This is unbelievably awesome! It tells you a lot about what sounds an English speaker thinks are important, and how they interpret their spelling system.
For example, note the spelling of “triangle”. Many people actually have a “ch” sound here, even if they fail to acknowledge it.
Also, English aspirated voiceless consonants outside of certain narrow circumstances. One of them is after the consonant [s]. Note the spelling of “square”. It’s no accident that it’s a “g”! Basically of the two options, the child decided “g” better represented [k] than “k”.
And that, by the way, is pretty much right!
Also, it’s consistent! Note the spelling of “star” with a “d”. Exact same thing! Usually a “t” at the beginning of a word is [tʰ]. After [s] it’s [t]. Often at the beginning of a word “d” sounds more like [t] than [d] (this is true!), so it makes total sense that it’s “SDR” here.
Also notice the places where there are no vowels. It’s where the consonant is either syllabic (as in “diamond”), or where the post-vocalic rhotic colors the vowel making it sound more like [ɹ] than the vowel itself.
Also you see regular replacement of word-final dark l with [o]—something many English speakers do regularly in conversation that is never written. (Note this is an actual sound change in Trigedasleng on #The100.)
And finally, kids regularly change [ŋɡ] into [ɡ]. Not a surprise at all to see the dropped “n” in rectangle and triangle.
(In that tonic position. TRI-ang-gle. Basically the coda is being looked off. Kind of like saying “pitcher” for “picture”.)
OH! And my favorite bit! Notice in “triangle” there’s an “e” not an “a”. Why? Because “a” is for [æ], and heads up, phonologists: WE DON’T HAVE THAT VOWEL BEFORE VELAR NASALS ANYMORE! DEAL WITH IT!
Oh hey, and how about “rekt” becoming [ɹajt], huh? Check out the acoustic effect of that [k] slinging palatal! That’s a sound change that’s happened dozens of times in many different languages. Can’t ignore acoustics!
Anyway, the only thing the child here was guilty of is believing our spelling system can be used to spell things how they’re actually pronounced. It can’t, because (a) we refuse to change it, and (b) we believe all spellings must be consistent. Neither of these need be true.
But yeah, this is why we need to hang onto to these things. Linguists can use spellings like these as evidence of how things are pronounced and how sounds change over time!
Can’t do that with adults who “know better” (and, of course, barely ever write by hand anymore and have spellcheck. lol).
But yeah, stuff like this lights my brain on fire. It’s because its consistent! There’s logic here! Man, this made my night!
So yeah, @Sal_Perez4, if you did that in preschool, you were a preschool genius—and THANK your parents for saving that! It is AWESOME!
