Inarticulate Noises

Abstract

Aristotle’s definition of a name (noun?) as ‘a sound significant by convention’ (De Interpretatione, Chapter 2) is interestingly discussed in Professor Kretzmann’s paper in this volume. The definition is followed by an elucidating reference to ‘inarticulate noises (of beasts, for instance)’ which, though they reveal (δηλοῦσιν) something, are not names. The Greek word ἀγράμματοι which is here translated as ‘inarticulate’ needs further discussion. The metaphor that intelligible speech is ‘articulate’, i.e. ‘provided with joints’ occurs in Aristotle in Historia Animalium, 4.9:

διάλεκτος δ’ ἡ τῆς φωνῆς ἐστὶ τᾐ γλώττῃ διάρθρωσις. Speech is the articulation of the voice by the tongue.