Our kids speak 2 languages fluently... Amharic and Wollaytan. Wollaytan is a tribal language and we have pretty much NO HOPE of learning it. Amharic is the national language of Ethiopia so these are the words we are trying to learn... but I keep wanting to say them in Spanish instead.
sit down - gOcha-by (long o)
come - na (rhymes with cha cha)
peek-a-boo - I U (long I, long U, masculine); I-ush (feminine)
sleep - tenya
water - oo-ha (the h is really soft so that often it sounds like oo-a, the a sounding like what the dr. tells you to say when he wants to see your tonsils)
dog - woosha (might be important in that many kids are afraid of dogs)
Don't touch - u-tin-kE (feminine; the beginning sounds like the u in bus; long e at the end for a girl), u-tin-ku (masculine, the end sound is like the u in bus)
Stop (a command to stop what you are doing) - tA (girl), tO (boy, prounced like one of the things on the end of your foot)
Don't Cry - u-talk-us (u as in bus at the beginning)
wait - koy (rhymes with toy)
Please - aba-kesh (aba, like the musical group ABBA)
Thank You - ama-su-gan-aloo (it's a huge mouthful, but practice it a bit and you'll get it!)ishi - ok
enough - beka
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