, and of motionless objects with other
sound-impressions, before speaking begins. Hereby (3) the _central_
processes are already shown to be in existence. The childish logic,
especially induction from too few particulars, the mutilation of words
reproduced, the wrong applications of expressions correctly repeated,
the confounding of opposites in the verbal designation of concepts of
the child's own formation, offer an abundance of noteworthy facts for
the genesis of mind. Moreover, the memory for sounds and words, the
imagination, especially in filling out, as well as the first acts of
judging, the forming of propositions, questioning--all these are to be
considered. As for the order in which the separate classes of words
appear, the training in learning-by-heart, speculations as to which
spoken word is first perfectly understood, to these matters I have paid
less attention, for the reason that here the differences in the child's
surroundings exert the greatest influence. My report must, in any event,
as a rough draft of the history of the development of language in the
child, be very imperfect. It, however, contains nothing but perfectly
trustworthy matter of my own observation.

During the first weeks the child often cried long and vigorously from
discomfort. If one were to try to represent by written vowels the
screaming sounds, these would most nearly resemble, in the majority of
cases, a short _u_ (oo in book), with a very quickly following prolonged
_ae_ (_ai_ in fair); thus, _uae_, _uae_, _uae_, _uae_, were the first sounds
that may be approximately expressed. They were uttered after the lapse
of five months exactly as at the beginning, only more vigorously. All
the other vowel-sounds were at first undefined.

Notwithstanding this uniformity in the vowel-sounds, the sounds of the
voice are so varied, even within the first five weeks, that it may be
told with certainty from these alone whether the child feels hunger or
pain or pleasure. Screaming with the eyes firmly closed in hunger,
whimpering in slight indisposition, laughing at bright objects in
motion, the peculiar grunting sounds which at a later period are joined
with abdominal pressure and with lively arm-movements, as the
announcement of completed digestion and of wetness (retained for the
first of these states even into the seventeenth month), are manifold
acoustic expressions of vitality, and are to be looked upon as the first
forerunners of future ora