Heart of Dirkness: October 2007

22 October, 2007

Another new word!

Dirk said his own name this evening. He now has a vocabulary of over half a dozen words:

Dirk
Mama
Daddy
Baa (as in sheep!)
Tea (for any meal)
Bzzz (as in bee!)

Other words he can "say", if you're pretty relaxed about pronunciation:

aghn-aghn (banana)
bffz (ball)
bffz-bffz (balloon)
dah* (toast)
'ngh-'ngh** (Connor)
tiss (kiss)***
zeez (cheese)

If you count complete nonsense, Dirk is extremely well-spoken! He will grunt and babble at length, with varied stresses and intonations. He's obviously saying something. His namesake would doubtless point out that any problem we have with this is ours as it is we who don't understand.

Conversely, Dirk's understanding of our spoken words seems far superior to ours of his. He likes to point at his nose, ears, etc when asked. He can point at another person's features if their name is included in the request. He can point at various animals in his books, and even identify, say, a bird in a picture which is new to him.

Of course, the big question is this:

If he hasn't said "gleeba" yet, does it mean he's not going to be a scientist?

* = abstract but unmistakable; this is Dirk's favourite word. (And , indeed, thing.)

** = If Station was the martian who could "make one word mean anything", then Dirk is the little boy who can make one grunt mean everything. (eg: When Dirk is standing outside his brother's bedroom door like an abandoned puppy, a double-"ngh" means "Connor.")

*** = Curiously, Dirk learned the word and the deed within seconds of each other.