Hikaru's Vocabulary

We sometimes catch ourselves saying, "Wow, I didn't know Hikaru could say that!" Today we tried to estimate how many words our 17-month-old baby can express.

Hikaru presently operates in a primarily English and Cantonese world of words. Of course, he "knows" more words than what he can pronounce. But from our list, we came up with around fifty words that he can actually say...

Food Words - bao-bao (bread), nana (banana), apple, ahng (orange), aga (avocado), naai-naai (milk in baby Cantonese), guo-guo (any kind of fruit), wa-wa (water), gnau-gnau (meat), cheese

Animals - lion, duck, quack (duck), dog, woo-wah (also dog in Hikaru-ese), cat, meow (cat), neigh (horse), bah (sheep), rabbit, yu-yu (fish), bird, jek-jek (bird), chicken (gai)

People - Mama (mother), Baba (father), Baby, Gogo (big brother or all kids), Paw-Paw (grandmother), Gung-Gung (grandfather), Yi-Yi (aunt), Mui-Mui (little sister), Giang-Giang (uncle), Mimi (Mickey Mouse)

Things - bee-vee (television), ha-mee (hammer), book, gnag-gnag (bracelet), car, picture

Astronomical Objects - mmm (moon), tah (star)

Body Parts - ear, nose, head, eye

Other Misc Words - uppa-uppa (up), dong-dong (light), hi, bye-bye, no, bad, "Go Dog Go" (name of a favorite book), fa-fa (flower), col (cold), heh (hot), pooh-pooh

Mystery Words - buka-buka, pika-pika, mega-mega

Hikaru's vocabulary grows daily, so by the time you read this message, there's a few more to add to this list. Sometimes people over-emphasize "spoken" language as a sign of knowing, but he "knows" a lot more than he can express verbally.

There are many ways that Hikaru communicates with us, including grunts, cries, signs and gestures, pointing, body language, and facial expressions. Eventually, we can figure him out.