The following is a proof of independent thinking while the understanding of language is still imperfect: At breakfast I say, "Axel is breakfasting with papa, is he not (nicht wahr)?" He replies earnestly, with genuine child-logic, doch wahr (but he is)!
The earlier appellation swer and wer (schwer—heavy) for müde (tired) is preserved. This transference, like the other one, locotiwe wassa trinkt, when the engine is supplied with water, is the intellectual peculium of the child. The number of such childish conceptions has now become very large. On the other hand, the words independently formed out of what has been heard are not numerous:
| beisst | for | gebissen (bitten), | wesen | for | gewesen (been), |
| reit | " | geritten (ridden), | austrinkt | " | ausgetrunken (drunk up), |
| esst | " | gegessen (eaten), | tschulter | " | Schulter (shoulder), |
must be considered as mutilations, not as new formations. The great number of words correctly pronounced and used continues, on the other hand, to increase. There are even decided attempts to use single prepositions: Nepfe (Knöpfe) für Mama (buttons for mamma) may be simple repetition, like Axel mit Papa; but as utterances of this kind were not formerly repeated by him, though just as often made in his hearing, the understanding of the "für" and "mit" must now be awakened. >From this time forth the understanding of several prepositions and the correct use of them abide. In addition there come into this period the first applications of the 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 für'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 batelón eins sŭai (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). |
| lagn | " | schlagen (strike). |
| runtergeluckt | " | heruntergeschluckt (swallowed). |
| einteign | " | einsteigen (get in). |
| On the other hand, aus-teign (Aussteigen) (alight). |
Other defects of articulation are shown by the following examples: