Default unstressed initial syllable? re-

[Carolyn Chaney]

These are great examples...lots of fun as well as interesting.  My son
Brian (now age 23) used "nuh" for unstressed function words...a place
holder.  I remember ther moment he "discovered" THE.  We were reading THE
CAT IN THE HAT and I pointed to the words reading the title, and I could
see the lightbulb over his head, as he said The (really da) Cat in da Hat.

Carolyn

On Mon, 10 Jan 2005, Glennen, Sharon wrote:

> My son at age 3 also used a "default" unstressed initial syllable, except in his case the syllable was "buh."  So we ate buhsketti, and buhzagna,  about and around became "buhbout," and "buhwound"  aquarium was "buhkarium" etc.  He began by using it for unstressed schwa syllables in the initial position, but then began using it for other initial unstressed syllables.  For example museum became "buhzeum," refrigerator was "buhfidgewator," and I was a "buhfessor."  He held onto this pattern for a long time, especially for the 3-4 syllable words.
>
> Sharon Glennen, Ph.D.
> Associate Professor
> Department of Audiology, Speech Language Pathology & Deaf Studies
> Towson University
> Towson, Maryland
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: info-childes at mail.talkbank.org
> [mailto:info-childes at mail.talkbank.org]On Behalf Of Lynn Santelmann
> Sent: Monday, January 10, 2005 12:39 PM
> To: info-childes at mail.talkbank.org
> Subject: Default unstressed initial syllable? re-
>
>
> First, let me confess that this is a purely personal question, inspired by
> my son's language weirdnesses --
>
> My son (age 3 1/2) is finally acquiring unstressed initial syllables. The
> odd thing is that he seems to have a "default" unstressed syllable, namely
> "re-". So, at our house we "remember" and "reget". I am a "refessor". We go
> to "reseums".
>
> I'm not sure if this is a resurgence of an earlier phase of "over-re" use -
> about a year ago, we talked about "recycling retrucks", "recycling rebins",
> "recycling reguys", or if it's a different thing. The earlier re- use came
> and went spontaneously in about a month, this one is hanging around a bit
> longer.
>
> Neither use of re is something I've ever read about, and my quick lit check
> didn't reveal anything either. Does anybody have any literature on this?
> And could it be related to the somewhat sketchy representation he seems to
> have for a lot of new words - we're getting a lot of malaprops these days
> (snowflags for snowflakes, Dora the Exploder, etc.)
>
> Thanks
>
> Lynn
>
> ***************************************************************************************
> Lynn Santelmann, Ph.D.
> Associate Professor, Applied Linguistics
> Portland State University
> P.O. Box 751
> Portland, OR 97201-0751
> phone: 503-725-4140
> fax: 503-725-4139
> e-mail: santelmannl at pdx.edu (that's last name, first initial)
> web: www.web.pdx.edu/~dbls
> *******************************************************************************
>
>
>
>