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.
CHAPTER XIX.
Language embraces Speech--Speech, Words, Grammar, and Rhetoric.
A definition of the word speech as used in this particular work is given
elsewhere, and by this definition the word is used only in that sense
which limits it to the sphere of oral sounds. It is that form of
language which addresses itself only to the ear. The sounds which
constitute it may be supplemented by signs or gestures, but such signs
are only adjuncts, and are not to be regarded as an integral part of
speech in its true sense. Speech cannot be acquired by those forms of
life which occupy the lowest horizons of the animal kingdom, and have no
organs with which to produce sound. In the light of modern use and
acceptation language, broadly interpreted, includes all modes and means
of communication between mind and mind. It therefore includes speech as
one form, while signs or gestures constitute another form. Writing in
all its various modes is another form of language. It may be substituted
for either speech or gestures, but it does not thereby become speech in
a literal sense, but within itself it constitutes another form of
language. There seems to be some vague and subtle method of
communication found in certain spheres of life which is called
telepathy. While it is a mere ghost of language, so to speak, it has an
identity which cannot be denied. This may perhaps be called another form
of language.
[Sidenote: LANGUAGE EMBRACES SPEECH]
By some eminent men of letters it is claimed that speech was invented,
and therefore cannot be universally the same; and this is proven by the
fact
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