an onomatopoeic toddler
Dan I. Slobin
slobin at berkeley.edu
Wed Aug 29 15:41:01 UTC 2007
I've found references to the Icelandic twin study in the CHILDES
bibliography. Maybe Marie or another Scandinavian user of CHILDES
can track these down and give us a fuller report. (My summary is
based on my recall of a German report; I'll try to find it.)
Here are the Danish references:
@article{
Author = {Eschricht, D. F.},
Title = {Om den islandske sproglaverske saeunn},
Journal = {Danske Maanedsskrift},
Volume = {8},
Pages = {379-402},
Note = {DANISH},
Keywords = {ICELANDIC ; METHODOLOGY-LONGITUDINAL STUDY ;
IDIOGLOSSIA ; MULTIPLE BIRTHS},
Year = {1858} }
@article{
Author = {Jonasson, S.},
Title = {Om en sproglaverske},
Journal = {Danske Maanedsskrift},
Volume = {8},
Pages = {158-164},
Note = {DANISH},
Keywords = {ICELANDIC ; METHODOLOGY-LONGITUDINAL STUDY ;
IDIOGLOSSIA ; MULTIPLE BIRTHS},
Year = {1858} }
And here's an Icelandic report:
@article{
Author = {Mal, Saeunnar},
Title = {Islenzkar sogur, Sogusafn isafoldar iv},
Note = {ICELANDIC},
Keywords = {ICELANDIC ; METHODOLOGY-LONGITUDINAL STUDY ;
IDIOGLOSSIA ; MULTIPLE BIRTHS},
Year = {1891} }
-Dan
At 08:14 AM 8/29/2007, Dan I. Slobin wrote:
>footnote on the Icelandic case:
>This was not an instance of onomatopoeia, but of twin language. A
>boy and girl twin in the late 18th century, as reported by a 19th
>century Danish linguist, created a private language, as is sometimes
>documented for twins. Because they weren't readily acquiring
>standard Icelandic, the parents separated the twins, sending the boy
>to a distant farm, where he died. After that, the girl continued to
>speak their shared language, and the community learned it in order
>to communicate with her and to insure that she learned enough
>religion for the salvation of her soul. There is almost no
>documentation of the language, so we can't know how close it was to
>Icelandic. The few other documented twin languages that I know of
>turn out to be quite clearly based on the surrounding language, with
>some phonological alterations and some innovations. Has anyone
>documented the extent to which such innovations are creative sound
>icons like those reported by Marie?
>
>another footnote:
>Marie's examples seem to be attempts at iconic representation in the
>acoustic modality, like visual icons in the motor modality shown in
>early gesture in both hearing and deaf children.
>
>Dan Slobin
>
>
>At 06:47 AM 8/29/2007, Brian MacWhinney wrote:
>>Dear Marie,
>> All children do this to some degree. What is remarkable is that some
>>chidlren only do a little bit of this and others much more. It would be
>>very helpful if you could tabulate his complete vocabulary and compute the
>>percentage of words that are conventional from the total. It would also be
>>helpful if you could track this over the next 10 months. If you had just
>>this basic information on a case of this type, you would perhaps have more
>>than I can think of in the current literature. Possibly other info-childes
>>readers will know of something I have missed.
>> There is, of course, the famous case of the lady in Iceland who invented
>>her own language and forced everyone to learn that. If you couldn't speak
>>her language, you couldn't really interact with her at all. I wonder what
>>experiences your son has when trying to communicate with people outside your
>>family who have not yet learned his language.
>>
>>--Brian MacWhinney
>>
>>
>>On 8/29/07 6:05 AM, "mariehojholt" <mariehojholt at stofanet.dk> wrote:
>>
>> >
>> > 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
>> >
>
> >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
>Dan I. Slobin, Professor of the Graduate School
>Professor Emeritus of Psychology and Linguistics
>
>Department of Psychology email: slobin at berkeley.edu
>3210 Tolman #1650 phone (Dept): 1-510-642-5292
>University of California phone (home): 1-510-848-1769
>Berkeley, CA 94720-1650 fax: 1-510-642-5293
>USA http://ihd.berkeley.edu/slobin.htm
> >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
>
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
Dan I. Slobin, Professor of the Graduate School
Professor Emeritus of Psychology and Linguistics
Department of Psychology email: slobin at berkeley.edu
3210 Tolman #1650 phone (Dept): 1-510-642-5292
University of California phone (home): 1-510-848-1769
Berkeley, CA 94720-1650 fax: 1-510-642-5293
USA http://ihd.berkeley.edu/slobin.htm
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
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