[Vocabulary] What car did the children mean?

[englishhobby]

In an article researching children's speech I came across such an observation of the author:

"I taught first grade many years ago. A group of 6 and 7 year old's were looking at a kid's book of the human body. After a few minutes, one child exclaimed, "Oh my god, they named a car after that!" (I confess I still haven’t figured out the name of the car—Susan Gelman suggests Audi, a great suggestion. She is probably right!)"

What part of body is associated with 'audi'? What other word couild it be?

 

[MikeNewYork]

Why didn't she ask the child?

 

[JMurray]

not a teacher

Mike's question occurred to me too.
There are three very small bones in the inner ear called the auditory ossicles. That's the best I can do.

 

[MikeNewYork]

I wonder if the child confused "Volvo" with "vulva".

 

[teechar]

I wonder [STRIKE]of[/STRIKE] if the child confused "Volvo" with "vulva".

.

 

[MikeNewYork]

Thanks for the correction.

 

[TheParser]

***** NOT A TEACHER *****


MikeNewYork hit the nail on the head.

Any member or guest who wants a complete explanation can find it in a Google result entitled: The Pithy Python: Officer Earlybird

 

[englishhobby]

Why didn't she ask the child?

I also thought about it. She/he didn't((( It's from an article, so we may never know what it was.
Maybe your guess about the volvo is right. There are not any bentlies, fords or hondas, are they? ;-)

 

[tedmc]

The human auditory system is close enough to "Audi".

 

[Matthew Wai]

The child exclaimed 'Oh my god', which suggests something surprising, but the auditory system is nothing surprising.

Not a teacher.

 

[tedmc]

In any case, I do not expect the 6 or 7-year-olds to know the "double-v" word of the female anatomy.

 

[Matthew Wai]

I consider it possible as long as the child was a native speaker, but I am not a teacher.

 

[TheParser]

***** NOT A TEACHER *****


According to the Google result, the child was reading a book with the parts clearly labeled. He then did his best to pronounce the word. He was in kindergarten.

 

[emsr2d2]

I'm inclined to think that the "vulva/Volvo" confusion is indeed what is being referred to here. Whether the story is true or not is a matter of some conjecture. It sounds like an oft-repeated myth to me.

 

[Raymott]

The child wasn't surprised by the auditory system, but by the fact that a car was named after it.
In fact, this is partly true.
"The company name is based on the Latin translation of the surname of the founder, August Horch. "Horch", meaning "listen" in German, becomes "audi" in Latin. "
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Audi

 

[MikeNewYork]

The word "audi" is a big stretch from a body part.

 

[Raymott]

Yes, I don't think the original answer is Audi. I was just explaining how it theoretically could be. That answer isn't titillating enough for this apocryphal story to do the rounds. The reason the teacher didn't ask the student is because then the teacher would have the answer, and would have to give it; so the anecdote wouldn't be worth the telling.

 

[Matthew Wai]

The child wasn't surprised by the auditory system, but by the fact that a car was named after it.

But is it surprising that a car was named after something not surprising?
Are you surprised that a car was named 'Corolla'?

 

[Raymott]

But is it surprising that a car was named after something not surprising?
Are you surprised that a car was named 'Corolla'?

We aren't talking about me. The child in the story was surprised that the part had a car named after it.
There's a difference. A ghost is surprising, but having a Rolls Royce named after various ghosts is not surprising, at least to me. I can't see that there should be a relationship between whether something, X, is surprising, and whether one would be surprised that a car was called X. I'd be surprised if a car was called 'Cowpat', but a cowpat would usually not surprise me.