I'm intrigued that this linguistic metamorphosis has a name. We thought we'd invented it in our household when my young son told use he needed an ote for some reason or other. It was very confusing, as we couldn't really figure out what an 'ote' was (as it was unlikely he was asking for an 'oat'). Turns out, it became clear that he was talking about A Note... or... an ote.

Language is such a fascinating world!