—Mine did, I know—but still with heavier brains,
And wills more consciously responsible,
And not as wisely, since less foolishly.
Elizabeth Browning: Aurora Leigh, 10.
[24] This is not the place to speak of the way in which prevalent methods of teaching foreign languages can be improved. A slavish copying of the manner in which English children learn English is impracticable, and if it were practicable it would demand more time than anyone can devote to the purpose. One has to make the most of the advantages which the pupils possess over babies, thus, their being able to read, their power of more sustained attention, etc. Phonetic explanation of the new sounds and phonetic transcription have done wonders to overcome difficulties of pronunciation. But in other respects it is possible to some extent to assimilate the teaching of a foreign language to the method pursued by the child in its first years: one should not merely sprinkle the pupil, but plunge him right down into the sea of language and enable him to swim by himself as soon as possible, relying on the fact that a great deal will arrange itself in the brain without the inculcation of too many special rules and explanations. For details I may refer to my book, How to Teach a Foreign Language (London, George Allen and Unwin).
[25] Hence, also, the second or third child in a family will, as a rule, learn to speak more rapidly than the eldest.
[26] I translate this from Ido, see The International Language, May 1912.
[27] I have collected a bibliographical list of such ‘secret languages’ in Nord. Tidsskrift f. Filologi, 4r. vol. 5.
[28] I subjoin a few additional examples. Basque aita ‘father,’ ama ‘mother,’ anaya ‘brother’ (Zeitsch. f. rom. Phil. 17, 146). Manchu ama ‘father,’ eme ‘mother’ (the vowel relation as in haha ‘man,’ hehe ‘woman,’ Gabelentz, S 389). Kutenai pa· ‘brother’s daughter,’ papa ‘grandmother (said by male), grandfather, grandson,’ pat! ‘nephew,’ ma ‘mother,’ nana ‘younger sister’ (of girl), alnana ‘sisters,’ tite ‘mother-in-law,’ titu ‘father’ (of male)—(Boas, Kutenai Tales, Bureau of Am. Ethnol. 59, 1918). Cf. also Sapir, “Kinship Terms of the Kootenay Indians” (Amer. Anthropologist, vol. 20). In the same writer’s Yana Terms of Relationship (Univ. of California, 1918) there seems to be very little from this source.
[29] Tata is also used for ‘a walk’ (to go out for a ta-ta, or to go out ta-tas) and for ‘a hat’—meanings that may very well have developed from the child’s saying these syllables when going out or preparing to go out.