Amy and the vocative

When Amy calls somebody or something, she uses two syllables and a descending minor third(? — roughly from G to E on a C-major scale, I think).

If what she's calling only has a one-syllable name, she'll repeat the syllable in order to call it. This means that some nouns are homophones in the vocative but not the nominative case, I suppose :)

This is most noticeable with "Ma-ma" and "Fi-fi", since the first can be either "Mama" (Mummy) or "Ma" (Martin; he of the default userpic), and the second can be either "Fi" (a Miffy doll that Stella sewed for her) or "Fifi" (Sophie, a… hand-puppet might be the name for it; a big doll where you can put your arms into hers to move them or your hand into the mouth).

When Mummy finally gets something right

This evening, Amy was pointing to a butterfly on her high chair’s seat cover and saying “Sessa” (or thereabouts).

Stella at first thought she was saying “Kissen” (cushion), but I said I thought she was trying to say “Schmetterling” (butterfly). Stella asked Amy whether she meant “Schmetterling”, and Amy said, “Jaaaa!”—in the kind of tone one might use to praise a child who’s done something well: “Well done! Good girl!” :)