She likes her P-words or does it just seem that way

[wayfaringwordhack]

Whenever people hear Julien and me speaking to Soëlie in French and English, respectively, they often ask about her learning two languages. At her age, they ask less about which language she speaks and more about which language she *understands.* She grasps both equally well and is starting to have her own vocabulary, a nice mix of both momma's and papa's languages.

Her first word, besides "papa" was bye-bye, which she said at 13 months.

Since then, she's added, in no particular order:


Momma
pee pee
oui
no / non
hello
baby / bébé
puppy
kitty
papier (paper)
pompier (firefighter)
papi (grandpa)
tonton (uncle)
Manou (a nickname for "grandma")
pas beau (not handsome - She has a toy called a "joli pas beau"/pretty not handsome, and now all stuff animals are "pas beaux")
s'cold (it's cold)
c'est bon (it's good)
down
take you (thank you)
tahkey (chocolate)
up
voilà
d'accord (ok)
l'eau / wallo (water - she says it for rain, rivers, the ocean as well)
ballo (bottle - not a baby bottle--she doesn't have one. She uses it for all containers.)
ballon (ball)
pallon (pantalon - pants, but she uses it for all articles of clothing)
peas (for "pea" and "please)
papo (pepper)
hungee (hungry)
caca
pitty pitty (pretty - saying it twice is apparently better)
howtshoes (house shoes - all shoes fall into this category except for...)
boots
hapeau (chapeau - hat)
g-gurl (good girl)
wow
ça (this/that)
pied (foot)
pain (not the English word for agony, but the French word for "bread")
Tshees (cheese)
keys
kay-kay (rice cake)
kick-ken (chicken)
pahta (pasta)
a-ton-ton (attention! as in "be careful")
eyes (not for eyes, though; for sunglasses)
main (hand)
toot toot (no idea why, but she says it when she wants to nurse)


bobby (she has a red car called Big Bobby, so all tricycles and such rideable vehicles are "bobbies")

Plus a bunch of other words that she will repeat, but she hasn't appropriated them yet.

ETA: frigg reminded me that the Sprout also knows how to say manana (banana), appo (apple), and weewee (kiwi). :P

Comments

[asakiyume.livejournal.com]

I like how s'cold is essentially, soundwise c'est cold, which means she's got the French verb with the English adjective. Sweet.

The ninja girl sounded this way, learning Japanese and English together. There were some sweet combos (of course now a good example eludes me--I'll have to look in my old journals).

[stillnotbored.livejournal.com]

This is how children learn language, in dibs and dabs, and slotting words together like puzzle pieces. Sprout sounds right on target for her age, if not a little ahead. :)

And good for you and J for speaking to her in both languages. She will be able to code switch seamlessly when she's older.

[frigg.livejournal.com]

You forgot MANANA! ;)

(and I am quite sure she'll learn how to say "no" in Danish after spending some days with us and Lia :p )

[frigg.livejournal.com]

Oh, and I learned English and Danish the same way, so I obviously think what you are doing is brilliant. ;)

[queenoftheskies.livejournal.com]

She's such a lucky (and incredibly smart) young lady to be learning two languages at once.

[sunflower-sky.livejournal.com]

Hallel essentially learned Hebrew and English at the same time, but because he spoke Hebrew at preschool and English at home, he always managed to separate them pretty well. The exception was "mayim" ("water"). What's funny is that Raviv's made up word for drink is a mixture of "mayim" and "bottle"--"mano"--and Hallel has picked it up and started using it the same way :D

Also, Raviv suddenly started saying full four- or five-word sentences, but it's not that he's actually stringing four or five words together, it's that he's imitating a long lump of speech he hears Hallel say, like "Want to get out now" or "Want to turn on water" or "I need to pee" (he doesn't even really know what that means yet...).

I know he will learn Hebrew when he attends preschool here like most kids of English speakers (and will probably end up refusing to speak English too...), but Hallel had a lingual advantage in that he started going to preschool so early... I really need to get out more and expose him to more Hebrew.

~D

[pjthompson]

Very sweet. And brilliant, of course. :-D