[lojban] Re: patfu?

[Michael Turniansky <mturniansky@gmail.com>]

On Mon, May 18, 2009 at 4:11 PM, Luke Bergen <lukeabergen@gmail.com> wrote:
> So I was thinking about this earlier.  When babies are first learning to
> talk they don't say "father" as their first word.  It's usually some kind of
> "dada" sound.  Also, patfu sounds so formal.  For when babies are first
> learning to talk how acceptable would things like referring to one's
> paternal gardian as "pa'u" be?
>
> Would this be the kind of thing where getting excited over "pa'u" is
> understandable but the next step would be to encourage them to say "patfu"?
> Also, "patfu" sounds kind of ugly, would it be common/understandable to have
> a child call their parent "la paf" or "la pa'us" as similar to what "pop" is
> in english?
>

  While my wife is much for the language acquisition specialist than
me (she has a bachelor's in Speech Language Pathology, and a Master in
Special Education), I can say from the perspective of a father of five
kids:
1)  I don't think a kid is likely to say "pa'u". /h/ is a relatively
late sound to develop.  'pa.u' is more likely.  But probably, 'patu'
would be the closest a baby is gonna get to patfu.  (cf. French papa,
Yiddish tatty,  Farsi bapu).
2) 'paf' would be fine for an older kid/grownup to refer to their
father, exactly equivalent to "Dad" or "Pop", but a baby wouldn't be
able to manage the final /f/ so well, either.
3) Any lojbanic father would be thrilled to hear their kid say 'patu'
for the first time!! (Later, we can correct the kid that it really
means 'one of those' ;-) )
4) "pa'u" of course already has a meaning, "having part___", so I
wouldn't encourage my kid to make that sound.
5) "patfu" being ugly is strictly a judgement call on your part, but
it certainly would sound very formal as a term of address, equivalent
to "Father".

                --gejyspa


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