truly tri-lingual?

The title of my blog refers to the fact that I use 3 languages on a daily basis. The « try » refers to the fact that I haven't yet quite mastered Monkolé to the level I'd like to! (In fact I read Hebrew too for my work, but the play on words works better if I just count the three I speak!)

Eve, our 2 year old, has grown up with 3 languages around her. In the family we speak both French and English (but we all know who speaks which language to whom), and every weekday morning since the age of 3 months, Eve has been looked after by Hélène, our pastor's wife, who only speaks Monkolé to her. She quite clearly understands a lot in all three languages.

It is perhaps the effort of absorbing all three languages which has meant she has started to speak later than our boys did, or later than her cousins who are the same age as her have done. She has a very expressive face, and invented her own kind of sign language for the things she wanted to communicate, which meant that her lack of verbal communication wasn't much of a handicap to her. And she has been anything but silent – she does lots of singing in her own made-up language, and her games are punctuated by plenty of sound effects.

Then in the last couple of months the words started coming. Mainly in English, probably because Simon, Benjy and I all speak English to her, and she spends the most time with us. But she also has several French words and a few Monkolé words. She quickly worked out that being able to say goodbye to people in Monkolé made them very happy! (The 'hello' greetings are more complicated.)

She may not speak much, but when she does she often manages to hit just the right comic timing. As she disappeared out of the back door after tea this evening I said, "Er, where are you going?" and she missed a beat, eyes wide, before smiling and saying, "Bye-bye!", then closing the door decisively behind her.