English: “wug”. I love how it means nothing, and it’s used because of that, so you can test how children generate grammatical forms without their previous knowledge influencing it:
Portuguese: “traquitana”. Dictionary says it is (was) used for a type of horse carriage, but I’ve always heard it being used for either 1) that old motorcar falling into pieces, or 2) cheap, small things for sale. It sounds funny.
Italian: “zuzzurellone”. It’s basically “manchild” but not in an insulting way. Ditto, it also sounds funny.
Interestingly enough I remember reading somewhere that, if the test is made with German-speaking children, they automatically pluralise “der Wug” /vu:k/ as “die Wüge” /vy:gə/. And English does show some umlaut words, so… “one wug, two weg” doesn’t sound that weird!
English: “wug”. I love how it means nothing, and it’s used because of that, so you can test how children generate grammatical forms without their previous knowledge influencing it:
Portuguese: “traquitana”. Dictionary says it is (was) used for a type of horse carriage, but I’ve always heard it being used for either 1) that old motorcar falling into pieces, or 2) cheap, small things for sale. It sounds funny.
Italian: “zuzzurellone”. It’s basically “manchild” but not in an insulting way. Ditto, it also sounds funny.
i’ve got the whole test somewhere. it’s gorgeous. also a wug is light blue, almost cyan
spower loves his tea
it’s obviously “weg”, ez test
(Love your examples, never heard the other two!)
Interestingly enough I remember reading somewhere that, if the test is made with German-speaking children, they automatically pluralise “der Wug” /vu:k/ as “die Wüge” /vy:gə/. And English does show some umlaut words, so… “one wug, two weg” doesn’t sound that weird!
Ahhh the only other language I speak (very poorly at this point) is Deutsch, so that totally scans!
I’m going to start referring to my car as my traquitana and see if there’s any reaction …