286 PHILOSOPHY OF ZOOLOGY. 



two kinds of letters are conjoined to form a word, the same 

 changeableness of character in the vowels may likewise be 

 perceived. But in attending to the language of different 

 nations, more remarkable differences than these to which 

 we have now alluded appear to exist. We may detect the 

 same sound of vowels and consonants, but these sounds 

 are the symbols of other objects, and express different ideas. 

 AVhat, then, are those causes which operate in the produc- 

 tion of such diversity of speech in the same species ? The 

 following sources of change appear to include all the cir- 

 cumstances which exercise any remarkable influence, the 

 structure of the organs, the variety of situation, and the 

 progress of civilization. 



When we consider the complicated structure of those or- 

 gans destined to produce voice, the varied movements they 

 execute in articulating the different sounds, added to the 

 influence exercised by age, sex, constitution and habit on 

 the various muscles, we may perhaps be disposed to con- 

 clude, that we have discovered causes adequate to account 

 for all the phenomena. It cannot indeed be denied, that 

 these circumstances operate in the production of that pecu- 

 liar mode of speaking, by which an individual may be dis- 

 tinguished from all his acquaintance. It may even be 

 granted, that the sounds produced by one individual, and 

 which were at first specific, may, by being imitated by 

 the young, become general in the district. Differences 

 may therefore arise in the manner of pronouncing the 

 vowels, and perhaps one or two of the consonants, in 

 the mode of accenting the syllables, and in the tone and 

 energy of expression. A difference of organization, there- 

 fore, may account for the existence of provincial sounds 

 or dialects, but it offers no explanation of the fact, that 

 the same syllables among different tribes do not express 

 the same ideas nor appear in words in the same re- 

 lative position. But as a proof that other causes operate 



