Conlang baby-talk

----- Original Message -----
From: "John Cowan" <jcowan@...>

> ObConlang:  What about baby talk in our conlangs?  Anyone have any?
Funny you should ask that, John.  I was just thinking about that last night
as I was crooning to my cat and calling her silly names.  I used to know a
woman long years ago who called her cat "Choo Choo Train."  At the time, it
seemed utterly ridiculous to me: "come here, my little choo choo train."  I
knew it wasn't logical (the cat in no way behaved like a steam engine or a
train).  Later I wondered if it was an extension of French "chou," "mon
chou," which often gets extended to "chou chou"-- which in an Anglophonic
environment could get extended to "choo choo train."  Christophe could
probably expand on this!  What is French baby talk like?

I called my cat "pooch" for a while, because she acted so much like a dog.
This got changed to "booch," and then to "boochous," and then to
"spoochous."  Utterly ridiculous.  I decided that, like choo choo train, my
Teonim would pick up on this and influenced by the French word "bouche,"
would make bo~carem their word for "kiss," and bo~c "kiss."  bocis
(pronounced boochis) would be kissable, loveable, sweet, adorable, ooey
gooey, and "bocis spocis" would be a term of icky endearment for babies and
puppies, and what have you.  As for humans kissing in Teonaht, well...  <G>

I've been trying to make up a Teonaht lullaby, with nonsense words and
extensions upon hwendl, which means "infant," "baby."  Hwendl-wet, ywet
ywet. Edrimaf, hal wendl!  That's as far as I've gotten.

Sally

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