3yr old uses made-up words - what's that about?

[uberalice]

3yr old DS2 is bright and articulate for his age. However, he has a habit of making up words when he doesn't know what something is called. He'll use the same word for a few days, and the words often follow a similar pattern - what's that? It's a doona; it's a bala; it's a canna. Has anyone else experienced this? I'm not at all worried, in fact it's quite cute, but just wonder why he does it.

my ds is now 4.3. he's always been bright and has always done this too. he is very imaginative and just likes to make up words, names, stories etc. i think it's fab and i'm sure will stand them in good stead in later childhood.

DD (4) does this. She'll sing a rhyme properly and then sing it again substituting new words but if she can't think of a word to rhyme, she'll make one up.

ds 3+ (who is, also, naturally quite bright and articulate ) has also been doing this for a while - it's a 'hulamarni' or a hoojihop or whatever. I reckon it's just playing about with sounds and seeing what happens.
My parents (lecturer in education & primary school teacher) say it's very common

fp - I love your DS's words - they're fab!

A hoojahop is, perhaps not surprisingly a kind of mid air twist and hop, executed on your way down from the toilet step.
A hulamarni was something he found on the pavement
Todday, anyway.

In case you were wondering

yep happens here too. Then he laughs at his own words/jokes (gets that from his dad )

My dd1 (now 4) also does this. Sometimes she just babbles and plays with the sounds of made-up words. She is just getting to grips with the concept of rhyme, so she will come out with things like "Mapofa rhymes with sofa, doesn't it?"

She recently acquired a toy owl which she has named Vavoonia Baboonia

My DH has just suggested that perhaps IKEA employ 3 yr olds to think of their product names

Me too Califrau although I find it gets harder as I get older.

Ds (nearly four) does this too and thinks it's hilarious. Whatever floats his boat...

DD1 3.8 yo does this, she's bilingual (Spanish) and mixes sounds together to make up nonsense, she's just playing around with sounds - she can speak both langages fine. She made up a word for her girl parts - boditch, i love it.

PMSL @ vavoonia baboonia and uberalice's dh!