_ _h[)e]-[)e]!_ that even in the following months
often expresses desire, but often also is quite without meaning--more
seldom _hi_, _goe-goe_, _goe_, _f-pa_ (the _f_ for the first time),
_[(au]_, and more frequently _ta_, _dokkn_, _ta-ha_, _a-bwa-bwa_,
_b[)u][=a]-b[)u]-[=a]_, and, as if by accident, once among all sorts of
indefinable syllables, _dagon_. Further, the child--as was the case in
the previous month--likes to take a newspaper or a book in his hands and
hold the print before his face, babbling _ae-[)e]_, _ae-[)e]_, _ae-[)e]_,
evidently in imitation of the reading aloud which he has often observed.
By giving the command, "Read!" it was easy to get this performance
repeated. Besides this, it is a delight to the child to utter a
syllable--e. g., _bwa_ or _ma_--over and over, some six times in
succession, without stopping. As in the previous month, there are still
the whispered _attoe_ and _hattoe_, at the hiding of the face or of the
light, at the shutting of a fan, or the emptying of a soup-plate,
together with the _dakkn_, with the combinations of syllables made out
of _ta_, _pa_, _ma_, _na_, _at_, _ap_, _am_, _an_, and with _moemoe_. The
_papa_ and _mama_ do not, however, express an exclusive relation to the
parents. Only to the questions, "Where is papa?" "Where is mamma?" he
points toward them, raising his hand with the fingers spread. Pain is
announced by loud and prolonged screaming; joy by short, high-pitched,
piercing crowing, in which the vowel _i_ appears.
Of isolated vowels, _a_ only was correctly repeated on command. Of
syllables, besides those of the previous month, _moe_ and _ma_; and here
the child's excessive gayety over the success of the experiment is
worthy of remark. He made the discovery that his parrot-like repetition
was a fresh source of pleasure, yet he could not for several weeks
repeat again the doubled syllables, but kept to the simple ones, or
responded with all sorts of dissimilar ones, like _attob_, or said
nothing. The syllable _ma_ was very often given back as _hoema_ and
_hoemoe_; _pa_ was never given back, but, as had been the case
previously, only _ta_ and _tai_ were the responses, made with great
effort and attention, and the visible purpose of repeating correctly. To
the word "danke," pronounced for him with urgency innumerable times, the
response is _dakkn_, given regularly and promptly, and this in the
following months also. If all persuasion failed, and the child were t
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