an onomatopoeic toddler

[Alvino Fantini]

Dear Marie: You may be interested in comparing your son's development in 
this respect with that reported in my own work (see p. 99) in: Language 
Acquisition of a Bilingual Child, Multilingual Matters, 1985, still 
available from the SIT Bookstore (contact: carl.mcinerney at sit.edu). To quote 
one section:

"Mario favoured onomatopoeic sounds, whether playing with others or alone. 
The diary contains numerous examples of sounds made during play, some of 
which were so amazingly faithful that they were impossible to transcribe. He 
imitated animals, tractors, aeroplanes, rockets, car brakes, monsters, 
motors, explosions, sirens, hammers banging, and so forth."

I might add that this behaviour was prevalent during the early years and 
although he increasingly acquired words, he persisted in using a large 
amount of onomatopoeic sounds along with speech (unlike his younger sister) 
and, later, added graphics (he loved to draw his thoughts). So, I suppose 
this reflects the specific proclivities of some individuals more than 
others. Today, in his 30s, he continues to enjoy both modalities as 
dimensions of his expressive abilities. (Examples of the actual sounds are 
scattered throughout the speech diary, a portion of which is contained in 
the book).

And, by the way, he recently participated in the Erasmus Mundus program, 
studying in Aarhus, this past year, which he thoroughly enjoyed. Another 
side note -- Aarhus was also a town that participated over many years in 
international exchanges with other countries through the Danish Experiment 
in International Living (which unfortunately no longer exists in Denmark), 
and where I worked until retirement.

With best wishes,
Alvino
 
Dr Alvino E. Fantini, Professor Emeritus, SIT
Professor, Graduate School, MA in Language Communication
Kenkyu Research Center Bldg No. 1, 
Matsuyama University, 
4-2 Bunkyo-cho, Matsuyama, Ehime 790-85, Japan
Office tel: 089 926 7548 (Ext 42 / Cell tel: 080 5660 3640


-----Original Message-----
From: mariehojholt <mariehojholt at stofanet.dk>
To: info-childes at mail.talkbank.org
Date: Wed, 29 Aug 2007 12:05:15 +0200
Subject: an onomatopoeic toddler


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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