Both of my kids, now aged 8 and 5 and fairly articulate, went through a phase where they would consistently mispronounce certain words (the same words in both cases), despite all attempts to correct them. These words were:
Hospital - became ‘Hostiple’
Plastic - became ‘Plaskit’
Lobster - became ‘Lozber, Lozbztber, Loztber…Loz… I can’t say it!’
Magazine - became ‘Mazageeeen’ (my favourite)
What about yours?
Pasketti. (For spaghetti, naturally.) It was years before I realized what it was supposed to be.
My daughter consistently amazed us with her early articulateness, but she did go through a brief phase at about 18 months of asking to have the radio on so she could hear the mucus.
Par Cark.
No kids myself, but mom told me that when I was a kid, I would say that I lived on a “Bullbard” (boulevard) and we lived near the “Ogadagas” (Onondaga [Indian Reservation]).
And the big kids (I was under six) always had a ‘toin coss’ before their ‘bayball’ game.
One said psgetti (spaghetti), hopsital (hospital), and net (tent).
The other, stippy take (sticky tape), jink (drink) and skizzors (scissors).
I’m sure there were many others but just can’t recall them right now.
My word was Thermometer. I said, “Fermometer” up until 3rd or 4th grade.
That’s the correct pronunciation where I’m from… I fink…
My word was volleyball. I thought it was bollyball up till about 4th grade. My brother still teases me about it. blushes
My son has trouble pronouncing the word ‘homework’, he pronounces it ‘playstation’.
My oldest daughter, now 16, started talking very early, and was very articulate, with a few exceptions:
Living room: “livering room”
Refrigerator: “Figer-re-rator”
Blueberry muffins: “Berry nuffins”
My middle child was speech delayed, but when she finally started talking (well after her third birthday), she pronounced everything correctly.
My youngest, now 4, is also speech delayed, and often puts an “n” on the beginning of a word, instead of the beginning it’s supposed to have. Lunch becomes “nunch” go becomes “no” and that’s becomes “nat’s”. She also pronounces “okay” as “o-hay”. As a result, if I accidentally bump into her or something and say “excuse me” she says “nat’s o-hay”. Makes me grin every time!
Not only kids, the whole world has trouble with this one - imagination. I was watching a documentary on TV today and they repeatedly pronounced imagination as ah-mage-ah-nation.
My little brother pronounced “motorcycle” as “Mo-mo sykesyke” and “Ambulance” was “Ambleeamps.”
My mom still can’t say “Fillet.” She can say “Fill a” as in “Fill a bowl with fruit.” but “fillet” comes out as “Flila… flilala, shut up, you know I can’t say that word!”
Elfbabe had some trouble with “pheochromocytoma”. She kept saying “pheochromoscotoma”, which made no sense. But she was only 2 and a half at the time.
When I was a kid, I didn’t say shoes, I said “Be-os.” I have no idea why.
Also, I know a lot of little kids who say “pasketti” for spaghetti and “skissors” for scissors. Is this because they are generally difficult for young children to pronounce, or because adults pronounce it that way around them to be cute?
~M
The Little Lagomorph who just turned four pronounces “use” like “nooze” (“Did you nooze this one, Daddy?”). He also says “fink” instead of “think”.
He is a special case because he is partially deaf and wears hearing aids so one would expect him to maybe not be hearing everything perfectly but actually we just got his speech assessed and he is supposedly right on target.
brefkest = breakfast
As a kid, my sister always pronounced ‘syrup’ as “surryup.”
I babysat a little boy who had a friend named Jeremy. He always innocently pronounced it “Germy.”
My daughter said Yellow “Lello” and both my kids said crayons as “Crowns”.
I still say that and I’m 31.
I read that little kids often swap syllables. My daughter says “bunnot” for button and “kwirles” for squirrel. Fox comes out box, swiper is “fiffer” and Iguana is just “uana” Can you tell she likes Dora?
Chicken is “chee nay” and she calls our cat, Vera, “Oorah.” She finally figured out cheerios - that had her for a while - but milk is still ‘nilk.’
She will be three in May.