Vocabulary

When Salma learns a new word, she will say it over and over. Her new word now is "rabbit". Sometimes she will leave out the "R" and say "abbit". Last night it was always "rabbit rabbit rabbit". And then a few times it was "rabbit rabbit baby". Because now she knows how to say "baby", too.

At first I thought she's just picking up on the sounds, and that she doesn't yet know how to put the word and the meaning together. But apparently, she does. Because... well... I was reading to her a book, "Rainy Day", and the main characters in the book were 3 little children - one little girl, and two little boys. Each time she will point to the picture of the little kids and say, "baby". And I will say, "No, not baby, 'little girl' and 'little boy'." So... she knows that "baby" is a small child, but does not yet know that babies are only applicable for children ages 1 and below. Because ages 1 and above is technically a toddler right? But she gets the point. There were pictures of dogs and cats, but she didn't point to them and say "Baby".

In school, they call her "baby salma". And they call the other babies the same way, so she has gotten to understand that her other friends are all "babies". Which is why when she sees another baby, she will turn to me and say, "baby". And I will reward her by clapping hands and say, "Yes, baby! Clever girl!" And she will clap her hands and say "yay!". Hehehe

When we got to school this morning, I asked her, "Mana rabbit?" ("Where's the rabbit?"), and she looked to the caged rabbits in the corner, and said, "abbit!" So she knows, the animals in the cages at the front of the school are rabbits. But I'm not sure whether she can tell the difference between a rabbit and another animal. But at least she knows that a rabbit is an animal and not human.

The one word that I'm not sure she knows the meaning of is "habis" ("finished"). She will say "abish" even when she's not done yet, so maybe because it's not a noun, it's a little more difficult for her to fathom? Not sure. At the moment, "habis" is the first verb she's learned. Everything else is a noun: mama, papa, baby, rabbit. Oh and 'bye-bye'.. but that's not a noun. I don't know what it is...