Sunday, November 25, 2012

Cute Speech Mistakes

Better Late than never! I started collecting this s year ago. Jonathan is by  now a strapping youth of 5 years!


Jonathan's special vocabulary
at almost four year of age, Jonathan is inventing new forms and you words, as is typical of children his age. Working with two languages is proving a challenge and his tendency to swallow words is not helping, the result, however, can be interesting. I tried to document the best.

pippopotam (instead of hippopotam) = hippopotamus
jrefy = tom and jerry
asati (instead of asiti) = I made/ I did
shatati (instead of shatiti) = I drank
[caused by the basic form of first past tense in Hebrew]
tiftoach (instead of tiftach/tiftechi)= (you) open (something) - [caused by the infinitive form of Liftoach]
ventich (instead of sandwitch)
Legamer (insteadof ligmor)=  finish
Ani Mizaher (instead of ani nizhar) = I am being careful
Ani micanes (instead of ani nichnas)=I am coming in/entering
hasfaka (instaed of hafsaka)=pause/break, masfik instead of maspik (enough) or mafsik (stop)
lehasfik m(instead of  lahfsik) =to stop
feifeifiya – instrad of yefeifiya (beautiful female)
podcorn – instead of popcorn
clay mobile – instead of Playmobile (Kelim means tools in Hebrew, I wonder if this is just a phonetic mistake or a logic mistake)

I have a sensible idea…”Yesh Li Raayon Hegyoni” – his opening sentence for special requests or a starting point for negotiating his wishes
Aval Ima! But mommy – his opening statement when explaining or negotiating (usually after I said no to somthing)

in German all gets the addition of “ein” - even though verbs are not supposed to  get it this prefix at all:
Ein-tanzen=to dance
Ein-trinken = to drink
Ein-knoepfen= to press (a button) – this one is an entirely new creation based on the noun Knopf (button in German) and refers to using a vending machine to buy a drink or a snack.
Ein kitzel = to tickle
kikminchen = kikaninchen (kika +kaninchen)
ich hab dich lieb- gam du – interesting sentence structure and mixing a bit of Hebrew in too (gam=also)
fe-fau-de: instead of de-fau-de – DVD in german

birthsteg – a mix between the English birthday and the german geburtstag…


When Jonathan is not able to use words, he still knows how to help himself to communication. In our recent summer holiday in Germany, visiting family and friends, when facing the need to request a pair of scissors in German and not knowing the word, after he expressed the wish in Hebrew once and saw no reaction from a German speaking friend, he pulled on the friend's sleeve and with his hand showed her the action of cutting (using two fingers in a V shape and opening and closing them, like scissors).

He likes to do pantomime on a daily basis even at home. Making sucking sounds and demonstrating drinking in order to ask that I assist him in making a drink (June 2012).

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