Key Arguments

• He specifies that the blow that produces voice is the blow 'struck on the so-called windpipe by the air that is breathed in', identifying the internal air as the active striker and the windpipe as what is struck.
• He emphasizes that 'not every sound made by an animal is voice', giving examples such as sounds made with the tongue and coughing, thus excluding many bodily noises from the category of voice.
• He lays down two stringent conditions: what does the striking must be animate, and must involve 'some sort of imagination', thereby tying voice to a psychic capacity that can intend and signify.
• He defines voice as 'a sort of sound that has signification', explicitly distinguishing it from mere sounds of exhaled air like coughs; in voice, the animal uses the air it has breathed in to strike the air in the windpipe against the windpipe itself.
• He offers an experiential indication: we cannot use our voice when breathing in or breathing out, but only when holding our breath; in that state, 'the one holding his breath causes the movement with this', supporting his model of voice-production.
• He reiterates at the end that fish are voiceless because they lack a pharynx and do not receive or breathe in air, confirming that voice as defined requires a specific air-based mechanism unavailable to them.

Source Quotes

264 That is why it is necessary that air should be breathed in and enter. And so the blow struck on the so-called windpipe by the air that is breathed in is voice. For, as we have said, not every sound made by an animal is voice (for it is possible both to make a sound with the tongue and | 420 b 30 | as people do in coughing), but what does the striking must be animate, and must involve some sort of imagination.

And so the blow struck on the so-called windpipe by the air that is breathed in is voice. For, as we have said, not every sound made by an animal is voice (for it is possible both to make a sound with the tongue and | 420 b 30 | as people do in coughing), but what does the striking must be animate, and must involve some sort of imagination. 265 For voice, of course, is a sort of sound that has signification, and is not, like a cough, the sound of the air that is breathed in. Instead, it is with this air that [the animal] strikes the air in the windpipe against the windpipe itself.

For, as we have said, not every sound made by an animal is voice (for it is possible both to make a sound with the tongue and | 420 b 30 | as people do in coughing), but what does the striking must be animate, and must involve some sort of imagination. 265 For voice, of course, is a sort of sound that has signification, and is not, like a cough, the sound of the air that is breathed in. Instead, it is with this air that [the animal] strikes the air in the windpipe against the windpipe itself.

265 For voice, of course, is a sort of sound that has signification, and is not, like a cough, the sound of the air that is breathed in. Instead, it is with this air that [the animal] strikes the air in the windpipe against the windpipe itself. An {38} indication | 421 a 1 | of this is that we cannot use our voice when breathing in or breathing out, but [only] when holding our breath.

Instead, it is with this air that [the animal] strikes the air in the windpipe against the windpipe itself. An {38} indication | 421 a 1 | of this is that we cannot use our voice when breathing in or breathing out, but [only] when holding our breath. For the one holding his breath causes the movement with this. It is evident too why fish are voiceless, since they have no pharynx.

Key Concepts

• And so the blow struck on the so-called windpipe by the air that is breathed in is voice.
• For, as we have said, not every sound made by an animal is voice (for it is possible both to make a sound with the tongue and | 420 b 30 | as people do in coughing), but what does the striking must be animate, and must involve some sort of imagination. 265
• For voice, of course, is a sort of sound that has signification, and is not, like a cough, the sound of the air that is breathed in.
• Instead, it is with this air that [the animal] strikes the air in the windpipe against the windpipe itself.
• An {38} indication | 421 a 1 | of this is that we cannot use our voice when breathing in or breathing out, but [only] when holding our breath. For the one holding his breath causes the movement with this.

Context

Final portion of II.8 (420b25–421a3), where Aristotle gives his precise hylomorphic and psychological definition of voice, differentiating it from other animal sounds by its production mechanism, its dependence on imagination, and its signifying character.