How the sounds of spoken language arise is ultimately still a mystery to researchers. Acoustic phonetics has analyzed sound phenomena, whereas articulatory phonetics determines the physiological formation of spoken language. Little is known about the air, however, the central element of speech both within and immediately outside the body as it relates to audible sounds.

In 1924, Rudolf Steiner expressed the wish that an experimental method would be found by which sounds from the speaker's mouth could be rendered visible and thereby confirm the primal phenomenon embodied in the art...