M, n and ng.

Did you kow that the sounding of all Swedish consonants but three require a blocking of the airstream between the mouth and the nose? No. Air. Allowed. Through. Or else it’s not a consonant. Not a right soundning one, at least. The three? M, n and ng.

Pieces fell into place when I was told about this at the speech therapist’s today. Abbe obviously has some sort of cleft palate. Not visible to the eye, probably something in the soft parts of the palate. I think it’s called a Submucosal cleft palate. No one has examined him as of yet, but with my new found knowledge on the sounding of consonants it seems likely.

That’s why Abbe says Mamma without a problem but not Pappa (I was beginning to get a bit jealous). And that’s why the s sounds a little like a sneeze when he says is (ice). He’s taken to the Norwegian word for icecream you see. Possibly to avoid the letters l and g, aswell (Ice cream in Swedish is “glass” and in Norwegian it’s “is”). Or because he’s allergic to milk. In Abbe land ice cream simply equals ice (“is”).