Translations:Victor of Aveyron/78/en

The word lait has served Victor as the root of two other monosyllables, la and li, to which he attaches certainly still less meaning; he has since a little modified the last, by adding to it a second /, pronouncing both together like the gli of the Italian language. We frequently hear him repeat lli, Hi, with an inflection of the voice that is not altogether destitute of melody. It is astonishing that the liquid /, which, with children in general, is one of the most difficult sounds to articulate, is yet one of the first that he hath distinctly pronounced. I should not, perhaps, be far from the truth in believing, that this remarkable circumstance arises from a kind of inclination that he feels for the name of Julia, a young lady between eleven and twelve years of age, who has lately been passing some weeks with Madame Guerin,lier mother. It is certain at least that, since, the exclamations Hi, lii, have become more frequent, and, according to the report of his governance, are heard even during the night, at those moments when there is reason to believe that he is in a profound sleep, it is impossible accurately to ascertain the cause, and the precise nature and importance of this last fact; we must wait till more advanced puberty hath furnished us with a greater number of observations. I lie last acquisition of the organ of his voice is a little more consideration and consists of two syllables, which, m tact, are well worth three, in consequence of how he pronounces the last; it is the exclamation, Oh Dieu! which he has learned from Madame Guerin; he frequently permits it to escape him in his occasional fits of excessive joy: in pronouncing it, lie suppresses the u of the word Dieu, and dwells on the i, as if it were doubled, so that he may be heard distinctly to cry out, Oh Diie! Oh Diie! the o in this last combination of sound was not new to him, as I had some time before succeeded in enabling him to pronounce it. Let us now see, so far as the organ of voice is concerned, the exact point at which we have arrived. We may observe, that all the vowels, except the u, already enter into the small number of the sounds which he articulates, and that there are only three consonants among them, viz. /, d, and l liquid. This progress is, no doubt, very small if it is compared to that degree of advancement which is necessary to the complete development of the human voice; but it has appeared to me sufficient to demonstrate the possibility of this development. I have spoken above of the causes which must necessarily render it a long and difficult process; there is still another which will likewise contribute to retard his improvement in articulate utterance, which I ought not to pass over in silence. I allude to the facility which our young savage shows in expressing in other ways, then by speech, the small number of his wants*: all his wishes are expressed by the most unequivocal signs, which, in a certain sense, have, i'. s observations afford additional confirmation to the important opinion of Condillac, who obscure:, in speaking of the origin of the language of sounds, the language of action, then so natural, was a great obstacle to be surmounted. Was it likely that this should be abandoned for another, the advantages of which could not be foreseen, and all difficulty of which was so strongly felt? like ours, their gradations and synonyms. When the hour for walking arrived, lie presents himself repeatedly before the window and the door of his chamber. If he then perceives that his governance is not ready, he lays before her, in order, all the articles necessary to her toilet, and often, in his impatience, he even sets about assisting to dress her. This done, he goes down the stairs first, and himself takes hold of the latch of the door. When arrived at the observatory, the first thing is to ask for some milk; this he does by presenting a wooden bowl, which he never forgets, on going away, to put into his pocket; with this, he first provided himself, the day after having broken, in the same house, a china cup, which used to answer the same purpose.