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Linguists start young... |
I was a very talkative little child. I was notorious for asking questions, especially the names of items—whether I already knew them or not. My mom remembers one particularly trying time at the doctor’s office when I sat on the table and pointed at everything I saw, inquiring “Zat? Zat? Zat?” very enthusiastically.
(As a budding linguist, I'd already figured out that “what’s that?” will phonologically contract into the much more palatable and efficient "Zat?")