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On language: wherwa (2 yrs old)

October 7th, 2008 by

Couple of Niko-isms at 2:

  • Wherwa, used in place of “Where,” words following must be said without any space, as in, “Oh! Mom! Wherwaisduhwadiebug? Wherwaisduhcar“
  • He seems to have gotten a couple words mixed up in the, “Oh, Dad, what that could be?” I always follow this question by correcting him, which only gets me a look of exasperation. Then he repeats it his way, as if to say, “silly Dad, mixing up the words.” I think he might win this one.
  • All sentences must start with “Oh!” as in “Oh! Look at dat! An airplane!” It is a very exciting world out there.

4 Comments »

4 Responses to “On language: wherwa (2 yrs old)”

  1. on 08 Oct 2008 at 7:10 am   Hannah West

    Oh, Language! How I love it! I know where that second phrase is coming from. “What-that” is a single word. All beginning speakers use some form of it. One of my nieces used to whisper “whazzat” and point to whatever it was. I suppose the whisper was in case whatever it was could hear her asking and take offense. Anyway, if “what-that” is a single word, then “could be” simply makes it a three word sentence. However, as a four word sentence it definitely has potential. “Oh, my, oh, me, what that could be: a plane in the sky or a ship on the sea, a cloud in the air or some dust in your hair. Why that could be anything, anywhere.” Move over, Dr. Suess.
    Also, to make a long comment even longer, anyone who learned to read in the 1940’s knows that all sentences start with either “Oh” or “See”: “Oh look, Sally! See Spot. See Spot run.” Come to think of it, maybe those old readers really were based on observations of how children use language.

  2. on 08 Oct 2008 at 6:25 pm   Scott

    Move over Dr. Suess indeed.

  3. on 09 Oct 2008 at 2:41 pm   Hannah West

    Scott, I happened to think that instead of rearranging the words you could repeat the phrase with “I wonder” in front of it.”I wonder what that could be” is proper English, and, if he picks it up, will make for longer sentences in the vocabulary. Of course, since he really just wants to know what “that” is, perhaps we ought to simply tell him. He’ll probably come around to “What is it?” next week without any help from language-minded adults.

  4. on 11 Oct 2008 at 7:12 am   Scott

    We will definitely try that approach. Thanks Hannah!