About La Mother Tongue


La Mother Tongue is my medium to share the joys and challenges of being a new parent as well as to share how we make a conscious effort in our daily life to bring baby up bilingual.

Monday, May 24, 2010

La Papa

Today, like a buena Peruana, Sofía ate una papa, a potato, and repeated “papa” after me. She likes them and lucky for her since la papa is originally from Perú. From my agronomist suegro, Father-in-Law, I learned that originally la papa was a poisonous plant, but that Los Inca created a hybrid so that one could be edible. I haven’t validated the story, because Peruvians are serious about their papas and it sounded good to me!
En Español, there are three variations of what seems like the same word, papa. (I will show accent stress through BOLD.) You have the following: la papa = potato, el papá = dad , and el Papa = the Pope. Who would have known that those little pesky things like accents and articles could change word meanings in so many ways!!

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