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 documents.

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 association 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 classes 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 _ae_ (_ai_ in fair); thus, _uae_, _uae_, _uae_, _uae_, 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, _goe_ (_oe_ nearly like _i_ in bird), _oeroe_, and, five days later, _ara_.

In the eighth and ninth _weeks_, the two utterances, _oerroe_, _arra_, became frequent, the _oe_ 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, _moemm_ and _ngoe_.

Of the syllables earlier spoken, only _oerroe_ 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, _nae_, 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 _ae-o-a_, alternating with _ae-a-a_, and _o-ae-oe_.

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 _ntoe_, _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 _loe_, _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 _oerroe_ 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, _ae-[)u]_, _ae-[)u] ae_, _[=a]-[)u]_, _[=a]-[)u]_, _[)u]-ae_, _[)u]-ae_, _[=u]-[=u]-[=a]-oe_, 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_, _ae_, _oe_, _a_, with _ue_ 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 passive _goe_, _koe_, _aggegg[)e]koe_, 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 passively, it was produced, in connection with _oe_, evidently by the position of the tongue, when the child was in a contented frame, as happens in nursing; _oegoe_ was heard in the twenty-second week, as well as _ma-oe-[)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 labial _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_, _oerrgoe_, _[=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 _ae_ and _oe_ (German). The lips contract very regularly, and are protruded equally in the transition from _ae_ to _oe_. I heard also _ijae_ 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 _ae_ and _oe_; _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 labial _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, _mae_, _ae_, _[)u]ae_, _[)u]ae[)e]_; when contented he would say _oerroe_ too, as at an earlier period. The screaming was sometimes kept up with great vigor until the child began to be hoarse, 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 _lae_. 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 _ae_, 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 _oerroe_, 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]_, _hoerroe_. 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]-oe_, _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 _mae-mae_, _aem-mae_, _mae_.

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 assignable 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 _oerroe_ 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 _ndae[)e]_, _b[=a]e-b[=a]e_, _ba ell_, _arroe_.

From the forty-second week on, especially the syllables _mae_ and _pappa_, _tatta_, _appapa_, _babba_, _taetae_, _pa_, are frequently uttered, and the uvular _rrrr_, _rrra_, are repeated unweariedly. The attempts to make the child repeat syllables pronounced 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, _tae_ 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 pronounced 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 repetition 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.

In the forty-fifth week everything said to the child, in case it received his attention, was responded to with movements of lips and tongue, which gave the impression of being made at random and of serving rather for diversion.

Further, at this period the child begins during his long monologues to _whisper_. He produces sounds in abundance, varying in force, pitch, and _timbre_, as if he were speaking an unknown tongue; and some single syllables may gradually be more easily distinguished, although the corresponding positions of the mouth pass into one another, sometimes quite gradually, sometimes rapidly. The following special cases I was able to establish by means of numerous observations:

In crying _rrra_, there is a vibration on both sides of the edges of the tongue, which is bent to a half-cylinder with the ridge upward. In this way the child produces three kinds of _r_-sounds--the labial, the uvular, and this bilateral-lingual.

New syllables of this period are _ta-h[(ee]_, _dann-tee_, _[(aa]-n[(ee]_, _ngae_, _tai_, _bae_, _dall_, _at-tall_, _kamm_, _akkee_, _prai-jer_, _tra_, _[=a]-h[(ee]_. Among them _tra_ and _pra_ are noteworthy as the first combination of _t_ and _p_ with _r_. The surprising combinations _attall_ and _akkee_ and _praijer_, which made their appearance singly without any occasion that could be noticed, like others, are probably the first attempts to reproduce the child's own name (Axel Preyer) from memory. Of earlier sounds, syllables, and combinations of these, the following are especially frequent: _Mammam_, _apapa_, _oerroe_, _papa_, _tata_, _tatta_, _n[(aa]_, _rrra_, _pata_, _mmm_, _n[)a]_, _[=a]_, _ae_, _[(au]_, _anna_, _attapa_, _dadada_, _ja_, _ja-ja_, _eja_, _jae_. The last syllables are distinguished by the distinct _e_, which is now more frequent.

All the pains taken to represent a babbling monologue perfectly by letters were fruitless, because these distinct and oft-repeated syllables alternated with indistinct loud and soft ones. Still, on the whole, of the consonants the most frequent at this period are _b_, _p_, _t_, _d_, _m_, _n_, and the new _r_; _l_, _g_, _k_, not rare. Of vowels the _a_ has a decided preponderance. Both _u_ and _o_ are rare; _i_ very rare. Yet a vowel is not repeated, either by itself or in a syllable, more than five times in succession without an interval. Commonly it is twice or three times. I have also noticed that the mechanical repetition of the same syllable, e. g., _papapa_, occurs far more often than the alternation of a distinctly spoken syllable with, another distinctly spoken one, like _pata_. In the mean time it is certain that the child during his various movements of lips and tongue, along with contraction and expansion of the opening of the mouth, readily starts with surprise when he notices such a change of acoustic effect. It seems as if he were himself taking pleasure in practicing regularly all sorts of symmetrical and asymmetrical positions of the mouth, sometimes in silence, sometimes with loud voice, then again with soft voice. In the combinations of syllables, moreover, palpable accentuation somewhat like this, _appapapa atatata_, is by no means frequent. The surprisingly often repeated _dadada_ has generally no accent.

With regard to the question whether in this period, especially important for the development of the apparatus of speech, any articulate utterance of sound stands in firm association with an idea, I have observed the child under the most varied circumstances possible without disturbing him; but I have ascertained only one such case with certainty. The _atta_, _hoedda_, _hatta_, _hatai_, showed itself to be associated with the perception that something disappeared, for it was uttered when some one left the room, when the light was extinguished, and the like; also, to be sure, sometimes when such remarkable changes were not discoverable. Thus, the eleventh month ends without any other indubitable firm _association of articulation and idea_.

In the next four weeks, up to the _end of the first year_ of life, there was no progress in this respect to record; but, from this time on, an eager desire--e. g., for a biscuit seen, but out of reach--was regularly announced by _ae-na_, _ae-nananana_, uttered loudly and with an expression of indescribable longing.

The attempts at imitation, too, are somewhat more successful, especially the attention is more strained. When, e. g., in the fifty-first week, I sang something for the child, he gazed fixedly more than a minute, with immovable countenance, without winking, at my mouth, and then moved his own tongue. Correct repetition of a syllable pronounced to him is, however, very rare. When I laugh, and the child observes it, he laughs likewise, and then crows, with strong abdominal pressure. This same loud expression of joy is exhibited when the child unexpectedly sees his parents at a distance. This peculiar pressure, with strong expiration, is in general associated with feelings of pleasure. The child almost seems to delight in the discovery of his own abdominal pressure, when he produces by means of it the very high crowing sounds with the vowel _i_ or a genuine grunt.

Of articulate sounds, syllables, and combinations, made without suggestion from others in the twelfth month, I have caught the following particularly with accuracy: _haja_, _jajajajaja_, _aja_, _njaja_, _nain-hopp_, _ha-a_, _pa-a_, _d[=e]waer_, _han-na_, _moemma_, _allda_, _alldai_, _apa-u-a_, _gaegae_, _ka_, _ladn_. Besides, the earlier _atta_ variously modified; no longer _dada_.

More important than such almost meaningless sound-formations, among which, by the way, appears for the first time _w_ is the now awakened _ability to discriminate between words heard_. The child turns around when his name is spoken in a loud voice; he does this, it is true, at other loud sounds also, but then with a different expression. When he hears a new tone, a new noise, he is surprised, opens his eyes wide, and holds his mouth open, without moving.

By frequent repetition of the words, "Give the hand," with the holding out of the hand, I have brought the child, in the fifty-second week, to the point of obeying this command of himself--a sure proof that he distinguishes words heard. Another child did the same thing in the seventh month. In this we can not fail to see the beginning of communication by means of ordinary language, but this remained a one-sided affair till past the third half-year, the child being simply receptive. During this whole period, moreover, from birth on, special sounds, particularly "sch (Eng., _sh_), ss, st, pst," just the ones not produced by the child, had a remarkable effect of a quieting character. If the child heard them when he was screaming, he became quiet, as when he heard singing or instrumental music.

In the _first weeks of the second year of life_, the child behaves just as awkwardly as ever in regard to saying anything that is said to him, but his attention has become more lively. When anything is said to him for him to say--e. g., _papa_, _mama_, _atta_, _tatta_--he looks at the speaker with eyes wide open and mouth half open, moves the tongue and the lips, often very slightly, often vigorously, but can not at the same time make his voice heard, or else he says, frequently with an effort of abdominal pressure, _attai_. Earlier, even in the forty-fifth week, he had behaved in much the same way, but to the word "papa," pronounced to him, he had responded _rrra_. Once only, I remember, _papa_ was repeated correctly, in a faint tone, on the three hundred and sixty-ninth day, almost as by one in a dream. With this exception, no word could be repeated on command, notwithstanding the fact that the faculty of imitation was already active in another department. The syllables most frequently uttered at this stage were _nja_, _njan_, _dada_, _atta_, _mama_, _papai_, _attai_, _na-na-na_, _hatta_, _meen[)e]-meen[)e]-meen[)e]_, _moemm_, _moemma_, _ao-u_.

Of these syllables, _na-na_ regularly denotes a desire, and the arms are stretched out in connection with it; _mama_ is referred to the mother perhaps in the fifty-fourth week, on account of the pleasure she shows at the utterance of these syllables, but they are also repeated mechanically without any reference to her; _atta_ is uttered now and then at going away, but at other times also. His joy--e. g., at recognizing his mother at a distance--the child expresses by crowing sounds, which have become stronger and higher than they were, but which, can not be clearly designated; the nearest approach to a representation of them is _[)a]hij[)a]_. Affirmation and negation may already be recognized by the tone of voice alone. The signification of the cooing and the grunting sounds remains the same. The former indicates desire of food; the latter the need of relieving the bowels. As if to exercise the vocal cords, extraordinarily high tones are now produced, which may be regarded as signs of pleasure in his own power. An imperfect language has thus already been formed imperceptibly, although no single object is as yet designated by a sound assigned to it _alone_. The articulation has made progress, for on the three hundred and sixty-eighth day appeared the first distinct _s_, in the syllable _ssi_; quite incidentally, to be sure.

The most important advance consists in the now awakened _understanding of spoken words_. The ability to learn, or the capability of being trained, has emerged almost as if it had come in a night.

For it did not require frequent repetition of the question, "How tall is the child?" along with holding up his arms, in order to make him execute this movement every time that he heard the words, "Wie gross?" ("How tall?") or "ooss," nay, even merely "oo." It was easy, too, to induce him to take an ivory ring, lying before him attached to a thread, into his hand, and reach it to me prettily when I held out my hand and said, "Where is the ring?" and, after it had been grasped, said, "Give." In the same way, the child holds the biscuit, which he is carrying to his mouth, to the lips of the person who says pleasantly to him, "Give"; and he has learned to move his head sidewise hither and thither when he hears "No, no." If we say to him, when he wants food or an object he has seen, "Bitte, bitte" (say "Please"), he puts his hands together in a begging attitude, a thing which seemed at first somewhat hard for him to learn. Finally, he had at this time been taught to respond to the question, "Where is the little rogue?" by touching the side of his head with his hand (a movement he had often made of himself before).

From this it appears beyond a doubt that now (rather late in comparison with other children) the association of words heard with certain movements is established, inasmuch as upon acoustic impressions--at least upon combined impressions of hearing and of sight, which are repeated in like fashion--like movements follow, and indeed follow invariably with the expression of great satisfaction on the countenance. Yet this connection between the sensorium and the motorium is not yet stable, for there follows not seldom upon a command distinctly uttered, and without doubt correctly understood, the wrong movement--paramimy. Upon the question, "How tall?" the hands are put together for "Please," and the like. Once when I said, "How tall?" the child raised his arms a moment, then struck himself on the temples, and thereupon put his hands together, as if "rogue," and then "please," had been said to him. All three movements followed with the utmost swiftness, while the expression of face was that of a person confused, with wavering look. Evidently the child had _forgotten_ which movement belonged with the "tall," and performed all the three tricks he had learned, _confounding_ them one with another. This confounding of arm-raising, head-shaking, giving of the ring, putting the hands together, touching the head, is frequent. It is also to be noticed that some one of these five tricks is almost invariably performed by the child when some new command is given to him that he does not understand, as he perceives that something is required of him--the first conscious act of _obedience_, as yet imperfect.

In the fourteenth month there was no great increase in the number of independent utterances of sound that can be represented by syllables of the German language. Surprising visual impressions, like the brilliant Christmas-tree, and the observation of new objects, drew from the pleasurably excited child, without his having touched anything, almost the same sounds that he at other times made when in discontented mood, _[)u]ae_, _m[)u]ae_, only softer; _moemoe_ and _mama_, and also _papa_ are frequent expressions of pleasure. When the child is taken away, he often says _ta-ta_ loudly, also, _atta_ in a whisper. There can no longer be a doubt that in these syllables is now expressed simply the idea of "going." The labial _brrr_, the so-called "coachman's _R_," was practiced by the child, of his own accord, with special eagerness, and indeed was soon pronounced so cleverly that educated adults can not produce it in such purity and especially with so prolonged an utterance. The only new word is _dakku_ and _daggn_, which is often uttered pleasantly with astonishing rapidity, in moments of enjoyment, e. g., when the child is eating food that tastes good. But it is also uttered so often without any assignable occasion, that a definite meaning can hardly be attributed to it, unless it be that of satisfaction. For it is never heard when the least thing of a disagreeable sort has happened to the child. The probability is obvious that we have here a case of imitation of the "Thanks" (Danke) which he has not seldom heard. But the modifications _taggn_, _attagn_, _attatn_, pass over into the word, undoubtedly the original favorite, _tai_, _atai_.

Among all the indistinct and distinct sounds of the babbling monologues, no inspiratory ones appeared at this time either; but such did make their appearance now and then, in a passive manner, in swallowing and in the coughing that followed.

I spent much time in trying to get the child to repeat vowels and syllables pronounced to him, but always without special success. When I said plainly to him "pa-pa-pa," he answered loudly _ta-tai_, or with manifest effort and a vigorous straining, _t-tai_, _k-tai_, _at-tai_, _hattai_, and the same when "ma-ma" was said for him by any one, no matter whom. He also moved lips and tongue often, as if trying to get the sound in various ways; as if the _will_ of the child, as he attentively observed the mouth of the speaker, were present, but not the ability to reproduce the sound-impression. Evidently he is taking pains to repeat what he has heard; and he laughs at the unsuccessful effort, if others laugh over it. The earliest success is with the repetition of the vowels "a-u-o," but this is irregular and inaccurate.

In contrast with these halting performances stands the precise, _parrot-like repetition_ of such syllables as the child had uttered of his own accord, and which I had immediately after pronounced to him. Thus _attai_, _tai_, _atta_, were often easily and correctly repeated, but, strangely enough, frequently in a whisper. The _ae-[)e]_, _ae-oe_, _ae-[)e]_, accompanied by oscillatory movements of the hand, when imitated directly by me was also produced again; in like manner, regularly, the _dakkn_, but this course did not succeed in the case of other primitive syllables or words, even under the most favorable circumstances: here it is to be borne in mind that the last-named utterances were precisely the most frequent at this period. When he was requested with emphasis to say _papa_, _mama_, _tata_, he would bring out one of the tricks he had been taught in the previous month; among others, that of moving the head to one side and the other as if in negation; but this it could not be, for this significance of the gesture was wholly unknown to him at that time. Rather had the child received the impression from my voice that he was to do something that he was bidden, and he did what was easy to him just at the moment, "mechanically," without knowing which of the movements that he had learned was required (cf. p. 116).

In regard to the _understanding of words heard_, several points of progress are to be noted; above all a change of place in consequence of the question, "Where is your clothes-press?" The child, standing erect, being held by the hand, at these words turns his head and his gaze toward the clothes-press, draws the person holding him through the large room by the hand, although he can not walk a step alone, and then opens the press without assistance. Here, at the beginning of the fourteenth month, is the _idea of a definite stationary object associated with a sound heard_, and so strongly that it is able to produce an independent act of locomotion, the first one; for, although before this the clothes-press had often been named and shown, the going to it is still the child's own performance.

It is now a matter of common occurrence that other words heard have also a definite relation to objects seen. The questions, "Where is papa? mamma? the light?" are invariably answered correctly, after brief deliberation, by turning the head (at the word "light," occasionally since the ninth month) and the gaze in the proper direction, and by lifting the right arm, often also the left, to point, the fingers of the outstretched hand being at the same time generally spread out. In the previous month, only the association of the word _mama_ with the appearance of the mother was established. The following are now added to the movements executed upon hearing certain words. The child likes to beat with his hands upon the table at which he is sitting. I said to him, "Play the piano," and made the movement after him. Afterward, when I merely said the word "piano" to the child (who was at the time quiet), without moving my hands, he _considered_ for a few seconds, and then beat again with his hands on the table. Thus the recollection of the sound was sufficient to bring out the movement. Further, the child had accustomed himself, of his own accord, to give a regular _snort_, contracting the nostrils, pursing up the mouth, and breathing out through the nose. If now any one spoke to him of the "nose," this snorting was sure to be made. The word put the centro-motors into a state of excitement. The same is true of the command "Give!" since the child reaches out the object he is holding or is about to take hold of, in case any one puts out the hand or the lips to him. Some weeks ago this took place only with the ring and biscuit; now the word "give" has the same effect with any object capable of being grasped, but it operates almost like a reflex stimulus, "mechanically," without its being even once the case that the act of giving is a purely voluntary act or even occasioned by sympathy.

In these already learned co-ordinated movements made upon hearing the words "Please, How tall? rogue! no! piano! ring! give!" all of which are now executed with shorter intervals of deliberation as if by a well-trained animal, there is in general absolutely no deeper understanding present than that to this and the other sound-impression belong this and the other movement. By means of daily repetition of both, the time required for the production of the movement after the excitement of the auditory nerve becomes less and less, the doubt as to which movement follows this or that sound withdrawing more and more. At last the responsive movements followed without any remarkable strain of attention. They became habitual.

Now and then, however, the movements are still confounded. Upon "no! no!" follows the touching of the head; upon "please," the shaking of the head; upon "rogue," the putting of the hands together, etc. These errors become frequent when a new impression diverts the attention. They become more and more rare through repetition of the right movements made for the child to see and through guiding the limbs of the child. A further evidence of the increased ability to learn toward the end of the month is the fact that the hands are raised in the attitude of begging not only at the command "Please," but also at the question, "How does the good child behave?" Thus, the experience is beginning to become a conscious one that, in order to obtain anything, the begging attitude is useful.

The fifteenth month brought no new definite independent utterances of sound with the exception of _wa_. Sensations and emotions, however, are indicated more and more definitely and variously by sounds that are inarticulate and sometimes unintelligible. Thus, astonishment is expressed by _h[=a]-[=a] [)e][=a]-[)e]_; joy by vigorous crowing in very high tones and more prolonged than before; further, very strong desire by repeated _haeoe_, _hae-[)e]_; pain, impatience, by screaming in vowels which pass over into one another.

The only word that is unquestionably used of the child's own motion to indicate a class of perceptions is still _atta_, _ha-atta_, which during the following month also is uttered softly, for the most part, on going out, and which signifies "away" or "gone" (weg), and still continues to be used also as it was in the eleventh month, when a light is dimmed (by a lamp-shade). Beyond this no syllable can be named that marked the dawn of mental independence, none that testified to the voluntary use of articulate sounds for the purpose of announcing perceptions. For the _brrr_, the frequent _dakkn_, _mamam_, _moemoe_, and _papap_, are without significance in the monologues. Even the saying of _atta_, with turning of the head toward the person going away, has acquired the meaning of "away" (fort) only through being repeatedly said to the child upon his being carried out; but no one said the word when the lamp was extinguished. Here has been in existence for some time not only the formation of the concept, but also the designation of the concept by syllables. The similarity in the very different phenomena of going away and of the dimming of the light, viz., the disappearance of a visual impression, was not only discovered, but was named by the child entirely independently in the eleventh month, and has kept its name up to the present time. He has many impressions; he perceives, he unites qualities to make concepts. This he has been doing for a long time without words; but only in this _one_ instance does the child express one of his concepts in language after a particular instance had been thus named for him, and then the word he uses is one not belonging to his later language, but one that belongs to all children the world over.

In regard to the repeating of syllables pronounced to him a marked advance is noticeable. The child can not, indeed, by any means repeat _na_ and _pa_ and _o_ or _e_ and _be_. He answers _a_, _tai_, _ta-a-o-oe-a_, and practices all sorts of tongue-and lip-exercises. But the other syllables uttered by him, especially _anna_, _tai_, _dakkn_, _a_, he says in response to any one who speaks them distinctly to him, and he gives them easily and correctly in parrot fashion. If a new word is said to him, e. g., "kalt" (cold), which he can not repeat, he becomes vexed, turns away his head, and screams, too, sometimes. I have been able to introduce into his vocabulary only one new word. In the sixty-third week he seized a biscuit that had been dipped in hot water, let it fall, drew down the corners of his mouth, and began to cry. Then I said "heiss" (hot), whereupon the child, speedily quieted, repeated _hai_ and _hai-s_ (with a just discernible _s_). Three days later the same experiment was made. After this the _hais_, _haisses_, with distinct _s_, was often heard without any occasion. Some days later I wanted him to say "hand." The child observed my mouth closely, took manifest pains, but produced only _ha-iss_, then very distinctly _hass_ with sharp _ss_, and _ha-ith_, _hadith_, with the English _th_; at another time distinctly _ha-its_. Thus, at a time when _ts_ = _z_ can not be repeated, there exists the possibility of pronouncing _z_. When I said to him "warm," _ass_ was pronounced with an effort and distinctly, although the syllable _wa_ belonged to the child's stock of words. This was evidently a recollection of the previous attempts to repeat "heiss" and "hand."

Corresponding to this inability to say words after another's utterance of them is an articulation as yet very imperfect. Still, there is indication of progress in the distinctness of the _s_, the frequent English _th_ with the thrusting out of the tip of the tongue between the incisors, the _w_, which now first appears often, as well as in the _smacking_ first heard in the sixty-fifth week (in contented mood). The tongue is, when the child is awake, more than other muscles that in the adult are subject to cerebral volition, almost always in motion even when the child is silent. It is in various ways partly contracted, extended, bent. The lateral bending of the edges of the tongue downward and the turning back of the tip of the tongue (from left to right) so that the lower surface lies upward, are not easily imitated by adults. The mobility of my child's tongue is at any rate much greater than that of my tongue, notwithstanding the fact that, in consequence of varied practice from an early period in rapid speaking, the most difficult performances in rapid speaking are still easily executed by mine. The tongue is unquestionably the child's favorite plaything. One might almost speak of a lingual delirium in his case, as in that of the insane, when he pours forth all sorts of disconnected utterances, articulate and inarticulate, in confusion; and yet I often saw his tongue affected with fibrillar contractions as if the mastery of the hypoglossus were not as yet complete. Quite similar fibrillar movements seem to be made by the tongue in bulbar paralysis, and in the case of dogs and guinea-pigs whose hypoglossus has been severed.

To the number of words heard that already produce a definite movement are added the following new ones. The child is asked, "Where is the moon? the clock? the eye? the nose?" and he raises an arm, spreads the fingers, and looks in the proper direction. If I speak of "coughing," he coughs; of "blowing," he blows; of "kicking," he stretches out his legs; of "light," he blows into the air, or, if there is a lamp in sight, toward that, looking at it meantime--a reminiscence of the blowing out of matches and candles often seen by him. It requires great pains to get from him the affirmative nod of the head at the spoken "ja, ja." Not till the sixty-fourth week was this achieved by means of frequent repetition and forcible direction, and the movement was but awkwardly executed even later--months after. On hearing the "no, no," the negative shake of the head now appeared almost invariably, and this was executed as by adults without the least uncertainty.

The holding out of his hand at hearing "Give the hand," occurs almost invariably, but is not to be regarded as a special case of understanding of the syllable "give," for the word "hand" alone produces the same result.

All these accomplishments, attained by regular training, do not afford the least evidence of an understanding of what is commanded when the sound-impression is converted into motor impulse. It is rather a matter of the establishment of the recollection of the customary association of both during the interval of deliberation. The words and muscular contractions that belong together are less often confounded, and the physiological part of the process takes less time, but its duration is noticeably prolonged when the child is not quite well. He deliberates for as much as twelve seconds when the question is asked him, "Where is the rogue?" and then responds with the proper gesture (p. 115).

The sixteenth month brought few new articulate utterances of sound, none associated with a definite meaning; on the other hand, there was a marked progress in repeating what was said to the child, and especially in the understanding of words heard.

Among the sounds of his own making are heard--along with the _hae!_ _hae-oe!_ _ha-[)e]!_ _h[)e]-[)e]!_ that even in the following months often expresses desire, but often also is quite without meaning--more seldom _hi_, _goe-goe_, _goe_, _f-pa_ (the _f_ for the first time), _[(au]_, and more frequently _ta_, _dokkn_, _ta-ha_, _a-bwa-bwa_, _b[)u][=a]-b[)u]-[=a]_, and, as if by accident, once among all sorts of indefinable syllables, _dagon_. Further, the child--as was the case in the previous month--likes to take a newspaper or a book in his hands and hold the print before his face, babbling _ae-[)e]_, _ae-[)e]_, _ae-[)e]_, evidently in imitation of the reading aloud which he has often observed. By giving the command, "Read!" it was easy to get this performance repeated. Besides this, it is a delight to the child to utter a syllable--e. g., _bwa_ or _ma_--over and over, some six times in succession, without stopping. As in the previous month, there are still the whispered _attoe_ and _hattoe_, at the hiding of the face or of the light, at the shutting of a fan, or the emptying of a soup-plate, together with the _dakkn_, with the combinations of syllables made out of _ta_, _pa_, _ma_, _na_, _at_, _ap_, _am_, _an_, and with _moemoe_. The _papa_ and _mama_ do not, however, express an exclusive relation to the parents. Only to the questions, "Where is papa?" "Where is mamma?" he points toward them, raising his hand with the fingers spread. Pain is announced by loud and prolonged screaming; joy by short, high-pitched, piercing crowing, in which the vowel _i_ appears.

Of isolated vowels, _a_ only was correctly repeated on command. Of syllables, besides those of the previous month, _moe_ and _ma_; and here the child's excessive gayety over the success of the experiment is worthy of remark. He made the discovery that his parrot-like repetition was a fresh source of pleasure, yet he could not for several weeks repeat again the doubled syllables, but kept to the simple ones, or responded with all sorts of dissimilar ones, like _attob_, or said nothing. The syllable _ma_ was very often given back as _hoema_ and _hoemoe_; _pa_ was never given back, but, as had been the case previously, only _ta_ and _tai_ were the responses, made with great effort and attention, and the visible purpose of repeating correctly. To the word "danke," pronounced for him with urgency innumerable times, the response is _dakkn_, given regularly and promptly, and this in the following months also. If all persuasion failed, and the child were then left to himself without any direction of his attention, then not infrequently new imitations of sounds would be given correctly--e. g., when I said "bo"--but these, again, would no longer succeed when called for. Indeed, such attempts often broke down utterly at once. Thus the child once heard a hen making a piteous outcry, without seeing the creature, and he tried in vain to imitate the sound, but once only, and not again. On the other hand, he often succeeds in repeating correctly movements of the tongue made for him to see, as the thrusting out of the tongue between the lips, by reason of the extraordinary mobility of his tongue and lips; he even tries to smack in imitation. The more frequent partial contractions of the tongue, without attempts at speaking, are especially surprising. On one side, toward the middle of the tongue, rises a longitudinal swelling; then the edges are brought together, so that the tongue almost forms a closed tube; again, it is turned completely back in front. Such flexibility as this hardly belongs to the tongue of any adult. Besides, the lips are often protruded a good deal, even when this is not required in framing vocables.

The gain in the understanding of words heard is recognizable in this, that when the child hears the appropriate word, he takes hold, with thumb and forefinger, in a most graceful manner, of nose, mouth, beard, forehead, chin, eye, ear, or touches them with the thumb. But in doing this he often confounds ear and eye, chin and forehead, even nose and ear. "O" serves in place of "Ohr" (ear); "Au" in place of "Auge" (eye). In both cases the child soon discovered that these organs are in pairs, and he would seize with the right hand the lobe of my left and of my right ear alternately after I had asked "Ear?" How easily in such cases a new sound-impression causes confusion is shown by the following fact: After I had at one time pointed out one ear, and had said, "Other ear," I succeeded, by means of repetition, in getting him to point out this other one also correctly every time. Now, then, the thing was to apply what had been learned to the eye. When one eye had been pointed out, I asked, "Where is the other eye?" The child grasped at an ear, with the sight of which the sound "other" was now associated. Not till long after (in the twentieth month) did he learn to apply this sound of himself to different parts of the body. On the other hand, he understands perfectly the significance of the commands, "Bring, fetch, give----"; he brings, fetches, gives desired objects, in which case, indeed, the gesture and look of the speaker are decisive; for, if these are only distinctly apprehended, it does not make much difference which word is said, or whether nothing is said.

In the seventeenth month, although no disturbance of the development took place, there was no perceptible advance in the utterance of thoughts by sounds, or in the imitation of syllables pronounced by others, or in articulation, but there was a considerable increase of the acoustic power of discrimination in words heard and of the memory of sounds.

Of syllables original with the child, these are new: _Bibi_, _nae-nae-nae_--the first has come from the frequent hearing of "bitte"; the last is an utterance of joy at meeting and an expression of the desire to be lifted up. Otherwise, longing, abhorrence, pleasure and pain, hunger and satiety, are indicated by pitch, accent, _timbre_, intensity of the vocal sounds, more decidedly than by syllables. A peculiar complaining sound signifies that he does not understand; another one, that he does not wish. In place of _atta_, at the change of location of an object perceived, comes often a _t-to_ and _hoet-to_, with the lips much protruded. But, when the child himself wishes to leave the room, then he takes a hat, and says _atta_, casting a longing look at his nurse, or repeatedly taking hold of the door.

Of voluntary attempts to imitate sounds, the most noteworthy were the efforts to give the noise heard on the winding of a time-piece, and to repeat tones sung.

The associations of words heard with seen, tangible objects on the one hand, and, on the other hand, with definite co-ordinated muscular movements, have become considerably more numerous. Thus the following are already correctly distinguished, being very rarely confounded: Uhr (clock), Ohr (ear); Schuh (shoe), Stuhl (chair), Schulter (shoulder), Fuss (foot); Stirn (forehead), Kinn (chin); Nase (nose), blasen (blow); Bart (beard), Haar (hair); heiss (hot), Fleisch (meat).

In addition to the above, eye, arm, hand, head, cheek, mouth, table, light, cupboard, flowers, are rightly pointed out.

The child so often obeys the orders he hears--"run," "kick," "lie down," "cough," "blow," "bring," "give," "come," "kiss"--that when he occasionally does not obey, the disobedience must be ascribed no longer, as before, to deficient understanding, but to caprice, or, as may be discerned beyond a doubt from the expression of his countenance, to a genuine roguishness. Thus the spoken consonants are at last surely recognized in their differences of sound.

In the eighteenth month this ability of the ear to discriminate, and with it the understanding of spoken words, increases. "Finger, glass, door, sofa, thermometer, stove, carpet, watering-pot, biscuit," are rightly pointed out, even when the objects, which were at first touched, or merely pointed at, along with loud and repeated utterance of those words, are no longer present, but objects like them are present. Say "Finger," and the child takes hold of his own fingers only; "Ofen" (stove), then he invariably at first looks upward ("oben"). Besides the earlier commands, the following are correctly obeyed: "Find, pick up, take it, lay it down." Hand him a flower, saying, "Smell," and he often carries it to his nose without opening his mouth.

The repeating of syllables spoken for him is still rare; "mamma" is responded to by _ta_. The voluntary repeating of syllables heard by chance is likewise rare; in particular, "jaja" is now repeated with precision.

The _atta_, which used to be whispered when anything disappeared from the child's field of vision, has changed to _tto_ and _t-tu_ and _ftu_, with pouting of the lips.

In the monologues appear _naei_, _mimi_, _paepae_, _mimiae_, _pata_, _rrrrr_, the last uvular and labial for minutes at a time. But these meaningless utterances are simply signs of well-being in general, and are gladly repeated from pleasure in the exercise of the tongue and lips. The tongue still vibrates vigorously with fibrillar contractions when it is at rest, the mouth being open.

Characteristic for this period is the precision with which the various moods of feeling are expressed, without articulate sounds, by means of the voice, now become very high and strong, in screaming and crowing, then again in wailing, whimpering, weeping, grunting, squealing; so that the mood is recognized by the voice better than ever before, especially desire, grief, joy, hunger, willfulness, and fear. But this language can not be represented by written characters.

The same holds good of the nineteenth month, in which bawling and babbling are more rare, the spontaneous sound-imitations are more frequent, the vocal cords are strained harder, the mechanism of articulation works with considerably more ease; the understanding and the retention of spoken words have perceptibly increased, but no word of the child's own, used always in the same sense, is added.

When the child has thrown an object from the table to the floor, he often follows it with his gaze and whispers, even when he does not know he is observed, _atta_ or _t-ta_, which is here used in the same sense with _tuff_ or _ft_ or _ftu_, for "fort" (gone).

When he had taken a newspaper out of the paper-basket and had spread it on the floor, he laid himself flat upon it, holding his face close to the print, and said--evidently of his own accord, imitating, as he had done before, the reading aloud of the newspaper, which had often been witnessed by him--repeating it for a long time in a monotonous voice, _e-ja-e-e-ja nanana ana-na-na atta-ana [=a]je-ja s[=a]_; then he tore the paper into many small pieces, and next turned the leaves of books, uttering _pa-pa-ab ta hoe-oe-[)e] moemoemoem hoe-oen[)e]_.

Such monologues are, however, exceptional at this period, the rule being uniform repetitions of the same syllable, e. g., _habb habb habb habb habbwa habbua_.

Screaming when water of 26 deg. C. was poured over him in the bath appeared, a few days after the first experiment of this sort, even before the bathing, at sight of the tub, sponge, and water. Previously, fear had only in very rare cases occasioned screaming, now the _idea_ of the cold and wet that were to be expected was enough to occasion violent screaming. After about three weeks of daily bathing with water from 18 to 24 deg. C., however, the screaming decreased again. The experience that a pleasant feeling of warmth succeeded, may have forced the recollection of the unpleasant feeling into the background. But the screaming can not at all be represented by letters; _ae_ and _oe_ do not suffice. The same is true of the screaming, often prolonged, before falling asleep in the evening, which occurs not seldom also without any assignable occasion, the child making known by it his desire to leave the bed. As this desire is not complied with, the child perceives the uselessness of the screaming, and at length obeys the command, "Lie down," without our employing force or expedients for soothing him.

How far the power of imitation and of articulation is developed, is shown especially by the fact that now, at last, _pa_ is correctly pronounced in response; in the beginning _ta_ was still frequently the utterance, then _ba_, finally _pa_ almost invariably given correctly.

Further, these results were obtained:

Words said to him. Response. bitte _bis_, _bits_, _bit_, _bets_, _beest_, _be_, _bi_, _bit-th_ (Eng., _th_). hart _hatt_, _att_, _haat_. Fleisch _da-ich_, _dai-s-ch_, _dai-s-j_. ma _moe_, _ma_.

In _bits_ appears with perfect distinctness (as already in the fifteenth month) the very rare _ts_ = _z_. The "hart" was once only confounded with "haar," and responded to by grasping at the hair. The _bits_ soon served to add force to the putting together of the hands in the attitude of begging; it is thus the first attempt at the employment of a German word to denote a state of his own, and that the state of desire. The other words said to him, and illustrated by touching and putting the hands upon objects, could not be given by him in response. When he was to say "weich" (soft), "kalt" (cold), "nass" (wet), he turned his head away in repugnance, as formerly. To "nass" he uttered in reply, once only, _na_. Smacking, when made for him, was imitated perfectly. The early morning hours, in which the sensibility of the brain is at its highest, are the best adapted to such experiments; but these experiments were not multiplied, in order that the independent development might not be disturbed.

The progress in the discrimination of words heard, and in the firm retention of what has been repeatedly heard, is shown particularly in more prompt obedience, whether in abstaining or in acting.

To the list of objects correctly pointed out upon request are added "leg, nail, spoon, kettle," and others. It is noteworthy, too, that now, if the syllables _pa_ and _ma_, or _papa_ and _mamma_, are prefixed to the names of the known parts of the face and head, the child points these out correctly; e. g., to the question "Where is Mamma-ear," the child responds by taking hold of the ear of his mother, and to "papa-ear," of that of his father; so with "nose, eye," etc. But if asked for "mamma-beard," the child is visibly embarrassed, and finally, when there is a laugh at his hesitation, he laughs too.

The old tricks, "How tall is the child?" and "Where is the little rogue?" which have not been practiced for months past, have been retained in memory, for when in the eighty-second week I brought out both questions with urgency, the child bethought himself for several seconds, motionless, then suddenly, after the first question, raised both arms. After the other question he likewise considered for several seconds, and then pointed to his head as he used to do. His _memory_ for sound-impressions often repeated and associated with specific movements is consequently good.

In the twentieth month there was an important advance to be recorded in his manner of repeating what was said to him. Suddenly, on the five hundred and eighty-fourth day, the child is repeating correctly and without difficulty words of two syllables that consist either of two like syllables--for the sake of brevity I will call these _like-syllabled_--or of syllables the second of which is the reverse of the first--such I call _reverse-syllabled_. Thus of the first class are _papa_, _mama_, _bebe_, _baba_, _neinei_, _jaja_, _bobo_, _bubu_; of the second class, _otto_, _enne_, _anna_; these are very frequently given back quickly and faultlessly at this period, after the repetition of the single syllables _pa_, _ma_, and others had gone on considerably more surely than before, and the child had more often tried of himself to imitate what he heard. These imitations already make sometimes the impression of not being voluntary. Thus the child once--in the eighty-third week--observed attentively a redstart in the garden for two full minutes, and then imitated five or six times, not badly, the piping of the bird, turning round toward me afterward. It was when he saw me that the child first seemed to be aware that he had made attempts at imitation at all. For his countenance was like that of one awaking from sleep, and he could not now be induced to imitate sounds. After five days the spectacle was repeated. Again the piping of the bird was reproduced, and in the afternoon the child took a cow, roughly carved out of wood, of the size of the redstart, made it move back and forth on the table, upon its feet, and chirped now as he had done at sight of the bird; _imagination_ was here manifestly much excited. The wooden animal was to represent the bird, often observed in the garden, and nesting in the veranda; and the chirping and piping were to represent its voice.

On the other hand, words of unlike syllables, like "Zwieback" (biscuit), "Butterbrod," are either not given back at all or only in unrecognizable fashion, in spite of their being pronounced impressively for him. "Trocken" (dry) yields sometimes _tokk[)e]_, _tokko_, _otto_. Words of one syllable also offer generally great difficulties of articulation: thus "warm" and "weich" become _w[=a]i_, "kalt" and "hart" become _hatt_. Although "bi" and "te" are often rightly given each by itself, the child can not combine the two, and turns away with repugnance when he is to reproduce "bi-te." The same thing frequently happens, still, even with "mamma" and "papa." But the child, when in lively spirits, very often pronounces of his own accord the syllables "bi" and "te" together, preferring, indeed, _bidth_ (with English _th_) and _beet_ to "bitte." In place of "adjoe" (adieu) he gives back _ad[=e]_ and _adj[=e]_. Nor does he succeed in giving back three syllables; e. g., the child says _papa_, but not "papagei", and refuses altogether to repeat "gei" and "pagei." The same is true of "Gut," "Nacht," although he of himself holds out his hand for "Gute Nacht."

When others laugh at anything whatsoever, the child laughs regularly with them, a purely imitative movement.

It is surprising that the reproducing of what is said to him succeeds best directly after the cold bath in the morning, when the child has been screaming violently and has even been shivering, or when he is still screaming and is being rubbed dry, and, as if resigned to his fate, lies almost without comprehension. The will, it would seem, does not intrude here as a disturbing force, and echolalia manifests itself in its purity, as in the case of hypnotics. The little creature is subdued and powerless. But he speedily recovers himself, and then it is often quite hard to tell whether he _will_ not or _can_ not say the word that is pronounced to him.

The _understanding of single words_, especially of single questions and commands, is considerably more prompt than in the previous month. Without there being any sort of explanation for it, this extraordinary understanding is here, manifesting itself particularly when the child is requested to fetch and carry all sorts of things. He has observed and touched a great deal, has listened less, except when spoken to. All training in tricks and performances, an evil in the modern education of children hard to avoid, was, however, suppressed as far as possible, so that the only new things were "making a bow" and "kissing the hand." The child practices both of these toward the end of the month, without direction, at coming and going. Many new objects, such as window, bed, knife, plate, cigar, his own teeth and thumbs, are correctly pointed out, if only the corresponding word is distinctly pronounced. Yet "Ofen" and "oben" are still confounded.

To put into written form the syllables invented by the child independently, and to get at a sure denotation of objects by them, is exceedingly difficult, particularly when the syllables are merely whispered as the objects are touched, which frequently occurs. At the sight of things rolled noisily, especially of things whirling in a circle, the child would utter _rodi_, _otto_, _rojo_, and like sounds, in general, very indistinctly. Only _one_ new concept could with certainty be proved to be associated with a particular sound. With _d[=a]_ and _nd[=a]_, frequently uttered on the sudden appearance of a new object in the field of vision, in a lively manner, loudly and with a peculiarly demonstrative accent--also with _t[=a]_ and _nt[=a]_--the child associates, beyond a doubt, existence, coming, appearing, shooting forth, emerging, in contrast with the very often softly spoken, whispered _atta_, _f-tu_, _tuff_, which signifies "away" or "gone." If I cover my head and let the child uncover it, he laughs after taking off the handkerchief, and says loudly _da_; if I leave the room, he says _atta_ or _haetta_, or _ft_ or _t-ta_, generally softly; the last of these, or else _hata_, he says if he would like to be taken out himself. In the eighty-seventh week we went away on a journey, and on the railway-train the child, with an expression of terror or of anxious astonishment, again and again said _attah_, but without manifesting the desire for a change of place for himself, even by stretching out his arms.

Two words only--_papa_ for father, and _baet_ or _bit_ for "bitte," are, besides, rightly applied of the child's own accord. The prolonged screaming, from wantonness, of _n[=a]n[=a]n[=a]n[=a]_, _nom-nom_, _h[=a]h[=a]_, _l[=a]l[=a]_, chiefly when running about, has no definite meaning. The child exercises himself a good deal in loud outcry, as if he wanted to test the power of his voice. These exercises evidently give him great pleasure. Still the highest crowing tones are no longer quite so high and piercing as they were formerly. The vocal cords have become larger, and can no longer produce such high tones. The screaming sounds of discontent, which continue to be repeated sometimes till hoarseness appears, but rarely in the night, have, on the contrary, as is the case with the shrill sounds of pain, scarcely changed their character, _hae-e_, _hae-ae-ae-[)e]_, _[)e]_. They are strongest in the bath, during the pouring on of cold water.

The child, when left to himself, keeps up all the time his loud readings ("Lesestudien"). He "reads" in a monotonous way maps, letters, newspapers, drawings, spreading them out in the direction he likes, and lies down on them with his face close to them, or holding the sheet with his hands close to his face, and, as before, utters especially vowel-sounds.

In the twenty-first month imitative attempts of this kind became more frequent; but singularly enough the babbling--from the eighty-ninth week on--became different. Before this time vowels were predominant, now more _consonants_ are produced. When something is said for the child to reproduce that presents insuperable difficulties of articulation, then he moves tongue and lips in a marvelous fashion, and often says _ptoe-ptoe_, _pt-pt_, and _verlapp_, also _dla-dla_, without meaning, no matter what was the form of the word pronounced to him. In such practice there often appears likewise a wilfulness, showing itself in inarticulate sounds and the shaking of the head, even when it is merely the repetition of easy like-syllabled words that is desired. Hence, in the case of new words, it is more difficult than before, or is even impossible to determine whether the child _will_ not or whether he _can_ not reproduce them. Words of unlike syllables are not repeated at all, not even "bitte." In place of "danke" are heard _dang-gee_ and _dank-kee_; the former favorite _dakkn_ is almost never heard. In most of the attempts at sound imitation, the tendency to the doubling of syllables is worthy of notice. I say "bi," and the answer is _bibi_; then I say "te," and the answer is _te-te_. If I say "bi-te," the answer is likewise _bibi_; a single time only, in spite of daily trial, the answer was _bi-te_, as if by oversight.

This doubling of syllables, involuntary and surely contrary to the will of the child, stands in remarkable contrast with the indolence he commonly shows in reproducing anything said, even when the fault is not to be charged to teasing, stubbornness, or inability. The child then finds more gratification in other movements than those of the muscles of speech. The babbling only, abounding in consonants, yields him great pleasure, particularly when it is laughed at, although it remains wholly void of meaning as language. Yet _bibi_, like _baebae_, for "bitte," is correctly used by the child of his own accord.

A new word, and one that gives notice of a considerable advance, is the term used by the child when hungry and thirsty, for "milk" or "food." He says, viz., with indescribable longing in his voice, _mimi_, more rarely than before _maemae_ and _moemoem_ (page 85). The first appellation was certainly taken from the often-heard "milk" by imitation, and applied to biscuit and other kinds of food. If the child, when he has eaten enough, is asked, "Do you want milk?" he says without direction, _neinein_; he has thus grasped and turned to use already the signification of the sound. The same is, perhaps, true also of "ja." For previously, when I asked the child as he was eating, "Does it taste good?" he was silent, and I would say, "Say jaja," and this would be correctly repeated. But in the ninety-first week he, of his own accord, answers the question with _jaja_--"yes, yes." This, too, may rest simply on imitation, without a knowledge of the meaning of the _ja_, and without an understanding of the question; yet there is progress in the recollection of the connection of the sound "schmeckt's" with _jaja_, the intermediate links being passed over.

In other cases, too, the strength of the memory for sounds is plainly manifested. To all questions of an earlier period, "Where is the forehead, nose, mouth, chin, beard, hair, cheek, eye, ear, shoulder?" the child now at once pointed correctly in every instance, although he might not have answered them for anybody even once for two weeks. Only the question, "Where is the thumb?" made him hesitate. But when the thumb had been again shown to him (firmly pressed), he knew it, and from that time pointed it out invariably without delay. To the question, "Where is the eye?" he is accustomed to shut both eyes quickly at the same time and to open them again, and then to point to my eye; to the question, "Axel's eye?" he responds by pointing to his own; to the question, "The other eye?" by pointing to the one not touched.

In the understanding of what is spoken astonishing progress has been made--e. g., if I say, "Go, take the hat and lay it on the chair!" the child executes the order without considering more than one or two seconds. He knows the meaning of a great number of words that no one has taught him--e. g., "whip, stick, match, pen." Objects of this sort are surely distinguished by the child, for, upon receiving orders, he gets, picks up, brings, lays down, gives these things each by itself.

This understanding of spoken words is the more surprising, as his repetition of them continues still to be of a very rudimentary character. With the exception of some interjections, especially _j[=a][)e]_ as a joyous sound and of crowing sounds, also screaming sounds, which, however, have become more rare, the child has but few expressions of his own with a recognizable meaning; _ndae_, _ndae_, _da_ is demonstrative "da" ("there") at new impressions.

_Att_, _att_, _att_, is unintelligible, perhaps indicative of movement.

_Attah_ means "we are off" (upon setting out) and "I want to go" ("ich will fort"); _tatass_, _tatass_ is unintelligible, possibly a sound-imitation.

When traveling by rail the child tried several times to imitate the hissing of the steam of the locomotive.

In the twenty-second month again there are several observations to record, which show the progress in understanding, the strengthening of the memory, and the greater facility in articulation. The child executes the orders given him with surprising accuracy, although the words spoken have not previously been impressed on him separately. Here, indeed, it is essential to consider the looks and gestures of those who give the orders; but the child also does what I request of him without looking at me. Instances of confusion among the words known to him are also perceptibly more rare. Once I asked him very distinctly, "Where's the moon?" (Mond), and for answer the child pointed to his mouth (Mund). But the error was not repeated.

The strength of the word-memory appears particularly in this, that all the objects learned are more quickly pointed out on request than they were previously, and the facility of articulation is perceived in the multiplying of consonants in the monologues and in the frequent spontaneous utterance of _pss_, _ps_, _ptsch_ (once), and _pth_ (Engl.). The child says, without any occasion, _pa-ptl-dae_, _pt_, and gives a loud greeting from a distance with _h[=aa]-oe_, with _ada_, and _ana_.

It seemed to me remarkable that the boy began several times without the least incitement to _sing_ tolerably well. When I expressed my approval of it, he sprang about, overjoyed. At one time he sang, holding his finger on his tongue, first _rollo_, _rollo_, innumerable times, then _mama_, _mama_, _maemae_, _mama_.

The progress in the sound-mechanism is most plainly discerned in the greater certainty in reproducing what is spoken. Thus, "pst" is correctly given, and of reverse-syllabled words, very accurately, "anna, otto, alla, appa, enne"; of unlike-syllabled words, "lina," but still, notwithstanding many trials, not yet "bitte." _For the first time three-syllabled words also, plainly pronounced to him, were correctly given back_, viz., _a-mama_ and _a-pa-pa_, as the child names his grandparents. Hitherto the vowels _e_, _i_, _o_, _u_, could not be correctly given every time, but "a" could be so given as before. When the reproduction of any new word that is too hard is requested--e. g., "gute Nacht"--the child at this period regularly answers _tap[)e]ta_, _p[)e]ta_, _pta_, and _ptoe-ptoe_, also _rateratetat_, expressing thereby not merely his inability, but also, sometimes roguishly, his disinclination to repeat.

_Ja ja_ and _nein nein_, along with _da_ and _bibi_ (with or without folding of the hands, for "bitte"), and _mimi_, continue still to be the only words taken from the language of adults that are used by the child in the proper sense when he desires or refuses anything. Apart from these appear inarticulate sounds, uttered even with the mouth shut. The intense cry of pain, or that produced by cold or wet or by grief at the departure of the parents (this with the accompaniment of abundant tears and the drawing of the corners of the mouth far down), makes the strongest contrast with the crowing for joy, particularly that at meeting again.

The twenty-third month brought at length _the first spoken judgment_. The child was drinking milk, carrying the cup to his mouth with both hands. The milk was too warm for him, and he set the cup down quickly and said, loudly and decidedly, looking at me with eyes wide open and with earnestness, _heiss_ (hot). This single word was to signify "The drink is too hot!" In the same week, at the end of the ninety-ninth, the child of his own accord went to the heated stove, took a position before it, looked attentively at it, and suddenly said with decision, _hot_ (_heiss_)! Again, a whole proposition in a syllable. In the sixty-third week for the first time the child had reproduced the word "hot" pronounced to him. Eight and a half months were required for the step from the imitative _hot_ to the independent _hot_ as expressive of his judgment. He progressed more rapidly with the word "Wasser," which was reproduced as _watja_, and was called out longingly by the thirsty child a few weeks afterward. He already distinguishes water and milk in his own fashion as _watja_ and _mimi_. Yet _mimmi_, _moemoe_, and _m[=a]m[=a]_ still signify food in general, and are called out often before meal-times by the impatient and hungry child. The primitive word _atta_ is likewise frequently uttered incidentally when anything disappears from the child's field of vision or when he is himself carried away. The other sound-utterances of this period proceeding from the child's own impulse are interesting only as exercises of the apparatus of articulation. Thus, the child not seldom cries aloud _oi_ or _eu_ (_aeu_); further, unusually loud, _ana_, and for himself in play, _ida_, _didl_, _dadl_, _dldo-dlda_, and in singing tone _opojoe_, _apojopojum aui_, _heissa_. With special pleasure the child, when talking to himself, said _papa_, _mama_, _maemae_, _mimi_, _momo_, of his own accord, but not "mumu"; on the other hand, _e-mama-ma-memama_, _mi_, _ma_, _moe_, _ma_. His grandparents he now regularly designates by _e-papa_ and _e-mama_. He knows very well who is meant when he is asked, "Where is grandmamma? Grandpapa?" And several days after leaving them, when asked the question, e. g., on the railway-train, he points out of the window with a troubled look. The understanding of words heard is, again, in general more easy. The child for the most part obeys at once when I say, "drink, eat, shut, open, pick it up, turn around, sit, run!" Only the order "come!" is not so promptly executed, not, however, on account of lack of understanding, but from willfulness. That the word-memory is becoming firm is indicated particularly by the circumstance that now the separate parts of the face and body are pointed out, even after pretty long intervals, quickly and upon request, on his own person and that of others. When I asked about his beard, the child (after having already pointed to my beard), in visible embarrassment, pointed with his forefinger to the place on his face corresponding to that where he saw the beard on mine, and moved his thumb and forefinger several times as if he were holding a hair of the beard between them and pulling at it, as he had had opportunity to do with mine. Here, accordingly, memory and imagination came in as supplementary to satisfy the demand made by the acoustic image.

The greatest progress is to be recorded in this month in regard to the reproduction of syllables and words. A perfecting of the process is apparent in the fact that when anything is said for him to repeat, his head is not turned away in unwillingness so often as before, in case the new word said to him is too difficult, nor are all sorts of incoherent, complicated sounds (_paterateratte_) given forth directly upon the first failure of the attempt at imitation. Thus, the following words were at this period, without systematic exercises, incidentally picked up (give, as before, the German pronunciation to the letters):

Spoken to him. Reproduced. Ohr, _Oa(r)_. Tisch, _Tiss_. Haus, _Hausesess_. Hemd, _Hem_. Peitsche, _Paitsch_, _Paitse_. Wasser, _Wass_, _Watja_. Hand, _Hann_. Heiss, _Haiss_. Auge, _Autschge_. Butter, _Buotoe_. Eimer, _Aima_. Bitte, _Bete_, _Bite_. Blatt, _Batn_. Tuch, _Tuhs_. Papier, _Patn_, _Pai_. Fort, _Wott_. Vater, _Fa-ata_. Grete, _Deete_. Karl, _Kara_. Alle, _Alla_. Alle, _Alla_. Mund, _Munn_. Finger, _Finge_. Pferd, _Pfowed_, _Fowid_. Gute Nacht, _Nag-ch Na_. Guten Tag, _Tatach_. Morgen, _Moigjen_. Axel, _Akkes_, _Aje_, _Eja_.

The four words, _Paitsch_ or _Paitse_, _Bite_, _Watja_, and _Haiss_, are uttered now and then by the child without being said to him, and their use has regard to the meaning contained in them. His whip and his pail he learned to name quickly and correctly. His own name, Axel, on the contrary, he designates by the favorite interjections _Aje_, _Eja_. On the whole, variety of articulation is on the increase as compared with the previous month, but the ability to put syllables together into words is still but little developed. Thus, e. g., the child reproduces quite correctly "je," and "ja," and "na." But if any one says to him "Jena" or "Jana," the answer runs regularly _nena_ or _nana_, and only exceptionally, as if by chance, _jena_. Further, he repeats correctly the syllables "bi" and "te" when they are given to him, and then also _bi-te_; afterward, giving up the correct imitation, he says _beti_, but can not reproduce _ti-be_ or _tebi_. "Bett, Karre, Kuk," are correctly repeated.

Finally, echolalia, not observed of late, appears again. If the child hears some one speak, he often repeats the last syllable of the sentence just finished, if the accent were on it--e. g., "What said the man?" _man_; or "Who is there?" _there?_ "Nun?" (now) _nou_ (_n[=oo]_). Once the name "Willy" was called. Immediately the child likewise called _[)u]il[=e]_, with the accent on the last syllable, and repeated the call during an hour several dozens of times; nay, even several days later he entertained himself with the stereotyped repetition. Had not his first echo-play produced great merriment, doubtless this monotonous repetition would not have been kept up. In regard to the preference of one or another word the behavior of those about the child is not merely influential, but is alone decisive. I observed here, as I had done earlier, that urgent exhortations to repeat a new word have generally a much worse result than is obtained by leaving the child to himself. The correct, or at any rate the best, repetitions were those made when the child was not spoken to. Even adults can imitate others in their manner of speaking, their dialect, even their voice, much better when not called upon to do it, but left entirely to their own inclination. The wish or command of others generates an embarrassment which disturbs the course of the motor processes. I resolved, consequently, to abandon in the following month all attempts to induce the child to reproduce sounds, but to observe so much the more closely what he might say of his own accord.

In the last month of the second year of his life this leaving of him to himself proved fruitful in results to this extent--that voluntary sound-imitations gained considerably in frequency and accuracy. Particularly, genuine echolalia manifested itself more at this period in the repeating of the last syllables of sentences heard, the meaning of which remained unintelligible to the child; and of single words, the sense of which became gradually clear to him by means of accompanying gestures. Thus, the word "Herein!" (Come in!) was repeated as an empty sound, and then _arein_, _harrein_, _haarein_, were shouted strenuously toward the door, when the child wanted to be let in; _ab_ (off) was uttered when a neck-ribbon was to be loosened. _Moigen_ signified "Guten Morgen!" _na_, "Gute Nacht!" To the question, "Was thun wir morgen?" (What shall we do to-morrow?) comes the echo-answer _moigen_. In general, by far the greater part of the word-imitations are much distorted, to strangers often quite unintelligible. _Ima_ and _Imam_ mean "Emma," _dakkngaggngaggn_ again means "danke," and _betti_ still continues to signify "bitte." Only with the utmost pains, after the separate syllables have been frequently pronounced, appear _dang[=ee]_ and _bitt[=ee]_. An apple (Apfel) is regularly named _apfel[=ee]l[=ee]_ (from Apfelgelee); a biscuit (Zwieback), _wita_, then _wijak_; butter, on the contrary, is often correctly named. Instead of "Jawohl," the child almost invariably says _wolja_; for "Licht" _list_ and _lists_; for "Wasser," _watja_ still as before; for "pfui" he repeats, when he has been awkward, _[=u]i_, and often adds a _pott_ or _putt_ in place of "caput." "Gut" is still pronounced _[=u]t_ or _tut_, and "fort," _okk_ or _ott_. All the defects illustrated by these examples are owing rather to the lack of flexibility in the apparatus of articulation--even stammering, _tit-t-t-t_, in attempting to repeat "Tisch," appears--than to imperfect ability to apprehend sounds. For the deficiency of articulation shows itself plainly when a new word is properly used, but pronounced sometimes correctly and sometimes incorrectly. Thus, the "tsch" hitherto not often achieved (twentieth month), and the simple "sch" in _witschi_ and _wesch_, both signifying "Zwetschen," are imperfect, although both sounds were long ago well understood as commands to be silent, and Zwetschen (plums) have been long known to the child. Further, the inability to reproduce anything is still expressed now and then by _raterateratera_; the failure to understand, rather by a peculiar dazed expression of countenance, with an inquiring look.

With regard to the independent application of all the words repeated, in part correctly, in part with distortions, a multiplicity of meanings is especially noteworthy in the separate expressions used by the child. The primitive word _atta_, used with uncommon frequency, has now among others the following significations: "I want to go; he is gone; she is not here; not yet here; no longer here; there is nothing in it; there is no one there; it is empty; it is nowhere; out there; go out." To the question "Where have you been?" the child answers, on coming home, _atta_, and when he has drunk all there was in the glass, he likewise says _atta_. The concept common to all the interpretations adduced, "gone," seems to be the most comprehensive of all that are at the child's disposal. If we choose to regard a word like this _atta_ as having the force of a whole sentence, we may note many such primitive sentences in this month. Thus, _mann_ means, on one occasion, "A man has come," then almost every masculine figure is named _mann_; _auff_, accompanied with the offering of a key, signifies the wish for the opening of a box, and is cried with animation after vain attempts to open a watch. The concepts "male being" and "open" are thus not only clear, but are already named with the right words. The distinguishing of men from women appears for months past very strikingly in this, that the former only are greeted by reaching out the hand. The manifold meaning of a single word used as a sentence is shown particularly in the cry of _papa_, with gestures and looks corresponding to the different meanings of it. This one word, when called out to his father, means (1) "Come play with me"; (2) "Please lift me up"; (3) "Please give me that"; (4) "Help me get up on the chair"; (5) "I can't," etc.

The greatest progress, however, is indicated by the _combination of two words_ into a sentence. The first sentence of this sort, spoken on the seven hundred and seventh day of his life at the sight of the house that was his home, was _haim_, _mimi_, i. e., "I would like to go home and drink milk." The second was _papa_, _mimi_, and others were similar. Contrasted with these first efforts at the framing of sentences, the earlier meaningless monologues play only a subordinate part; they become, as if they were the remains of the period of infancy, gradually rudimentary: thus, _pipapapai_, _breit_, _barai_. A more important fact for the recognition of progress in speaking is that the words are often _confounded_, e. g., _watja_ and _buotoe_ (for _butter_). In gestures also and in all sorts of performances there are bad cases of confusion almost every day; e. g., the child tries to put on his shoes, holding them with the heel-end to his toes, and takes hold of the can out of which he pours the milk into his cup by the lip instead of the handle. He often affirms in place of denying. His joy is, however, regularly expressed by loud laughing and very high tones; his grief by an extraordinarily deep depression of the angles of the mouth and by weeping. Quickly as this expression of countenance may pass over into a cheerful one--often on a sudden, in consequence of some new impression--no confusion of _these_ two _mimetic_ movements takes place.

In the first month of the third year of life the progress is extraordinary, and it is only in regard to the articulatory mechanism that no important new actions are to be recorded. The child does not pronounce a perfect "u," or only by chance. Generally the lips are not enough protruded, so that "u" becomes "ou"; "Uhr" and "Ohr" often sound almost the same. The "i" also is frequently mixed with other vowel-sounds, particularly with "e." Probably the corners of the mouth are not drawn back sufficiently. With these exceptions the vowels of the German language now offer hardly any difficulties. Of the consonants, the "sch" and "cht" are often imperfect or wanting. "Waschtisch" is regularly pronounced _waztiz_, and "Gute Nacht" _gna_.

The sound-imitations of every kind are more manifold, eager, and skillful than ever before. Once the child even made a serious attempt to reproduce ten words spoken in close succession, but did not succeed. The attempt proves all the same that the word-imitation is now far beyond the lower echo-speech; yet he likes to repeat the last words and syllables of sentences heard by him even in the following months. Here belongs his saying _so_ when any object is brought to the place appointed for it. When the reproduction is defective, the child shows himself to be now much more amenable to correction. He has become more teachable. At the beginning of the month he used to say, when he wanted to sit, _ette_ then _etse_, afterward _itse_; but he does not yet in the present month say "setzen" or "sitzen." Hitherto he could repeat correctly at the utmost two words said for him. Now he repeats three, and once even four, imperfectly: _papa_, _beene_, _delle_, means "Papa, Birne, Teller," and is uttered glibly; but "Papa, Birne, Teller, bitte," or "Papa, Butter, bitte," is not yet repeated correctly, but _pata_, _butte_, _betti_, and the like; only very seldom, in spite of almost daily trial, _papa_, _beene_, _delle_, _bittee_.

Evidence of the progress of the memory, the understanding, and the articulation, is furnished in the answers the child gave when I asked him, as I touched various objects, "What is that?" He replied:

_Autse_, for Auge (eye). _Nana_, " Nase (nose). _Ba_, " Backe (back). _Baat_, " Bart (beard). _Oe, Oa_, " Ohr (ear). _Opf_, " Kopf (head). _Tenn_, " Kinn (chin). _Taene_, " Zaehne (teeth). _Hai_, " Haar (hair). _Ulter_, " Schulter (shoulder). _Aam_, " Arm (arm). _Ann_, " Hand (hand). _Wier_, " Finger (finger). _Daima_, " Daumen (thumb). _Anu_, " Handschuh (glove). _Bain_, " Bein (leg).

But not one word has the child himself invented. When a new expression appears it may be surely traced to what has been heard, as _uppe_, _oppee_, _appee_, _appei_, to "Suppe." The name alone by which he calls on his nurse, _wola_, seemed hard to explain. If any one says, "Call Mary," the child invariably calls _wola_. It is probable, as he used to call it _wolja_, that the appellation has its origin in the often-heard "ja wohl."

The correct use of single words, picked up, one might say, at random, increases in a surprising manner. Here belong _baden_, _reiputtse_, for "Reissuppe," _la-ock_ for "Schlafrock," _boter_ for "Butter," _Butterbrod_, _Uhr_, _Buch_, _Billerbooch_ for "Bilderbuch." In what fashion such words now incorporated into the child's vocabulary are employed is shown by the following examples: _Tul_ (for "Stuhl") means--(1) "I should like to be lifted up on the chair; (2) My chair is gone; (3) I want this chair brought to the table; (4) This chair doesn't stand right." If the chair or other familiar object is broken, then it is still styled _putt_ (for "caput," gone to smash); and if the child has himself broken anything he scolds his own hand, and says _oi_ or _oui_, in place of "pfui" (fie)! He wants to write to his grandmother, and asks for _Papier_, a _daitipf_ (for "Bleistift," pencil), and says _raiwe_ (for "schreiben," write).

That misunderstandings occur in such beginnings of speech seems a matter of course. All that I observed, however, were from the child's standpoint rational. Some one says, "Schlag das Buch auf" (Open the book, but meaning literally "Strike upon the book"), and the child strikes upon the book with his hands without opening it. He does the same when one says, "Schlag auf das Buch" (Strike upon the book). Or we say, "Will you come? one, two!" and the child, without being able to count, answers, "Three, four." He has merely had the sequence 1, 2, 3, 4, said over to him frequently. But, on the whole, his _understanding_ of words heard, particularly of commands, has considerably advanced; and how far the reasoning faculty has developed is now easily seen in his independent designations for concepts. For example, since his delight at gifts of all sorts on his birthday, he says _burtsa_ (for Geburtstag, birthday) when he is delighted by anything whatever. Another instance of childish induction was the following: The child's hand being slightly hurt, he was told to blow on his hand and it would be better. He did blow on his hand. In the afternoon he hit his head against something, and he began at once to blow of his own accord, supposing that the blowing would have a soothing effect, even when it did not reach the injured part.

In the forming of sentences considerable progress is to be recorded. Yet only once has the child joined more than four words in a sentence, and rarely three. His sentences consisting of two words, which express a fact of the present or of the immediate past, are often, perhaps generally, quite unintelligible to strangers. Thus, _danna kuha_ signifies "Aunt has given me cake"; _Kaffee nain_, "There is no coffee here"; and _mama etsee_ or _etse_ is intelligible only by means of the accompanying gesture as the expression of the wish, "Mamma, sit by me." _Helle pumme_ signifies the wish to help (_helfen_) in pumping, and is uttered at the sight of persons pumping water.

The following sentence consisting of five words is particularly characteristic of this period, because it exhibits the first attempt to relate a personal experience. The child dropped his milk-cup and related _mimi atta teppa papa oi_, which meant "Milch fort [auf den] Teppich, Papa [sagte] pfui." (Milk gone [on] carpet, Papa [said] "Fie!") The words adopted by the child have often a very different meaning from that which they have in the language of adults, being not entirely misunderstood but peculiarly interpreted by the imitator. Thus, pronouns, which are not for a long time yet understood in their true sense, signify objects themselves or their qualities. _Dein bett_ means "the large bed."

In the twenty-sixth month a large picture-book, with good colored pictures, was shown to the child by me every day. Then he himself would point out the separate objects represented, and those unknown to him were named to him, and then the words were repeated by him. Thus were obtained the following results:

Said to him. His imitation. Blasebalg (bellows), _ba-a-bats_, _blasabalitz_. Saugflasche (nursing-bottle), _augflaze_. Kanone (cannon), _nanone_. Koffer (trunk), _towwer_, _toffer_, _pfoffa_, _poffa_, _toff-wa_. Fuchs (fox), _fuhts_. Kaffeekanne (coffee-urn), _taffeetanne_, _pfafee-tanne_. Frosch (frog), _frotz_. Klingel (bell), _linli_ (learned as _ingeling_ and _linlin_). Besen (broom), _b[=e]sann_, _beedsen_, _beedsenn_. Stiefel (boot), _tiefel_, _stibbell_, _tihbell_, _tibl_. Nest (nest), _netz_. Storch (stork), _toich_. Giesskanne (watering-pot), _tietstanne_, _ihtstanne_, _ziesstanne_. Fisch (fish), _fiz_. Zuckerhut (sugar-loaf), _ukkahut_. Vogel (bird), _wodal_. Kuchen (cake), _tuche_, _tuch[=e]n_ (hitherto _kuha_). Licht (light), _lihts_, _lits_. Schlitten (sled), _lita_, _litta_. Tisch (table), _tiss_. Nuss (nut), _nuhuss_, _nuss_. Kaffeetopf (coffee-pot), _poffee-topf_. Hund (dog), _und_. Brief (letter), _dief_. Elephant, _elafant_. Fledermaus (bat), _lebamaunz_, _fleedermauz_. Kamm (comb), _damm_, _lamm_, _namm_. Schwalbe (swallow), _baubee_. Staar (starling), _tahr_.

Of his own accord the child pointed out with certainty in the picture-book--

_haem_, _hae-em_, _hemm_ for Helm (helmet). _hoerz_ " Hirsch (stag). _tawell_ " Tafel (table). _lompee_, _lamp['=e]_ " Lampe (lamp). _lotz_ " Schloss (castle). _benne_ " Birne (pear). _torb_ " Korb (basket). _onne-erm_ " Sonnenschirm (parasol). _flatse_ " Flasche (bottle). _wetsa_ " Zwetschen (plums). _clawelier_ " Clavier (piano). _littl_, _litzl_, _luetzl_ " Schluessel (key). _loewee_ " Loewe (lion). _ofa_ " Ofen (stove). _[=u][)a]_ " Uhr (watch). _tint_, _kint_ " Kind (child). _naninchae_ " Kaninchen (rabbit). _manne_ " Pfanne (pan). _tomml_, _tromml_ " Trommel (drum). _tuhl_ " Stuhl (chair).

With these words, the meaning of which the child knows well, though he does not yet pronounce them perfectly, are to be ranked many more which have not been taught him, but which he has himself appropriated Thus, _tola_ for Kohlen (coals), _dals_ for Salz (salt). Other words spontaneously appropriated are, however, already pronounced correctly and correctly used, as _Papier_ (paper), _Holz_ (wood), _Hut_ (hat), _Wagen_ (carriage), _Teppich_ (carpet), _Deckel_ (cover), _Milch_, _Teller_ (often _tell[)e]_), _Frau_, _Mann_, _Maeuse_. These cases form the minority, and are striking in the midst of the manifold mutilations which now constitute the child's speech. Of these mutilations some are, even to his nearest relatives who are in company with the child every day, unintelligible or only with great pains to be unriddled. Thus, the child calls himself _Attall_ instead of Axel; says also _rraeus Atsl_ for "heraus Axel," i. e., "Axel wants to go out." He still says _bita_ for "bitte," and often _mima_ or _mami_ for Marie; _apf_ for "Apfel." The numerous mutilations of the words the child undertakes to speak are not all to be traced to defect of articulation. The "sch" is already perfectly developed in _Handschuh_; and yet in other words, as appears from the above examples, it is either simply left out or has its place supplied by _z_ and _ss_. Further, it sounds almost like wantonness when frequently the surd consonant is put in place of the sonant one or _vice versa_; when, e. g., _puch_ (for Buch) _puecherr_ is said on the one hand, and _wort_ instead of "fort" on the other. Here belongs likewise the peculiar staccato manner of uttering the syllables, e. g., _pil-ter-puch_ (Bilder-buch--picture-book). At other times is heard a hasty _billerbuch_ or _pillerpuch_.

The babbling monologues have become infrequent and more of a play with words and the syllables of them, e. g., in the frequently repeated _papa-[)u]-a-[)u]a_.

On the other hand, independent thoughts expressed by words are more and more multiplied. Here is an example: The child had been extraordinarily pleased by the Christmas-tree. The candles on it had been lighted for three evenings. On the third evening, when only one of its many lights was burning, the child could not leave it, but kept taking a position before it and saying with earnest tone, _gunna-itz-boum_, i. e., "Gute nacht, Christbaum!" The most of his sentences still consist of two words, one of which is often a verb in the infinitive. Thus, _helle mama_, _helle mami_, i. e., "helfen (help) Mama, Marie!" and _bibak tommen_, i. e., "der Zwieback soll kommen" (let the biscuit come); or _tsee machen_ (make _c_)--on the piano the keys _c_, _d_, _e_, had often been touched separately by the little fingers accidentally, and the applause when in response to the question, "Where is _c_?" the right key was touched, excited the wish for repetition; _roth_, _druen machen_ (make red or green)--the child was instructed by me in the naming of colors; and _dekkn pilen_, i. e., "Verstecken spielen" (play hide and seek). In quite short narratives, too, the verbs appear in the infinitive only. Such accounts of every-day occurrences--important to the child, however, through their novelty--are in general falling into the background as compared with the expression of his wishes in words as in the last-mentioned cases. Both kinds of initiatory attempts at speaking testify more and more plainly to awakening intellect, for, in order to use a noun together with a verb in such a way as to correspond to a wish or to a fact experienced, there must be added to the imitation of words heard and to the memory of them something which adapts the sense of them to the outward experiences at the time and the peculiar circumstances, and associates them with one another. This something is the intellect. In proportion as it grows, the capacity for being taught tricks decreases and the child is already ashamed to answer by means of his former gestures the old questions, "Where is the little rogue?" "How tall?" etc.

But how far from the intellect of the older child is that of the child now two years and two months old appears from this fact, that the latter has not the remotest notion of number. He repeats mechanically, many times over, the words said for him, _one_, _two_, _three_, _four_, _five_; but when objects of the same sort are put before him in groups, he confounds all the numbers with one another in spite of countless attempts to bring the number 2 into firm connection with the sound two, etc. Nor does he as yet understand the meaning of the frequently repeated "danke" (thanks), for, when the child has poured out milk for himself, he puts down the pitcher and says _dankee_.

One more remark is to be made about the names of animals. These names are multiplying in this period, which is an important one in regard to the genesis of mind. Ask, "What is the animal called?" and the answer runs, _mumu_, _kikeriki_, _bauwau_, _piep-piep_, and others. No trace of onomatopoetic attempts can be discovered here. The child has received the names pronounced to him by his nurse and has retained them; just so _hotto_ for "Pferd" (horse), like _lingeling_ for "Klingel" (bell). None the less every healthy child has a strong inclination to onomatopeia. The cases already reported prove the fact satisfactorily. The echolalia that still appears now and then really belongs to this. Inasmuch as in general in every onomatopoetic attempt we have to do with a sound-imitation or the reproducing of the oscillations of the tympanum as nearly as possible by means of the vocal cords, all attempts of the speechless child to speak are ultimately of onomatopoetic character in the earliest period; but from the present time on sound-imitation retires before the reasoning activity, which is now shooting forth vigorously in the childish brain.

In the twenty-seventh month the activity of thought manifests itself already in various ways. The independent ideas, indeed, move in a narrowly limited sphere, but their increasing number testifies to the development of the intellect. Some examples may be given:

The child sees a tall tree felled, and he says as it lies upon the ground, _pick up_! Seeing a hole in a dressing-gown, he says, _nae[)e]n_ (sew)! In his play he sometimes says to himself, _dib acht_ (take care)! To the question, "Did it taste good?" the child answers while still eating, _mekk noch_ (schmeckt noch), "It _does_ taste good," thus distinguishing the past in the question from the present. The development of observation and _comparison_ is indicated by the circumstance that salt is also called _sand_. On the other hand, the feeling of gratitude is as yet quite undeveloped. The child, as in the previous month, says _dankee_ to himself when, e. g., he has opened his wardrobe-door alone. The word is thus as yet unintelligible to him, or it is used in the sense of "so" or "succeeded." His frequent expressions of pity are striking. When dolls are cut out of paper, the child weeps violently in the most pitiful manner, for fear that in the cutting a head (_Topf_) may be taken off. This behavior calls to mind the cries of _arme wiebak_ (armer Zwieback--poor biscuit)! when a biscuit is divided, and _arme holz_ (poor wood)! when a stick of wood is thrown into the stove. Nobody has taught the child anything of that sort.

The independent observations which he expresses correctly but very briefly in a form akin to the style of the telegraphic dispatch are now numerous, e. g.:

_Tain milch_: There is no milk here.

_Lammee aus_, _lampee aus_: The flame, the lamp, is gone out.

_Dass la-okk_: That is the dressing-gown (Schlafrock).

_Diss nicht la-okk_: This is not the dressing-gown.

His wishes the child expresses by means of _verbs_ in the infinitive or of substantives alone. Thus, _papa auf-tehen_ (papa, get up), _frue-tuekken_ (breakfast), _aus-taigen_ (get out), _nicht blasen_ (not blow--in building card-houses), _pieldose aufziehn_ (wind up the music-box), and _biback_ (I should like a biscuit). Into these sentences of one, two, and three words there come, however, single adverbs not before used and indefinite pronouns, like _[=e][=e]n_ and _[)e]_ in _tann [=e][=e]n nicht_ or _tann[)e] nicht_, for "kann _er_ nicht" or "kann _es_ nicht." _Butter drauf_ (butter on it), _Mama auch tommen_ (mamma come, too), _noch mehr_ (more), _blos Wasser_ (only water), _hier_ (here), are the child's own imperatives. _Schon wieder_ (again) he does indeed say of his own accord on fitting occasions; but here he is probably repeating mechanically what he has heard. In all, the forming of a word that had not been heard as such, or that had not come from what had been heard through mutilation, has been surely proved in only a single instance. The child, viz., expressed the wish (on his seven hundred and ninety-sixth day) to have an apple pared or cut up, by means of the word _messen_. He knows a knife (Messer) and names it rightly, and while he works at the apple with a fork or a spoon or anything he can get hold of, or merely points at it with his hand, he says repeatedly _messen_! Only after instruction did he say _Messer neiden_ (mit dem Messer schneiden--cut with the knife). Here for the first time a wholly new word is formed. The concept and the word "knife" ("Messer") and the concept, "work with the knife," were present, but the word "schneiden" (cut) for the last was wanting, as also was "schaelen" (pare). Hence, both in one were named _messen_ (for "messern," it may be). The two expressions that used to be heard many times daily, the name _wola_ for the nurse Mima (Mary) and _atta_, have now almost disappeared. _Atta wesen_ for "draussen gewesen" (been out) is still used, it is true, but only seldom. In place of it come now _weg_, _fort_, _aus_, and _allall_, in the sense of "empty," "finished." The too comprehensive, too indefinite concept _atta_ has broken up into more limited and more definite ones. It has become, as it were, differentiated, as in the embryo the separate tissues are differentiated out of the previously apparently homogeneous tissue.

In the period of rapid development now attained, the child daily surprises us afresh by his independent applications of words just heard, although many are not correctly applied, as _tochen haiss_ (boiling hot), said not only of the milk, but also of the fire.

When words clearly comprehended are used in a different sense from that in which adults use them--_incorrectly_ used, the latter would say--there is, however, no _illogical_ employment of them on the part of the child. For it is always the fact, as in the last example, that the concept associated with the word is taken in a more extended sense. The very young child infers a law from a few, even from two observations, which present some agreement only in one respect, and that perhaps a quite subordinate respect. He makes inductions without deliberation. He has heard milk called "boiling hot," he feels its warmth, and then feels the warmth of the stove, consequently the stove also is "boiling hot"; and so in other cases. This logical activity, the _inductive_ process, now prevails. The once favorite monologues, pure, meaningless exercises of articulation, of voice and of hearing, are, on the contrary, falling off. The frequent repetition of the same syllable, also of the same sentence (_lampee aus_), still survives particularly in animated expressions of wish, _erst essen_ (first eat), _viel milch_ (much milk), _mag-e-nicht_ (don't like it). Desire for food and for playthings makes the child loquacious, much more than dislike does, the latter being more easily manifested by means of going away, turning around, turning away. The child can even beg on behalf of his carved figures of animals and men. Pointing out a puppet, he says _tint ain tikche apfl!_ Fuer das kind _ein_ Stueckchen Apfel! (A bit of apple for the child.)

Notwithstanding these manifold signs of a use of words that is beginning to be independent, the sound and word imitation continues to exist in enlarged measure. Echolalia has never, perhaps, been more marked, the final words of sentences heard being repeated with the regularity of a machine. If I say, "Leg die Feder hin" (Lay the pen down)! there sounds in response a _feder hin_. All sorts of tones and noises are imitated with varying success; even the whistle of the locomotive, an object in which a passionate interest is displayed; the voices of animals; so also German, French, Italian, and English words. The French nasal "n" (in _bon_, _orange_), however--even in the following months--as well as the English "th," in _there_ (in spite of the existence of the right formation in the fifteenth month), is not attained. The child still laughs regularly when others laugh, and on his part excites merriment through exact reproduction of separate fragments of a dialogue that he does not understand, and that does not concern him; e. g., _da hastn_ (da hast Du ihn) (there you have him), or _aha sist[)e]_ (siehst Du) (do you see)? or _um Gottes willen_ (for God's sake), the accent in these cases being also imitated with precision. But in his independent use of words the accentuation varies in irregular fashion. Such an arbitrary variation is _bitte_ and _bi-t[)e]_. _Beti_ no longer appears.

As a noteworthy deficiency at this period is to be mentioned the feeble memory for often-prescribed answers to certain questions. To the question of a stranger, "What is your name?" the child for the first time gave of his own accord the answer _Attsell_ (Axel), on the eight hundred and tenth day of his life. On the other hand, improper answers that have been seriously censured remain fixed in his recollection. The impression is stronger here. The weakness of memory is still shown most plainly when we try to make intelligible to the child the numerals one to five. It is a failure. The sensuous impression that _one_ ball makes is so different from that which two balls make, the given words _one_ and _two_ sound so differently, that we can not help wondering how one and two, and likewise three, four, five, are confounded with one another.

A _question_ has not yet been uttered by the child. The frequent _ist das_ signifies merely "das ist," or it is the echo of the oft-heard question, "Was ist das?" and is uttered without the tone of interrogation. The articles are not used at all yet; at any rate, if used, they are merely imitated without understanding.

The defects of articulation are now less striking, but only very slowly does the correct and distinct pronunciation take the place of the erroneous and indistinct. We still have regularly:

_buecher-rank_ for Buecherschrank (book-case). _frai takkee_ " Fraeulein Starke (Miss Starke). _[=e]r[)e]_, _tseer_ " Schere (shears). _raib[)e]_, _raiben_ " Schreiben (u. Zeichnen) (write or draw). _nur_ " Schnur (string). _neiderin_ " Schneiderin (tailoress). _dsoen_ (also _schoen_) " schoen (pretty). _lafen_ " schlafen (sleep). _pucken_ " spucken (spit). _dsehen_ (also _sehen_) " sehen (see).

The sounds "sch" and "sch" in the "st" as well as in the "sp" ("schneiden, Spiel") are often omitted without any substitute (_naid[)a]_, _taign_, _piel_); more seldom their place is supplied by "s," as in _swer_ = "schwer" for "muede." Yet _ks_, _ts_ are often given with purity in _bex_, _bux_, _Axl_. The last word is often pronounced _Ats[)e]l_ and _Atsli_ (heard by him as "Axeli"), very rarely _Akkl_; in "Aufziehen" the "z" is almost always correctly reproduced. Further, we still have

_locotiwe_ for Locomotive. _nepf_ " Knoepfe (buttons). _ann-nepf_ " anknoepfen. _nits_ " nichts (nothing).

"Milch" is now permanently named correctly; no longer _mimi_, _mich_; Wasser, _wassa_, no longer _watja_. But "gefaehrlich" is called _faehrlich_; "getrunken," _trunken_.

The twenty-eighth month is characterized by a rapid increase of activity in the formation of ideas, on the one hand, and by considerably greater certainty in the use of words, on the other. Ambition is developed and makes itself known by a frequent _lainee_ (_allein_, alone). The child wants to undertake all sorts of things without help. He asks for various objects interesting to him, with the words _Ding haben_ (have the thing). That the faculty of observation and of combination is becoming perfected, is indicated by the following: The child sees an ox at the slaughter-house and says _mumu_ (moo-moo); I add "todt" (dead); thereupon comes the response _mumu todt_, and after a pause the child says, of his own accord, _lachtett_ (_geschlachtet_, slaughtered); then _Blut heraus_ (blood out). The beginning of self-control is perceived in this, that the child often recollects, of himself, the strict commands he has received to refrain from this and that. Thus, he had been accustomed to strike members of the family in fun, and this had been forbidden him. Now, when the inclination seizes him still to strike, he says emphatically _nicht lagen_ (_schlagen_,--not strike), _Axel brav_ (good). In general the child names himself only by his name, which he also tells to strangers without being asked. His parents, and these alone, are mostly named _Papa_ and _Mama_, but often also by their names.

The following is a proof of independent thinking while the understanding of language is still imperfect: At breakfast I say, "Axel is breakfasting with papa, is he not (_nicht wahr_)?" He replies earnestly, with genuine child-logic, _doch wahr_ (but he _is_)!

The earlier appellation _swer_ and _wer_ (schwer--heavy) for muede (tired) is preserved. This transference, like the other one, _locotiwe wassa trinkt_, when the engine is supplied with water, is the intellectual peculium of the child. The number of such childish conceptions has now become very large. On the other hand, the words independently formed out of what has been heard are not numerous:

_beisst_ for gebissen (bitten), _reit_ " geritten (ridden), _esst_ " gegessen (eaten), _wesen_ " gewesen (been), _austrinkt_ " ausgetrunken (drunk up), _tschulter_ " Schulter (shoulder),

must be considered as mutilations, not as new formations. The great number of words correctly pronounced and used continues, on the other hand, to increase. There are even decided attempts to use single _prepositions_: _Nepfe_ (Knoepfe) _fuer Mama_ (buttons for mamma) may be simple repetition, like _Axel mit Papa_; but as utterances of this kind were not formerly repeated by him, though just as often made in his hearing, the understanding of the "fuer" and "mit" must now be awakened. From this time forth the understanding of several prepositions and the correct use of them abide. In addition there come into this period the first applications of the _article_. However often this part of speech may have been reproduced from the speech of others, it has never been said with understanding; but now in the expressions _um'n Hals_ and _fuer'm Axel_ (around the neck and for (the) Axel) there lies the beginning of right use of the article, and, indeed, also in the months immediately succeeding, almost solely of the definite article.

But more significant psychogenetically than all progress of this kind in the manipulation of language is the questioning that becomes active in this month. Although I paid special attention to this point from the beginning, I first heard the child ask a question of his own accord on the eight hundred and forty-fifth day of his life. He asked, "Where is Mima?" From that time on questions were more frequent; but in the time immediately following this his question was always one relating to something in space. The word "Where?" continued for a long time to be his only interrogative. He has also for a long time understood the "Where?" when he heard it. If, e. g., I asked, "Where is the nose?" without giving any hint by look or otherwise, this question has for months past been correctly answered by a movement of the child's arm to his nose. It is true that my question, "What is that?" a much more frequent one, is likewise answered correctly, although the word "What?" has never been used by the child.

His cleverness in reproducing even foreign expressions is surprising. The words pronounced for him by Italians (during a pretty long sojourn on Lake Garda), e. g., _uno_, _due_, _tre_, are given back without the least German accent. "Quattro," to be sure, became _wattro_, but _ancora piccolo_ was absolutely pure. The imitation of the marching of soldiers, with the frequent cry _batelon eins s[)u]ai_ (battalion, one, two), already gives him the greatest pleasure. The imagination that is active in it is to be discerned, however, rather in gestures than in words. How lively the child's power of imagination is appears also in the fact that flat figures rudely cut out of newspaper, to represent glasses and cups, are carried to the mouth like real ones.

The _articulation_ has again become a little more perfected, but in many respects it is still a good deal deficient; thus, in regard to the "sch," he says:

_abneiden_ for abschneiden (cut off). _hirn_ " Stirn (forehead). _verbrochen_ " versprochen (promised). _lagn_ " schlagen (strike). _runtergeluckt_ " heruntergeschluckt (swallowed). _einteign_ " einsteigen (get in). On the other hand, _aus-teign_ (Aussteigen) (alight).

Other defects of articulation are shown by the following examples:

_topf_ for klopfen (knock). _ueffte_ " lueften (take the air). _leben_ " kleben (adhere). _viloa, viloja,_ " Viola. _dummi_ " Gummi (gum).

The _l mouille_ can not be at all successfully given at the beginning of this month (_bat[)e]l[=o]n_ for "bataillon"), and the nasal sounds in "orange" and "salon" offer insuperable difficulties (up to the second half of the fourth year). At the end of this month, however, I heard a _ganzee bataljohn_ (_j_ like English _y_). "Orange" continued to be, after _oraanjee_ had been given up, _orohs[)e]_. The softening (mouilliren--_nj_ = _n_) was inconvenient in this case.

Quite correctly named at this period were eye, nose, cheek, tongue, mouth, ear, beard, hair, arm, thumb, finger.

Meaningless chatter has become much more rare. On the other hand, the child is in the habit of making all sorts of remarks, especially in the morning early after waking, for a quarter of an hour at a time and longer without interruption, these remarks for the most part consisting of a noun and verb and relating to objects immediately about him. Monologues also are given in a singing voice, syllables without meaning, often a regular singing, the child meantime running many times around the table; besides, his strong voice is not seldom practiced in producing high tones without any outward occasion; and, finally, it is worthy of note that sometimes in sleep, evidently when the child has a vivid dream, a scream is uttered. Talking in his sleep first appeared in his fourth year.

The greatest advance in the twenty-ninth month consists in the employment of the personal pronoun in place of his own name: _bitte gib mir Brod_ (please give me bread) was the first sentence in which it appeared. "Ich" (I) is not yet said, but if I ask "Who is 'me'?" then the child names himself with his own name, as he does in general. Through this employment, more and more frequent from this time forth, of the pronoun instead of the proper name, is gradually introduced the inflection of the verbs he has heard; but at this time the imperative has its place generally supplied by the infinitive: _P[)a]p[)a] s[=a]gn_ and _Ssooss sitzen_. Sentences composed by himself, or heard and then used by him, like _das meckt_ (schmeckt) _sehr gut_ (that tastes very good), are rare; yet the discrimination between regular and irregular verbs has already begun to be made. To be sure, the question "Where have you been?" is answered with _paziren gegeht_ (goed to walk), and _ausgezieht_ is said for _ausgezogen_ (drawed out), also _geseht_ (seed) instead of _gesehen_ (seen); but at the same time frequently _eingetigen_ and _ausgetigen_, instead of _ein-_ and _aus-geteigt_. An interesting, rare misformation was _grefessen_ for "gefressen." The verbs most frequently used seem to be "haben" (have) and "kommen" (come), and the forms "hat" and "kommt" are indeed correctly used sometimes, e. g., _viel Rauch kommt heraus_ (much smoke comes out), and _gleich kommt Kaffee_ (the coffee is coming). While the infinitives "haben" and "kommen" are uttered several times a day, the infinitive "sein" (to be) is never heard; but of this auxiliary verb "ist" and "wesen" are used, the latter for "gewesen." In every instance where the child expresses a desire by means of a verb, he simply takes the infinitive; e. g., he hears, as he sits in the room, the noise of the railway-train at a distance, and he says, _Locotiwe sehen_.

Further, _numbering_ begins to be active to a noteworthy degree. Although the numerals are already well known to the child, he still confounds them on all occasions, and in view of the absolute failure of the many attempts to teach the child the significance of the numbers 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, one might infer that he has not yet perceived the difference between, e. g., 3 matches and 4 matches; yet counting is already taking place, though in very unexpected fashion. The child began, viz., on the eight hundred and seventy-eighth day, suddenly, of his own accord entirely, to count with his nine-pins, putting them in a row, saying with each one, _eins_ (one)! _eins!_ _eins!_ _eins!_ afterward saying _eins!_ _noch eins_ (one more)! _noch eins!_ _noch eins!_ The process of adding is thus performed without the naming of the sums.

The questioning that appeared in the previous month, the surest sign of independent thought in the child, is somewhat more plainly manifest; but "Where" alone serves as the interrogative word, and that in its proper sense: Where is hat? "Which, who, why, when" are not spoken by the child and doubtless not understood, for, although succession in time is in many cases clear to him ("first eat," "then," "now"), yet in many other cases he does not know how to express distinctions of time; just as in comparing many and few, large and small objects, the quantity is wrongly given. Thus he says correctly, when many counters are to be brought together, _Zuviel_ (too many), but says _Zuviel_ wrongly for _Zuwenig_ (too little) when there is too little butter on his bread. In this case the _Zuviel_ (too much) sounds almost like irony, which, of course, is out of the question at his age. "Too much" and "too little" are confounded in the same way as 5 and 2. Yet, in another respect the memory has made a considerable gain. Expressions long since forgotten by those about the child are suddenly without assignable occasion sometimes uttered again with perfect distinctness, and the child even applies fitly what he has observed. Thus, he brings matches when he sees that some one wants to light a candle. I say to him, "Pick up the bread-crumbs." Upon this the child comes forward, though very slowly, cries out suddenly, _Get broom_, recollecting that he has seen the carpet swept, goes and gets the broom, and sweeps the crumbs away. His memory for the utterances of animals as they have been made for him is very good. If I ask, e. g., "What does the duck say?" the answer is _Kuak kuak_. He has gained also in certainty in naming the separate parts of a drawing, especially of a locomotive, so that one chief condition of speech, in the full sense of the word--memory--may be said to be well developed.

Articulation, on the contrary, makes slow progress. "Hirsch" is called _Hirss_, "Schwalbe" _Walbe_, "Flasche" _Flassee_. The following are generally correctly pronounced: _Treppe_, _Fenster_, _Krug_, _Kraut_, _Kuchen_, _Helm_, _Besen_, _Cigarre_, _Hut_, _Giesskanne_, _Dinte_, _Buch_, _Birne_. For "barometer, thermometer," he says _mometer_, for "Schrauben" _raubn_, for "fruehstuecken" (to breakfast) still often _fri-ticken_.

In the _thirtieth month_ the independent activity of thought develops more and more. When the child is playing by himself, e. g., he often says to himself: _Eimerchen ausleeren_ (make pail empty); _Hackemesser_ (chopping-knife). Thus his small vocabulary serves him at any rate for making clear his own ideas. Already his thinking is often a low speaking, yet only in part. When language fails him, he first considers well. An example: The child finds it very difficult to turn crosswise or lengthwise one of the nine-pins which he wants to put into its box, and when I say, "Round the other way!" he turns it around in such a way that it comes to lie as it did at the beginning, wrongly. He also pushes the broad side of the cover against the small end of the box. The child evidently understands the expression "Round the other way"; but as the expression is ambiguous (the head of the nine-pin may go to the left, to the right, up, down, back, forward), we can understand that the pin should be turned now one way and again another way, and even brought back to its original position. Then appears the child's own deliberation without words--without any speaking at all, low or loud--until after frequently repeated packing and unpacking hardly any hesitation is shown. Many utterances show how easily at this period objects that have only a slight resemblance to one another or only a few qualities in common are included in one concept. When a roasted apple is peeled, the child sees the peel and says (thinking of his boiled milk, which he saw several hours previous, but which is not now present), _Milch auch Haut_ (milk skin too). Similar is the expression _Kirche laeutet_ (church rings) when the tower-clock strikes.

The child forms concepts which comprehend a few qualities in unity, and indeed without designating the concept always by a particular word, whereas the developed understanding more and more forms concepts with many qualities and designates them by words. Hence the concepts of the child have less content and more extent than those of adults. For this reason they are less distinct also, and are often ephemeral, since they break up into narrower, more distinct concepts; but they always testify to activity of thought.

A greater intellectual advance, however, is manifested at this time in the first intentional use of language in order to bring on a game of hide-and-seek. A key falls to the floor. The child picks it up quickly, holds it behind him, and to my question, "Where is the key?" answers _nicht mehr da_ (no longer there). As I found in the following months no falsehood, in the proper sense of the word, to record, but rather that the least error, the most trivial exaggeration, was corrected at once by the child himself, with peculiarly _naive_ seriousness, in a little story, with pauses between the separate words, so, too, in the present case the answer _nicht mehr da_ is no falsehood, but is to be understood as meaning that the key is no longer to be seen. The expression of the face was roguish at the time.

The sole interrogative word continues still to be "Where?" e. g., _Where is ball?_ The demonstratives _da_ (there) and _dort_ (yonder) (_dort ist nass_--wet) were more frequently spoken correctly in answer.

The "I" in place of his own name does not yet appear, because this word does not occur frequently enough in conversation with the child. The bad custom adults have of designating themselves in their talk with little children, not as in ordinary conversation by the word "I," but by the proper name, or as "aunt," "grandma," etc., postpones the time of saying "I" on the part of children. _Me_ is pretty often used at this period, for the reason that it is frequently heard at meal-times in "Give me!"

_Bitte, liebe Mama, gib mir mehr Suppe_ (Please, dear mamma, give me more soup) is, to be sure, learned by heart; but such sentences are at the proper time and in the proper place modified and even independently applied. _Noch mehr_, _immer noch mehr_, _vielleicht_, _fast_ (more, more yet, perhaps, almost), are also expressions often properly employed, the last two, however, with uncertainty still. _Fast gefallen_ (almost fell) the child says when he has actually fallen down.

Although declension and conjugation are as yet absolutely lacking, a transition has become established from the worst form of dysgrammatism to the beginning of correct diction by means of the more frequent use of the plural in nouns (_Rad_, _Raeder_), the more frequent employment of the article (_foer d[)e] Papa_), the not very rare strong inflection (_gegangen_ instead of the earlier _gegeht_; _genommen_ instead of the earlier _genehmt_). To be sure, the infinitive still stands in the place of the participle and the imperative in by far the great majority of cases. The auxiliaries are often omitted or employed in strange misformations, e. g., "Where have you been?" Answer, _paziren gewarent_ [something like _they wented 'alk_] (wir waren spazieren, spazieren gewesen).

In _articulation_ no perceptible progress is to be recorded. The objects known from the picture-book are indeed for the most part rightly named, but new ones often have their names very much distorted--e. g., "Violine" is persistently called _wiloine_. The "sch" is occasionally given correctly, but _s-truempfe_, _auf-s-tehen_ is the rule. The answer that has been learned to the question, "How old are you?" "Seit November zwei Jahre," is given _wember wai jahr_. The way in which the child learns the correct pronunciation is in general twofold: 1. Through frequent hearing of the correct words, since no one speaks as he himself does; thus, e. g., _genommen_ took the place of _genehmt_ without instruction. 2. Through having the words frequently pronounced on purpose for him to imitate with the utmost attention. Thus, e. g., the child up to this time always said _Locotiwe_ and _Locopotiwe_. I exhorted him a few times earnestly to say "Locomotive." The result was _Loco-loco-loco-mo-tiwe_, and then _Locomotiwe_, with exact copying of the accent with which I spoke. Singing also is imitated.

His memory for words that denote objects is very good; but when expressions designating something not very apparent to the senses are to be learned, he easily fails. Thus, the left and the right foot or arm, the left and the right cheek or hand, are very often correctly named, but often falsely. The difference between left and right can not be exactly described, explained, or made imaginable to the child.

In the _thirty-first month_ two new questions make their appearance: The child asks, _Welches Papier nehmen?_ (What paper take?) after he has obtained permission to make marks with the pencil, i. e., to _raiben_ (write and draw), and _Was kost die Trommel?_ (What does the drum cost?)

Now the indefinite article appears oftener; it is distinctly audible in _Halt n biss-chen Wasser!_ More surprising are individual new formations, which disappear, however, soon after their rise; thus, the comparative of "hoch." The child says with perfect distinctness _hocher bauen_ (build higher) in playing with wooden blocks; he thus forms of himself the most natural comparative, like the participle _gegebt_ for "gegeben." In place of "Uhr-schluessel" (watch-key) he says _Sluessl-Uhr_ (key-watch), thus placing the principal thing first.

He makes use of the strange expression _heitgestern_ in place of "heute" (to-day), and in place of "gestern" (yesterday). The two latter taken singly are confounded with each other for a long time yet.

Sentence-forming is still very imperfect: _is smoke_ means "that is smoke" and "there is smoke"; and _kommt Locomotiwe_ stands for "da kommt eine oder die Locomotive" (There comes a, or the, engine). At sight of the bath-tub, however, the child says six times in quick succession _Da kommt kalt Wasser rein, Marie_ (Cold water is to go in here, Mary). He frequently makes remarks on matters of fact, e. g., _warm out there_. If he has broken a flower-pot, a bandbox, a glass, he says regularly, of his own accord, _Frederick glue again_, and he reports faithfully every little fault to his parents. But when a plaything or an object interesting to him vexes him, he says, peevishly, _stupid thing_, e. g., to the carpet, which he can not lift; and he does not linger long over one play. His occupation must be changed very often.

The imitations are now again becoming less frequent than in the past months, and expressions not understood are repeated rather for the amusement of the family than unconsciously; thus, _Ach Gott_ (Oh God!) and _wirklich grossartig_ (truly grand). Yet the child sometimes sings in his sleep, several seconds at a time, evidently dreaming.

The pronunciation of the "sch," even in the favorite succession of words, _Ganzes Batalljohn marss_ (for "marsch") _eins_, _zwei_, is imperfect, and although no person of those about him pronounces the "st" in "Stall, stehen" otherwise than as "scht," the child keeps persistently to _S-tall_, _s-tehen_. The pronunciation "scht" began in the last six months of the fourth year of his life, and in the forty-sixth month it completely crowded out the "st," which seems the more remarkable as the child was taken care of by a Mecklenburg woman from the beginning of the fourth year.

In the _thirty-second month_ the "I" began to displace his own name. _Mir_ (_gib mir_) and _mich_ (_bitte heb mich herauf_, please lift me up) had already appeared in the twenty-ninth to the thirty-first month; _ich komme gleich_, _Geld moecht ich haben_ (I am coming directly, I should like money), are new acquirements. If he is asked "Who is _I_?" the answer is, _der Axel_. But he still speaks in the third person frequently; e. g., the child says, speaking of himself, _da ist er wieder_ (here he is again), _Axel auch haben_ (Axel have, too), and _mag-[)e] nicht_, thus designating himself at this period in fourfold fashion, by _I_, _he_, _Axel_, and by the omission of all pronouns and names. Although _bitte setz mich auf den Stuhl_ (Please put me on the chair) is learned from hearing it said for him, yet the correct application of the sentence, which he makes of himself daily from this time on, must be regarded as an important advance. The same is true of the forming of clauses, which is now beginning to take place, as in _Weiss nicht, wo es ist_ (Don't know where it is). New also is the separation of the particle in compound verbs, as in _faellt immer um_ (keeps tumbling over).

Longer and longer names and sentences are spoken with perfect distinctness, but the influence of the dialect of the neighborhood is occasionally perceptible. His nurse is the one who talks most with him. She is from the Schwarzwald, and from her comes the omission of the "n" at the end of words, as in _Kaennche_, _trocke_. Besides, the confounding of the surd, "p," with the sonant, "b" (_putter_), is so frequent that it may well be taken from the Thuringian dialect, like the confounding of "eu" and "ei" (_heit_). The only German sounds that still present great difficulties are "sch" and "chts" (in "nichts").

The memory of the child has indeed improved, but it has become somewhat fastidious. Only that which seems interesting and intelligible to the child impresses itself permanently; on the other hand, useless and unintelligible verses learned by rote, that persons have taught him, though seldom, for fun, are forgotten after a few days.

In the _thirty-third month_ the strength of memory already mentioned for certain experiences shows itself in many characteristic remarks. Thus the child, again absent from home with his parents for some weeks, says almost every evening, _gleich blasen die Soldaten_ (the soldiers, i. e., the band, will play directly), although no soldier is to be seen in the country far and wide. But at home the music was actually to be heard every evening.

At sight of a cock in his picture-book the child says, slowly, _Das ist der Hahn--kommt immer--das ganze Stueck fortnehmt--von der Hand--und laueft fort_ ("That is the cock--keeps coming--takes away the whole piece--out of the hand--and runs off"). This narrative--the longest yet given, by the way--has reference to the feeding of the fowls, on which occasion the cock had really carried off a piece of bread. The doings of animals in general excited the attention of the child greatly. He is capable even of forgetting to eat, in order to observe assiduously the movements of a fly. _Jetzt geht in die Zeitung--geht in die Milch!_ _Fort Thier! Geh fort! Unter den Kaffee!_ (Now he is going into the newspaper--going into the milk! Away, creature! go away! into the coffee!) His interest is very keen for other moving objects also, particularly locomotives.

How little clearness there is in his conceptions of animal and machine, however, appears from the fact that both are addressed in the same way. When his father's brother comes, the child says, turning to his father, _neuer_ (new) _Papa_; he has not, therefore, the slightest idea of that which the word "father" signifies. Naturally he can have none. Yet selfhood (Ichheit) has come forth at this period in considerably sharper manifestation. He cries, _Das Ding haben! das will ich, das will ich, das will ich, das Spiel moecht ich haben!_ (Have the thing! I want it, I should like the game.) To be sure, when one says "komm, ich knoepfs dir zu" (come, I will button it for you), the child comes, and says, as an echo, _ich knoepfs dir zu_ (I will button it for you), evidently meaning, "Button it for me"! He also confounds _zu viel_ (too much) with _zu wenig_ (too little), _nie_ (never) with _immer_ (always), _heute_ (to-day) with _gestern_ (yesterday); on the contrary, the words _und_, _sondern_, _noch_, _mehr_, _nur_, _bis_, _wo_ (and, but, still, more, only, till, where) are always used correctly. The most striking mistakes are those of conjugation, which is still quite erroneous (e. g., _getrinkt_ and _getrunkt_ along with _getrunken_), and of articulation, the "sch" (_dsen_ for "schoen") being only seldom pure, mostly given as "s" or "ts." "Toast" is called _Toos_ and _Dose_.

After the first thousand days of his life had passed, the observation of him was continued daily, but not the record in writing. Some particulars belonging to the following months may be noted:

Many expressions accidentally heard by the child that excited the merriment of the family when once repeated by him, were rehearsed times without number in a laughing, roguish, obtrusive manner, thus, _du liebe Zeit_. The child also calls out the name of his nurse, _Marie_, often without meaning, over and over again, even in the night. He calls others also by this name in manifest distraction of mind, often making the correction himself when he perceives the mistake.

More and more seldom does the child speak of himself in the third person, and then he calls himself by his name, never saying "he" any more. Usually he speaks of himself as "I," especially "I will, I will have that, I can not." Gradually, too, he uses _Du_ in address, e. g., _Was fuer huebsen Rock hast Du_ (What a handsome coat you have)! Here the manner of using the "Was" is also new.

On the ten hundred and twenty-eighth day _warum_ (why?) was first used in a question. I was watching with the closest attention for the first appearance of this word. The sentence ran, _Warum nach Hause gehen? ich will nicht nach Hause_ (Why go home? I don't want to go home). When a wheel creaked on the carriage, the child asked, _Was macht nur so_ (What makes that)? Both questions show that at last the instinct of causality, which manifested itself more than a year before in a kind of activity of inquiry, in experimenting, and even earlier (in the twelfth week) in giving attention to things, is expressed _in language_; but the questioning is often repeated in a senseless way till it reaches the point of weariness. _Warum wird das Holz gesnitten?_ (for "gesaegt"--Why is the wood sawed?) _Warum macht der Froedrich die [Blumen] Toepfe rein?_ (Why does Frederick clean the flower-pots?) are examples of childish questions, which when they receive an answer, and indeed whatever answer, are followed by fresh questions just as idle (from the standpoint of adults); but they testify plainly to a far-reaching independent activity of thought. So with the frequent question, _Wie macht man das nur?_ (How is that done?)

It is to be said, further, that I found the endeavor impracticable to ascertain the order of succession in which the child uses the different interrogative words. It depends wholly on the company about him at what time first this or that turn of expression or question is repeated and then used independently. "Why" is heard by him, as a rule, less often than "What?" and "How?" and "Which?" Still, it seems remarkable that I did not once hear the child say "When?" until the close of the third year. The sense of space is, to be sure, but little developed at that time, but the sense of time still less. The use of the word "forgotten" (_ich habe vergessen_) and of "I shall" (do this or that) is exceedingly rare.

The articulation was speedily perfected; yet there was no success at all in the repetition of French nasal sounds. In spite of much pains "salon" remained _salo_, "orange" _orose_; and the French "je" also presented insuperable difficulties. Of German sounds, "sch" alone was seldom correct. It was still represented by _s_; for example, in _sloss_ for "Schloss," _ssooss_ for "Schooss."

His fondness for singing increases, and indeed all sorts of meaningless syllables are repeated with pleasure again and again, much as in the period of infancy, only more distinctly; but, just as at that time, they can not all be represented on paper or even be correctly reproduced by adults. For a considerable time he was fond of _[=e]-la_, _[=e]-la_, _la_, _la_, _la_, _la_, in higher and higher pitch, and with unequal intervals, _lalla-lalla_, _lilalula_. In this it was certainly more the joy over the increasing compass and power of his voice that stimulated him to repetition than it was the sound of the syllables; yet in the thirty-sixth month he showed great pleasure in his singing, of which peculiar, though not very pleasing, melodies were characteristic. The singing over of songs sung to him was but very imperfectly successful. On the other hand, the copying of the manner of speaking, of accent, cadence, and ring of the voices of adults was surprising, although echolalia proper almost ceased or appeared again only from time to time.

Grammatical errors are already becoming more rare. A stubborn fault in declension is the putting of _am_ in place of _dem_ and _der_, e. g., _das am Mama geben_. Long sentences are formed correctly, but slowly and with pauses, without errors, e. g., _die Blume--ist ganz durstig--moecht auch n bischen Wasser haben_ (The flower is quite thirsty--would like a little water). If I ask now, "From whom have you learned that?" the answer comes regularly, _das hab ich alleine gelernt_ (I learned it alone). In general the child wants to manage for himself without assistance, to pull, push, mount, climb, water flowers, crying out repeatedly and passionately, _ich moecht ganz alleine_ (I want to [do it] all alone). In spite of this independence and these ambitious inclinations, there seldom appears an invention of his own in language. Here belongs, e. g., the remark of the child, _das Bett ist zu holzhart_ (the bed is too wooden-hard), after having hit himself against the bed-post. Further, to the question, "Do you like to sleep in the large room?" he answered, _O ja ganz lieberich gern_; and when I asked, "Who, pray, speaks so?" the answer came very slowly, with deliberation and with pauses, _nicht-nicht-nicht-nicht-nicht-niemand_ (not--nobody).

How far advanced is the use of the participles, which are hard to master, is shown by the sentence, _die Milch ist schon heiss gemacht worden_ (the milk has already been made hot).

The child's manner of speaking when he was three years old approximated more and more rapidly to that of the family through continued listening to them and imitation of them, so that I gave up recording it; besides, the abundant--some may think too abundant--material already presented supplies facts enough to support the foundations of the history of the development of speech in the child as I have attempted to set it forth. A systematic, thorough-going investigation requires the combined labor of many, who must all strive to answer the same questions--questions which in this chronological survey are, in regard to one single individual, in part answered, but in part could merely be proposed.

To observe the child every day during the first thousand days of his life, in order to trace the historical development of speech, was possible only through self-control, much patience, and great expenditure of time; but such observations are necessary, from the physiological, the psychological, the linguistic, and the pedagogic point of view, and nothing can supply their place.

In order to secure for them the highest degree of trustworthiness, I have adhered strictly, without exception, to the following rules:

1. I have not adopted a single observation of the accuracy of which I was not _myself_ most positively convinced. Least of all can one rely on the reports of nurses, attendants, and other persons not practiced in scientific observing. I have often, merely by a brief, quiet cross-examination, brought such persons to see for themselves the erroneous character of their statements, particularly in case these were made in order to prove how "knowing" the infants were. On the other hand, I owe to the mother of my child, who has by nature a talent for observation such as is given to few, a great many communications concerning his mental development which have been easily verified by myself.

2. Every observation must _immediately_ be entered in writing in a diary that is always lying ready. If this is not done, details of the observations are often forgotten; a thing easily conceivable, because these details in themselves are in many ways uninteresting--especially the meaningless articulations--and they acquire value only in connection with others.

3. In conducting the observations every artificial strain upon the child is to be avoided, and the effort is to be made as often as possible to observe without the child's noticing the observer at all.

4. All training of the one-year-old and of the two-year-old child must be, so far as possible, prevented. I have in this respect been so far successful that my child was not until late acquainted with such tricks as children are taught, and was not vexed with the learning by heart of songs, etc., which he was not capable of understanding. Still, as the record shows, not all unnecessary training could be avoided. The earlier a little child is constrained to perform ceremonious and other conventional actions, the meaning of which is unknown to him, so much the earlier does he lose the poetic naturalness which, at any rate, is but brief and never comes again; and so much the more difficult becomes the observation of his unadulterated mental development.

5. Every interruption of one's observation for more than a day demands the substitution of another observer, and, after taking up the work again, a verification of what has been perceived and noted down in the interval.

6. Three times, at least, every day the same child is to be observed, and everything incidentally noticed is to be put upon paper, no less than that which is methodically ascertained with reference to definite questions.

In accordance with these directions, tested by myself, all my own observations in this book, and particularly those of this chapter, were conducted. Comparison with the statements of others can alone give them a general importance.

What has been furnished by earlier observers in regard to children's learning to speak is, however, not extensive. I have collected some data in an appendix.