Sunday, January 23, 2011

Lilish

Over the past couple of months, Lilah has had quite the language explosion.  Jargon is mostly a thing of the past.  She has gone from having a handful of words in her vocabulary to over fifty and has started combining two, and sometimes even three, words in sentences.  For me, as a Speech-Language Pathologist and self-professed word nerd, this is hands-down the most thrilling aspect of her development.  There are some words, like "up," that are pronounced perfectly and would be understood by any Joe Shmoe.  But there are many that mean something only to the select few of us who understand Modern Lilish.  Below you will find a few of my favourite Lilish words:

No. - No (Lilish is a tonal language, apparently - see variations on "No" below)
Noooo.... - No, and if you don't listen to me I'm going to lose it.
NNNOOO! - I think this one is self-explanatory 
Yeeese - Yes (kinda like the way Mr. Burns says it)
Ma-mee - Mommy
Da-dee - Daddy
kacker - cracker
ocker - yogurt
'nana - banana
keekee - cookie
shees - cheese
foofoo - tofu
otter - water
muck - milk
ed - head (she is one quarter Liverpudlian, so she comes by the silent 'h' honestly)
my- mine
shash - wash
poo-pee - poopy
bee-bee - baby
gah - car
buck - book
chuck - truck
aahhhdoon - all done
moah - more
batch - garbage
shoosh- shoes
at - hat (again, evidence of her Liverpool roots)
shaish - chair
neenup - clean-up
teedee - TV (this one is a bit embarassing, especially if you could see how excited she gets at the very thought of being allowed to watch tv)
bapf - bath
bokbok - chicken
baabaa - sheep

Here's a video so you can get a feel for the pronunciation of common Lilish words like "baby," "mommy," "all done," and "ball."


Lilish is a primitive language, but its components can be combined to form two- and occasionally even three-word sentences, such as "bye bath," "more cracker," and "no bye kitty."  Of course, those require a translator with an intricate knowledge of Lilish (namely Ma-mee or Da-dee) to interpret to the general public.

6 comments:

  1. Very exciting, and miraculous, isn't it.

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  2. I love this stage. It's my very favourite when they start to gather more and more language. It's quite fascinating, isn't it?

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  3. I think it's amazing that she and Theo sound EXACTLY the same. Mam-ee. Bebee...ball (more like baw). Mind you he has about 1/10th the words and still insists that Mark and I are both Mam-ee (maybe there's something to that though ;)

    The most amazing development is... Theo now says tink-ee (for STINKY) to indicate he pooed! I am so thrilled! Shout it from the rooftops!

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  4. love her little voice...

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Comments: I love 'em. Tell me what you think!

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