Biscuit speaks

Most days, I love to hear Biscuit talk. (Of course, some days I feel like if he says "Mom" or asks "why" one more time, I might lose my mind.)

Ever since Biscuit has been talking (and that's been a while now), we've really enjoyed hearing his version of how words can sound. By the time he was just over a year old, he could say "Mama," "Dada," "bye" and "uh-oh." After another few months, he was saying "ball," "car," "baby," "dog" and "duck."

Pretty soon, we noticed that Biscuit was sounding more like me than Jeff.

Jeff says "dahg," but I say "dawg." Jeff says "bahl," but I say "bawl."

Once Biscuit got bigger, his speech started to sound more like the other kids at day care. And they sound more like Jeff than me. I'm fine with that because people who "ain't from around here" often treat Southerners like they're stupid, just because their speech is different. More than once in my lifetime, I've wanted to set aside the manners my Mama taught me and share some of the not-nice words I know with people who make assumptions based on such superficial things.


Anyway, my brother's kids definitely have Southern accents. They sound exactly like I did when I was a kid. Of course, they're growing up where I grew up, so I wouldn't expect any different.


But what was really fascinating to me recently was that for a week or so after our family trip, Biscuit sounded exactly like them. Instead of applesauce, he would ask for apple-sawce. The syllables of his words got longer and more drawn out. He also started calling me "Mama."


His new-found Southern accent was soon gone. Now, he's back to sounding more like Jeff and his day care friends.


Biscuit doesn't meet any strangers. He'll have a conversation with almost anybody. So however Biscuit ends up sounding, I just hope he keeps talking.