Let the foregoing suffice as an analysis of sound. Voice is a kind
of sound characteristic of what has soul in it; nothing that is
without soul utters voice, it being only by a metaphor that we speak
of the voice of the flute or the lyre or generally of what (being
without soul) possesses the power of producing a succession of notes
which differ in length and pitch and timbre. The metaphor is based
on the fact that all these differences are found also in voice. Many
animals are voiceless, e.g. all non-sanuineous animals and among
sanguineous animals fish. This is just what we should expect, since
voice is a certain movement of air. The fish, like those in the
Achelous, which are said to have voice, really make the sounds with
their gills or some similar organ. Voice is the sound made by an
animal, and that with a special organ. As we saw, everything that
makes a sound does so by the impact of something (a) against something
else, (b) across a space, (c) filled with air; hence it is only to
be expected that no animals utter voice except those which take in
air. Once air is inbreathed, Nature uses it for two different
purposes, as the tongue is used both for tasting and for articulating;
in that case of the two functions tasting is necessary for the
animal's existence (hence it is found more widely distributed),
while articulate speech is a luxury subserving its possessor's
well-being; similarly in the former case Nature employs the breath
both as an indispensable means to the regulation of the inner
temperature of the living body and also as the matter of articulate
voice, in the interests of its possessor's well-being.
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