December 19, 2006

Toddler eggcorning


Little kids are given to misanalyses (any number of children have been reported answering the command "Behave!" with "I AM being have") and mishearings ("Olive, the other reindeer" in the pestilential Rudolph song), and occasionally they branch out into eggcorning.  As, apparently, in this report from Elizabeth Daingerfield Zwicky about her daughter Opal (2 years, 9 months):

Opal has a stuffed jaguar, which she says is "Jaggy the Jagwater". She's very consistent about "jagwater", which apparently makes sense to her in some way "jaguar" doesn't. She doesn't correct me when I say "jaguar" but she gets that patient look...

Oh yes, that look.  I have my way and you have yours, and mine's better, but I'm not going to dispute it right now.

zwicky at-sign csli period stanford period edu

Posted by Arnold Zwicky at December 19, 2006 11:27 AM