Burly Babel-On

Over the last few days, less than a week, Burl has been making all kinds of new sounds, playing around with liquids and sibilants, singing and chattering away.

His intonation and inflection are all so conversational, in combination with his body language and facial expressions, he's really good at communicating so we've kinda been wondering when he'd get around to seeing the point of expanding his vocabulary. As if he knew we were thinking about this, Burl has started to add some more words; yes, soup, teletubbies (pronounced TubTub-yeah - I'm not sure if the yeah part is actually part of his version of 'tubbies or his way of saying, "Yeah, that's it! I said it right!"), lai lai (which means "come here" and which he has been signing for many many months)... Burl says something like NumNum for NuNu, the vacuum cleaner in tubbyland.

Here are links to a few videos of Burl Babel-On:

• From 19 Sep 08 - Burl making sounds and grunting - not really sounding too language-y


• From 19 Sept 08 - earlier in the day Burl inflecting and intoning yet not many words til the end when he beckons me,"lai lai."


• From 20 Sep 08 - Burl has long loved the tubbies but seldom gets to see them on tv, enjoying them in library books and squeeky-toy form. This is about to change cuz he loves them so much andnow asks for them by pointing to the tv and saying "TubTub-yeah!" He also says Po, LaLa, 'ello and bye-bye (not new). Burl also said "yes" and "soup" several times this afternoon!


• From 20 Sep 08 - When Burl mispronounces something I've asked him to say, he seems surprised and tries to shake it off with a grinning grimace, a head shake and the word "nooo..." In this video, Burl says "TubTubTubTub..." and then realizes that's not right. When I ask him to say Lala - no problem. When I ask him to say Po, he enthusiastically agrees and says, LALA, then shakes his head and says "Nooo" It's like he's not completely in charge of what sounds come out - sooo cute!

And I do realize that all these words are recognizable only in context and only by his family... I'm just sooo excited to see him develop his speech - Plus, Burl is so proud and excited!