Sunday, March 6, 2005

What Noah can say

Utterance	Meanings	Derviations
Aba	up, down, upwards, downwards	engl. "up", Sw.Ger. "abe" downwards
Ätä	eat	Sw. Ger "ässe", eat
Ba	ball	engl. "ball", Sw. Ger "Ball"
Baaba	bathe	Sw. Ger "baa-deh", bathe
Bapa	Grandpa (David)	engl. "Grandpa"
Bopo	Bopi (Grandpa Simon)	Cousin Seraphina's "Bopi", from Sw. Ger "Grossboppi"
Buba	boy (also possible secondary meaning "to clean")	Sw. Ger "Bueb" boy (also Sw. Ger "putze" to clean)
Dada	thank you / please can I have that / here, take this	Sw. Ger "danke" thank you
Dä	this, that, gimme	Sw. Ger "das" that or "dä do" that there
Dädä	Daddy	engl. "Daddy"
Ditte	drink	Sw. Ger "trinke", engl. drink
Lala	Laurel	our friend Laurel
Mama	Mommy	Sw. Ger and engl. "Mama" mother
Mäma	Grandma (Karen)	engl. "Grandma"
Mämä	girl	Sw. Ger "meitli" girl
Momo	Momi (Grandma Rita)	Cousin Seraphina's "Momi", from Sw. Ger "Grossmami"
Nänänä	No	Sw. Gr. "Nei, nei, nei" no, no, no
Nä	Noah, I want to be involved in this interaction, possibly secondary meanings of "No" and "yes"	"Noah", also engl. "no", Sw. Ger. "nei" no
Vava	Aviva	Aviva
Yä	yes (rarely attested)	engl. "yes" or "yeah", Sw. Ger. "ja" or "jo" yes

(Esther runs a close second, but the unchallenged expert in interpreting Noah's utterances is Aviva; she is the principal reference for this list.)