I Always Called it "Child-Speak"

Children's Made up Words

When my three girls were children, I used to love the words they made up for things they didn't know the real name for. I always called it ‘child-speak’.  I’ll tell you about three of my favorites.

I remember overhearing a conversation between Carrie, the oldest, and Heather, the youngest, while they were watching TV together on the couch.

Carrie asked Heather if she would tickle her back for a while. Heather said she would, if she could borrow a clo from Carrie.

Carrie seemed all right with that. She knew just what Heather was asking, because she said, "Okay".

Whatever a clo was, they had made an equally beneficial trade and both girls were satisfied. The more I thought about it, the more curious I became.  Eventually I had to ask, "Girls? What's a clo?"

Carrie looked at me and matter of factly stated, "A clo is a clo, mom. You can have a lot of clothes, but just one is a clo."

(Hmmm ... how stupid of me)

Here’s another example of child-speak at our house.

We were in the car headed to the library and a tiny yellow foreign car pulled up beside us at a red light. One of the girls pointed and yelled out, "Hey look. Look! It’s a Noo-Noo car!"

The other two seemed to connect perfectly and soon, all three were pointing, giggling, and laughing. I had no basis for understanding them, so again I had to ask.

They happily told me Sesame Street had a little animated typewriter guy on the word segment of the show. He had this cute little song-sound he made when he wheeled to the left or right across the TV screen, "Noo-Nee Noo-Noo", or something similar to that.

(Hmmm ... I didn’t see that coming. My bad again)

I’m pleased to report I have since seen the little typewriter guy.  The girls brought him to my attention the very next time they saw him on Sesame Street.  Small cars and sports cars carried the title “Noo-Noo car” for years …

I have one more child-speak word, an invention of three little girls who had to play indoors on a rainy Saturday afternoon.

I found them in the bathroom mixing a bowl of something kinda-sorta green. When I asked what it was, they all proudly replied, "Mommy, we invented Permagosh!"

Permagosh

Mommy's on the couch.
Daddy's in his chair.
We’re in a corner on a stool ...
yeah, they put us here

'cause we did somethin' naughty
we’re not supposed to do.
We invented Permagosh
mixing things with their shampoo.

First a real long worm of toothpaste,
then a cloud of shaving cream,
then two glugs of mouthwash
('cause we love the color green).

We stirred it in a mixing bowl.
Boy, it smelled real good.
It was even looking better
than we ever thought it would.

Could it be a cure for cancer?
Take the itch from skeeter bites?
Or maybe heal a sunburn
when it hurts to sleep at night?

Two shakes of baby powder
made it WAY too hard to stir,
so we added mommy's perfume.
Permagosh smelled just like her.

Then the bowl tipped over.
Permagosh was on the floor
and when we turned around,
Mom and Dad were by the door.

Now mommy's on the couch.
Daddy's in his chair.
We’re in a corner on a stool ...
yeah, they put us here.

-*-

[poem from the book, “Barking Spiders 2”]

Poet/Writer/Author of 5 books.
Quora Top Writer 2018.
CJ’s World is reader supported.
If you believe in my work, please,
be a paid subscriber so I can continue. 
Thank you!