Fei Yenian

Smaller ficlets about Fei Yen learning to speak. Its companion is "Fei Yenese".

### Text

1. “The books all say I'm supposed to talk to you,” says Xiong, smoothing Fei Yen's downy hair with her thumb. “But I'm not sure what to say to someone who won't understand me.”

2. Fei Yen looks up at her.

3. “Though you are listening. I suppose that's the important part.”

4. Fei Yen keeps watching.

5. “Well, you won't have any siblings from me—I was almost too old for you—but you have lots of cousins ...” Xiong sighs but smiles at the several dozen bouquets of flowers. “And I expect you'll pick up quite a bit more family by virtue of living here—”

6. From out in the hall—

7. A string of angry Cantonese.

8. Fei Yen glances away.

9. A deep rumble of Russian.

10. Fei Yen nurses with earnest—

11. Xiong winces. “Everything's fine, my dear—”

12. Fei Yen looks back at her.

13. “—I'm not going anywhere.”

14. Another, angrier string of Cantonese—

15. Fei Yen glances away, nurses more intently—

16. Xiong stifles her wince, presses the call button. “My love—”

17. Fei Yen's eyes focus on Xiong—

18. A sharp slash of Russian.

19. —for barely a moment.

20. Nurse Miyahira (18;3.3, Ryukyujin (black hair), 5’6”) knocks, slips inside, and bows. “Marshal.”

21. “Would you—”

22. Fei Yen attends.

23. “—be so kind as to ask the argument to remove itself from the vicinity?”

24. “Consider it—”

25. Fei Yen's eyes flick away.

26. “—done.” She bows—

27. More arguing.

28. Fei Yen nurses more eagerly.

29. Miyahira lights up. “It's that high-amplitude—”

30. Xiong winces.

31. “—sucking thing in action!” Sobers. “Though it's probably really uncomfortable for you. I'll take care of that argument now.” Bows again, closes the door softly.

32. A few minutes later, Miyahira returns with a set of triplets.

33. “Cadets,” greets the Marshal.

34. They bow.

35. “Thank you, Nurse.”

36. Miyahira bows, closes the door softly. Listens.

She can hear /Ukrainian...

Miyahira shrugs off her doubt, strides from the Long Term wing into Receiving, and follows the shouting the second door of Short Term & Exams.

-Kaidanovskaya, Alexandra, 24 years old, 5'10" ... Kaidanvosky, Alexander, 18 years old, 7' ... Russian.- says the chart.

Okay, then.

She pushes open the door, says loudly, “Cadets, Rangers.” Inclines her head.

The combatants back off.

“You’ll be pleased to know your appointments have been rescheduled.”

Jin (17;0.13, Chinese (black buzzcut), 5’11) huffs.

Kaidanovskaya (24;10.28, bleach blonde, 5’10”) raises an eyebrow.

“When?” asks Kaidanovsky (18;11.6, bleach blond, 7’).

“I’ll let your handlers know. Bye, now!”

They communicate; Kaidanovsky rumbles in Ukrainian, Kaidanovskaya slides off the bed, they grab their shoes, and they saunter out. (del Toro, 2013 Featurette)

Miyahira turns to the triplets expectantly.

“What?” asks Cheung  (17;0.13, Chinese (black buzzcut), 5’11).

“I’m kicking the lot of you out.”

Cheung, Jin, and Hu wince.

“Right,” says Hu (17;0.13, Chinese (black buzzcut), 5’11).

“We’ll see ourselves out,” adds Cheung.

“Awesome.” Miyahira sorta bows. “Later!”

They follow her out, return to their exam room.

A high, reedy wail.

“A kitten!” beams Jin, grabbing his trousers.

“What would a kitten be doing in a Shatterdome?” wonders Cheung, pulling on his shirt.

“Shouldn't we be leaving?” reminds Hu.

But Jin's out the door.

Cheung, now dressed, shrugs and follows.

Hu wanders towards the exit for exactly three steps, then turns on his heel and dashes after them.

He finds their brothers easily enough, glued at the hip and with lowered guard at the Marshal’s bedside.

Also Jin's broadcasting '——omg! cute thing! come look!' vibes.

“Cadet,” greets the Marshal.

Hu bows.

Jin subtly motions him over.

37. “This is Fei Yen, my daughter.” Shifts her arms, inclines her head.

38. Cheung, Jin, and Hu shuffle closer, peers around the Marshal’s shoulder.

39. “Fei Yen, these are Cadets Wei Cheung, Wei Jin, and Wei Hu, he-him-his. I expect you’ll be seeing a lot of them.”

40. Fei Yen doesn’t look at them.

41. “Hi,” whispers Jin.

42. Puffy, squinting dark eyes flick his way.

43. Jin swallows most of a squee, clutches Cheung’s arm.

44. For all appearances, Cheung seems to be his usual, always-watching big brother but he's hugging Jin's arm just as tightly and his mouth's gone kinda dopey.

45. /----cute thing! does a... wiggly thing and scrunches her face.

46. “All done?” the Marshal asks softly.

47. Apparently so, as Fei Yen doesn't protest when the Marshal eases her—and there's Miyahira with a towel over her shoulder, scooping up Fei Yen in her blanket, and there goes Miyahira and Fei Yen.

48. “Did you see the little nose!” bursts Jin. “And the little feets!”

49. The Marshal smiles in spite of herself, adjusting her gown. “Can I help you three with something?”

50. “We heard a kitten,” explains Cheung.

51. "Guessing you don't have a kitten,” adds Jin.

52. “But we’re not sure what you have, either,” finishes Hu.

53. “A baby,” says Marshal Xiong, eyes softening. “A brand new baby.”

54. A gurgly sound from outside.

55. “A human baby?” asks Jin.

56. “Yes.”

57. Miyahira comes back—

58. Marshal Xiong doesn't quite smile but she kinda glows.

59. —and returns a loosely-swaddled Fei Yen to the Marshal's arms.

60. “She's very, uh ....” Hu schools a frown. How does one compliment newborns?

61. “Are you sure she's human?" asks Jin.

62. “Absolutely," says the Marshal, easing Fei Yen against her chest. "I'm still frozen from the surgery."

63. Now that the Marshal mentions it, Hu does see some features resembling those of a human, but—

64. “She's kinda... purple,” Hu points out.

65. “And icky,” adds Jin.

66. “That's because she was born four hours ago,” explains the Marshal. “The tint will fade as she gets used to breathing on her own.”

67. Oooooh.

68. “May we hold her?” asks Jin.

69. “Not until tomorrow,” replies Xiong, draping the tiny blanket over Fei Yen.

70. Jin pouts—

71. “That’s not going to work, Cadet.”

#### Alternate Ending

"Would you like to hold her?"

"Sure--ow!" Jin glowers at Cheung.

"Yes please," says Hu.

"Support her head, please," instructs the Marshal, easing Fei Yen against Hu's chest.

Two dark, puffy eyes focus like lasers onto his face.

"She's so warm!" whispers Hu, though really, he doesn't have to use words.

Not to say Jin does, either. "Lucky duck," he grumbles.

### Vegetative, Reflexive Sounds

The first stage of phonological production development, vegetative and reflexive sounds, starts at birth and is characterized by how a neonate’s immature vocal tract and brain (Lust, 2006) limits their ability to produce phonation. For about a month and a half, an infant can only produce reflexive and vegetative sounds like a vocalic cry when in discomfort or vocalizations that give the impression of proto-consonants when air catches on parts of the vocal system when breathing, burping, or other basic, living sounds (Stark, 1980, Hoff, 2013).

Infants can distinguish their mother tongue from a foreign language from birth, and can
discriminate between two foreign languages as well as between words and non-words, and prefer their mother’s voice to all others (Mehler, Jusczyk, Lambertz, Halsted, Bertoncini, & AmielTison, 1988).

### Analysis

Language perception in infants can be tested by gauging interest with regards to their rate of sucking, in this case, language discrimination. Neonates can do this from birth, however the neurons responsible begin to be cannibalized almost immediately and prosodically-similar languages, which English, Cantonese, and the East Slavic language family are not soon become indistinguishable (Mehler et al., 1988).

Infants prefer the sound of a human voice over all other sounds and will attend the source. (2, 4, 8, 12, 15, 17, 19, 22, 25, 42); Mehler et al., 1988).

## Suds

7 months--2016 July.

1. “Into the suds!” Mr Xiong announces, sliding Fei Yen into tub.
2. Fei Yen gurgles happily and flaps her arms.
3. Mr Xiong sets her rubber duck, Lady Quack, to floating—
4. Fei Yen makes an excited sound and snatches her up.
5. —and fills a small bucket with tub water.
6. “[dadægægagəgædæ gagəgədədæ].”
7. Lady Quack bobs with every other consonant.
8. “Watch out,” warns Mr Xiong, making his hand into a visor over her eyes.
9. Fei Yen blows a raspberry.
10. “Nicely done, Feiby.”
11. Fei Yen chirps.
12. Mr Xiong carefully pours the bucket over her head.
13. Fei Yen waves Lady Quack about. “[dædə gəgədədæ gædədə gagəgə].”
14. “There we go,” Mr Xiong brushes Fei Yen’s drippy hair back off her forehead.
15. Fei Yen squeaks and kicks her legs.
16. “Time for soap.”
17. Fei Yen trills, grabbing for his fingers.
18. “Nope, soap.”
19. Fei Yen huffs, sends Lady Quack into the water.
20. “I know, I know.” Mr Xiong squeezes shampoo onto his hand.
21. Fei Yen bats at Lady Quack. “[gagædæ dəgədə dadægædadə dægæ].”
22. Mr Xiong rubs shampoo into her hair.
23. Fei Yen rattles Lady Quack. “[dadæ dadægægagəgædæ dədægædadə dægæ].”
24. Mr Xiong gently massages her scalp.
25. Fei Yen plunges Lady Quack once more into the water. “[dagada gagægədədæ dadædadadədægæ dædə].”
26. Mr Xiong fills the bucket anew.
27. Fei Yen waves Lady Quack. “[dadæ dæda dægæda dəgagædæ dadaga gædæ—]”
28. Lady Quack flies from Fei Yen’s hand.
29. “Here we go again,” warns Mr Xiong.
30. Fei Yen vocalizes and beams.
31. Mr Xiong empties the bucket over Fei Yen’s hair.
32. Fei Yen reaches for Lady Quack. “[dadæ dæda dægæda dəgagædæ dadaga gædæ].”
33. “All done!” Mr Xiong opens the drain.
34. Fei Yen giggles, hits the water with her palm.
35. “Out you go.” Mr Xiong eases Fei Yen from the tub, wraps her in a towel.
36. Fei Yen hums, burrows into his arms.

### Reduplicated Babbling

The playful sounds from the expansion stage continue throughout the reduplicated babbling stage, the onset of which typically occurs when the infant is about 6 months old (Stark, 1980). The hallmark of this stage is a long string of nigh-uniform consonant-vowel syllables whose timing bears a much greater resemblance to adult speech than the infant’s productions thus far (Stark, 1980). Their use of velar stops has decreased considerably—they may disappear from their production repertoire completely for some time—and she produces consonant-like sounds at the front of her mouth, such as [m, n, p], or [d] (Hoff, 2013).

Their vocalizations show the first signs of language-specific characteristics, though at the beginning, the effect is only obvious to phoneticians as only vowels and suprasegmental factors are affected, but by the time an infant is 8 months old, an adult may be able to distinguish two typical infants babbling in different target languages (Goodluck, 2001), however experimenters will usually have them to listen to a recording as infants rarely contribute babbles to a conversation; in fact they prefer to babble when they are alone.

By the end of this stage of simpler babbles, caregivers’ expectations as to what they consider a contribution to a conversation on the infant’s part are higher than they have ever been, encouraging their infant to offer CV-like utterances as opposed to vocal play behaviours (Clark, 2009).

### Analysis

In dialogue two, at seven months, Fei Yen’s vocalizations are steadily shifting to front
consonants:

* 13. “[dadægægagəgædæ gagəgədədæ].”
	+ 12 syllables; [d]: 5, [g]: 7
* 16. Fei Yen waves Lady Quack about. “[dædə gəgədədæ gædədə gagəgə].”
	+ 12 syllables; [d]: 6, [g]: 6
* 21. Fei Yen bats at Lady Quack. “[gagædæ dəgədə dadægædadə dægæ].”
	+ 13 syllables; [d]: 8, [g]: 5
* 23. Fei Yen rattles Lady Quack. “[dadæ dadægægagəgædæ dədægædadə dægæ].”
	+ 16 syllables; [d]: 10, [g]: 6
* 25. Fei Yen plunges Lady Quack once more into the water. “[dagada gagægədədæ

dadædadadədægæ dædə].”

* + 17 syllables; [d]: 10, [g]: 7
* 27. Fei Yen waves Lady Quack. “[dadæ dæda dægæda dəgagædæ dadaga gædæ—]”
	+ 16 syllables; [d]: 11, [g]: 5
* 32. Fei Yen reaches for Lady Quack. “[dadæ dæda dægæda dəgagædæ dadaga gædæ].”
	+ 16 syllables; [d]: 11, [g]: 5

Locke (1983) writes of an “increase in dominance” of [d] over [g] in “noncrying vocalizations”, noting that by the time an infant is 7 months old, [d] occurs 54% of the time an infant would use either [d] or [g]. Predominant vowel-like sounds during this time include [a, æ], and [ə].

Stark (1980) describes how the likelihood of an infant babbling is greater than in “any other context” when the infant has an object she can manipulate, especially one which can be waved or shaken or when she is “visually exploring the environment”, like Fei Yen’s interactions with Lady Quack in the excerpt above, but rarely in a conversation, as seen in dialogue two, 7 months, lines [16-21]:

16. “Time for soap.”
17. Fei Yen trills, grabbing for his fingers.
18. “Nope, soap.”
19. Fei Yen huffs, bats at Lady Quack.
20. “I know, I know.” Mr Xiong squeezes shampoo onto his hand.
21. Fei Yen bats at Lady Quack. “[gagædæ dəgədə dadægædadə dægæ].”
Fei Yen does not offer babbles in her dialogue with her father; she prefers to speak to him with vocal play behaviours and only babbles when he is not offering conversation.

## Like Cup Handles

Please see "Like Cup Handles" and its sequel, "Lid".

## Llama

Thirteen months (one year, one month, thirteen days)--2017 February 19 (Sunday).

1. Hermann (27;8.10, White (German), Chief of Science) sits on the ladder in front of a chalkboard, Fei Yen perched on his arm.

2. "Which one shall we learn today?" he asks.

3. Fei Yen (1;1.13, Chinese, Marshal's daughter) points. "Da."

4. "This one?"

5. Fei Yen nods.

6. "This is lambda."

7. "Naaama."

8. Hermann stifles a laugh. "Llama?"

9. Fei Yen frowns. "Na-ma."

10. "May I call it 'llama', anyway? I much prefer it to Lambda."

11. Fei Yen makes a show of thinking about it, then nods. "Yesh."

12. He draws ears and a tail on the letter. "The Greek letter llama."

13. Fei Yen giggles. "Nama."

14. Hermann shifts her on his arm. "I use it for wavelengths and semantics and also for calculating how much hay to buy." He 'corrects' another one. "The llama equation. The most irate constant in all mathematics."

### Early Single Words

In the early single word period, a child’s production vocabulary consists of very few words, none, if any, resemble the adult forms (Hoff, 2013). They tend to be holophrastic utterances as a child will use a nonword if their utterance really is only one word long (Clark, 2009).

### Analysis

Fei Yen is three months past her first words, and the quality of her productions are hindered by her still-developing brain (Goodluck, 2001), so she is only capable of speaking one word at a time and without any prosodic notions, like contrastive stress:

7. Fei Yen frowns. "Na-ma."
If Fei Yen could speak in an adult like manner, she would have said, “I didn’t say ‘llama’, I said /lambda.” Early pronouns, like “I”, negations, and contractions will not appear until after she can speak in two-word utterances (Brown, 1973) and she will not have enough articulatory control to produce contrastive stress until she is almost three (Stilwell-Peccei, 2006).

As is typical of children in the early single word period, Fei Yen cannot produce the fricative [ð] and substitutes [d] in its place:

3. Fei Yen points. “Da one.”
The lateral liquid [l] also causes her difficulty, so she replaces it as well, this time with the nasal [n], and deletes final consonant, [d]:

13. Fei Yen giggles. "Nama."

Children tend to reduplicate the first syllable (partial, in the case of [7, 9, 13]) and delete the final consonant ([d] in [3, 7, 9, 13]).

Both [d] and [n] are early acquired sounds, the former of which consistently appears across
children’s early production vocabulary (Hoff, 2013). As for why children’s phonological
processes replace targets with sounds they cannot produce in other environments, in this case, the fricative [s] another fricative, [ʃ], no one really knows (Lust, 2006):

11. Fei Yen makes a show of thinking about it, then nods. "Yesh."
Also illustrated, in [9], is children's ability to recognize their own deformations; that is, they are saying the target word perfectly but they cannot produce it and they know it (Lust, 2006):

6. "This is lambda."
7. "Naaama."
8. He stifles a laugh. "Llama?"
9. Fei Yen frowns. "Na-ma."
## Work

Fifteen months (one year, two months)--2016 March.

### Text

1. Fei Yen (1;2, tan human) trumps to her parents’ room, finds the laundry basket, and—
“[tsɑ]!”—heaves it over onto its side.

2. "Alarm!” cries Yutu (1:3grey-green rabbit).

3. “[ɔkɪə]?”

4. “As we were!”

5. Fei Yen crawls into the laundry basket, ducks as flat as she can and spreads her arms, begins
in a low timbre, “Booooo,” and ploughs out the clothes.

6. “Work work work,” chirps Yutu.

7. “Beee! Beee! Beee!” Fei Yen crawls out backwards.

8. “Time for different work!”

9. “[tsɑ]!”

10. “Alarm!”

11. Fei Yen tips the laundry basket back over. “[ɔkɪə]?”

12. “Back at it!”

13. Fei Yen takes a breath. “Phuu.”

14. Blake (somewhat-overweight grey cat) strides in, makes himself comfortable on the laundry.

15. Fei Yen looks at Yutu. “Boomboom?”

16. “I’d love a ride, thank you!”

17. Fei Yen looks at Blake. “Boomboom?”

18. “Maaaaaaau,” whines Blake.

19. Yutu huffs. “So what if you just sat down? We were already playing car.”

20. Blake snorts, stands, leaps into the laundry basket, settles in the front.

21. Fei Yen tries pulling Blake towards the back.

22. “But /I wanted to drive!” pouts Yutu.

23. Blake yawns, flicks his tail.

24. “Fine, I'll sit in the back /this time.” Yutu puts her nose in the air and climbs in the back.

25. “[ɔkɪə]?”

26. “Ready!”

27. Blake’s ear twitches.

28. Fei Yen toddles around to Yutu's side. "Boomboom!” Braces herself--“[tsɑ]!”--and pushes.

29. “Here we go!” cheers Yutu. “Watch out!”

30. Fei Yen engines the car from the room, down the hall–

31. Mr Xiong comes from the washroom.

32. “Maaaau.” Fei Yen stops.

33. Mr Xiong tips an imaginary hat, putters to the kitchen table.

34. “[ɔkɪə]?”

35. "Ready!” chirps Yutu.

36. “Boomboom! [tsɑ]!”

37. Fei Yen engines the car into the front room.

38. "This is us,” announces Yutu.

39. Fei Yen digs in her feet, “Maaaaaaau!”, and comes to a stop.

40. “Nice job braking,” commends Yutu.

41. “[dæŋju].” Fei Yen beams.

42. “You’re welcome!”

### Later Single Words

A child’s vocabulary at fourteen months shows some growth since the earlier single word stage.

At this point, a child can begin implementing the later part of the single word period around 14 months of age, producing their first few adult-like words, even if their production capabilities are limited (Clark, 2009).

A child appears to use the contents of their meager vocabulary in either highly constrained ways or in a fashion which suggests overgeneralizations. However, since they have yet to fully understand what parts of their environment belong with what, it may be that children do neither and simply they attach the label to a specific characteristic (Stilwell-Peccei, 2006).

### Analysis

In dialogue four, (15 months) Fei Yen exhibits a number of trends typical of a child’s language development, such as making use of phonological processes, having difficulty with the speech stream, and compensating for a limited vocabulary.

Fei Yen implements a number of phonological processes such that she can approximate sounds
in words she would otherwise not be able to produce. Some of them include creating open
syllables by deleting word final consonants, especially late-developing sounds like liquids, simplifying fricatives, and strategies for consonant clusters.

Fei Yen’s use of her vocabulary is characteristic of a child who wants to communicate but cannot do so in an adult-like manner. She thus relies on holophrastic utterances and overgeneralizations, but some of her word choices reflect segmentation errors of the speech stream and of her world (thus having difficulty mapping words and sounds to their proper meaning), however, and not conscious choices to compensate.

* “[tsɑ]!” ([1, 9, 28, 36]): “Stop!”; an exclamation to denote something is happening
	+ Fei Yen has coalesced the fricative-stop cluster into one consonant, the affricate [ts] (McLeod et al., 2001) and created an open syllable by deleting the word final stop, [p]. Even without Fei Yen’s meddling, “Stop!”, in a construction sense, is a holophrastic utterance, meaning “stop what you’re doing!” and “watch out!”. She has overgeneralized its use, however, to mean “watch out” in a number of different contexts, like when driving an imaginary vehicle.
* “[ɔkɪə]!” ([3, 11, 25, 34]): “All clear”`; the cue for things to start
	+ Fei Yen still prefers open syllables, and since she cannot produce liquids, deleting the word final [r], she satisfies both needs with one process. She coalesces the vowel [ɒ] and the word final liquid [l] into [ɔ] for the same, liquid-avoiding reason. This two word utterance remains the victim of a speech segmentation error; as seen in dialogue three, she hears the two words as only one. This is a case where an overgeneralization may not really be an overgeneralization (Stilwell-Peccei, 2006) as she uses it as a label for starting and restarting, depending on context.
* “Boooooo” (with a deep timbre; [5]): “Vooooo”; the sound of a very large thing moving.
	+ The fricative [v] remains unpronounceable, leading Fei Yen to simplify it into the stop [b] (Ingram et al., 1980).
* “Beee! Beee!” ([7]): the sound of doing something new (a ‘reverse’ alarm; a vehicle reversing).
* “[fu].” ([13]): “Phew”
	+ Fei Yen simplifies the [fju] fricative-diphthong combination to a more straightforward fricative-vowel combination (Ingram et al., 1980).
* “Boomboom” ([5]): “Vroomvroom”; to head off, to ride (in a cart), to go somewhere.
	+ Fei Yen cannot produce the fricative-liquid cluster [vr] so she deletes the liquid and simplifies the fricative into a stop (McLeod et al., 2001, Ingram et al., 1980). This is also her label for anything on which she can ride; the maintenance workers who ferry Fei Yen and her caregiver over especially long distances, without fail, announce the beginning of the drive with “Vroom vroom!”
* “Maaau” ([32, 39]): a whiny sound (the sound of a brake engaging)
	+ Another of Fei Yen’s compensating overgeneralizations; she approximates the sound of a brake engaging by imitating a cat as sounds are more readily identifiable in the latter than in the former.
* “[dæŋju]” ([41]): “thank you”
	+ Fei Yen has incorrectly parsed the speech stream in such a way that she hears “thank” and “you” as one segment. She has stored it as an unanalyzed whole which is part of why she pronounces it here and simplifies the [ju] in “phew” (the other reason being children’s production of a sound varies from one utterance to the next (Clark, 2009)). Fei Yen also simplifies [θ] to [t] and voices it to [d], and reduces the [ŋk] cluster to [ŋ].

As Fei Yen’s fifty first words near the end of their single word period, she consistently produces them in an adult-like manner; however the propositions implied in her holophrastic utterances remain as cryptic as ever, as seen in dialogue six, 22 months:

* 9. Fei Yen narrows her eyes. “Duck.”
	+ “I am [Mister Soap]; gummies, prepare to be smooshed.”
* 15. “Duck—” Fei Yen looks at Mister Soap.
	+ “I am [Mister Soap]—”
* 20. Fei Yen says, “Duck.”
	+ “[Mister Soap] is like Ducky.”
* 22. “/Duck.”
	+ “[Mister Soap] and Ducky are both called ‘duck’.”
* 24. “/Duck!”
	+ “They’re both called ‘duck’!”
* 26. “Duck!” Fei Yen grabs Mister Soap. “Duck!”
	+ “Mister Soap is called ‘duck’!” and “Ducky is called ‘duck’!”
* 28. Fei Yen fumes, twists in Charlie’s lap. “Duck.”
	+ “Why doesn’t he understand they’re both ducks.”
* 30. “Duck!” Fei Yen waves Mister Soap at Ducky.
	+ “They’re both ducks!”
* 31. “[wɒkə mʌdnɒ ɔkɪr]!”
	+ “Getting help is a great idea!”
* 39. Fei Yen grumbles, throws down Mister Soap. “Duck.”
	+ “I can’t believe I have to wait to tell them they’re both ducks.”
* 45. Fei Yen, picking up Mister Soap. “Duck.” Points him at Ducky. “Duck.”
	+ “Mister Soap’s a duck.” And “Ducky’s a duck.”
* 48. Fei Yen bounces. “Duck! Duck-duck!”
	+ “They’re both ducks! Mister Soap, a duck, Ducky, and duck!”

Her use of nonwords for single word productions has decreased considerably (Clark, 2009),
using adult-like words instead, like “Boom!” ([11]).

## Ducks

Twenty one months (one year, nine months, six days)--2017 October 12 (Thursday).

### Text

1. Charlie, balancing Fei Yen on her knee, Mister Soap, and Ducky sit at a refectory table,
eating lunch.

2. Charlie (21;5.27 Black (Indigenous) Australian, 5’10”) turns a page in her textbook.

3. Mister Soap (0;4.6, yellow rubber duck, 2 ¼“) sits on the table contently.

4. “Yum-yum-yum,” hums Fei Yen (1;9.6, Chinese, 2’6”), arranging gummies for Mister Soap.

5. Ducky (14;1.28, White (1st gen Irish) Australian, 5′4″) glowers.

6. Charlie ponders a cannon diagram.

7. “Tarding. Canin.”

8. Mister Soap faces the first gummy.

9. Fei Yen narrows her eyes. “Duck.”

10. Mister Soap comes down hard on a blue monster--

11. “BOOM!”

12. Ducky hunches over his mashed potatoes.

13. Mister Soap’s shadow looms over another gummy.

14. “Have any highlighters, Ducky?”

15. “Duck—” Fei Yen looks at Mister Soap.

16. Ducky yanks a handful of markers from his backpack, dumps them on the table, returns to his lunch.

17. “Thanks,” says Charlie.

18. Fei Yen studies Mister Soap.

19. Ducky grunts.

20. Fei Yen says, “Duck.”

21. Mister Soap falls on a gummy.

22. “Duck.”

23. Mister Soap lies on a gummy.

24. “Duck!”

25. “What?” snaps Ducky.

26. “Duck!” Fei Yen grabs Mister Soap. “Duck!”

27. Ducky grumbles, returns to his lunch.

28. Fei Yen fumes, twists in Charlie’s lap. “Duck.”

29. “What’s up, Feiby?”

30. “Duck!” Fei Yen waves Mister Soap at Ducky.

31. “I don’t quite understand what you’re trying to say,” Charlie says slowly. “One sec?”

32. “[wɒkə mʌdnɒ ɔkɪr]!”

33. “I’ll be quick.” She leans back, scans the refectory. “Oi! Miyahira!”

34. From the other side of the hall, ““Yea?””

35. “C’mere!”

36. “”Coming~!””

37. Charlie smiles at Fei Yen. “Duck is coming?”

38. Fei Yen grumbles, throws down Mister Soap. “Duck.”

39. Ducky scowls.

40. Miyahira (20:0.9, Ryukyujin, 5′6″) skids, skips, and lands beside Charlie. “What’s—hey, Fei Yen! How’s life?”

41. Fei Yen gives two thumbs up.

42. “Awe-some,” replies Miyahira. Addresses Charlie: “What’s up?”

43. “You,” Charlie squeezes Fei Yen, “keep saying ‘Duck’ and I can’t figure it out.”

44. “Duck?” asks Miyahira.

45. Fei Yen, picking up Mister Soap. “Duck.” Points him at Ducky. “Duck.”

46. Ducky uses a little more force than necessary hacking at his meatloaf.

47. “Are they both ducks?”

48. Fei Yen bounces. “Duck! Duck-duck!”

49. Charlie winces.

50. “Are you trying to say they both have ‘duck’ labels?”

51. Lost Fei Yen on that one.

52. “You can call both ‘duck’ and you’ll be correct.”

53. Fei Yen nods.

54. “That is some /incredible learn-age there, kid.” Miyahira holds out her fist. “Awesome
fistbump of smartness.”

55. “Yosh!” Fei Yen gleefully throws forth her own.

56. The loudspeaker crackles.

57. “That’s my cue,” apologizes Miyahira. “Gotta jet.”

58. “Thanks,” says Charlie.

59. “Byebye,” waves Fei Yen.

60. Ducky grunts.

61. “Later folks.” Miyahira heaves herself to her feet, jogs from the refectory.

62. “I’m not a duck,” grumbles Ducky.

63. “You follow me everywhere.”

64. “I—” He stabs his potatoes.

65. “Finish up or you won’t grow up enough to be my co-pilot.” Charlie poofs Fei Yen’s hair.

66. “Same to you, kiddo.”

67. “Duck grow.”

### Transitional Words

Once children speak their first words, their language acquisition seems to grind to a halt,
spending months using only one-word, occasionally holophrastic (Clark, 2009), utterances for no physiological, cognitive, or vocabulary reason (Lust, 2006). This single word period eventually develops into transitional words, such as vertical constructions or word-jargon combinations (Hoff, 2013). Vertical constructions are multiple, related utterances in which each word is separated by a pause, and word-jargon combinations include one recognizable word in a string of babbling.

### Analysis

Fei Yen’s progression into longer utterances is heralded by the appearance of vertical
constructions she has been scattering throughout her speech, such as:

48. “Tarding. Cannon.”
The utterance, in adult, would be “Charging cannon”, but for whatever reason (Lust, 2006), Fei
Yen cannot yet manage a proper two-word utterance. “Tarding” is also an example of an unanalyzed whole, a form of speech segmentation error where an utterance with multiple morphemes is perceived and produced as one large chunk, that is, Fei Yen has yet to learn that
“charging” is “charge+ing” and will not recognize the individual morphemes on their own (cite).

Fei Yen simplifies the fricative [tʃ] and the affricate [dʒ] into the stops [t] and [d], respectively, while [kænən] has emerged from the single word period as an adult-like production. She can also now produce the liquid [r] in word-final positions:

49. “[wɒkə mʌdnɒ ɔkɪr]!”
In this word-jargon combination, Fei Yen shows she still has yet to master the liquid [l], either in a word final position or in a consonant cluster, like this stop-liquid, [kl], cluster wherein she deletes it (McLeod et al., 2001), not unlike her phonological process for the liquid [r] when it occurs in a word-final position and closing a syllable.

## No Worries

Please see "Fei Yenese#No Worries|Fei Yenese]]".