[…] every child begins to know things by their names long before he begins to call them. The next step is to imitate and reproduce the familiar name, usually at first in the most imperfect way, by a mere hint of the true sound, intelligible only to the child’s constant attendants; and when this step is taken, then for the first time is made a real beginning of the acquisition of language.
- Whitney (1875), a pag.11

Control and management of the organs of utterance comes much more slowly; but the time arrives when the child can imitate at least some of the audible as well as the visible acts of others; can reproduce a given sound, as a given gesture.
- Whitney (1875), a pag.11