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A Philosophical and Practical Grammar of the English Language
A Philosophical and Practical Grammar of the English Language Author:Noah Webster Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: A PHILOSOPHICAL AND PRACTICAL GRAMMAR. Of Language. JLiANGUAGE, in its most extensive sense, is the instrument or means of communicating ideas and af... more »fections of the mind and body, from one animal to another, In this sense, brutes possess the powers of language ; for by various inarticulate sounds, they make known their wants, desires, and sufferings. Thus the neighing of the horse, the towing of the ox, the cackling and chirping of birds, constitute the language of those animals ; and each respective species understand instinctively their own peculiar language. The signs made by deaf and dumb people form also a kind of imperfect language; and even the looks when made to express ideas aiul affections, speak an intelligible language. As brutes have few affections or ideas, and little necessity for communicating tliein, their language consists in a few inarticulate sounds. But man, being a rational animal, capable of acquiring, and of learning to communicate numberless ideas, is furnished with suitable organs for uttering an indefinite variety of sounds to express his ifleas ; and the modulations of his voice, in the distinct utterance of sounds, constitute what are denominated ar- ticulute sounds. chapter{Section 4Division of Language. Language is of two kinds, spoken and written. The elements of spoken language are nrticulate sounds uttered by the voice, which is formed by the air issuing through the glottis, a small aperture in the wind pipe, and modulated by articulations of the throat, tongue, palate, teeth, lips, and nostrils. This is the original and proper sense of the word, language. But as sounds are fleeting, and not capable of being communicated to a great distance, if men had no other means of communicating their thoughts, their intercourse would ...« less