Did I mention that Maya is getting seriously scary good at Arabic? She is like a language sponge right now. Today we ordered pizza for dinner. When the pizza delivery man came with the pizza, Miss Maya shouted "Izzayak" (How are You?) at him.
Then he asked her: "Ismik Eh?"
She said: "Maya".
For those of you who haven't figured it out already, "Ismik Eh" means "What is your name?"
She answered his question without anyone translating for her. How does she know what it means? I don't get it.
OK, in all fairness, Maya's Amharic and English are both way stronger than her Arabic. She has words and phrases in Arabic, but I don't think she has anywhere near the level of comprehension. But still. We never made any effort to teach her a single word of Arabic. I know she hears it at the park every day, and she hears me speak it on the phone. But no one that I know of actually speaks Arabic directly to her. I am really surprised by how much she is picking up.
Oh yeah, did I mention that when she wants a kiss, she asks for a "Bousa" (the Arabic word). She knows both the Amharic word (Samie) and the English word, but she is a little rebel and she prefers to ask in Arabic.
Showing posts with label Arabic. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Arabic. Show all posts
Tuesday, 22 January 2008
Sunday, 13 January 2008
Lovin' the glottal stop
Miss Maya has surprised us in the past week by picking up a handful of Arabic words, phrases and sounds, much to our amusement and despite the fact that she has no caregivers who speak to her in Arabic!
Her exposure to Arabic is limited to hearing other parents and nannies talking to their kids at the park or at her music and art classes, even though the classes themselves are in English. She also hears me talking on the phone in Arabic constantly due to my job. I probably get phone calls roughly twice an evening in Arabic and a couple times a day on weekends. As a result, Maya thinks that Arabic is the language of the telephone. And in fact I rarely speak on the phone in any other language, unless relatives call.
So the other day Maya picked up her toy phone and had a conversation on it entirely in Arabic. It was a cross between ordering groceries on the telephone and barking instructions.
It was like this: "Allo, Allo! Fih eh? La'a. La'a. Ummmm. Malesh. Kull Kwayyis!"
That translates to: "Hello Hello. What do you have? No. No. Ummmm. Never mind. It's all good."
I knew she had some Arabic words. But this was practically a full conversation. It was really totally unexpected. Anyway, her most recent Arabic word is La'a, which means "no" and has a glottal stop in it (the apostrophe marks the glottal stop). In Egypt, people emphasize the glottal stop to make the word "no" sound more vehement. And Maya is loving it. In fact she has adopted it in English as well. So now instead of saying just "No" in English, Maya says: "No'o" with a great big glottal stop in the middle. It is hilarious!
Anyway, for those of you who have no idea what a glottal stop sounds like in Arabic, I will try to catch it on video so you can hear. But I can't do it now because she's going to sleep. So it'll have to wait!
Her exposure to Arabic is limited to hearing other parents and nannies talking to their kids at the park or at her music and art classes, even though the classes themselves are in English. She also hears me talking on the phone in Arabic constantly due to my job. I probably get phone calls roughly twice an evening in Arabic and a couple times a day on weekends. As a result, Maya thinks that Arabic is the language of the telephone. And in fact I rarely speak on the phone in any other language, unless relatives call.
So the other day Maya picked up her toy phone and had a conversation on it entirely in Arabic. It was a cross between ordering groceries on the telephone and barking instructions.
It was like this: "Allo, Allo! Fih eh? La'a. La'a. Ummmm. Malesh. Kull Kwayyis!"
That translates to: "Hello Hello. What do you have? No. No. Ummmm. Never mind. It's all good."
I knew she had some Arabic words. But this was practically a full conversation. It was really totally unexpected. Anyway, her most recent Arabic word is La'a, which means "no" and has a glottal stop in it (the apostrophe marks the glottal stop). In Egypt, people emphasize the glottal stop to make the word "no" sound more vehement. And Maya is loving it. In fact she has adopted it in English as well. So now instead of saying just "No" in English, Maya says: "No'o" with a great big glottal stop in the middle. It is hilarious!
Anyway, for those of you who have no idea what a glottal stop sounds like in Arabic, I will try to catch it on video so you can hear. But I can't do it now because she's going to sleep. So it'll have to wait!
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