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.
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