Luka Language Observations

Since Luka was pretty little (just 2 or earlier?) he got that there were two languages and would specify which language he was talking about--even though when he was younger, he sometimes called French "anglais" and Enlgish "français" - mixing them up. Now, he never mixes the labels up. Now, at 3-1/2, he knows that the same words are even pronounced differently if you are speaking one or the other languages. For example, "Spiderman" in English and "Speeder-mahn" in French. If you say, "Spiderman" while speaking French, he will correct you. Another example is "Axel" in English and "Ax-elle" in French. I called Axel "Ax-elle" in English and Luka corrected me: "Mommy, it is 'Axel.'" In addition, today, he tried to say "Robin" (as in Batman's sidekick) with a French accent on his own--he and I had never even talked about Robin before. He pronounced it "Roe-bin" as opposed to "Roe-bain," since he does not know formal rules for French pronunciation, but I thought it was very interesting that he is adapting to these conventions on his own!