Page:Ralcy H. Bell - The Mystery of Words (1924).pdf/95

 Reduced to its simplest analysis, the spoken word contains three elements: (a) its vocal sound; (6) its acoustic impulse; (c) its mental image. These three elements of an oral word determine the quality of its impression or registration, as well as the character of the process, and the spirit of its interpretation. The oral word therefore bears no more necessary relation to the phonetic organs than to the auditory; it is no more closely related to the physical than to the physiological process; and the image or the soul of a word is as indispensable, surely, to the psychic phenomenon as to any other link in the chain.

The spoken word has no more primary connection with the alphabet than with the ideograph. The alphabet relatively is a late invention of signs with which to suggest word-sounds in writing. The alphabet performs its function principally through the sight. The symbols are learned, and they are given their arbitrary phonetic associations and their acoustic equivalents which must be fixed in