" He thinks the child begins with the
sounds that are made with the least physiological effort, and proceeds
gradually to the more difficult sounds, i. e., those which require more
"labor of nerve and muscle." This "law" is nothing else than the "loi du
moindre effort" which is to be traced back to Maupertuis, and which was
long ago applied to the beginnings of articulation in children: e. g.,
by Buffon in 1749 ("Oeuvres completes," Paris, 1844, iv, pp. 68, 69),
and, in spite of Littre, again quite recently by B. Perez[F] ("Les trois
premieres Annees de l'Enfant," Paris, 1878, pp. 228-230, _seq._) But
this supposed "law" is opposed by many facts which have been presented
in this chapter and the preceding one. The impossibility of determining
the degree of "physiological effort" required for each separate sound in
the child, moreover, is well known. Besides, every sound may be produced
with very unequal expenditure of force; but the facts referred to are
enough for refutation of the theory. According to Schultze, e. g., the
vowels ought, in the process of development of the child's speech, to
appear in the following order, separated in time by long intervals: 1.
Ae; 2. A; 3. U; 4. O; 5. E; 6. I; 7. Oe; 8. Ue. It is correct that _ae_ is
one of the vowels that may be first plainly distinguished; but neither
is it the first vowel audible--on the contrary, the first audible vowel
is indistinct, and imperfectly articulated vowels are the first--nor can
we admit that _ae_ is produced with less of effort than is _a_.
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