Juniata sentinel and Republican. [volume] (Mifflintown, Juniata County, Pa.) 1873-1955, 1891-11-18
4 LANGUAGE ALL HER own.
An Entirely New Kind of q Phenomenon.
4 fsnnsylvania Girl Whs Speaks in Ton
gas undsrstood BY But One Other Person
Study For the Pathological chspa

Little Minnie Kaufman, 9 year.
Did, resides with her papa and mam-
ma at Pittsburg, Pa Minnie is petite.
blue-eyed, auburn-hxired and well en-
dowed mentally and physically. yet
she 10 pathological phenomenon.
That Is, she talks q language OF her
own, and no one besides her sister
Elizabeth 10 able to understand any
thing she says. Minnie and Elizabeth
eat play and sleep together almost
like one being. The only time they
are apart Is during the hours the older
girl spends at school. and 1t took q
long willie to get them used TO this
short separation. especially Minnie.
who even now cries often aud Is al
ways morose and downcast while her
sister is away. Taking all this in con-
sideration one would think that little
Minnie by this time had impaired to
her sister the ability TO talk as we'll as
to understand her peculiar language.
But this is not the case. Though able
to grasp the meaning OF each word
uttered by her at once and translate 1t
into English or German. Elizabeth
cannot speak more than a dozen of
them. Minnie can pronounce all the
letters OF the English alphabet except
F. X. Q and w as we'll as could be de-
sired. The letter "F' she pronounces
"Fo." *" ''Kaa." (Which is the Ger
man pronunciation); 20" shs cannot
sound at all. and the letter Nv" shs
speaks like ''Waah."
The child is very shy in the pres
ence OF strangers, especially whom one
seems to have come to examine into
her case. and it required q great deal
of coaxing from her mother before
she would consent to read the alpha
bet A translation OF some Of the
words and sentences used by Mtnnie
to convey ber thoughts was afterwards
procured from her sister and is given
below. To find q principle for the
construction Of the words will be .
problem worthy OF solution by the
philologists. For small" Minnie says
''lili;" for very small, .iilI lili;" for
''ccme to me-" ''ta," and for dog. no
ho." When she calls her little pes
dog she says TIA, ILL ho-ho." Meat"
she calls "Tsohi;" bread. "bo;" coffee,
''ton-hi;;" butter. "mens;" potatoes.
.'tii,loda;" plate, .talo;" knife, 'tas-
sa;r fork. gala" Other fsmilisr OBJ
jeots she denominates as follows:
Chair. 'pgne;" table, 'tnsssa;" bed
''iuu," bureau, tempt" horse. "hky;"
pig, ''pitta;" COW. "blsh- -blah;" cat.
-.pgha-pit;" rooster. "ouh-ouh- ouh,"
tlsesornd of the exp.essionion some
what resembling the growing OF that
bird at early dawn.
When Minnie thinks that she ought
to have a new dress she goes and puts
her arms around her mothers neck
and whispers into her ear: mali, lu
lii nadia plo dka-" Her mamma gives
the poor child kiss. and perhaps with
a tear in her eye calls Elizabeth to see
what Minnie wants. This is the trans
lation: Mamma, your little girl want,
a new dress" There is a two-year-old |
colt on the farm with which Minnie is |
on very familisr terms. She can do as |
she likes with him. When any one |
else comes near him he bites and kicks |
and rears like a little savage. The |
girl can pet him, jump on his back and !
ride him about He becomes as gen
tie as lamb as soon as she speaks to |
him in her peculiar language. She
says: TIA lii Hyn." and the colt will |
come up to her like a pet dog.-Chi-
caso Herald.