Many expressions accidentally heard by the child that excited the merriment of the family when once repeated by him, were rehearsed times without number in a laughing, roguish, obtrusive manner, thus, du liebe Zeit. The child also calls out the name of his nurse, Marie, often without meaning, over and over again, even in the night. He calls others also by this name in manifest distraction of mind, often making the correction himself when he perceives the mistake.
More and more seldom does the child speak of himself in the third person, and then he calls himself by his name, never saying "he" any more. Usually he speaks of himself as "I," especially "I will, I will have that, I can not." Gradually, too, he uses Du in address, e. g., Was für hübsen Rock hast Du (What a handsome coat you have)! Here the manner of using the "Was" is also new.
On the ten hundred and twenty-eighth day warum (why?) was first used in a question. I was watching with the closest attention for the first appearance of this word. The sentence ran, Warum nach Hause gehen? ich will nicht nach Hause (Why go home? I don't want to go home). When a wheel creaked on the carriage, the child asked, Was macht nur so (What makes that)? Both questions show that at last the instinct of causality, which manifested itself more than a year before in a kind of activity of inquiry, in experimenting, and even earlier (in the twelfth week) in giving attention to things, is expressed in language; but the questioning is often repeated in a senseless way till it reaches the point of weariness. Warum wird das Holz gesnitten? (for "gesägt"—Why is the wood sawed?) Warum macht der Frödrich die [Blumen] Töpfe rein? (Why does Frederick clean the flower-pots?) are examples of childish questions, which when they receive an answer, and indeed whatever answer, are followed by fresh questions just as idle (from the standpoint of adults); but they testify plainly to a far-reaching independent activity of thought. So with the frequent question, Wie macht man das nur? (How is that done?)
It is to be said, further, that I found the endeavor impracticable to ascertain the order of succession in which the child uses the different interrogative words. It depends wholly on the company about him at what time first this or that turn of expression or question is repeated and then used independently. "Why" is heard by him, as a rule, less often than "What?" and "How?" and "Which?" Still, it seems remarkable that I did not once hear the child say "When?" until the close of the third year. The sense of space is, to be sure, but little developed at that time, but the sense of time still less. The use of the word "forgotten" (ich habe vergessen) and of "I shall" (do this or that) is exceedingly rare.
The articulation was speedily perfected; yet there was no success at all in the repetition of French nasal sounds. In spite of much pains "salon" remained salo, "orange" orose; and the French "je" also presented insuperable difficulties. Of German sounds, "sch" alone was seldom correct. It was still represented by s; for example, in sloss for "Schloss," ssooss for "Schooss."
His fondness for singing increases, and indeed all sorts of meaningless syllables are repeated with pleasure again and again, much as in the period of infancy, only more distinctly; but, just as at that time, they can not all be represented on paper or even be correctly reproduced by adults. For a considerable time he was fond of ē-la, ē-la, la, la, la, la, in higher and higher pitch, and with unequal intervals, lálla-lálla, lilalula. In this it was certainly more the joy over the increasing compass and power of his voice that stimulated him to repetition than it was the sound of the syllables; yet in the thirty-sixth month he showed great pleasure in his singing, of which peculiar, though not very pleasing, melodies were characteristic. The singing over of songs sung to him was but very imperfectly successful. On the other hand, the copying of the manner of speaking, of accent, cadence, and ring of the voices of adults was surprising, although echolalia proper almost ceased or appeared again only from time to time.
Grammatical errors are already becoming more rare. A stubborn fault in declension is the putting of am in place of dem and der, e. g., das am Mama geben. Long sentences are formed correctly, but slowly and with pauses, without errors, e. g., die Blume—ist ganz durstig—möcht auch n bischen Wasser haben (The flower is quite thirsty—would like a little water). If I ask now, "From whom have you learned that?" the answer comes regularly, das hab ich alleine gelernt (I learned it alone). In general the child wants to manage for himself without assistance, to pull, push, mount, climb, water flowers, crying out repeatedly and passionately, ich möcht ganz alleine (I want to [do it] all alone). In spite of this independence and these ambitious inclinations, there seldom appears an invention of his own in language. Here belongs, e. g., the remark of the child, das Bett ist zu holzhart (the bed is too wooden-hard), after having hit himself against the bed-post. Further, to the question, "Do you like to sleep in the large room?" he answered, O ja ganz lieberich gern; and when I asked, "Who, pray, speaks so?" the answer came very slowly, with deliberation and with pauses, nicht-nicht-nicht-nicht-nicht-niemand (not—nobody).
How far advanced is the use of the participles, which are hard to master, is shown by the sentence, die Milch ist schon heiss gemacht worden (the milk has already been made hot).
The child's manner of speaking when he was three years old approximated more and more rapidly to that of the family through continued listening to them and imitation of them, so that I gave up recording it; besides, the abundant—some may think too abundant—material already presented supplies facts enough to support the foundations of the history of the development of speech in the child as I have attempted to set it forth. A systematic, thorough-going investigation requires the combined labor of many, who must all strive to answer the same questions—questions which in this chronological survey are, in regard to one single individual, in part answered, but in part could merely be proposed.
To observe the child every day during the first thousand days of his life, in order to trace the historical development of speech, was possible only through self-control, much patience, and great expenditure of time; but such observations are necessary, from the physiological, the psychological, the linguistic, and the pedagogic point of view, and nothing can supply their place.