  The signs used in human communication are further subdivided with regard to the senses to which they address themselves: “some relate to the sense of sight, some to that of hearing, a very few to the other senses”. The preeminent role among all sorts of “given signs”, that Augustine is claiming for the words, does not result from their quantitative preponderance but rather from the fact that, as he points out, everything that is indicated by nonverbal signs can be put into words but not vice versa (Augustine De doctr. chr. II 7, 1963, 35). ‘Word’ (verbum) in its proper sense means — at least for the early Augustine — ‘spoken word’. Writing (litterae), introduced by man in order to impart permanency to spoken language, is just a secondary system of signs, consisting of “signs of words” (signa verborum) rather than of words itself (Augustine, De doctr. chr. II 8, (Ibid.); De dial. 1975, 86f.).