One more remark is to be made about the names of animals. These names are multiplying in this period, which is an important one in regard to the genesis of mind. Ask, "What is the animal called?" and the answer runs, mumu, kikeriki, bauwau, piep-piep, and others. No trace of onomatopoetic attempts can be discovered here. The child has received the names pronounced to him by his nurse and has retained them; just so hotto for "Pferd" (horse), like lingeling for "Klingel" (bell). None the less every healthy child has a strong inclination to onomatopeia. The cases already reported prove the fact satisfactorily. The echolalia that still appears now and then really belongs to this. Inasmuch as in general in every onomatopoetic attempt we have to do with a sound-imitation or the reproducing of the oscillations of the tympanum as nearly as possible by means of the vocal cords, all attempts of the speechless child to speak are ultimately of onomatopoetic character in the earliest period; but from the present time on sound-imitation retires before the reasoning activity, which is now shooting forth vigorously in the childish brain.
In the twenty-seventh month the activity of thought manifests itself already in various ways. The independent ideas, indeed, move in a narrowly limited sphere, but their increasing number testifies to the development of the intellect. Some examples may be given:
The child sees a tall tree felled, and he says as it lies upon the ground, pick up! Seeing a hole in a dressing-gown, he says, näĕn (sew)! In his play he sometimes says to himself, dib acht (take care)! To the question, "Did it taste good?" the child answers while still eating, mekk noch (schmeckt noch), "It does taste good," thus distinguishing the past in the question from the present. The development of observation and comparison is indicated by the circumstance that salt is also called sand. On the other hand, the feeling of gratitude is as yet quite undeveloped. The child, as in the previous month, says dankee to himself when, e. g., he has opened his wardrobe-door alone. The word is thus as yet unintelligible to him, or it is used in the sense of "so" or "succeeded." His frequent expressions of pity are striking. When dolls are cut out of paper, the child weeps violently in the most pitiful manner, for fear that in the cutting a head (Topf) may be taken off. This behavior calls to mind the cries of arme wiebak (armer Zwieback—poor biscuit)! when a biscuit is divided, and arme holz (poor wood)! when a stick of wood is thrown into the stove. Nobody has taught the child anything of that sort.
The independent observations which he expresses correctly but very briefly in a form akin to the style of the telegraphic dispatch are now numerous, e. g.:
Tain milch: There is no milk here.
Lammee aus, lampee aus: The flame, the lamp, is gone out.
Dass la-okk: That is the dressing-gown (Schlafrock).
Diss nicht la-okk: This is not the dressing-gown.
His wishes the child expresses by means of verbs in the infinitive or of substantives alone. Thus, papa auf-tehen (papa, get up), frü-tükken (breakfast), aus-taigen (get out), nicht blasen (not blow—in building card-houses), pieldose aufziehn (wind up the music-box), and biback (I should like a biscuit). Into these sentences of one, two, and three words there come, however, single adverbs not before used and indefinite pronouns, like ēēn and ĕ in tann ēēn nicht or tannĕ nicht, for "kann er nicht" or "kann es nicht." Butter drauf (butter on it), Mama auch tommen (mamma come, too), noch mehr (more), blos Wasser (only water), hier (here), are the child's own imperatives. Schon wieder (again) he does indeed say of his own accord on fitting occasions; but here he is probably repeating mechanically what he has heard. In all, the forming of a word that had not been heard as such, or that had not come from what had been heard through mutilation, has been surely proved in only a single instance. The child, viz., expressed the wish (on his seven hundred and ninety-sixth day) to have an apple pared or cut up, by means of the word messen. He knows a knife (Messer) and names it rightly, and while he works at the apple with a fork or a spoon or anything he can get hold of, or merely points at it with his hand, he says repeatedly messen! Only after instruction did he say Messer neiden (mit dem Messer schneiden—cut with the knife). Here for the first time a wholly new word is formed. The concept and the word "knife" ("Messer") and the concept, "work with the knife," were present, but the word "schneiden" (cut) for the last was wanting, as also was "schälen" (pare). Hence, both in one were named messen (for "messern," it may be). The two expressions that used to be heard many times daily, the name wolà for the nurse Mima (Mary) and atta, have now almost disappeared. Atta wesen for "draussen gewesen" (been out) is still used, it is true, but only seldom. In place of it come now weg, fort, aus, and allall, in the sense of "empty," "finished." The too comprehensive, too indefinite concept atta has broken up into more limited and more definite ones. It has become, as it were, differentiated, as in the embryo the separate tissues are differentiated out of the previously apparently homogeneous tissue.
In the period of rapid development now attained, the child daily surprises us afresh by his independent applications of words just heard, although many are not correctly applied, as tochen haiss (boiling hot), said not only of the milk, but also of the fire.