A little consideration and reflection upon words which have been coined in
our own time shows that language offers an abstract and brief chronicle of
social psychology.
Articulate language has converted the vocal instrument into the chief agent
of the will, but the brain in the process of time has developed by the
movements of the lips, tongue, jaw, and soft palate a kinaesthetic[A] sense
of articulate speech, which has been integrated and associated in the mind
with rhythmical modulated sounds conveyed to the brain by the auditory
nerves. There has thus been a reciprocal simultaneity in the development of
these two senses by which the mental ideas of spoken words are memorised
and recalled. Had man been limited to articulate speech he could not have
made the immense progress he has made in the development of complex mental
processes, for language, by using written verbal symbols, has allowed, not
merely the transmission of thought from one individual to another, but the
thoughts of the world, past and present, are in a certain measure at the
disposal of every individual. With this introduction to the subject I will
pass on to give a detailed description of the instrument of the voice.
[Footnote A: Sense of movement.
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