llo_, innumerable times, then
_mama_, _mama_, _maemae_, _mama_.

The progress in the sound-mechanism is most plainly discerned in the
greater certainty in reproducing what is spoken. Thus, "pst" is
correctly given, and of reverse-syllabled words, very accurately,
"anna, otto, alla, appa, enne"; of unlike-syllabled words, "lina,"
but still, notwithstanding many trials, not yet "bitte." _For the
first time three-syllabled words also, plainly pronounced to him,
were correctly given back_, viz., _a-mama_ and _a-pa-pa_, as the
child names his grandparents. Hitherto the vowels _e_, _i_, _o_,
_u_, could not be correctly given every time, but "a" could be so
given as before. When the reproduction of any new word that is too
hard is requested--e. g., "gute Nacht"--the child at this period
regularly answers _tap[)e]ta_, _p[)e]ta_, _pta_, and _ptoe-ptoe_, also
_rateratetat_, expressing thereby not merely his inability, but
also, sometimes roguishly, his disinclination to repeat.

_Ja ja_ and _nein nein_, along with _da_ and _bibi_ (with or without
folding of the hands, for "bitte"), and _mimi_, continue still to be the
only words taken from the language of adults that are used by the child
in the proper sense when he desires or refuses anything. Apart from
these appear inarticulate sounds, uttered even with the mouth shut. The
intense cry of pain, or that produced by cold or wet or by grief at the
departure of the parents (this with the accompaniment of abundant tears
and the drawing of the corners of the mouth far down), makes the
strongest contrast with the crowing for joy, particularly that at
meeting again.

The twenty-third month brought at length _the first spoken judgment_.
The child was drinking milk, carrying the cup to his mouth with both
hands. The milk was too warm for him, and he set the cup down quickly
and said, loudly and decidedly, looking at me with eyes wide open and
with earnestness, _heiss_ (hot). This single word was to signify "The
drink is too hot!" In the same week, at the end of the ninety-ninth, the
child of his own accord went to the heated stove, took a position before
it, looked attentively at it, and suddenly said with decision, _hot_
(_heiss_)! Again, a whole proposition in a syllable. In the sixty-third
week for the first time the child had reproduced the word "hot"
pronounced to him. Eight and a half months were required for the step
from the imitative _hot_ to the independent _hot_ as expressi