Mommy Spirit: Proper Pronunciation? Bla, Bla, Bla...

3.09.2011

As you can imagine, my 2 year-old mispronounces quite a few words. TV is pronounced TT, my friend Sue's name is pronounced SHU, bottle is pronounced BABA, moon is pronounced MOO, cat is pronounced COT, mouse is pronounced MAO, etc. etc. I can go on all day about my little boy's various pronunciations. In some cases, he doesn't use the ending consonant so ding dong sounds more like DEE DAW. In other cases, he doesn't use the beginning vowel so Irene becomes RE.

There's no exact science to how he chooses to pronounce words. The only constant in all of this is that his words and mispronunciation of them are well, cute. When he yells, Mummy TT (translation: Mom turn on the TV) or Daddy shoon (translation: Will daddy be home soon? I sure hope so...) my heart melts inside. His little voice and the innocence of his words turn me into mush. This is not much of a problem, except I think his words are so cute that I reinforce them and use them myself. Everyday I catch myself saying...

"Would you like mommy to turn on the TT?"
"Would you like your baba?"
"Do you want to say hi to Shu?"

I know in my heart of hearts that I should be correcting him. I should be reinforcing that a TT is a TV, a baba is a bottle, and Shu should be pronounced Sue. Otherwise, I'm helping him form bad habits, and gulp, I may end up catching myself using these bad habits in front of my boss or the college President who has her Ph.D. in French literature and foreign language. How could a linguistic scholar, without children, possibly understand my reasoning for massacring the English language and sounding like a complete bafoon, especially when I'm supposed to be teaching English grammar and writing?

So, even today, I'm still not correcting him. Oh, I know I should, but I think the mental block is this...if I correct him, he will learn to say it right, and then I won't ever have the pleasure of hearing his little voice say these words again (did I say they are soooo cute? Yeah, right. I know I already mentioned this.)

Do you catch yourself using baby words instead of grown-up words? Do you think children 's mispronunciations need to be corrected right away?

12 comments:

UnknownMarch 9, 2011 at 8:49 AM
I think it is so cute when they are learning to speak. However I don't baby talk with my kids just because I read those many parenting articles that said not to. I figured I'd better listen to those "professionals". However, I live in a multilingual country and so there are certain chinese words which I use that could be classified as baby words. For example, I say "oi-oi" for sleep, "mum mum" for eat and "pom pom" for bathe.
With regards to mispronunciations, I do correct them right away. It's a habit already. Once again, brain washed by those many parenting articles.
UnknownMarch 9, 2011 at 8:59 AM
My husband follows your school of thought on correcting my daughter while I correct her 95% of the time. Their baby talk is adorable and it won't be around again.
cooperl788March 9, 2011 at 1:43 PM
I correct some of the time, but some words are too cute and I don't want to rush to that time where she says them correctly. Plus, it's become a joke in our house between me and my husband. We'll often catch ourselves using her words in our everyday speech, like "Do you want some nam-na (water) with your dinner?" Even without our correcting her, she's now started to say Water perfectly (too quickly in my opinion!).
Mama HenMarch 9, 2011 at 5:46 PM
There are some things that we have all started to use ourselves as daily words. My daughter knows how to say cozy now, but she used to say cauly and we all say cauly now. :) She also said a libble lit for a little bit and we all say that. It is so cute! This is for so short a time and we love how cute it is. I hope you are doing well my friend. I guess it will rain. We enjoyed the beautiful weather while it lasted! Have a great night!

Mama Hen
MarissaMarch 11, 2011 at 7:16 AM
SO funny! My hubby and I just had this conversation yesterday because I TOTALLY baby talk my one-year old son! He says I LOVE LOO and I say LOVE LOO right back :) Ha! I can't help it either, they grow up too fast and soon won't use those precious baby-talk words! :(
Mama HenMarch 11, 2011 at 10:30 AM
Have a great weekend my friend! :)

Mama Hen
LizMarch 13, 2011 at 11:15 AM
I have to agree, it is so adorable! My heart melts when I hear her talk with her own adorable language that only I and a few others can understand all the time! However, I don't talk in baby talk to her(that said I have caught my self repeating her pronunciation a couple times, which I quickly correct). I respond back to her with the correct pronunciation. Hope you do another Tot School post, can't wait to see what you and Little Lewie have been up to!
Sandy S.March 13, 2011 at 11:11 PM
I agree, it's so stinkin' cute when they are learning to talk and can't quite get the words right! It drives me nuts when people baby talk to Scotty though...I never did, neither did my hubby. He talks like a grown up now at almost 4 and has for quite a while...if he can't say a word right, we practice and remind him. I'm happy to say that most people can understand him now :)
Mama HenMarch 14, 2011 at 11:07 PM
Hope you are well my friend! :) Have a great week!

Mama Hen
Lisha @ DeLovely LifeMarch 15, 2011 at 11:38 AM
Pronunciation..psssh. Who needs it? He he. I totally see where you're coming from here. Baby words are so cute and you figure he'll only talk like this for a little while..then he'll be too grown up. Ooo I dunno what I'm going to do when baby girl gets to that point. I say grab a tape recorder and get it all down, then you can still listen to that sweet baby voice when he gets bigger.
ElleMarch 20, 2011 at 11:26 AM
I correct once then smile or laugh as they continue to say it "wrong". Sending mixed signals, I'm sure, but I feel that if I correct a little then let them know it's okay how they are saying it as well, in time, everything will work itself out. I see no problem with the baby talk...unless their 16. : )
Amber@Nater TotMarch 20, 2011 at 9:02 PM
This is so funny, because I just caught myself doing the same thing today. Nate adds "N"s to words ending in R...so more becomes "morn" and car becomes "carn." I totally said "morn" today. I try really hard not to reinforce the mispronunciations, but like you say, they are SO CUTE. I'm already sad that he stopped calling himself "Deet." :)