The following sentence consisting of five words is particularly characteristic of this period, because it exhibits the first attempt to relate a personal experience. The child dropped his milk-cup and related mimi atta teppa papa oï, which meant "Milch fort [auf den] Teppich, Papa [sagte] pfui." (Milk gone [on] carpet, Papa [said] "Fie!") The words adopted by the child have often a very different meaning from that which they have in the language of adults, being not entirely misunderstood but peculiarly interpreted by the imitator. Thus, pronouns, which are not for a long time yet understood in their true sense, signify objects themselves or their qualities. Dein bett means "the large bed."

In the twenty-sixth month a large picture-book, with good colored pictures, was shown to the child by me every day. Then he himself would point out the separate objects represented, and those unknown to him were named to him, and then the words were repeated by him. Thus were obtained the following results:

Said to him.His imitation.
Blasebalg (bellows),ba-a-bats, blasabalitz.
Saugflasche (nursing-bottle),augflaze.
Kanone (cannon),nanone.
Koffer (trunk),towwer, toffer, pfoffa, poffa, toff-wa.
Fuchs (fox),fuhts.
Kaffeekanne (coffee-urn),taffeetanne, pfafee-tanne.
Frosch (frog),frotz.
Klingel (bell)linli (learned as ingeling and linlin).
Besen (broom),bēsann, beedsen, beedsenn
Stiefel (boot),tiefel, stibbell, tihbell, tibl.
Nest (nest),netz.
Storch (stork),toich.
Giesskanne (watering-pot),tietstanne, ihtstanne, ziesstanne.
Fisch (fish),fiz.
Zuckerhut (sugar-loaf),ukkahut.
Vogel (bird),wodal.
Kuchen (cake),tuche, tuchēn (hitherto kuha).
Licht (light),lihts, lits.
Schlitten (sled),lita, litta.
Tisch (table),tiss.
Nuss (nut),nuhuss, nuss.
Kaffeetopf (coffee-pot),poffee-topf.
Hund (dog),und.
Brief (letter),dief.
Elephant,elafant.
Fledermaus (bat),fleedermauz.
Kamm (comb),damm, lamm, namm.
Schwalbe (swallow),baubee.
Staar (starling),tahr.

Of his own accord the child pointed out with certainty in the picture-book—

häm, hä-em, hemmforHelm (helmet).
hörz"Hirsch (stag).
tawell"Tafel (table).
lompee, lampḗ"Lampe (lamp).
lotz"Schloss (castle).
benne"Birne (pear).
torb"Korb (basket).
onne-erm"Sonnenschirm (parasol).
flatse"Flasche (bottle).
wetsa"Zwetschen (plums).
clawelier"Clavier (piano).
littl, litzl, lützl"Schlüssel (key).
löwee"löwe (lion).
ofa"Ofen (stove)
ūă"Uhr (watch).
tint, kint"Kind (child).
naninchä"Kaninchen (rabbit).
manne"Pfanne (pan).
tomml, tromml"Trommel (drum).
tuhl"Stuhl (chair).

With these words, the meaning of which the child knows well, though he does not yet pronounce them perfectly, are to be ranked many more which have not been taught him, but which he has himself appropriated Thus, tola for Kohlen (coals), dals for Salz (salt). Other words spontaneously appropriated are, however, already pronounced correctly and correctly used, as Papier (paper), Holz (wood), Hut (hat), Wagen (carriage), Teppich (carpet), Deckel (cover), Milch, Teller (often tellĕ, Frau, Mann, Mäuse. These cases form the minority, and are striking in the midst of the manifold mutilations which now constitute the child's speech. Of these mutilations some are, even to his nearest relatives who are in company with the child every day, unintelligible or only with great pains to be unriddled. Thus, the child calls himself Attall instead of Axel; says also rräus Atsl for "heraus Axel," i. e., "Axel wants to go out." He still says bita for "bitte," and often mima or mami for Marie; apf for "Apfel." The numerous mutilations of the words the child undertakes to speak are not all to be traced to defect of articulation. The "sch" is already perfectly developed in Handschuh; and yet in other words, as appears from the above examples, it is either simply left out or has its place supplied by z and ss. Further, it sounds almost like wantonness when frequently the surd consonant is put in place of the sonant one or vice versa; when, e. g., puch (for Buch) pücherr is said on the one hand, and wort instead of "fort" on the other. Here belongs likewise the peculiar staccato manner of uttering the syllables, e. g., pil-ter-puch (Bilder-buch—picture-book). At other times is heard a hasty billerbuch or pillerpuch.

The babbling monologues have become infrequent and more of a play with words and the syllables of them, e. g., in the frequently repeated papa-ŭ-á-ŭa.

On the other hand, independent thoughts expressed by words are more and more multiplied. Here is an example: The child had been extraordinarily pleased by the Christmas-tree. The candles on it had been lighted for three evenings. On the third evening, when only one of its many lights was burning, the child could not leave it, but kept taking a position before it and saying with earnest tone, gunná-itz-boum, i. e., "Gute nacht, Christbaum!" The most of his sentences still consist of two words, one of which is often a verb in the infinitive. Thus, helle mama, helle mami, i. e., "helfen (help) Mama, Marie!" and bibak tommen, i. e., "der Zwieback soll kommen" (let the biscuit come); or tsee machen (make c)—on the piano the keys c, d, e, had often been touched separately by the little fingers accidentally, and the applause when in response to the question, "Where is c?" the right key was touched, excited the wish for repetition; roth, drün machen (make red or green)—the child was instructed by me in the naming of colors; and dekkn pilen, i. e., "Verstecken spielen" (play hide and seek). In quite short narratives, too, the verbs appear in the infinitive only. Such accounts of every-day occurrences—important to the child, however, through their novelty—are in general falling into the background as compared with the expression of his wishes in words as in the last-mentioned cases. Both kinds of initiatory attempts at speaking testify more and more plainly to awakening intellect, for, in order to use a noun together with a verb in such a way as to correspond to a wish or to a fact experienced, there must be added to the imitation of words heard and to the memory of them something which adapts the sense of them to the outward experiences at the time and the peculiar circumstances, and associates them with one another. This something is the intellect. In proportion as it grows, the capacity for being taught tricks decreases and the child is already ashamed to answer by means of his former gestures the old questions, "Where is the little rogue?" "How tall?" etc.

But how far from the intellect of the older child is that of the child now two years and two months old appears from this fact, that the latter has not the remotest notion of number. He repeats mechanically, many times over, the words said for him, one, two, three, four, five; but when objects of the same sort are put before him in groups, he confounds all the numbers with one another in spite of countless attempts to bring the number 2 into firm connection with the sound two, etc. Nor does he as yet understand the meaning of the frequently repeated "danke" (thanks), for, when the child has poured out milk for himself, he puts down the pitcher and says dankee.