Ian experiementing with languages

Well Ian is at it again. He is speaking again. Adding a few words to his vocabulary and trying them out. He is much later in speaking than our other children, which seems to come partially from the dual language upbringing - German in pre-school and English at home.

In order to understand his latest language leap you have to understand both languages, but I'll explain both. Here is the phrase Ian commonly says.
If a family member says something they don't like, such as, "I don't like hot dogs", Ian responds with this statement: "Me aber". Which translated directly into English is "me but", and directly into German is "mir aber" oder "mich aber". The phrase is incorrect in either language and the phrase ends up being a very intricate mixture of the two languages.

The German phrase should be "ich aber". The English phrase should be "but I do". And, Ian ends up somewhere in the middle of the two phrases.

Part of the challenge for Ian, I believe, is that German speakers generally correctly use the word I (ich) when the individual speaking is the subject of the sentence. But in the German phrase he incorrectly uses the possessive "me" because Americans, including our family, often use the word me when I should be used. Think of the exclamation of approval "me too". This is commonly used instead the full phrase "I also enjoy/prefer/ _____". Another typical example is "me and my friend went to the store" instead of "my friend and I went to the store".

What it comes down to is - we have two pieces of good news. Ian is speaking, and it's very entertaining.