Not hink dough

[ailbhe]

No fink zho
Not fink dough
No hink dough DAD

... "I don't think so," meaning "No, donwanna."

I love Emer's language development.

Comments

[biascut.livejournal.com]

Oh, so does mine!

I met Ailbhe's eldest daughter in Dublin a couple of years ago when she was two and a half, and I found the difference between her ths and those of a little boy a few months younger who'd always lived in Ireland quite astonishing. Obviously, I can hear the difference between various English Ths- and Irish ones, but there's something about small children doing it that really heightens the difference: they seemed to be approaching it from such different angles.

But Ailbhe says that the "f" sound for "th" is a fairly normal part of Irish children's development too, so perhaps I am generalising from too small a sample!

[ailbhe]

It's normal for babies in Ireland, and normal for some adults here! As is "not pronouncing" one's Rs.

I find it hard not to correct the kids' speech when they pronounce what I hear as lazy/baby talk but is actually just Rob's Dad's real accent. Closing L sounds was another place this cropped up.

[biascut.livejournal.com]

Aw, my lovely ex used to write to me as "gewl" to transcribe that south-east W-instead-of-L sound.

[merryhouse.livejournal.com]

Oooh, yes! Rob refuses to believe he says "hospitaw".

One of the (admittedly several) reasons for not naming a child Paul was the thought of Rob's London/Essex family mangling the ending.

I don't pronounce Rs, I must admit. And paw/poor/pour all sound the same (at least they did; in my head they have been steadily diverging since living in Practically Norway) though merry Mary getting married don't.