An Etymological Dictionary of the German Language/lallen

by Friedrich Kluge

lallen, vb., ‘to stammer,’ from MidHG. ‘to speak indistinctly, stammer’; the corresponding OIc. lalla, ‘to totter like a child walking,’ shows a curious figurative application of the word. Gr. λαλεῖν, Lat. lallâre, and HG. lallen are scarcely cognate; they are rather independent imitative words separately coined in each language.