Emma always had a remarkable ear for language. Maybe that’s why there were very few things that Emma mispronounced, even when she was first learning to talk. I do remember a few, though. She called a wash cloth a wath closh. She called a bathing suit a bailing suit. For a long time, she called her leotard a lead guitar; dessert, for-sert and whipped cream, with cream.
When she got into her teens, she would occasionally mispronounce a word that she had read, but had never heard spoken and when we would try to correct her she would get indignant. One night I remember Emma was talking about how much she liked some wafer cookies that we had received as a gift. “I love those wah-fer cookies,” she said. “Actually, it’s pronounced way-fer,” Peter or I noted. “Well, I pronounce it wah-fer,” Emma declared with great authority. We have pronounced it wah-fer in our house ever since.
I have another one...it's Mitchell Kie-Won.
ReplyDeleteSome of Emma's mispronunciations just came from reading a lot. Like her grandmother who wondered why girls in novels were always getting "mizled" (misled) or her father who informed his mother that Mickey Mantle had once hit a baseball off the Fay-cade at Yankee Stadium (the rest of the world chose to pronounce facade differently), Emma had her personal book mispronunciations.
ReplyDeleteOne day she told us she had been reading a great book about someone she really admired. "Who?" we asked.
Emma replied that she'd been reading about Mitchell Kie-won.
We told Emma we didn't know anything about this Mitchell Kie-won. "Tell us about this Mitchell," we said.
"Well, she’s an ice skater. She's very famous."
"Hmmm, still not ringing a bell, Em. But this Mitchell is a she?"
"Yes. She's very graceful, and I think she's beautiful. She's been in the Olympics, Daddy. I'm surprised you haven't heard of her."
"Uhh, Em, I think it's not Mitchell. Could you be talking about Michelle Kwan?"
"Maybe, but it looks more like Mitchell."