The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1890-02-07
. voLAPUx OF HER OWN.
o New Language Invented by a
l-0 Queer Baby.
From the Ne50 York World.

" -i.e5 If he were IN the flesh and were to
,,.,an 10 the remarkable story of little Min
'Tsnfmann. BY her new vocabulary
= lanuk is distanced in the race Oh tongues.
aTo,.er Of Babel produced nothing like
g-year-old girl, petite, blue-eyed,
i ,--n-hsired and well endowed mentally
augI -,bvsically. has developed into philo-
io-icsl phenomenon.
iiI;rnia resides with her father, Henry
--I4-fr1ann the owner of a dairy farm at
hau-. Washington county, in the western
DDs u.5 Of Pennsylvania. The stories co1-
ling her singular linguistic peculiaritleS,
Itch led gentlemen with taste for philo-
va research to investigate her case,
Iags located about for some time, but it re-
nl.ainad for MIR. Park Walkers to bring to
iL~1+ in an evening newspaper the interest
~ details Minnie's father and mother
- Inc from Germany fifteen years ago.
Thav are intelligent, thrifty people. de-
- m the girl, but they cannot under
- score of the artlcuate sounds she
s,ters 10 express her wants and ideas.
Minnie talks quite fluentlY when some
ching strikes her fancy, but her father and
mother are as much at sea as If she con-
-orcaj in Chinese She can understand
.rarvtbing said to her, whether the words
ara conveyed IN the English or German
Ianouage. and this is not the least wonder
t,l nart of the case, inasmuch as her memory
.esns not only to be unimpaired but rather
better than that of the average child of her
ege Therefore, her retentive faculties
hing good and her vocal organs sound, it
seems almost incredible that she should be
unable to at least partly acquire the Ian
guage Of her parents, always spoken in her
hearing.
aud ic har
sister Elizabeth, who seemingly understands
the meaning of every WORD in the child's
strange vocabulary. The reason of this
probaby is that there exists between the
Two girls friendship which is as uncom-
mon and peculiar as the language one of
them speaks. They eat, play and sleep to-
gether almost like one being. The only
time they are apart is during the hours the
older girl spends at school, and it
took long while to get them used
to this short separation, especially
and is always mOrose and downCast while
her sister is away. Taking all this into
consideration, one would thiuk that little
Minnie, by this time, had impaired TO her
sister the ability to talk as we'll as under
stand her peculiar language But this is
not tie case. Though able to grasp the
meaning of each word uttered by her at
once and translate it into English or Ger
nam, Elizabeth cannot speak more than a
dozen of them. Minnie can pronounce all
toe letters of the English alphabet except
F. K. Q, and w, as well as could be desired.
The letter 'F, " she pronounces $50" *,
"Kaa' which is the German pronuncia-
ton; 30" she cannot sound at all, and the
letter CIV" she speaks like "Waah."
The child is very shy in the presence of
strangers, especially when one seems to
have come to examine into her case, and it
required great deal Of coaxing from her
mother before she would consent to read the
alphabet A translation of some of the
words and sentences used by Minnie to con
vey her thoughts was afterwards procured
from her sister and is given below. To find
principle for the construction of the words
will be problem worthy of so ution by
the philologists. For "smal" Minnie says
Till" for very small, ''lili ILL.," forE"come
to me, J" "ta," and for dog, ''ho-ho" When
she calls her little pet dog she says: ''Ta,
Iii hobo" MEAT" she calls "rsohi;'
bread, "bo;" coffee, ''ton-ni;" butter,
'mena;" potatoes, ''tialodl;;" plate, "talo;' y
knife, ''tessa !" fork. gala" Other familiar
objects she denOminates as follows:
Chair, ''pgne;" table, ''tnassa;" bed
"inu;" bureau, "tempi;" horse. "hyk ,
pig, 'pitta;" cow, "blah-blah;" cat, 'pgha
pitt" rooster, "ouh-ouh-ouh," the sound oil
the expression somewhat resembling the
Growing of that bird at early dawn.
When Minnie thinks she ought to have 6
dress she goes aud puts her arms around her
mothers neck and whispers into her ear
"Mali. lu lii nalIe plo dka" Her mamma
gives the poor child a kiss, and, perhaps
with a tear in her eye calls Elizabeth to sec
what Minnie wants. This is the translation
Mamma. your little girl wants a new
dress" Mr.. Kaufman states that during
the early years of Minnie's life he was poor
and was compelled to devote all his time IL
work on his farm. His wife joined in his
labors out Of doors. The baby was left to
herself in secure place when Minnie
was years DID," he said, ''the only word
she could pronounce was mali, by which
she meant mother. From then on she man
aged to find names for objects that attracted
her attention. We would sometimes wonder
at the strange sounds that came from the
child's lips, but paid no particular attention
to the matter"
Not till the little girl was years old die
they notice that she was BEGINNING to tall
language which nobody could understand
Mali DO, mali be-" Minnie would cry whei
she was hungry and wanted so nething Il
eat between meals. At first, of course heI
mother did not know what the child wanted
but Minnie took her by the hand and lee
her to the cupboard, pointing first at that
receptacle for viands and then at her mouth
She received a piece of bread TO appease hel
hunger, and from that day on sue called i
DO" At tho age of 5 years the child formed
peculiar friendship for her sis er Eliza
beth. At that period she already called
everything by a name of her own making
But still the parents were of the opinion
that when old enough to go to school Min
ME would learn to talk English without
much trouble. The time came and Minnie
Went to school, but she did not learn any
thing there. When the teacher found tina
that child was unable TO talk it seems tina
she neglected tho strange little pupil, Think
ing. PROBABLY, that the child had an I'm
baia ced mind. After Minnie hat
attended school for one year her father
came to the conclusion that she was no
making any progress in acquiring the
English language, and took her hom'
again. He was now thoroughly aroused
TO the fact that he had child who talked
queer sort of language of her own, anC
that she could not learn to speak the Ian
guage of the land by any ordinary means
lie thought, too, that her organs OF speec
might be imperfect.
He journeyed to Pittsburg,. taking tn
child with him, and consulted several ply
slcians. They told him that there wa
neither physically nor mentally anythin
the matter with her. That was all the con
ISOLATION he received, besides the advice t
put the child in some institution where
speciality Of such cases was made, bu
nobody seems TO have been able to tell MI
Kaufman where such an institution nigh
be fOupd