Halfway down the Danube

Davidspeak 101

David, 20 months old, has his own language. It's a mixture of English, German and Romanian, with a few words all his own.

Here's a short glossary.

chocolate - chocolate
bonbon - any sweet food that's not chocolate
supa -- soup. From either Ger. Suppe or Rom. supa
chicken -- chicken
Nudeln! -- noodles, pasta. From Ger. Everything else that's edible and hot.

moo - cow
wau wau - dog. From German wauwau, "doggie"
keeka - cat. May be from English kitty cat, or possibly from Rom. pisica, cat.

ja - yes. German.
nei - no. German.
ba da -- oh yes, certainly. Romanian.
ba nu -- but no. I think not. Romanian.
(The two latter ones are usually used in a screaming match with his brother.)

aua (owa) -- ouch. German.
heiss -- hot. German.
Hoppalala -- oopsie. From Hoppla, "whoops!" German.

moon -- moon
Sonne -- sun. German.

runter -- From German herunter, "come down". David uses it for any kind of vertical motion, also for "go up" and "pick me up".

jakka -- jacket. Ger. Jacke, or Rom.
boots -- boots. But always said with great emphasis. "BOOTS!"
keys -- keys.

badda -- bath. From Ger. bad, bath. The extra syllable is because he usually hears it as a modifier (badewasser, bathwater) or conjugated (baden, take a bath).

backhoe -- any kind of construction equipment that's not a truck.
truck -- truck, bus, any big vehicle that's not a backhoe.
auto -- car, but not a taxi.
taxi -- taxi.
up -- pick me up.
bubbles -- bubbles (in the bath).
bingo -- sing to me. From "B-I-N-G-O", an American children's song.
pizza! -- the sound of the doorbell at dinner time. (No, we don't order out for pizza that often. But he really likes it.)

(The observant reader will have noticed this cluster of English words are all sort of... Doug-related.)

meins -- mine, give me, I want. German.
kuss -- kiss. German.

copii -- children. Romanian. Makes sense, right? He usually sees lots of children at the playground, and he usually goes to the playground with Vali.
gata -- finished. Romanian.
mai mai - more. From Rom. mai mult, more.

yeeeh! -- You are paying too much attention to my brother Alan, and not enough to me. Etymology unclear, but it seems to be a word (rather than a squeal of outrage).

Annan -- Alan, his brother
Bali -- Vali, the babysitter

His passive vocabulary is much bigger, and more completely trilingual. So you can ask for his Augen or his ochii, and he'll point to his eyes.

Just recently, he's started to "code shift". That means he's beginning to sort words into groups -- languages -- depending on who he's talking to. For instance, today we drove past Herestrau, the big lake in Bucharest's suburbs. He turned to me and said "Wasser!" (water). Then he turned to Vali, the babysitter, and said "Apa!" And he's starting to say "Bye-bye", "Tschüss", or "Pa!", depending one who he's talking to.

I guess that means soon his David-language will sort out into English, German and Romanian. Which is wonderful, but... we'll miss it.

Bye-bye.

Posted by claudia at April 13, 2005 08:51 PM