It unnerved me, especially after my wife, Susan, and I began to discuss parenthood. Surely not, I thought. But when I mentioned my resolve to my friend Leonard, a therapist and new father, he set me straight. It is subtle and irreversible, like balding or bad credit. Adjectives mutate into gibberish.
Pronunciation dies a slow death.
In Daddyspeak, there are no grammatical violations, and there are no humiliation police. After careful reflection, I concluded it was more like a sneeze. Like the instinct to hunt or procreate or wear dark socks while mowing the lawn, the urge to speak nonsensically with one's child has been with us since the beginning of time. Primitive dad doubtless had his own version of yum-yum, thought it might have boiled down to a difference in the inflection of the word gak . For one, it helps level the playing field.