It is also spelled with “l”.[1]
[Note] that[2] not all the animals have a voice, but only those that are furnished with lung and respiration; for the inhaled air is the matter of the voice. Insects do not breathe, nor do animals without blood nor any of the amphibious animals have a voice nor do the molluscs, such as the land-snails, nor the crustaceans, such as crabs [and] skytalai. But of the amphibious animals, the hippopotamus and crocodile do have a voice;[3] for this one has a voice briefly. But the fishes of the Achelous,[4] although they seem to have a voice, do not have a voice. For they do not have a voice through phonetic organs, but [that sound is due to] a certain movement of their gills. Effectively, when they swim in the surface of water, they enclose a lot of it in their gills; and then, when they contract their gills, they send out the water and disturb it as they send it out. But what is disturbed encloses a certain air which, when squeezed out, sounds with the stroke, and so [the fishes] seem to have a voice. The cicadas, on account of a membrane implanted in the surface underneath their breast, have a voice when they squeeze that membrane out and the air is agitated by their wings. In fact, they have no voice through phonetic organs. But flies strike the air with their wings, which are rough, and produce a sound. Indeed, when they stand still, they do not make a humming noise any longer. And the parrot-wrasses,[5] when squirting water out through the mouth, produce a piping sound; doubtless when they are in the deeps they have no voice.