Trilingual Toddler

Here are two conversations my 22-month old toddler and I had recently.

Me: "Nrouhou letounoubil?" (shall we go to the car?)
Baby: "Oui! Auto!" (Yes! Car!)

Tot: "Berra!" (outside!)
Me: "Nrouhou berra?" (shall we go outside?)
Tot: "Oui, berra. Come. Sebbati" (Yes, outside. Come. My shoes)

There's so much going on in these few sentences.

First, my Algerian dialect clearly shows French and Spanish influences: the word for car stems from automobile;  the word for shoes comes from zapato.

Then my daughter says the Arabic berra, the german Auto, the English come and the French oui. Mind you, not really sure whether she's saying come or komm in German.

In any case, BK4 is officially at least trilingual!

Denglish

BK2 just said "Nein Papa, wir haben unseren Mind gechanget!" (No dad, we changed our minds)

As usual, the (German) grammar is pretty much spot on.

Awesome.

BK2 Worries about her French

We're going to France tomorrow to visit friends.

In the bath this evening, BK2 expressed her worries about being able to communicate with our friends' kids, because they only speak French.

We try to tell her she'll be fine and she speaks a lot of languages, but she's not convinced.

"Ich gette muddled up!" she exclaims, "I'm getting muddled up!".

If you're German, you will have noticed: that was supposed to be a German phrase.

The first word as well as the grammar were indeed German. The rest: not so much.

But how adorably has she captured the very essence of her worries in just one multi-lingual sentence!

It's not Them, it's You!

"With all those languages, aren't you afraid your children won't learn any language properly?"

Heard that before, haven't we?

The latest incarnation came from a French au-pair girl who works for our neighbours. She reported that often, our children wouldn't understand her.

Turns out she based that on the fact that they didn't answer her, giving her the impression she had not reached through.

In reality, they almost certainly did understand everything she said.

But they know that she is monolingual. They knew exactly what they wanted to say, and usually would have said it easily using their vintage Arabic-French mix with some English thrown in, but of course she wouldn't have understood them, and they knew it.

So instead, they decided to just not say anything. Easier.

In essence, the problem here is not that the Babelkids don't understand French. The problem is, in fact, that the au-pair doesn't understand Arabic.

Ha.

Unusual Mixing of Languages

The following discussion happened earlier tonight:

Me (to the Babelwife): J'ai quand même arreté bosser il y a 10 minutes... [French: I only finished working about 10 minutes ago]
BK1: Warum? [German: Why?]
Me: Weil ich heute tierisch viele Sachen machen mußte. [German: I had to do shedloads of things today.]
BW (didn't really listen): Quoi? [French: What?]
BK1: blabla besaf blablabla [Arabic: he had to do lots of things today.]

Interestingly enough, we notice these kinds of situations. That can only mean they don't happen that often. Who would have thought?

Also: I can not repeat Arabic phrases my family use. Neither vocally nor in writing. Sorry about that.

Not Mixing Languages - Extreme Edition

Our friends have a little boy called S who just turned 4 a week ago.

I think I have mentioned before that I sometimes address children in German whether they speak it or not, and S is no exception. In fact, I started early on and I somehow must have thought he would eventually learn it, but of course he didn't.

S is trilingual: he speaks Arabic, French and English. So we have two languages in common, right?

Well... for some reason, I just kept on speaking German with him over the years. And he, inexplicably, has decided to speak Arabic with me. Except for rare occasions where something really important has to be said and either of us will switch to French or English, we both speak a language that the other just doesn't understand. It's hilarious.

Earlier today, we walked towards our cars and he pointed to something and said:

S: (a long series of words that I cannot repeat)
Me: Ich habe keine Ahnung was Du sagst, S (I have no clue what you're saying, S)
S (slightly annoyed): WOT?

I wonder whether he speaks Arabic to me because I speak German to him.

And I wonder whether we will both eventually give in, or rather learn the others language :-)

Multilingual goes Mad!

8.15 PM, the Babel Residence, childrens' room. BK1 & BK2 are drawing.

I interrupt them and ask BK2 where her pyjama bottoms are. BK1 remembers they should be in the bath room. BK2 then exclaims:

"Ich habe gemagict die away!" (I made them disappear using magic)

If you are German (and I suspect only then) you will notice that she took a perfectly normal German phrase ("Ich habe die weggezaubert") and translated the verb, leaving the grammar pretty much intact (well, in her way).

This is the first time I really noticed her doing it that way round.

Interesting...

Updated Family Language Diagram

It's been a long time but here comes the updated language diagram, now with BK3!

BK1 & BK2 both speak English by default, except when they talk about what they play, which they still do in Arabic. They also speak German and French when the situation is right. The mix a lot when they speak with us, and even when they don't, the grammar more often than not is English.

It is called "majority language" for a reason. *sigh*

BK3 obviously doesn't speak so far. The girls will address her in whatever language is appropriate. They will speak Arabic with her if she is with Babelmum and German if she is with me. If BK3 is alone they will use whatever language first crosses their minds, I think.

We need more holidays in Algeria and Germany, I guess. Or more visitors.

Nursery Rhyme II

BK2 (3 years yesterday):
Incy wincy ankaboot climbed up the water spout
Down came the shta and wiped ankaboot out
Out came the smisha and dried up all the shta
Incy wincy ankaboot climbed up the spout again

Incy Wincy

The girls discovered the proper Arabic word for spider in a board book I offered them at Christmas. They love this book, both of them now (try to) sing the arabic alphabet. They now know the arabic words for frog, chick, rabbit, spider and cockerel.

The thing is, apart from the most familiar animals such as dog, cat, cow and sheep, I mostly use the French words for animals. So until now a chick has always been poussin and a spider has always been araignée. Now a chick is also "sous" and a spider is "ankaboot". I am chuffed that they embraced so readily these new words.

Now I should give myself a kick in the backside and start teaching BK1 some basics for reading and writing Arabic.

Oh, and the girl's favourite nursery rhyme at the moment is:
Incy Wincy Ankaboot climbed up the water spout ... BabelDad and I find their rendition absolutely hilarious!

Babelkids and Languages

It's interesting to follow the development of language between BK1 and BK2.

When they are playing they often switch to English, especially if they're pretending to be someone else or something else. They have done this for a long time, even before BK2 started attending pre school.

But when they discuss something serious or switch to talking about what they play, they switch language immediately.

Amazingly, they have different preferences: BK1 always switches to Arabic while BK2 uses German as much as Arabic!

I have no explanation for this. Is German easier for BK2? Maybe.

The funny thing is that whoever switches away from English first sets the language they both will use, at least for a couple of phrases. They will then invariably fall back to Arabic at some point before they go back into play and use English again.

Funny, isn't it?

Invasion of the English Accent!

BK1 is jumping about in the living room, singing a nursery rhyme.

It takes a bit before I realise she sings it in French but with a really thick English accent. I turn to the Babelmum and whisper: "did you hear that? She sings in French with an English accent!" when I notice she has switched to German with a really thick English accent.

No idea whether she was making a joke or trying on accents and languages, but she clearly did it on purpose.

All I can think about is how incredible is the linguistic computing power in that head?! I'm completely in awe!

More English

BK2 started pre-school yesterday.

She will only go twice a week for the time being, but it's the first time she'll be immersed in English more or less exclusively. How will that affect her languages?

Currently she is speaking mostly French and Arabic with Babelmum and BK1 and something that sounds like German with me. She also speaks English when she plays in the street, but because we're in Manchester and it is raining all the time she doesn't do it that much.

I guess the good thing is that her friend is in the same pre-school and she speaks french and arabic with him.

We'll see how the diagram changes in the future ;-)

Multilingual Phrases are not Dead

No, they're back with a vengeance!

Babelmum and the Babelkids are still with the in-laws in Algeria. Their Arabic is getting better and better and naturally the other languages are on a bit of a holiday, so to speak. Probably relaxing at the beach while I'm working, those lazy .... Anyway.

I had BK1 on the phone earlier via skype, and when we had finished, she said:

"Kann ich abcrochen?"

That's three languages, German, English & French. German provides two words ("Kann ich" = "Can I"), one prefix ("ab") and correct grammar, French provides part of one word ("crocher" comes from "raccrocher" = "to hang up") and English, well, my guess is that she translated "raccrocher" to "hang up" and then split "raccrocher" apart and tried to make it German by translating the "up" to "ab".

Or maybe she actually said "Kann ich upcrochen", I'm not sure.

Whichever it is, "crochen" is the correct verb form for this sentence. Or rather it would be if it was a German word.

Why English?

I think we have mentioned before that BK1 & BK2 often use English when they're playing. Now that BK2 is starting to really speak this has only increased. The Babelwife and I try to stop them, but frankly, it's a losing battle.

The funny thing is that they switch back to Arabic, German or French as soon as they want to tell the other something important or non play-related.

So why do they use English when they play?

My guess is that BK1 spends most of her time with children who speak English and she obviously plays with them a lot. She does not play with me or BW as much. So in a play situation, the language is likely to be English. That means that whatever she says in that situation will be easily available in her head in English but not necessarily in another language.

BK1 and now BK2 basically have a huge repertoire of play-related phrases in their heads, all English.

BW has another theory which she will hopefully publish here soon. Watch this space!

Missing out on Finesse?

Does any of our readers happen to know whether there is research on a possible correlation of parents' use of language and the time when children start to speak?

I have a theory: my daughters build sentences later than some of their monolingual friends because I do not speak with my wife in my native tongue.

Let me explain.

One of our friends' 2yo daughter is building sentences while BK2 is still at the stage where she uses at most two words together or speaks her own babbling. I am not concerned or anything but I wondered whether the fact that her mother studied languages and expresses herself extremely well helped the girl develop a better framework in her head while she acquired her language skills.

In our case this doesn't happen. I love talking, writing and reading German. I love playing with it. I am able to be a total nitpicker or use my German fairly creatively. But that only works well with people who are similarly eloquent. It certainly does not work with a 4-year-old like BK1. It also doesn't work for me when I speak English or French.

I'm sad to say that my daughters lose out on this aspect of German completely! And not only that: they do not see any of their parents use language in a way that we both are truly capable of. It is not a fundamental flaw in the OPOL method, though. Even between the two of us, we are not able to gauge the linguistic abilities of the other properly.

Makes me wonder whether my children would have been able to speak more refined German had both their parents been German-speakers...

I am an optimist. I am willing to bet that once they start reading books, they will be able to catch up or maybe even more than that: catch up for more than just one language.

Multi-lingual Words

Much like BK1 mixes words from different languages in one sentence, BK2 has started to create words by mixing words from different languages. Her most used two are:

The moon is "luned" from the French "lune" and the German "Mond".

And "upstairs" is "fuch" (pronounced "foo" with the German "ch" sound at the end), from Arabic "fouk" and German "hoch".

I wonder how her language skills will evolve now that she starts getting into it seriously. Here's looking forward to the next months!

On the different Arabics

Bk1 (4.5 yrs) and BK2 (1.5yrs) are mesmerised. They are watching Winnie the Pooh in Arabic. Rather Egyptian Arabic. BK1 seems to understand a couple of words, BK2 probably nothing. To BK1's advantage, she knows the story as she has already watched the DVD in French and German many times.

I am not sure people realise how many Arabic dialects there are out there, on top of classical Arabic which is mostly used for reading, writing and news broadcasts. The funny thing is different Arabic-speaking people do not always understand each other. It is a bit like a Spanish speaking with a Portuguese. Sound similar, have the same origin, but still different. Note this is coming from someone who speaks neither Spanish nor Portuguese.

We are lucky to have close Algerian friends who live nearby. They have two children of roughly similar ages to ours. BK1 and her little 6-year old friend speak mostly arabic between them. However, they sometimes switch to English. We find ourselves insisting that they speak arabic instead. Some people can find this weird. However, I feel that we need to give our minority languages a chance, by encouraging the children to use them when appropriate.

Family Language Diagram

I recently discovered and subsequently devoured "Multi Tongue Kids". Their setup is very similar to ours, only with different languages. I very much liked the "Family Language Diagram" on the blog, so I did one for us as well.

I intend to update this regularly because part of the magic is that it changes all the time!

I will also try to make a couple of those depicting the past (when BK1 started to speak, before BK2 was around, after 4 weeks in Algiers, and so on). Should look good as a movie :-)

One thing to note in this first diagram is the absence of English. While we all speak English, we do not use it in house. My guess is that it'll creep into the picture now that BK1 is in school.

The other interesting aspect: Souad speaks two languages. I have  always thought of it as one ("that funny mix they speak in the Maghreb countries"), but BK1 is clearly not agreeing. Since we spent a lot of time in France this summer, she has become so much better and she now doesn't mix French and Arabic anymore.

[Update] Souad rightly points out that although Ines uses words from all three languages, she doesn't really "speak any of those languages" yet. So I changed the diagram.

Multilingual Phrase of the Day - Part VI

Earlier today, Lilia was poking a knife into a chocolate spread glass while preparing her breakfast. She looked at the glass then said:

  Papa... die Schokolade beginnt zu leersein (Papa... the chocolate begins to be empty)

Now I am not sure how many languages are in this phrase, to be honest. The words are all German, but the grammar is not. The translation doesn't sound like proper English either, does it?

My guess is that this is a French sentence, translated into German. Since we have been to France, Lilia's French has vastly improved, to the point where she has been putting French words into her German.

The interesting question is: does she currently think in French?