118 VOCAL LANGUAGE OF LAURA BRIDGEMAN. 



its means with others, has led Laura to drop many of the sound-names 

 of individuals ; and now she frequently converses at great length with 

 herself, speaking, even in dreams, with one hand, and replying with 

 the other. But the progressive developement of a spoken language can 

 be seen in this, that the sound originally employed as the name of one 

 of her teachers appears to be employed now as an equivalent to the 

 words teacher, and to teach. Dr. Lieber draws attention to the fact 

 that all the personal designations of Laura were monosyllables. In 

 the brief personal intercourse, however, I had with her, during a visit 

 to Boston in 1864, she repeatedly used the dissyllable do-tah, by which 

 she now designates Dr. Howe. But her sounds, or names, are chiefly 

 monosyllabic, or consist of a repetition of the same syllable. They 

 diifer, however, greatly from the accustomed sounds of the English 

 language. The lips and throat are used much more than the tongue ; 

 and consonantal sounds, — as b, d,J,fo,pa,piTc„pr, ss, t, ta, is, — are 

 most frequent. Among separate vowal sounds, ee and oo are most 

 noticeable. Rut Laura has no ear to guide the modulations of her 

 voice. They are not perceived by her as sounds, and have not, there- 

 fore, been matured into articulate speech ; but are in many cases mere 

 gurglingS;, chucklings, or moanings, as difficult to I'educe to writing as 

 the un''amiliar languages of the Clalam Indians or the Hottentots. 

 Onr words are formed with a special view to their effect on the ear, 

 with the rolling r, the sibillant s, the broad aw, the prolonged II, etc., 

 and experience teaches their effect on others. But Laura's selection 

 is probably guided by the very diverse perception of the only sense 

 she is conscious of; so that sounds ineffective to the ear may be very 

 expressive in the effects produced on her own organs of speech. 



But apart from the training of the ear, both to regulate the modu- 

 lations of the voice, and to instruct it by imitation, Laura's great want 

 was the interchange of ideas, prior to receiving from others a ready- 

 made language, which superseded the developement of vocal utterances 

 as her representatives of abstract ideas. She gives sudden expression 

 to the sound i^, or Fi, when displeased at being touched by strangers; 

 and in like manner she is observed to utter one or two other familiar 

 involuntary interjections, or emotional expressions of pleasure or pain. 

 But it is more important to notice that she uses the interjectional^^e, 

 not only as a sign of irritation and dislike, but also when playfully re- 

 pelling advances ; thereby indicating the change from an involuntary 

 utterance, to its adoption as the sign of an idea. 



