Omaha daily bee., 1916-03-15
The Mystery Of Speech


WHEN you boy. the first time you tried
w TO whistle. In imitation OF older boys you
probably uttered unmusical and uneon-
troiabe squeak. Your told you that you were
not reproducing the sounds that you had heard from
the Others and you tried again You called your eye
sight to your aid and observed how the others puck
cred their lips and occasionally wet them with tne
tongues You took advice from accomplished whisters
who n they particularly interested in your Ell
forts. put their hands their hips, stopped down
close IN front Of you and showed you exactly how
to manage the living instrument You tried over ana
again. and when you lift upon the proper SOUNDS
YOU were careful TO remember just what shape you
had given your mouth and lips and just what forco
Of breath you had exerted Thus by dint first OF im
taton second OF practice, you taught your vocal
apparatus produce the series OF sounds which were
in your memory
II was self-educaton and when II was finished yo1
could whistle any tune that you heard because your
lips and vocal chords trained to produce, In
stinctvey, vibrations in the air responding TO the
sonorous concepts in your mind. your ears always
acting critics and guides
Having attained this degree Of skill u easy
for you IL you had a talent for music. 70 whistle
tunes Of your invention, because all tunes are
made up Of certain fundamental notes. and you had
learned how TO set the air vibrating TO the wave fre
quencies of those notes Babies and birds learn IN
the same way how 20 produce vocal sounds corre-
spending TO certain auditory impressions At first these
Impressions may not be connected with any mental
conceptions
They are purely physical responses to external in
fluences. Every species of bird has its single
song which Is characteristic of the species and an
individual bird seldom gets beyond the universal fam
lily of les species. But the human child soon
. acquires a wide acquaintance with many sounds, and
learns to connect them with what call mental
states thus its thoughts to others by
setting of certain vibrations in the air. This is the
beginning Of language.
We need not enter into the dispute as to whether
the mind Is something essentially independent.
through It, for in either case the management Of the
nerves and muscles TO produce physical effects cor
responding mental conceptions be acquired BY
practice and must be limited by the capabilities of
the bodily functions
Speech Is perhaps mans highest distinction from
other animals and It Is very interesting TO trace It's
gradual rise in the human species. II begin with
the brains OF the earliest types Of that have
been discovered among the fossils contained in the
upper layers OF the earth find that there
tain development OF those parts of the brain which
have been recognized associated with the power Of
speech hey lie at the sides OF the front half Of the
brain). and that there is similar development
the brains OF any lower animals. though the man-lie
apes have the rudiments.
Take for instance, what has been regarded the
most primitive human skull yet discovered that Of
the "Piltdown man." found In England a few years
ago. Elliot Smith, high authority, has said that at
though the brain indicated by that skull. which may
be 10000 years old, was the most primitive human
brain that he has seem yet 1t already showed
considerable development OF those parts which in
modern man we associate with the power OF speech.
TO avoid misunderstanding II should be said that
OF course In these the brain itself
preserved but anaomists tell what the form OF
the brain must have been from study OF the that
contained It, A jaw which found not far from
the spot where the Piltdown mans skull cap lay has
been regarded az belonsing to the individuaL'
and this jaw Is ape-like in character thus showing
as Prof Osborn has, pointed out, that speech must
have come while the Jaws were stn ape-like
Quite recently 1t has been asserted that the par
cuar jaw In question dd not belong to the Piltdown
man. but to an anthropoid ape which may have been
contemporary with him, but this does affect the
conclusion that the earliest began 70 speak while
their Jaws were stilG the Jaws OF apes But who can
imagine what they said?