This morning, my daughter (3½) told me excitedly she was going out with Daddy. “Where are you going?” I asked. She ran to her father to ask, and I heard his reply: “Au magasin de bricolage et au manège.” My daughter related to me: “Magasin de bricolage und Karussell!” Shows that the unimportant stuff (home […]

These days, I often find myself running for a pen and paper. Any pen and (virtually) any paper will do because the main thing is to write down as quickly as possible what my daughter (3½) just said. Why? Because half a minute later I will only remember what she said, but not how she […]

As I quote in my diploma theses, « Der Begriff Interferenz ist der Physik entlehnt und meint dort die Erscheinung, daß es durch die Überlagerung von Wellen (z.B. Radiowellen) zu Störungen kommt (z.B. Pfeiftöne im Radio). Auf die Situation des Zweispra­chigen übertragen meint der Begriff, daß sich Regeln der beiden Sprachen überlagern und es dadurch zu […]

This morning, I can’t remember in what context, my daughter (now almost 3½) said: “Je vais couper ein bisschen was ab.” Switch in mid-sentence without any trigger that I can see. (Maybe too early for the “switch-at-trigger” phase.) Did you notice the prefix “ab” placed in the final position (where it would belong if the […]

L’équipe du Labo Bébé de l’université Paris Descartes a publié son premier newsletter sur leur recherche. J’aime bien l’illustration de la cabine insonorisée: Vous pouvez lire leur newsletter en cliquant ici (fichier PDF).

The other day I was preparing my daughter for our upcoming dentist appointment. She had accompanied me to every single check-up since she was born, and half a year ago, she’d had her first very own check-up. As a reward, the dentist had let her choose a little plastic ring. So I reminded her of […]

German is well-known for its compound word, which are somewhat of a cliché even to those who don’t speak the language, with famous terms such as “Donaudampfschiffffahrtsgesellschaftskapitän(smütze)” or the recently revoked law “Rindfleischetikettierungsüberwachungsaufgabenübertragungsgesetz” (no joke). My daughter has her own category of compound words: Fledermausschaf/Fledermaushund/Fledermaus[insert animal of the day here] When she pretends to be […]

The German Sesame Street opening song hasn’t changed since I watched it, even though the opening sequence has. It was the first thing that jumped to mind in connection with what I noticed a few days ago: When my daughter speaks German, she will systematically use French articles. Mostly “la”, actually, but I haven’t made […]

Today we went to see French friends with kids. The parents both took German in school but admit they don’t remember much of it. When listening to our girl, they said she seems to have a slight German accent when she speaks French. That’s something I’m in no place to judge, and her dad says […]

Every parent, it seems, has a story of how their kid used a word or expression (usually a swearword) they weren’t supposed to know, which then begs the question: “Where did s/he hear that?” When the word or expression in question happens to be in the minority language (ml), the field of possible candidates is […]