<p>Fog and dog don’t rhyme here either. AH (like open wide) vs awe (shock and awe) for the “o” sound</p>
<p>How about ‘orange’?? I say “Are-nge” and my BF who is from chicago says “OR-ang”.</p>
<p>And back to the KIDS say the darndest things part of the thread… (just kidding).</p>
<p>When DS was four, President Nixon died. I was no Nixon fan, but the day of his funeral I felt it was appropriate to put out our American flag to at least honor the office he held. DS asked me, “Why is the flag out?” I said, “Former President Nixon died.” DS panicked, “The president died???” I reassured him, “Not the man who is president now, he’s fine. The man who was President when mommy was a little girl died.” DS was very relieved, “Oh, you must mean George Washington.”</p>
<p>ouch.</p>
<p>^:D</p>
<p>When my sister was little, she was asking about the start of the world. She was about three, so the story was simplified to “And then there was the first man.” My sister responded: “I know who that was!” We read lots of Bible stories for kids while growing up, so my mom was probably expecting to hear about Adam. My sister responds with a very confident “George Washington!” </p>
<p>First man? Recent president? Well, I guess they have the two extremes!</p>
<p>Well to my ear its:</p>
<p>Meh ree (merry)
Maa (think sheep sound, baa) ree (marry)
Mair ee (Mary)</p>
<p>When my D was about four she asked me how do the babies get out of the mother. I said, “Well, the mommies go to a special doctor and the doctor helps them give birth.” Not satisfied, she responded, “But how do the doctors help the babies get out?” Still flustered, I resorted to the age-old cop out and said, “Ask Mommy when we get home.” She says, “Why, don’t you know?”</p>
<p>When my oldest boy was about 3 we started talking about privacy. A couple of weeks after our talks about privacy the weather had really warmed up so I went and put on a pair of shorts and took off my shoes and socks. When I came back in the room he took one look at me and covered his eyes and said, “Oh no! There’s mommy’s private feet!”</p>
<p>Not technically “kids,” but the discussion of phonology reminded me of an acquaintance in England, an Irish physicist whose name was (I believe) spelled Sion. On first meeting, many people pronounced her name as “Shawn.” With the English people, she asked, “How do you pronounce ‘barn’ ?” When they replied “baahn,” she told them that her name should be pronounced similarly, as “Shaahn.” But then she encountered a friend of mine from Kansas, who pronounces “barn” as “baRRRn”–which led to the comment, “Oh, you can call me Shawn.”</p>