January 1948 CRITCHLEY: Speech Iterations I9not be alone, is the ideal. Once the patient hasbeen moved to suitable surroundings, do not movehim again or in any way ask his confused brain tounderstand any but the simplest things.

5. Hydrotherapy. Great restlessness may belessened by the application of wet packs or byimmersion in a bath. The former is generallybetter because it is less disturbing.

6. Diet. Readily assimilable carbohydrate foods,preferably in fluid or semifluid form, are the easiestto give. The caloric intake should be about2,500 C. daily. If such high carbohydrate feedinghas to be continued for more than three days, or ifthe patient has been starved previously, thiamineand nicotinic acid should be given parenterally asprophylaxis.

7. Drugs. The less of these the better. Givethem not at all or infrequently. If you have to usethem, see that the dose is adequate, the aim beingto produce quietness and sleep. Hyoscine hydro-

bromide 0.5 mg. is not too much. The elderlyand sufferers from delirium tremens respond wellto hyoscine. Paraldehyde 12-20 ml. is safe.Morphia in doses of 20-30 mg. may be given if theco-existing disease provides no contraindication.It should be remembered, however, that certainpatients do not tolerate morphia or hyoscine.When confronted with a patient who becomes

mentally confused or delirious during the courseof another illness, the first aim of the physicianshould be to exclude or treat organic cerebraldisease, gross alterations in the cell en-vironment, deficiency states, or drug intoxications.Only then should he regard the case as one oftoxic psychosis to be treated symptomatically.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

CURRAN, D., Encycl. Med. Practice, 10, 316.DE WARDENER, H. F., and LENNOX, B. (I947), Lancet, I, II.JOLIFFE, N. et alia (1940), J. Am. Med. Assn., 114, 307.SPILLANE, J. D. (1946), 'Nutritional Disorders of the Nervous

System.' Edinburgh. Livingstone.

'SPEECH ITERATIONS('TING A IING' PHENOMENON)*

By MACDONALD CRITCHLEY, M.D., F.R.C.P.Neurologist, King's College Hospital; Physician, National Hospital, Queen Square.

Like an Englishman abroad who rings thechanges in his conversation on the few phrases ofwhich he is the master, so in the same way wemeet patients who reiterate certain words, phrasesor sentences to the exclusion of all others. Therebywe are reminded not only of our traveller, but ofsome animal cries and infantile babbling-monotonous repetitions which constitute the wholeof the subject's vocalization.The circumstances under which we encounter

these speech iterations are very diverse; some ofthe cases are frankly psychotic, others are neuro-logical problems. Sometimes they obviously forman aphasic disturbance-a disorder of language. Inother cases the defect is one of articulation orspeaking. At other times it is difficult to decide,and possibly a disorder both of speech and ofspeaking coexists. With others again the defectis plainly the result of a thought disorder upon aconceptual plane higher than the zone of language.

Years ago Gairdner applied the term ' barrel-organisms' to all these various kinds of speech

* Being a paper read at La Salpetriere, Paris, onNovember 12th, I947.

iterations. The term is not a very satisfactoryone for the recurrent vocalization is neither amelody nor a theme. More often it is merely aphrase, or maybe a single word. One might,perhaps, use the term ' ting a ling phenomenon,'after the music-hall song which was familiar lastcentury.t

t She only answered 'ting a ling'To all that I could say.

She seemed to live on ' ting a ling'By night as well as day.

When I asked her if she'd marry meAll that she could say

Was ' ting a ling a ling ting,Ting a ling a ling ting

Ting a ling a lint ting tay.'English folk music embodies a number of meaningless

phrases of dubious etymology. Ranging from the old-time ' Hey nonny nonny ney ' and ' Fol-de-rol,' etc., wecome to the 'Tick-a-tang' and the 'Tararaboomdeay'of two generations ago, the 'Yip I addy I ay I ay' andthe ' Hitchy-koo ' of the first war and the various non-sense syllables of the Hill Billy songs we hear today.Perhaps these are melodious phrases easy to sing; moreprobably they represent broken-down sense words ordilapidated speech.

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Dealing first with the simplest examples, we maymention the phenomenon of stammering or stutter-ing. Whatever the pathogenesis or psycho-pathology of this condition, it is clearly an articula-tory difficulty in which the faculty of language isnot severely deranged. Possibly there is a delayin the conversion of the engrams into verbalization-a delay which may be due, as Jackson believed,to' right-brained hurry,' or to inadequate cerebraldominance, or to a hesitancy in self-expression.We need not delay further over an account ofstamrr ering except to mention that occasionally itoccurs as an acquired phenomenon after a left-sided cerebral lesion, as part of an aphasic dis-order. Here again we find a combination of adefect in speech and a defect in articulation com-parable with what we also find in Broca's'aphemia.' We need scarcely mention thatstammering in speech is not accompanied by anysimilar hesitancy or repetitions in writing or inmotor activity.Much more complex is the phenomenon of

palilalia, which was originally described byBrissaud. This is essentially an organicmanifestation, associated with diffuse pallido-striatal disease. Hence we find it as part of a post-encephalitic Parkinsonism or of a pseudo-bulbarsyndrome. Palilalia entails the involuntary repeti-tion two or more times of a word, phrase orsentence just uttered. (Example,' Good morning,doctor, I'm not so well today, today, today, today,today . . .') The words as they are repeated tendto become more and more clipped or abrupt; thevoice to become softer; while the rate of speakingaccelerates. The palilalia occurs equally duringspontaneous speech and in reply to questions.But palilalia does not appear during the recital of apreformed speech pattern, as for instance whenthe patient reads aloud, or recites a well-remembered verse or prayer, or when he declaimsthe days of the week, months of the year, theletters of the alphabet or when he counts. Palilaliaoccurs not only in the course of intellectualspeech or ' propositionizing,' but also--at times-during emotional cries, oaths, interjections andother forms of inferior speech. But this is notalways the case, and in some palilalic patients,emotional speech may be devoid of repetitions.When the patient's utterance consists of a

number of consecutive sentences, only the lastpart of the final sentence shows the palilalicrepetitions. It is as though the stream of talkproceeds quite smoothly only so long as the patienthas something to say or information to impart,but as soon as he comes to the end of his ideasand wishes to lapse into silence, the speech runson like a gramophone record that has stuck.Sometimes the speech reiterations amount to 20

or more, the voice tailing off in a diminuendomanner, while the lips afterwards continue tomake the tiny inaudible movements of a 'palilalieaphone.'What is the nature of this strange phenomenon ?

Clearly it is a disorder more of' speaking' than of'speech.' Babinski and Mlle. Levy pointed outthat many of these patients exhibit a poverty ofspeech as though unwilling to embark upon theact of speaking. But once this reluctance ismastered, the patient becomes vocal, and therate of utterance tends to increase. Then--as inthe act of walking-the patient finds difficulty incoming to a halt. It is easier to go on talking thanto make the effort of stopping. In other words, asClaude has put it, we can look upon palilalia as asort of verbal antepulsion and festination.

I have never as yet encountered paligraphia in apatient with palilalia. Nor, indeed, would oneexpect to meet with such- a phenomenon, forpalilalia is not a manifestation of aphasia or anyother disorder of language. But, on the otherhand, palilalia may be combined with well-marked palipraxia. One of my patients, a post-encephalitic Parkinsonian with severe palilalia,compulsive thoughts and oculogyric crises, alsotended to continue unduly any repetitive actsuch as hammering a nail, combing his hair orbrushing his teeth.We may mention in passing other forms of

speech iterations which can be distinguishedwithout much difficulty from palilalia. First,there is palilogia, which is an idiosyncrasy ofcertain rhetoricians and public speakers, whodeliberately repeat a word or phrase or a sentencefor the sake of emphasis. Field Marshal Mont-gomery, we are told, used to employ this trick agreat deal when addressing his troops; forexample :-' We have been fighting the Germansa long time now. A very long time . . . a gooddeal too long. It's time we finished things off.And we can do it. We can do it. No doubtabout that. No doubt about that whatever .. .'and so on. Analogous to this palilogia is theirritating use of verbal mannerisms, whereby aperson in conversation emits ad nauseam suchtrite little phrases as 'Don't you know,' 'I say,''As a matter of fact,' and-worst of all-thetopical imbecility ' actually.' By gradualsteps we pass from these verbal sillinessesto sheer verbal tics, where a phrase is enunciated asan obsessional trait, without any pretence atmeaning or congruity. I need not give examplesexcept to remind you how often such tic-like ex-clamations are of a scabrous nature. We at oncerecall the malady of Gilles de la Tourette or the'manie blasphematoire' of Verga. We are toldby Meige that the Marquise de Dampierre

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January 1948 CRITCHLEY: Speech Iterations 2I

throughout her long life was in the habit of re-peating certain immodest sayings even on the mostsolemn occasions. In a cathedral city in the Southof England lives a silvery haired old lady of saintlyappearance who can be seen to mutter quietly toherself whenever there is a pause in the conversa-tion. An attendant cleric was once incautiousenough to ask her to repeat her observations alittle'louder, and was startled to hear a stream ofobscenities-not all of which he could understand.

Allied to the verbal tics is the rare though well-known phenomenon of echolalia, whereby state-ments or questions are repeated with or without achange in pronoun. This may also be found as amannerism in schizophrenics, dements and otherpsychotics.

In echographia we see the slavish repetition inwriting of the subject-matter which has just beenread. The phenomenon is a rare one--except injournalism-and usually connotes a gross povertyof ideation. A striking example was seen in apatient with juvenile G.P.I., whose letters fo hismother were almost a word for word transcriptionof what she had written to him.

Dear Em, Just a line in answer to your most kind andwelcome letter I received from you and pleased to knowyou are better than you were and that you will try tosteady your nerves for to be home quicker. I am longingto see you as you are to see me Ern but its far better toget well now as you are in the best place for it, but cheerup you won't be long now. Its nice to know you canjoin in all the sports and get about Ern. ThelmaParry's husband came home this week after four yearsa prisoner of war. They were all excited in the street.Well, Ern, I had a letter this week from Dave and hetold me he had a letter from you. Olive is still home.She did not go to Weston after and Muriel is up atMervyns home this three weeks. She is coming homenext Monday with Mervyn he will be on leave then. Idont know what she intends doing after shes gone back.Well Ern, Mr. Humphreys and Muriel asks how youare and I told him what the doctor said and he told meto tell you to put your mind and getting well to comehome on leave and he also said you promised to write tohim when you went back the last time you was home.Well, Ern, I will be sending some'more cigs and somebake-scones that is if you would like some later on inthe week.

To my dear Mother, Just thank in answer to yourmost kind and welcome letter I received from youpleased to know you. Pleased I am to know you arebetter than you were that will try dry stead) your nervesfor to be home quicker. I am longing to see you asyou are to see Ern, but its far better to get well now asyou are in the best place for it. Just cheer up you wontbe long now its nice to know you can join now in all thesports get about. Ern Thelma Parry husband camehome this week after four years a prisoner of war theywere all excited in the street. Well Ern I had a letterthis week from Dave he told me he had a letter fromme. Olive is still she didnt go to Weston after. Murielis up at Mervyns home this three ask she is cominghome next Monday she will be on leave know what she

intends doing after she gone know he gone back. WellErn Mr. Humphrey tell you to put your mind gettingwell do come home on leave he also said you promisedto write to him when you went back the last the timeyou was home. Well Ern I will be sending some morecigs some bakesdonie that is the week.

A fragmentary and literal echographia, orrather an autoechographia is, of course, quitecommon in the spontaneous writings of aphasicpatients. I chose for illustration the followingexample:-

21 Westbury Park,Dear Miss Alice Day,My begin with the bing with with with the the old

doing into (with) into into (into) with with (with)(with) will (will) with the oldest (older) the oldest thethe oldest with the oldest the (the) the oldest.

Yours sincerely,Meggie Brown.

(N.B.-Words in brackets were elided by the patient.)Here is a second example of spontaneous writing

littered with repetitions:-Now to eat if one cannot other one can-and if we

cant the girseau O.C. Washpots prizebloom capacities-turning out-replaced by the headpatternsmyown-capacities-I was not very kind to them. Q.C. Wash-pots under-patterned against-bred to pattern. Animalsequestration capacities and animal sequestired cap-acities under leash-and animal excretions. Q.C.Washpots capacities leash back to her-inthetrain fromLlanfairfechan armybarracks wishe us goodbye inLlandudno station and turned in several Q.C. Washpotscapacities . . .

This specimen, full of neologisms, irrelevancies,incoherence, and verbal perseveration, was exe-cuted not by an aphasic patient, but by a schizo-phrenic. This fact should not have been difficultto predict from the bizarrities, and the symbolismof the writing. The point should be made, how-ever, that many pathological features are commonto both aphasic and schizophrenic utterance, bothvocal and graphic.

Kleist believed that in both conditions thespeech peculiarities are comparable, and that inschizophrenia there is a paralogia arising from aspecific disorder in gnostic faculties. He associatedspeech iterations with lesions in the caudatum,perhaps also in the midbrain. Berze, Grihleand others, however, would ascribe the fantasticspeech of the psychotic to an underlying schizo-phrenic thought disorder. This places the dis-order at a different level within the pre-verbalprocesses of speech.But where should we relegate this third example

of paligraphia ?

This that they were not to have, they were having.They were having now and before and always and nowand now and now. Oh now, now, the only now, and

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22 POST GRADUATE MEDICAL JOURNAL January 1948

above all now, and there is no other now but thou nowand now is they prophet. Now and for ever now. Comenow, now, for there is no now but now. Yes, Now.Now, please now, only now, not anything else only thisnow, and where are you and where am I and whert isthe other one, and not why, not ever why, only thisnow; and on and always please then always now,always now, for now always one now; and on andalways please then always now, always now, for nowalways one now, one, going now, rising now, sailingnow, leaving now wheeling now, soaring now, awaynow, all the way now, all of all the way now; one andone is one, is one, is one, is still one, is still one..

This has been taken from a well-known novel*in which it forms an isolated paragraph of un-orthodoxy. One can guess its meaning from thecontext, if not from its content. Advanced studentsof literary style will no doubt comprehend thetechnique and approve, but as neuropsychiatristswe may be satisfied in recognizing the nature andperhaps also the mechanism of many of theprosodic unconventionalities.

Echopraxia is a rare symptom which may beassociated with echolalia, and it is apt to occur incircumstances of enhanced suggestibility as in acommunity of hysterics. Both Anderson and Ihave met with this manifestation in torpedoedsailors days adrift in the Atlantic in a small boat.Tortured by thirst, hunger and cold, the sen-sorium becomes clouded, mass suggestibilitydevelops together with, at times, shared hallu-cinosis. One man may proclaim that he seesland, or a ship or a tree laden with ripe fruitgrowing out of the sea, another sees it too, thenanother. Then if one man stands up in the boat sodoes another. If one waves his arms others dothe same. Should he bury his head in his handsthat movement is repeated by his shipmates.

Verbigeration is a variety of speech iterationwhich belongs frankly to the realm of psychosis.It can occur as an instance of verbal stereotypy inthe schizophrenic, who in season and out maydeclaim an idiosignificant but otherwise mearing-less utterance. 'Here I come, here I stay . ..' And the Iord shall prepare a niche in the Rock ! ''Don't touch me.' These are all examples ofschizophrenic verbigeration. Then there are theexclamations of despair which may be utteredover and over again by agitated melancholics,'Oh my God, what shall I do ?' or 'Oh God,kill me!' and so on. In dements, too, hypo-chondriacal preoccupations may cause some suchphrase as 'Please can I go to the lavatory,Mummie ? ' to dominate the conversation, thoughnot to the entire exclusion of other forms ofspeech.

* From Hemingway's 'For Whom the Bell Tolls,'reproduced by kind permission of the publishers,Messrs. Jonathan Cape.

We come now to the most interesting of all theexamples of barrel-organisms, namely the re-curring utterance sometimes encountered in severeaphasics. The patient is limited in his speech toa solitary word or phrase, which he employs onall occasions, however irrelevant, however incon-grous. The word or phrase which over-runs thegarden of his speech like a weed, may be a mostunexpected one, even quite complicated, so thatit bears more the stamp of a curtailed propositionrather than an emotional interjection. HughlingsJackson, who first described this phenomenon,called them originally ' stock utterances '; laterhe preferred to speak of them as ' recurringutterances.' He recognized four types :-(i) Afragment of meaningless jargon; (2) a singleword; (3) a phrase; and (4) 'yes' or 'no' (orboth of these words).Thus the vocabulary of one of my patients was

restricted to the solitary phrase 'on the booze,'which he enunciated in reply to questions as wellas spontaneously. By altering the melody of hisvoice, or by employing gesture he was able toutilize these three words with such success as tomake them express his immediate desires or tosignify assent, negation or dismissal.We recall Broca's original patient at the

Bicetre, who could say nothing at all except'Tan-tan,' by which nickname he was known toall the other patients and doctors.

Other examples of recurring utterance havebeen recorded in such fragments of jargon as'Da de da, do de da,'' Yabby,' ' Me me comittimypittimy.' Then there are phrases like 'that'smine,' ' list complete,' ' Teacher, teacher, bedpan, teacher,' the rags and tatters of what wasonce the patient's speech, as Jackson put it.Such aphasic patients cannot say a part only oftheir recurring utterance. Thus Bazire's patientmuttered ' sapon, sapon,' but could not be madeto say' sap ' or' pon ' alone. During BaudeIaire'slast days in the Institute of Saint-Jean and Sainte-Elizabeth, his speech was restricted to the ex-pletive ' Cre nom,' to the horror of the good sistersin attendance who regarded him as possessed bythe devil. His biographer (Enid Starkie) has re-marked, 'with these two words, he who had soloved conversation, was obliged to express all hisfeelings and thoughts, joy, sorrow, anger and im-patience, and he used to fly into a rage at hisinability to make clear his meaning and to answerthose who spoke to him.' But his mind was clear.Nadar visited him and got on to the topic ofimmortality. '" Voyons comment peux-tu croirea Dieu," repetai-je. Baudelaire s'ecarta de labarre d'appui ou nous etions accoudes et memontra le ciel. Devant nous, au dessous de nous,c'etait, embrasant toute la vue, cernant d'or et de

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January 1948 CRITCHLEY : Speech Iterations 23

feu la silhouette puissante de l'Arc de Triomphe,la pourpre splendide du soleil couchant. " Crenom! Oh, cre nom !" protestait-il encore, merispostait-il indigne, a grands coups de poing versle ciel.' Nardar goes on to exclaim, ' Les deuxseuls mots qui puissent sortir des levres d'ofavaient jailli des plaintes immortelles. Oh,I'horreur de cette fin lamentable, la cruanteeffrayante de lui qui a frappe Baudelaire dansle verbe, ce sertisseur de gemmes de rubis, commeil avait frappe Beethove dans l'ouie et MichelAnne dans la vue.'

Jackson suspected that the words which make upa recurring utterance are those associated with thevictim's thoughts at the time of the stroke, andrepresent the phrase which the patient was aboutto utter before losing consciousness ; that is to say,a sort of ' stillborn proposition.' Gowers, how-ever, believed the words of a recurring utteranceare actually the last ones which the patient hasspoken before losing consciousness. I think theclinical evidence supports the belief of Gowersrather than Jackson. My patient with the re-curring utterance ' on the booze ' had been over-come by his apoplexy during a taproom brawl.The patient who kept saying ' list complete' wasan accountant who lost consciousness just aftermaking up his books for the half-year. Anotherpatient sustained a head injury in a street fight,his recurring utterance was ' I want protection.'A woman who developed an ictus while riding adonkey found herself unable to say anything ex-cept ' Gee-gee.' One of Gowers' patients wastaken ill in a cab. On entering the vehicle she hadtold the cabby to drive her to Mrs. Waters. Thesewere the last words she spoke. Her reiteratingphrase was ' Missus.' An attractive young ladv ofdubious morals, after a cerebral haemorrhage,could say nothing but the revealing words, ' Nottonight, I'm tired.'

In this connection I recall a war-time patient ofmine, a sailor who was one of the crew of alanding craft during the Normandy invasion ofTuesday, June 6th, 1944. The troops had beenstanding by for some days in readiness to attackuntil the tension was eventually relieved and thesignal for zero hour was given. The sailor sus-tained on the beaches a bullet wound of the skullproducing a right hemiplegia and an aphasia withrecurring utterance. This took the form of thestatement 'Yes, today,' and it is not difficult toimagine the dramatic circumstances under whichthat particular proposition originally arose.The phenomenon of recurring utterance re-

minds us of the more profound problem of therelation between thought and speech. 'Withoutspeech no reason, without reason no speech . . .'We recall this diction around which philosophers

have disputed for centuries. A study of aphasiahas gone far to clarify the issue for we know thatbehind every aphasic speech disorder there existsa special defect of mentation plus a lesser disorderof general intelligence. The latter may be ex-tremely slight and difficult to demonstrate. Butwhat of the aphasics with recurrent utterance ? Ina long-standing case we can satisfy ourselves thatthought processes are present-to some degree atany rate. Speech, too, is there, but only after afashion. Speech and thought are linked in agrotesque alliance, so that the plenitude of innerspeech finds outlet in one sole form of vocal ex-pression. Awareness or insight into the nature ofthe defect will develop and efforts at compensationlater appear in the correct use of inflections in thefragmentary speech. We are reminded of amusician who is deprived of all instruments savea one-string violin on which he eventually learns toplay a tune.Again following Jackson, we may also refer to

the penomenon of ' occasional utterance' inaphasics. A speechless patient-or one who isalmost speechless-may in certain circumstancesbe heard to enunciate quite unexpectedly an inter-jection, a word, or even a sensible phrase. Anaphasic patient with recurrent utterance may veryoccasionally be coaxed to say something outside hisritual. The occasional utterance may in turn beperseverated and so become a recurrent utterance,or it may be incorporated within the expandingvocabulary. A patient who could only say 'Yes,but you know,' once said 'Take care' when thebaby fell. A patient of Trousseau's said ' Merci'when a lady picked up his handkerchief. A patientof mine-.almost speechless-suddenly whenbeing demonstrated to my students, cried aloudthe word ' unilaterality.' Another patient, totallyaphasic and in bed after her stroke, saw herdaughter fiddle with her jewel case on the dressingtable, and called out 'That's mine '; thereafterthe phrase ' that's mine' became a recurringutterance. A severely aphasic man was in thehabit of chanting to the buxom night nurse ' She'smy Lily of . .' When, eventually the nurse re-plied ' Laguna' the patient triumphantly cried' That's it !' an interjection which thenceforwardbecame an established parrot cry. One of thestrangest examples, however, is an aphasic patientof Jackson's who unexpectedly demanded,' What'sall this bloody fuss about ?'At Queen Square we still tell of a patient of

Sir William Gowers who was afflicted with thecomment ' Tons of it' as his sole item of speech.In an unguarded moment Gowers once asked thepatient, ' Tons of what, my poor man ? ' and re-ceived a monosyllabic reply as unexpected as itwas embarrassing.

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At this point I would like to quote an unusualcase where a speech iteration developed. A childwhose early development had been uneventfulbegan, at the age of five, to show mild disturbancesin behaviour and in speech. There was no ante-cedent illness to account for this. Graduallyhis vocabulary seemed to become.more limited andhe spoke more infrequently. There was noevidence of any deafness and he seemed to under-stand fully all that was said to him. He ceased totake interest in picture books, and his childishpowers of reading gradually waned. After a periodof some months of almost complete mutism, hebecame vocal again. But now, at the age of eight,his speech was restricted to the meaninglessphrase ' Teezha,' an utterance which he repeatedover and over again, sometimes excitedly, some-times with calm deliberation. To all questions hewould reply 'teezha,' the phrase 'apparentlyserving both as 'yes' and as 'no.' He wouldapproach his parents or nurse with this word' teezha,' obviously by the intonation of his voice,making a request. It was clear from listening tohim in these circumstances that ' teezha' had forhim most of the properties of speech, bothpropositional and interjectional. On the otherhand, when he was occupied with his toys, or inexciting games with other children, he could beheard to chatter aloud ' Teezha, teezha, teezha'in a manner reminiscent of the babbling of thecontented infant or the deaf mute. At these timesthe patient was obviously using these words as aform of play, exercising the so-called ' ludic func-tion' of speech; to employ the terminology ofOmbredane.The pathological nature of this patient's syn-

drome was never determined. His iteration' teezha' is an important one in that it combinesthe role of an aphasic's recurrent utterance withthe added use of truncated speech as a pleasurableexercise.

Let us finally say a little about ' reduplications'in speech. These are linguistic phenomena whichbear a remote relationship to speech iterations inthat both consist in repetitions arising out of abackground of a restricted vocabulary. Re-duplications in speech are encountered in at leastfour circumstances :-

i. In the speech of primitive peoples and par-ticularly the Hottentot and Polynesian tongues. Ineed not give examples, but will only mention thatmany of these reduplicated words are onoma-topoeic in their nature.

2. In the speech of young children. In thiscountry, for example, the common term in baby-talk for horse is gee-gee, for train puf-puff. Onceagain we may note that some of these expressionsare echo words while others are based upon inter-jections (gee-gee). Some would like to detect inthe reduplications of the children's speech anatavistic return to the kind of language in primitivecommunities. Such an idea is far-fetched, and wewould agree rather with Jespersen in regarding thechild's reduplications as a form of verbal play, andhe refers to the pleasure always felt in repeatingthe same muscular act until one is tired. He alsoreminds us that in the act of laughter we are re-peating the same vowel sound preceded by anaspirate.

3. In some of the makeshift languages used as alingua franca between whites and coloured races,reduplications may loom large. We meet them,for example, in the Beche-de-mer of the SouthSea Islands, in the Patois creole of Mauritius, inthe Chinook jargon of North America, but best ofall in the pidgin-English of China. In the lastnamed there occur a very large number of re-duplications, for example, chin-chin (salutations),fu-fu (ordure), chop-chop (quickly), man-man(slowly), chow-chow (to eat) sing-song (a poem).

4. Lastly we meet at times strange reduplica-tions in the language-if you can call it that-employed by man while exhorting animals. Thisforms a fascinating chapter in philology, thoughits connections with neurology are not very clear.Easily the best example of reduplication in man'scalls to his beasts can be traced in the traditionalFrench hunting cries.. To encourage the houndsto work the huntsman cries, ' Ha halle, halle,halle!' or ' Hau, hau, hau tahaut !' or ' Ha belle-ment la ila, la ila, haut valet,' etc. An i8th centurytreatise on the subject solemnly adds a list ofexhortations for English dogs, ' for there are verymany English hounds in France and it is difficultto get them to work when you speak to them in anunknown tongue !'

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