My day....

[conuly]

This is mostly two subjects: Internet and Ana. So I'd divided the subjects for your convenience!

Well, the guy came. After he convinced himself that 'dul knew what he was talking about when he said that we had internet, just to the wrong modem, and that iste modem with the connection sucked.

And then he fixed it.

Apparently, the problem was that you're not supposed to be able to switch to a new modem without calling the cable company, and it wasn't supposed to be possible in the first place. Huh.

Ana is getting more expressive by the day. Every time I see her, she's using a word I didn't know she knew. She's been repeating people a lot, as well, and asking "what's that" all the time. *evil grin*

So, I'm heading out the store for something, and Ana wants to go with me. No big deal, 'dul is cooking, so it's easier for everyone to take her with me. As soon as we get outside...

Ana: What's that?
Me: That... *glances down* Oh, that's a bug.
Ana: Bug. Bye-bye bug!
Me: (thinking) Oh, that's so cute. She's so sweet.
Ana: (leaning over, opening arms) Want hug?
Me: (grinning) No, the bug doesn't want a hug.
Ana: (still leaning over) Want kiss?
Me: (giggling inside) No, Ana, the bug doesn't want a kiss.
Ana: (bending over, blowing a kiss) Want pick up?
Me: (slightly panicked as I realize how many things she can offer this damn bug) No, Ana, the bug definitely doesn't want to go up. Come on now!

Then we get to the store and wait on line, time for Ana's favorite game! It's called "Go to somebody you know, say "scuzeme" or "sorry", then pass between their legs". Honestly, she's worse than a cat. At least they're furry and purr. Well. Ana would purr too if she knew how....

And then, of course, we get home. We're sitting on the porch eating when an actual cat (grey, and far too skinny) comes by, prompting much finger tapping and tongue clicking by me (to get the cat to come closer) and the same by Ana (who may or may not have understood what I was doing). Eventually, the cat comes *just near enough* to eat some of the food I'd thrown it. It almost came up to me, but then Ana went towards it, and... Well, I'd flee too if I saw a giant toddler headed towards me. There's no way of knowing that Ana is honestly gentle with cats, and wouldn't harm them, most toddlers don't know any better.

However, as the cat saunter-flees behind a bush, and out of sight, Ana decides she wants it back. So first she says "C'mere cat!" but then, when the cat doesn't appear, she pulls out the big guns. Yes, she speaks French.

A little digression here. When my mother gets mad, she speaks French. This works very well with little kids, as she does it with the Doom voice, guaranteed to put the fear of God in everyone within a five mile radius. It works so well, it even works on people who, properly speaking, have no idea what she's saying. Like Seth, who stayed far away from the door after my mother told him to cut it out.

In fact, it works so well that just hearing the key phrases will inspire sudden angelic behaviour on people who have heard the phrases in the Doom voice, even when the person using the phrases can't quite conjure up this voice themselves. I've used it. It's amazing.

So, when Ana sees this cat disappear, she holds up her hand and starts counting: A! Deux! Come here now! (I'm not sure why she skipped trois, but it was just as amusing without it.)

For the last part, I had to look up the spelling of "deux", so I used one of my favorite sites to do so. And yes, the way I learned, one in French is indeed "a", though I may be misspelling it.

Interestingly, they have the spelling of how to count to ten in (at least one dialect of) Walloon:

onk deus troes cwate cénk shijh set ût noûf dijh

I love that site. I just wish he'd IPA or sound-file some of these entries instead of relying entirely on the native spelling or the romanization.

Comments

[neurotica0.livejournal.com]

One in French is "a"?

It's spelled "un" and pronunced similar to (though with softer emphasis) the same letter combination in the word "nun." As I learned it, anyway.

[conuly]

Not in my dialect it's not. Like I said, the way I learned, my dialect, it's "a". Said to sound like the a in cat, but with a nasal.

[codeman38.livejournal.com]

Yeah... the way I learned it, it's spelled 'un', but pronounced like /ɛ̃/ (that's /E~/ in ASCII-IPA).

[conuly]

We also don't do that whole "forty-twenty" nonsense, either.

[eofs.livejournal.com]

Four-twenty, not forty-twenty.

(I wonder if Lincoln had really wanted to make his speech in French...)

[conuly]

That's 80. What about 60?

[rachelkachel]

Simple - soixante. But seventy is sixty-ten, soixante-dix. And ninety is eighty-ten. Silly French.

[eofs.livejournal.com]

Quatre-vingt-dix-neuf (four-twenty-ten-nine)

Yhdeksänkymmentäyhdeksän

Ninety-nine

I think I'm glad I'm English. It saves ink for one thing.

[conuly]

Ah. Well, anyway, that's Not How I Learned To Count.

[eofs.livejournal.com]

Soixante. Give or take the spelling (has been a few years since I studied French, and the really stupidly easy words are always the first to go.) I've never seen a textbook/schools programme that says otherwise, or any evidence in the various departments of France I've visited of another version, and neither of my French (as in the nationality) teachers mentioned anything else. So whilst I don't deny that it could be forty-twenty somewhere, I would certainly imagine soixante is the 'standard'

[eofs.livejournal.com]

I can see an argument for the pronunciation being sort of like a (not a long aaaaaaay a though, hat rather than hay) but yeah, I'm firmly in the un camp.

And that site has taught me something interesting. I already knew that Estonian and Finnish were relatively mutually intelligible, but it's interesting to see (once I managed to find a page that actually includes them!) that the numbers in Estonian are very similar to my experience of the spoken forms of the numbers in Finnish.

Finnish yksi kaksi kolme neljä viisi kuusi seitsemän kahdeksan yhdeksän kymmenen
Spoken Finnish yks kaks kol nel viis kuus seits kahds yhds kym/ky
Estonian üks kaks kolm neli viis kuus seitse kaheksa üheksa kümme

(I suspect ü is the Estonian equivalent of the Finnish y)

[feathered.livejournal.com]

Your Ana stories always make me want to meet her. She sounds absolutely darling and clever. She's also around the age where they get really fun to be with, especially since they aren't old enough to be much influenced by pop culture and advertising.

One of the little girls I babysit for is frighteningly smart. About a year ago, when she'd just turned two, she'd climbed up into her highchair and wanted out. I was helping her sister with something and asked her to wait a minute, please. When I didn't come immediately, she banged her hand on her tray and exclaimed, "Come NOW, cheeky blighter!"

I nearly died from the novelty and the cuteness.

[conuly]

She's a doll. And, despite claims to the contrary, I'm positive she understands the concept of "baby in mommy's tummy", when I point to her mom.

Maybe next time you visit, you can stop by, visit the Children's museum. Nice, quiet place, very like Belgium, lots of brick, and Ana!

[feathered.livejournal.com]

I'm not sure when I'll be visiting next. It probably won't be anytime soon unless we go out east for christmas to visit family or something, but I doubt we'd do that when my grandmother is in Utah. Still, I will definitely keep that in mind. My then thirdbird's kid should be old enough to fully appreciate the museum as well...

[grammaravenger.livejournal.com]

"Cheeky blighter"? That's fantastic!
When she was 2 or 3, my sister had a penchant for coolly saying "I think not" when suggestions or commands displeased her. "Time to go home now, Kendra." Without even looking up from her toys: "I think not."

[conuly]

Ana says "No thank you".

Ana, time for your nap!
No, tank you!

(Sometimes she even gets the th sound properly)

[meghanx.livejournal.com]

i haven't commented on one of your updates for like, 281 years....

[neurotica0.livejournal.com]

One in French is "a"?

It's spelled "un" and pronunced similar to (though with softer emphasis) the same letter combination in the word "nun." As I learned it, anyway.

[conuly]

Not in my dialect it's not. Like I said, the way I learned, my dialect, it's "a". Said to sound like the a in cat, but with a nasal.

[codeman38.livejournal.com]

Yeah... the way I learned it, it's spelled 'un', but pronounced like /ɛ̃/ (that's /E~/ in ASCII-IPA).

[conuly]

We also don't do that whole "forty-twenty" nonsense, either.

[eofs.livejournal.com]

Four-twenty, not forty-twenty.

(I wonder if Lincoln had really wanted to make his speech in French...)

[conuly]

That's 80. What about 60?

[rachelkachel]

Simple - soixante. But seventy is sixty-ten, soixante-dix. And ninety is eighty-ten. Silly French.

[eofs.livejournal.com]

Quatre-vingt-dix-neuf (four-twenty-ten-nine)

Yhdeksänkymmentäyhdeksän

Ninety-nine

I think I'm glad I'm English. It saves ink for one thing.

[conuly]

Ah. Well, anyway, that's Not How I Learned To Count.

[eofs.livejournal.com]

Soixante. Give or take the spelling (has been a few years since I studied French, and the really stupidly easy words are always the first to go.) I've never seen a textbook/schools programme that says otherwise, or any evidence in the various departments of France I've visited of another version, and neither of my French (as in the nationality) teachers mentioned anything else. So whilst I don't deny that it could be forty-twenty somewhere, I would certainly imagine soixante is the 'standard'

[eofs.livejournal.com]

I can see an argument for the pronunciation being sort of like a (not a long aaaaaaay a though, hat rather than hay) but yeah, I'm firmly in the un camp.

And that site has taught me something interesting. I already knew that Estonian and Finnish were relatively mutually intelligible, but it's interesting to see (once I managed to find a page that actually includes them!) that the numbers in Estonian are very similar to my experience of the spoken forms of the numbers in Finnish.

Finnish yksi kaksi kolme neljä viisi kuusi seitsemän kahdeksan yhdeksän kymmenen
Spoken Finnish yks kaks kol nel viis kuus seits kahds yhds kym/ky
Estonian üks kaks kolm neli viis kuus seitse kaheksa üheksa kümme

(I suspect ü is the Estonian equivalent of the Finnish y)

[feathered.livejournal.com]

Your Ana stories always make me want to meet her. She sounds absolutely darling and clever. She's also around the age where they get really fun to be with, especially since they aren't old enough to be much influenced by pop culture and advertising.

One of the little girls I babysit for is frighteningly smart. About a year ago, when she'd just turned two, she'd climbed up into her highchair and wanted out. I was helping her sister with something and asked her to wait a minute, please. When I didn't come immediately, she banged her hand on her tray and exclaimed, "Come NOW, cheeky blighter!"

I nearly died from the novelty and the cuteness.

[conuly]

She's a doll. And, despite claims to the contrary, I'm positive she understands the concept of "baby in mommy's tummy", when I point to her mom.

Maybe next time you visit, you can stop by, visit the Children's museum. Nice, quiet place, very like Belgium, lots of brick, and Ana!

[feathered.livejournal.com]

I'm not sure when I'll be visiting next. It probably won't be anytime soon unless we go out east for christmas to visit family or something, but I doubt we'd do that when my grandmother is in Utah. Still, I will definitely keep that in mind. My then thirdbird's kid should be old enough to fully appreciate the museum as well...

[grammaravenger.livejournal.com]

"Cheeky blighter"? That's fantastic!
When she was 2 or 3, my sister had a penchant for coolly saying "I think not" when suggestions or commands displeased her. "Time to go home now, Kendra." Without even looking up from her toys: "I think not."

[conuly]

Ana says "No thank you".

Ana, time for your nap!
No, tank you!

(Sometimes she even gets the th sound properly)

[meghanx.livejournal.com]

i haven't commented on one of your updates for like, 281 years....