One set of Charlies grandparents are linguists, which means they know more about the sounds language makes than most. I showed my Dad a video and he commented on Charlies excellent implosives (sounds you make while breathing in). "Too bad he won't ever need to use them again!" Apparently as babies develop they make all the sounds possible, and then as they get older they narrow their set of noises to the ones they hear in the language around them. Since English doesn't use implosives, he probably won't be making them for much longer.
This week Charlie started clicking his tongue. I would never have noticed, except that I've had to sing a few songs in Swahili...and there are clicks as consonants. It made me sad to think about all the wasted potential of sound-making that clicking represents. Just because boring English doesn't contain all the sounds of the languages, should his world of sound be limited? So, to celebrate the amazing way language development is sprouting up in my son, I've been clicking back. We have clicking conversations now.
AND, if he ever moves to Africa, that will be one less thing he needs to learn!
2 comments:
Wow! Go away for a while and when you come back there are new posts! This is fun.
I'm really sorry we can't be there to hug the little guy and let him know he has another set of grandparents just a bit farther away.
He is looking so "healthy" and filled out. Thanks for taking the time to post!
I might not be a linguist, but I hae to say there's somethinga bout boys and "non-verbal" noises. Peter still barely makes his animal sounds, but Dana's girlfriend Amy taught him to click his tongue months ago, adding to his previously robust arsenal of clicks, and bbbbbbbs. (raspberries of a variety of sorts).
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