Our 26-month-old fourth daughter is in a unique linguistic and cultural set-up.
She was born in German-speaking Switzerland, lives in a mostly English-speaking neighbourhood and is spoken to in Arabic and French by her mother, German by her father, English by her three sisters, and Swiss/German/English by the environment.
Despite (or thanks to!) all these linguistic inputs, it is fair to say that her speech has recently exploded!
Just for fun, we started listing all the words and sentences she can say.
She can name 27 people, three dogs and one cat.
She can request songs by saying: "Timber", "Aicha", "Chebba", "Let it go".
She can say simple words such as pipi, caca, dodo, oui, bébé, no, yes, quoi, oui etc.
And she can say the following non-exhaustive list of common words and phrases.
She was born in German-speaking Switzerland, lives in a mostly English-speaking neighbourhood and is spoken to in Arabic and French by her mother, German by her father, English by her three sisters, and Swiss/German/English by the environment.
Despite (or thanks to!) all these linguistic inputs, it is fair to say that her speech has recently exploded!
Just for fun, we started listing all the words and sentences she can say.
She can name 27 people, three dogs and one cat.
She can request songs by saying: "Timber", "Aicha", "Chebba", "Let it go".
She can say simple words such as pipi, caca, dodo, oui, bébé, no, yes, quoi, oui etc.
And she can say the following non-exhaustive list of common words and phrases.
| Arabic | French | German | English |
|---|---|---|---|
| باب (door) | Nutella | heiss | thank you |
| خبز (bread) | fromage | Brot | what the heck |
| تشينة (orange) | banane | ab | go away |
| كلب (dog) | stylo | guck | again |
| قط (cat) | pardon | Auto | cat |
| برا (outside) | balançoire | Mund | come on |
| ضوء (light) | encore | Auge | sleep |
| صباط (shoe) | bus | Kopf | tractor |
| قعدي (sit) | camion | Kinn | mango |
| وعلاه (why) | manteau | Backe | seesaw |
| bêtise | Hals | iPad | |
| gaufre | Nase | ball | |
| crème | Hand | thank you | |
| glace | Finger | please | |
| compote | Jacke | gone | |
| debout | Lampe | move | |
| poubelle | Boden | TV | |
| poupée | Hund | hug | |
| Schuh | what did you do | ||
| Kuh | |||
| Zebra | |||
| Elefant | |||
| Tigger | |||
| Giraffe | |||
| Affe | |||
| Raus |
The influence of the environment via German and English is staggering already. I think I am doing well though, given I am the only source of Arabic and French.
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