Image courtesy of Cafemom
It was World Read Aloud Day on the 24th, in which people are encouraged to participate in the promotion and enjoyment of reading out loud. But what happens when the youngsters are old enough to read themselves, or at least attempt to decipher a few words on their own?
We’ve heard some zingers come out of the mouths of our own toddlers, and we thought that we would see how other kids mispronounce the English language. Sometimes their mistakes can be eerily accurate – for instance saying pack-pack instead of backpack. That’s exactly what it does, not so? At other times the words can verge on the rude or inappropriate, and we are sure that many parents have done a few double takes at what they children have said. For instance, my daughter mispronounced ‘boobies’ as ‘booties’ to great confusion as a toddler. The first day in winter when I told her to ‘Put on your booties’ I was met with a blank stare. Booties, you can’t be serious!
An elevator was an elebator. Library was liberry (and actually, it still is). Envelope was embelope, balloons were bawoons, and for a very long time the thing I typed on for work was a picuter. Picuter! COULD YOU DIE. Man, I’m so going to miss these kid-isms when they’re all gone. Here are some zingers from Cafemom which we thought you might also enjoy.
Image courtesy of Cafemom
My household is lucky enough to have isiXhosa as a third language, and although my children have (sadly) lost their early fluency in the language, there are many words that have become part of our daily lives. My children often, very seriously, warn other toddlers that the tea is ‘shushu’, to great confusion – or yell at them to ‘yeka!’ and not touch that.
Do your kids have words that they mispronounce? Or do you have a word that has become part of your family’s vocabulary, but that nobody else would understand? Do share with us on Facebook and Twitter.