Philip's Quote of the Day

Philipeese-English Dictionary

(January 2001) I speak Swedish with Philip. Angelica speeks Portuguese with him. At daycare he hears English. So far, he's probably drawn the only logically possible conclusion: everybody speaks their own private language, so he might as well invent his own; Philipeese.

Parents infallably insist that every randow sound that their toddler makes actually means something, but that nobody except them understands. Angelica and I are just as bad. So to prepare you for meeting Philip, here's a dictionary of some of his most obscure specialties:
Philipeese English
uh-oh what you say when throwing something on the floor
dee what you say when walking up/down stairs (once per step)
luhluhlj milk/juice
la-la lamp (turn it on/off)
luh-luh radio (turn it on/off)
lulu moon
brrrr snow
luh leaf (Swedish: löv)
vav-vav dog
nam-nam food
dat what's that?
ma (pointing) do what I want with that
Thanks to Jennifer Milligan for suggesting this. If you feel that I've just wasted a minute of your time, please blame her.


This page is maintained by Max Tegmark, max@physics.upenn.edu,

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