A PAPER 



VOCAL SOUNDS OF LAURA BRIDGEMAN, 



THE BLIND DEAF-MUTE AT BOSTON; 



COMPARED WITH THE ELEMENTS OF PHONETIC LANGUAGE. 



BY FRANCIS LIEBBR. 



Language consists of signs, representing ideas. These signs are selected 

 by the person who speaks in accordance with the ideas prevaihng in his own 

 mind, in order to produce the reversed process in the individual spoken to ; 

 that is, they are used for that process — the most wonderful and most impor- 

 tant on this earth — of conveying ideas from one distinct individual to another ; 

 for the communion of mind with mind, through sensuous impressions, made in 

 skilful succession, and in accordance with general laws. Why, then, do all lan- 

 guages consist of phonetic signs .'' There is no tribe known making exclusive 

 use of ocular communion, or conveying ideas chiefly by visible signs. Yet the 

 eye conveys to the mind perceptions far more varied and enriching than all 

 the other senses, and is an organ which, bating the developed phonetic language 

 itself, contributes infinitely more to the formation of the mind than the sense of 

 hearing. If persons who do not understand each other's languages, neverthe- 

 less must commune, a wrecked sailor, for instance, with an inhabitant of a 

 foreign shore, they generally take, first of all, refuge in ocular signs. The Rev. 

 Mr. Gutzlaff tells us that the Chinese accompany their speech with a great 

 many visible signs, without which the audible ones cannot be understood.* The 

 orators of all nations accompany their spoken words with signs intended for the 

 eye, in a greater or less degree, voluntarily or impulsively, naturally or artisti- 

 cally. Why, then, do we find nowhere a regularly, or logically developed ocu- 

 lar language .'' It is no sufficient answer that the phonetic signs uttered by the 



* The Chinese have even the belief that there is a word expressive of all excellence, and so exqui- 

 site, that no one can pronounce it; but that it can only be written, or be perceived by the eyes. The 

 sixth of Dr. Blair's Lectures on Rhetoric and Belles Letters, may be read, with reference to this sub- 

 ject, not without profit. 



