OKLAHOMA ACADEMY OF SCIENCE 109 



ularies of two year old children range as high as 1227 vvrords, (2) 

 the average of 29 cases being 440 words. 



At 3 years this child had aljout 49 words (it is difficult to know 

 sometimes just what to call a "word" in her vocabulary) ; the 

 smallest published vocabulary of this age contained 681 words (7) 

 and the largest 2,055 (1); the average of 11 being 1338.. (4) Her 

 vocabulary will be summarized here : 



NOUNS, 26— Mamma; Dadda ; Ma (Grandma); Baba ; Cug- 

 gan (both sisters); er-er (fingers); er-er (toes); cocoa; nana 

 (banana); baba (doll); coal; choochoo (any vehicle); choochoo 

 (bed) ; boo (rifle) ; bah (sheep) ; cock-co (all fowls) ; coo-coo. 

 (pigeon) ; da (deer) ; er-er (pig) ; ho' (horse) ; hoo-hoo (owl) ; 

 mnow (cat) ; moo-moo (cow) ; oor (bear, lion, wolf, fox, tiger) ; 

 wawa (dog) ; ban (thing). 



VERBS, 6— Ah-ah (cry) ; da (don't) ; er-her (I can't say) ; 

 hurt; va (like); v/noa (stop). 



Pronoun, 1 — Ah (I, me, my, mine). 



Adjectives, S — Co' (black, dirty, from coal) ; da (dear) ; ker 

 (cold, hence bare) ; va (good) ; va (other). 



Adverbs, 5 — Er (yes) ; ha (vv^here) ; ker or ker-her (here) ; na 

 (no) ; uu (not). 



Prepositions, 2 — Ker (near, by, with, to) ; on (meant also off, 

 from). 



Interjections, 3 — Boo-ba (goodbye); hello; oh. 



There v/ere many essential words that this child did not use 

 at all; she had nothing for water or drink, no word for any 

 ordinary article of food, no name for her cousins, uncles or aunts, 

 r.o generic word relating to people but "baba," not a single v/ord 

 for any article of clothing, only one household object, — bed — and 

 that called by the all incllisive term of "choo-choo," nothing for 

 bird, rabbit, ball, black, gone, see, etc. 



A few samples will give a clearer idea of what her speech at 3 

 years of age v/as like. 



"Va baba va" — Other baby all right. 



"Er-er ker" — (Their) feet (literally "piggies") (were) bare. 



"Wav.^a un ker mamma, wawa ker ah" — Dog (is) not by mamma, 

 dog (is) by me. 



"Mam.ma on choo-choo, baba ah-ah" — (If) mamma (goes) in 

 automobile, baby (v/ill) cry. 



As will be seen she was talking what amounted practically to 

 a foreign tongue ; no one spoke to her in her language and almost 

 no one understood her. Yet she got along very well indeed, she 

 was a favorite with her cousins and a leader among her small 



