Page:Ralcy H. Bell - The Mystery of Words (1924).pdf/124

 many factors, including that of time, have been noted with some exactitude.

The problems of phonology have been valiantly attacked, and not a few of them reduced to an understandable solution. Hidden elements have been brought to view; obscure links in the chain have been made clear; the vocal organs have been studied to the effect that now they yield not only sounds but some philosophy as well; their functions have been explained; the laws connecting these organs with the speech-centers of the brain have been identified and followed intelligently. Clinical experience has furnished much information about words and the principles which relate them to language. Vocal sounds have been arranged in classes, and their relations have been scrutinized. As the special traits of word-sounds have become clearer, the broad study of speech has been facilitated. The chain of sounds entering the synthetic flux of a word has been analysed, link by link, and it has been subjected to research cover-