And the _ei_, _ei_ was repeated in pretty nearly the same
tone or accent in which it had been pronounced for the child. Sneezing
was not imitated till after fourteen months. The first word imitated by
the child of his own accord (after fourteen months) was the cry
"Neuback" (fresh-bake), as it resounded from the street; it was given
back by the child, unsolicited, as _ei-a_. As late as the sixteenth
month he replied to the word _papa_, just as he did to the word _Ida_,
only with _atta_; yet he had in the mean time learned to understand
"lantern, piano, stove, bird, nine-pin, pot"--in all, more than twenty
words--and to indicate by a look the objects named; he had also learned
to make the new imperfect sounds _pujeh_, _pujeh_, _tupe tupe teh_,
_aemmaem_, _atta_, _ho_.
In the seventeenth month came in place of these sounds the babbled
syllables _maem_, _mam_, _mad-am_, _a-dam_, _das_; in the case of other
children, syllables different from these. Children often say several
syllables in quick succession, "then suddenly stop as if they were
thinking of something new--actually strain, as if they must exert
themselves to bring their organs to utterance, until at last a new sound
issues, and then this is repeated like the clack of a mill." Along with
this appears the frequent doubling of syllables, as in _papa_, _mama_.
The boy, at twenty months, told his father the following, with pretty
long pauses and animated gestures:
_atten--beene--titten--bach--eine--puff--anna_, i.
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