A sound out of the second syllable
goes into the first. The first question, _isn das?_ from "Was ist denn
das?" (what is that, pray?) was noticed in the twentieth month; the
interrogative word _was?_ (what) in the twenty-second month. Wo? (where)
and Wohin? (whither) had the same meaning (that of the French _ou?_),
and this as late as in the fourth year. The word "Ich" (I) made its
appearance in the thirtieth month. As to verbs, it is to be mentioned
that, with the child at two years of age, before the use of the tenses
there came the special word denoting activity in general: thus he said,
when looking at a head of Christ by Guido Reni, _thut beten_, instead of
"betet" ("does pray," instead of "prays"). The verb "sein" (be) was very
much distorted: _Warum warst du nicht fleissig gebist?_ (gebist for
gewesen) (why have you not been industrious?). (Cf., pp. 172, 177.) He
inflected _bin_, _binst_ (for bist), _bint_ (ist), _binn_ (sind), _bint_
(sind and seid), _binn_ (sind). Further, _wir isn_ (wir sind, we are),
and _nun sei ich ruhig_ (sei for bin) (now I am quiet), and _ich habe
nicht ruhig geseit_ (_habe_ for "bin" and _geseit_ for "gewesen") (I
have not been quiet), are worthy of note, because they show how strong
an influence in the formation of words during the transition period is
exerted by the forms most frequently heard--here the imperative. The
child used first of all the imperative; last the subjunctive.
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