My Son Can Say "Gaia", But He Can't Say "Earth"

March 09, 2007 05:36 PM EST (Updated: March 09, 2007 05:50 PM EST)

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9 year old son: You know, mom, I wish we could find another planet like Earf in the solar system.

Me: You mean, "Earth".

Son: Yeah, Earf.

Me: EarTH. T-H. TH. TH. EeaarrTH.

Son: I wish we could find another planet like GAIA in the solar system.

Tags: earth, pronunciation, gaia, family, humor, kids, silly, speech impediment, family humor, children, funny

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Comments: 5

Ms. Meacham: Money Maven Mar 9, 2007, 6:29pm EST

I'm learning so much through your blog about popular culture. I take it that the "Gaia" your son is referring to is the one found at http://www.gaiaonline.com/, the "fastest growing online hangout"?

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Frightening Icon, Official Varmint of The State of Franklin Mar 9, 2007, 6:36pm EST

Gaia, an alternate name for Earth (from the Goddess Gaia).

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Ms. Meacham: Money Maven Mar 9, 2007, 7:04pm EST

Ah, I also found this explanation at Wikipedia (I know some times this site has been shown to be inaccurate, given that it's fueled by user definitions, but I've found that this site has the most complete definitions/histories of any other I check in with):

Etymologically Gaia is a compound word of two elements. *Ge, meaning "Earth" is found in many neologisms, such as Geography (Ge/graphos = writing about Earth) and Geology (Ge/logos = words about the Earth). *Ge is a pre-Greek substrate word that some relate to the Sumerian Ki, also meaning Earth. *Aia is a derivative of an Indo-European stem meaning "Grandmother". The full etymology of Gaia would, therefore, appear to have been "Grandmother Earth" [1].

Makes complete sense!

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Doug G. Mar 10, 2007, 10:58am EST

When he turns 10, get him a flight to the space station, and as soon as he turns weightless, wish him a "Haffy Birfy". The "th" sound requires sticking the tongue to the roof of the mouth -- maybe he can practice with peanut butter(but not Peter Pan). I always thought that instead of calling our planet, "Earth", we should call it "Mud".

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