Overheard: Language lab

Stumped
I told Meggie that German and English are cousins. She said, "Like Spencer is my cousin?"

"Sort of," I said.

So we started talking about sound relationships like the correlation between "d" in German and "th" in English. I told her, "Try it. You give me 'th' words, and I'll tell you what they are in German."

h: "Think" is "denken." "Thumb" is "Daumen." "Three" is "drei."
m*: OK. I got one. Thorax.
h: Thorax?
m*: Yeah. Thorax.
h: Er... I'll have to check that one out.

Turns out that thorax doesn't work, because it's Latin. The German term is "Brustkorb"--literally, "chest basket." She stumped me. Swish.

Accent-uate the positive

Germans have allowed a lot of English words and phrases to bleed into their own vocabulary. They use words like "management," "business," "rock" and "pop"--just with a German lilt.

Grandma Grace: Meggie, what do they do in your class to celebrate birthdays?

m*: We sing Happy Birthday.

GG: How does it go?

m*: "Happy birthday to you--"

GG: I mean, how do they sing it in German?

m*: Oh! In German, it's "Heppy beeeersday tooooo youuuuuu. Heppy beeeersday tooooo youuuuuu..."

The one word

Laurel understands a decent amount of German these days. If we ask her simple questions like "Wo ist ____?" (Where is ____?), she will immediately answer (in English) where the object or person is. I have heard her speak German at school, but she does not like to speak it to Alan or me. Well, except for this:

h: Can you say something in German?

l*: No.

h: Aw, sure you can.

l*: Nope. I can't.

h: Aw, come on.

l*: No.

h: Please?

l* (sighs): Nein.

Expressly stated

Right after our train pulled out of the Cologne station when we visited last month, Laurel said she had to go to the restroom. So we rushed her to the bathroom cabin. As the train started to gain speed, Laurel had a realization.

l*: I is on the potty. And I is riding the train. I is potty-training!

Technically, she was right on track.