A concise description of voice […] is this: it is the audible result of a column of air emitted by the lungs, impressed with sonancy and variety of pitch by the larynx, and individualized by the mouth-organs.
- Whitney (1875), a pag.60

Every alphabetic system must start from the sound ‘a’ (of ‘far’, ‘father’); for this is the fundamental tone of the human voice; the purest intonated product of lungs and throat […].
- Whitney (1875), a pag.60

In a certain sense, it is true, the voice may fairly be said to have been given us for the purpose of speech; but it is only as the hands have been given us to write with; our speaking organs do also our tasting, breathing, eating […].
- Whitney (1875), a pag.293

In the course of man’s experience, it has come to light that the voice is, on the whole, the most available means of communication, for reasons which are not hard to understand: it acts with least expenditure of effort, it leaves the hands, much more variously efficient and hard-worked members, at leisure for other work at the same time; and it most easily compels attention from any direction. Only the smallest part of its capacities are laid under contribution for the uses of speech […].
- Whitney (1875), a pag.293

It is a blunder of our educated habit to regard the voice as the specific instrument of expression; it is only one of several instruments.
- Whitney (1875), a pag.289