Germlish? Engmanlish? Spangman?

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February 25, 2013 by empraise

It’s a strange concoction of words simmering in the soup pot of our house.  

I mentioned recently that Little M (now 18 months old) is trying his hand at some words, both German and Spanish.  Maybe even some English, but it’s hard to tell at this early stage where we are doing a lot of guessing about which sounds mean what.  It is clear, however, that he has assigned certain objects certain sylables, and that these sounds are often corresponding to one of the three languages spoken in our house.  

What’s even more fascinating is that his brain is already recognizing certain objects as having more than one label.  I wish I knew the technical term for this in terms of linguistics/multilingualism, but unfortunately, I don’t.  (A little help?  Anyone out there?) For example, a few days ago my husband asked Little M “Kannst du wasser sagen?  Can you say   water?  His confident reply?  Agua.  

Similarly, when I asked him in Spanish where the moon was, ¿Donde está la luna? he quickly pointed to the moon and said, Mond in German!  

Whatever this phenomenon is called…it is amazing to see effects of how his brain is already being shaped by this multilingual environment!