With a Slight Chance of Twingle
My husband has a custom (it’s more than just a habit) of trying to finish everything at the dinner table before he gets up out of his seat. Once he gets up from the table, his stomach magically seals off and there is only room left for a post-dinner tea. That’s one thing I like about him. He hates to see good food, or well, any food, go to waste. However, our children eat quite a bit slower than he does (I think it’s due to the fact that they chew their food first) so by the time he’s finished everything in front of him, there is always still food left across the table. The inevitable question is asked: “Are you finished with that?” (a.k.a. code word for, “are you going to be scream or cry if I start eating off your plate now?”) Last week we were eating our supper and Daddy asked neighboring Aliaa that infamous question with which she replied, “No, I’m still nibbling.”
“Nibbling?” he said, puzzled.
“Yah. Nibbling”
Apparently my husband has never heard us use that word before and asked for the translation and definition. He asked his daughter how could she know that word, and she looked incredulously back and forth between her father and I with a look that read: “Well obviously not from you… so it must have been her.”
The acquisition of language is really an amazing thing. So is the creation of new words that seem to take on the life of what the speaker is trying to convey.
It’s been really rainy in Cairo the last two days. I guess that means Spring has sprung. The frigid nights are fading away and warm breezes (a.k.a. the Khamseen or sand winds) are in the air. Mahmoud ran into the bedroom the other day to announce to me “It’s twingling!” and to hurry up and come see. I wasn’t quite sure what twingling could be, but I thought it must be worth taking a look so I headed off towards the reception with him. Sure enough, there was a very light rain falling, what we Americans would basically call mist. Ahhhh… I got it. Twingling means “drizzling/ tinkling/ sparkling/ twinkling” all at the same time. I considered for a moment if my husband was taking English lessons from our 6 year old son with no front teeth. But actually I think the creation of this new word is accredited to his fluency.
“Nibbling?” he said, puzzled.
“Yah. Nibbling”
Apparently my husband has never heard us use that word before and asked for the translation and definition. He asked his daughter how could she know that word, and she looked incredulously back and forth between her father and I with a look that read: “Well obviously not from you… so it must have been her.”
The acquisition of language is really an amazing thing. So is the creation of new words that seem to take on the life of what the speaker is trying to convey.
It’s been really rainy in Cairo the last two days. I guess that means Spring has sprung. The frigid nights are fading away and warm breezes (a.k.a. the Khamseen or sand winds) are in the air. Mahmoud ran into the bedroom the other day to announce to me “It’s twingling!” and to hurry up and come see. I wasn’t quite sure what twingling could be, but I thought it must be worth taking a look so I headed off towards the reception with him. Sure enough, there was a very light rain falling, what we Americans would basically call mist. Ahhhh… I got it. Twingling means “drizzling/ tinkling/ sparkling/ twinkling” all at the same time. I considered for a moment if my husband was taking English lessons from our 6 year old son with no front teeth. But actually I think the creation of this new word is accredited to his fluency.
posted by Just Ruthie at 1:42 AM
1 Comments:
hahaha That's funny. :-)
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