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Show r ,. . . . i I' Fireside Science By Ransom Swttoa CesrrKfet, 1,11 M T. Bvestag Weii. rrees faailablaa Ce. I : LANOUAOE. ' ' " tfuman speech results from sound waves produce by mueeular vlbra-lions vlbra-lions of the vocal eords, the vibratory movements of the cords being controlled con-trolled by the will. The cords msy be described aa two membraneous folds, located In the throat where-the windpipe opene Into the back of the mouth. By tautening the membranes and exhaling air through the windpipe over them, short sound waves are produced, giving hlh pitched toneo; by relaxing the membrenes. long wsvee and lower tonee result. The soands of sil the worda In the dictionary, our whispers, sighs, screams and Interjections, to- Kther with ell the notes snd tremo-i tremo-i of muslo, originate In movements of the vocal eorde. Hence th number num-ber and variety of tho movements are Incalculahls. Ths first vocsl sounds ever uttered ! upon this earth came from the throats of amphibians, like the croaking of froge .today. Prior to tha age of am-phlbtane. am-phlbtane. nothing he a voire. In-eecta In-eecta msy have produced sound waves by strumming wfnss sgalnst sralee. but auch sounds were not vocal. Even the amphibians found thsir clumsy vocal eorde eerilceable. in that they could be heed to sound ths sex call by the male to th females Among reptllee, females 'learned for the first time to uee their votcee, and that aoqulred ehlilty wea finally transmlttsd to their young. t'n-hatched t'n-hatched crocodiles now pipe from the egg ee a sigaal to th mother to break the ehell. Finally. among mammals with young coming Into the world endowed with vocal oarde. particular sounds acquired fixed meaning expreeeive of hunger, danger. Joy, anger, pain, etc which algn'ed the beginning of lan- guag. "Tea" an "no" uttered rather loosely, sccomnanied by nod-dines nod-dines snd wagglngs or the head, were prohehlv the first two words Of the primordial human language. "Papa" and "mamma." pronounced similarly la an languages, were probably lb next two words. Msny books hav been written on th origin snd dsvetopmenc of languages, lan-guages, but one can learn mar by watching children than from we books, for each child, according to the biogenetic law, repeat, me htetory of th human race. Children begin by meklng meanlngleee eounde. but gradually tha sounds acquire significance. signifi-cance. The grandparent ' of th Wnrttrh language wae Aryan; the Immediate parents were two Aryan tonguee which had dsveleoed In different directions di-rections th Anglo-Saxon and the Norman-French. The unsettled and varied orthography of English, which makes It one of the moat difficult lea. (uagee to learn he reeulted from the blending of the tee form of epeerh. Such progreee has been mede within a few eenturie that modern Englishmen find It difficult la read Chaucer. go areec M the power ef expression of this still evolving tongus that, wherever civilisation extols, English is rendering other forms of speech ob-eoiete. ob-eoiete. Of the elx conttnente. two are practically Eoillsh speaking I North Americaand Australia). Englishmen eldom ieed Interpret ere EnglMn has beea enriched by captive cap-tive words from ell the tonguee with which It has come In contact, except ex-cept the negr languages. Thoussnda ef words have been Incorporated from Indian languagee. and while ther sre tea tlmee ss msnv aegroee In the felted mates as Indlsns. who can recall re-call a elngl word bora ra Afrtce that hae become a pare of our epeech? The only two negro werde ae to the oriel of which ther can be ne dnuot. while aeed by ue sIL sre difficult to spell and can hardly be reaarded a word On Is "uh.huh," signifying affirmation, affirma-tion, while the olher. "uh-uh." el-alftee el-alftee neeatlon. Werde of probable negre sru ar gum bio, hoodoo and Ths' dearth of negro words reoults from the fact thst the vowel eounde of the Africen tongues, consisting of clicks, eannot be pronounced by En- t'ieh epeaklng peoples. Tobacco I" aflr for example. I spelled "X-ma, "X-ma, th X being clicked and the let pronounced simultaneously, a feat too com pi reeled for vocal cords accustomed t Axyaa artlculauoa. |