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language arts

the journal of Michael Werneburg

twenty-seven years and one million words

We've been wondering when our boy was going to start speaking. But it occurred to us finally that when his mum walks in the room and he smiles and yells "muhma" he's talking. So, too, when he comes running the length of the room and says "dahdeee".

In fact, he fairly reliably uses a vocabulary of five words. In addition to the two above, he says:

"hai" (Japanese)

He says this, for instance, when holding up a phone to pretend to speak into it. Or when someone calls his name and he raises his hand to indicate his presence/attendance.

"hey" (English, possibly)

When he's trying to get someone's attention or talk to someone on the other side of a door.

"bye-bye" (English and Japanese)

On a few occasions now he's said "bye-bye" when someone's leaving. This is accompanied by appropriate waving of his little hand. This word has been wholesale adopted by the Japanese in recent years (mostly by younger people, of course), just the way English speakers adopted "Ciao" a generation ago. So Ken's been hearing it from both English and Japanese adults and it's not surprising that this is a part of his early vocabulary.