Request for examples of children's speech

Joel S. Berson Berson at ATT.NET
Fri Jul 8 16:27:43 UTC 2011


My nephew once said, when thinking about the skill in drawing he and
his sister had, which was comparable to their mother's, "It must be
in our dungarees."

At a younger age, while looking out his apartment window at the New
York City streets 20 stories below, he asked what the trucks were
that he was seeing down below.  When told they were garbage trucks,
he cogitated, and then asked, "Do they bring the garbage?"

Joel

At 7/8/2011 12:10 PM, Cohen, Gerald Leonard wrote:
>      I am presently compiling examples of children's
> misintepretations of what they hear from adults,
>e.g. (from a 3-year-old girl): "Our father, who art in heaven,
>Hollywood [hallowed] be thy name,"
>(from another 3-year-old girl): "Hail, Mary, full of gravy [grace],"
>and from various children who have mangled the Pledge of Allegiance,
>e.g.,  as a composite: "and to the Republicans [republic] for
>Richard Stands [which it stands], one nation, invisible
>[indivisible], with liver and onions [liberty and justice] for all ."
>      If anyone has any more examples, I'd be very grateful to hear
> of them.  Due credit will of course be
>given in whatever is written up.
>Gerald Cohen
>Dept. of Arts, Languages, and Philosophy
>Missouri University of Science and Technology
>Rolla, MO 65409
>e-mail gcohen at mst.edu
>
>------------------------------------------------------------
>The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org

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The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org



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