language

Finally, the one morning that Kaspar decides to sleep like a normal child, the sparrows wake me up at 5:30 am. What gives? Yes, I’m slightly grouchy, but I’m getting it off my chest as we speak. And the hot cup of tea should do it’s job, as well.

I’ve kept meaning to write (for quite some time now) about Kaspar’s ever so improving language skills and the funny pronunciations of names he comes up with, but I always get sidetracked by something else. So This is the day, I’ve decided.

It’s been about two months since Kaspar began repeating names of people and showed great interest in calling people names even when we look at pictures in our photo albums. The first were the simple and easy ones “mamma, dada, gamma, gampa, omu, opu” (I will try my darn best to spell them the way he says it, not the way it’s spelled!!!) those were pronounced relatively close to the actual word. Even “Amada, Jamie, Loly, Henny, Kish and Atida” were quite understandable. (Just in case you did not guess the last few were Amanda, Lorry, Chris, Astrida) Up to this point it was relatively easy to get the drift. Most of the time he just opted out of using the letters that he could not pronounce but the general gist of the name was very understandable. He even gave himself a nickname - “Kabīts” would be the way I’d spell it in Latvian. In English it sounds close to “Cabby”, which is what dad has begun to call him now, but most of the time Kaspar very clear with the “ts” ending. Especially when he’s trying to introduce himself to people.

The most interesting combinations in his pronounciation and immagination began to appear when we arrived in Latvia and began to meet people with names that are three syllables long or even longer. I kept thinking to myself – if I do not write these down now, I’ll never forgive myself. As time goes on and Kaspar changes, I’m sure I’ll forget these. So here is a nice little selection of the most interesting. Because most of them are Latvian names, I will write them out in the following order – Kaspars pronounciation in Latvian (My best translation to English) and then the actual name in Latvian (and again my best translation of the name in English). To have a good laugh you have to say some of them out loud! Onku Pāu (Uncoo Paw) – Pāvilonkulis (Uncle Pavils); Pakučš (Packuch) – Patriks (Patrick); Madmems (Madmamms) – Madlena (Madeleine); Feigot (Faygott) – Feliks (Felix); Midzamoo (Midzamaw) – Mirdza More - that was Kaspar’s nick name for our neighbour, a grandmother figure of mine, who always gave him what he asked for and let him water her plants over and over again until they practicly drowned in water.

And if trying to figure out his language was not enough, then we also have the absolute obsession with everything red. It might have started with fire engines, I’m not sure… but ever since he’s learned his basic ten colours, everything “red” in the world is more exciting then any other colour. So, when we drive, it’s almost like playing “punch-buggy” with every red car that appears on the horizon. Don’t you even think about not participating…