_Beginning of Syllables._—Some maintain that we cannot begin a syllable without a consonant, or at least an aspirate like what the Greeks wrote. Children seem to be exceptions as they leave out a difficult consonant and begin with a vowel—_that_ becomes _at_ as well as _tat_ but even in _at_ there exists the kind of aspirate contended for. In the Yao language syllables almost always begin with a consonant. Here arises an important principle of spelling. I should not like to decide whether we ought to write _Ya-o_ or _Ya-wo_. The natives themselves had no writing till we taught them, and on words like _Yao_, my best pupils were divided. Some pronounced and spelt _Yao_, others _Yawo_. I believe that the sound at first was _Yawo_, and etymology in many cases bears out my conclusion. But in course of time the original _Yawo_ may be rendered _Yao_, as an original h_onest_ has become _onest_. _End of Syllables._—It is not so easy to end a syllable with a consonant. The child’s earlier syllables end with vowels as _papa_. The difficulty of pulling up the voice at once is seen in the utterance of certain words like rock, especially by Scotchmen who often unconsciously pronounce as if the word were _rocka_. All Yao syllables end with a vowel. _Parts of Speech._—The language of childhood shows that man observes things before he observes the relations between them. Nouns and verbs come before the other parts of speech, but when first employed they are more like interjections. The imperative of the verb, which is as near to an interjection as may be, forms a large element in infantile speech: thus adjectives when first used are in effect imperatives or interjections. The expression _Doto dad_ (doctor bad) is synonymous with _Doto, go-way_ (doctor, go away). Whether nouns or verbs come first is hardly worth discussing, because it is misleading to apply the distinction of parts of speech at a stage where speech has no parts. But it may be noted that what we call nouns are used by the child like verbs: thus, _No tair_ (chair) means “Do not put me on the chair”. _The Meaning of Nouns._—Nouns at first denote individuals like _papa_, _mamma_. But the child by and by sums up in these words a great deal of meaning, and if he were placed in a world where he saw no white woman but his mother, the next female that appeared he would call mamma. So if the only animal he is acquainted with be a dog, he at first calls goats, sheep, or rabbits all dogs.