_article_. However often this part of speech
may have been reproduced from the speech of others, it has never been
said with understanding; but now in the expressions _um'n Hals_ and
_fuer'm Axel_ (around the neck and for (the) Axel) there lies the
beginning of right use of the article, and, indeed, also in the months
immediately succeeding, almost solely of the definite article.

But more significant psychogenetically than all progress of this kind in
the manipulation of language is the questioning that becomes active in
this month. Although I paid special attention to this point from the
beginning, I first heard the child ask a question of his own accord on
the eight hundred and forty-fifth day of his life. He asked, "Where is
Mima?" From that time on questions were more frequent; but in the time
immediately following this his question was always one relating to
something in space. The word "Where?" continued for a long time to be
his only interrogative. He has also for a long time understood the
"Where?" when he heard it. If, e. g., I asked, "Where is the nose?"
without giving any hint by look or otherwise, this question has for
months past been correctly answered by a movement of the child's arm to
his nose. It is true that my question, "What is that?" a much more
frequent one, is likewise answered correctly, although the word "What?"
has never been used by the child.

His cleverness in reproducing even foreign expressions is surprising.
The words pronounced for him by Italians (during a pretty long sojourn
on Lake Garda), e. g., _uno_, _due_, _tre_, are given back without the
least German accent. "Quattro," to be sure, became _wattro_, but _ancora
piccolo_ was absolutely pure. The imitation of the marching of soldiers,
with the frequent cry _batelon eins s[)u]ai_ (battalion, one, two),
already gives him the greatest pleasure. The imagination that is active
in it is to be discerned, however, rather in gestures than in words.
How lively the child's power of imagination is appears also in the fact
that flat figures rudely cut out of newspaper, to represent glasses and
cups, are carried to the mouth like real ones.

The _articulation_ has again become a little more perfected, but in many
respects it is still a good deal deficient; thus, in regard to the
"sch," he says:

_abneiden_ for abschneiden (cut off).
_hirn_ " Stirn (forehead).
_verbrochen_ " versprochen (promised).