5 o THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



Although we can not demonstrate a genetic unity of all forms of 

 human speech, it is interesting to observe that there are several funda- 

 mental traits that all languages have in common. Perhaps these 

 fundamental similarities are worthy of greater attention than they 

 generally receive and may be thought by many to possess a high de- 

 gree of significance. First of all, we find that in every known lan- 

 guage use is made of exactly the same organic apparatus for the pro- 

 duction of speech, that is, the glottal passage in the larynx, the nasal 

 passages, the tongue, the hard and soft palate, the teeth and the lips. 

 The fact that we are accustomed to consider all speech as self-evidently 

 dependent on these organs should not blind us to the importance of 

 the association. There is, after all, no a priori reason why the com- 

 munication of ideas should be primarily through sound symbols pro- 

 duced by the apparatus just defined; it is conceivable that a system 

 of sound symbols of noises produced by the hands and feet might have 

 been developed for the same purpose. As a matter of fact, there are 

 many systems of thought transference or language in the widest sense 

 of the word, as a moment's thought will show, that are independent of 

 the use of the ordinary speech apparatus. The use of writing will occur 

 to every one as the most striking example among ourselves. Among 

 primitive peoples we may instance, to cite only a couple of examples 

 of such subsidiary forms of language, the gesture language of the 

 Plains Indians of North America and the very highly developed drum 

 language of several African tribes. Prom our present point of view it 

 is significant to note that these and other such non-spoken languages 

 are either, as in the case of practically all systems of writing, them- 

 selves more or less dependent on a phonetic system, that is, speech in the 

 ordinary sense of the word, or else are merely auxiliary systems in- 

 tended to replace speech only under very special circumstances. The 

 fact then remains that the primary and universal method of thought 

 transference among human beings is via a special articulating set of 

 organs. Much loose talk has been expended by certain ethnologists on 

 the relatively important place that gesture occupies in the languages 

 of primitive peoples, and it has even been asserted that several so- 

 called primitive languages are unintelligible without the use of ges- 

 ture. The truth, however, is doubtless that the use of gesture is as- 

 sociated not with primitiveness, but rather with temperament. The 

 Russian Jew and the Italian, for instance, non-primitive as they are, 

 make a far more liberal use of gestures accompanying speech than any 

 of the aborigines of North America. 



If we examine in a large way the structure of any given language, 

 we find that it is further characterized by the use of a definite phonetic 

 system, that is, the sounds made use of in its words are reducible to a 

 limited number of consonants and vowels. It does not seem to be true, 



