The Vocabulary Sponge

About ten minutes ago, Madeline wandered over me as I was unloading clean dishes from the dishwasher, and asked, "Mom, where's my milk to?"

Bad grammer? Only if you live somewhere in the country other than Newfoundland. Asking where any particular object is "to" quite acceptable in this province. Though I was hoping that Madeline would avoid picking up any Newfoundland-isms during our stay in here, I guess it really isn't so bad - we've been here for ten months, and this is the first time she's said anything like that.  We'll be moving back to Calgary in about six weeks, so she has plenty of time to pick up words like "howdy" and "y'all" in time for the Stampede in July.

As for Friday links, I just have one: Babble, a new online parenting zine. Love it. It's smart. It's witty. I read every one of those essays, even if I disagreed with the point the authors were trying to make.

Comments

[Jaime]

I can't wait 'til she says y'all. At least is isn't any bad language! Nikyla picked up the S word and used it in context when she was just learning how to speak. This did not take too long to correct for her, my husband or me.

[Terri]

At least at her age she should be able to overcome her Newfanese and speak fluent cowboy when you guys move back home.

[laura]

Terri, your comment is hilarious!

Madeline's only managed to use off-colour language by accident - her pronounciation of a regular word was a bit off. She has a few books featuring the Franklin character, and that's one of the words that comes out as an accidental swear. There was time when I'd be laughing my ass off on a daily basis as she'd wander around crowing "Franklin book! Franklin book!" because that's not what it sounded like at all!