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"Ohh FROG!"
You might remember this viral video from several years ago. Toddlers cannot pronounce the word “frog” and instead, were dropping the F-bomb everywhere!
And so, to get a kick out of it, my cousin (Chloe’s mom) tried to teach Chloe to say “frog”. The result was no surprise. It was like watching the viral video live, and ten times funnier. And just to drive Chloe’s parents crazy, I was very tempted to teach her to say “you” after “frog”.
So why can’t they say “frog”?
Well, I thought back to my university Linguistics 101 course, which at first I didn’t give a “frog” about (I took it to fulfill an arts credit). But it got interesting and we learned that there are categories of sound in the English alphabet system.
For example, Bilabial Consonants is a group of sounds that include M, P, and B. They are made when both your lips touch and are one of the easiest sounds to make. This explains why babies’ first words are “ma”, “ba”, or “pa”.
K, Q, and G sounds are known as Velar sounds. These are sounds made at a place that is near the back of the oral cavity by raising the velum. The difference is the K sound is a voiceless sound and the G sound is a voiced sound. “Voiced” simply means vibration of the vocal cord was made when the sound is produced.
To be even more technical, when little learners turn the G sound into a K sound, it is known as Consonant Devoicing. Another example would be pronouncing “bag” as “back”. Kids usually will out-grow this mispronunciation by the age of 3.
Where is the R sound in “frog”?
Losing the R sound is known as Cluster Reduction. For example, “tuck” instead of “truck”, “fog” instead of “frog”, and “sool” instead of “school”. This phenomenon tends to be out-grown completely by the age of 4.
For parents out there with “Trouble-two’s”
Parents, if you are concerned, you can use techniques to explicit teach your child proper pronunciations. Allow them to touch your larynx area when producing the G sound in “frog” so they feel the vibration of your vocal cords. This could help show them the difference between voiced and voiceless sounds. Doing this is known as giving them a tactile cue.
Or…of course, you may sit back and enjoy how cute and funny it is when you ask them to say “frog”. It’s probably the only time you will allow them to swear without getting into trouble.
Written by Mandy Lam
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