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Tuesday, January 6, 2009

A Note on Pronunciation

Dear Erin,

This will matter further on up the road. Pronunciation, correct pronunciation, is the hallmark of an educated person. In all of your future endeavours you will be judged firstly and most harshly on your ability to communicate the ideas in your head. No matter how brilliant you are and become, if you can't communicate your ideas then you are mute: you will contribute little to society. One of the easiest ways to communicate is through the spoken word, and it is of supreme importance that you be able to say exactly what you mean when you mean it to whom you mean it.

There is an "r" in both "shirt" and "fork". Make a note.

25 comments:

flutter said...

HA!!

Heather said...

Ha ha! Don't worry Dad, she'll get it eventually!

And perhaps one day you'll miss those mispronunciations.

Anonymous said...

Heh. We're having a similar situation with our 3 year old Emma. Her problem word is "funky." She misses the "n" everytime...and Funkytown is one of her favorite songs. Cute? Absolutely. Embarassing? You betcha.

Momma Trish said...

Awesome.

My boy had issues with "truck" ... which, for future reference, begins with "tr", which sound is not interchangeable with "f".

Annette said...

My 6yr old still says "Mickel Donald's" instead of McDonald's. The worst was a little boy I took care of, "What is it?" always came out as "sh*t". Both his mom and I were concerned because she said the latter QUITE often, at least till he started saying it.

Bean's Mom said...

that was fabulous! Oh and I feel your pain.

Mandie said...

Reading is not good enough. I remember the first time I said "Macabre" out loud. In a telephone interview while I was working for a newspaper. Oy.

Quentin used to say "frog" in a way that sounded disturbingly like another f-word. Ah well, as long as they're under 4, it's still cute. :)

Anonymous said...

you brought back a memory from onlya year ago that had already started to become distant.....My 6year old never had any problems. He didn't talk until he was over 3 but he didn't say funny words.

However my now 4 year old talked early but he had some words, (and still does) that were just hilarious.

It was last year at Christmas that he was told to get out of the car and he had taken off both his socks and shoes and he leaned up between the seats after we stopped and said, "I need someone to help me put my fockin'shoes on" That would socks and shoes if the f and the letter s just have problems.

He also was taking his coat off at daycare one morning and I shocked him. HE was running around wild hollering, You focked me, you focked me.....

And, now, as he is a little older and those words are corrected, he still has a few words...for instance, we have had horrible flooding here and all he wants to talk about are the "pud muddles"

Trust me when I say that the first one was funnier when no one was around but when people are listening, pud muddle is much easier on the ears.

ChurchPunkMom said...

picky picky... whatever happened to freedom of speech??

Jill said...

If/when she ever gets into Thomas the Tank Engine -- or when your little boy to be does -- make sure to make that point with Thomas's friend Percy. Go ahead, say it out loud without the R. I'll wait...

InTheFastLane said...

Those "r"s can really make a mess of things. LOL

Mrs. Booms said...

On the bright side... At least what she is saying are actual words. I have to translate into toddler for everyone else that talks to my son. He speaks in complete sentences that are complete jibberish.

MereCat said...

Funny! We have the same problem. More with fork than shirt, though. It helps that we sign fork when we say it, though. It greatly softens the delivery.

Jenny Grace said...

My friend's daughter (twoish) pronounces truck sorta more like cock. Contextually this is usually fine. When she says things like "My daddy has a big truck!" it's slightly less fine.

Anonymous said...

When he was younger, my nephew's favorite restaurant was "Kenfucky Fied Kitchen". Thank goodness his pronunciation and choice in restaurants have improved.

Weith Kick said...

I like to think the hallmark of an educated person is the correct usage of dangling participles.

Anonymous said...

MY 3yr old has a fairly large and unusual vocabulary, often assisted by my mother, who likes to teach her the really big words.

We were all out to dinner one night, and my daughter was chewing with her mouth open. So my mother looks at her and says, 'Honey, no one wants to see you masticate.'

The next day at school? I get pulled aside when I'm picking her up. It happened that, at her table during snack time, she looked at the only boy at the table and told him the same thing.

Three year old speak? Yeah. Masticate can sound a LOT like masturbate.

anymommy said...

Aw, she'll be learning text messaging speak before you know it. Think what that's done to teen language!

Anonymous said...

Tangential, at best:

My not-quite-three-year-old was just learning about 'bad' words, and had just started montessori. In Manhattan. Where the worldly toddlers go to school.

He stood up in the tub and said, "..and we NEVER say 'fucky face'"

Well, no... UNTIL NOW! I have been trying to work it into insults ever since.

Petra a.k.a The Wise (*Young*) Mommy said...

Don't feel bad, my daughter says shit all the time, but she means it as shit.

Loralee Choate said...

I feel your pain. Trust me, I feel your pain. (I suppose it runs in the family. ;P )

Momo Fali said...

Please, she's cute. She could speak pig-Latin and it would be adorable. Let her cuss like a sailor. No one will care!

Corina - Down to Earth Mama said...

Very funny. At least she is not saying the same damn bad joke over and over again until your head explodes.

2 year old son.
"Mommy, Mommy. Guess What?"

Me: "What?"

Son:
"Chicken Butt.... Mommy, Mommy. Guess What..."

You get the idea.
He doesn't even get the joke.

Anonymous said...

LOL! That's so funny! My kid purposely leaves the 'r' out of shirt. she doesn't know what it means, but it makes her laugh.
(btw, sorry I haven't been around in FOREVER! Finally catching up with google reader.)

Anonymous said...

My 1-year-old doesn't pronounce the "r" in "fork" either. As of now, though, I think it's hilarious.