THE DEVELOPMENT OF LANGUAGE. 113 



science. The clulcManguage to which it refers is that of his own 

 nephew. What is sj^ecially remarkable is that the novel words and 

 forms were not employed in converse with another child, but were 

 the spontaneous products of the child's own linguistic faculty. That 

 this faculty should be particularly strong in a grandson of Dr. Hans 

 Conon von der Gabelentz, and a nephew of Dr. George von der 

 Gabelentz, will surprise no one. I give the particulars precisely as 

 they have been furnished to me by Professor von der Gabelentz, and 

 in his own happily worded English : 



" My brother Albert's eUlest son George, before he had learned his 

 mother-tongue, called things by names of his own invention. In 

 these names the constant elements were the consonants, while the 

 vowels, according as they were deeper or higher, denoted the great- 

 ness or smallness. For instance, his term for ordinary chairs was 

 " lakail" apparently quite a self-made word. Now, he would call a 

 great arm-chair " lukull," and a little doll's chair "■ likill." The root 

 for round objects was m — m. He called a watch or a plate " 7nem," 

 but a large dish, or a round table " mum ; " the moon was likewise 

 " mem," but when he first saw the stars, he said " mini — miui — mim 

 — mim." His father and, at first, every grown-up male person, was 

 called j^apa, till he learned" to distinguish between Papa and Gross- 

 papa {o-pcqxoj and henceforth called all other gentlemen o-papa. Now, 

 I am a head taller than was my father. So, one day, when seeing 

 my father and me together, baby called the former '• o-papa" and me 

 " u-pupu." One day in winter he saw his father in a large fur cloak 

 and with his hit on. This impression he uttered with the word 

 " pujni," meaning a very big })apa. The boy soon gave up his idio- 

 glottic endeavors, learning German before his next-born sister had 

 reached the age of beginning speech. So that language could have no 

 farther grammatical development." 



In this most interesting case, we see clearly how the Semitic 

 system of inflection, with internal vowel changes, may have originated. 

 If this highly gifted child had been left with an ecpially intelligent 

 girl, to grow up by themselves, after the death of their parents, in 

 some sheltered or fruitful nook or oasis of Arabia, Oregon, Brazil, or 

 Central Africa, can we doubt that they would, by the time they had 

 reached maturity, have framed for themselves and their postei'ity a 



