The sound-excitations arriving from the ear at the central endings
of the auditory nerve are not directly transformed into motor
excitations for the laryngeal nerves, so that the glottis contracts to
utter vocal sound. When the child (as early as the sixth to the eighth
week) takes pleasure in music and laughs aloud, his voice can not in
this case (as at birth) have been educed by reflex action, for without a
cerebrum he would not laugh or utter joyous sounds, whereas even without
that he cries.
From this, however, by no means follows the existence of a speech-center
in the infant. The fact that he produces sounds easily articulated,
although without choice, like _tahu_ and _amma_, proves merely the
functional capacity of the peripheral apparatus of articulation (in the
seventh week) at a period long before it is intentionally used for
articulation. The unintentionally uttered syllables that make their
appearance are, to be sure, simple, at least in the first half-year. It
is vowels almost exclusively that appear in the first month, and these
predominate for a long time yet. Of the consonants in the third month
_m_ alone is generally to be noted as frequent. This letter comes at a
later period also, from the raising and dropping of the lower jaw in
expiration, an operation that is besides soon easy for the infant with
less outlay of will than the letter _b_, which necessitates a firmer
closing of the lips.
But in spite of the simplicity of all the vocal utterances and of the
defectiveness of the articulatory apparatus, the child is able (often
long before the seventh month) to respond to address, questions,
chiding, either with inarticulate sounds or with vowels or by means of
simple syllables, like _pa_, _ta_, _ma_, _na_, _da_, _mae_, _moe_, _goe_,
_roe_ [_a_ as in _father_; ae as in _fate_; oe like _i_ in _bird_.
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