As a language educator, I was fascinated with young
children and their efforts to use the English language.
Certain letters were initially problematic such as the letter L.
When asked her name, our daughter would tell others
her name was EM-MAH-WEE. We thought our son’s name
would be less difficult. He told people his name was THOMA.
He couldn’t get that final S to his name for some time. The
Requests for MUK or MOK from either child elicited a smile.
I then poured milk into their cups. One days as I was
cleaning, our son declared that the BACK-Y CLEANER
was too loud! I finished cleaning and stored the
vacuum cleaner so he could play his imaginary games
with cars and trucks uninterrupted. Both children
requested certain foods for dinner too. Our daughter
requested PIS GETTI since she craved this pasta. My attempts
to get the SP sound at the beginning of spaghetti were
for naught. She mirrored the word SPINACH just fine but
quickly said she wanted PIS GETTI for dinner. After polishing
off his favorite food, hamburgers, our son declared that
he just loved HANG GUR BURS. Another smile from me.
With our daughter’s birthday fast approaching, my
husband and I recalled with fond memories their
early attempts at language acquisition. I still smile at all the
hugs and I WUV YOUs uttered to us. We are lucky parents!
We had a niece who said spaghetti the same way. I smiled every time I heard it.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Anne, haha. Had to smile at your comment. I was confounded when I tried to get our daughter for form the SP sound. No issues with the word spinach. Both words had identical beginning letters too. Oh well. As she grew, the words came out correctly. Lots of smiles along the way. Hope your weekend is grand. oxox
LikeLike
Grandson David couldn’t pronounce beginning “s” sounds when he was little. It was amusing to hear him talk about the “noman” for snowman.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Anne, thanks for sharing the word “noman” with me. Ours did the same. It was my hope to have readers recall words their young children had tried. There was something about the ending “-ed” as well, though I can’t recall exactly. It was added to let us know they were using the past tense correctly. The joys of youth! oxox
LikeLike
Daughter Lise pointed out a school bus to her cousin who was a year older. Lise said, “There’s a goose bus.” Cousin said with distain, “That’s not a goose bus. It’s a sool bus!”
LikeLiked by 1 person
Anne, this just made my day! I laughed and laughed. Will now share with my husband. I will never look at a school bus the same way either. Thank you for sharing this gem! It should be in Reader’s Digest!
LikeLike
The goose/sool bus incident happened more than 45 years ago, and we still bring it up. oxox
LikeLiked by 1 person
Such fond, fond memories do not fade with time. oxox
LikeLiked by 1 person
So cute. My kids had their words too. I should have written them down.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Darlene, thank you for the comment. My guess is that their words were similar. So amusing for adults too. Lots of smiles along the way. Enjoy the weekend!
LikeLike
Those were the days… ❤
LikeLiked by 1 person
Bette, thank you. Oh, so true. The good old days…Enjoy the weekend. oxox
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thanks, Mary Ann. 🙂 Wishing you a lovely weekend, too! xo
LikeLiked by 1 person
Bette, your well wishes are much appreciated. Our garden certainly loves all the hot sunny weather of late. Rather unusual I might add. Enjoy! Hugs and blessings. oxox
LikeLiked by 1 person
These are wonderful memories of your little children learning the basics of language acquisition, Mary Ann. Our first son born in Calgary grew up in a German-speaking environment. As a two-year-old, he had trouble saying Lampe and refused any correction. Instead of Lampe he said Ampel. Haha! How much fun we had with his linguistic experiments!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Peter, language acquisition and children are so sweet. Those “L” words can be problematic indeed. In your son’s mind, his pronunciation of Lampe was correct. Ampel is a perfect solution when you think of it! Be well.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Fond memories for sure!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Russell, thank you for your kind words. Enjoy the weekend.
LikeLike
So cute I miss these days!! Thanks for sharing, such beautiful memories xoxo.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Emily, thank you for the thoughtful comment. I love the First Communion photo from Berlin. What a cutie. I loved the words young children attempt too. Enjoy the weekend! oxox
LikeLike
My daughter (5) still says babing suit for bathing suit. It sounds so adorable that I have never corrected her. But I realize I have to now otherwise other kids might tease her. My favorite age for all my kids has been that language forming time. I just love it!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Beck, thank you for reading and commenting. I just love BABING suit. Are there other examples of the TH sound your daughter uses? When I taught in Germany, I heard an S substituted for the TH since in the German language, there is no TH. Try substituting an S or Z for the word THE and you get the picture. In English, we do not have some of the UMLAUT sounds so I constantly had to teach that to my students. So when it came time for a bath for your daughter, I am curious to know how she said that word. I too love what comes out of the mouths of babes! Enjoy the weekend.
LikeLiked by 1 person
No trouble with the bath except as is normal “baff” the first several attempts. It’s funny because I am a stickler for proper pronunciation and always correct all three of my children immediately when they mispronounce words. I have two older children (15, 13) and then my younger surprise (5)! It wasn’t or isn’t that she ever had trouble with th it was just that when she said babing suit the first time we all just loved it and so we kind of all adopted the word. She would have corrected much sooner but none of us had the heart to fix it. We all refer to the bathing suit as BABING suit! 🤦♀️
Both of my daughters have an s lisp. I have tried in vain to correct it but we’ve had no success. 😔
I studied German in high school and still try to keep up with the language. The pronunciation of the UMLAUT sounds always were/are difficult for me. My German friend is a linguist and within 2 months of living in the States with me there was no sign of an accent! I always thought that incredible.
Thank you and have a great weekend too!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Beck, thank you for more pronunciation gems. Let babes be babes. I constantly corrected wrongly pronounced words as a teacher. In retrospect with our two children, I could have used more patience with their language acquisition. We muddled through and managed to have a good time too. Maintaining a sense of humor is important in life. Relax and take a “baff” at the end of your day. I’m sure someone somewhere has maintained a list of words common to five year olds. How sweet! Thanks once again!
LikeLiked by 1 person