CHAPTER VIII. 



Some Curious Facts in Vocal Growth. — Children and Conso- 

 nants. — Single, Double, and Treble Consonants. — Sounds 

 of Birds. — Fishes and their Language. — Insects and their 

 Language. 



I shall take occasion here to mention some 

 curious experiments which have suggested them- 

 selves to me in my work with the phonograph. 

 For lack of time and opportunity I have not car- 

 ried them far enough to give exact and final re- 

 sults, but it has occurred to me that philology 

 may be aided by taking a record of the sounds 

 made by a number of children daily through a 

 period of two or three years from birth. The 

 few experiments which I have tried in this par- 

 ticular line are sufficient to show that the growth 

 of speech obeys certain laws in the development 

 of vocal power. It is apparent to me that the 

 first sounds uttered by children have no conso- 

 nants, and that certain consonants always appear 

 in a regular succession and always single. The 

 double consonants develop later, and the triple 

 consonants appear to be the last acquirement. I 



