Mum Left Speechless As Baby Blurts out First Word宝宝开口说的第一个词让妈妈傻眼

扎拉·马尔罗伊

Gadget-obsessed Annabelle Gates decided against “mamma” or “dada” for her first word.

Lurking in thousands of households all over the UK is an extra， invisible family member.

She’s there first thing in the morning and she’s on hand last thing at night.

In very little time she’s got to know your taste in music， films， how you like your lighting and she’ll even tell you what the weather’s like， should you ask.

We are， of course， talking about Alexa1—Amazon Echo’s2 “personal assistant”.

Alexa has become a pretty big deal and presence in many homes and in case you need further evidence of this， just ask mum-of-two， Catherine Gates.

Catherine， 26， from Blandford Forum， Dorset， was recently completely taken aback when she heard 11-month-old daughter， Annabelle， utter her first word.

Instead of “mama” or the slightly easier to say “dada”， Annabelle tapped the Amazon Echo and repeatedly blurted out “Alexa”.

Annabelle had been watching her brother Lucas， three， playing with the voice-activated gadget for months.

So when it came to the tot’s milestone moment—which Catherine got husband Liam in to witness too—she knew exactly what to say.

Since uttering her first word on Monday， Liam said Annabelle has repeated it a dozen times—even when she was getting baptised later that day.

The police officer said： “We’ve been battling for her to say ‘mummy’ or ‘daddy’ but she just went in a completely different direction.

“She’s the definition of a modern-day baby.

“We were just in shock.

“We use it with the kids to play nursery rhymes and Baby Shark3.

“She can’t activate the device but the fact it’s her first word is pretty something.

“We’re hoping she’ll learn another word soon as she just keeps blurting it out.

“She’s become completely obsessed with the word.

“It’s got to the point now that when she wakes up from a sleep or a nap she’ll start shouting ‘Alexa’ from her cot.”

The couple were gifted the virtual assistant Amazon Alexa in Christmas 2017 by a family member and use the device daily to play nursery rhymes.

Annabelle had just been taken out of her high-chair when she wandered over to the voice-activated Amazon device and blurted out its name.

The Amazon Alexa connects users to Alexa—a cloud-based voice service—to play music， control your smart home， get information， news and weather updates.

痴迷于电子娱乐设备的安娜贝尔·盖茨出生后，说出的第一个词既不是“妈妈”，也不是“爹爹”。

一位隐形的编外家庭成员正悄悄地融入成千上万的英国家庭中。

从清晨到深夜，她都静静地待在你的左右。

她可以在很短的时间内弄清楚你的音乐和电影品味以及你喜欢什么样的照明程度，而且只要你问，她甚至能告诉你当前的天气状况。

这里的“她”当然是指“亚历克莎”——亚马逊厄科智能音箱的“个人助手”。

亚历克莎已经成为一种重要的电子设备，许多家庭都有。如果你需要进一步证明，可以去问问两个孩子的母亲——凯瑟琳·盖茨。

现年26岁的凯瑟琳来自多塞特郡的布兰德福特福鲁姆。最近，当她11个月大的女儿安娜贝尔说出第一个词时，这位母亲惊讶不已。

安娜贝尔说出的第一个词既不是“妈妈”，也不是发音稍容易些的“爹爹”。她拍打着亚马逊厄科智能音箱，一遍又一遍地喊著“亚历克莎”。

几个月来，安娜贝尔常常看自己3岁的哥哥卢卡斯玩这款语音启动的设备。

所以，在这意义非凡的时刻，小宝宝非常清楚该说什么。凯瑟琳叫来了丈夫利亚姆，共同见证了这一刻。

据父亲利亚姆称，自从周一第一次说出这个词后，安娜贝尔又十几次重复说过，甚至在当天晚些时候的受洗礼仪式上也说了。

这位警察父亲说道：“我们一直努力教她说‘妈咪’和‘爹地’，但她却完全走偏了。

“她就是现代潮童的代名词。

“我们都目瞪口呆。

“我们用这款智能音箱为孩子播放传统儿歌和《鲨鱼宝宝》。

“她还不会启动这款音箱，但她说的第一个词竟然是‘亚历克莎’，实在是不可思议。

“宝宝不停地说‘亚历克莎’，我们希望她能很快学会别的词。

“她对这个词完全着迷了。

“一觉醒来，或是打个盹儿后，她就又开始在婴儿床里喊‘亚历克莎’了。”

夫妻俩于2017年圣诞节从一位亲戚那里获赠亚马逊亚历克莎虚拟助手，并每天用此设备播放儿歌。

安娜贝尔刚被人从高脚椅上抱下来，便不经意地走向语音启动的亚马逊助手，并脱口喊出亚历克莎的名字。

亚马逊亚历克莎助手能将用户与亚历克莎（一项基于云的语音服务）进行连接，来播放音乐、控制智能家居、获取信息、新闻和最新天气预报。

（译者单位：华中科技大学）