A child soon says _pa_, but certainly does not say _ab_ until he
can already pronounce other consonants also (p. 79).
"The order in which the sounds are produced by the child is the
following: Of the vowels, first _a_, _e_, _o_, _u_, of course not well
distinguished from _a_ at the beginning; the last vowel is _i_. Of the
consonants, _m_ is the first, and it passes by way of the _w_ into _b_
and _p_. But here we may express our astonishment that so many writers
on the subject of the order of succession of the consonants in the
development of speech have assigned so late a date to the formation of
the _w_; Schwarz puts it even after _t_, and before _r_ and _s_. Then
come _d_, _t_; then _l_ and _n_; _n_ is easily combined with _d_ when it
precedes _d_; next _f_ and the gutturals _h_, _ch_, _g_, _k_, the _g_
and _k_ often confounded with _d_ and _t_. _S_ and _r_ are regarded as
nearly simultaneous in their appearance; the gutturals as coming later,
the latest of them being _ch_. Still, there is a difference in this
respect in different children. For many produce a sound resembling _r_
among the first consonant sounds; so too _ae_, _oe_, _ue_; the diphthongs
proper do not come till the last."
These statements of Loebisch, going, as they do, far beyond pure
observation, can not all be regarded as having general validity. For
most German children, at least, even those first adduced can scarcely
claim to be well founded.
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