ber of
distinct touches and consequent vocal effects, which produce the sounds
heard in all existing Languages. The total of the possible sounds so
produced or capable of production may be called the Crude or Unwinnowed
Alphabet of Nature, or the Natural Alphabet of Human Language
generically or universally considered. Thus, for instance, the sound
represented in English and the Southern European Languages generally, by
the letter _m_, is made by the contact of the two lips, while at the
same time the sounding breath so interrupted is projected upon the
_sounding board_ of the head _through the nose_, whence _resounding_, it
is discharged outwardly, this process giving to the sound produced that
peculiar effect called _nasal_ or _nose-sound_; and precisely this sound
can be produced by the voice in no other way. This sound is,
nevertheless, heard in nearly all Languages, although there are a few
imperfect savage dialects which are destitute of it. The production of
this sound, as above described, will be obvious to the reader if he will
pronounce the word _my_, and will attend to the position of the lips
when he begins to utter the word. Let him attempt to say _my_, without
closing the lips, and the impossibility of doing so will be apparent.
The production of the sound is therefore mechanical and local; and the
number of sounds to be produced by the organ fixed and limited,
therefore, by Nature herself. The very limited number of possible sounds
may be guessed by the fact that of sounds produced by _completely
closing the two lips_, there are only three, namely, _p_, _b_, _m_, in
all the Languages of the earth (as in _p_-ie, _b_-y, _m_-y).

It is the same with all the other vocal sounds. They are _necessarily_
produced at certain fixed localities or Seats of Sound, in the mouth,
and by a certain fixed modulation or mechanical use of the Organs of
Speech. At least they are produced in and are confined to certain
circumscribed regions of the mouth, and so differ in the method of
their production as to be appropriately distributed into certain Natural
Classes: as Vowels and Consonants; Labials (Lip Sounds); Linguo-dentals
(Tongue-Teeth Sounds); Gutturals (Back-Mouth or Throat Sounds), etc.,
etc.

From the whole number of sounds which it is possible to produce--the
whole Crude Natural Alphabet--one Language of our existing Languages
selects a certain number less than the whole, and another Language doing
the same, it hap