re probably the first attempts to
reproduce the child's own name (Axel Preyer) from memory. Of earlier
sounds, syllables, and combinations of these, the following are
especially frequent: _Mammam_, _apapa_, _oerroe_, _papa_, _tata_,
_tatta_, _n[(aa]_, _rrra_, _pata_, _mmm_, _n[)a]_, _[=a]_, _ae_,
_[(au]_, _anna_, _attapa_, _dadada_, _ja_, _ja-ja_, _eja_, _jae_.
The last syllables are distinguished by the distinct _e_, which is
now more frequent.

All the pains taken to represent a babbling monologue perfectly by
letters were fruitless, because these distinct and oft-repeated
syllables alternated with indistinct loud and soft ones. Still, on the
whole, of the consonants the most frequent at this period are _b_, _p_,
_t_, _d_, _m_, _n_, and the new _r_; _l_, _g_, _k_, not rare. Of vowels
the _a_ has a decided preponderance. Both _u_ and _o_ are rare; _i_ very
rare. Yet a vowel is not repeated, either by itself or in a syllable,
more than five times in succession without an interval. Commonly it is
twice or three times. I have also noticed that the mechanical repetition
of the same syllable, e. g., _papapa_, occurs far more often than the
alternation of a distinctly spoken syllable with, another distinctly
spoken one, like _pata_. In the mean time it is certain that the child
during his various movements of lips and tongue, along with contraction
and expansion of the opening of the mouth, readily starts with surprise
when he notices such a change of acoustic effect. It seems as if he were
himself taking pleasure in practicing regularly all sorts of symmetrical
and asymmetrical positions of the mouth, sometimes in silence, sometimes
with loud voice, then again with soft voice. In the combinations of
syllables, moreover, palpable accentuation somewhat like this, _appapapa
atatata_, is by no means frequent. The surprisingly often repeated
_dadada_ has generally no accent.

With regard to the question whether in this period, especially important
for the development of the apparatus of speech, any articulate utterance
of sound stands in firm association with an idea, I have observed the
child under the most varied circumstances possible without disturbing
him; but I have ascertained only one such case with certainty. The
_atta_, _hoedda_, _hatta_, _hatai_, showed itself to be associated with
the perception that something disappeared, for it was uttered when some
one left the room, when the light was extinguished, and the like;