2006-06-12

Dumptruck! Dumptruck! : A Tale of Language Acquisition

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Next to trains, the Big O's favorite thing is dumptrucks. But the word dumptruck itself is a bit challenging for him to say.

Truck, for instance, has many different pronunciations in the Onacular, but the one we'll be discussing today is the one in which the tr sound becomes more of an f sound.

Which creates a new problem as the mpf phoneme set is nearly impossible for his little mouth to form. As a result, he leaves out the p.

So when we're walking down the street and a dumptruck passes by, and O yells, "Dumptruck! Dumptruck!", people tend to shake their heads and know exactly what kind of parents we are.

11 comments:

  1. Hilarious story and brilliantly written. I read it out loud to my roommate.

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  2. Oh! My nephew is going to be SO hilarious when he begins to speak!

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  3. Apparently Scott (Scottro, Latro) did the same /tr/ -> /f/ substitution when he was little. His dad's friends used to tell him to say "Get the truck outta here!"

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  4. So I blew snot out my nose when I read this. Hilarious! Sadly, Lola didn't say anything funny as a young child--or at least not anything I could exploit.

    word verification: mypus

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  5. Hee hee hee. He's just saying what I think . . .

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  6. I am laughing. My neighbors are concerned.

    That might be because I'm listening to country music. But still.

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  7. This took me a couple of seconds to get, but once I did I laughed out loud.

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  8. .

    Cicada: Thank you. It means a lot from you. But I must admit I am shocked to learn the Boy was so easily replaced!

    Mr Fob: You and me both, buddy.

    Feather: May you have better luck than us.

    Katya: Hopefully O will grow out of it before I get any friends.

    Dg: Anything to help a fellow congestions sufferer.

    Tolkers: I don't know that your neighbors need any more reasons. Tone it down, bub!

    Miss O: The good things in life take time....

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  9. Um, hello? Where's my reply? You replied to everyone but me!!!

    Don't make me THINK THE WORD!

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  10. .

    Miss Nemesis! I thought you your reply! Don't tell me my mental prowess is slipping. But since I know yours isn't, what else can I suppose?

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