What's dat?

[pne]

Interestingly, Amy uses /d/ for voiced "th".

I find it interesting because Germans tend to use /z/ instead, whereas (as far as I know) native English-speaking young children tend to use /d/, like Amy. (Apparently, both "th" sounds tend to be acquired comparatively late even by native speakers.)

I also find it strangely gratifying that this means she's speaking "normally": toddler-accented English rather than German-accented English. (Though she probably has German influences in some other aspects of her pronunciation of English.)

Comments

[ubykhlives.livejournal.com]

(Apparently, both "th" sounds tend to be acquired comparatively late even by native speakers.)

And in some dialects, not at all. David Beckham is an excellent example of a native English variety that seems to lack the dental fricatives entirely; apparently some speakers of AAVE also lack them.

I'm not surprised that she's using [d] rather than [z], as Amy's obviously acquiring English as L1 and not L2. Nevertheless, it is fascinating - just another example of a growing language at work!

[pthalo]

yes "d" is correct. And I try to get my adult students to use "d" and "f" if they can't master th and th. A native speaker would find "I fink" easier to understand than "I sink", because we're used to hearing it from children. And we find "dat" easier to understand than "zat." Most of us say "dat" when we have a cold anyway. :)

[ifeedformula.livejournal.com]

James is almost 4 1/2 and he still says "Dat" for "that" and "dis" for "this".

[nitaq.livejournal.com]

Never thought about english baby speech before, very interesting though.
And I can see why you're happy that Amy doesn't have a bad German accent there.
I think it's highly annoying when Germans do it, but then I'm glad when Germans at least try to talk to someone in English, not matter how bad the accent.

[fridoline.livejournal.com]

Here, both children "fink" they are "firsty", among other things, so also rather English pronunciacion than German.

But I seem to remember that when I was yet rather young (elementary school age), that I used the "German" version to replace the "th", when I wasn't very good at the "real th" yet.