THE ALPHABET CONSPIRACY

[Music] the Bell Telephone system brings you another of its series of programs on science man's effort to understand nature's laws the story of language is the story of man for the thoughts the aspirations the affections of long generations of human ity are woven into the fabric of human [Music] speech that's the way it begins story of language all over the world sounds of human speech like the very air we breathe or something most of us take just for granted where did you hide the paper now David you run right upstairs and watch and don't forget to brush your teeth you'd hardly think of our everyday speech as being a specimen for scientists to take apart piece by piece to study to analyze but this is a science the science of linguistics there are perhaps many ways to tell this story we've chosen to tell it through the imagination of the young lady who lives in this house now as you will see she's head over heels in linguistic problems of her own and she might call it [Music] la oh [Music] why can't you use a preposition to end a sentence with why shouldn't participles dangle why do have to be so many different words words words words words words words [Music] oh [Music] d [Music] how'd you do I'm the Mad Hatter why of course my name is Judy and you're in trouble word trouble but we are going to help you Judy this is Jabba walk how do you do his BR how MSY how do you do why does he talk that way because he's the Jabba walk and talks Jabba walki what are you two doing out of the aliceon Wonderland book we're going to free all the people enslaved by words we are going to do away with the alphabet take vpal sword andul you to rub out the words words are awfully confusing sometimes there's no Rhyme or Reason to them at all good you may join our conspiracy here take a note ah Judy will lead the letters into trap go on go [Music] up I'll take care of the capital ERS you may take care of the little one [Music] hello [Music] Judy who's he he's a professor of linguistics Linguistics well Judy what are you doing we're going to do a with the alphabet we are going to murder the language which one there are at least 5,000 different languages in the world there are a few of the dictionaries where would you like to start what's he do speak all kinds of languages he doesn't just speak them he's a scientist of language a science of language oh yes he studies the insides of language sounds and words and alphabets alphabets is he for them or again them well there's some things to be said in favor of alphabets name one the alphabet is the basis of writing for one then let's get the man who invented the alphabet yes I'd like to meet him I'm afraid that would be a bit difficult because people have been writing for 5 or 6,000 years why that's centuries yes Judy it is the people have been talking for a long time if this ruler represents the time man has been talking he's been writing only this long but even today in many areas of the earth large numbers of people millions of them still get along without writing well if they get along why should they bother to learn well they can't learn to write most of them because they have no alphabet no alphabet but as civilization began to spread over the Earth people realize that spoken language alone has its limitations they were learning so much they couldn't remember it all you might say Judy that's why writing was invented then that must be why we have whole libraries full of books cuz people wanted to write down for other people what they thought and what they did pity people were talking to each other long before there was anything like Civilization scientists don't know exactly how it all got started but once on the Move speech grew like a great tree with branches joining at limbs branches growing out of other branches branches running up into Twigs each a spoken language that was the source of still other languages and each changing is went along and developed until 5,000 or more known languages spread through the ages even now languages are continually changing new ones springing from old ones sometimes several from a single Source Latin was very important wasn't it oh yes it certainly was what we call the romance languages all branched off from the great trunk of Latin there's Italian Sardinian Spanish and Portuguese Dalmatian and Romanian Catalan and French provel reto romance and if you listen you'll hear a certain similarity Padre Papa t [Music] they all do talk something alike well Judy would you be interested to know that at a certain time of their lives babies all over the world speak the same language oh just a moment I know better than that what about Chinese babies and Indian babies German babies French babies and American babies well now just listen to the language that all those babies speak now here's a typical baby isn't this one that they young to talk all babies in the world have the same well baby language to start with the same babbling if you like but this babbling includes the sounds needed to make any language I didn't think baby talk really meant anything oh baby babbling is very important when a baby first comes into the world the speech areas of his brain are like a clean slate ready to be written upon from the very moment of birth with every sound a baby makes he is producing you might almost say practicing the basic sounds of speech then he learns to talk just by practicing not entirely through the first year the child listens to his parents and copies as closely as he can what he hears winning their approval when he makes the right sounds then the sounds begin to take shape and by the age of six the speech pattern is complete it's Daddy hello Daddy babies all start with the same sounds and then they just keep the ones that fit their language I think I'll make a note of that you might also make a note that we have a conspiracy to get on with shall we go oh yes that conspiracy to do away with the alphabet may I ask a question what is it why do you want to get rid of the alphabet which language we're after really and the letters of the alphabet are the building blocks of language that's a beautiful statement thank you Judy very well put but hardly scientific professional jealousy if I wanted to do away with language what I would go after would be sounds because sounds are the basis of any language sounds make a note of that I suppose the next thing you're going to say is there's a science of sound well as a matter of fact there is for a long time scientists have been curious about how our human SS are actually made in the course of such a study Professor Wolf Gang V kemplin invented the world's first talking machine make a note to get from kerin that was in the 18th century around 1780 cross him off we're too late here's a drawing of v klin's machine when the professor completed it I wouldn't even know how to begin to build a Talking Machine what are you doing Judy I'm trying to imagine how the professor figured it all out before a talking machine could be built the professor had to do a scientific study of just how the human speech mechanism Works lungs vocal cords mouth pallet na cavities for speech you [Music] need air the chest muscles acting as a Bellows operate to fill our internal bag pipe the lungs with air next you need noise a read from a bag pipe that will do now we build the machine while our friend is busy let's look at some recent Motion Pictures of the human vocal cords in action these films were made by the ghoul Foundation voice research laboratory at Northwestern University you see human noise is produced by the vocal cords encased in the larynx or Adam's Apple Air from the lungs is released through a space between the cords causing them to Flap apart and slap together these vibrations set up sound waves Now by slowing down the action with high-speed photography we can see that the pitch of sound is varied by tightening or relaxing the pull on the vocal cords tightening them raises the pitch relaxing them lowers it [Music] effective as they are the vocal chords are only the source of noise it's the rest of the speech mechanism that shapes the sound into meaningful words now what the professor had to understand to make his machine work was precisely how the tongue teeth lips and so forth operate a e o mhm vowels and now consonant BBB z m h the breath explodes it buzzes it hes the machine is finished and Now demonstration thaty [Music] why the machine spoke French said you are my friend v kon's machine was quite remarkable for 1780 for it was the world's first successful Talking Machine but scientists today have the benefit of techniques undreamed of in Von klan's time in these X-ray films of the human speech mechanism in action you can see the tongue and lips assuming various positions to form cavities that modify the Sound by resonance who will give a needle a mouse a cat and a bird to my father the sound of the different vowels depends on the height to which the tongue is raised in the mouth High mid or low and also depends on the position of the tongue in the front or back of the mouth consonants are shaped by tongue lips teeth who will give a needle a m a cat and a bird to mother this has been very educational Jabba we don't have to bother with the alphabet all we've got to do is get rid of those vowels and consonants and our job is done I hate to disappoint you fellows but what really come out of the human speech mechanism are phones p h o n e mes phones the basic sounds of speech don't even make a note to that Judy he's just trying to throw us off the track come on Jabba we've got plans to make it is confusing I guess I better ask you what is a phon phon is a sound like a b c no they're letters of the alphabet they're units of writing no alphabet for any language truly represents the sounds of that language Let Me Barrow you pad sit down and I'll show you now let's take this word either now this word has five phones if I say it slowly e you can hear the five parts but some people say either can you say either either or either either either or either as your friend the Hatters already said the alphabet can be very confusing different pronunciations are sometimes spelled in the same way that's why scientists had develop more accurate symbols now in phones either is written this way uh [Music] e and either is written like this a e v the difference is the first little phone name that's right now sign atst such as Ferdinand suur in France discovered that out of the thousands of speech sounds a human being can make each language has picked its own set of phones English for instance has 45 then those little phon sounds must really be the building blocks of language I better make a note of that for the hatter but for myself I better just stick to the alphabet we have a proposal if we can prove that it's possible to communicate without words to say nothing of phonemes will you give up your linguistic Obsession and joy in our conspiracy science is always open to example evidence [Music] good 1 two buckle my shoe [Music] 3 4 shut the door why I understood him perfectly if we can win over science the alphabet is as good as dead well Dr Linguistics do you conc that we have made a point yes indeed as a matter of fact I think we can substantiate your point further I think you'll find this very interesting [Music] J you know many people in the world have used some people still use unspoken communication doctor oh doctor Linguistics would you fellows be so good as to turn these cranks in the interests of science this is one of the Canary Islands Lera off the west coast of North Africa a land of rugged terrain in the sparsely populated areas people found it difficult to communicate with one another across the Deep Gorges so long ago the gas contrived an extraordinary form of telephonic speech whistling which can be understood over a distance of 3 miles you mean they whistle in Spanish in a way the consonants and vow s are represented entirely by differences in Pitch this whistling language is of great interest to linguistic scientists because it makes use of only one feature of normal speech pitch does without all the variations of tone quality that Professor V kemplin was so concerned about now whereas this Canary Island whistling language is based on vowels and consonants certain native tribes of the African jungle have a drum language based on the syllables of words why I never thought of a drum talking syllables the drum language of the Congo broadcasts every syllable of the words of a message through the changing rhythmic pattern patterns of drum beats if a man were to shout a leopard is stalking our village he might use only three syllables of he spoken tongue but in drum language he would need at least a dozen or more drum beats to convey this Urgent Message another ingenious form of language was invented in the North American Plains Indian sign language when tribes met on the trail hunted Buffalo together or met in Council wasn't time enough to learn one another's language so they used sign language instead here's a sue Storyteller using hand talk to tell the famous story of the battle of Washington the white soldiers told the Indians if you camp beside the river called the Lodgepole River before the snow there'd be no more fighting and that made all the Indians very happy excuse me for interrupting but I was just wondering how the Indians managed to talk with their hands in the dark well they couldn't Judy as you can see all of these methods are limited the great advantage of language is its versatility giving man Limitless possibilities for expressing his ideas his concepts of Science and Technology his day byday thoughts his feelings his emotions love don't be taken in by those scientific sries do animals have alphabets do they have words and animals can without any words at all Quote communicate from the moment of birth and they've gotten along for millions of years without any words at all haven't they oh yes indeed they have or would you fellows please oblig now look there's a crow when man invades the forest he's the first to shout beat it and all the other birds animals pass on the alarm not only birds and animals get along without words but insects as well the most incredible of all is the dance of the honeybee when a worker bee finds a flower full of nectar it flies back to the hive to announce the discovery this Urgent Message is communicated by performing a dance pattern of the dance indicates the direction of the flowers in relation to the sun the speed of the dance tells the distance from The Hive the other bees all take notice they touch the dancer with their antenna to discover the scent of the flowers then they all fly out to the source of the nectar animals and insects have many ingenious ways of communicating sounds smells with motion we find in all this communication that the the animal mind operates almost automatically it receives messages from the outside through its sense organs and reacts instinctively [Music] [Applause]