Chap. I. ANTIENTMETAPHYSICS. in 



The fubjeft, upon which all thefe various operation are per- 

 formed, is, as I have obferved, the breath from the lungs, which 

 pafTes thiough the throat into the mouth, and from thence into 

 the open air ; and in that paflage it receives all thofe vari- 

 ous modifications, which form articulation. The firft of thefe is 

 from the throat, and the leaft artificial of anv of them. It appears, 

 therefore, to have been firft ufed, and more ufed than any other, 

 when men firft began to fpeak. The Orang Outang, who has noc 

 yet learned the art, utters, as I have faid*, guttural founds ; and the 

 Wild Girl I faw in France, who had learned to fpeak, told me, that 

 the language of her countrymen was full of guttural founds, and that 

 they fpoke every thing with open mouth. The Hurons of North 

 America do the famet; and Baron Hontan tells us, that he fpent four 

 days to no purpofe, in trying to teach a Huron to pronounce the 

 labial confonants, fuch as B, P, M :]: ; and the leafon is, that fpeech 

 was originally formed from animal cries, as I have elfewhere 

 £hown§, which are all with open mouth without any ufe of the lips. 



Articulate founds are divided, as I have fald, into vowels and con- 

 fonants. For the pronunciation of vowels nothing more is required 

 than a certain pofition of the organs of the mouth, through which the 

 biealh pafles. They are, therefore, few in number; nor do 1 know 

 that any language in the world has more than five of them, though, by- 

 compounding them, they make, in the languages of art, feveral more 

 vocal founds, called diphthongs. The confonants are formed by dif- 

 ferent adlions of the feveral organs of pronunciacion, which may be 

 faid to articulate in the proper fenfe of the word, that is, to break 

 and divide the found of the vowels, which otherwife would be con- 

 tinuous. They are, therefore, much more numerous than the vow- 

 els, and of pronunciation very much more difncult; though they 



cannot. 

 • Page 28. 



f Vol. I. of Origin of Language, p. 4^8. and following, 



X Ibid. p. 502. 



§ Ibid. Book III. Chap. IV. 



