SPEECH FOR DEAF CHILDREN. 369 



and into consonants by decided actions of the same organs. Com- 

 pare voice thus changed to a stream of water lazily moving amid 

 green banks, now cutting its way through rock, broken into rapids 

 or plunged over a precipice. The smooth running is like the 

 vowels formed by open positions molding a steady current of 

 voice; the breaks and plunges like the consonants formed by 

 actions producing friction or even obstructing the breath momen- 

 tarily. Vowels are the life of speech; in them lies expressive 

 voice. The consonants are the receptacles giving temporary lim- 

 its to the vocalized breath. Thus the secret of agreeable voices 

 among the deaf is instruction based on a realization that all useful 

 exercises in vocal culture should be founded upon perfect action 

 of the edges of the glottis. This assured, vowels and consonants 

 combined, forming words, may be learned as rapidly as they can 

 be memorized. The hearing child has listened months before 

 attempting to talk, gradually gaining confidence to use his own 

 organs, and as nearly as possible imitating the sounds about him. 

 Very crude are his first efforts, differing widely from his speech 

 model. Yet no one doubts his ultimate success. Let the same 

 confidence be manifested with the deaf child in his first lessons. 

 Care in securing correct positions for sounds brings out lines of 

 beauty in his face, previously disfigured by unpleasant and un- 

 necessary movements. 



How is the pupil to know the meaning of the words he learns ? 

 It is necessary to explain by the natural signs he employs ; conse- 

 quently his first spoken and written words must be equivalents of 

 the same objects he has designated by a gesture, of the daily 

 actions about him, of the qualities he has appreciated by taste, 

 touch, and smell. Single words thus become intelligible to him. 

 He drops the sign and speaks ; his vocabulary constantly enlarges. 

 Now a new difficulty presents itself. The grouping of words, the 

 forming of phrase and sentence, he has no knowledge of ; more- 

 over, when grouped he does not grasp the shades of meaning thus 

 conveyed to the hearing person. He is likely to say " Sugar like/' 

 to express his fondness for the sweet; "Horse car go" to him 

 means " I will go in a horse car." He has no use for a, an, and 

 the, is contemptuous of the changes in tense, and is baffled by 

 idioms. No one can realize without experience the need of 

 patience and ingenuity in the teacher who imparts language to 

 the deaf child ; no one can have sufficient of these qualities who 

 does not strive to keep in mind the pupil's limited range and thus 

 bear with his ignorance. The hearing person studying a foreign 

 tongue has his own language to help him. Grammar can be re- 

 membered because similar or dissimilar to his own ; arrangement 

 of words, by resemblance or want of resemblance to the forms in 

 his daily use. Nothing of the kind is present to aid the child born 



TOL. XLIT. 29 



