Gwena has been babbling for a few weeks now. She started with "ma ma" and later moved on to "la la" "ba ba" "da da" and my favorite "blah blah".* Now, I am well aware that she isn't actually talking yet. "Mama" was not her first word. This is what logic and my knowledge of linguistics and language development tell me. But I won't deny it melts my heart every time she says it!
"Mama" means the same thing in many different languages. It's the first thing most babies say, not because they're talking about their moms, but because it's simply one of the easiest sounds for babies to make. Of course, the moms then interpret it as referring to themselves! Who else would the baby be talking about?
I always thought this fact was funny... I thought other moms were silly when they'd say their 6 month old had said his first word, "mama".* Yet now when Gwena says it, I find myself responding!
"Mamamamamama!"
"Aw, I'm right here baby."
"Dadadadadada!"
"That's right, daddy's coming home from work soon."
I know she doesn't attach meaning to those sounds yet, I know she isn't talking! Maybe I'm just so starved for human interaction from staying home all day that I'm willing to pretend she's talking. Maybe it's an instinctual maternal reaction. Maybe that's how she'll eventually learn to associate the meaning with the sound. In any case, I feel like I'm betraying all my linguistical education.
Jon laughs at me every time I answer her. "She's not talking about you, you know."
But I can't help it, her babbling is just so cute and it's fun to have "conversations" with her. So I'm not going to try to stop, I'm embracing the motherly silliness!
*Oh yes, I put those periods outside the quotation marks on purpose. Long live the Campaign for Typographical Freedom! (If you don't know what that is, please read The Great Eskimo Vocabulary Hoax by Geoffrey K. Pullum!)
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