Vowels are the expression of the wind and the air which surrounds us. Abram's book, rich in expositing the roots of words, notes many indicate the air carries spiritual significance. He speculates that the Hebrew non-representation of vowels, the wind in our speech, is tied to Judaism's rule against making images of God. So many indigenous, oral cultures have this sense of air as that which brings life and awareness to all things. We see the winds moving the clouds and the swaying trees.
Many oral cultures wonder if the winds are moving our thoughts.
We retain this resonance in our words, psychology, psychiatry and psychic. They derive from the Greek word psyche, which also means breath. But, in our divorce from the surrounding air, we believe our psyche is something locked in our skulls. Oral cultures view mind as far more participatory with its surroundings, a quality of the wind flowing within and without. Oral cultures in all their communication could not help but acknowledge the medium in which they dwelled, Abram points out.