The Motives of Speech--Expression--The Beginning of Human
Speech--The Present Condition of Speech.
In vital economy, the search-light of science has found the protoplasm
which from our present state of knowledge seems to be the first point of
contact between elemental matter and the vital force. What secrets of
biology remain unknown within the realm of life, only those who live in
the future may ever know. In the first condition of vitalised matter we
find the evidence of autonomy. Whatever may be the ultimate force which
actuates this monad, the manifestations of its presence and the result
of its energy are seen externally. Whatever may be the nature of that
force which imparts motion to matter, the first impulse of the biod is
to secure food or to associate itself with a unit of its own kind. This
is perhaps the first act of volition within the sphere of life, the
first expression of some internal want, and is the first faint
suggestion of a consciousness, however feeble; and I may add with
propriety, that it is my opinion that the vital and psychic forces
operate in a manner not unlike the electric and chemical forces. They
appear to polarise, and in this condition act on matter in harmony with
that great law of Nature under which positive repels positive and
attracts negative, and _vice versa_. We shall not attempt to follow the
tedious steps of progress from inanimate matter to man, but begin with
those intermediate forms which are so far developed as to utter sounds
and understand the sounds of others. We will deal only with tangible
facts as we find them. From whatever source expression may arise, or at
whatever point it may appear, it is prompted by desire or some kindred
emotion, either positive or negative.
[Sidenote: MODES OF EXPRESSION]
At the point where we begin to discuss this question there are two
distinct modes of expression, either one of which can be used without
the other. But I may mention here a cogent fact, that in the lower forms
of life the normal mode of expression is by signs with supplemental
sounds. In the higher forms, expression is by sounds, and signs are
supplemental. And from the lower to the higher forms this transition is
in harmony with the development of physical types. It occurs to me that
signs were the first form of expression, and that sounds were first used
to call attention to the sign made; and by an association of ideas the
sounds became a factor of expression, and were used to emphasise signs.
As we ascend the scale of life, sounds become more abundant, and signs
less significant, and in the middle types they appear to be of nearly
equal value, while in the higher tribes of man sounds are the normal
mode of expression, and signs or gestures are used to emphasise them;
and thus we see that signs and sounds in the development of the faculty
of expression have quite changed places. This is consistent with the
observed facts within the limits of human speech. There are tribes of
mankind whose language is scarcely intelligible among themselves unless
accompanied by signs; and it is said of some of the African tribes that
their gestures are more eloquent than their speech. It appears to me
consistent to believe that speech appears in the animal organism
simultaneously with the vocal organs, and that the desire of expression
must have preceded this. [Sidenote: PRESENT CONDITION OF SPEECH] The
condition of the vocal organs depends upon the type of speech which they
are used to utter, and the speech depends upon the quality of thought it
is intended to express. That type of speech used by the Caucasian race
within the space of a few centuries has developed from a vocabulary
limited to a few thousand words into the polished languages of modern
Europe, comprising new types and tens of thousands of new words, until
to-day our own language contains more than two hundred and twenty
thousand words, very few of which, however, if any, are entirely new.
The phonetic elements on which is built up this huge vocabulary do not
very greatly exceed in number those found in the lowest types of human
speech in the world. The total number of these sounds does not much
exceed two score in the highest forms of human speech; and about half
this number can be shown as the vocal products of some species of the
lower animals. Some philologists claim that the blending of consonant
and vowel sounds is the mark which distinguishes human speech from the
sounds uttered by the lower animals. To show how poorly this gigantic
superstructure of fossilised science is supported by the facts, I have
developed such effects in the phonograph from a basis of sounds purely
mechanical, and without the aid of any part of the vocal apparatus of
man or animal. The sounds from which I have developed such results were
neither vowel nor consonant as those sounds are defined, but simply
prolonged musical notes. In another chapter will be found some of the
experiments which I have performed with the phonograph in the
investigation of sounds of various kinds. If I am allowed to think for
myself at all, I am not ready to accept as final some of the dogmas on
the theory of sound which have long been held and taught, and many of
which remain orthodox for no other reason than that no one has denied
them. I am not ready at this point to spring upon the world any new
theory of sound, but I am quite ready to refuse to believe some of the
tenets set forth in the creeds of philology.
Heresy is the author of progress, and I confess myself a heretic on many
of the current doctrines of the science of sounds.