It has been suggested to me that the time has come for a comprehensive
investigation of the interesting language known as Bablingo. Materials
for this are ready for use in every home that still possesses a
nursery with an inmate not more than two years of age. I must premise
that it is the inmate's mother and the inmate's nurse, not the actual
inmate, who use the language. Some day, no doubt, there will arise
an investigator who will reduce to order and catalogue the inchoate
efforts of an infant to make itself understood by talking. These
efforts are doubtless of high interest to the etymologist, but the
difficulties of the task are at present too great, and in any case I
am not the man to undertake it.
I shall content myself for the moment with setting an examination
paper in Bablingo for the purpose of testing knowledge. It will differ
from most other examinations in having a further object--namely to
supply instruction and information to the examiner. Later on it may
be possible to construct a grammar, and to append to this a few
easy exercises. It must be remembered, however, that there are great
difficulties to be overcome in such a task. Every home, for instance,
has its own rules for pronunciation. Of these I do not for my
immediate purpose propose to take cognisance.
Here, then, is a short Bablingo examination paper for the use of
mothers and nurses. I do not at present see my way to including
fathers.
(1) On what principles is the language which you use in your nursery
formed? Did you (a) acquire it, or (b) find yourself unconsciously in
possession of it?
(2) Give a list of the characteristic features which distinguish
Bablingo from the dialects employed by Prehistoric Man.
(3) What justification can you allege for the conversion of the words
_little thing_ into the words _ickle sing_? Are the spelling and
pronunciation of these two words intended to be a concession to the
feeble understanding of an infant?
(4) _Wasums and didums, then? Was it a ickle birdie, then?_ Expand the
above into a four-line verse with rhymes, and explain why the language
as spoken and written is nearly always in the past tense, and rarely
in the present or future.
(5)(a) _Did he woz-a-woz, then; a Mum's own woz-man?_ (b) _'Oose
queenie-mouse was 'oo?_ Write a short story on one of the above texts.
(6) _Did she try to hit her ickle bruzzer on his nosie-posie wiz
a mug? She was a Tartar, and did she want to break him up into
bitsy-witsies?_ Construct a scene from a typical nursery drama on the
above motive. What theories do you base on the extract with regard to
the girl's temper and the boy's courage and endurance?
* * * * *