ord, all
fail. In place of _tatta_ he says, in the most favorable instance,
_tae_ or _ata_; but even here there is progress, for in the previous
month even these hints at _imitating_ or even responding to sound
were almost entirely lacking.
In the eleventh month some syllables emphatically pronounced to the
child were for the first time correctly repeated. I said "ada" several
times, and the attentive child, after some ineffectual movements of the
lips, repeated correctly _ada_, which he had for that matter often said
of his own accord long before. But this single repetition was so decided
that I was convinced that the _sound-imitation_ was intentional. It was
the first _unquestionable_ sound-imitation. It took place on the three
hundred and twenty-ninth day. The same day when I said "mamma," the
response was _nanna_. In general, it often happens, when something is
said for imitation, and the child observes attentively my lips, that
evident attempts are made at imitation; but for the most part something
different makes its appearance, or else a silent movement of the lips.
In the forty-fifth week everything said to the child, in case it
received his attention, was responded to with movements of lips and
tongue, which gave the impression of being made at random and of serving
rather for diversion.
Further, at this period the child begins during his long monologues to
_whisper_. He produces sounds in abundance, varying in force, pitch, and
_timbre_, as if he were speaking an unknown tongue; and some single
syllables may gradually be more easily distinguished, although the
corresponding positions of the mouth pass into one another, sometimes
quite gradually, sometimes rapidly. The following special cases I was
able to establish by means of numerous observations:
In crying _rrra_, there is a vibration on both sides of the edges of the
tongue, which is bent to a half-cylinder with the ridge upward. In this
way the child produces three kinds of _r_-sounds--the labial, the
uvular, and this bilateral-lingual.
New syllables of this period are _ta-h[(ee]_, _dann-tee_,
_[(aa]-n[(ee]_, _ngae_, _tai_, _bae_, _dall_, _at-tall_, _kamm_,
_akkee_, _prai-jer_, _tra_, _[=a]-h[(ee]_. Among them _tra_ and
_pra_ are noteworthy as the first combination of _t_ and _p_ with
_r_. The surprising combinations _attall_ and _akkee_ and _praijer_,
which made their appearance singly without any occasion that could
be noticed, like others, a
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