Mithplonounthed
Posted by Arwen Mosher in Family on Friday, August 01, 2008 9:43 PM
My daughter Camilla and my sister’s son Daniel, almost 22 and 26 months respectively, are talking up a storm. But the thing is, what they’re saying and what it sounds like they’re saying are sometimes two very different things.
My sister and I have had no end of fun with the noise Daniel makes when he tries to say the “f” sound. “Say fish, Daniel!” we prompt him, and he obliges. It sounds something like “tshyshis,” but that is a very rough estimate. The actual sound is something neither his mother nor I have been able to reproduce.
Camilla, on the other hand, has no trouble with her Fs. In fact, she likes them so much that she substitutes them for other sounds. Daniel’s new baby brother Matthew, for instance, is “Mafew” when Camilla says it. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve said, “Camilla, say ‘mouTH’,” and she’s responded happily with, “mouffffffffffffff.”
The mispronunciations that really get me, though, are the ones that are clearly deliberate. We usually refer to Camilla as Billa, which comes from the original nickname, Camilla-Billa, that my mom gave her when she was about four days old. As a result of this Camilla refers to herself as Billa, but she pronounces it “Bih-ba.” Which would be fine, except that I know she can say the “l” sound, because the other day I asked her to say Milla, and she responded with a perfect reproduction of the word. Thus, the trick I’ve been having her do for relatives and friends all week:
“Camilla, say ‘Milla’.”
“Milla.”
“Okay, now say ‘Billa’.”
“Bih-ba.”
Inexplicable.
What funny approximations of real words have you heard from your kids?
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