Wook! A Weopard!

Early this morning, my son Manuel came up to me with a question.

“Papa, what animal is this?”
“Manuel, it’s a leopard.”
“Wook papa! It’s a weopard!”
“Yes, Manuel. It’s a leopard.”
“Okay papa. I wove you.”

The “l” is a liquid, voiced lingua-alveolar consonant. This means that the “l” sound is produced when one is capable of touching the tip of the tongue to the upper alveolar ridge. Most children have difficulty with consonants like “l” because they simply don’t know where to put their tongue.

Manuel’s inability to properly enunciate his “l”s is part of growing up. Right now, he “wikes” things, and “woves” people. Eventually, he’ll become proficient enough with the use of his tongue to pronounce his “l”s and even roll his “r”s. But even though Manuel has difficulty making use of his tongue, he certainly has no difficulty using his heart.

I love you too.

Many thanks to Phonetics for the information regarding the sounds of spoken language.