in the Italian, German, and Spanish, the sounds of the vowels c, c, ?, o, w, are generally uniform, except as they are pronounced short or long. In English, on the contrary, the same characters are made to represent a variety of intermediate sounds, greatly tending to perplex both foreigners and natives, and offering con- siderable difficulties in the acquisition of English orthography and orthoepy. It is therefore necessary to impress upon the reader, that the subsequent remarks on the vowels refer chiefly to the sounds which they possess in most of the continental languages, viz: — a short as in bat ; long as m bath, e short as in pet ; long as in prey. i short as in sin ; long as in marine. o short as in on ; long as in bone. %(, short as in bull ; long as in rule. ELEMENTS OF SPEECH. 151 The short vowels are considered as the simple original elements, which produce the long vowel. " If," says Grimm,*' "the complete short vowel = 1, the long vowel would be = 1 + 1 = 2." Kudelkaf states, that experimenting on the produc- tion of the vowel sounds he found, that on placing the palm of the hand lightly upon the mouth and suddenly withdrawing it while enunciating either o, u, or e, the sound is changed into a, u into o, and e into i. This experiment, which every person can easily verify, succeeds in most cases. It is, however, just possible, that what has been called the expectant attention, namely that state of mind, when it is engrossed with the idea that a certain action will occur — may have a considerable share in the production of the effect, if it be not the sole cause of it. Vowel System. There are but three pure or original vowels, viz — a, », and u ; the first representing the guttural, the second the palatal, and the third the labial vowel sound. These three vowels were, even in the most ancient languages, sufficiently distinct to be marked in writing. It must not, however, from this remark, be concluded, that man, in a primitive state, uses no other vowek until he requires them by his growing wants. * Deutsche Grammatik. t Analyse der Laiite, Lintz. 152 PHILOSOPHY OF VOICE AND SPEECH. These primary vowels resemble the three primary- colours; and by their proper combination all other vowels may be formed, as will appear from the follow- ing ingenious schemes of Professor Lepsius.* The original vowels are here represented by the analogy of a triangle : — red yellow i / \ u blue Next to the primary vowels are formed the inter- mediate vowels, viz., e between a and ^, o between a and w, the sound of the German ii (French u) between i and «, and that of the German 6 (French eu) between e and o, as represented in the following pyramids : — a red. e o orange, brown, violet. ii u yellow, green. blue, The distance between a and i and that between a and u being greater than that between i and u, the intermediate e and o were again divided each into two * Exposition of a standard alphabet, by Professor Lepsius, of Berlin. ELEMENTS OF SPEECH. 153 vowels, one of which was nearer to a and the other nearer to i or w, as follows : — a French e French eu. 6 Italian. French e. Germ. o. au French. i. Germ. ii. u. The broken sounds of a, o, w, as in the German Vdfer, Mutter^ Sohne, the plural of Vater, Mutter, Sohn, and in the French pere, peu, sure, are avoided in English, as being too troublesome properly to enun- ciate. Other shades are found in various languages, but the above are the principal vowel sounds existing in the European languages. Compound Vowels. — Just as two different musical notes, which are sounded at once and in unison, pro- duce a joint effect, so may, by the proper combination of two vowels, be produced a more or less perfect blended vowel, which has received the name of a diph- thong. Triphthongs and tetraphthongs, consisting of three or four elements, may be formed by prefixing or adjoining other suitable vowels. As, according to most grammarians, the two vowels forming a diphthong are always short, and as two short vowels are equivalent to a long one, the diphthong is equivalent to a long vowel. It may also be stated that whilst the simple vowel sounds are capable of being prolonged during a certain time, such is not the case with the real diphthongs, in which both the vowels must be 154 PHILOSOPHY OF TOICE AND SPEECH. pronounced, though the sound is so blended that it forms only one syllable. In several languages, but especially in the English, many literal diphthongs represent simple vowel sounds, as ie in chief, ei in receive, ea in heart, ea in ready, ea in neat; while simple letters represent true dipthongs. Thus i in mine consists of a i pronounced in rapid succession. As a represents the guttural vowel. Professor Max Miiller observes justly,* that real compound vowels can only be formed with this sound, when it passes from the throat to the mouth, and carries along with it the palatal or labial pure vowels i or u ; a thus forms the base of the dipthong. If the dipthong be formed of i -{- a instead of a -{- i as in fair, or m + a instead of a + w as in laud, the sounds will not be blended, if pronounced in succession, but become ya and iva, because the intonation of the a lies behind that of i and u, the vocal flatus has to be inverted, which inversion causes a sufficient stoppage to change the vowels into liquids. The mute e. This vocal sound has given a vast deal of trouble both to grammarians and physiologists. It exists in all languages, it appears everewhere and anywhere ; it intervenes imperceptibly between two consonants, when its use is most apparent in those languages in which many words have several con- sonants together. The sound comes next to o, but it is capable of assuming various shades, approaching * Tlic languaffes of the seat of war. ELEMENTS OF SPEECH. 155 sometimes a i or m, as in the words work, bird ; it is inherent in the continuous consonants 2lb I n r m. There hangs such a mystery about the sound, that it goes by many aliases. Rapp calls it the original vowel from which all the other vowels issued and grew. Other scholars call it the unmodified, the least individualised, the obscure, the quiescent vowel. In English and in French, it is simply termed the mute e. But, after all, may not this redoubted vowel be merely a natural means of connecting two articulations, which have but little affinity, or be the dying away sound of an articulation. This indistinct sound is certainly more or less percep- tible in proportion to the affinity of the joined articu- lations, and according to the time required for changing the position of the respective organs. Thus, in gr as in great, the obscure sound e is but faintly perceptible, as the mechanism of g differs not much from that of the guttural r. In joining, on the other hand, j9 to t, as in Ptarmigan, Ptolemy, &c., the sound is very percep- tible, the mechanism oip differing much from that of t. These two consonants are therefore rarely pronounced, in English the p being usually dropped. Again the mute c, or an indistinct sound is heard at the end of words, especially if the last syllable be accentuated, and the final consonant mute, 2lb p t k; the reason seems to be that, as the air current is nearly inter- rupted in articulating the pure mutes, the required expiration is partially restored by the mute e. It is doubtful whether the French e, as heard in Londres, entendre, can propery be called a mute e. 156 PHILOSOPHY OF VOICE AND SPEECH. Consonants. Consonants (Lat. con-sonantes) sounding with, or at the same time, are usually defined letters, which cannot be pronounced by themselves, but require the aid of vowels. Professor J. Miiller* objects to this definition in the following terms : — " The essential character of vowels is usually con sidered to be that they are independent sounds, ori- ginally formed in the larynx, though modified in the mouth ; while consonants are not formed in the larynx, and cannot be sounded perfectly unless conjoined with a vowel. The difference between vowels and conso- nants is, however, less considerable than this ; for all the vowels, as well as the consonants can be produced without a vocal tone, as in whispering ; and moreover, one whole class of consonants can be uttered with a vocal sound as well as without this sound." Dr. Orpenf also observes that it is altogether a mis- take to say that a consonant cannot be pronounced with- out a vowel, for the consonants j9, t, A;, have no vocal sound at all, and yet can be pronounced with an s before or after them, without any vowel ; as in ps^ is, ks ; sp, st, sk. The truth is, that the possession of a vocal sound is not the characteristic distinction of a vowel, for we can articulate vowels in whispering as well as conso- A nants, though we then use only non-vocal breath, and v not vocalised breath, or voice at all. * Loc cit. t Pestalozzian Primer. ELEMENTS OF SPEECH. 157 Granting that both vowels and consonants may be articulated and clearly distinguished in whispering, the questions arise whether it be really an ultimate fact, that in whispering there is a complete absence of vocalisation ; or whether it be not more than probable that there is actually a vocalisation, though to a scarcely perceptible degree ? Were it demonstrated that the breath is not vocalised at all in whispering, it would only prove that the vibrations of the vocal cords are not essential to furnish the elements of speech, and that the absence of the vocal cords would not deprive man of the means of communicating with his fellow beings. With regard to Dr. Orpen's observation that the pure mutes p, t, k, can be pronounced with an s before or after them without any vowel, it may be remarked that the doctor has not taken into account the influence of the indistinct vowel sound, generally insinuating itself between two consonants, and which, as already stated, may be simply the result of the momentary change in the position of the articulating organs. It has been seen that in the formation of the vowels , the sounding air current is merely moulded, but not intercepted during its passage through the oral canal, while the production of the consonants is the result of the stoppage which the air-stream experiences in 1 various parts of the buccal cavity. There are three principal stoppages which occur, either at the throat, the teeth, or the lips, hence con- sonants are divided into three classes, gutturals, dentals. 158 PHILOSOPHY OF VOICE AND SPEECH. and labials, according as they are formed at either of the above places ; and are represented by the letters k, t,p. K represents the pure guttural sound, being formed by the stoppage of the sound from the contact between the soft palate or the root of the tongue and the throat. In the Vaidik Grammars,* the throat is called the place, or the passive ; and the root of the tongue, the instru- ment, or the active organ of the guttural. T, the pure dental, is formed by the contact between the tip of the tongue and the teeth ; the latter are called the place, or the passive ; the former the instru- ment, or the active organ. P, the pure labial sound, is produced by the contact between the upper and lower lip ; the former is called the place, or passive ; the lower, the instrument, or active organ. The consonants are further distinguished into mutes or explosives ; and semi-vowels, or continuous conso- nants. k, tt p, cannot be easily sounded without a vowel ; they are therefore called pure mutes, and as they are formed by a complete contact between the active and passive organ, which, when it ceases, causes the suc- ceeding vowel to be heard as a burst, they have been called explosives. To these absolute mutes, k t p, correspond the three imperfect mutes, ^, d, h. As in the production of the pure mutes k, t, p, no * Proposal for a missionary alphabet by Professor Max Miiller. ELEMENTS OF SPEECH. 159 sound is allowed to escape ; the voice being stopped abruptly tbey are also called tenues, hard or sharp, while g, d, b, are named media, middle or flat, as their sounds are not stopped at once, but may be continued for a short time. The full pronunciation of an explosive letter requires the closing and opening of the organ, and the complete consonant is best perceived when placed between two vowels, as in aba, ama. When in a final m the mouth is not re- opened, as in am, only half of the m is pro- nounced. "It is a decided mistake," says Lepsius,* " to reckon m and n among the consonantes continuae ; for in m and n it is only the vowel element inherent in the first half, which may be continued at pleasure, whilst in all continuous consonants, it is the consonantal element (the friction) which must be continued, as in /, V, s, z. Semi- Vowels. — ^While in thi formation of the pure mutes the emission of sound is stopped for a moment, there are certain letters, as I, m, w, r, f, which, owing to the comparatively slight contact between the active and the passive organ, allow the sound to be continued after the contact; hence they are frequently called continuous consonants, in contra-distinction to the ex- plosives. The usual denomination, however, of these letters, is semi-, or half- vowels, both from their possess- ing an inherent vowel-element, which can be distin- guished in their pronunciation, and also from their resembling the vowels with regard to the protraction * Lepsius on the Standard Alphabet. 160 PHILOSOPHY OF VOICE AND SPEECH. of the sound. Z, m, w, r, are also called liquids apparently from their flowing into other sounds. It is, however, not the case that they can, as is said of the vowel sounds, be protracted at pleasure as long as the breath lasts. Kempelen had already observed, and every one can verify the experiment, that when a vowel is prolonged, it is scarcely possible to distinguish what vowel it is, and this is also the case with the semi- vowels. Sibilants (hissers), — s z sh zh to which other sounds may be added. The sibilants are essentially distinguished from all other consonants both in their formation and their qualities. In their production the contact between the organs concerned is so slight that the sounding current only experiences a friction, but passes outward like the vowels without any stoppage. These consonants are, perhaps, the only ones which admit of being protracted as long as the breath lasts, without losing their distinctive audible characters. There are many other sounds which can be produced in the human organ, such as the click — a smacking noise when the tongue is suddenly separated from the palate or teeth. There are said to be four clicks in the Hottentot, and only three in Zulu and other African languages. The pronunciation of these sounds only becomes difficult when combined with other sounds. These clicks are frequently produced in European languages, but they are not used as articulate elements of speech, as in the African languages. The melodious sound of a language is frequently ELEMENTS OF SPEECH. 161 attributed to a predominating proportion of vowels to the consonants. No doubt a language may become too hard if there be too many consonants in it. It will, how- ever, be found, that the euphony of a language depends rather on the disposition of the vowels and consonants than on their relative proportions. Some savage idioms, as the language of the Sandwich islands, ex- hibit an uncommon proportion of vowels to consonants, yet it can scarcely be said that they are euphonious in the strict sense of the word. Richerand's hypothesis, that the inhabitants of cold countries have been led to use more consonants than vowels, as the pronunciation of the former does not require the same opening of the mouth, and the consequent admission of cold air into the lungs, is, to say the least of it, certainly very far from being satisfactory. All attempts hitherto made by physiologists to deter- mine the number of sounds which the human organ is capable of producing have necessarily been unsuc- cessful.'^ The vowels alone, as has been indicated, flow into each other in imperceptible gradation, and so do the liquids. If to this be added the various com- binations and arrangements of which the consonants are capable, man appears to possess an inexhaustible treasury, from which he can at pleasure obtain a new name for every possible notion. Nature, however, is not quite so prodigal with her gifts. Although the spring may be said to be theoretically inexhaustible, practically, man can only, with his vocal organs, pro- * Kudelka enumerates 121 elementary sounds. 162 PHILOSOPHY OF VOICE AND SPEECH. duce a limited number of natural sounds, nor is there any language which uses all possible sounds ; but languages and dialects differ from each other both by the number and the predominance of certain classes of sounds which they employ. CHAPTER XI. ON THE ORIGIN OF LANGUAGE. The broad difference between human speech and the language of the brute creation may be said to consist in this : — ^That the language of man, being articulated, is capable of being resolved into elementary sounds, words, and sentences, enabling him to give utterance to distinct ideas and notions^ which the inarticulate cries of animals are evidently incapable of expressing. For this reason, man was, by Homer and Hesiod, called merops, a voice-dividing creature. It appears to be admitted on all sides that articulated language is not like natural language, derived from nature, i. e. it is not instinctive, but acquired ; and common observation teaches us that children learn to speak by imitation. But as the human race must have had a beginning in time, the questions arise, whom could the proto-plasts, or our first progenitors imitate ? and how did they learn to speak ? This is evidently, like all the problems which relate to the origin and l2 164 PHILOSOPHY OF VOICE A.ND SPEECH. destiny of the human species, a question which admits but of two modes of solution — ^the religious and the philosophical. The religious solution appeals to super- natural intervention, and consequently to revelation, and is generally clothed in a poetical form. The philo- sophical solution, on the contrary, claims to be the result of reflection and the exercise of the human understand- ing, and is expressed in the exact language of science. Plato, Pythagoras, and other pagan philosophers maintained that language was of divine origin. This opinion was embraced by the greater part of Jewish and Christian writers, as it seemed to be supported by the authority of Moses. The language of the Bible is, however, by no means positive on this point, but seems rather to imply that the origin of language is both human and divine- The Supreme Being did not give names to the creatures, but caused all animals to pass before Adam " To see what he would name them." (Gen. ii, 19.) Adam must, therefore, have, already possessed, not only the capacity, but the rudiments of speech, when the oppor- tunity was given to him to exercise his faculties. Those who, like Monboddo"^ and his followers, hold the opinion that language was invented by man, give something like the following account of its origin and development : — The first sounds by which men indicated their wants consisted, as they imagined, chiefly of such cries which give expression to the desires, passions, and emotions, accompanied by such gestures and expressions * On th.e Origin and Progress of Language. Edin- burgh, 1775. OEIGIN OF LANGUAGE. 165 as are instinctively connected with them. In pro- cess of time the interjections and cries were articulated. The first articulations were naturally very simple, consisting, probably, only of the three fundamental vowel sounds, and of but few consonants ; and as all natural cries are from the throat and larynx, Monboddo thought that the first languages were for the greater part spoken from the throat; that what consonants were used were mostly guttural, and that the organs of the mouth were but little employed. Speech, as it grew, became more broken by conso- nants, words were formed and names invented of sur- rounding and peculiar objects, until at last the multiplicity of words became troublesome, when art interfered and formed a language upon a limited quantity of radical words, according to certain rules. These theories naturally rest on the supposition that man was, in his primitive state, in a condition ap- proaching brutality, from which he only gradually emerged. But whatever grave objections may, on this account, be urged against these theories and the examples by which they are supported, they are at any rate more satisfactory to the understanding than those mysterious solutions founded upon obscure transcen- dental speculations. It may be exceedingly difficult, and all but impos- sible to trace, step by step, the various causes which have gradually led to the formation of human language ; but if it can be deduced from known physiological and psychological data, that the human faculties, limited though they be, are sufficient for the formation of L 3 166 PHILOSOPHY OF VOICE AND SPEECH. a language, and if it can be merely shown, not how the various parts of human speech actually arose, but how they might have arisen, it is sufficient, as Dugald Stewart observes : — " To give a check to that indolent philosophy, which refers to a miracle whatever appear- ances in the natural or moral world it is unable to explain." There are at present but few persons capable of passing a judgment in the case, who are disposed to deny that speech is the natural product of the human faculties, varying according to the different circum- stances in which they have been developed ; and that it is neither the result of the mere material development of the vocal organs, nor of mere arbitrary convention, but the growth of inward necessity and mental progress. Among the speculations as to the cause which induced men to impose certain names on surrounding objects, the theory, that they were decided in their choice of the articulate sounds employed by a real or fancied resemblance between the sound and the thing denoted, found considerable favour among philologists. Indeed, daily experience shows that children, when they learn to speak, generally designate an object by an imitation of the sound given out by it. It seems thus probable that many, if not all words, were first sug- gested to mankind by the sounds of the elements, the cries of quadrupeds, the notes of birds, and the noises of insects. This imitation of the natural sounds is called onomatopoeia (onoma, name ; poieo, I make). All languages contain more or less words which both depict the sonorous body and the sound emitted, and ORIGIN or LANGUAGE. 167 the Teutonic languages especially, appear to be very rich in this respect. Alliteration, which is merely a variety of onoma- topoeia, consists of the frequent repetition of the same letters, or of syllables of the same sound in one sentence. This imitative harmony, as it has been called, is fre- quently employed with a happy effect, when the repetition of the same letter concurs with the sonorous imitation, of which the following line, in the Andro- maque of Racine, gives a good example. " Pour qui sont ces serpens qui sifflent sur vos tetes." For -wliom are those serpents that hiss o'er your heads. This line represents, graphically, the hissing of the serpents. The galloping of horses may be assimilated by short syllables imitative of the sounds, as in the following verse from Biirger's Leonore. ** TJnd liurre, hurre, hop, hop, hop, Giengs fort in sausendem galopp, Dass Ross und Reiter schnoben, Und Kies und Funken stoben." And hurry ! hurry ! off they rode, As fast as fast might be ; Spumed from the courser's thundering heels, The flashing pebbles flee. W, Scott's Translation. But, perhaps, the richest illustration both of onoma- topoeia and alliteration is furnished in Southey's nursery rhymes, descriptive of the Cataract of Lodore, and it cannot but be remarked that nearly all the words in the following extract are pure Saxon. 168 PHILOSOPHY OF VOICE AND SPEECH. THE CATARACT OF LODORE. " How does the water Come down at Lodore ? " Helter-skelter, Hurry — skurry. Rising and leaping, Sinking and creeping, Swelling and sweeping, Eddying and wliisking, Spouting and frisking. Turning and twisting. And shocking and roc^g, And whizzing and hissing, And dripping and skipping, And hitting and splitting. And rattling and battling, And shaking and quaking, And guzzling and struggling. And bubbling and troubling and doubling. And rushing and flushing and brushing and gushing, And flapping and rapping and clapping and slapping. And ciirling and whirling and purling and twirling. And thumping and plumping and bumping and jumping, And dashing and flashing and slashing and clashing, ******** And this way the water comes down at Lodore. The origin of language from the audible sounds of nature was objected to on the ground, that as these sounds are everywhere the same, the words formed to express them should resemble each other in the various languages. ORIGIN OF LANGUAGE. 169 Adelung* meets the objection in the following terms : — " In such cases, when the natural sound is always the same, its designation is in most cases equally so ; thus, the name of the cuckoo, is the same in most languages. Many natural sounds, however, differ; e. g, thunder ; and hence the words designating, it, differ also. It must also be taken into consideration, that either from habit or defective organisation, some people do or cannot pronounce certain letters. Thus, the Greenlanders, the Mexicans, and the Chinese, always substitute I for r, hence thunder, is in Chinese, lei; Greenland, kallak; Mexico, tlatnatnitzel. Substi- tute the r for the I and the imitation of the natural sound is more apparent." But while the theory in question may be safely admitted, in the case of sonorous objects, its applica- tion to objects, merely visible and not audible, and still more to intellectual notions is much more difficult. Still, there have not been wanting speculative minds who conceived that, although very obscure, there yet exists an analogy between each object and its name ; and that the mechanism of the vocal organs in pronouncing these names bears some relation to the qualities of the objects denoted. Dr. John Wallis, in his Grammatica Linguae Angli- cance (1700), has collected a great many examples, to show that a collocation of consonants at the beginning of a word, designates a certain class of ideas. Sir, gives the idea of force and effort, as strong, strike, stretch, strain. * Mithridates. 170 PHILOSOPHY OF VOICE A.ND SPEECH. Si, gives the idea of strength, but in a lesser degree, and of stability, as stand, stay, stick, steady, still. Thr, violent motion, as throw, thrust, throng. Wr, obliquity or distortion, as wry, wreathe, wre^^tle, wrangle. Br, fracture or rupture, as hrenk, brittle, hrunt. Cr, dislocation, straining, as crack, crisp, creak, crash; all these are chiefly onomapoietic, other words beginning with these consonants, give the idea of curvature, as crouch, creep, crawl. Shr, contraction, as shrink, shrivel, shrug. Gr, rough, hard, as grate, grind, gripe, grapple. Sw, gentle motion, as sway, sioim, swing, 8fc. Sm, similar to the last, as smile, smirk, small. CI, adhesion, tenacity, as cleave, cling, chse, 8fc. Sp, dispansion and expansion, as spread, spring, split. SI, gently, gliding, as slide slip, slow, Sfc. Sq, sk, scr, violent compression, as squeeze, squint, screio, squeak. While Dr. Wallis's remarks are chiefly confined to his native language, M. Des Brosses,* taking a wider range, endeavoured to discover the cause why such a collocation of letters should denote sensible qualities ; and he gives various ingenious and fanciful reasons why st should form part of words in most languages denoting firmness and stability ; fl, fluency ; r, roughness, &c. Dr. Alex. Murray, who, from his extensive acquaint- ance with the oriental languages, was held in high estimation as a philologist, gives, in his History of * Traite de la formation mcchanique des langues, 1761. ORIGIN OF LANGUAGE. 171 European Languages, a curious list of the following nine monosyllables, as the basis, and by the help of ■which the European languages have been formed : — ag^ hag, dwag, gwag, lag, mag, nag, rag, swag. The saying : that there is no theory so absurd which has not, at some time or other, been maintained by philosophers, is equally applicable to philology; for when the mind is strongly biassed in favour of a certain idea, every passing shadow is eagerly grasped to sup- port it. To say that these theories are without any foundation whatever, would be going too far, but this much is certain, that fancy and whim predominated, more or less in their formation. In the condition in which languages are found, it would be too much to expect that these principles should be generally appli- cable. An ingenious writer* conceives that mind and body were originally so dependent on each other, that all the mental emotions found their echo in the body, especially in the respiratory and vocal organs. This sympathy, which is still observed in the child as well as in the savage, was very effective in the primitive man, in whom every intuition gave rise to a vocal sound. Another law, not less essential in the creation of language, is the association of ideas ; by means of which the sounds which accompanied the intuition became inseparably associated with it, both in man's consciousness and in his memory, and by thus acquiring a signification, became elements of speech. * Steinthal— Ursprung der Sprache, Berlin, 1851. 172- PHILOSOPHY OF VOICE AND SPEECH. As Steinthal does not recognise in the primitive for- mation of language any act of reason, he appears to hover midway between the innate ideas of Locke, and the pre-established harmony of Leibnitz. From the circumstance that most of our ideas could be expressed by means of nouns and verbs, gram- marians have mostly been of opinion that these are the fundamental parts of speech, from which all other parts have been formed. This assumption is now proved to be erroneous ; for recent German and English philologists have distinctly shown that the pronouns and chief prepositions were not derived from either nouns or verbs, but had an independent origin ; and that the words denoting me, thee, him, were among the earliest terms of language. The subjoined mono- syllabic stems, being the most simple, were, according to Bopp, probably the earliest auxiliaries of signs and gestures; and among the first utterances of human speech, a, i, u, e ; ka, ki, Jtu ; na, ni, nu ; ma, mi, mu ; ya, yu ; va, vi ; da, ta, sa. Leaving, for the present, all discussions as to which parts of speech were first formed, and from what pro- cesses the grammatical structure and the inflections of a language took their rise — this much seems clear : that man would have been totally unable to subdue his vocal organs, and to form articulate sounds for the purpose of designating different objects, if he had not possessed the mental capacity of distinguishing their differences and relations. Articulate speech, therefore, grew out of thought. The mere possession of a well constructed vocal and articulating apparatus, would OBI GIN OF LANGUAGE. 173 never have induced man to speak, were it not that it is in harmony with his cerebral development. It is this combination of physical with psychical power which makes it as natural to man to speak as it is natural to the nightingale to sing. It is, indeed, very probable that every articulate sound or syllable, and every union of sounds or words, must originally have signified something; and have corresponded to some object in the external world. But this material element is continually acted upon by the mind, by which language is produced ; for it is intellectuality which is essential to the development of the material. Language, therefore, is, like man, neither absolutely spiritual nor absolutely material. The formation of con- ceptions is preceded by the impression made on the mind by external objects ; but their embodiment in words is the result of the re-acting formative power of the mind ; so that language may be considered as the con- necting link between nature and mind, object and subject. CHAPTER XII. PRIMITIVE MD COGNATE LANGUAGES. Proposition 1. The human species is sprung from a single pair, an Adam and Eve. Proposition 2. The human species is sprung from a number of protoplasts, identical in physical and mental organisation. Proposition 3. Human beings have been created in masses, simultaneously, or at different periods, in vari- ous parts of the globe ; and the first progenitors of each race, were analogous, but not identical with regard to physical and mental attributes. Other propositions may, no doubt, be assumed ; the foregoing are, however, the principal assumptions which serve as a starting point to speculators on the earliest history of man in respect to the propagation of the human race. PRIMITIVE AND COGNATE LANGUAGES. 175 These hypotheses, though strictly physiological, are cited chiefly with regard to their bearing on language. If the first hypothesis be true, it is clear there can have been but one primitive language, from which all others must have departed. If the second proposition be taken as a starting point, there may still have been one primitive language, assuming that not only were the first progenitors homogenous, but confined to a certain locality, and being thus exposed to the same external influence ; the same causes would, under the same circumstances, necessarily produce the same effects. The third assumption clearly leads to the conclusion that there must have been many primitive languages. Now, just as the ethnological problem is to determine whether the finest living specimen of the Caucasian variety as represented in the statue of the Apollo of Belvedere and the degraded Bosjesmen, can have descended from the same protoplasts, so the philolo- gical problem is, whether the language of the latter, said to consist only of a certain number of guttural sounds, apparently incapable of expressing many ideas, can possibly have been derived from the same primi- tive language as the copious Hellenic tongue. Such are the problems which the greatest philosophers have hitherto vainly attempted to solve. Herodotus tells us that Psammetichus, King of Egypt, in order to discover which was the oldest language, caused two newly-born children to be brought up by a shepherd, with a strict injunction that they should never hear a human voice ; and that 176 PHILOSOPHY OF VOICE AND SPEECH, after two years they pronounced simultaneously, on the shepherd approaching them, " hekos" which, in the Phrygian language, signifies bread: from which it was inferred that the Phrygians were the oldest people, and their language the primitive tongue. Assuming that it is not a fable, such an experiment, if it could be repeated, would certainly prove nothing in favor of one primitive language, as, in a state of nature, bread does not exist ; but it would certainly demonstrate man's power to form a language. The battle concerning the unity of the human race, and the existence of a primitive language is still raging — the opposing parties still maintain their ground, and do not admit that anything has been advanced on the other side calculated to invalidate their own hypotheses. But though eminent names, like that of Agassiz, may be found in the ranks of those who insist upon specific differences between the families of mankind, it cannot be denied that the most illustrious physiologists and philologists have, as will presently appear, embraced the more generous side of the question, and are firm believers in the imity of mankind, a faith which not only reconciles us to scripture but to humanity. There is, in fact, much less difficulty attending the hypothesis that mankind form only one species, than the belief that the varieties of the human race are specifically different. That the peculiarities which distinguish the various races of mankind have remained permanent through the whole historical period, may be admitted ; but the differences are so various in their nature, and so imper- PRIMITIVE AND COGNATE LANGUAGES. 177 ceptibly graduated, that to make these peculiarities the test for specific differences would have the effect of multiplying the number of species beyond any concep- tion. Alexander von Humboldt expresses, in his " Cosmos," the following opinion on these points : — "As long as attention was directed solely to the extremes, in varieties of colour and form, the observer was naturally disposed to regard races rather as origin- ally different species, than as mere varieties. The permanence of certain types appeared to favour such a view, notwithstanding the shortness of the interval of time from which the historical evidence was derived. In my opinion, however, more powerful reasons can be advanced in support of the theory of the unity of the human race." Again, with respect to the importance of language, as bearing upon the question of the unity of the human species he observes: — *' Languages, as an intellectual creation of man, and as closely interwoven with the development of mind, are independently of the national form which they exhibit, of the greatest importance in the recogni- tion of similarities or differences in races. This impor- tance is especially owing to the clue which community of descent affords in threading that mysterious labyrinth in which the connection of physical and intellectual forces manifests itself in a thotisand different forms." Wilhelm von Humboldt, not less distinguished in literature than his illustrious brother Alexander in science, also believed in the essential unity of the human race, although he considered that the solution M 178 PHILOSOPHY OF VOICE AND SPEECH. of the great problem of the first origin cannot be determined by inductive reasoning, nor by experience, so as to furnish a demonstrative proof in the case. He further observes, that while the unity of the species can scarcely be determined from philological data, " yet its elucidation ought not to be sought from other sources. Language, more than any other attribute of mankind, binds together the whole human race."* Cuvier is well known to have maintained the unity of the human species. Johannes Miiller was of opinion that " The dijfferent races of mankind are forms of one sole species. But whether the human races have descended from several primitive types, or from one alone, is a question which cannot be determined by experience." He held, at the same time, that the results of physiological re- searches show nothing against its assumption. On comparing two languages, it will be-, found, that they resemble or differ from each other, either in words and grammatical structure, or in both. It was but natural that the old philologers should consider verbal resemblances as a sure index of the relationship of languages. Hence arose a pack of word-hunters, who ransacked every dialect, and hunted and grasped with an avidity, bordering on the ridiculous, the remotest similarity presented by words, in order to prove the con- nection of languages. But as philology advanced, it was soon ascertained that resemblances in words alone are, after all, fallacious guides, unless grammatical tests confirm their indications. * See Humboldt's work on the Kawi language. PRIMITIVE AND COGNATE LANGUAGES. 179 The chief grammatical systems employed in the formation of languages are : — 1. By changing the letters composing the roots. 2. By the addition of formative syllables to the root. 3. By employing separate words instead of changing the roots. The second system is that which was chiefly em- ployed in the structure of the most cultivated languages. It consists in bending the roots (inflection), by the addition of syllables. Thus we find in the Greek and Latin languages, the nouns inflected in the various cases, genders, and the verb for the various tenses, &c. Comparative philology, dating like comparative ana- tomy and physiology, to which it bears a certain resem- blance, only from the present century, may be termed a new science. By means of the philological scalpel, the spoken dialects of living, and the written relics of extinct larguages, have been dissected and submitted to the philological microscope, so that it has been found possible to trace the relationship of the greater number of the three or four thousand dialects* spoken by the bulk of mankind, and to arrange them into families. Just as an accomplished physiologist, like Professor Owen, is capable from the inspection of a single bone of an extinct animal, to construct the whole skeleton, and to indicate the habits and instincts of the animal to which it belonged, so can the skilful philologer fre- quently, from the presence of a single letter in a sen- * Adelung in his "Mithridates," a work whichhasgiven'a great impulse to philological research, computes, from neces- sarily imperfect data, the number of languages to amount to about 3064. m2 180 PHILOSOPHY OF VOICE AND SPEECH. tence, determine the type of the language of which it forms a part. Grimm"^* recognises three periods in the development of languages. In the first, language was poor and simple, consisting only of some hundreds of roots with- out flexions ; the second, is the period of synthetic inflections, consisting of parasitical syllables affixed to the radical, constituting only one word, as in the Sanskrit, Greek, Latin, &c. ; and a third period in which the people, incapable of observing so complicated a grammar, break up the unity of the inflected word and prefer the inverse arrangement of particles of expression, so that the inflection and the particle are placed as distinct words before the terms which they modify. Grammar being thus considered as the very soul of language and much less likely to be changed by time and other influences than the words, is now considered a much more reliable test than mere verbal coinci- dences. It can easily be shown that languages may have many words in common without being nearly related, and on the other hand, may apparently have but few verbal resemblances, and yet be closely allied. The Persian, for instance, contains through the intro- duction of the Koran, an immense number of Arabic words, yet the grammar underwent but little change, and so is it with the Turkish, which is equally impreg- nated with Arabic words without being much influenced by Arabic grammar. The Spanish vocabulary also con- * Ursprung der Sprach*. PBIMITIVE AND COGNATE LANGUAGES. 181 sists of about one third of Arabic words, but shows no trace of Arabic grammar. Again, there is a mixed unwritten vagabond dialect, called the Lingua Franca, used as a means of communi- cation between the inhabitants of the opposite coast of the Mediterranean. The language is a sort of miscel- laneous depot of a rabble of words from Africa, Europe, and Asia. But though only one word in eight is Italian, the grammar belongs to that language, and stamps it as its progeny. The English being the facile princeps of mixed languages admits of whole sentences and paragraphs consisting almost entirely of Graeco-Latin words as the following few specimens show : — Virtue creates felicity, vice produces misery ; Ignor- ance induces superstition ; Popular education eradicates prejudice ; Intemperance causes crime. Now if any person ignorant of English, but acquainted with Latin, were called upon to determine the family of the language in which these sentences occur, he would naturally pronounce it to be neo- Latin, or Romance ; not so the philologer. " The 5," as Professor Max Miiller justly observes, " suffices to stamp the language in which it forms the exponent of the third person singular, as Teutonic, and not Romance, the grammar giving life and vigour to its parts, native and foreign, is still Saxon." Classijication of Languages, Languages may be classified : — 1 . According to their geographical distribution, such 1£8 182 PHILOSOPHY OF VOICE AND SPEECH. as the Asiatic, European, African, American, and Polynesian languages. 2. According to the varieties of man by whom they are spoken ; such as the Caucasian, Mongolian, Ethio- pian, American, and Malay languages. 3. According to certain general characters, such as monosyllabic, dissyllabic, polysyllabic, inflectional, syn- thetic, or analytic languages. Some philologists have divided all languages into three groups, and have named them after the sons of Noah, the Semitic, Chamitic, and Japhetic languages. The following division seems to be best adapted for popular exposition. 1. The Chinese class. 2. The Turanian class. 3. The African class. 4. The Polynesian class. 5. The American class. 6. The Semitic class. 7. The Arian class. The Chinese and Indo-Chinese Languages. The language of the Chinese is no less singular than the people by whom it is spoken. " How can you fathom or deal with a people," asks the Correspondent of the Times, writing " from Kwang-tung (Canton), whose language has neither alphabet or grammar ?" Surely if there be an original language, it must be the Chinese, which has neither borrowed from, nor lent anything to any other tongue. PRIMITIVE AND COGNATE LANGUAGES. 183 All other languages have, more or less perfectly, cer- tain distinctive forms for the noun, the verb, and the copula in the construction of a sentence. Nothing of the kind exists in the old Chinese, and if in the modern style, certain words are used resembling particles and conjunctions of other languages, these sounds are still roots incapable of change. The name of monosyllabic languages given to this class arises from the circumstance that the words of which they are composed consist only of one syllable. To express a compound idea, they do not, like other nations, glue together two syllables in forming a com- pound word, but merely place them in apposition in the same Avay as we say hat-box, carpet-bag. The number of monosyllables composing the Chinese lan- guages is variously estimated from 350 to 450, each beginning with a consonant and ending with a vowel or liquid, or the double consonant n g. This small number of radical words the Chinaman contrives to quadruple by means of intonations, so that his vocabulary consists of about 1400 words incapable of inflection, and which must act all the parts of speech, according to their allocation in a sentence. The inadequacy of such a language as a colloquial medium is strongly commented on by the Rev. C. Gutzlaft, the celebrated Chinese Missionary — " The poverty to which the lan- guage is reduced is such as to occasion misunder- standing in sentences of the most frequent occurrence, and to make conversation so exceedingly monotonous as to comprise only the ordinary objects of life. When- ever any attempt is made to discuss more abstruse 184 PHILOSOPHY OF VOICE AND SPEECH. subjects, recourse must be had to pen and ink, and paper." It is thus not without reason that Adelung attributes the little progress which the Chinese have made in science to the structure of their language. The pre- tended strict examination of the candidates for office consists chiefly in tiresome trials of skill in comprehend- ing, imitating, and mastering the written characters, and a knowledge of ethics, as contained in their sacred books, and which appears to differ as much from their practice, as their colloquial dialects differ from the written language. The redoubted Yeh furnishes a good example in point. According to his own account"^* he rose to his rank through his having been second wrangler at the public examination. Yet this, all but the most accom- plished man in the Chinese empire, seemed, excepting in his specialty, the TaoU — into the mysteries of which "our own Corrrespondent" found it impossible to penetrate — ignorance incarnate, in all that, according to our ideas, constitutes real knowledge. Dr. Bowring, Her Majesty's Consul at Hong-Kong, gives the following interesting account of the Siamese language, also belonging to the monosyllabic class. f " With few exceptions, the Siamese is a monosyllabic language ; and those exceptions are almost wholly found in foreign words. In proportion to the elevation of style is the number of words of Sanscrit and Pali origin, but accommodated to Siamese pronunciation. * Correspondent's letter, Times, May 11, 1858. t " The Kingdom and People of Siam." PRIMITIVE AND COGNATE LANGUAGES. 185 The highest idiom is that of the sacred books ; the second is the language of the higher order; the lowest, that of the people. It is a language of tones or cadences, which give a diflferent meaning to words, whose alphabetic forms would be the same. Hence the language lends itself to jokes and equivocations of all sorts; and many a word idem sonans to an unpractised ear, presents distinctions marked and obvious to a Siamese. Auxiliaries are employed to give to nouns and verbs the various significations which result from declensions and conjugation. Most words may be used as adjec- tives, verbs, or adverbs, by changing their position, or adding another word to modify the same. Auxiliary words express the past, the present, the future ; and a single particle transfers an active into a passive verb. The slight modification of sounds and words apparently the same, and which give a completely difierent signi- fication, makes the pronunciation of the Siamese lan- guage difficult to strangers, and leads to many mistakes. For example, in the sentence " khai Ihai kai khai na khaif ^^ Ha nie khai pha khai khai. ^^ The import is, "Is nobody selling eggs in the city? " "the seller is ill ; " but the various khai, by shortening, lengthening, and intonating them according to their meaning, leave no doubt of the meaning in the mind of a Siamese hearer.* * So in Chinese — " Chi chi chi chi lu." "I know the way that leads to the place." " Hioh chichi poh wei ju chichi chi yaio, chi chi chi yaw wei yii chi chi skih." '* To know the requirements of virtue is more important than to know what virtue is, but the knowledge of these requirements is less im- portant than the practice of them." 186 PHILOSOPHY OF VOICE AND SPEECH. There are no less than six tones in the language — the abrupt, the short, the long, the high, the low, and the middle. They have been compared : the abrupt, to a demi-semiquaver ; the short, to a semiquaver ; the long, to a double note ; the high, an ascent from sol to si ; the descent from sol to re, touching slightly the intermediate notes. Mr. Taylor Jones* says that from want of attention he has known proficients expose themselves to ridicule and be unintelligible for years, and he abandons all attempts to represent the combinations of Siamese characters by the English alphabet." The monosyllabic class presents, in its bearing upon the question of the unity of languages and mankind, the remarkable aspect, that physiology and glottology seem to be completely at issue. There is, in every respect, such a physical resemblance between the Chinese and the Tatars, that no writer ever thought of assigning to them a distinct origin, and they are, therefore, in all ethnological works, included in the Mongolian variety ; yet their languages exhibit scarcely any trace of rela- tionship. This great difficulty, which could not easily be passed over by the advocates for the unity of languages, is disposed of by Chevalier Bunsenf in the following terms :— " There is a gap between the formation of the Chinese and the other languages ; but that gap probably corres- ponds to that caused in the general development of the * " Grammatical Notices of the Siamese Language." t " Report to the British Association, 1847." PRIMITIVE AND COGNATE LANGUAGES. 187 human race, by great destructive floods, which separate the history of our race from its primordial origines. In this sense, the Chinese may be called the great monu- ment of antediluvian speech. Indeed, the first imigra- tion is said, in Genesis, to have gone eastward." The Turanian, Tatar or Nomadic Languages. The Turanian* family comprehends, excluding the Chinese dialects, all languages spoken in Asia and Europe, which do not belong to the Iranian or Semitic families. The Mongolic, Tungusic, Samoiedic, Finnic, Turkic, all form branches of the Turanian stock. The difficulties of tracing linguistic relationship, as in other families, is owing to the few monuments of civilisation which the Turanian can shew. There is, however, one characteristic feature which distinguishes this family — the principle of agglutination. The process consists in gluing together, or in aggregating, a number of ele- mental sounds, and thus forming new words. The Turanian dialects are frequently called Tataric languages, as Tatarf was the original name of the * According to Persian mythology, Feridun, the ruler of Iran, divided his empire among his three sons, Tur, Silim or Salm, and Frij or Eril. Tur received the north and the east, Salm the west, and Eril the south. Tur and Salm murdered Eril, hence the constant enmity between Turania and Iran. Tura (Lassen " Indische Alterthumskimde,") signifies quick, from the root tuar, to run, to fly, and thus their very name is characteristic of their Nomadic habits. They always appear in India, as well as on the inscriptions of Persia, as the An- iran, or No-arian people ; that is as the enemies of the agri- cultural and civilising nations. t Tatar, from the Turanian root, tata, to draw the bow or to pitch tents. 188 PHILOSOPHY OF VOICE AND SPEECH. Mongolic race. The Tatar, or Mongolian empire, ex- tended in the middle of the thirteenth century, from China to Poland. Baber, a descendant of Timur, founded the Mongolian dynasty, reigning as Great Moguls of Dehli, the last scion of which, now awaits his sentence. To the Turanian family belong, also, the dialects spoken in the valleys of Mount Caucasus, as well as the Tai and Tamulic branches. That very curious isolated language spoken in the Basque provinces of France and Spain, in the Pyre- nees, which the people now call Escuara, or Eus- Icaldure, was, for a long period, considered to be a dialect of the Celtic. The more recent investigation, however, of W. Von Humboldt and others seem to show that this peculiar language was once spoken all over the Peninsula, prior to its occupation by the Arian stock. The people who speak the Basque, are perhaps the descendants of the ancient Iberi, probably a Turanian race, and their language is certainly much closer related to the Turanian than to the Iranian stock. The African Languages. African philology appears to have been greatly neglected until the appearance of Adelung's great work, Mithridates (1817), in which the affinities of the languages of Ethiopia with those of Arabia, confirmed by modern researches, were already indicated Balbi, in his Atlas Ethnologique, enumerates 112 African lan- guages and dialects, which Dr. Latham, in the account PRIMITITE AND COGNATE LANGUAGES. 189 -given by him to the British Association, in 1847, divides as follows : — 1. The Coptic class, containing the extinct dialects of Africa. 2. The Berber class, containing the non- Arabic lan- guages of Northern Africa. 3. The Hottentot class. 4. The Kaffir class. 5. An unnamed class falling into eleven subordinate groups. The first class, the ancient language of Egypt, also called the Chamitic language, is, in many respects, the most interesting, appearing, from its structure, to form either a connecting link between the Semitic (Syro- Arabian), and the Japhetic (Indo-European) languages, or a branch of the primitive stock from which the Semitic and Japhetic languages have sprung. Another remarkable African dialect may be noticed here, namely, the Poongwee language, spoken in the parts adjoining the Gaboon river. The missionaries of these parts, who have framed a grammar of this lan- guage, state that " it is one of the most perfect languages of which they have any knowledge. It is not so remark- able for copiousness of words, as for its great flexibility. Its expansions, contractions, and inflections are all governed by grammatical rules, which seem to be well established in the minds of the people. How a lan- guage so soft, so plaintive, so pleasant to the ear, and, at the same time, so copious and methodical in its in- flections, should have originated, or how the people are enabled to retain its multifarious principles so distinctly 190 PHILOSOPHY OF VOICE AND SPEECH, in their minds as to express themselves with almost un- varying precision and uniformity, are points which we do not pretend to settle. It is spoken, coastwise nearly two hundred miles, and perhaps, with some dialectic difference, it reaches the Congo river. How far it extends into the interior is not known."* Considerable interest is attached to the collection now forming at Cape Town, by Sir G. Grey, Governor of the colony, of all tracts existing in the native lan- guages of South Africa. The collection already consists of 1500 volumes, and the first part of a catalogue, con- taining the titles of grammars and lexicons, has just appeared. The work is to be completed by a supple- mental catalogue of the languages of North Africa. The Malayo-Polynesian Languages. The views entertained by scholars as to the languages spoken in Polynesia and the Indian Archipelago are as conflicting as those with regard to the races which inhabit these parts. Already Mr. Marsden, in his miscellaneous works, had remarked that there is a manifest connection in these languages, insomuch that we may pronounce the various dialects in a collective sense, to form substantially one great language. Hum- boldt, in his posthumous work " On the Varieties of Human Language," &c., gave weight to this theory. With a mind constantly directed to the problem of the * Extract from the " Progress of Ethnology," by J. Russel Bartlett. New York, 1847. PRIMITIVE AND COGNATE LANGUAGES. 191 unity of language, he endeavoured to establish that the languages of the inhabitants of the islands in the Pacific Ocean, to which the name of Malayo-Polynesian is given, were at some period intimately connected, so that he thought already of linking the whole of this family with the Arian, through medium of the Sanscrit. Humboldt's theory was, however, not allowed to re- main unchallenged. " I cannot help thinking," says Mr. Crawford* " that this hypothesis must have originated in this eminent scholar's practical unacquaintance with any one lan- guage of the many which came under his considera- tion ; " and he expresses his conviction " that there is no more ground for believing that the Phillippine and Malayan languages have a common origin than for con- cluding that Spanish and Portuguese are Semitic lan- guages, because they contain many Arabic words." Some scholars consider Mr. Crawford's tests for the relationship of languages are founded upon too general principles. Be this as it may, certain it is that Hum- boldt's great work has opened a rich mine of philolo- gical research. The American Languages. The first remarkable fact which presents itself with regard to the American languages, is their number, which appears to be in inverse proportion to the popu- lation. Balbi, in his Ethnographical Atlas^ enumerates * " Grammar and Dictionary of the Malay Language." By J. Crawford, F.R.S. 192 PHILOSOPHY OF VOICE AND SPEECH, four hundred and twenty-three ; while Vater, in Mithri- dates^ says that the languages spoken by the indigenous population exceeded, at no distant period, five hundred. This multiplication of languages is accounted for by the absence of most of the conditions which give stability to a language. It is generally found that among a dense population, who are fixed in their habitations, language has a tendency to be uniform, while wherever the popu- lation is scattered and wandering, language necessarily is split into many forms. Not less striking is the phenomenon that this diver- sification of languages is throughout pervaded by an analogy of structure, which can scarcely be merely coincidental. " Striking analogies of grammatical con- struction," says W. Humboldt, "are discovered, not only in the more perfect languages, as that of the Incas, the Mexicans, &c. ; but also in languages extremely rude. It is in consequence of this similarity of structure that the Indians of the missions could learn the tongue of a different tribe much more easily than the Spanish.'* A peculiar process of compounding words combining a number of ideas, is one of the characteristics which distinguishes the American languages from those of the old world. By such means the number of words can be increased to any extent. " For example," observes M. du Ponceau,* " when a Delaware woman is playing with a little dog or cat, or some other young animal, she will often say to it, kuligatchis, which I would translate in English — " Give me your pretty * " Report of the American Philosophical Society at Phila- delphia." PRIMITIVE AND COGNATK HANGUAGES. 193 little paw." This word is compounded thus : K is the inseparable pronoun of the second person, and may be rendered thou or My, according to the context ; uli (pronounced oolee) is part of the word wulit^ which signifies handsome or pretty ; gat is part of the word wichgat, which signifies a leg, or paw ; schis (pro- nounced shees) is a diminutive termination, and conveys the idea of littleness : thus in one word the Indian woman says " Thy pretty little paw.' " M. du Ponceau also expresses his opinion that if the Delaware language had been cultivated and polished, Ifke those in Europe, and if it had had a Homer or a Virgil, it is impossible to say to what degree of perfec- tion the language could be carried. The classical lan- guages have been admired for their many com- pounds, but what are they to those of the Indian languages ! It is, therefore, not surprising that the American languages should have created the greatest curiosity among the learned, who looked upon the compound structure of a language as the index of it development. Other views, however, prevail at present ; for in tracing the history of languages, it is invariably found that they are more complicated in a primitive age, when they exhibit a strong tendency to exuberance. " That the plan," observes Mr. Schoolcraft,* " is in the American languages, homogenous, from a peculiar view of the use of words in their concrete form, appears to be a fact established by investigation. The attempt * Historical and Statistical Information. 194 PHILOSOPHY OF VOICE AND SPEECH. is perpetually to speak of objects in groups. There are heaps of syllables clustered, as it were, on a polysyl- labic stem. The developement of this plan may be said to be recondite, creating the idea of many plans of thought ; but there is, in fact, only one generic scheme tending to denote compound impressions. The term encapsulated has been used to denote the structure which the words assume. They are, indeed, clustered thoughts expoliating thoughts, as capsule within capsule, or box within box." According to this opinion, proceeding from a scholar who has done more than any one living for the eluai- dation and preservatioti of the Indian languages, it would appear that the elder philologists were, by em- ploying fragmentary materials, too hasty in their con- clusions. The term polysynthetic, or many compound, which Du Ponceau applied to the American languages, and by which name they have hitherto passed, is objected to by Dr. Lieber, on the ground that it seems to indi- cate that what has been separate has been put together, as if man commenced with analysis, while, in fact, he ends with it. As to the affinities of these tribes with the rest of mankind, all is mere conjecture. In Bradford's Ame- rican Antiquities^ there is an hypothesis by no means improbable, that the red man is of Mongolian origin, and reached America by the Islands of the Pacific, while others advocate the probability of a Semitic origin for at least the northern stocks. PRIMITIVE AND COGNATE LANGUAGES. 195 The Semitic Languages. The Semitic (language of Shem), or Syro- Arabian languages, are usually divided into three principal branches — the Aramaic, the Hebrew, and the Arabic. The most extensive branch of this family, the Arabic, is still spoken by the aboriginal inhabitants of the Arabian peninsula, and is the vulgar language on the shores of Africa, serving as a means of communication in many parts of Asia. The Aramaic, comprehending tlie Syrian and Chaldean dialects, is spoken by a few- tribes, such as the Nestorians in Kurdistan, sometimes called Chaldeans. The Hebrew is no longer a living language, but was, after the conquest of Palestine, about the eighth cen- tury, replaced by the Arabic. The ancient Ethiopic, or Abyssinian, called also the Gees language, may also be mentioned as a Semitic dialect, still spoken, though very impure, by the people of Habesh. The Semitic tongues differ from other classes of lan- guages, not only in their grammatical system, but in their radical words. The verbal roots in the Syro- Arabian dialects, are generally dissylabic, consisting of three letters which are consonants, between an4 after which the vowels are inserted.* Besides the Carthaginian and Phoenician languages, * According to the opinions of Gesenius, Ewald, and other Semitic scholars, these languages were originally monosyllabic, which could be proved by a dissection of their roots. N 2 196 PHILOSOPHY OF VOICPJ AND SPEECH. which belong to this family, modern researches have shown that the Egyptian (Chamitic) language, bears a decided Phoenician stamp ; while the discoveries of Rawlinson and Dr. Hinks have more than confirmed the probability of the Semitic origin of the Babylonian or Assyrian language. The Arian Languages. The Japhetic or Indo-European languages are now generally called the Iranian^' or Arian family ; Arya being the name by which the ancestors of this family were known. Arya in the Sanscrit means "* venerable, a Lord. " The holy land of the Brahmans is still called Arya avarta the abode of the Aryas.f Herodotus men- tions that the Medians called themselves Artoi, and in the cuneiforn inscriptions Darius called himself an Arian, and the kings, as already stated, called them- selves " Kings of the Arian and Un- Arian races," hence, the modern names of Arian and Iranian. The Arian family includes : — 1. The Sanskrit, the Zend, the modern Persic, and other Indian dialects. 2. The Celtic, with its two great varieties, the Irish and Welsh, and their subordinate dialects 3. The Pelasgic, or classical, with the Greek and * h-an was the ancient name of that district in Asia, which is washed by the sea in the south, and bounded on the other sides by the Tigris, the Oxus, and the Indus. It is considered as the birthplace, or at any rate, as the cradle of the Iranian or Indo-Teutonic stock. f Max Miiller, loc. cit. PRIMITIVE AND COGNATE LANGUAGES. 197 Latin at the head, and their derivative languages, the modern Greek, the Italian, French, Spanish, &c. 4. The Sarmatian, or Slavonic, including the Russian, Polish, Bohemian, &c. 5. The Gothic, including all the Germanic and Scandinavian tongues. The most primitive type of this family, is the Sanscrit — the language of the Vedas, a name especially applied to the four sacred books of the Hindus, who believe that they issued from the mouth of Brahma, and that the world itself was created according to the laws of a pre- existing Veda. These four books are respectively named, the Rig, Yajush, Saman, and Atharvana. The Rig has been recently published by Prof. Max Miiller. The Sanscrit introduced into India by the Brah- minical race, gradually supplanted the aboriginal lan- guages, which only survive in the Tamul and Telinga dialects, spoken in the Southern Deccan. From the Sanscrit sprung the Pracrit (derivative dialects), from which the Indian languages originated. The Pali-dialect — the sacred language of the Buddhists — is considered as having least deviated from its ori- ginal. Sir William Jones was one of the first who drew attention to the remarkable structure of the Sanscrit. He considered it " more perfect than the Greek, more copious than the Latin, and more exquisitely refined than either — yet bearing to both of them a stronger affinity, both in the roots of the verbs and in the forms of grammar, than could possibly have been produced by accident ; so strong, indeed, that no philologer N a 198 PHILOSOPHY OF VOICE A.ND SPEECH. could examine them all three without believing them to have sprung from some common source, which, per- haps, no longer exists. There is a similar reason, though not quite so forcible for supposing that both the Gothic and the Celtic had the same origin with the Sanscrit. The old Persian may be added to the same family." With the study of the Sanscrit a new era commenced in the history of languages. The remarkable work of Francis Bopp proved the supposed connexion of the Arian languages — the Sanscrit, Zend, Greek, Latin, Lithuanian, old Slavonic, or Vindic, Gothic, and Ger- man, to be a great fact. " Most European languages," observes Dr. Bopp,* " do not need proof of their relationship to the Sanscrit, for they show it by their forms, which, in part, are but very little changed. But that which remains for philology to do, and which I have endeavoured to the utmost of my ability to effect, was to trace, on the one hand, the resemblances into the most retired corner of the construction of languages; and on the other hand, as far as possible, to refer the greater or less discrepances to laws through which they become possible or necessary." Yet though the Sanscrit is, as Prof. Bopp says, more organic in structure than other Arian languages, and although it is older than the Greek of Homer, or the Persian of Cyrus, Bopp guards himself against the assumption that the other languages were actually * '* Bopp' s Comparative Grammar," translated by Professor Eastwick. PRIMITIGE AND COGNATE LANGUAGLS. 199 derived from it ; he considers the Sanscrit merely as the elder sister. The following terms expressing the degrees of con- sanguinity in the principal branches of the Arian class, may serve as an illustration of their affinity : — Sanscrit. Greek. Latin, Pather pit&x pater pater Mother mat§ir meter mater Brother bhratar phrater frater Sister svasar soror Daughter duhitar thugater Son sunus Teutonic. Slavonic. Irisli. Father fadrein vatar bat athair Mother mutter motar mathair Brother brothar brat brathair Sister swistar sestra siur Daughter dauhtar dukte dear Son sunus sohn syn A vast many other words might be enumerated in support of the affinity of these languages, but the above table may be sufficient to show that before the Arian race separated, the various degrees of relationship had already been determined in language. The identity of the Indo-European languages has been further demonstrated by Jacob Grimm's important dis- covery of the systematic displacement or correspon- dence of consonants in the formation of many of the principal words in Sanscrit, Greek, Latin, and German. This doctrine of sounds, generally called " Grimm's 200 PIIILOSOPHY OF VOICE AND SPEECH. Law," has since become an important test in comparing languages, and to establish true etymologies. grimm's law. Greek (and generally Sanscrit, Latin, and Lithuanian) — „ P cor. with Goth. P H (f) and old High Germ. B. (v f) »B „ P „ „ PH(f) „ PH(f) B „ „ P DENTALS. „ T cor. with Goth, T H „ „ D mTH D „ „ T „D T „ „ TH(z) GUTTURALS. „ K (c) cor. with Goth. K H (h g) „ „ G (h) ,. <^ „ K „ „ KH(ch) «KH(ch) G „ „ K It is beyond the scope of this work to treat of the various languages belonging to the Arian family, except with regard to the Teutonic branch, the basis of our own language, which will form the subject matter of the next chapter. In order, however, to state the results arrived at by modern investigators in relation to the affinity of mankind and their idioms, the fol- lowing extracts from the report presented to the British Association by Chevalier Bunsen cannot but prove acceptable to the reader. The general conclusions to which we are conducted, after stating the two possible hypotheses — first, that there have been great number of beginnings, and second, that the beginning of speech was only made once, Bunsen suras up as follows : — " If the first proposition be true, the different families PRIMITIVE AND COGNATE LANGUAGES. 201 of languages, however analogous they may be, as being the produce of the same mind upon the same outward world, by the same organic means, will nevertheless, offer scarcely any affinity to each other, in the skill displayed in their formation and in the mode of it, but their very roots full or empty ones, and all their words, whether monosyllabic or polysyllabic, must needs be entirely different. There may be some similar expres- sions in those inarticulate bursts of feeling not reacted on by the mind which the grammarians call interjec- tions. There are, besides, some graphic imitations of ex- ternal sounds, called onomatopoetica-words^ the forma- tion of which indicates the relatively greatest passivity of the mind. There may be, besides, some casual coin- cidences in real words; but the law of combination applied to the elements of sound, gives a mathematical proof that, with all allowances, such a chance is less than one in a million for the same combination of sounds signifying the same precise object. This chance is still considerably diminished if the very strict and positive laws are considered, which govern the application of a word to a given object. But the ordinary crude method suffices to prove that if there are entirely different beginnings of speech, as philoso- phical inquiry is allowed to assume, and as the great philosophers of antiquity have assumed, there can be none but stray coincidences between words of a different origin. But the results of the most accurate linguistic in- quiries, prove that such a coincidence does exist between the three great families, spreading from the north of 202 PHILOSOPHY OF VOICE AND SPEECH. Europe to the tropic lands of Asia and Africa. It exists there, not only in radical words, but even in what must appear as the work of an exclusively peculiar coinage, the formative words and inflections which pervade the whole structure of certain families of languages, and are interwoven, as it were, with every sentence pro- nounced in every one of their branches. All the nations which, from the dawn of history to our days, have been the leaders of civilisation in Asia, Europe, and Africa, must consequently have had one beginning." (Rep. p. 294.) This statement, referring specially to the Semitic, Japhetic, and Chametic languages, is equally true of the forms referable to the Turanian stock, which, ac- cording to Bunsen's estimation, is a branch of the Japhetic. Thus, by establishing the common origin of all the languages of the globe, the hypothesis of the original unity of mankind is strengthened. Lastly, it must be stated that the conclusions with regard to the affinity of races, and their languages, embodied in the above report, do not essentially differ from those arrived at by the late Dr. J. C. Prichard, whose writings on this subject, though first published in 1813, have as yet lost nought of their standard value.* * Researches into the Physical History ef Mankind, by J. C. Prichard, M.D. CHAPTER XIII. ORIGIN AND DEVELOPMENT OP THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE. The bare history of a people furnishes us with their growth, development, and decay ; an account of their language records their feelings, thoughts, and modes of reasoning. The history of a nation is thus intimately connected with that of their language — they mutually assist and throw light on each other, so that a know- ledge of the rise and gradual development of the lan- guage spoken by a people, is not merely the history of their psychical life, but to a great extent, that of their physical progress. Our own tongue affords, in this respect, the most striking illustration ; the history of the origin and growth of the English idiom, is the history of England. Language may, therefore, without much impropriety, be called the psijchogram of marl's inward nature. 204 PHILOSOPHY OF VOICE AND SPEECH. That large division of the human race, called the Arian family, emigrated from the highlands of Asia towards a north-western direction, when, on arriving upon the confines of Europe they appear to have separated. One branch, the Pelasgic, colonised the southern peninsula ; another, the Celtic, possessed themselves of central and western Europe, from which they were gradually dislodged by a third branch of the Arian familv, the Teutonic tribes, who, in the progress of time, occupied the whole country, extending from the middle of Scandinavia and the Gulf of Riga to the Rhine and the Alps, and the junction of the Theis with the Danube. The question whether the Arian races found, on their arrival in Europe, the diiferent countries already occu- pied by previous inhabitants is, according to late ethno- logical researches, answered in the affirmative. Pro- fessor Nillson. of Lund, has, with regard to the primitive inhabitants of Scandinavia, come to the conclusion that Sweden was, at a period while some of the long extinct herbivorous animals existed, possessed by a human population in a very low state of civilisation, ignorant of the metallurgic art, constituting their weapons of horn and stone, and living chiefly by fishing and hunt- ing. Their skulls, found .in the earliest class of Barrows, are described as short, with prominent parietal tubers, and broad and flattened occiputs. This family was succeeded by a superior race. The third race, apparently of Celtic origin, was not in Nillson' s opinion displaced by the true Swea, or Modern Scandinavians, till some time in the sixth century. ORIGIN OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE. 205 With regard to the primitive inhabitants of Great Britain, it is known that the Celts appear to have occu- pied it at the earliest period of which we have an authentic account. Yet there are some indications furnished by the relics found in the tumuli in Great Britain and the whole of the north of Europe, that the Celts were intruders, and that there may have existed in Great Britain a primitive race prior to them. The ancient crania appear to differ from those of the true Celtic type, not merely in shape and form of the skull, but in the state of the teeth. At present, all is as yet mere speculation, and a greater accumulation of facts is requisite to establish absolute conclusions. The Teutonic brcmch^ from which many of the modern nations of Europe and America derive their origin, were at an early period divided into tribes, which either belonged, or did not belong, to the great Suevian confederation, possessing some broad marks of distinc- tion — thus, the Suevi were chiefly nomadic tribes, the Non-Suevi were agricultural, and had fixed habitations ; the Suevi spoke what was called high German, the dialect of the Non-Suevi was low German. The Alemans, Bavarians, Burgundians, Goths, Vandals, and Gepidae belonged to the Suevi ; the Franks, Saxons, Longobards, and Frisians, to the latter. When the Suevian confederacy was broken up, others were formed, among the most powerful of which were the Franks, the Alemans, the Saxons, and the Goths. It is only from the beginning of the third century of our era that we possess some historical account of the movements of the Goths. It appears that they crossed 206 PHILOSOPHY OF VOICE AND SPEECH. the Baltic from Scandinavia, in which a considerable district is still called Gothland, ascending the Vistula, and ultimately reached as far as the Black Sea. They soon became powerful, and engaged in conflicts with the Roman empire ; and their princes, who were captured, were paraded in the triumphal processions of the Emperor Aurelian. The Goths, however, on their side, also captured many Romans, some of whom were Christians, by whom, in process of time, they were converted to the Christian religion. The establishment of Christianity naturally created, in its disciples, a desire to read the scriptures in their own language. But until this time, the Teutonic tribes had no alphabet but the Runic characters, chiefly employed for charms and inscriptions. It is to Ulphilas, Bishop of the Moeso- Goths, formerly settled in Lower Moesia, the country now called Bulgaria, that the honour is ascribed of having partly invented and adapted to his own language the Greek and Roman characters. We still possess portions of his famous Moeso-Gothic version of the New Testament, originally executed in the fourth century, exhibiting the language in an early, though not its earliest state. An imperfect manuscript copy of this work, found in the Abbey of Werden, in Westphalia, is now preserved in the University of Upsala, in Sweden. The manuscript is of singular beauty, the letters being all silver, excepting the initials, which are gold, upon vellum of a violet colour. There has also been discovered a portion of a commentary of the Gospel of St. John in the Gothic OEIGIN OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE. 207 language, and published in tlie edition of Ulpbilas, by Gabelentz and Loebe, at Leipsig.* This invaluable work, called the Codex Argenteus^ supposed to be of the sixth century, had already lost one hundred and forty- three leaves, when in 1658 it became Swedish property; but in 1834 it was dis- covered that ten more leaves were wanting, which had evidently been cut out ; an act of Vandalism which was currently reported to have been perpetrated by two Englishmen. Some time ago, however, Mr. Upp- strom, the editor of a quarto edition of the whole Codex, received, to his great delight, the missing ten leaves from an old Swedish collector, then on his death-bed. The leaves formed a portion of the Gospel of St. Mark, and were in good preservation. It appears that Hertz, of Berlin, has made arrange- ments for the publication of photographic copies of the original, with illustrations, provided he meets with due encouragement. The version of Ulphilas, made between 360 and 380, is by nearly three centuries older than any other Gothic document we possess ; but even at that time the language bears the stamp of great vigour, possessing, at the same time, a great capacity for inflections. Arrival of the Jutes and Saxons in England. The ancient Britons, being sorely pressed by the Picts and Scots, implored, during the reign of Vortigern, * A specimen of the Lord's Prayer in Gothic, with a translation, will be found in another part. 208 PHILOSOPHY OF VOICE AND SPEECH. the aid of the Teutonic tribes, who inhabited the north of Germany. The first who came called themselves Jutes, and had as their leaders Hengist and Horsa. Having obtained possession of the Isle of Thanet, they, a few years afterwards (449), established the kingdom of Kent. Then came the Saxons, who, in 477, under Ella, established the kingdom of South Saxons (Sussex). Other Saxon invaders landed in Hampshire, and estab- lished, in 594, under their leader, Cedric, the kingdom of the West Saxons (Wessex), and of Essex, in 527. From this time the Angles, who inhabited a district called Angeln, in Schleswig, in the north of Germany, sent forth, during a period of sixty years, colony after colony, who formed settlements, and becoming at last the most powerful and numerous of the invaders, gave to the country their name and their language. The ancient Britons, who had embraced Christianity at a much earlier period, were driven into Cornwall and Wales by their heathen invaders. There were eight kingdoms founded in Britain by the Teutonic tribes, previous to 586 — one Jute, three Saxon, and four Angle, all of which spoke low German. It may, however, be necessary to inform the reader, that the narratives of the Saxon invasion of Britain can scarcely be said to possess a strictly historical character. *' The ordinary notion," says an eminent English antiquarian,* " that the first settlement was that under * The Celty the Roman,, and the Saxo7i, by Thos. Wright, F.S.A., 1852. See also Lappenberg and Kemble, on the Early History of the Anglo-Saxons. OKIGIN OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE. 209 Hengist and Horsa, has arisen from the circumstance that the Anglo-Saxon accounts of these events were founded on the traditions of Kent. It is probable, however, that they had been preceded by the Angles in the north ; for when we first become acquainted with them, this tribe seems to have been long in undisturbed possession of the whole country, from the Humber to the wall of Antoninus, which was formed into two kingdoms, that of Bernicia (Northumberland, &c.), and that of Deira (Yorkshire, &c.) " " The Saxon Chronicle, composed ages afterwards, gives us the first narrative of the wars between the Saxons and the Britons in the south, after the former had gained a footing there ; it is founded on the Anglo- Saxon traditions, perhaps on poems, and there are cir- cumstances about it which lead us to believe that it is partly romance. Even the names of Hengist and Horsa are supposed to be mythic." Language and Literature. The Anglo-Saxon language can scarcely be said to have become fixed in England until after the arrival of St. Augustine, who was sent by Pope Gregory to convert the Saxons, and who preached to Aethelbert, King of Kent, in the year 597. Among the earliest compositions extant in the Anglo- Saxon tongue, must be mentioned the poems of Caed- mon, neat herd to the monastery of Whitby, then lately founded by Hilda, a relation of Edwin, King of Nor- o 210 PHILOSOPHY OF VOICE AND SPEECH. thumberland. We are told, that being one day seated at table, when the harp was moved towards him, he retired from the company, conscious of his deficiency, and took refuge in the stable. Here, as he slept, some one, as he thought, appeared to him, and bade him sing. Caedmon made the attempt, and sung a hymn, which he repeated next day in the presence of Hilda, and to the admiration of all who heard him. At the solicitation of Hilda, who believed that he had received the gift of song from heaven, he became a monk ; and having the Scriptures expounded to him, he turned them into beautiful verse. Caedmon died in 680, and his body was, according to Malmsbury, found enshrined at Whitby, in the beginning of the twelfth century. The subjects of the six poems ascribed to Caedmon, which have reached us, are — The Creation — The Fall of Man — The Flight from Egypt — The Story of Daniel — The Torments of the Damned — and Christ's Ascension and Glory. According to Bede, Caedmon wrote some other works which are lost. At the head of the list of authors, after Caedmon, may be mentioned, the venerable Bede (died 735) ; but as the writings of these men were chiefly in Latin, there is no necessity to particularise their works. The illustrious Alfred (born 848) stands next in order as a writer in Anglo-Saxon. He translated several Latin works, including those of Osorius and the vene- rable Bede, and as he wrote in the West-Saxon dialect, it took from this time a preponderance over all others. After Alfred, the most prominent place in Saxon litera- ORIGIN OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE. 211 ture is occupied by Alfric, Archbishop of Canterbury, (died 1006), who prided himself that he wrote Anglo- Saxon pure and simple, avoiding all obscure words, so that he might be understood by unlettered people. At that period, and during half a century afterwards, the Anglo-Saxon was the prevailing idiom in England, presenting the apparent anomaly of the conquerors im- posing their language on the conquered. But the departure from the general rule is sufficiently explained when it is considered that the greater portion of the original inhabitants had not only been conquered, but driven out of the country. Breaking-up of the Anglo-Saxon Idiom. The formation of the compound language, known by the name of English, is generally dated from the time of William the Conqueror, although the thin end of the Anglo-Norman wedge had already been inserted into the English tongue by Edward the Confessor, who, on his return from exile in 1042, introduced both the customs and many expressions of the Norman nobles. No sooner, say our historians, had William the Con- queror, in 1066, taken full possession of England, than he determined not only to change the customs and man- ners, but the very language of his people. His nobles despised and refused to learn the Anglo-Saxon tongue, " which they abhorred with such intensity, that the laws of the land and the statutes of the English kings were treated of in the Latin tongue ; and even in the very o2 212 PHILOSOPHY OF VOICE AND SPEECH. scliools, the rudiments of grammar were imparted to the children in French and not in English. ""^ Ingulph's authority has, however, been so much shaken by the researches of modern investigators that his chronicle is, by Sir F. Palgrave, treated as a monk- ish invention, while Mr. Thomas Wright goes so far as to consider even the continuation of it by Pierre de Blois, spurious. ^ Granting that it is not proved that William made a deliberate attempt to change the Anglo-Saxon, or that he banished it from schools, it is certain that the Norman nobles despised, and for a long time did not learn the Anglo-Saxon language. Richard Coeur de Lion understood not a word of a speech addressed to him by his Anglo-Saxon subjects ; the higher classes were ashamed to employ the Saxon tongue, and the people began to neglect its niceties. The first effect which the Norman-French produced on the Anglo-Saxon was on the inflections, for in its original state the Anglo-Saxon was synthetic — that is, as already explained, expressing relations by changing the forms of the nouns, verbs, &c , instead of as at present by means of particles and auxiliary words. The name ^iven to the language in this transition state is Semi-Saxon. " We can trace its progress," observes Mr. Wright,f " in several literary monuments of importance. The latter years of the Anglo-Saxon * Ingulph's Chronicle of the Abbey of Cropland, translated by H. T. RUey, B. B. Bohn, 1854. f See an interesting lecture on the History of the English Language, delivered in Liverpool before the Historic Society £)f Lancashire, by Thomas Wright, F.S.A. Brakell, Liverpool. OEIGIN or THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE. 213 chronicle, which was continued to 1145, exhibit the language as already breaking very fast ; in the Metrical Chronicle of Layamon^ and in the Metrical Harmony of the Gospels, called the Ormulum, which were both probably written in the closing years of the twelfth century, the Anglo-Saxon grammatical forms have undergone an entire change, which is still more com- plete in the Semi-Saxon text of the Regula Inclusarum^ or the rule of nuns, in the earlier half of the thirteenth century." It took, however, a considerable time — and it was not before the middle of the thirteenth century, under Henry the Third, that the French-Norman words were freely admitted into the vocabulary of the people. Old words now became obsolete, and dropped out of the language as worn out teeth from the receding gums. New terms, chiefly Norman-French, replaced the old ones, until, about the beginning of the fourteenth century, the transformation of the Anglo-Saxon into English was efiected. About that period, that is after the baron's war, the language no longer Semi- Saxon, but English, re -appeared at court, and became an important branch of education among the aristocracy. The following passages, extracted from Trevisa's translation of HigderCs Polychronicon are interesting in their bearing upon the dis- and re-appearance of the hirthe tonge. " This apayringe of the birthe tonge is by cause of tweye thinges : oon is for children in scole azenes the usage and maner of all other naciouns, beth compelled 214 PHILOSOPHY OF VOICE AND SPEECH. for to leve her owne language, and for to constrewe her lessons and her thingis a Frenche, and haveth siththe that the Normans came first into England." " Now the zere of our Lord a thousand thre hundred foure score and fyve of the secunde King Rychard in alle the gramer scoles of England children leveth French and constreuth and lerneth an Englisch, and haveth thereby avauntage in oon side and desavauntage in another." In 1362 the English language obtained an important victory by an act passed that henceforth " all pleas in the courts should be pleaded, showed, defended, amended, debated, and judged in the English tongue." Some are of opinion that this important statute was granted on a petition of the people ; others consider that it was a free act of grace on the part of Edward the Third, who had just entered his fiftieth year. The ostensible reason given, was, that the French tongue had "become too much unknown in the realm." This was the age in which appeared the poems of Chaucer, and the celebrated visions of Piers Plough- man, popularly representing doctrines tending towards the approaching reformation. Besides the different form of versification there are very few French words in Pierce Ploughman, compared with the poems of Chaucer, whom Spenser nevertheless called a " well of English undefiled." From that period of time our language underwent many alterations, until it reached its full development, as exhibited in the authorised version of the Bible and the works of Shakspere. OBIGIN OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE. 215 THE LORD'S PRAYER. GOTHIC. IN ULPHILAS, About 360. Atta unsar, thu in himinam. Veihnanamo thein. Quimai tliiudi- nassus theins. Vairthai vilja the- ins, sve in himina, jah. ana airthai. Hlaif unsarana thana sinteinan gif uns himma daga Jah aflet uns tha- tei skulans sijaima, swasve jah weis afletam thaim sku lam unsaraim. Ja ni briggais uns in fraistubnja. Ak lausei uns af thamma ubilin. TJnte theina ist thiudangardi, yah mahts jah yulthus in aivins. Amen. ANGLO-SAXON.* METRICAL VERSION.f About 875. 1166. Feeder ure thu the earth on hoefenum Si thm namo ge- halgod. To be cume thin rice, Gewurthe thin willa in eorthanswa swa on heofhum. Urne gedseghwan- lican hlaf syle us to dseg. And forgyf us ure gyltas, swa swa ve forgy wath urum gyltendum. And ne gelaedde thu u s on costnung. Acalyseusofyfle. Ure Fadyr in Hea- venrich, Thy name be hallyed ever lieh : Thou bring us thy michell blisse, Als hit in Heaven y-do Evar in Yearthbeen it also : That holy bread that lasteth ay, Thou send it ous thisilke day. Forgive ous all that we have don, As we forgivet uch other mon : Ne let ous fall into no founding, Ac shield ous fro the fowle thing. Amen. * Said to have been translated by King Alfred. t This version, turned into meter, that the people might more easily learn and remember it, was sent over by Pope Adrian, an Englishman. — Wilkin's Essay towards a Real Character. 1668. 216 PHILOSOPHY OF VOICE AND SPEECH. THE LORD'S PRAYER. ANGLO-SAXON. About 1160. Ure Fader tliu the on lieofene eart Sy thin name ge- haleged To cume thin rice Geworde thin wille in heofene and in eorthe. Syle us to daig urne daighwam- liche hlaf. And forgyf us ure geltes swa we for- gyfath aelcen thare the with us agylteth TIME OF WICKLIFF, About 1370. Our Fadyr, that art in hevenes. Halewid be thi name. Thi kyngdom come to. Be thi wil done in erthe as in hevene. Give us this day our bread ovir other substaunce. And forgive to us our dettis, as we forgiven to oure dettouris. AUTHORISED VERSION. 1600. Our father, which art in heaven. Hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive them that trespass against us. And ne laed thu us on costnunge. Ac alys us fram yfele. And lede us not into temptacioun. But delyvere us from yvel. Amen.* And lead us not into temptation. But deliver us from evil. Amen. * Anglo-Norman words are now inserted, whereas there were none before. ORIGIN OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE. 217 Present state of the English Language. Although our language did not, after the appearance of the Bible version and the writings of Shakespeare, suffer any violent change, still the slow march of Time has not failed to produce in it various alterations, owing to the advancement of learning and the progress of science. An attentive reader of modern English words cannot help observing the differences which authors exhibit with regard to the proportion of Teutonic or GraBco- Latin words which they employ. An examination of passages taken from the Bible and the writings of various authors is stated to have led to the following results : — The translators of the Bible used for one hundred words of Teutonic origin 5 of Romance ;^' Shakespere, Swift, and Cowley about 15 ; Spenser, Milton, Thom- son and Addison 22 ; Locke and Young 27 ; Robertson and Pope more than 40 : and Hume and Gibbon from 50 to 60. Is this departure of our language from the Bible- standard a sign of degeneration ? Many think so, and deplore that the pure well of English has been rendered turbid by so many foreign admixtures ; for whatever differences of opinion may prevail as to the accuracy of the authorised version, all denominations are agreed as to the surpassing beauty of the language employed. " Who will say," writes the Rev. Mr. Faber {Lives * Romance is here used as a generic term, designating all words originally derived from the Latin. 218 PHILOSOPHY OF VOICE AND SPEECH. of the Saints), "that the uncommon beauty and mar- vellous English of the Protestant Bible is not one of the great strongholds of heresy in this country ? It lives in the ear like music that can never be forgotten, like the sound of church bells. Its felicities often seem to be almost things rather than words. It is part of the national mind and the author of national seriousness." Again there is a marvellous book found in every cottage, in which there are no *• big words," and that is old Bunyan. " Bunyan's style," says Lord Macaulay, " is delight- ful to every reader, and invaluable as a study to every person who wishes to obtain a wide command of the English language * * ^^ * Several pages do not contain a single word of more than two syllables, and yet for magnificence, for pathos, for vehement exhortation, for subtle disquisition, for every purpose of the poet, the orator, and the divine, his homely dialect was perfectly sufficient. There is no book in our literature which shows so well as the Pilgrim s Progress how rich that language is in its own wealth, and how little it has improved by all it has borrowed." Johnson is frequently accused of having introduced into our language many new words of Latin origin. The reproach is scarcely merited. Johnson was too rigid a conservative to have been a word-coiner.* All * "I have attempted a few alterations, and among those few, perhaps, the greater part is from the modern to the ancient practice. * * * There is in constancy and stability a general and lasting advantage, which will always overbalance the slow improvements of gradual correction." — Dr. Johnson's Preface to his Dictionary. ORIGIN OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE. 219 the Roman words which he employed were already existing in our language ; but he may be safely charged with having acted the part of a resurrectionist in drawing them forth from the oblivion into which many words had already sunk, and by employing them to have given an undue predominance to the Roman element. There can, indeed, be no doubt as to the fact that nearly all the new materials which have been added to our language for a long time past, have not been drawn from its own native spring, but from a foreign soil. So much have we become accustomed to this importation from certain quarters only, that any new term, if derived from the French, Latin, or Greek, though at first grumbled at, {e.g. telegram) soon obtains what the Germans call its citizenship, while it nearly requires an Act of Parliament to naturalise a new Teutonic term, however convenient or expressive. The reason usually given that the terms used in philosophy, science, and art, could not be drawn from the language of the Anglo-Saxons, who had not cultivated them, is refuted at once by the richness of the German language in all technical expressions which we invariably derive from Graeco-Latin sources.* The cause of this tendency obviously was that with the revival of learning and the progress of science the study of the Anglo-Saxon was greatly neglected and sacrificed for that of the classical tongues. With regard to the actual proportion of the foreign * The terms oxygen, hydrogen, carbon, are for instance rendered in German, sauerstoff, wasserstoff, kohlenstoff ; literally translated, sourstnjff, waterstuff, coalstiiff. 220 PHILOSOPHY OF VOICE AND SPEECH. to the native element in our language the authorities greatly differ. The oldest statement is that of Hickes, that the foreign part amounts only to one-tenth of the whole, founding his conclusions on the version of the Bible, and especially on that of the Lord's Prayer, in which there are but six words not of English origin. Sharon Turner calculates that the foreign elements amount to one-fifth, while other writers contend that the Anglo-Saxon portion of our language is much overrated. The subject has, however, been thoroughly inves- tigated by Dr. Thommerel,^'who, as he expresses him- self, took an inventory of the whole language, in order to arrive at the truth. Instead of founding his con- clusions, like his predecessors, upon selected passages, he carefully, with the assistance of Webster's, Bos- worth's, Meidinger's, and the Highland Society's Dic- tionaries, examined all the 43,566 words comprised in Richardson. The following are the results of his investigations. Anglo-Saxon words, 12,098 ; Islandic, 2 ; German, 342 ; Dutch, 712 ; Danish, 19 ; Swedish, 57 ; Greek, 330 ; Latin, 4,507; French, 8,489; Grseco-French, 549 ; Grseco-Latin, 237; Franco-Latin, 13,514 ; French- Grseco-Latin, 195 ; Italian, 121 ; Spanish, 48 ; Portuguese, 6 ; Celtic, 88 ; Semitic, 40 ; Chinese, 1. The general resume stands thus : — Of uncertain origin, 294 ; Teutonic, 13,330; Graeco-Latin, 29,854; Celtic, &c., 88; Total, 43,566. * Recherches sur la fusion du Franco-Normaud et de L' Anglo-Saxon. Paris, 1841. ORIGIN OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE. 221 There is, however, a great difference in the relative proportions of Roman and Teutonic words, as found under the different letters. Thus, of the words begin- ning with a 2230 are considered of Roman, and only 392 of Teutonic origin, while in w 824 are Teutonic, and only 81 Roman. According to this statement, it would appear that the native element constitutes only one-third of our present language — a result somewhat unexpected, but probably, not far from the actual truth. Has then, after this, the English language a right to be called a Teutonic tongue ? Undoubtedly; for this third is its vital part, without which it would cease to exist ; as all the foreign materials will not enable it to join together even two words or two verbs. It must, however, not be assumed that the 43,000 or 44,000 words found in the dictionary, constitute the whole vocabulary of our language, for it may be fairly calculated that if the many compound and floating expressions, only now and then used, are added, the number of words would be raised to above 80,000. Of these, it may perhaps be above the mark to say that 20,000 only are used in literary compositions, while, probably, not one-eighth of them are employed in colloquial intercourse. There is also a considerable difference with regard to the number of Teutonic and Romance terms used in our written and spoken language. In the former, one-half of the words wiU mostly be found to be of foreign extraction, whilst in the latter, three-fourths, at least, are home-grown. Most of the words made use of in conversation are 222 PHILOSOPHY OF VOICE AND SPEECH. Anglo-Saxon, and it will be observed that while the generic terms in the following list are French or Latin, the individuals comprised in them are Saxon. Universe — Sun, moon, stars, &c. Globe. — Earth, land, sea, water, stream, fields, meadows, hill, dale, wood, oak, birch, beech, elm, ash, &c. Time. — Day, night, noon, midnight, morning, evening, year, month, week, &c. Natural Phenomena. — ^Thunder, lightning, rain, snow, hail, sleet, wind, storm, heat, cold, frost, &c. Animal. — Man, fish, bird, worm, ox, cow, heifer, calf, swine, stag, doe, hart, sheep,* lamb, wolf, fox, hare, &c. Organs. — Eye, mouth, lip, tooth, tongue, heart, lungs, &c. Functions. — To eat, to drink, to sleep, to breathe, to laugh, &c. Parts and Members. — Limbs, hand, foot, finger, thumb, thigh, chest, breast, &c. Position. — To stand, sit, lie, &c. Motion. — To run, go, walk, leap, spring, fly, swim, creep, slip, crawl, &c. Commerce. — To trade, buy, sell, lend, borrow, &c. Products. — Corn, barley, oats, rye, straw, hay, &c. Domestic Relations. — Father, mother, son, daughter, husband, wife, child, bride, friend, roof, hearth, fireside, home, &c. Emotions. — Hope, fear, love, sorrow, hatred, scorn. Sound. — To hiss, buzz, hum, crack, smash, &c. Colour. — White, black, yellow, green, red, brown. Number. — All the numerals, excepting second, and million, billion, &c., are Teutonic. Opinions may differ with regard to the loss which the English tongue has experienced in originality and quaintness, but it is incontestable that not only has our vocabulary been vastly increased by foreign impor- * When dressed up, the ox becomes the Norman-French beef; sheep, mutton ; C£df, veal ; swine, pork ; hart, venison. ORIGIN OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE. 223 tations, but we have been furnished with a great variety of new expressions and synonymes. Romance words greatly come to our relief, when, in refined society, we have to express certain ideas which require to be soft- ened down. Honest and naked Saxon terms, descriptive of certain acts and objects, are only rendered admissible into the drawing-room by being dressed up in a Greek or Latin tunic. Thus, the whole vocabulary of the physician being nearly of Romance extraction, his terms give no offence to ears polite. Still the vital power of the Saxon portion of our lan- guage is shown by the fact of its having not merely sur- vived, but preserved its ascendency, in spite of all the revolutions it has undergone. " Trampled down by the ignoble feet of strangers, its spring still retains force enough to restore itself; it lives and plays through all the veins of the language, it impregnates the innumerable strangers entering its dominions with its temper, and stains them with its colour ; not unlike the Greek, which, in taking up ori- ental words, stripped them of their foreign costume, and bid them appear as Greeks." * Excellences of the English Language. Not only is the actual English vocabulary as large, or perhaps larger than that of any modern tongue, but the very loss of a portion of its originality has ren- dered the language capable of appropriating with * Bosworth's Anglo-Saxo7i Dictionary, 224 PHILOSOPHY OF VOICE AND SPEECH. impunity the spoils, power, and beauty from almost any language, so that we possess a never failing supply of new terms whenever they are wanted. Then again, the order in which our words are arranged, is simple and logical. We are not like our German cousins, obliged to keep a sharp look out for the verb which may be at the bottom of the page, whilst the subject stands at the top ; nor need we look into the dictionary whether table be masculine, feminine, or neuter. No declensions of substantives, adjectives, and participles ; few variations in our tenses, and but a small number of irregular verbs. Surely these are great advantages, and render our grammar the easiest of all known languages. The following character, given to the English tongue, nearly three centuries ago, has certainly not been for- feited. ** The Italian is pleasant, but without sinews, as a still, fleeting water. The French delicate, but even nice as a woman, scarce daring to open her lips for fear of marring her countenance. The Spanish majes- tical, but fulsome, running too much on the o, and terrible, like the devil in a play. The Dutch, manlike, but withal very harsh, as one ready at every word to pick a quarrel. Now we, in borrowing from them, give the strength of consonants to the Italian ; the full sounds of words to the French ; the variety of ter- minations to the Spanish ; and the mollifying of more vowels to the Dutch ; and so, (like bees), we gather the honey of their good properties, and leave the dregs to themselves. And thus substantialness combineth ORIGIN OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE. 225 with delightfulness, fulness with fineness, seemliness with poftliness, and currentness with staidness, how can the language which consisteth of all these, sound other than full of all sweetness ? "* A brilliant Hying author thus endorses old Camden's testimonial: — *' Then was formed that language, less musical, in- deed, than the languages of the south, but in force, in richness, in aptitude for all the highest purposes of the poet, the philosopher, and the orator, inferior to that of Greece alone." — Lord Macaulay^ s History of England. As modern philology is gradually abandoning the theory that the beauty, wealth, and force of a language depends on the complication of its grammar, the rich- ness of inflections and its structural niceties, Macaulay's exception in favour of the Greek, is by no means unexceptionally granted. But lest it be deemed that the foregoing observations on the excellencies of our noble tongue are rather too partial, let the reader peruse the following opinions entertained by foreign authorities of high repute. " Of all languages," says the Abbe Sicard, " the English is the most simple, the most rational, and the most natural in its construction. * * « No language seems better calculated to facilitate the intercourse of mankind as a universal medium of communication." But there is, perhaps, no living writer who possesses a greater right to pass a judgment on our language, than Jacob Grimm, the author of the Deutsche Gram- ma fk, which has proved such a mine of wealth to our * Camden's Remains, page 56, seventh impression. P 226 PHILOSOPHY OF VOICE AND SPEECH. own linguists ; and he expresses himself to the follow- ing eflfect : — "The English language possesses a power which probably never stood at the command of any other nation. This singularly happy development and con- dition has been the result of an intimate union of two of the noblest languages, the Teutonic and the Romance ; the former supplying the material ground work, the latter the spiritual conceptions. In truth, the English language, which by no mere accident has produced and upborne the greatest and most predominant poet of modern times, (I can, of course, only mean Shakespeare) may with all right be called a world language ; and like the English people, appears destined hereafter to prevail with a sway more extensive than its present one, over all portions of the globe. For in wealth, good sense, and closeness of structure, no other of the lan- guages at this day spoken deserves to be compared with it — not even our own German, which is torn even as we are torn, and must rid itself of its defects, before it can enter into the lists as a competitor with English." CHAPTEK XIV. ORIGIN AND PROGRESS OF WRITING. Whatsoever advantages audible language may confer upon man, as a medium of communication with his fellow creatures, it is clear that, save for some contri- vance to fix the evanescent sounds, the intercourse of human beings must have remained very limited, and the greater part of the acts and thoughts of past gene- rations must have been lost. Hence, in tracing the history of the human race, we can scarcely point out any people, how low soever in the scale of civilization, who have not felt the necessity of contriving and em- pbying, besides their vocal organs, some other means of expressing their thoughts and feelings. The mode devised to give some permanency to the fleeting sounds has been to address the eye instead of p2 228 PHILOSOPHY OF VOICE AND SPEECH. the ear. "Writing and visible language are thus con- vertible terms. But — "Whence did the wondrous mystic art arise, Of painting speech, and speaking to the eyes, That we, by tracing magic lines, are taught How both to colour and embody thought? "* That a small number of elementary characters should represent such a world of thought, feeling, and expe- rience ; that the tradition and civilisation of all nations which inhabited the earth should be reflected in it as in a mirror ; and that it should form a chain of com- munication from the remotest period, until the present moment, seems so marvellous, that, like the origin of language, the alphabet was considered to be of divine origin. Gilbert Wakefield concludes his Essay on the Origin of Alphabetical Characters with the following re- marks : — " To suppose that the art of alphabetical writing is the invention of man, is almost a philosophical impos- sibility, when we consider that it must, in this case, have been devised in the rudest state of the human intellect, while typography^ a discovery less curious and sagacious, eluded the detection of the most refined ages of literary perfection." * " C'est de lui qui nous vient cet art ingenieux, De peindre la parole, et de parler aux yeux, Et par les traits divers des figures tracees, Donner de la couleur et du corp aux pensees ? " Brebeufs Translation of Luean's Pharsalia. ORIGIN AND PROGRESS OF WRITING. 229 The conjecture that the decalogue was the first spe- cimen of alphabetical writing, and that a knowledge of letters was communicated to Moses by God, is unfounded, as in the passage, " And the Lord said unto Moses, write this for a memorial," (Exodus xvii. 14) the com- mand sufficiently indicates that the art must have been sufficiently known. There is another passage to be found in the Book of Job, who, according to Dr. Hales, lived in the patriarchal age, 184 years before Abraham, and which runs thus : — " Oh that my words were now written ! Oh that they were printed in a book ! " That they were graven with an iron pen and lead in the rock for ever." — Chap. xix. 23 & 24. In short the principal modes of giving permanency to thought are mentioned in these verses. It is, how- ever, justly surmised that the word printed is a mis- translation, and that traced is the proper meaning of the original term. Philo attributes the invention of letters to Abraham. Seyffarth even fixed the date of the invention, which, according to him, was conceived by Noah, on the 7th of September, 3446 e.g., upon the Zodiacus and the constellation of the seven planets. The learned Theod. Bibliander is generally mentioned in books of reference, as having satisfactorily (to him- self) traced the invention to Adam. This opinion must, however, have been prevalent centuries before Bib- liander' s time, as proved by the following passage extracted from Capgrave^s Chronicle: — " Anno mundi centesimo." " We rede that Adam in his first beginning, named p 3 230 PHILOSOPHY OF VOICE AND SPEECH. all bestes and foules upon ertlie, and that same name tliat thei have in the Hebrew tonge, he gave it to them. Eke (also) we rede that he prophecied both of the flood that schuld destroye the world, and eke of the fire, therefor he wrote these prophecies in too pileres, on of brasse, whech schuld not he distroyed with watir, a nothir on tyl, which schuld not hrenne with fireP^ Plato, Diodorus Siculus, Cicero, and other profane writers, ascribe the invention to the gods, especially to the fifth Mercury, or Hermes, called by the Egyptians, Thoth. Discarding, however, both the fiction of the priests and the dreams of enthusiasts, we cannot but come to the conclusion, that the art of writing is like language, the result of human thought based upon human instinct. Considering the exquisite structure of man's hand in combination with the imitative faculty inherent in human nature ; it is almost impo sible to imagine the existence of a trite possessing neither the disposition nor the power to represent, however rudely, the figures of external objects. It is, therefore, but natural to suppose that the first expedient which man adopted to render somewhat permanent, or to recall to other minds both objects and acts, was to give to the best of his ability actual deline- etions of them. Thus the figures of a man and a club * Capgraye's Chronicle, edited by the Rev. Ch. Hingeston, B.A., published by authority. J iin Capgrave, accoro ng to his own account, was born in 13J3, died 1464. *'If y. will wete what that I am, my cuntre is Northfolk of the toun of Lynne." OEIGIN AND PEOGRESS OF WRITING. 231 would, separately, be simply a representation of the actual objects, while the club in the hand of a man might be the elementary symbol for an act. But with the increase of knowledge it was found necessary to describe, not only objects and acts, but qualities and ideas ; and these could only be represented visibly by objects having or supposed to have some analogy to the ideas intended to express. Thus arose symbolical writing, the most difficult to decipher, as the analogy between the original idea and the object represented was frequently merely imaginary or the result of local associations. These representations increased with the advance of civilisation to such an extent that it became necessary greatly to abridge them, and to leave only such pro- minent parts as might suggest the whole or express the species. The symbol thus gradually lost all resem- blance to its original, until it became at last scarcely recognisable. The last stage in the development of writing is the Phonetic, in which certain characters are made to repre- sent syllables or entire words, and which led to the most valuable of human inventions, the alphabet. American Picture- Writing, Most of the records which have reached us, furnish abundant evidence in favour of the theory just advanced. Picture-writing existed in primitive ages among all but the lowest savages, and is even still in use among some of the Indian tribes in North America. 332 PHILOSOPHY OF VOICE AND SPEECH. The foilowing interesting passages, in reference to this subject, are extracted from the great national work on the Indian tribes, now publishing by authority of Congress.* "For their pictorial signs, the North American Indians have two terms, namely, kekeewin^ or such things as are generally understood by the tribe ; and kekeenoxoin, or teachings of the medas, or priests, and jQsskeeds, or prophets. The knowledge of the latter is chiefly confined to persons versed in their system of magic, medicine, or religion, and may be termed the hieratic. The former consists of the common hieratic signs, such as are employed at places of sepulture, or by hunting or travelling parties. It is also employed in the muzzinabilis, or rock writing. "One of the most obvious devices of the primitive ages in picture-writing would appear to have been a personal device, or mark to stand as a sign of a name ; and hence we find that seals and signets were used long before letters. " Thus among the Indians, the ' Totem,' (armorial badge,) is a symbol of the name of the progenitor — generally some quadruped or bird, which stands, as it were, as the surname of the family. By whatever names the individuals who trace from it their lineage may be called, it is the toiem, and not their personal names, which are recorded on the tomb. " The turtle, the bear, and the wolf, appear to have * Historical and Statistical Information respecting the History y Condition, and Prospects of the Indian tribes of the United States, collected, &c., by H. R. Schoolcraft, L.L.D. Philadelphia. ORIGIN AND PROGRESS OF WRITING. 233 been primary and honoured totems in most of the tribes, and bear a significant rank in the traditions of the Iroquois and Lenapis, or Delawares ; and they are believed to have more or less prominency in the genealogies of all the tribes, who are organised on the totemic principle. " The turtle is an object held in great respect in all Indian reminiscence. It is believed to be a symbol of the earth, and is addressed as a mother." Mexican Picture- Writing, When the Spaniards arrived in Mexico, they found many persons engaged in picture-writing, and a great quantity of manuscripts and paintings.* As these scrolls were, however, looked upon by them as devilish devices, all those that could be collected were, by the order of the first Archbishop of Mexico, publicly burned. Some few, however, of these manuscripts have found their way into the European libraries. One of the most interesting of them is that sent to Charles the Fifth, by the Viceroy Mendoza, and hence called the Mendoza Codex, which, after undergoing various vicissitudes, obtained at last a resting place in the Bodleian Library, at Oxford. According to the Marquis Spineto, the original is in the Escurial. The work embraces a history of the Mexican Empire, under its ten monarchs, a tribute * Montezuma was informed of the arrival of Cortes by sketches of the Spaniards, their ships, horses, arms, &c. 234 PHILOSOPHY OF VOICE AND SPEECH. roll and a code of their institutions. The antiquary Purchas published this document in the third volume of his Pilgrimage, in 1625. Egyptian Writing. Hieroglyphics (sacred engraving). — There can be but little doubt the writing of the Egyptians also originated from iconographic or picture-writing. The earliest hieroglyphics known are those found in the tombs near the Pyramids of El Geezeh, and were executed about 2440 B.C., in the beginning of the fourth dynasty. In these inscriptions, many of which have been published,* there is a combination of picture and phonetic writing. Both Bunsen and Lepsius con- sider that these inscriptions were executed about a thousand years earlier. The Egyptian writing consisted of three kinds af characters — the hieroglyphic, the hieratic, and the demotic, or enchorial characters. The hieroglyphic characters either represent real things by pictures, or ideal things by symbols ; while some characters, either syllabic or alphabetic, represent sound phonetically. The hieratic character seems to have been used not long after the hieroglyphic, to which it bears the same relation as written to printed matter. The demotic or enchorial (vulgar) characters are altered forms of the hieratic, and are ruder in form. * See Lepsius Denkraaler aus Aegypten und Aethiopien. ORIGIN AND PROGRESS OF WRITING. 235 The vulgar dialect is expressed in this system, in which the phonetic characters greatly predominate over the iconographic and symbolic. The discovery of the Rosetta stone, although it may not have realised the hopes entertained that by its means we should be enabled easily to decipher all the Egyptian monuments, must certainly be considered as having given a powerful impulse to Egyptian researches. This piece of black basalt, was found in the ruins of Fort St. Julien, near the Rosetta Mouth of the Nile. The British took possession of it on the capitulation of Alexandria. It was brought to England in 1802, and is now in the British Museum Three inscriptions are found on this stone. That on the top is in hieroglyphic, the second is in enchorial, and the third is in Greek characters. A considerable portion of the hieroglyphic inscription is broken oS; from the enchorial description consisting of thirty-two lines, the beginning of the first fifteen is wanting, but the Greek text is least mutilated. The stone, as appears from the Greek inscription, was erected about 197 e.g. in the ninth year of the reign of Ptolomaeus Epiphanes. Person and Heyne furnished translations of the Greek text, which, being a decree in honour of Ptolemy, concludes with these words : — " This decree shall be engraven on a hard stone in sacred, common, and Greek characters." But although the Greek does not faithfully represent the enchorial text, but only gives its meaning, it afforded to inquirers a certain basis. In addition to this must be mentioned the favourable circumstance that the 236 PHILOSOPHY OF VOICE AND SPEECH. beginning of the inscription contained many proper names, which are less liable to change in different lan- guages, and which can always be more easily recognised in unknown characters. These proper names, as Dr. Thomas Young was one of the first to detect, are on most Egyptian monuments distinguished by being enclosed in an oval ring, called a royal cartouche. Dr. Young was also one of the first to discover that the hieroglyphics were not merely representatives of things, but also of sounds, and were thus used both as symbols, and as phonetic characters. Among successful decipherers of hieroglyphics must also be mentioned Sylvester de Sacy, Akerblad, and especially Champollion. Lepsius and Bunsen deser- vedly rank high as investigators of Egyptian antiquities. A modification of picture-writing, in which the em- blems were, like some of the hieroglyphic characters, both representatives of objects and articulate sounds, was revived a few centuries ago, and soon became a favourite amusement in France and in England. This style of writing was called Eebus,^' and William Cam- den gives the following account of its introduction into England. "After that the triumphant victorious king Edward the Third had traversed France, and had planted English colonies * The name is, according to Menage, derived from certain tracts which the priests of Picardy issued annually about Car- nival time, for the purpose of exposing the intrigues that had passed in their neighbourhood. These pamphlets were entitled De rebus quce geruntur ; the breakings and joinings of the words were filled up with pictures. Children's books are sometimes arranged on this principle, and the Rebus is still a standing feature in many continental publications, especially French. ORIGIN AND PROGRESS OF WRITING. 237 in Calice, Hammes, and Guynes, our people bordering upon the pregnant Picardes began to admire their fooleries in painted poesies. For whereas a poesie is a speaking picture, and a picture is a speechless poesie, they which lack'd wit to express their conceit in speech, did use to depaint it out (as it were) in pictures, which they called Kebus by a Latine name well fitting their device. " They were so well liked by all degrees, the learned and unlearned, that he was nobody that could not hammer out of his name an invention by this wit-craft, and picture it accord- ingly. '* Did not that amorous youth mystically express his love to Rose Hill, whom he courted, when, in the border of his painted cloth, he caused to be painted as rudely as he devised grossly, a Rose, an Hill, an Eye, a Loaf, and a "Well ? That is, if you will spell it, Rose Hill I love well. " Morton, Archbishop of Canterbury, a man of great wisdom, and born to the universal good of the realm, used a mulberry tree, called morus in Latine, out of a tun. So Luton, Thorne- ton, Ashton, did notify their names with a lute, a thorn, an ash upon a tun. So an hare on a bottle, for Harebottle ; a magpie on a goat, for Pigot."* Assyrian and Babylonian Characters. Not less interesting than the hieroglyphics in their bearing both on Ethnology, and on sacred and profane history, are the arrow headed or wedge shaped inscrip- tions found engraven upon the bricks, buildings, rocks, and monuments in Babylonia, Persepolis, Hamadan, Van, Behistan, in short, spread throughout the mighty empire of the great Cyrus. These inscriptions are now familiar to the eye of the public from the * Camden's Remains, p. 215. 23(S PHILOSOPHY OF VOICE AND SPEECH. numerous slabs and monun\ents which, thanks to the discoveries of Layard, have found their way to the British Museum. Like the hieroglyphics, the cunei- form inscriptions were, by the very descendants of the people who engraved them, imagined to be the work of spirits, and like the hieroglyphics, they at last revealed their secrets to the magic touch of the philologists of the nineteenth century — pre-eminently the age of inven- tions and discoveries. Pietro della Valle {Voyage Paris, 1747), and Figuero, Ambassador to the Court of Spain, are mentioned as the first European travellers who formed any conjectures as to the interpretation of cuneiform characters. The first exact copies of arrow headed characters were published by Niebuhr on his return from the East, which, no doubt, gave rise to various attempts to decipher them. Dr. Hager, in a dissertation published in 1801, gave it as his opinion that the character on bricks indicated the brick maker's name. Hager was followed by Lichtenstein, who refers the inscriptions in the ruins of Babylon to the seventh century after Christ, and asserted that the inscriptions must be read from right to left. As about the time when these inscriptions were engraven, three distinct nations, Assyrians, Persians, and Scythians, speaking different languages, inhabited these regions, the inscriptions are trilingual : Persian, Assyrian, and a third which is not yet decipered. Just as the Greek text on the Rosetta stone furnished the key for deciphering the hieroglyphics, so was the Assyrian alphabet constructed out of the Persian text. To the late Dr. Grotefend, of Hanover, belongs, how- ORIGIN AND PROGRESS OF WRITING. 239 ever, the merit of having laid the foundation for all subsequent discoveries. Already in 1802 Grotefeud read a paper on cuneiform inscriptions before the literary society of Goettingen in which he gave the following as the results of his investigations : — " That the cuneiform figures are alphabetic charac- ters. " That the inscriptions of Persepolis contain three different systems, so that the deciphering of one would furnish the sense of the other. " That the inscriptions are to be read from left to right. " That the Persepolitan inscriptions are in Zend, and belong to the period of Cyrus and Alexander." A basis for future labours had now been laid. In 1826 Bournouf possessing an intimate knowledge of the Zend language, ascertained that one of the Persepolitan inscriptions contained numerous proper names of ten syllables, of which he was able to fix the reading, and thus augmented the alphabet, and proved that a know- ledge of Zend and Sancrit, cognate to the old language of Persia may be successfully applied in deciphering the characters. Professor Lassen, of Bonn, a pupil of August Schlegel, published at the same time a most important work * on this subject which supplied twelve new letters hitherto misunderstood The largest and most important record of the Per- sian state and the might of Darius, is the Behistan * Die Alt-Persischen Keil-Inschrifien von Persepolis- Bonn 1836. 240 PHILOSOPHY OF VOICE AND SPLECH. inscription, from which Sir H. Rawlinson picked out his Assyrian, and which he could now read in the Per- sian cuneiform writing so as to enable him to construct a pretty accurate Assyrian alphabet, which he found was nearly allied to the ancient Chaldee and H/ebrew. This inscription is engraven on a rock, at a place called by Sir H. Rawlinson, Behistan (but marked in the maps BIsutun), not far from Kirmanshah, or the frontier of Persia. The rock rises abruptly from the plain to the height of 1,700 feet, and the inscription is engraven at an elevation of 300 feet above the plain, by which the monument has been spared the fate which has befallen other ancient records. The execution of these inscriptions for extent, beauty, and uniformity is really wonderful, especially when we take into account that it was executed in an age where steel was supposed to be unknown.* In this inscription occurs the follow- ing passage, standing over the head of the effigy of the monarch, which is thus interpreted by Sir H. Rawlinson. " Says Darius the king, * My father was Hystaspes, the father of Hystaspes was Arsames, the father of Arsames was Aryaramnes, the father of Aryaramnes was Teispes, the father of Teispes was Achaemenes. On that account we have been called Achaemenes." At the meeting of the British Association, in 1850, Sir H. Rawlinson, in reply to some observations by Dr. Hinks, said that he doubted whether they could trace, in the Babylonian inscription, the primitive * See Rawlinson' s account of his progress in the 10th vol. of the Royal Asiatic Journal. OTIIGIN AND PEOGKESS OF WRITING. 241 civilization of man. He was of opinion that civilization first showed itself on the Nile after the inauguration of the early tribes from Asia. In Egypt, he thought, germinated the human intellect, and that there was, in a later age, a reflux of civilisation from the Nile back to Asia. He was satisfied that the system of writing in use on the Tigris and Euphrates was taken from the Nile. The earliest Assyrian inscriptions found by Mr. Layard at Nimroud, and which that writer believed to be 2500 years older than the Christian era, he was inclined to place between 1350 and 1200, as there was a notice in them of Tyre and Sidon, which were not founded more than 1300 years b.c. England has good reason to be proud of having given birth to such a par nohile fratrum as Layard and Raw- linson — the greatest excavator and the most successful interpreter of by far the most interesting relics of antiquity. Chinese Writing. The Chinese characters are not, as those in other languages, representatives of sounds, but symbols of ideas, addressing the eye and not the ear, resembling, in some respects, numlers and algebraic notations which various nations can understand, though they pronounce them difierently. Thus, although the oral languages of the various territories of the Chinese empire difier, the inhabitants of these countries are able to communi- cate with each other by means of the Wan-tsze, or written language, which neither corresponds to the Q 242 PHILOSOPHY OF VOICE AND SPEECH. spoken Mandarin language (Kwan-hwa), nor to the local idiom (Ileang-tan). Dr. Morrison f Chinese Dictionary) says tliat Paou-she, a person who lived about the year of the world 2900, is by the Chinese considered as the father of letters, and that nine-tenths of his characters were rude represen- tations of the things signified. These characters are yet found on ancient seals and vases, and show the changes that have taken place from the picture to the symbol. A collection of them is to be found in Pere Amiot's Lettre de PeJdn. The present system of symbols, consists of a certain number of characters called Tse-poo (directing charac- ters), or shoo-moo (eyes of the book). These charac- ters have received the names of keys, elements, or radicals, and amount in number to 214. They are divided into 17 classes, beginning with such keys as are formed of one stroke of the pencil, and ending with those composed of 1 7 strokes. These keys stand either on the right, on the top, in the middle, or at the bottom, but most frequently on the left side of the character. The dictionaries are divided into 17 sections, headed by the 1 7 keys, commencing with that class which has its keys of one stroke and ending with that which is composed of 17 strokes. The Chinese words are disposed in perpendicular lines one word below the other. Modes of Writing. The ancient forms of writing, included — 1, the vertical or column writing, still prac- tised by the Chinese ; 2, the horizontal, either from right to left, or from the left to the right, and 3, OBIGIN AND PROGRESS OF WRITING. 243 furrow- writing, termed, in Greek, houstrophedon ox-turning manner. The writer, who practised the last method, thus saved the time consumed in carrying the hand back to the beginning of the next line, while the eye of the reader is not constrained, on arriving at the end of a line, to hit the commencing point of the next line. It is probable that the earliest practice was to write from the right to the left. Whether the method of writing from left to right, adopted by the people of the west, be superior, is a mere matter of opinion, every people preferring that mode to which they have been accustomed. Alphabets. The term "alphabet,'* which designates a definite series of characters, is, no doubt, derived directly from the Greek, and indirectly from the Hebrew language, as the alpha and heta of the Greeks, evidently correspond to the aleph and heth, the first two letters of the Hebrew alphabet. The number of letters varies in difierent lang-uages ; thus, whilst the Sanscrit alphabet is composed of fifty characters, the Semitic alphabets have but twenty-two letters. In the European languages again, we find that the Italian alphabet consists only of twenty-one letters, while the Russian has as many as thirty five ; indeed, the old Russian has forty-one letters. In no existing alphabet do the characters perfectly Q 2 244 PHILOSOPHY OF VOICE AND SPEECH. correspond to the elementary sounds of the respective language. The letters are either redundant or insuffi- cient. The Russian alphabet, which Cyrillus formed out of the Greek, and enriched with twelve new characters, is considered as one of the most perfect, and might, hy means of diacritical marks, be made clearly to express the writable sounds of most languages. Some authors, like Van Helmont and De Brosses, conceived that letters derived their forms from the position of the organs of articulation; the former endeavoured to prove that the Chaldaic characters approach nearest to the alphabet of nature, and that no letter can be properly sounded without disposing the organs of speech in a position corresponding to the figure of each letter. There is, however, every probabilitjf that the letters composing the Phoenician alphabet, allowed by common consent, to be one of the most ancient which has reached us, represented, at first, real objects, but whether they resembled them in form is less certain. The following table gives an interpretation of the Hebrew alphabet, according to the researches of Gese- nius and Roediger. I. Aleph Bull (head with horns) II. Beth Tent or house III. Gimel Camel (the long neck) IV. Daleth Door (the square form in the original) V. He Lattice window, air hole vi. Vav Hook, nail VII. Zain Weapon lance VIII. Khet Paling IX. Zet Serpent ORIGIN AND PEOGEESS OP WRITING. 245 X. Jod Hand with wrist XI. Kaph Hand hollow XII. Lamed Prick stick XIII. Mem Water (the waves) XIV. Nun Fish XV. Samech Brass XVI. Ajin Eye XVII. Peh Mouth (open) XVIII. Tsade Angle, (fishing hook) XIX. Coph Ax XX. Resh Head of bird or man XXI. Shin Tooth XXII. Tav. Tau Sign, brand of beasts The invention, or at any rate the introduction of an alphabet into Greece, is usually ascribed to Cadmus, a mythological hero, the pretended founder of Thebes. According to some scholars, Cadmus is derived from the Phoenician word ^ec?em (morning, orient), and refers to the immigration of a Phoenician tribe into Greece. The Phoenicians were Canaanites, and Cadmus is said to have lived about the time of Joshuar The first alphabet which the Greeks received con- sisted only of sixteen letters, which did not in form much differ from the Samaritan letters. Palamedes, twenty years before the taking of Troy, about 1164 B.C., is said to have added the double letters theta^ xiy ph, chi^ and Simonides zeta, eta, psi, omega.'^ Runes. Much mystery was formerly attached to certain peculiar characters chiefly employed by the northern * Abbe Fourraont says that some of these were used before the days of Palamedes. q3- 246 PHILOSOPHY OF VOICE AND SPEECH. nations of Europe. It may therefore not be uninterest- ing to insert a short account of the Runic alphabet. The term Runes is derived from the northern word runa, signifying letter, speech, song, in a mysterious sense ; thus the German word raunen means to whisper. Others derive the word from runen, to scratch, to engrave. As all writing originally was engraving, so were the earliest Runes cut on stones, but chiefly engraved upon wooden tablets or sticks. Poetry was frequently inscribed upon quadrangular staves, each face contain- ing a line ; hence a verse and a stave are still con- sidered synonymous.^ Magical virtues, spells, and charms were ascribed to the Runic characters in the earliest period. The women who occupied themselves with magic and divination were called alrunen, and in Sweden a magician was even till the sixteenth century called runokarl. From the apparent similarity of the Runic letters to Greek and Roman characters, Fr. Schlegel and others were of opinion that Phcenician merchants introduced Greek and Roman characters among the northern nations inhabiting the shores of the Baltic, and that the priests kept them secret and modified them by giving them an angular form for the purpose of engraving. According to others, the greatest part of the northern Runes represent rude hieroglyphics of objects. Runic letters are divided into three classes : the Northern or Scandinavian ; the Anglo-Saxon, and the German. * Buchstabe (beech stave) is still the German name for letter. ORIGIN AND PROGEESS OF WRITING. 247 The Northern Runic alphabet consisted originally of sixteen letters, each of which had its proper name. The alphabetic arrangement seems arbitrary, no atten- tion having been paid to the affinity of sounds. NAMB. SIONIPICATION. Fe Sheep, (f) TJr Bos taxirus, auerochs, urwasser. (u, v, o) Thorn Thorn or thnrs, giant, (th) Ob, OS Mouth, o (a) Held Ride or lightning, (r) Kaun Bump, (k) Hagl Kail, (h) Naud Fetters, (a) Is Ice. (ij) Ar Eagle, (a) Kne sol Bent sun. (s z) Tyr Hammergod. (t d) Biarkan or Biork Birch, (b p) Laugr Bath or sea. (1) Madr Man (m.) Yr Bow. (y) This alphabet was divided into three parts : Fe led the first six characters, and Hagel and Tyr the remain- ing ten. They were therefore called Freys-aett (Freis species) Hagls-aett, and Tyr's-aett It will be perceived that in this alphabet there is but one character for h and p ; one for y and k ; one for d and t, and one for it, v, y. Besides which, the inter- mediating vowel e is entirely wanting, and is expressed by ^, a, ia, and ai. Some of these defects were subsequently removed by the addition of e, g,p, v. No particular marks were assigned to these new comers, but old Runes were 248 PHILOSOPHY OF VOICE AND SPEECH. selected, bearing to them some affinity in sound, anJ points added. These Runes are therefore called stungnar rtmir, pointed Runes, and excepting the points consist of the Runes i, k, b, and /. On the introduc- tion of Roman writing on parchment and paper, new characters were formed for dh, and the diphthongs a?, <\ , it signified 1,000, and with a stroke over it, 10,000. When it stands before a large number it must be subtracted, when after, it must be added. Y represents both a consonantal and a vowel sound. The letter is derived from the Greek «?, which sounded like the French u or the German u. It is used as a consonant before vowels, and in the beginning of words, as yes, year ; and the sound is produced by the emission of breath while part of the tongue is brought into con- tact with the posterior part of the palate. This sound is also expressed, though not written, before a long u in the beginning, and before o preceded by i in the middle of a word, e.g. unity., onion. In the Anglo-Saxon, this sound was denoted by e before a or u, and by i before e or u, eorl, Eotaland earl, Jutland. The old-fashioned spelling y^, y«, for that, the, has no doubt arisen from the form of the Anglo-Saxon character, which expressed th. F, as a vowel, has, like i, three sounds ; short, like i in sin, mostly in words of Greek origin ; long, like i in routine, generally at the end of words, where there is in English a great tendency to place it ; and the diph- thongal sound, as in mine, when it is accented as in^y, supply, and also in some unaccented final syllables in verbs, such as satisfy, indemnify, Sfc. As a number, y stands for 150, with a stroke over it, 150,000. 274 THTLOSOPHY OF VOICE AND SPEECH. The Germans have now entirely rejected the use of y; as the consonantal sound is represented by y, and the vowel, by i. ywas called by the ancients, litera Pythagorica^ as Pythagoras considered its form the symbol of human life, the stem representing youth, and the top the two paths of virtue and vice. Z, the last letter in our alphabet, represents a sibilant sound produced like 5, the breath not being emitted with the same force, while the tongue is pressed some- what closer to the palate, and bears thus the same relation to s as v to/. In the German, the z has an intermediate sound between c and ts ; in Italian it sounds like ds ; in Spanish it corresponds to our //*, and in French, when sounded, it resembles an s forcibly pronounced. No English word begins with z, although the letter is found in Saxon alphabets. Z interchanges with d, g, 5, t, S^c. As a numeral, Z signified 2,000, and with a dash over it 1,000 times 2,000, or 2,000,000. Quintilian calls it — dulcissima, jucundissima. Summary of the Poivers of Single Letters. Sounds. A 5 Stare, star, staff, stands, stall. B 1 Bell. C 4 Cemetery, cry, suffice, social. D 2 Did, graced. ANALYSIS OP THE ENGLISH ALPHABET. 275 E 2 Evil, hen. F 2 Full, of. ^ G 3 Gentle, give, rouge. H 1 Help. / 4 Inn, routine, mine, sir. J 2 Judge, hallelujah. K 1 Kirk. Z 1 Lime. 3/ 1 Mamma. iV 2 No, shank. O 5 On, oh, move, one, women. P 1 Papa. Q 1 Quell. i? 2 Eam, arm. /S 4 Son, is, sure, treaswe. r 2 Pot, potion. ^ 5 Pull, union, rude, but, busy, V 1 Vivid. ^ 1 Wall. Z 3 Lax, examine, Xerxes. Y 3 Year, rhyme, hymn. Z 2 Azure, gizzard. Digraphs and Diphthotigs.^ Aa is only found in foreign words, such as Kraal^ (a * The difference between a digraph and a diphthong is, that in the former, one vowel only is pronounced, while in the latter both vowels are sounded. Thus ea in head is a digraph ; but oi in boil is a diphthong. s2 276 PHILOSOPHY OF VOICE AND SPEECH. Hottentot village) and some proper names ; it has then the 4ong open sound of a in bar. Ee represents the long «, as in marine ; bee. Oo represents, first, the long o : Jioor ; 2, the long u: hoor ; 3, the short u: good ; 4 the obsure u : soot. I, u, and y are rarely doubled. In yenn the vowels are pronounced separately, thus ^je-ne-i. Ae has nearly the same sound of c, which is gradually supplanting this diphthong: aequator, equator; Aegypt, Egypt. At, like a in male : tail, said. In some few foreign words ai sounds like i ; aisle is pronounced He. Ao, the long o, goal. Au, like aw, in raw, caught. In some words, as draught, the djphthong has the open, short sound of a in craft. Ea has four sounds : like e in be, heat ; like e in pet, head; like a in pare, pear ; like a in tar, heart. Ei, four sounds : like a in dane, deign ; like e in hen, he7yer ; like e in be, receipt ; like i in mine, height. Eo, four sounds : like i in ravine, people ; like e in red, leopard; like the long o in bone, yeoman; like u in cut, luncheoTi. Eu has generally the power of u in union, eulogy. le represents, firstly, the long i as in routine, fiend ; 2, the short e, friend; 3, the name sound of i, lie. Oa has the long sound of o in bone, road. Oe has the same sound as oa, roe. In some words it is sounded like oo, shoe. Oi and oy sound generally alike, as in hroil,joy. Ou six sounds, first, as in house ; 2, like u in rule. ANALYSIS OF THE ENGLISH ALPHABET. 277 tour ; 3, like u in put, would ; 4, like a in call^ thought; 5, like o in bone, soul; 6, like the indis- tinct u in burn, young. Trigrapha and Triphthongs, Eau, generally found in French words, is sounded like the long o, thus heau is pronounced hoh. Eou sounds like iou in gracious. Eye like the long e, eye. Ewe like u in union. lew like ew, view. Uay, like e, g'way. t^oy, like oy, buoyant. The relative proportion of letters required in English printing have, by long experience, been settled thus : — A, 85— b, 16— c, 30— d, 44— e, 120— f,25— g, 17— h, 64— i, 80— j, 4— k, 8—1, 40— m, 30— n, 80— o, 80— p, 17— q, 5— r, 62— s, 80— t, 90— u, 34— v, 12— w, 20 —X, 4— y, 20— z, 2. Hence, e is used sixty times oftener than z, and about thirty times oftener than /, x, or q. s3 278 PHILOSOPHY OF VOICE AND SPEECH. CHAPTER XVI. ENGLISH ORTHOGRAPHY AND ORTHOEPY. The study of the powers of the twenty-six letters individually and combined abundantly shows first : that our alphabet is both insufficient and redundant ; and secondly, that the spoken words are, in most cases, utterly at variance with their written representatives. Our orthography has, therefore, like our constitution, become the wonder of the world, without, however, exciting the envy of surrounding nations. Voltaire somewhere says, " The English gain upon us two hours daily in their pronunciation, for they swallow half their words;" whilst Laharpe conceives that the vici- ousness of the English pronunciation seems to be in conflict with the articulation of the human voice. ENGLISH ORTHOGRAPHY AND ORTHaEPT. 279" The following dialogue between a Frenchman and his tutor, e^ttracted from the Neiu York Home Journal^ affords an amusing illustration of our orthoepic system. " Frenchman. — Ha, my good friend, I have met with one difficulty — one very strange word. How you call h-o-u-g-h ? Tutor.— Huff. Frenchman. — Tres hien, huff ; and sm^ff you spell s-n-o-u-g-h., ha! Tutor. — O, no, snuff is s-n-u-ff. The fact is, words ending in ough are a little irregular. Frenchman. — Ah, very good ! 'tis beautiful language. H-o-u-g-h is huff^ I will remember ; and cough is cuff. I have one bad cuff, ha ! Tutor. — No, that is wrong. We say hauff, not cuff. Frenchman. — Pardonnez moi, how you call d-o-u-g-h ? duff, ha I Tutor. — No, not duff. Frenchman. — Not duff ; ah, out, I understand — is dauff, hey ? Tutor. — No, dough spells doe. Frenchman. — Doe ! It is very fine ; wonderful lan- guage, it is doe ; and t-o-u-g-h is toe certainement. My beefsteak was very toe. T'ltor. — 0, no, no ; you should say tuff. Frenchman. — Tuff I and the thing farmer uses how you call him plough, pluff? ha, you smile; I see, I am wrong, it \splauf? No? ah, then it is ploe like doe; it is a beautiful language, ver' fine — ploe ? Tutor. — You are still wrong, ray friend. It is ploio. Frenchman. — Ploiv ! Wonderful language. I shall 280 PHILOSOPHY OF YOICE AND SPEECH., understand ver' soon ; one more, rough is ruff, and hough is buff. Tutor. — No, hoio. Frenchman. — Ah, very simple, wonderful language ; but I have had what you call e-n-o-u-g-h ; ha, what you call him ? " The American author committed, however, a great blunder in the selection of the pupil ; for of all nations, our allies across the channel have the least right to laugh at the eccentricities of our pronunciation. A writer in the French Encyclopaedia says, in refe- rence to French orthography and orthoepy: — "The disagreement has become so excessive that no one dares to attempt a remedy. We pronounce one lan- guage — we write another ; and being accustomed during the remainder of life, to the inconsistencies which have caused us so many tears in childhood, if we should renounce our bad orthography for one nearer to the pronunciation, we should not be able to recognize our spoken language under the new combination of charac- ters." But though French orthography may also be insane, there is certainly more method in its madness than in our system of spelling. " No Englishman," observed the late Mr. Ellis,*' can tell with certainty how to pronounce any word which he has only seen written, and has not heard spoken ; nor can he tell with certainty how to spell a word which he has only heard spoken and never seen written. The * A Plea for Phonetic Spelling ^ by Alexanier John Ellis, B.A. London, Pitman, 1848. ENGLISH OETHOGRAPHY AND ORTHOEPY. 281 problems are, in short : given the letters to find out their sounds — given the sounds to find their possible representative letters." And it is difficult to give a satis- factory solution, for much that is written is not spoken, and much that is spoken is not written. In the second volume of Isaac D' Israeli's Amenities of Literature (page 241.) may be found the following curious specimen of our orthography in the infancy of our literature, addressed by the Duchess of Norfolk to the Earl of Essex. The Duchess, it must be observed, was " one of the most accomplished ladies of the six- teenth century, the friend of scholars, and the patron of literature." The letter runs thus : — *' My ffary gode lord — her I sand you in tokyn hoff the new eyer, a glasse of setyl set in sellfer gyld. I pra you take hit (in) wort. An hy wer habel het showlde be bater. I woll hit war wort a m. crone."* Dr. Nott, 'who has preserved the epistle, supplies also the modernisation of this curiosity. " My very good lord, — Here I send you, in token of the new year, a glass of setyll set in silver gilt ; I pray you to take it (in) worth. An I were able it should be better. I would it were worth a thousand crowns." Elizabeth herself, " the royal mistress of eight lan- guages," seemed at a loss to spell sovereign, for she wrote it in seven different ways, while her favourite, Leicester, subscribed his own name in eight different ways. The reader is probably aware that a controversy * This letter is in the peasant dialect of Wessex and Mid- dlesex. See Note to p. 284. 282 PHILOSOPHY OF VOICE AND SPEECH. prevailed, which is scarcely settled as to how the name of our greatest dramatist should be written. Mr. Halliwell took, therefore, considerable trouble in the matter, and collected not less than the subjoined thirty- four varieties, which were employed by the poet's family in signing their names. Chacsper Saxpere Saxspere Schakpere Schakespeare Schakespeire Schakespere Schakspere Schakspare Shackspeare Shackspere Shackspire Shag SPEECH. CHAPTER XVIII. DISORDERS OF THE VOICE AND DEFECTS OF ARTICULATION. The various organs of which our vocal and articu- lating apparatus is composed, are liable to a variety of idiopathic and symptomatic affections, which have only in comparatively recent times attracted that attention which the subject in our artificial state evidently requires. Morbid States of the Vocal Organs. The principal causes which may produce complete or partial loss of voice are: — acute or chronic inflam- mation of the mucous membrane which lines the pharynx and larynx ; tumours and excrescences in the vicinity of the vocal organs ; inflammation of the tonsils and the soft palate ; atony or relaxation of the vocal DISORDERS OF THE VOICE. 299 cords in consequence of over-exertion; hysteria and violent emotions. Alcoholic liquors and various narcotics may also produce loss of voice. Sauvage mentions that some robbers in the environs of Montpellier made their victims drunk with wine mixed with an infusion of the seeds of the thorn-apple {datura stramonium)^ which rendered them, although fully awake, for two days unable to reply to any question. Loss or suppression of voice (aphonia) is frequently confounded with speechlessness (alalia). This is an error ; for a patient may, unless the loss of voice is com- plete, still be able to render himself intelligible by whispering, while on the other hand he may be capable of uttering a variety of sounds without possessing the power of articulation. Several curious instances are on record in which aphony assumed an intermittent form. In the melanges de Vacademie des curieux de la nature, there is an inte- resting case of a young German, who, during fourteen years, only spoke from noon to two o'clock. Morgagni had a patient, a3tat sixty, who became dumb every morning from seven to eight o'clock during a period of two months. Schmieder's patient, a girl sixteen years of age, remained speechless for a fortnight after the lapse of every three months. Such anomalous cases, which sometimes resist the efforts of the physician for years, appear to result from the interruption or irregular supply of nervous influence. Loss of voice, proceeding from pressure on the brain 300 PHILOSOPHY OF VOICE AND SPEECH, or in the medulla, is a very serious and frequently fatal symptom. As a sonorous and agreeable voice depends, to a con- siderable extent, on the healthy condition of the mucous membrane and the elastic tissues of the vocal organs, constantly exposed to an ever varying state of the atmosphere, it is not surprising that in our changeable climate disorders of the voice should be so frequent. Being identical in structure thoughout its extent, an irritation in any part of the mucous membrane of the alimentary canal may, and frequently does, affect the functions of a distant part. Hence a disordered state of the organs of nutrition and intestinal canal is, in many cases, the sole cause of the functional derange- ment of the vocal organs. The superior ligaments and the ventricles exercise a great influence on the quality of the voice, which mani- fests itself when the functions of these organs are interrupted. Whenever the mucous membrane of the superior ligaments is thickened, but little air can enter the ventricles, and the resonance of the voice is impaired. Again, if the ventricles are filled with viscid mucus, the voice appears muffled, though the vocal cords may be in a healthy condition. Should the secretion of mucus be too abundant, it will accumulate between the vocal ligaments, and cause a harsh and rattling tone ; on the other band, if the secretion be diminished, or the pulmonary air deficient in moisture, the voice becomes hoarse, and the tone loses its fulness, timbre, and resonance. That the pitch and the timbre of the voice are, in sus- DISORDERS or THE VOICE. 301 ceptible subjects, frequently influenced by the hygro- metric state of the atmosphere, is no doubt true ; but that during a cold moist state of the atmosphere, the voices of singers become invariably, as has been asserted, lower by two or three notes, and regain their pitch when the air becomes dry, is somewhat pro- blematical. The following case is probably an isolated one : — *' When Grassini came to this country, owing to the change from the air of Italy to that of England, her voice became one octave low^er ; after singing for two or three seasons, her natural voice returned, but it had lost its attractions with the low notes, which had obtained her the greatest applause."* The treatment for disorders of the voice must, of course, vary according to the nature of the affection. Counter irritation by blisters, tartar-emetic, &c., may be sufficient in some cases, but the most effective remedies are those applied to the parts. The great influence of affections of the generative organs on the voice is known to every practitioner, and conse- quently all such cases arising from sympathetic in- fluence of distant organs, as from an atony of the abdominal viscera, require a considerable modification of the course' to be pursued. Inflammation of the tonsils, m consequence of a cold, generally yields to an antiphlogistic treatment, unless it be the result of a strumous diathesis, when an anti- scrofulous treatment is required. * Transactions, of the London Medical Societij, 1846. 302 PHILOSOPHY OF VOICE AND SPEECH. Dr. Bennati, for many years physician of the Italian Opera House, in Paris, observes, in his prize essay,* that the extirpation of the tonsils and excision of the uvula, besides the accidents to which they give rise, rarely succeed in restoring the voice ; and that even in the most favourable cases the parts retain a great irritability, so that changes in the temperature, or any unusual exertion suffices to produce angina. Dr. Bennati was one of the first practitioners who cured the elongation of the uvula, which excites a continued desire to sv5 allow, impeding speech and proper modulation, by cauterization with nitrate of silver.f He used an instrument which he called "porte- caustique double," by which the uvula was cauterised simultaneously in front, behind, and laterally. The voice recovers, soon after the operation, its timbre and force, nor is any great irritability left in the parts concerned. The following gargle is recommended by this phy- sician in afiections characterised by an atony of the organs, modifying the voice, accompanied by difficulty of motion of the superior constrictor muscles of the pharynx : — " Powde-red alum, one drachm. Decoction of barley, filtered, ten ounces. Syrup of white poppies, half an ounce. Gargle three or four times daily. The quantity of alum may, if necessary, be gradually increased." * Recherches sur le Me'canisme de la Voix Humaine. Paris, 1825. t Sir C. Bell was probably the first surgeon who ventured to apply the lunar caustic to the parts in throat affections ; at any rate, he did so in 1812, as appears from certain hospital reports. DISORDERS OF THE VOICE. 303 The gargles should, for fear of a relapse, be continued for some time, at longer intervals, and in smaller doses. Frictions on the anterior region of the neck, with the following mixture, are also very useful in such cases. " Extract of belladonna, twelve grains. Spirit of Camphor, 4 ounces. Mix." In illustration of the success attending his treatment. Dr. Bennati cites a variety of cases, of which the fol- lowing, relating to a celebrated cantatrice, is not the least interesting : " Madame Malibran," says Dr. Bennati, " in conse- quence of a cold, complained of pain in the throat pre- senting the following symptoms : — Mucous membrane inflamed, covered with aphtae ; deglutition, especially of liquids, very painful ; lancinating pains ; aphony complete ; impossibility to whisper without pain ; neither fever nor cough. Ordered gargles of alum. Next day the mucous membrane of the pharynx and palate presented quite a different aspect, the aphtae had disappeared, the redness had diminished, deglu- tion was less painful, could speak without any pain. Ordered a larger quantity of alum, and more frequent gargles. Next evening, Malibran could sing with the greatest success, Ninette in La Gazza Ladra ; nor could any body believe that she was in the state described." A different treatment was successful in the following case : — A young lady was affected, in consequence of a cold, with complete loss of voice, which had already existed for three months, notwithstanding all remedies which were tried. Dr. Gerner, supposing the cause of the 804 PHILOSOPHY OF VOICE AND SPEECH. afFection to be a relaxed state of the mucous membrane of the trachea, at last cured the patient completely in three days, by the inhalation of ammoniacal vapours, disengaged from a mixture of a solution of muriate of ammonia and carbonate of potass.* Dysphonia,] or impaired voice, varies from the slightest degree of a disordered voice to the severest and painful degree of hoarseness. Besides the variety of causes which have already been noticed as exciting aphony in general, inordinate or too long continued exertion of the vocal organs is one of the most common causes of failure and disease in these parts. Speakers and singers of all kinds are subject to it, though not in the same degree. The frequent occurrence of throat affections among preachers has given rise to the designation of dysphonia clericorum, or " The clergyman's sore throat," as it is somewhat incorrectly translated. The reasons why clergymen should be more subject to throat ailments than schoolmasters, barristers, and other public speakers are obvious enough. It is certainly not owing so much to over exertion, as is frequently imagined, for barristers, teachers, lecturers, and members of parlia- ment use their vocal and articulating organs to a much greater extent. One reason seems to be, that the vocal organs of many clergymen, after remaining in Nearly a quiescent state during the whole week, are called into violent action on Sundays only ; but sudden transitions * Zeitschrift fiir die gesammte Medicm. Feb, 1839. t JDi/s, difficult ; pho?ie, voice. DISORDERS OF THE VOICE. 305 from repose to activity generally affect the organ con- cerned injuriously. The author is also, from observation, led to be- lieve that affections of throat are less prevalent among dissenting than among Church of England ministers. The reason of the former being more exempt, seems to be, that dissenters commence preaching when very young ; their organs undergo, therefore, a proper training ; they preach, also, more frequently — sometimes every day, by which all sudden transitions are avoided. Another important circum- stance mustalso be mentioned ; which is, that dissenters do not generally read their sermons. In reading the head stoops, the larynx is compressed, and the free action of its muscles is impeded. The extemporaneous preacher, on the contrary, raises his head, throws back his shoulders, and thus gives the muscles of the throat fair play. Anyone who tries the experiment soon finds that half an hour's reading from a book affects his voice more than an hour's extemporaneous speak- ing : unless, indeed, he has by practice acquired the art of reading in such a manner that it differs but little from speaking. Another cause which has an injurious effect must not be forgotten. It is well known that nothing so much -fatigues the voice as singing in an unnatural tone ; but though it may not be quite so evident, still it is injurious to speak as preachers frequently do, in an as- sumed tone, in order to impart solemnity to their sermons. In cases of raucity of voice, the consequence of in- ordinate exertion, by which the vocal organ has been 17 306 PHILOSOPHY OF VOICE AND SPEECH. deprived of its moisture and the ligaments of the requisite mucus, the following remedy will be found as effective as it is simple : — Chew a small crust of bread so long until it is converted into a fluid pultaceous mass : swallow this slowly, and wash it down with a little tepid water. Some singers and speakers complain that they feel fatigued, and that their voice becomes grating, even after moderately exerting their vocal organs. This alteration of the voice, which at first is merely transient, becomes gradually permanent. The experience which the author has had in the treatment of defective articulation — in many cases the result of a faulty mode of breathing — have long con- vinced him that the fatigue and the raucity of the voice is also intimately connected with the respiratory pro- cess ; for he invariably found that the pupil, after being taught how to manage the breath, not merely improves in his articulation, but acquires the power of sustaining continued vocal efforts, without feeling the voice fatigued or altered. In order to explain these results, it must be consi- dered that the act of breathing presents itself under three different aspects, which are distinguished as clavicular, costal, and abdominal respiration. In the first type, the first or superior ribs, the collar bone (clavicle), and the breastbone are acted upon. In the second type, the inferior ribs are mostly dis- placed ; while in the third type the abdominal walls rise and fall chiefly by the action of the diaphragm. As most of the cases of voice-affections which have DISORDERS OF THE VOICE. 307 come under the author's observation, have presented the clavicular type, which requires the participation of many muscles, his first efforts have always been directed to induce the patient to abandon the clavicular mode of breathing, and to adopt, as far as possible, the abdominal respiration, in which, comparatively, but few muscles are concerned. The importance of this preliminary step, founded on experience and physiological principles, has lately been confirmed in a memoir on this subject, presented by Dr. Mandl to the French Academy of Medicine.* " A comparative study," says Dr. Mandl, " has shown that the struggle between the inspiratory and ex- piratory muscles in the process of phonation, is least during the abdominal expiration. The obvious reason is that, besides the diaphragm, there are but few other muscles in action ; and all that is required is the dis- placement of the abdominal viscera, which are readily yielding ; the larynx generally remains in its normal position ; the glottis neither enlarged nor constricted, nor are the vocal cords inordinately relaxed or stretched." "The expiration necessary for the production of sound finds, therefore, the principal organs in the natural position and tension ; and the production of sound may be effected without much resistance, and consequently without great fatigue." " In clavicular respiration, on the contrary, the vocal struggle is much greater, as many muscles participate * Comptei Eendus, 1865. V 2 308 rpiiLosorHY of voice and speech. in this respiratory process ; the superior portion of the thorax is more fixed and less flexible ; the larynx is depressed, the glottis enlarged, and the vocal cords relaxed during inspiration ; whilst these parts must, for the production of sound, be placed into diametrically opposite conditions." " The opposite traction which the larynx experiences, if in singing, the clavicular respiration is resorted to, renders the emission of sound more difficult and fatiguing, and may in time produce in the intrinsic muscles of the larynx loss of contractility, a lesser or greater degree of atrophy, and loss of the voice. The physician should, therefore, insist that clavicular respiration should be guarded against in teaching singing. " It may also be stated that singers who use the first register generally feel fatigued in the diaphragmatic and thoracic region, while those who resort fre- quently to the second register feel most fatigue in the fauces, and especially in the soft palate." The impairment of the voice in advanced age is owing partly to the diminished supply of nerve-force, and partly to the ossification of the cartilages of the larynx. The change usually commences first in the thyroid, secondly in the cricoid, and lastly in the arytenoid cartilages. The epiglottis is generally un- affected, and ossification of the arytenoid cartilages, the most essential of the vocal organ, is very rare. This change occurs later in life in the female than in the male. Repeated attacks of laryngitis, or inflammation in the DISORDERS OF THE VOICE. 309 neighbourliood of the larynx may produce ossification in the cartilages at a comparatively early period. Impediments of Speech. Defective articulation varies in degree from a slight hesitation in utterance to the severest form of stuttering, in which, not merely the respiratory, vocal, and facial muscles, but even those of the limbs, are thrown into violent action. The Greeks designated these affections, by naming them somewhat indiscriminately, pselUsmos (faltering) ; traulismos (lisping) ; asapheia (indistinctness) ; ischno- phonia (feebleness of voice) ; and hattarismos'^' (stutter- ing). Among the Romans, a stammerer — or any one having an Impediment of speech, seems to have been called halhus ; a lisper, hlaesus ; and Cicero uses the term haesitantia linguae. In English the terms stammering and stuttering are, in most works, loosely employed to denote all degrees of defective utterance, whereas, as will be presently shown, stammering and stuttering essentially differ, not so much in degree as in kind. Stammering may be defined a difficulty, or a total inability properly to enunciate certain elementary sounds. This difficulty does not, as frequently asserted, occur only in the pronunciation of consonants ; but extends also to the vowels. As the organs of articulation are * According to some, the term is derived from Battos, a King of Cyrene, who was a great stammerer. u 3 310 PIIILOSOFHY OF VOICE AND SPEECH. less concerned in the enunciation of the vowels, the causes of this defect must be chiefly sought for in the larynx, the pharynx, in a defective or improper use of the soft palate, or in an abnormal condition of the nasal cavities. Thus, if the nostrils, during enunciation, are open when they ought to be closed, or closed when they ought to be open, there will arise that defect called rhinophonia or balbuties nasalis, {See Nasal Timbre). The defective pronunciation of the consonants may, like that of the vowels, extend to a few or to all the consonantal sounds. Perhaps the most difficult of all consonants to arti- culate properly is r (page 268). Children at first pro- nounce I instead of it, until they gradually learn to master the sound. Some never acquire it ; thus Alcibiades, who, from inability or affectation, always substituted I for r, was called by Plutarch traulotes. Owing to imitation, there are whole provinces who cannot, or do not, pro- nounce the lingual r, but substitute the guttural r, known in this country as the Newcastle burr. The same defect or beauty (for after all it is a matter of taste) is observed in the south of France, especially in Marseilles ; and in central Germany. The Chinese, who have no r in their language, replace it by I, while the Japanese are said to possess no l^ and would thus pronounce London Rondcn. Stuttering difiers essentially from stammering; inasmuch as the stutterer, though he may be able to pronounce the elementary sounds of speech indivi- dually, finds it difficult, owing to the sudden stop- page of the sound, fluently to pronounce certain syllables DISORDERS OF THE VOICE. 311 or words. The greatest difficulty in this respect is expe* rienced by the stutterer in the pronunciation of the explo- sives k, t,p, and of their medials g, d, b., or of m; because in articulating these elements, the buccal cavity requires to be closed and immediately to be re-opened for the following vowel. But instead of doing so, the stutterer not only allows the respective organs to remain in the same position longer than is requisite, but he rather compresses the cavity, in order to force out the sound. The expiration becoming thus retarded, all the muscles concerned in vocalisation and articulation are thrown into an inordinate action. The difficulty of the stutterer is, therefore, much lessened when the word commences with a vowel, in which case the aperture of the buccal cavity is wider. The stutterer can thus easily pro- nounce ib ; but were he to attempt to pronounce suc- cessively buy, buy, buy, he would pronounce, as the London butchers on a Saturday night, b-b-b-b-buy. As this affection is in some cases intermittent, dis- appearing for hours and days, or increasing and dimi- nishing according to the mental or physical condition of the sufferer, the author thinks that stammering might be further distinguished from stuttering by considering the former as partly idiopathic, and the latter as chiefly a symptomatic affection. The statistics with regard to the number of persons labouring under defective articulation are very imperfect, and it is to be hoped that the Registrar-General will, at the next census, supply some information on this subject. Colombat (Tableau synopt. et Statistique) assumes 312 PHILOSOPHY OF VOICE AND SPEECH. that there are in France less than 6,000 stutterers, or about 1 in 5,000 ; he admits, at the same time, that he only includes those whose defects were well marked. Others assume 2 in 1,000, which appears to be much nearer the mark. There is no doubt that females are, from the flexibility of their organs, less subject to defective articulation that males. Many complicated cases of psellismus in females have, however, within the last few years come under the author's own observation, and he has reason to believe that the number of female stutterers is greater than is generally assumed. The causes of Psellism ^' are either organic, dynamic, or psychical. Among organic causes must be classed — cleft pa- late, hare-lip, abnormal conditions of the tongue, soft palate, and uvula. It is chiefly in such cases that the surgeon's assistance can be of any material use. Dynamical causes are : — afiection of the brain and spinal cord, nervous debility, solitary vices, sper- matorrhoea, &;c. Psychical causes are : — all depressing emotions ; want of energy and self-control ; but especially imitation, which is frequently the sole cause of psellism. The benefit which attended surgical operations for wry-neck [torticollis), and squinting {strabismus)^ induced Prof. Dieffenbach to try their efiect in cases of severe psellism. The first operations which he performed were so successful, that sanguine hopes were excited that at length a radical cure had been * Psellism is here used as a generic term for all impedi- ments in speech. DISORDEES OF THE VOICE. 313 discovered for an affection so distressing. No wonder that Dieffenbach soon found a host of imitators, who, though possessed of less skill, now considered the buccal cavity as a fair field for making experiments with the knife. Those professors who had hitherto successfully treated severe cases of stuttering by mere moral means, naturally raised their voices against these useless mutilations . but as they did not belong to the medical profession, they were considered as mere interlopers, who had no right of giving an opinion on the propriety of surgical operations. Time, however, has shown, that the objectors to the knife were right after all ; for Dieffenbach, at last, candidly confessed, that the hopes which he entertained had not been realised. Of eighty persons upon whom he had ope- rated, by far the greatest number had reaped no benefit. Some, who had apparently been cured, had experienced sudden relapses. He, therefore, did not latterly recom- mend any operation for stuttering, except in some exceptional, isolated, and very severe cases. That benefit has been derived from this heroic treat- ment, in some instances, may be readily explained, by the fact that any severe operation influences for a time the articulating and vocal organs. As the articulation in early infancy may, from its indistinctness, be called a natural stammer, parents are generally unable to distinguish between a mere defective enunciation of certain syllubles, and a vicious articulation ; and it is not until the seventh or eighth year, when psellism manifests itself in an unequivocal manner, that their attention is called to the defect, 314 PHILOSQFHY OF VOICE AIfI> SPEECH. which the parents hope may spontaneously decline oi» approaching manhood — a hope which, with some excep- tions, is rarely realised. As the proper means for remedying the evil at the proper time are neglected, the disorder increases, and becoming permanent, im- pairs the general health and spirits, and mars the worldly prospects of persons so afflicted. Parents, therefore, must be reminded that the earlier they place children thus afflicted under the care of an experienced teacher, the greater chance is there of the evil being eradi- cated. Considering that Psellism arises from causes so mul- tifarious, and exhibits so many varieties, that long practice is required to form a correct diagnosis, and adapt the treatment to each individual defect, it must be inferred, that it is not easy to lay down definite rules to meet every possible case. The author has, elsewhere, in a monograph on the subject,^* given a synopsis of the various systems for the cure of impe- diments of speech which have from time to time been promulgated ; and he cannot but here reiterate his sincere conviction, that little or no benefit is derived by patients from the mere perusal of written rules. There may be some, who possessing sufficient self- control, perseverance, and energy of character, may succeed in freeing themselves from certain defects, but the great majority will not only fail in their attempts at a self-cure, but actually increase their disorder, by contracting other bad habits Few, indeed, * On the Cure of Stammering. Third Edition. Longman and Co., 1857. DISORDERS OF THE VOICE. 315 have ever applied to the writer for relief, who had not previously read and tried the multifarious plans of cure proposed by a great variety of writers. Nothing, in fact> is more certain than that in cases of severe faults of articulation, a self-cure is of rare occurrence. Such persons absolutely require, for a certain time, the constant aid of an experienced teacher, who having traced the cause of the evil, adapts the treatment accordingly, until he restores to the patient the power of rightly using his vocal and articulating organs. The author cannot deny himself the gratification of quoting here the advice given to parents, by Dr. Edw. Warren, of Boston, a gentleman who occupies a pro- minent position among the medical practioners of the United States, and who has devoted much of his atten- tion to defective articulation. *' Seek out," says Dr. Warren, " a person who has experience in the treatment of impediments of speech. Place him under his care ; and if he is benefited, do not remove him and think to perfect the cure yourself. Three months is a very short time for him to remain under the superintendence of an instructor ; six months is better, and where it is practicable, he should remain a year. If this interferes with his other studies, it is of no consequence ; he will derive benefit enough to compensate for the loss. The age I would fix upon for this trial, should be from eight to twelve years. Some children, however, are as mature at the former age as others at the latter. At this period, the loss of a year's study may, perchance, be a gain. 316 PHILOSOPHY OF VOICE AND SPEECH. " If he meets, there, others who are afflicted as he is, it is all the better ; he will no longer look upon his case as a peculiar one ; and if he sees others whose impediments are worse than his, it will give him addi- tional courage. " Whatever method may be employed for the relief of this affection, no permanent advantage will be gained in the majority of cases, unless resolutely persevered in for one or two years."* * Extracted from an essay ** On the Cure of Stammering by Moral Means, " by Dr. E. Warren^ M.D.. which appeared ia the American Journal of Medical Science. CHAPTER XIX. DEAF-DUMBNESS {Surdo-Mutitas.) MUTEI SM The acquisition of speech is no doubt the result of imitation, but of an imitation which is really marvellous ; for the process of articulation is not merely very com- plex, but mostly hidden from sight. Hence the instinc- tive attempts to imitate articulate sounds are, at first unsuccessful, until at length, the infant hits, as it were, by chance, upon the proper mode, and by repeated efforts, gradually acquires the control over the requisite contraction of the muscles concerned in the production of speech-sounds. Congenital deafness, as well as the loss of hearing, before the power of articulation is acquired, is followed by dumbness, as the individual is thereby precluded from imitating vocal and articulate sounds. The power of speech already acquired, may be lost again if complete deafness supervenes at an early 318 PHILOSOPHY OF VOICE AND SPEECH. period, especially if the afflicted abandon the use of their vocal organs for communicating their thoughts. The following is an interesting case in point : — Dr. Kitto became deaf in his twelveth year, in con- sequence of a fall from a ladder.* Before his fall, his enunciation had been remarkably distinct ; but after that event, his voice was so altered as not to be easily understood ; he was told that his voice had become very similar to that of one born deaf and dumb, but who had been taught to speak. Although he had no physical pain in the act of speaking, he felt a strong repugnance to use his vocal organs, and for many years, habitually expressed himself to others in writing, so that he came to be considered as both deaf and dumb — an impression which, from disuse of the vocal organs, he was in a fair way of justifying, but for the following incident. In his first voyage to the Mediterranean Dr. Kitto met, on board, a German physician and other well-informed persons, who, perceiving how the matter stood, entered into a conspiracy, in which the captain joined, not to understand a word otherwise than orally throughout the voyage. " In this," says Dr. Kitto, they persevered to a marvel ; and as I had much to ask, since I had not before been at sea, I made very great progress with my tongue during the six weeks voyage. "At first, strangers could rarely understand me with- out difficulty ; but under the improvement which practice gave, my voice was so much bettered, that the instances in which it was not readily understood * The Lost Senses. Ch. Knight, 1845. DEAF-DUMBNESS AND MUTEISM. 319 gradually diminished ; and at the present day, I rarely find even a foreigner to whom my language is not clear. " Deafness, though congenital, does not necessarily deprive the individual of the power of acquiring speech by the medium of the other senses, and therefore the heading of this chapter, which implies a distinc- tion between deaf-dumbness and muteism, is, though not generally attended to, founded on facts ; for, as will be shown in the sequel, a person may be dumb but not deaf, or deaf but not dumb. The Organ of Language. All physiologists agree, that the brain, as the organ of the mind, exercises a considerable influence on lan- guage or audible thought. In many cases of idiocy, the patients are dumb, although their organs of hear- ing are unimpaired, and their vocal and articulating apparatus in a normal condition. Muteism clearly arises in these instances from a deficiency of ideas. Many idiots do not speak because they have little or nothing to say. On the other hand, in many cases of nervous and mental excitement, there may be observed an increased activity of the vocal and articulating organs. Hysterical patients, at times, chatter away with the utmost rapidity, especially when talking of their affections. Many lunatics are also very loquacious when questioned on their fixed ideas ; and some talk incessantly, as if compelled by an internal impulse. 320 PHILOSOPHY OF VOICE AND SPEECH. In most of these cases, it is not difficult to detect the predominating ideas, although the words are as in delirium, but little connected, as the rapidity of the muscular motions outsteps the judgment. These affec- tions, which have received the names of Lallomany and Kenoloqy (empty talk) are, no doubt, the result of cerebral excitement, and are thus opposed to that state of muteism which arises from cerebral inactivity. When, however, we meet with mutes possessed of considerable intelligence, whose hearing and organs of speech are apparently unaffected, the question natu- rally arises, whether there be in the encephalon, a special organ of speech ; and, if so, where it is located. Dr. Gall, the founder of phrenology, conceived that there was such an organ of language, which had its seat in certain convolutions in the anterior lobes of the brain, and that the size of the organ was indicated by a certain protuberance of the eyes. Such "ox-eyed" persons are, according to Gall, generally distinguished by a powerful verbal memory, and a great flow of language. It is remarkable that Sir Benjamin Brodie, though a stanch opponent of phrenology, appears inclined to assume the existence of a special organ of speech. In his character of Ergates, (Psychological Inquiries), Sir Benjamin refers, in support of this theory, to two cases which had come under his own observation. One case was that of a boy, who was unable to speak at the age of thirteen ; the other, of a girl eleven years old, who laboured under a similar defect. In both cases, the hearing and the intellectual faculties were seemingly perfect. BEAF-DUMBNESS AND MUTEISM. 321 Mr. R. Wilde* also quotes a remarkable case of a boy aged ten, who hears well, is intelligent, and under- stands what is said to him, but who makes no attempt at articulation. When he wishes to attract attention, he utters a loud, sharp, and bark-like sound. His organs of speech are, so far as can be observed, well- formed, as are those of hearing. From another valuable document, by the same gen- tleman,! we learn that of the total number of mutes in Ireland, 334 were dumb but not deaf. Among this class, 115 were idiotic, 45 paralyzed, 43 both paralytic and idiotic, and 131 were dumb only, without any other apparent defect. It would, however, be rash to draw from such com- paratively rare cases of muteism, without any other visible organic defect, any conclusion as to the exis- tence of a separate organ of speech in the brain. If there be a special organ of speech, what explanation can be given in the following curious cases, in which the loss of power was confined either to particular languages, or to certain parts of speech ? Are we to assume a par- ticular organ for every language and its parts ? A gentleman is mentioned by Dr. Beattie, who, after a blow on the head, lost his knowledge of Greek, and did not appear to have lost anything else. A frequent modification consists in putting one name for another, but always using the words in the same sense ; thus a gentleman affected in this manner, when * Practical Observations on Aural Surgery, Dublin, 1863. t Statistics of the Deaf and Dumb in Ireland, by W. R. "Wilde, Esq., Assist. Census Commissioner for Ireland. 322 PHILOSOPHY OF VOICE AND SPEECH. he wanted coals put upon the fire, always called for paper, and when he wanted paper, called for coals ; and these words he always used in the same manner. Dr. Gregory used, in his lectures, to mention the case of a clergyman, who, while labouring under an affection of the brain, spoke nothing but Hebrew, the last lan- guage he had acquired. Dr. Prichard mentions an English lady, who, in recovering from an apoplectic attack, always spoke to her attendants in French, as she had actually lost the knowledge of the English lan- guage. This continued about a month.* The celebrated Dr. Broussonet lost, after a slight apoplectic attack, the power of pronouncing substantive nouns, whether in French or Latin, Thus, when he wished to pronounce apple, he described it by its quali- ties. When the noun was shown to him written or printed, he immediately recognised it, but he had no power to designate it spontaneously. Cuvier relates, in his lectures, a similar case of a person who had only lost the memory of substantive nouns, but could pronounce all adjectives, &c.f Pathological Researches. Mr. Aequiel (Bulletin Med. de Bordeaux) gives the following as the results of his investigations with regard to affections of the encephalon as influencing the power of speech : — * See Dr. J. Abercrombie, On the Intellectual Powers. t Rochoux, Recherches sur V apoplexie.. DEAF-DUMBNESS AND MUTEISM. 323 " 1 . Inflammation of the investing membranes do not influence speech, provided the brain is unaffected. 2. Disorganisation of one or both anterior lobes, cause a partial or entire loss of speech. 3. Speech is affected by any disorganisation in a central part of the brain. 4. The posterior lobes do not influence the power of speech unless the internal part is affected. 5. Alterations on the surface of the corpora striata, also influence speech. 6. The tubercula quadrigemina appear likewise to affect speech. 7. Changes in the pons varolii cause the partial or entire loss of speech. 8. The fornix, the septum, and the cerebellum do not seem to exert any influence on speech." A communication on the same subject, addressed to the French Academy of Medicine, by Mr. Bouilland (^Gaz. Med. Paris, 1848) contains the following con- clusions : — "1. In those eases where the partial or entire loss of speech depends on disorganisation of the brain, the seat of the affection is generally in the anterior lobes. !?. All deep seated alterations in the anterior lobes cause a partial or entire loss of speech. 3. Derangements in the middle and posterior lobes do not perceptibly influence speech provided the an- terior lobes are unaffected." It would thus appear that while, excepting the cercr bellum, the septum, and the fornix, most parts of the encephalon affect more or less the power of speech; x2 324 PHILOSOPHY OP VOICE AND SPEECH. the chief influence is exercised by the anterior lobes of the brain. And such a result might have been ex- pected ; for without adopting either the phrenological principles, and the inferences drawn from them, it can- not easily be denied, that the perceptive powers, and the reflective faculties in general much depend on the development and the healthy state of the anterior lobes of the brain, and that such being the case, their in- fluence on language must be paramount. We may also fairly assume that cases of muteism without deaf- ness or idiocy, are not the consequence of the absence of a special organ of speech in the brain ; but result either from an abnormal condition of some part of the vocal apparatus, which may defy detection, or from a derangement either in the nervous centre, or of the conductor-nerve supplying the nerve-force to the or- gans of articulation. Physical Condition of Deaf-mutes. — ^The vocal and articulating apparatus of deaf-mutes is generally perfect at first : but the organs of which it is composed are, from want of use, very liable to be arrested in their development. The tongue becomes frequently thick and deficient in mobility ; the soft palate shrunk, and the uvula becomes either too large or too small. The chest re- mains narrow ; the sternum and its muscles are, owing to want of exercising the lungs, not fully developed ; hence deaf-mutes are very liable to pulmonary affec- tions. Another peculiarity which manifests itself in early infancy, is a certain dragging of the legs and feet in walking, which sometimes becomes permanent. In many instances of defective articulation, and partial DEAF-DUMBNESS AND MUTEISM. 325 muteism, there exists, according to Mr. Wilde, a pecular narrowness and a unnatural height of the palate immediately behind the upper incisors. Intellectual Capacity of Deaf-mutes. The limited intellectual capacity of deaf-mutes is, no doubt, chiefly to be ascribed to an imperfect method of tuition, combined with the shortness of instruction. That they are capable of a high intellectual development is proved ; for we find among them, men distinguished in various departments of science, literature and art. Mr. Louston, a young historical painter, carried off, in 1842, the gold medal at the Paris Exhibition. A pupil of Girodet, Mad. Robert, is equally distinguished for the delicacy of her works. Paul de Wigan is highly distinguished as a mathematician. Ferdinand Berthier, Claude Forestier, and others, take high rank as authors ; while Pellissier and Chatelain are much esteemed as poets. Massieu, a pupil of the Abbe Sicard, enjoyed a high re- putation in France for his readiness in answering im- promptu questions with great skill and precision. Thus, on being, on one occasion, asked by Sir James Mackin- tosh, "Does God reason?" Massieu immediately re- plied " Man reasons because he doubts ; God knows all things; he never doubts, and therefore never reasons." Whether this and other remarkable answers to per- plexing questions were really extempore, that is to say, delivered on the spur of the moment, without much x3 326 PHILOSOPHY OF VOICE AND SPEECH. cogitation, or whether they were not rather the result of previous discussions on these topics with his teacher, the Abbe Sicard, can scarcely be decided. The proba- bility is in favour of the latter assumption. That persons who have become deaf after the habit of articulation had been acquired, should be able to write poetry, is not surprising, as the notions of quan- tity and rhythm may remain after the reminiscences of sound are lost ; but it is certainly remarkable to find a poet deaf from his birth, such as John Carlin, a deaf- mute, of New York, who is besides, highly esteemed as a successful miniature painter. He appears to know nothing of articulation, nor can have any perception of rhythm and rhyme, and yet he constructs both correctly. Some of his lucubrations have appeared in the New York Commercial Advertiser, The Abbe de I'Epee was of opinion that deaf-mutes might be taught[everything except music. It appears, however, that a deaf-mute, the son of General Gazan, has cultivated music with considerable success, and has even written a treatise on the formation and distinction of sounds. In a recent number of the Ocean of Br est ^ it is stated, that there is now, residing in that town, a deaf-mute, named Mozer, a native of Ratisbone, in Bavaria, who has taught himself Latin and a dozen other languages of Europe, which he writes with facility, and who be- sides, makes the most difficult arithmetical calculations with astonishing correctness and rapidity. It must, however, be admitted that while some deaf- mutes excel in the acquisition of knowledge, and, as DEAF-DUMBNESS AND MUTEISM. 327 artists, there are but few instances of any so afflicted, who have given evidence of the possession of much original power. Deaf and Blind. Cases of persons born deaf and blind are exceedingly rare, and most interesting in their bearing upon the question of innate ideas. Hence, the interest which the case of James Mitchell excited at the time, in the scientific world. James was born in 1795, at Ardclach, in the Highlands, deaf and blind. As he grew up he displayed such a remark- able acuteness of touch and smell, as to be able by these, to distinguish strangers, and various articles which belonged to him and other persons. Sir Astley Cooper, Mr. Saunders, and Mr. Wardrop operated upon him, in 1810 with little or no success. The reader will find a full account of this remarkable case in the third volume of Dugald Stewart's Philosophy of the Human Mind.^^ The last accounts concerning James, obtained by Sir W. Hamilton, from Miss, and Lieutenant Mitchel, con- tain nothing interesting as to his intellectual progress. Lieut. Mitchel writes from Nairn, where the family now reside, "James is now, (July, 1854), about fifty- nine years old ; is stout and healthy, giveslittle or no trouble, further than satisfying his necessary wants ; his conduct is most affectionate towards his sister, and * The Collected Works of Dugald Sietoari, edited by Sir W. Hamilton. Edinburgh, Constable, &c., 1854. 328 PHILOSOPHY OF VOICE AND SPEECH. apparently he is at all times happy and contented . . . The sight of the eye operated upon in 1809, is quite gone. He is as fond of smoking as ever, and so systematic in all his habits, that he has his regular number of smokes at home every day, in addition to what he may get from his numerous acquaintances in the town." Still more remarkable in a psychological point of view, is the case of Laura Bridgman, born 1829, at Hanover, New Hampshire. There is, however, no evidence that she was bom deaf or blind. It appears that in her second year she had a violent fever, and was attacked by an inflammation and suppuration of the eyes and ears, by which, not only hearing and vision was destroyed, but taste and smell considerably impaired. Fortunately, when she was seven years old, she attracted the attention of Dr. Howe, the Director of the Institution of the Blind of Boston, who received her into the Asylum, in 1837. Her instruction, it seems, commenced by making her acquainted with difierent articles to which labels were attached, by means of the raised letter alphabet, after which the individual letters were given to her, and she was taught to spell the name of the respective articles. Dr. Howe's first report upon this case, in 1841, is very interesting. " Hitherto," observes the Doctor* " the process had been mechanical, and the success as great as teaching a dog a variety of tricks. The poor child sat in mute amazement, and patiently imitating everything her teacher did ; but now the truth began to flash upon her — her intellect began to work — she perceived that there was a way by which she could DEAF-DUMBNESS AND MUTEISM. 329 herself make up a sign of anything that was in her own mind, and show it to another mind, and at once her countenance lighted up with a human expression ; it was no longer a dog or a parrot — it was an immortal spirit, eagerly seizing upon a new link of union with other spirits ! I could almost fix the moment when the truth dawned upon the mind." Subsequent accounts of the expansion of her intellect and her rapid progress are contained in the Reports of the Perkins Institution and Massachusset Asylum for the Blind. The great success which attended this case, must be partly attributed to the circumstance that Laura enjoyed for years the almost exclusive attention of a competent person, and partly to her mental constitution. Dr. Howe says, in his report, that he found her with a well-formed figure, a large well-shaped head, and the system in healthy action. No teaching, indeed, could have produced so favourable results, had she not been a person of very superior mental endowments, so that she was able to fly where others are obliged to creep. The following is, probably, the only instance on record of a blind deaf-mute having acquired the power of speech. Mr. Hirzel, director of the Asylum for the Blind at Lausanne, heard of a young man, Jakob Meystre, born 1826, who was deprived of hearing in his eleventh month, and of his sight by the discharge of a gun when eight years of age. On visiting him, in 1845, when Meystre was about eighteen years old, Mr. Hirzel became interested in him, and caused his admission 330 PHILOSOPHY OF VOICE AND SPEECH. into the Asylum at Lausanne. He followed nearly the same plan, which was so successful in the case of Laura Bridgman, and began to instruct him by means of raised letters. The great progress made by young Meystre, induced Mr. Hirzel to try whether he could not make him speak. " Having placed, " says Mr. Hirzel, " one ofMeystre's hands on my chest, and the other on my throat, I pronounced the vowel a, making the deaf-mute sen- sible of the expiration, and induced him to imitate it." The experiment succeeded : but it took a long time before he had mastered the vowels. The consonants appear to have caused him much less trouble, for he learned them in three months. The first word he could articulate was ami. His first sentences consisted of a substantive and an infinitive ; as " Friend hear ; teeth bite." In eighteen months he began to form proper sentences * Spontaneous Recoveries. In the twenty-fifth volume of the Philosophical Transactions, 1707, a Mr. Martin relates, that Daniel Frazer, of Strahrig, some six miles from Inverness, continued deaf and dumb from his birth, until the seventeenth year of his age, when he was taken ill of a violent fever. Some weeks after his recovery, he perceived a motion in the brain, which was very uneasy * Froriep's Notizen. Oct. 1849. DEAF-DUMBNESS AND MUTEISM. 331 to him, and afterwards he began to hear, and, in process of time, to understand speech. This naturally disposed him to imitate others, and attempt to speak. The servants (he was for eight years in the family of the Countess of Crawford) were much amazed to hear him, and some run away ; he was not understood for some weeks afterwards. Mr. Martin left him in service at Morpeth in 1707. The Dumb Philosopher or Great Britain^ s Wonder, published in 1719, by the celebrated Daniel Defoe, purports to be a " faithful and very surprising account, how Dickory Cronke, a tinner's son, in the county of Cornwall, who was born dumb, and continued so for fifty-eight years, came to his speech some days before he died." Another remarkable instance of spontaneous recovery is related in the Memoirs of the French Academy of Sciences, for the year 1703. A young man, born deaf and, consequently, dumb, began to speak when twenty-four years of age, to the great surprise of the inhabitants of Chartres his native town. On being questioned, the young man stated, that the change occurred four months previously, when all the bells of the town had been set a ringing, on the occasion of some fearful storms. Some time after, a watery humour was discharged from his ears, and he then could hear with both ears. During the three or four months he listened only, but used to repeat to himself the words he had heard. He, at length, began to speak, though, of course, very badly. 332 PHILOSOPHY OF VOICE AND SPEEEH. Alleged Miraculous Recovery of Speech."^' " It is recounted that a deaf and dumb lad of sixteen, a native of St. Briac, near Dinan in Britany, has seen the Virgin, who appeared to him blazing in beauty and surrounded by stars. The celestial visitor opened the conversation by asking him his age, to vrhich he replied " I don't know." She then told him, and pro- ceeded to recount the whole history of his life, and a variety of other circumstances within his knowledge. She concluded by saying, " hereafter you shall speak like any other person ; meet me to-morrow night, and I will tell you some wonderful things. " The boy was faithful to the tryst, and the Virgin then pointed out to him three mysterious letters in the tail of the comet, and explained that they symbolise prophecies of events to come. He is not, however, at liberty to make known the things that were told him until the expiration of a year from the date of the vision. The boy now speaks and hears perfectly well. Such is the story which, according to the Union Malouine et Dinanaise^ the natives of St. Briac are ready to prove upon the hide of any sceptic." The reader will observe that no particulars what- ever are given. No person of repute vouches for the fact ; and it is not even stated whether the lad was born deaf and dumb, or whether deafness supervened at a later period after the power of articulation had been acquired. * From the Times of the 12th of October, 1858. DEAF-DUMBNESS AND MUTEISM. 333 That, in certain favourable cases, the dormant energy of the auditory nerve or of the nervous centre, may be roused, is undeniable. The cures which were effected by Prince Hohenlohe, including those which still occur at shrines and holy wells are, no doubt, chiefly the result of a revulsion in the nervous system under the influence of mental excitement and religious enthu- siasm. The hand of an executed malefactor passed over a wen of a faithful patient was, in many cases, quite as effective as the royal hand of Charles the Second in curing glandular enlargements of his loyal subjects. Hence in most nervous affections, unlimited faith in the skill of the physician and the means pre- scribed, generally lead to a successful issue. To this class belongs the incident related by Hero- dotus, that a son of Croesus, who was dumb, suddenly recovered his speech, on seeing a Persian about to kill his father. Pow erfuUy moved with fear and agony , the son cried out " Man, kill not Croesus ; " and from this moment he continued to speak. Assuming, then, the reality of these cases, it is evident that both deaf-mutes must have previously possessed the power of speech ; for, though it is within the range of possiblity that a person born deaf may, under an effective stimulant suddenly acquire the sense of hearing, it is not imaginable how he could at once become possessed of the faculty of speech, a power which can only gradually be acquired. 334 PHILOSOPHY OF VOICE AND SPEECH. Recovery of the power of Speech hy GalvanO' puncture and Electricity. Dr. Camino {Gazette Med. Paris 29, Janv. 1848), states, that Rosa Pinto had, in 1813, lost her speech from a fright, so that she could not articulate a single syllable. On the 21st of May, 1836, galvano -puncture was applied, when she perfectly recovered. She con- tinued to speak with such zeal and fluency, as if she had been anxious to make up for lost time. The Dublin Hospital Gazette, Feb-, 1856, reports a case treated by Mr. Flamant, of Strasbourg, and com- municated to the Paris Academy, by Mr. Sedillot. The patient had, from a sudden fright, been deprived of voice and speech. Hearing was unaffected. The tongue was retracted, the apex pointing to the roof. Various plans of treatment were tried during a period of twelve years without benefit. The principal extrinsic muscles of the tongue, as well as the muscles of the larynx appeared paralysed. At length electricity was applied. After the third application, speech was restored, but not the voice, which only gradually came back. There are a good many cases on record which have yielded to electricity. Occlusion of the Larynx without Muteism. That the loss of the tongue does not necessarily prevent articulation has been already noticed (see tongue), but that the occlusion of the larynx should not DEAF-DUMBNESS AND MUTEISM. 335 induce perfect muteism seems incredible, but for the subjoined well authenticated cases. " Leblanc, setat 32, veterinary surgeon, condemned to hard labour for life for false coining, cut his throat with a razor, and made an incision between the thyroid and cricoid cartilages without, however, dividing the large bloodvessels. The edges in time united and speech was restored. He made a second attempt, and the new incision was made on the cicatrice of the old. Assistance was immediately given, but the healing process presented, this time, the peculiarity that, while the external portion of the wound became cica- trized, a small membrane, presenting radiating fibres was forming in the internal edges of the wound, send- ing forth branches towards the lateral part of the air tube, tending to close it altogether. An effort made by the surgeon of the military hospital to destroy this false membrane failed, and in order to prevent suffo- cation it became requisite to insert a cylindrical slightly bent metal tube, about three inches long, be- tween the thyroid and cricoid cartilages. Leblanc, though obliged to speak in a low voice, articulated sufficiently well to be heard at a certain distance. It was, however, observed that he required to make great and painful efforts in the labial, buccal, and lingual regions. How was speech effected in this case? Unquestionably by the movements which the air ex- perienced from the muscular contractions effected in the mouth."* * Memoires de la Societe des Sciences de Lille, by Dr. Begin. 336 PHILOSOPHY OF VOICE AND SPEECH. Serres relates an analogous case of a convict at Toulon, who having cut his throat, the superior part of the larynx became obliterated, yet he spoke, though in a low voice, by means of a reservoir of air, which he, as in whispering, formed at the superior part of tha pharynx. Statistics of Deof-muteism.^ The first time any inquiry was made to ascertain the actual number of deaf-mutes in Great Britain was at the Census of 1851. From the results of this in- quiry, which has been published, it appears that the total number of the deaf and dumb in the United Kingdom is as follows : — England 9,543 16,738,695 1 in 1,754 Ireland 4,747 6,552,324 1 „ 1,380 Scotland 2,155 2,888,742 1 „ 1,340 Wales 771 1,188,914 1 „ 1,542 Mandsinthej g^ W],\2Q 1 „ 1,704 British Seas j Total 17,300 27,511,801 1 in 1,590 This average of 1 in 1,590 approximates to that of the whole of Europe, which according to the latest returns is said to be 1 in 1,593. The proportion varies, however, in a marked degree in different localities and counties. Thus, in Hereford- * See Journal of The London Statistical Society. March, 1863, and June, 1855. DEAF-DUMBNESS ATfD MUTEISM. 337 shire there is 1 person deaf and dumb in 1,054 in- habitants, while in Huntingdonshire the proportion is 1 in 3,016 ; that is to say, for one deaf and dumb in Huntingdonshire there are three in Herefordshire. In Scotl-and the proportion in the Northern Counties is 1 in 1,156, and in the Southern Counties 1 in 1,480. In the four provinces of Ireland the propor- tions are : — Leinster 1 deaf and dumb in 1,474 Connaught 1 ,, ,, 1,499 Ulster 1 „ „ 1,318 Munster 1 ,, ,, 1,317 In France there were in 1852, 29,512 deaf-mutes in a population of 35,783,170, giving a proportion of 1 in 1,212. The disparity in the proportions of deaf and dumb in the departments seems greater than that ex- hibited in different counties of Great Britain ; for according to a report published in a French periodical the proportions vary from 1 in 686, and 1 in 691, in Corsica and the Upper Rhine, to 1 in 2,515 in the de- partments of the Lower Seine. These variations are so striking that they can scarcely be relied upon, especially as it is known that idiots are frequently included in the deaf and dumb returns. Thus, the great ratio of deaf and dumb in Switzerland, Baden, Sardinia, and other mountainous countries, is now accounted for by the number of idiots and Cretins, which are included in the return from these parts. Similar errors wore made in some returns in this country ; thus, in the number of twenty-three in the Y 338 PHILOSOPHY or voice and speech. Colchester district are included nineteen inmates of the Asylum for Idiots, Essex Hall. The official accounts of Prussia inform us, that in 1849 there were 11,973 deaf-mutes in a population of 16,331,187, exhibiting a proportion of 1 in 1,364. From Luxembourg, Wurtemberg, Tuscany, Bavaria, Belgium, and Holland, the returns are favourable in this respect, the average being 1 deaf-mute in 2,209 inhabitants. It is computed that there are in Europe, 180,000 ; and about 600,000 deaf-mutes in the whole globe. The proportion of male deaf-mutes from all causes, exceeds the female ; congenital, 100 males to 75 females ; acquired, 100 males to 90 females. Causes of Deaf-muteism. Although many physiologists dissent from the popular opinion that the influence of fright, aversion, and other emotions of the mother during pregnancy, produces congenital malformation in the foetus, there are many well authenticated caes in support of this doctrine. Muteism is certainly in many cases owing to here- ditary taint : but while it manifests itself in members of families derived from a common stock, it is rarely transmitted in a direct line. Thus, it is stated in the returns of the Hartford Institution, U. S., that out of ninety-one instances, where both parents were deaf- mutes, there were only four cases in which the children were similarly affected. Exceptional cases were, how- DEAF-DUMBNESS AND MUTEISM. 339 ever, noticed in the last census. One instance occurred in the county of Cavan, Ireland, when the disease was transmitted direct for three generations — the grand, father, the father, and four of the family being all deaf and dumb. The number of deaf-mute children in the same family is sometimes very great. A table, published in the last Report of the London Institution for the Deaf and Dumb, gives a list of 23 families containing 160 chil- dren, of whom not less than 105 are deaf and dumb. In one family, eight out of ten children were deaf and dumb ; in another, out of six, five were so. In four families all the children were mutes. With regard to the influence of the locality, it is not a little singular that muteism prevails more in rural districts than in townships, and less in flat than in mountainous parts. That the intermarriage of near relations is, in many respects, objectionable, has long been insisted upon by physiologists ; and that it is one of the chief predisposing causes of muteism has been proved to demonstration by the results of the census. The particulars of 1 54 cases of deaf-dumbness, were procured out of the Irish returns ; and it was found that the parents of the afflicted were related in the degrees of first, second, and third cousins. As the sense of hearing scarcely exists at birth, and as it is not until the third or fourth month that children become sensible of, and capable of distinguishing sounds, the information derived from parents or friends as to whether the person was born deaf, cannot be de- pended on. Few are willing to admit the fact of con- y2 340 PHILOSOPHY OF VOICE AND SPEECH. genital deafness ; others are really not aware that the child was deaf; as many, though deaf to distinct sounds, are sensible of vibrations, such as those of a piano, &c. Education of Deaf-mutes. The questions whether the born deaf ere capable of high intellectual development, and of acquiring the power of articulation, have long been settled in the affirmative. Experience has shown, that children con- genitally deaf, can be made to speak, and that with those who have acquired this power, subsequent instruction is more successful. A Mr. Dubois, who became deaf in early infancy, but who now speaks with considerable facility, has pub- lished a tract ( Cause du Mutisme chez les sourds), in which he contends, that the deaf are only mute because they have not been forced to hear and to speak. He recommends, therefore, that parents should speak to their deaf children just as if they heard, and not by signs. Dr. Philippe {Journal de Medecine de Bordeaux), en- dorses Dubois' opinion, and says, that we must compel the deaf to hear by constant loud speaking, and that all kinds of noises, provided they are not too intense, are beneficial in exciting and improving the auditory appa- ratus. The condition of the uneducated deaf-mute, is, indeed, most deplorable. Gifted, like other human beings with mental capacities and moral feelings, he appears, unless DEAF-DUMJBNESS AND MUTEISM. 341 rescued, doomed to live in a state of isolation. His calamity seems greater than that of the born blind ; hence, the latter is frequently cheerful and contented under his affliction — the deaf-mute is rarely so. The lullaby of his mother does not beguile his pains in infancy, nor is he in manhood cheered by the prattle of his own offspring. " Is there anything on earth so engaging to a parent, as to catch the first lispings of his infant's tongue ? or so interesting as to listen to its dear prattle, and trace its gradual mastery of speech ? If there be any one thing arising out of my condition which more than another fills my heart with grief, it is this — it is to see their blessed lips in motion, and to hear them not ; and to witness others moved to smiles and kisses by the sweet peculiarities of infantile speech which are incommuni- cable to me, and which pass by me like the idle wind."^' Happily, compassion has, in modern times, given way to active sympathy ; for it is found that the education of the deaf and dumb is not only full of interest for the philosophical inquirer, but also important in its relation to mental philosophy and the science of language. Among the notables who have interested themselves oil behalf of the long neglected deaf-mute, must be first mentioned Pedro Ponce (Petrus Pontius) a Spanish Benedictine monk, who died about 1585, and Juan Pablo Bonet, also a Spaniard, and contemporary * The Lost Senses. By Dr. Kitto. Y 3 342 PHILOSOPHY OF TOICE AND SPEECH. of Ponce. To Bonet belongs the glory of having pub- lished the first work on the education of deaf-mutes.* The discoveries of Ponce were promulgated at Leyden in 1622 by Valesius, physician in ordinary to King Philip II, of Spain. f The first English treatise on the education of deaf- mutes, entitled Philocophus or the Deaf and Dumhe MarCs Friend, by John Bulwer, surnamed the Chxroso- pher was published in London, 1648. Thirteen years afterwards (1661), appeared George Dalgarno's remarkable work, Ars Signorum, which has already been noticed in a previous chapter, and in 1681 his Didascalocophus, or the Deaf and Dumb Man^s Tutor ; to which is added a Discourse of the Nature and Number of Double Consonants. Oxford 1680. This work is full of practical instructions on the education of deaf-mutes, containing also the first scheme of a finger or hand alphabet. The vrorks of this long neglected author have been reprinted in 1834 for the Glasgow Maitland Club. The celebrated Oxford professor, Dr. J. Wallis, who obtained great reputation by his Treatise on Words, or of the Formation of Sounds, is said to have largely availed himself of Dalgarno's labours, without the least acknowledgement. Johann Conrad Amman, of Haarlem, ranks high as an educator of the deaf and dumb. The practical rules, * Bedticcion de las letras, y arte para ensenar a hablar a los mudos. Madrid, 1620-4. f Francisci Valesii de its quae scripta sunt physiee in libris sacris,