Amurta

For whatever reason Amurta’s mom sends her to the free preschool held in our compound at age 2.  She started crying for her mommy, so I had to pick her up to comfort her and I started carrying her around.  I was drinking water and she says, “enti?” meaning “what.”  I figured she was asking me “what is it?” so I said, “water.”  She repeats.  “Waterlu.”  Then she points at the talcum powder and questions, “enti?”  I reply, “powder.”  “Powdera” she repeats.  Mirror becomes “Miramu.”  I couldn’t stop giggling to myself because at the young age of 2 she has already somehow realized, perhaps subconsciously, that words must end with a vowel.  So she added a vowel to every word I taught her.  Her accent is out-of-this-world cute!

In Telugu, all consonants are attached to vowels, so you wouldn’t have a word like “Macdonald” in which there is no vowel between the “c” and “d” sounds.  It's so amazing how toddlers subconsciously know grammatical structure without anyone teaching them.  Anyhow, the kids keep me amused.