"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.
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