our friend’s daughter is at the age where she is extremely chatty and speaking in full sentences, and i love kids’ use of language.
apparently all strangers used to be “ladies,” but now they are “neighbors.” since they speak english exclusively at home, “neighbors” speak german; it was very distressing to hear her mom speak german once, because, in her words, “you’re not a doctor or a neighbor!”
When learning how to talk, each one of my 3 sons went through a phase where I was the only person they said “She” for. Obviously, SHE was Mom, and HE was the rest of the world
Three sons, and I was the only female in the household (dog was male too).
i love the idea of a mode of language where the human noun classification system is “one’s own mother” and “everyone else”