MYLESTONES: On Speaking Sheridan

It's a language in which the words vitamin and Spiderman sound exactly the same and in which context is your only chance for deciphering whether she needs her daily dose of iron or wishes to enlist the help of a web spinning super hero.

She has two primary commands, particularly as it relates to gettin' goin'. She either extends her hand and says "MON!" (Come on!), or swipes you away and says "ZOUT!" (Watch out!). It is not uncommon for both commands to be used in the same expedition. Conflicting instructions are quite common in Danilish. (See reference to "I need he'p" and "I do it myselt".)

Words can also be interchanged at random, such as soup and hairbrush. For example, I asked her for soup from her play kitchen. She whisked up a wooden drumstick and then thrust the pretend poultry in my face. As I feigned a bite, she said, "No, it's for ya haih", and began brushing my hair with the soup disguised as a drumstick which doubles as a hairbrush. It is possible my hair now tastes like fake chicken.

This morning I woke to hear her chanting, "No more monkeys jumpin' on da bed!" If only she were still on the bed she sang about, but I could tell by the acoustics that she had made her way into the bathroom. When I caught the first morning glimpse of my girl, she was up on her stool, face practically pressed against the mirror, carrying on a lovely conversation with herself. She looked at me, grinned, then looked back at her reflection and said, "I SEEEE YOUUUU!" It must be so refreshing for her to finally find another Danilish speaker in the house. I know it gets old for her to have to constantly interpret for us.

We'll conclude the vocabulary primer with a few more foundational words and phrases:

"Ink ah lahtah": Drink of water.
"NO, NO, NOOO": A universal word of non compliance. A single reference to "no" is prohibited in Danilish. Only a double, triple or quadruple "no" is acceptable.
"I sit on Elmo": A request to use the toilet.
"I wuv you!": An attempt to get out of time outs.
"Cwean up, bebbybody, Cwean up!": A song she likes to sing while everyone around her cleans up.
"Mimjatics": Her favorite sport with trampoline and balance beam, in which she thoroughly emphasizes the "ME" in the "Mommy & Me" class. Related words and phrases include "Need He'p", "I do it myselt", "Mon" and "Zout".
"See la laytah!": I'm leaving. Don't try to follow me.

We'll pick up our lessons again next week, in which we'll review the often used Danilish dialects such as Whining and Crying. Both pronunciation and inflection are dramatically different, so it really does warrant an entire lesson. So goodbye until next time, and "See la laytah!"