From A. H. Sayce 30 July 1877
Queen’s Coll. | Oxford.
July 30th 1877.
Dear Sir,
Let me thank you very much for your kind reply to my questions. May I quote your words in regard to “mum” & the greater difficulty experienced in pronouncing certain consonants than in pronouncing the vowels in a forthcoming work of mine on Language?1 If I do not hear from you, I shall assume that you give me permission to do so.
It is very difficult to collect trustworthy information about the attempts of children to learn to speak. Unfortunately the majority of people have not had the necessary amount of scientific training to enable them to observe & report the facts correctly, & malobservation is worse than no observation at all. This must be my excuse for having troubled you.
With many thanks, I remain, | dear Sir, | Yours faithfully | A. H. Sayce.
Footnotes
Bibliography
Sayce, Archibald Henry. 1880. Introduction to the science of language. 2 vols. London: C. Kegan Paul & Co.
Summary
Thanks CD for statement about children’s speech. Asks permission to quote him in his forthcoming book.
Letter details
- Letter no.
- DCP-LETT-11080
- From
- Archibald Henry Sayce
- To
- Charles Robert Darwin
- Sent from
- Queen’s College, Oxford
- Source of text
- DAR 177: 46
- Physical description
- ALS 3pp
Please cite as
Darwin Correspondence Project, “Letter no. 11080,” accessed on 28 March 2024, https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/?docId=letters/DCP-LETT-11080.xml