A telespoke!

Amy retrieved the cardboard roll from a roll of toilet paper and said that this was now her “telespoke”. I couldn’t tell whether she was mispronouncing it on purpose or because she couldn’t say it properly, so I asked her who else said it like that (since I had heard that pronunciation before but wasn’t sure where). She said, “Lola,” and I remembered that it was from a Charlie and Lola book.

However, she didn’t comment on the pronunciation further, but kept calling it a “telespoke” a couple of times.

Then she said, “You know, perhaps a small one like this can be called a ‘telespoke’, and a big one could be called a ‘telespoke’… the other name.” Whoops :) “You mean a ‘telescope’?” “Yes.” “Say te-le-scope.” “Te-le-pause-scope.” “Good!”

And later that evening, she called it a “telescope.” Now I’m wondering whether it was a real difficulty all the time, or a deliberate misspeaking that then got “stuck” and prevented her from recalling (or forming) the proper word.

Either way, the “… the other name” comment when she realised she had said it the wrong way twice was really amusing :)

I’m a turn

I was just looking through some of the free language courses derived from FSI (Foreign Service Institute) language learning material, and while skimming through the Hebrew course, I saw (on page xxx) that /pne/ (spelled פנה) means “turn”.

Hey, my username means something in Hebrew! Never knew that.

I wonder whether it means anything in any other language. (/pn/ isn’t a particularly common initial consonant cluster, I would imagine.)