The Mind of the Child Part 17

The third way in which the first words are learned is this: The idea and the word appear almost simultaneously, as in onomatopoetic designations and interjections. Absolutely original onomatopoetic words are very rare with children, and have not been observed by me except after the children already knew some words. The names of animals, _bow-wow_, _moo-moo_, _peep-peep_ (bird), _hotto_ (horse), from the expression of the carter, "hott-ho" ("_tt_," instead of _Haut_ (the skin), i. e., "left," in contrast with "aarr"--_Haar_, _Mahne_ (the mane)--i. e., "right"), are spoken for the child by the members of his family. Some names of animals, like _kukuk_ (cuckoo), also _kikeriki_ (c.o.c.k) and _kuak_ (duck, frog), are probably formed often without having been heard from others, only more indistinctly, by German, English (American), and French children. _Ticktack_ (_tick-tick_) has also been repeated by a boy of two years for a watch. On the other hand, _weo-weo-weo_ (German, _[)u]io_) for the noise of winding a watch (observed by Holden in a boy of two years) is original. _Hut_, as an unsuccessful imitation of the locomotive-whistle by my boy of two and a half years, seems also noteworthy as an onomatope independently invented, because it was used daily for months in the same way merely to designate the whistle. The voice of the hen, of the redstart, the creaking of a wheel, were imitated by my child of his own accord long before he could speak a word. But this did not go so far as the framing of syllables. It is not easy in this to trace so clearly the framing of a concept as attaching itself directly to onomatopoetic forms as it is in a case communicated by Romanes. A child that was beginning to talk, saw and heard a duck on the water, and said _quack_. Thereafter the child called, on the one hand, all birds and insects, on the other hand, all liquids, _quack_.

Finally, it called all coins also _quack_, after having seen an eagle on a French sou. Thus the child came, by gradual generalization, to the point of designating a fly, wine, and a piece of money by the same onomatopoetic word, although only the first perception contained the characteristic that gave the name.

Another case is reported by Eduard Schulte: A boy of a year and three quarters applied the joyous outcry _ei_ (which may be an imitated interjection), modifying it first into _eiz_, into _aze_, and then into _a.s.s_, to his wooden goat on wheels, and covered with rough hide; _eiz_, then, became exclusively a cry of joy; _a.s.s_, the name for everything that moved along--e. g., for animals and his own sister and the wagon; also for everything that moved at all; finally, for everything that had a rough surface. Now, as this child already called all coverings of the head and covers of cans _huta_, when he saw, for the first time, a fur cap, he at once christened it _a.s.s-huta_. Here took place a decided subordination of one concept to another, and therewith a new formation of a word. How broad the comprehensiveness of the concept designated _huta_ was, is perceived especially in this, that it was used to express the wish to have objects at which the child pointed. He liked to put all sorts of things that pleased him upon his head, calling them _huta_. Out of the _huta_, for "I should like to have that as a hat" grew, then, after frequent repet.i.tion, "I should like that." There was in this case an extension of the narrower concept, after it had itself experienced previously a differentiation, and so a limitation, by means of the suffix _a.s.s_. These examples show how independent of words the formation of concepts is. With the smallest stock of words the concepts are yet manifold, and are designated by the same word when there is a lack of words for the composition of new words, and so for fresh word-formation.

The formation of words out of interjections without imitation has not been observed. Here belongs the _rollu_, _rollolo_, uttered by my boy, of his own accord, on seeing rolling b.a.l.l.s or wheels; and (in the twentieth month) _rodi_, _otto_, _rojo_, where the rotation perceived by the child occasions at once the one or the other exclamation containing _l_ or _r_. In the case of Steinthal, it was _lu-lulu_; in the case of a boy a year and a half old, observed by Kussmaul, it was _golloh_. In these cases the first interjection is always occasioned by a _noise_, not simply by the sight of things rolling without noise. The interjection must accordingly be styled imitative. A combination of the original--i. e., inborn--interjectional sounds into syllables and groups of syllables, without the a.s.sistance of members of the family, and without imitation, for the purpose of communicating an idea, is not proved to exist.

On the whole, the way in which the child learns to speak not merely resembles the way in which he learns at a later period to write, but is essentially completely in accord with it. Here, too, he makes no new inventions. First are drawn strokes and blurs without meaning; then certain strokes are imitated; then signs of sounds. These can not be at once combined into syllables, and even after the combination has been achieved and the written word can be made from the syllables it is not yet understood. Yet the child could see, even before the first instruction in writing or the first attempt at scribbling, every individual letter in the dimensions in which he writes it later. So, too, the speechless child hears every sound before he understands syllables and words, and he understands them before he can speak them.

The child commonly learns reading before writing, and so understands the sign he is to write before he can write it. Yet the sign written by himself is often just as unintelligible to him as the word he himself speaks. The a.n.a.logy is perfect.

If the first germs of words, after ideas have begun to become clear by means of keener perception, are once formed, then the child fas.h.i.+ons them of his own effort, and this often with surprising distinctness; but in the majority of cases the words are mutilated. In the first category belongs the comparative _hocher_ for _hoher_ in the sentence _hocher bauen_ (build higher)! (in the third year uttered as a request when playing with building-stones). The understanding of the comparative is plainly manifest in this. When, therefore, the same child in his fifth year, to the improper question, "Whom do you like better, papa or mamma?" answers, "Papa and mamma," we should not infer a lack of that understanding, as many do (e. g., Heyfelder); but the decision is impossible to the child. Just so in the case of the question, "Would you rather have the apple or the pear?"

Other inventions of my child were the verb _messen_ for "mit dem Messer schneiden" (to cut with the knife); _schiffern_, i. e., "das Schiff bewegen" (move the s.h.i.+p), for "rudern," (row). And the preference of the weak inflection on the part of all children is a proof that _after_ the appropriation of a small number of words through imitation, independent--always logical--changes of formation are undertaken. _Gegebt_, _gegeht_, _getrinkt_ (gived, goed, drinked), have never been heard by the child; but "gewebt, geweht, gewinkt" (as in English, waved, wafted, beckoned), have been known to him as models (or other formations corresponding to these). Yet this is by no means to say that every mutilation or transformation the child proposes is a copy after an erroneously selected model; rather the child's imagination has a wide field here and acts in manifold fas.h.i.+on, especially by combinations. "My teeth-roof pains me," said a boy who did not yet know the word "palate." Another in his fourth year called the road (Weg) the "go" (Gehe). A child of three years used the expression, "Just grow me" (_wachs mich einmal_) for "Just see how I have grown" (Sieh einmal wie ich gewachsen bin) (Lindner). Such creations of the childish faculty of combination, arising partly through blending, partly through transference, are collected in a neat pamphlet, "Zur Philosophie der Kindersprache," by Agathon Keber, 1868.

The most of them, however, are from a later time of life than that here treated of. So it is with the two "heretical" utterances communicated by Rosch. A child said _unterblatte_ (under-leaf) for "Oblate," because he saw the wafer (Oblate) slipped under the leaf of paper (Blatt); and he called the "American chair,"

"Herr-Decaner-chair," because somebody who was called "Herr Decan"

used to sit in it. Here may be seen the endeavor to put into the acoustic impression not understood a meaning. These expressions are not inventions, but they are evidence of intellect. They can not, of course, appear in younger children without knowledge of words, because they are transformations of words.

On the other hand it is of the greatest importance for the understanding of the first stage of the use of words in their real significance, after the acquirement of them has once begun, to observe how many different ideas the child announces by one and the same verbal expression. Here are some examples: _Tuhl_ (for Stuhl, chair) signifies--1. "My chair is gone"; 2. "The chair is broken"; 3. "I want to be lifted into the chair"; 4. "Here is a chair." The child (Steinthal's) says (in the twenty-second month), when he sees or hears a barking dog, _bellt_ (barks), and thinks he has by that word designated the whole complex phenomenon, the sight-perception of the dog and of a particular dog, and the sound-perception; but he says _bellt_ also when he merely hears the dog. No doubt the memory-image of the dog he has seen is then revived for him.

Through this manifold significance of a word, which is a subst.i.tute for a whole sentence, is exhibited a much higher activity of the intellect than appears in the mutilation and new formation of words having but one meaning to designate a sense-impression, for, although in the latter is manifested the union of impressions into perceptions and also of qualities into concepts, wherein an unconscious judgment is involved, yet a _clear_ judgment is not necessarily connected with them. The union of concepts into conscious clear judgments is recognized rather in the formation of a sentence, no matter whether this is expressed by one word or by several words.

In connection with this an error must be corrected that is wide-spread.

It consists in the a.s.sumption that all children begin to speak with nouns, and that these are followed by verbs. This is by no means the case. The child daily observed by me used an adjective for the first time in the twenty-third month in order to express a judgment, the first one expressed in the language of those about him. He said "hot"

for "The milk is too hot." In general, the appropriation and employment of words for the first formation of sentences depends, in the first instance, upon the action of the adults in the company of the child. A good example of this is furnished by an observation of Lindner, whose daughter in her fourteenth month first begged with her hands for a piece of apple, upon which the word "apple" was distinctly p.r.o.nounced to her.

After she had eaten the apple she repeated the request, re-enforcing her gesture this time by the imitated sound _appn_, and her request was again granted. Evidently encouraged by her success, the child from that time on used _appn_ for "eat, I want to eat," as a sign of her desire to eat in general, because those about her "accepted this signification and took the word stamped by her upon this concept for current coin, else it would very likely have been lost." This also confirms my statement (p.

85) that a child easily learns to speak with logical correctness with wrong words. He also speaks like the deaf-mute with logical correctness with quite a different arrangement of words from that of his speech of a later period. Thus the child just mentioned, in whom "the inclination to form sentences was manifest from the twenty-second month," said, "hat die Olga getrinkt," when she had drunk!

But every child learns at first not only the language of those in whose immediate daily companions.h.i.+p he grows up, but also at first the peculiarities of these persons. He imitates the accent, intonation, dialect, as well as the word, so that a Thuringian child may be surely distinguished from a Mecklenburg child even in the second and third year, and, at the same time, we may recognize the peculiarities of the speech of its mother or nurse, with whom it has most intercourse. This phenomenon, the persistence of dialects and of peculiarities of speech in single families, gives the impression, on a superficial observation, of being something inherited; whereas, in fact, nothing is inherited beyond the voice through inheritance of the organic peculiarities of the mechanism of phonation. For everything else completely disappears when a child learns to speak from his birth in a foreign community.

Hereditary we may, indeed, call the characteristic of humanity, speech; hereditary, also, is articulation in man, and the faculty of acquiring any articulate language is innate. But beyond this the tribal influence does not reach. If the possibility of learning to speak words phonetically is wanting because ear or tongue refuses, then another language comes in as a subst.i.tute--that of looks, gestures, writing, tactile images--then not Broca's center, but another one is generated.

So that the question whether a speech-center already exists in the alalic child must be answered in the negative; the center is formed only when the child hears speech, and, if he does not hear speech, no center is developed. In this case the ganglionic cells of the posterior third of the third frontal convolution are otherwise employed, or they suffer atrophy. In learning to speak, on the contrary, there is a continuous development, first of the sound-center, then of the syllable-center, then of the word-center and the dictorium. The brain grows through its own activity.

CHAPTER XVIII.

FIRST SOUNDS AND BEGINNINGS OF SPEECH IN THE CASE OF A CHILD OBSERVED DAILY DURING HIS FIRST THREE YEARS.

The observations bearing upon the acquirement of speech recorded by me in the case of my boy from the day of his birth, the 23d of November, 1877, are here presented, so far as they appear worthy of being communicated, in chronological order. They are intended to serve as authenticated doc.u.ments.

The points to which the attention is to be directed in these observations are determined by the organic conditions of the acquirement of speech, which have been treated previously. First, the expressive processes, next the impressive, last the central processes, claim the attention. (1) To the _expressive_ beginnings of speech belongs the sum total of the inarticulate sounds--crying, whimpering, grunting, cooing, squealing, crowing, laughing, shouting (for joy), modulation of the voice, smacking, and many others, but also the silent movement of the tongue; further, articulation, especially before imitation begins; the formation of sound, and so the gradual perfecting of the vowels, aspirates, and consonants; at the same time the forming of syllables.

The last is especially easy to follow in the babbling monologues of the infant, which are often very long. The reduplication of syllables, accentuation, and inflection, whispering, singing, etc., belong likewise here. (2) The _impressive_ processes are discerned in the looks and gestures of the child as yet speechless; later, the ability to discriminate in regard to words and noises, and the connection of the ear with the speech-center, are discerned in the first imitations of sounds and in the repeating after others--i. e., in word-imitation. Here belong also the onomatopoetic attempts of children, which are simply a sort of imitation. Later, are added to these the answers to simple spoken questions, these answers being partly interjectional, partly articulate, joined into syllables, words, and then sentences. The understanding of words heard is announced especially by the first listening, by the a.s.sociation of certain movements with certain sound-impressions, and of motionless objects with other sound-impressions, before speaking begins. Hereby (3) the _central_ processes are already shown to be in existence. The childish logic, especially induction from too few particulars, the mutilation of words reproduced, the wrong applications of expressions correctly repeated, the confounding of opposites in the verbal designation of concepts of the child's own formation, offer an abundance of noteworthy facts for the genesis of mind. Moreover, the memory for sounds and words, the imagination, especially in filling out, as well as the first acts of judging, the forming of propositions, questioning--all these are to be considered. As for the order in which the separate cla.s.ses of words appear, the training in learning-by-heart, speculations as to which spoken word is first perfectly understood, to these matters I have paid less attention, for the reason that here the differences in the child's surroundings exert the greatest influence. My report must, in any event, as a rough draft of the history of the development of language in the child, be very imperfect. It, however, contains nothing but perfectly trustworthy matter of my own observation.

During the first weeks the child often cried long and vigorously from discomfort. If one were to try to represent by written vowels the screaming sounds, these would most nearly resemble, in the majority of cases, a short _u_ (oo in book), with a very quickly following prolonged _a_ (_ai_ in fair); thus, _ua_, _ua_, _ua_, _ua_, were the first sounds that may be approximately expressed. They were uttered after the lapse of five months exactly as at the beginning, only more vigorously. All the other vowel-sounds were at first undefined.

Notwithstanding this uniformity in the vowel-sounds, the sounds of the voice are so varied, even within the first five weeks, that it may be told with certainty from these alone whether the child feels hunger or pain or pleasure. Screaming with the eyes firmly closed in hunger, whimpering in slight indisposition, laughing at bright objects in motion, the peculiar grunting sounds which at a later period are joined with abdominal pressure and with lively arm-movements, as the announcement of completed digestion and of wetness (retained for the first of these states even into the seventeenth month), are manifold acoustic expressions of vitality, and are to be looked upon as the first forerunners of future oral communication, in contrast with the loud-sounding reflex movements of sneezing and of hiccough, and with the infrequent snoring, snuffling (in sucking), and other loud expirations observed in the first days, which have just as little linguistic value as have coughing and the later clearing of the throat.

The voice is very powerful as early as the sixth day, especially when it announces feelings of discomfort. Screaming is much more frequent, persistent, and vigorous also when diluted cow's milk is given instead of that from the breast. If one occupies himself longer than usual with the infant (in the first two months), the child is afterward more inclined to cry, and cries then (as in the case of hunger) quite differently from what he does when giving notice of something unpleasant--e. g., wetness. Directly upon his being made dry, the crying ceases, as now a certain contentment is attained. On the other hand, the inclination to cry serves very early (certainly from the tenth week on) as a sign of well-being (or increase in the growth of the muscles). At least a prolonged silence at this season is wont to be connected with slight ailment. But it is to be remarked that during the whole period no serious illness, lasting more than one day, occurred.

On the forty-third day I heard the _first consonant_. The child, in a most comfortable posture, uttering all sorts of obscure sounds, said once distinctly _am-ma_. Of vowels, _ao_ was likewise heard on that day.

But, on the following day, the child surprised me and others by the syllables, spoken with perfect distinctness, _ta-hu_.

On the forty-sixth day, in the otherwise unintelligible babble of the infant, I heard, once each, _go_ (_o_ nearly like _i_ in bird), _oro_, and, five days later, _ara_.

In the eighth and ninth _weeks_, the two utterances, _orro_, _arra_, became frequent, the _o_ and _a_ being pure and the _r_ uvular.

The syllable _ma_ I heard by itself (it was during his crying) for the first time on the sixty-fourth day. But on the following day was sounded, during persistent, loud crying, often and distinctly (it returned in like manner months after), _nei_, _nei_, _nei_, and once, during his babbling, _a-omb_.

On the day after, distinctly, once each, _la_, _grei_, _aho_, and, besides, _ma_ again.

On the sixty-ninth day, the child, when hungry, uttered repeatedly and very distinctly, _momm_ and _ngo_.

Of the syllables earlier spoken, only _orro_ is distinctly repeated in the tenth week. On the seventy-first day, the child being in the most comfortable condition, there comes the new combination, _ra-a-ao_, and, five days later, in a hungry and uncomfortable mood, _na_, and then _n[=a]i-n_.

The manifest sign of contentment was very distinct (on the seventy-eighth day): _habu_, and likewise in the twelfth week _a-i_ and _u[=a]o_, as well as _a-o-a_, alternating with _a-a-a_, and _o-a-o_.

It now became more and more difficult to represent by letters the sounds, already more varied, and even to distinguish the vowels and repeat them accurately. The child cries a good deal, as if to exercise his respiratory muscles. To the sounds uttered while the child is lying comfortably are added in the fourteenth week _nto_, _ha_. The last was given with an unusually loud cry, with distinct aspiration of the _h_, though with no indication that the child felt any particular pleasure.

At this period I heard besides repeatedly _lo_, _na_, the latter along with screaming at disagreeable impressions more and more frequently and distinctly; in the fifteenth week, _nannana_, _n[=a]-n[=a]_, _nanna_ in refusal. On the other hand, the earlier favorite _orro_ has not been heard at all for some weeks.

Screaming while waiting for his food to be prepared (milk and water) or for the nurse, who had not sufficient nourishment for the child, is marked, in the sixteenth week--as is also screaming on account of unpleasant feelings--in general by predominance of the vowels, _a-[)u]_, _a-[)u] a_, _[=a]-[)u]_, _[=a]-[)u]_, _[)u]-a_, _[)u]-a_, _[=u]-[=u]-[=a]-o_, but meantime is heard _amme-a_, and as a sign of special discomfort the persistent ill-sounding _[=u][)a]-[=u][)a]-[=u][)a]-[=u][)a]_ (_[)u]_ = Eng. _[=oo]_).

Screaming in the first five months expresses itself in the main by the vowels _u_, _a_, _o_, _a_, with _u_ and _o_ occurring more seldom, and without other consonants, for the most part, than _m_.

In the fifth month no new consonants were developed except _k_; but a merely pa.s.sive _go_, _ko_, _aggegg[)e]ko_, the last more rarely than the first, was heard with perfect distinctness during the child's yawning.

While in this case the _g_-sound originates pa.s.sively, it was produced, in connection with _o_, evidently by the position of the tongue, when the child was in a contented frame, as happens in nursing; _ogo_ was heard in the twenty-second week, as well as _ma-o-[)e]_, _h[)a]_, _[=a]_, _ho-ich_. The _i_ here appeared more distinct than in the third month. The soft _ch_, which sounded like the _g_ in "Honig," was likewise quite distinct.

About this time began the amusing loud "crowing" of the child, an unmistakable expression of pleasure. The strong aspirate sound _ha_, and this sound united with the l.a.b.i.al _r_ in _brrr-ha_; corresponding in force to the voice, which had become exceptionally powerful, must likewise be regarded as expressions of pleasure. So with the sounds _aja_, _orrgo_, _[=a]-[=a]-i-[)o]-[=a]_, which the child toward the end of the first half-year utters as if for his own gratification as he lies in comfort. With these belongs also the frequently repeated "eu" of the French "heure," and the "oeu" of the French "coeur," which is not found in the German language, also the primitive sounds _a_ and _o_ (German). The lips contract very regularly, and are protruded equally in the transition from _a_ to _o_. I heard also _ija_ cried out by the child in very gay mood. In the babbling and crowing continued often for a long time without interruption, consonants are seldom uttered, pure vowels, with the exception of _a_, less often than _a_ and _o_; _i_ and _u_ are especially rare.

When the child lies on his back, he moves his arms and legs in a lively manner even without any external provocation. He contracts and expands all the muscles he can command, among these especially the muscles of the larynx, of the tongue, and of the aperture of the mouth. In the various movements of the tongue made at random it often happens that the mouth is partly or entirely closed. Then the current of air that issues forth in breathing bursts the barrier and thus arise many sounds, among them some that do not exist in the German language, e. g., frequently and distinctly, by means of labio-lingual stoppage, a consonant-sound between _p_ and _t_ or between _b_ and _d_, in the production of which the child takes pleasure, as he does also in the l.a.b.i.al _brr_ and _m_.

By far the greater part of the consonant-sounds produced by the exercises of the tongue and lips can not be represented in print; just as the more prolonged and more manifold movements of the extremities, movements made by the child when he has eaten his fill, and is not sleepy and is left to himself, can not be drawn or described. It is noteworthy that all the utterances of sound are expiratory. I have not once observed an attempt to form sounds while drawing in the breath.

In the seventh month the child at one time screamed piercingly, in very high tones, from pain. When hungry and desiring milk, he said with perfect distinctness, _ma_, _a_, _[)u]a_, _[)u]a[)e]_; when contented he would say _orro_ too, as at an earlier period. The screaming was sometimes kept up with great vigor until the child began to be hoa.r.s.e, in case his desire, e. g., to leave his bed, was not granted. When the child screams with hunger, he draws the tongue back, shortens it and thereby broadens it, making loud expirations with longer or shorter intervals. In pain, on the other hand, the screaming is uninterrupted and the tones are higher than in any other screaming. During the screaming I heard the rare _l_ distinctly in the syllable _la_. The vowels _[)u]-[=a]-[)u]-i-i_ also appeared distinctly, all as if coming by accident, and not often pure. The _t_ also was seldom heard; _f_, _s_, _sch_, _st_, _sp_, _sm_, _ts_, _ks_, _w_, not once yet; on the other hand, _b_, _d_, _m_, _n_, _r_, often; _g_, _h_, more seldom; _k_, only in yawning; _p_, but very rarely, both in screaming and in the child's babble to himself or in response to friendly address.

In the eighth month the screaming sounds were for the most part different from what they had been; the disagreeable screaming no longer so intense and prolonged, from the time that the food of the child consisted exclusively of pap (Kindermehl) and water. Single vowels, like _u_ and _a_, are very often not to be heard pure. Often the child does not move the lips at all when with mouth shut he lifts and drops the larynx, and with eager desire for the pap howls; or coos like a dove, or grunts. The prattling monologues become longer when the child is alone, lying comfortably in bed. But definite consonants can only with difficulty be distinguished in them, with the exception of _r_ in the _orro_, which still continues to be uttered, though rarely and unintentionally. Once the child, while in the bath, cried out as if yawning, _h[=a]-upp_, and frequently, when merry, _a-[(ei]_, _a-[(au]_, _[)a]-h[(au]-[)a]_, _horro_. When he babbles contentedly in this manner, he moves the tongue quickly, both symmetrically, e. g., raising the edges equally, and asymmetrically, thrusting it forward to right or left.

He often also puts out the tongue between the lips and draws it back during expiration, producing thereby the before-mentioned labio-lingual explosive sounds. I also heard _nt[)e]-o_, _mi-ja_, _mija_ (_j_ like Eng. _y_) and once distinctly _o[)u][=a][)e]i_.

In the ninth month it is still difficult to recognize definite syllables among the more varied utterances of sound. But the voice, often indeed very loud and inarticulate, is already more surely modulated as the expression of psychical states. When the child, e. g., desires a new, especially a bright object, he not only stretches both arms in the direction of it, indicating the direction by his gaze, but also makes known, by the same sound he makes before taking his food, that he wants it. This complex combination of movements of eye, larynx, tongue, lips, and arm-muscles appears now more and more; and we can recognize in his screaming the desire for a change of position, discomfort (arising from wet, heat, cold), anger, and pain. The last is announced by screaming with the mouth in the form of a square and by higher pitch. But delight at a friendly expression of face also expresses itself by high crowing sounds, only these are not so high and are not continued long. Violent stretchings of arms and legs accompany (in the thirty-fourth week first) the joyous utterance. Coughing, almost a clearing of the throat, is very rare. Articulate utterances of pleasure, e. g., at music, are _ma-ma_, _am-ma_, _ma_.

Meantime the lip-movements of the _m_ were made without the utterance of sound, as if the child had perceived the difference. Other expressions of sound without a.s.signable cause are _[=a]-au [=a]-[=a]_, _[=a]-[)o]_, _a-u-au_, _na-na_, the latter not with the tone of denial as formerly, and often repeated rapidly in succession. As separate utterances in comfortable mood, besides _orro_ came _apa_, _ga au-[)a]_, _acha_.

The tenth month is marked by the increasing distinctness of the syllables in the monologues, which are more varied, louder, and more prolonged when the child is left to himself than when any one tries to entertain him. Of new syllables are to be noted _nda[)e]_, _b[=a]e-b[=a]e_, _ba ell_, _arro_.

From the forty-second week on, especially the syllables _ma_ and _pappa_, _tatta_, _appapa_, _babba_, _tata_, _pa_, are frequently uttered, and the uvular _rrrr_, _rrra_, are repeated unweariedly.

The attempts to make the child repeat syllables p.r.o.nounced to him, even such syllables as he has before spoken of his own accord, all fail. In place of _tatta_ he says, in the most favorable instance, _ta_ or _ata_; but even here there is progress, for in the previous month even these hints at _imitating_ or even responding to sound were almost entirely lacking.

In the eleventh month some syllables emphatically p.r.o.nounced to the child were for the first time correctly repeated. I said "ada" several times, and the attentive child, after some ineffectual movements of the lips, repeated correctly _ada_, which he had for that matter often said of his own accord long before. But this single repet.i.tion was so decided that I was convinced that the _sound-imitation_ was intentional. It was the first _unquestionable_ sound-imitation. It took place on the three hundred and twenty-ninth day. The same day when I said "mamma," the response was _nanna_. In general, it often happens, when something is said for imitation, and the child observes attentively my lips, that evident attempts are made at imitation; but for the most part something different makes its appearance, or else a silent movement of the lips.