Virginia Tadrzynski
My daughter spoke early and often, beginning at about 10 months. If she wanted to refer to something she didn't know the word for she'd improvise. One day I was eating an apple and shaved off a tiny bit for her to gum.
"Mo'!" (more) was her immediate response.
"More what?" I prompted. I was pretty sure she didn't know the word "apple" applied to the whole fruit as well as the puree she was usually offered.
"Mo', please?"
"More what, please?"
She hesitated, glanced at the fruit in my hand and the basket, then said, "Mo' cookie ball, please?"
Not a bad effort for a novice not only to the english language but to human speech in general. I doubt I could contrive to do as well in french. We still enjoy cookie balls in season, especially Jonathons.
In requesting a turn playing with the garden hose, she called it "green one flower drink". She had her own grammar for a while, too. One dog was simply "dog". Two or more, however, were invariably "doggen". Don't have any idea where that came from... To this day we refer to our pack as the doggen. And then there was a period of several months during which, although she knew the word "airplane" and could pronounce it on request, she steadfastly identified both pictures of aircraft and actual planes as "eenas" (except when they were "lelocopters").
Kathleen
