STUDIES OF CHILDHOOD. 435 



these combinations, probably have an influence in determining 

 what look like the capricious preferences of the child.* 



Such simplification of word-forms is soon opposed and largely- 

 counteracted by the growth of a feeling for the general form of 

 the word, including the degree of its syllabic complexity, as well 

 as the distribution of accent and the accompanying modulations 

 of tone or pitch. The child's first imitations of the sounds, e. g., 

 "all gone" by "a-a," or "a-ga," with rising and falling inflection, 

 illustrate the co-operation of this feeling. Hence we find, in gen- 

 eral, an attempt to reproduce the number of syllables with the 

 proper distribution of accent. Thus biscuit becomes " bitchic " ; 

 cellar, " sitto " ; umbrella, " nob^lla " ; elephant, " dtteno " or (by a 

 German child) "ewebdn"; kangaroo, "kdgglegoo"; hippopota- 

 mus, " ippen-potany " ; and so forth, f 



Along with the cutting down of the syllabic series there goes 

 from the first a considerable alteration of the single constituent 

 sounds. The vowel sounds are rarely omitted, yet they may be 

 greatly modified, and these modifications occur regularly enough 

 to suggest that the child finds certain nuances of vowel sounds 

 comparatively hard to reproduce. Thus the short d in hat and 

 the long i {ai) seem to be acquired only after considerable prac- 

 tice. Many of the consonantal sounds, as the sibilants s, sh, the 

 liquids I, r, the aspirates Ji, th, and others, as j and, in rare cases 

 at least, g, appear to cause difficulty at the beginning of the 

 speech period. Such sounds are frequently dropped, no other 

 sound being substituted, and this holds good especially when the 

 difficult sound is in combination with another which can be artic- 

 ulated. Thus in the early stages poor becomes "poo"; look, 

 "00k"; stair, "tair"; trocken (German), "tokko"; dance (sibi- 

 lant), "dan"; schlafen (German), "lafen." Along with these 

 omissions there go curious substitutions, presumably of easier 

 sounds, but not necessarily of sounds which strike our ear as sim- 

 ilar. Thus drum is changed into "gum," whereas by another 

 child gum is given as " dam " ; thread is given as " shad " ; trop 

 (French) as "crop"; pussie as "poofee"; sleepy as "feepy"; 

 Lampe (German) as " Bampe " ; bannisters as " bannicars." J 



These substitutions illustrate the growing feeling for sound- 



* Recent psychological experiments show that similar influences are at work when a 

 person attempts to repeat a long series of verbal sounds, say ten or twelve nonsense 

 syllables. 



+ Here again we see a similarity between a child's repetition of a name heard and an 

 adult's attempt to repeat a long series of syllabic sounds. In the latter case also there is a 

 general tendency to preserve the length and form of the whole. 



X It has been noted by Sir F. Pollock that sometimes a consonantal sound is introduced 

 where there was none in order to assist in the pronunciation of an initial vowel sound which 

 by itself would be difficult. 



