I have a question. Or a thought, really. An observation?

[conuly]

Ana tends to add an -a to certain verbs:

I pick-a up book!
No take-a nap! (When if it hadn't been one of those verbs, it would've not had an "a" in there)
You read-a da book.

It's not all verbs she does this with - she says she wants to turn off the light, not turna off, for example.

Does anybody have any idea why she might possibly be doing this? It's very confusing.

Comments

[fledchen.livejournal.com]

I'm not sure what you and the rest of her family sound like when you talk, but "going to" and "want to" usually end up sounding like "gonna" and "wanna" around here. Maybe that's confusing her? Those are pretty common verbs.

[conuly]

I don't think so. We don't say "wanna" or "want to" around her that much, nor "going to" and "gonna". It's "We'll have lunch first, then we'll go take a nap", that sort of thing. It's not a conscious choice to avoid those words, I think, just....

random person comment

[solicitous.livejournal.com]

so hi LOL! I'm cruising through a mutual friend, [Bad username or site: @ livejournal.com], and this caught my eye, no "Take-a nap" "after lunch we'll go take a nap" it sounds to me that she's using the a after verbs that often follow with an "a" vrs "bite of"... "pick a book" equals "pick-a" see if that seems to fit. My son did that with early verbs, he would howl "no get-a book" at night because it was followed with to read before bed, then it became "no before bed" if he was tired. *wanders back off feeling sheepish*

Re: random person comment

[conuly]

Well, that's possible - leora already considered that, in fact.

Except it doesn't always fit. I didn't give enough examples, I know, but she'll often say things like "I bumpa da head!", for example - if -a is a replacement for "a" and "an", she's effectively putting two articles into her sentences. That's possible, but I'm not sure that's what is going on.

Of course, in the end, it'll probably be something really silly, but I won't know, because I'll never figure it out, will I?