Vocabulary

April 27th, 2010 by matt

For a while there, I was a little concerned about whether our kids were a little less verbal than some of their peers. Now that they’re eighteen months old, I thought I’d try to make a list of all of the words they can say. (As it happened, I mentioned the idea to Rachel, and she made a list, but I contributed to it.) Looking at the list, I’m no longer particularly worried.

This post, then, will serve as a little bit of history for later in life, when they won’t shut up.

Here’s all of the words the twins can say that we could think of, with the proper pronunciation in toddler dialect in parentheses. (If only one of them has a word, I tried to mark that as well.)

People

  • Mama (occasionally “mommy”)
  • Daddy
  • Eloise (“Ellie” or “Alwee” or “Owie”)
  • Julian (“Gi-gee” or “Doo-dee”)
  • Grandpa (“Ba-pa”)
  • Wapsy (“Wa-pee”)
  • Grammy (“Ba-bee”)
  • Several friends from school, including Avery (“A-wee”), Hannah (“Na-na”), and Apollo (“Uh-pah”)

Colors

  • red (“ya”)
  • yellow
  • green (“dee”)
  • blue
  • purple (“puh-puh”)
  • pink (“pee”)
  • brown [J] (“bwow”)
  • black (“bla”)
  • white (“wha”)

Body parts

  • nose (“no”)
  • eye
  • ear (“ee”)
  • elbow (“ow-boh”)
  • toe (“doh”)
  • knee
  • neck (“neh”)
  • back (“ba”)
  • leg [J] (“leh”)

Food

  • peas (“peeeeeeez”)
  • broccoli (“buh-la-buh-lee”)
  • apple/applesauce (“a-puh”)
  • Mum-Mum
  • snack (“na”)
  • cheese (“deeee”)
  • water (“wa-wa”)
  • bar (cereal bar) (“ba”)
  • noodles (“noo-noo”)
  • cracker (“kuh kuh”)
  • pasta [J] (“tas-pah”)
  • blueberries (“boo-bwee”)

Miscellaneous nouns

  • balloon (“buh-loo” or “boo”)
  • baboon (“ba-boo”)
  • blocks (“blaaaaaaaaaah”)
  • book (“buh”)
  • bottle (“ba-ba”)
  • bubble (“buh-buh”)
  • bowl (“bo”)
  • spoon (“suh-boo”)
  • tree (“dwee”)
  • flower (“fuh-vuh”)
  • park (“pah”)
  • outside (“ow-ee” [E] or “uh-tzuh” [J])
  • window (E) (“wi-woh”)
  • bus [E] (“buh”)
  • truck [J] (“dwah”)
  • moon (“moo”)
  • star (J) (“daw”)
  • baby
  • ball (“baaaa”)
  • barn (“ba”)
  • iPod (“a-puh”)
  • poop (“a-pu”)
  • shoe [E] (“doo”)
  • giraffe [J] (“doo-wah”)
  • beep beep (“bee bee”)
  • keys (“dee”)

Animals

  • kitty/meow (“diddy”/”mow”)
  • bird/tweet tweet (“buh”/”dzee dzee” or “tuh-wee”)
  • woof woof (“wuh wuh”)
  • quack quack (“kuh kuh”)
  • the sound a monkey makes (“oo-oo”)
  • neigh
  • moo
  • baa

Miscellaneous verbs and prepositions

  • eat (“ee”)
  • walk (“waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!”)
  • up
  • down (“dow”)
  • trade [J] (“doo-way”)
  • rock (“wa”)
  • ride [E] (“waaiiii”)
  • sleeping [E] (“pee-pee”)

Miscellaneous miscellany

  • yes (“yeah”)
  • no (“no no”)
  • hi
  • bye
  • please (“buh-lee” [J], “pee” [E])
  • more (“muh”)
  • all done (“ah dah”)
  • uh-oh!
  • oh no!
  • me
  • whee!
  • choo choo (“doo doo”)

It’s worth noting that these are just the words they can say. They understand much, much more, so stay on your toes.

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