an onomatopoeic toddler

mariehojholt mariehojholt at stofanet.dk
Wed Aug 29 10:05:15 UTC 2007


Dear all!
Being new at this network I wish to thank you all for a fantastic opportunity to correspond with equals, or, kind of. I am graduate student of linguistics in Aarhus, Denmark.
Here is my question:
I am looking for relevant studies of children who do not seem to acquire actual words as much as onomatopoeic sounds.
My two-year-old son Harald, is developing "according to plan" but doesn't care for the "linguistic symbols that the surrounding environment has as consensus": words.

Here is a short list of his sounds and utterances:
"Mor (mummy) aa-aj (~not) bzzz (sound of fly) krqr (sound of breaking which means "egg") - pip-pip (sound of bird) krqr (sound of breaking" 
- so: Mummy, flies don't have eggs, BIRDS have eggs!"

"words":
water: "aah!" (sound you make after drinking)
food: "mtl-mtl" (chewing-sound)
sleeping/bed: "hhhrr-pfffff" (sleeping sound)
toothbrush: "hrhr-hrhr"
Cracker/"broken"/egg: "krqr" 
Pooridge: "ph-ph-ph" (sound of boiling)


Apart from this he uses all the usual onomatopoeic sounds typical for children: animal sounds, vehicle sounds...
He does have some actual words: Mom, dad, diper, blue, Gorm (brother), home, now, more, shoe, in, ...but not too many verbs.
I hope some of you have comments on this, or links, references or anything.
I am not worried about him, since he is a happy, clever boy who communicates adequately and relevantly, and - to me - intelligably.
Though, I am hyperinterested in understanding his procedures and apparently somewhat onomatopoeic-ICONIC language behaviour. 
He is not interested in us telling him what the real words are, and if we try to push him, he ignores us or get angry.
All my best,
Marie Hoejholt

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