A child’s curiosity about the sounds of English

When I was eight or so, long before I could read, I remember asking myself once why my parents said DROING ROOM when there was paint, point, pint, pound, and point, paint, paint were possible, but no poing or poink. That must have been my first thought about linguistics. It didn’t occur to me to ask my parents. They would have said they were talking about the drawing room.