isoglossia

Depending on what time zone you live in, May has two full moons, the second occurring today. In popular terminology the second one is the fabled ‘blue moon’, but like calculating Easter it’s actually a good deal more complicated than that, and if you call today’s full moon a blue moon around an astronomer, they may put a knife into your eye. So be careful how you go.

Previous skies
3x…

One of our favorite sports is watching Adam learn to talk. Right now, for example, there is a little phonetic puzzle ^[1] that entertains us no end. When confronted with an English word beginning in S + consonant, he converts it to F ^[2]. You need to know this when you hear him comparing the sizes of objects and he says, “dis one big, dat fall” (the copula ^[3] has long been on his ‘optional features in English’ list, too), or that he wants to eat his cereal with a ‘foon’. This personal phonetic rule is especially fortuitous when you take him for sladoled and he asks for a flavor called ‘Smarties’, but bizarrely it doesn’t obtain in Slovene or Polish ^[4]. In spite of such handicaps, he is making amazing progress in all three languages, but still it all accrues so slowly at times that when a great leap does occur, it really makes you sit up and take notice.

Watching the syntactical puzzle pieces fall into place is intriguing. Adam disdains yes/no questions and is a big fan of the one word sentence. For example, in reply to a question such as “Adam, do you want some juice?” he is likely to answer, “WANT”. If he overhears us talking about how we are out of coffee, he will look up from his Thomas and advise, “BUY” like a stockbroker caricature. Inflection ^[5] is spotty, with no distinction between “Adam do dis” and “Papa do dat”. Interestingly, the things he gets, or doesn’t get, in one language don’t always correspond to the other two he’s picking up. It all makes my brain hurt.

So it was that an electrical current zapped through the room last night when his mother directed a question in English to the Big-Person Grownup Chair at the end of the table where Adam now eats, freed at last from the shackles and tyranny of the Chair That Is High ^[6]:

“Adam, are you eating your sausages?”

Without even glancing up from his Tweety-Bird plate, my son carelessly deployed a flawless example of present continuous aspect ^[7], ‘be’ included. The boy is beginning to get on it.

So at least he knows what we mean when we tell him, ‘Adam, you are so fart’.

NOTES FOR REAL LINGUISTS:
^[1] I don’t know why this link is here.
^[2] The rule is actually a good deal more complex than this, but see the part about my brain hurting.
^[3] Yes, yes, I know, but if you think I am going to get into stuff about predicates and complements and non-copular functions just when my traffic is increasing, you underestimate how shallow I can be.
^[4] This really does cry out for some analysis. I will get on it right after ‘My Name Is Earl’.
^[5] See note 3.
^[6] Just one of many non-funny semi-linguistic ‘jokes’ going on in our house. Want to come over and see our Oil that is Baby?
^[7] Let’s just not even get into this, okay?

As my sister reminds me, “it is an honor just to be nominated”, and while that is certainly trite it is also true. I have long been a great admirer of the writing and twisted humor to be found at The Glory of Carniola, so it was especially pleasing to learn that it was Michael Manske, media genius and 2005’s big winner there, who nominated isoglossia for an award in the Best Expatriate Weblog category in the Third Annual Satin Pajamas Awards conducted by A Fistful of Euros. Also, seeing the small size of the pool of nominees and the high quality of the competition added to the frisson.

Sorry about that ‘frisson’. Don’t know what came over me.

This friendly competition afforded an opportunity to see how supportive and creative our peculiarly deranged readership is. It was equal parts hilarious and touching to see people falling over themselves, internetally speaking, to vote, double-vote, exhort others to vote, serve as character witnesses, express bafflement at our nomination, and urge us on to victory.

Our close competitor in the Best Expatriate Weblog category was Le Meg of Le Blagueur à Paris, who, to be fair, is only one expatriate. Here there are two of us and we’ve learned how to manufacture our own — four against one is simply not fair. Also, Michael used his bully pulpit to make this a nationalistic issue, and when things looked darkest Magda called in the Slavic cavalry on Friday afternoon, mobilizing an unstoppable force called the Polish maternal instinct when she informed her young mothers’ discussion group that we were neck and neck with Le Meg. Things really turned around when one of our supporters began a black propaganda campaign in which he accused Le Meg of not liking beer.

If this contest has brought any new readers through all the frantic linking and counterlinking, I’d like to welcome you. You don’t have to stick around, obviously, but if you do there may be pugs, poop, and placentae in it for you.

Wait! Where are you going? That was supposed to be an incentive…

The only downside to all this link-love is that some of our most ardent supporters may have written blog-checks drawing on our account, which, believe me, is already overdrawn. Jagosaurus, for example, promised a vote for isoglossia would result in the following:

• You’ll feel better about yourself.
• Your hair will be shinier and your skin will be matte perfection.
• Also? You will, the second you vote, become a ninja. If you already are a ninja, you will, the second you vote, become a … a … SUPER NINJA. Yeah.

Our self-appointed unofficial manager in all this, DarkoV, also apparently invited all of you over to our house for beer, as well as promising on our behalf photos of the eponymous but fictional Satin Pajamas. It’s something of a Slovenian tradition to post such pictures, and I certainly don’t want Michael’s Maribor Mafia after me, in addition to all of those disgruntled, low-self-esteem-having, dirty-haired, greasy-faced regular ninjas. So I guess I’d better get started on fulfilling some of these campaign promises.

The Żubrówka may not last long, but I guess we’ll have enough beer for all of you.

If you haven’t already done so, please go and take a look at the other sites in our category:
Loxias, Our Man in Tirana, The Copy Dude.

…that I don’t deserve her. Yesterday was Magda’s name day:

Her parents remembered

Today is National Sorry Day in Australia. This is not what you may think.

Sorry, honey!

Here’s last year’s mention, featuring an adorable old picture of her.
Today is also Mother’s Day in Poland:
Magda [shouting into bathroom]: I’ve got one on the tit and the other one dropping a deuce!
Me [shouting from shower]: I’LL BE RIGHT OUT!
Magda [somewhat more calmly]: I’m not complaining, I just want you to know how skilled I am.

Happy Mother’s Day, kochanie !

Here’s where we drew neck and neck

The polls are still open, and it being Friday night, my hands are too full of babies and beer to type much, but here’s an update: a few hours ago we drew even with the exceptionally well-mannered and good-natured Le Meg of Le Blagueur à Paris in what many are terming a showdown between the blogs of Old Europe and those of New Europe. If you’ve forgotten which is which, well, get on board, people– these are blogs we’re talking about, after all.