Yammer – to utter clamorously, persistently. Example: gejig-a-zhigza-blag-o-wow-wow-wow.

Repeat one hundred and nine times while circling the kitchen island with a plastic, red boat clutched in your hand.

Or.

End each string of sounds with raised intonation, forming the universal method of question, query, wonder.

The day begins this way: your tiny finger points at all objects, familiar and not, and you inquire, kazzat?

I explain what the object is: a fan, Van Gogh print, cantaloupe, sock, remote control, piece of banana, camera, crayon.

What follows is: gejig-a-zhigza-blag-o-wow-wow-wow.

The components of worthwhile conversation are all in place: polite inquiry then definition or explanation followed by a final commentary. The language is foreign, a sing-song staccato of slippery consonants and vowels. But it makes sense. What more is there to say, anyway? Maybe you’ve figured it out at an early age, Simone, realized the banality of most conversations. We can replace dialog with the mwah mwah mwah of those adults in the Charlie Brown cartoons and not feel like anything important has been missed.