Baby talk

Baby talk, also referred to as caretaker speech, infant-directed speech (IDS) or child-directed speech (CDS)^[1][2][3][4] and informally as "motherese", "parentese", "mommy talk", or "daddy talk" is a nonstandard form of speech used by adults in talking to toddlers and infants.

It is usually delivered with a "cooing" pattern of intonation different from that of normal adult speech: high in pitch, with many glissando variations that are more pronounced than those of normal speech. It frequently displays hyperarticulation, which is an increase in the distances between peripheral vowels (such as [i], [u], and [a]) Baby talk is also characterized by the shortening and simplifying of words. Baby talk is similar to what is used by people when talking to their pets (pet-directed speech). When adults talk to each other using baby talk it is generally to either show affection by emulating the fondness shown by adults for children, or as a form of bullying or condescension as children are much less cognitively developed than adults, implying that the adult receiving the baby talk is less intelligent than the adult talking to them.

Terminology

• The first documented use of the word baby-talk, according to the Oxford English Dictionary, was in 1836.
• Motherese and parentese are more precise terms than baby talk, and perhaps more amenable to computer searches, but are not the terms of choice among child development professionals. Critics of gender stereotyping also prefer it to the term motherese, because all caregivers, not only female parents, use distinct speech patterns and vocabulary when talking to young children. Motherese can also refer to English spoken in a higher, gentler manner, which is otherwise correct English, as opposed to the non-standard, shortened word forms.^[5]
• Child-directed speech or CDS is the term preferred by researchers, psychologists and child development professionals.^[6]
• Infant Directed Speech is also used, and abbreviated as IDS.
• Caregiver language is also sometimes used.

Purpose and implications

Use with infants

Baby talk is more effective than regular speech in getting an infant's attention. Studies have shown that infants actually prefer to listen to this type of speech rather than standard adult-directed speech.^[7] Some researchers, including Rima Shore,^[8] believe that baby talk is an important part of the emotional bonding process between the parents and their child that helps the infants learn the language. Other researchers from Carnegie Mellon University and the University of Wisconsin confirm that using basic “baby talk” helps babies pick up words faster than usual.^[9] Infants pay more attention when parents use infant-directed language, which has a slower and more repetitive tone than used in regular conversation. This child-directed speech has also been shown in languages other than English.^[10]

Colwyn Trevarthen studied babies and their mothers, observing the communication and subtle movements between them. He has links to music therapy with other theorists.^[11]

There are numerous purposes and benefits of infant directed speech, including positive effects on the early development of infants and children, and aid in the ability of infants to bond with their caregivers. In addition, infants begin the process of speech and language acquisition and development through infant directed speech.^[12] Infant directed speech may also contribute to the modulation of infant attention, assist infants in determining relevant syntactic qualities including phonetic boundaries, and convey positive emotion to infants. The more expressive infant directed speech is, the more likely infants are to respond to this method of communication by adults.^[13]

Perhaps the most important benefit of infant directed speech is what it provides to the development of language for infants and children. It has been found that the children who learn the fastest are those who receive the most acknowledgement and encouragement of what they say, who are given time and attention to speak and share, and who are questioned.^[14] For instance, it has been found that six-month-olds can discriminate between medial position syllables in words with multiple syllables when infant directed speech is used. Therefore, infant directed speech is a powerful tool in providing a base for language acquisition. Infants are able to apply principles of this practice to larger words and sentences as they learn to process language.^[15]

Infant directed speech also aids infants in selecting appropriate social partners. Although infants have a range of social cues available to them regarding who will provide adequate care, infant directed speech serves as an additional indicator as to which caregivers will provide developmental support. When adults engage in infant directed speech with infants they are ultimately providing them with positive emotion and attention, signaling to infants that they are valued.^[16]

Infant directed speech can also serve as a priming tool for infants to notice the faces of their caregivers. Due to the nature of infant directed speech, infants are more sensitive to the pitch and emphasized qualities of this method. Therefore, when caregivers utilize infant directed speech they are expanding the possibility for their infants to notice and process their facial expressions. This effect could in part be due to the fact that infants associate infant directed speech with positive facial expressions such as smiling. Infants may be more likely to respond to infant directed speech if they expect to receive a positive response from their caregiver. Regardless, infant directed speech serves as a tool to aid infants in responding to facial expressions from caregivers, which in turn stimulates both language and social development.^[17]

Research suggests that infant directed speech promotes the processing of word forms and allows infants to remember words when asked to recall them in the future. As words are repeated through infant directed speech, infants begin to create mental representations of each word. As a result, infants who experience infant directed speech are able to recall words more effectively than infants who do not.^[18]

Research has shown that infants can pick up on the vocal cues of infant directed speech and will often pattern their babbling after it.^[19]

The implications of the lack of the use of infant directed speech are equally as important to recognize. Research suggests that children of depressed mothers who do not regularly use infant directed speech display delayed language development. Even when depressed mothers provide their infants with positive faces, infants do not respond to their attempts at infant directed speech, and in turn do not benefit from this important method of language acquisition. Infants are unable to create the link between speech and visual face movements in situations such as these. When fathers who are not depressed are able to provide the stimulation of infant directed speech for their children, infants respond well and are able to compensate from the deficit left by their mothers. Unfortunately, it is likely that if infants do not receive adequate infant directed speech from their mothers they will generalize this response to all females. This too can inhibit language and speech development. Therefore, this deficit can be especially harmful to infants with depressed mothers and little contact with male caregivers.^[20] Socioeconomic status has been found to influence the development of vocabulary and language skills. Lower-status groups tend to be behind the development of children in higher-status families. This finding is thought to be due to the amount of time parents spend with the child and the ways they interact; mothers from higher-status groups are found to say more to their children, use more variety, and speak in longer sentences.^[21] Families with a lower-status might just have less time to spend focusing on interactions.

Aid to cognitive development

Shore and other researchers believe that baby talk contributes to mental development as it helps teach the child the basic function and structure of language.^[8] Studies have found that responding to an infant's babble with meaningless babble aids the infant's development; while the babble has no logical meaning, the verbal interaction demonstrates to the child the bidirectional nature of speech, and the importance of verbal feedback. Some experts advise that parents should not talk to infants and young children solely in baby talk, but should integrate some normal adult speech as well. The high-pitched sound of infant-directed speech gives it special acoustic qualities which may appeal to the infant.^[22] Infant-directed speech may aid a child in the acquisition and/or comprehension of language-particular rules which are otherwise unpredictable;^[22] an example is the reduction or avoidance of pronoun reversal errors.^[23] It has been also suggested that motherese is crucial for children to acquire the ability to ask questions.^[24] Some feel that parents should refer to the child and others by their names only (no pronouns, e.g., he, I, or you), to avoid confusing infants who have yet to form an identity independent from their parents.

Universality and differences by region

Researchers Bryant and Barrett (2007)^[25] have suggested (as have others before them, e.g., Fernald, 1992^[26]) that baby talk exists universally across all cultures and is a species-specific adaptation.^[27] Other researchers contend that it is not universal among the world's cultures, and argue that its role in helping children learn grammar has been overestimated. For evidence to back up their claims they point out that in some societies (such as certain Samoan tribes),^[8] adults do not speak to their children at all until the children reach a certain age. Furthermore, even where baby-talk is used, it is full of complicated grammatical constructs, and mispronounced or non-standard words. Other evidence suggests that baby talk is not a universal phenomenon: for example Schieffelin & Ochs (1983) describe the Kaluli tribe of Papua New Guinea who do not typically employ infant-directed speech.^[28] Language acquisition in Kaluli children was not found to be significantly impaired. In other societies, it is more common to speak to children as one would to an adult, but with simplifications in grammar and vocabulary, with the belief that it will help them learn words as they are known in the standard form.

In order to relate to the child during baby talk, a parent may deliberately slur or fabricate some words, and may pepper the speech with nonverbal utterances. A parent might refer only to objects and events in the immediate vicinity, and will often repeat the child's utterances back to them. Since children employ a wide variety of phonological and morphological simplifications (usually distance assimilation or reduplication) in learning speech, such interaction results in the "classic" baby-words like na-na for grandmother, wawa for water, or din-din for dinner, where the child seizes on a stressed syllable of the input, and simply repeats it to form a word.

Although child directed speech proves to be a concept recognized cross-culturally, the extent to which caregivers rely on and use this method of communication differs based on cultural differences. Mothers in regions that display predominately introverted cultures are less likely to display a great deal of child directed speech, although it is still utilized. Further, the personality of each child experiencing child directed speech from a caregiver deeply impacts the extent to which a caregiver will use this method of communication.^[12] Infant directed speech has been seen in a wide variety of languages such as Japanese, Italian, Mandarin, English, and German. This illustrates the universality of the practice and serves as an indication that infant directed speech is a necessary aspect of social development for children.^[15] Although it is found in many cultures it is far from universal in terms of style and amount it is used.^[29] A factor found to influence the way adults communicate with children is the way the culture views children. For example, if they view children as helpless and unable to understand, adults tend to interact with children less than if they believe that children are capable of learning and understanding. Often cultures lacking a form of CDS make up for it in other ways, such as involving the children more in everyday activities.^[30]

Research suggests that in a tonal language, such as Mandarin, the use of child directed speech is beneficial to development. Specifically, Mandarin features lexical tones that must be used with every syllable which in turn convey meaning. It has been seen that in tonal languages such as in this example mothers use child directed speech by heightening the pitch of speaking making the product easier for infants to understand. The raising of pitch in speech associated with child directed speech is present cross culturally and occurs regardless of the language being spoken. Psychoacoustic studies on intonation have been used to further determine the effect of higher pitch and exaggerated syllables used in child directed speech. These tests have determined that the properties of child directed speech do not create additional difficulty for infants when attempting to distinguish speech. Instead, the raised pitch and elongated style of child directed speech allow for more effective communication. Further, Mandarin speaking mothers who emphasized changes between phonemes had children with higher successes in language discrimination tests. These findings also occur cross culturally, and present themselves clearly in the English language. Ultimately, regardless of geographic region, the use of child directed speech allows infants to develop the capacity for language more quickly due to its distinct qualities.^[31]

Use with non-infants

The use of baby talk is not limited to interactions between adults and infants, as it may be used among adults, or by people to animals. In these instances, the outward style of the language may be that of baby talk, but is not considered actual "parentese", as it serves a different linguistic function (see pragmatics).

Patronizing / derogatory baby talk

Baby talk and imitations of it may be used by one non-infant to another as a form of verbal abuse, in which the talk is intended to infantilize the victim. This can occur during bullying, when the bully uses baby talk to assert that the victim is weak, cowardly, overemotional, or otherwise submissive.

Flirtatious baby talk

Baby talk may be used as a form of flirtation between sexual or romantic partners. In this instance, the baby talk may be an expression of tender intimacy, and may perhaps form part of affectionate sexual roleplaying in which one partner speaks and behaves childishly, while the other acts motherly or fatherly, responding in "parentese". One or both partners might perform the child role. Terms of endearment, such as poppet (or, indicatively, baby), may be used for the same purpose in communication between the partners.

Baby talk with pets

Many people use falsetto, glissando and repetitive speech similar to baby talk when addressing their pets. Such talk is not commonly used by professionals who train working animals such as police dogs and guard dogs, but is very common among owners of companion pets. This style of speech is different from baby talk, despite intonal similarities, especially if the speaker uses rapid rhythms and forced breathiness which may mimic the animal's utterances. Pets often learn to respond well to the emotional states and specific commands of their owners who use baby talk, especially if the owner's intonations are very distinct from ambient noise. For example, a dog may recognize baby talk as his owner's invitation to play (as is a dog's natural "play bow"); a cat may learn to come when addressed with the high-pitched utterance, "Heeeeere kitty- kitty-kitty-kitty- kitty- kitty!"

Foreigner talk

When addressing a listener not skilled in the speaker's language, people may simplify their spoken language in an attempt to improve understanding. Some use sign language to communicate with others, especially if they have a hearing problem, although this is not always understood by people, as some signs in ASL may be difficult to interpret by some people, especially if gestures have different meanings from place to place, so they may use a baby talk-like language to communicate, skipping out small words and possibly using demonstratives instead of pronouns, for example Do not cross the road becoming No cross road. While this kind of simplifications could be helpful for say foreign tourists, this type of communication is perceived as rude or offensive in some societies, because it may cause the foreigner to feel infantilised. It can also considered insulting if the foreigner is skilled in the speaker's language. While not considered to be actual parentese, it has aspects which make the two language styles similar.

Baby-talk words taken into adult speech

Sometimes baby-talk words are taken into adult speech. Examples are:

• "nanny" = "children's nurse" to distinguish from "hospital nurse".
• "didy" for "diaper", in USA usage.
• In Ancient Greek, παππος = "grandfather" instead of expected *ἀος from Common Indo-European *awos

Vocabulary and structure

Vocabulary

With respect to English-speaking parents, it is well-established^[32] that Anglo-Saxon or Germanic words tend to predominate in informal speech registers, whereas Latinate vocabulary is usually reserved for more formal uses such as legal and scientific texts. Child-directed speech, an informal speech register, also tends to use Anglo-Saxon vocabulary. The speech of mothers to young children has a higher percentage of native Anglo-Saxon verb tokens than speech addressed to adults.^[33] In particular, in parents’ child-directed speech the clausal core^[34] is built in the most part by Anglo-Saxon verbs, namely, almost all tokens of the grammatical relations subject-verb, verb-direct object and verb-indirect object that young children are presented with, are constructed with native verbs.^[35] The Anglo-Saxon verb vocabulary consists of short verbs, but its grammar is relatively complex. Syntactic patterns specific to this sub-vocabulary in present-day English include periphrastic constructions for tense, aspect, questioning and negation, and phrasal lexemes functioning as complex predicates, all of which occur also in child-directed speech.

As noted above, baby talk often involves shortening and simplifying words, with the possible addition of slurred words and nonverbal utterances, and can invoke a vocabulary of its own. Some utterances are invented by parents within a particular family unit, or are passed down from parent to parent over generations, while others are quite widely known and used within most families, such as wawa for water, num-num for a meal, ba-ba for bottle, or beddy-bye for bedtime, and are considered standard or traditional words, possibly differing in meaning from place to place.

Baby talk, language regardless, usually consists of a muddle of words, including names for family members, names for animals, eating and meals, bodily functions and genitals, sleeping, pain, possibly including important objects such as diaper, blanket, pacifier, bottle, etc., and may be sprinkled with nonverbal utterances, such as goo goo ga ga. The vocabulary of made-up words, such as those listed below, may be quite long with terms for a large number of things, rarely or possibly never using proper language, other times quite short, dominated by real words, all nouns. Most words invented by parents have a logical meaning, although the nonverbal sounds are usually completely meaningless and just fit the speech together.

A fair number of baby talk and nursery words refer to bodily functions or the genitals, partly because the words are relatively easy to pronounce. Also, if a child is very young, bodily functions such as urination and defecation may be quite exciting for them. Scientific terms may be harder for them to understand and pronounce, so baby talk may be more convenient for a young child. Moreover, such words reduce adults' discomfort with the subject matter, and make it possible for children to discuss such things without breaking adult taboos. However, some, such as pee-pee and poo-poo have been very widely used in reference to bodily functions to the point that they are considered to be standard words, so ability to mention such subjects without adult negativity has recently faded.

Some examples of widely used baby talk words and phrases in English, many of which are not found within standard dictionaries but may be classified as nonstandard or childish terms, include:

• baba (blanket, bath, bottle, brother, baby or an onomatopoeic term for sheep, used as a generic baby-talk term for words starting with the letter b)
• beddy-bye (go to bed, sleeping, bedtime)
• binkie (pacifier)
• blankie (blanket)
• boo-boo (wound, pain or bruise)
• botty (rear end)
• bow-wow (dog)
• brekkie or brekfee (breakfast)
• bubby or bubba (brother)
• bye-bye (goodbye)
• choo-choo (train)
• cootchie-coo (term of endearment used for a young child)
• dada (dad, or rarely dog, diaper, or dummy, British equivalent of pacifier, sometimes used as a generic baby-talk term for words starting with the letter d)
• didee (diaper, chiefly American)
• din-din (dinner)
• doedoes (In South African English, the equivalent of beddy-bye)
• doggy or -ie (dog)
• dolly or -ie (doll)
• dum-dum (dummy, British equivalent of pacifier)
• drinky (drink)
• gee-gee (horse)
• goo goo ga ga (nonverbal utterance imitating a baby which has not yet learned to speak)
• huggle or huggie (hug, Huggies is also a brand of diapers and baby products)
• lickle (little)
• mama (mother or rarely milk)
• moo-moo or moo-cow (cow)
• milkie or -y (milk)
• no-no (taboo, something which is not good)
• night-night (goodnight, bedtime)
• num nums (food/dinner)
• ickle (little; chiefly British)
• icky (disgusting)
• jammies (pyjamas)
• lolly (sweets US candy)
• nana (grandmother)
• oopsie-daisy or whoopsie-daisy (accident)
• owie (wound or bruise)
• passie or paci (pacifier, often used as an abbreviation)
• pee-pee (urination or penis)
• pewie (smelling bad)
• poo-poo or doo-doo or caca (defecation)
• poopie or -y (defecation)
• potty (toilet, especially a chamber pot for a young child)
• poppet (term of endearment for a young child)
• puffer (train)
• quick-quick (haste, hurry, doing something quickly, chiefly British)
• scrummy (tasty)
• sissy (sister or urination)
• sleepy-bye (go to bed, sleeping, bedtime)
• stinky (defecation)
• teensy-weensy (very small, tiny)
• tummy (stomach or abdomen)
• uh-oh, sometimes written as uh-uh or oh-oh (toddler's expression towards anything that is not good or has gone wrong)
• wawa (water)
• wee-wee (urination or penis)
• whoopsie (defecation)
• widdle (urine; chiefly British)
• widdle (little; chiefly American)
• widdo (little)
• woof-woof (dog)
• wuv (love)
• yucky (disgusting)
• yum-yum (meal time, informally interpreted as an expression of delight towards a pleasant-tasting food)
• uppie or -sie (wanting to be picked up)
• vroom-vroom or brrrm-brrrm (car)

Sometimes such words escape from the nursery and get into adult vocabulary, for example "nanny" for "children's nurse" to distinguish from "hospital nurse", or "nappy" for "baby's napkin" to distinguish from "table napkin".

Diminutives

Moreover, many words can be derived into baby talk following certain rules of transformation, in English adding a terminal /i/ sound at the end, usually written and spelled as /ie/, /y/, or /ey/, is a common way to form a diminutive which is often used as part of baby talk, examples include:

• horsey (from horse)
• kitty (from cat or kitten)
• potty (originally from pot now equivalent to modern toilet or a chamber pot for a young child)
• doggy (from dog)
• milky (from milk, also spelled as milkie)
• drinky (from drink)
• poopy (from poop)
• uppie (from up)
• ducky (from duck)
• pewie (from P. U., an expression of disgust towards something smelling bad)

("Puppy" is often erroneously thought to be a diminutive of pup made this way, but it is in fact the other way around: pup is a shortening of puppy, which comes from French popi or poupée which means "doll". "Doll" is such a shortening for "dolly", which started as a pet form for "Dorothy".)

Phrases

Baby talk phrases and sentences often skip out small words, imitating young children who can make little sense of sentence composition, such as to, at, for, my, so and as, and articles (the, a, an), thus resulting in an incomplete sentence, such as I need go potty or I want blanket. Sometimes, demonstratives are used instead of pronouns (he, I, it, she etc.), as it may help children learn people's names, for example, Daddy wants Susie to eat her cereal instead of standard adult-type speech, I want you to eat your cereal as pronouns are often confusing to young children. Also, labelling is practised, sometimes emphasising a word through repetition within a sentence, such as That's a car, Susie. It's a car. Some parents substitute a particular word in a sentence with a difficult sound to pronounce with another easier word, such as choo-choo instead of train as some children are unable to pronounce the /tr/ sound as infants, although most learn pronunciations and phonics as they increase in age.

All individual words have a logical meaning, although phrases made up of them are often based on random utterances, sprinkled with logical words, so the child can "sift" out the words with meanings and interpret them, as the parent may teach language by labelling, associating the word with the object or action.

Use as informal terms

Baby talk words and phrases such as mama, pee-pee, potty, yucky, no-no and tummy are sometimes used after infancy as colloquial or informal terms. However, reduplication is not practiced. For example pee-pee becomes pee. Also, meanings may alter slightly to become more age-universal and specific: for example potty changing in meaning from any toilet to a container-like one for small children, yum-yum changing from mealtime to an informal expression of delight towards a meal, or stinky changing from defecation (as a countable noun) to an adjective for something smelling bad. Poppet or similar terms may be used as a term of endearment for a loved one of similar age, such as a romantic partner, and quick-quick or no-no may be used as expressions in school, university and even occupational work scenarios. Nonverbal utterances such as googoogaga may be used as figuratives for things misinterpreted or not understood. Words such as mama and nana are words often used for family members past infancy. The word doo-doo is used as a figurative later in age for something difficult or problematic, such as When the computer's jammed, we're in deep doo-doo.

Duplications

Most standard baby talk words consist of a single syllable duplicated, such as mama, dada, poo-poo, pee-pee, baba, boo-boo, bot-bot, num-num, dum-dum and wee-wee. These are often imitations of a baby's first utterances which take the shape of a word. These are made when the child takes a stressed syllable of the main word to shorten it and repeats it to form a word-like utterance. Words with similar sounds from stressed syllables, such as mama, dada and babainclude:

• bot-bot or ba-ba from bottle
• dum-dum from dummy (British term for a pacifier)
• mama from mother
• dada from daddy
• poo-poo from poop

Words can be made from a diminutive with an /i/ sound at the end, reduplicated, but the first letter of the duplication replaced with a /w/- for example teensy-weensy, puppy-wuppy or binkie-winkie. Realistic language examples following this same pattern known as partial duplications or modified duplications include okey-dokey, silly-billy, mumbo-jumbo and super-duper, which use the first letter as the point of modification. However, these patterns are more common in colloquial language and slang than formal English and rarely use a /w/ for modification.

Many baby talk words for animals involve duplication of the onomatopoeia of the sound they make, including:

• moo-moo (cow)
• neigh-neigh (horse)
• baa-baa, sometimes written as ba-ba (sheep)

Others, which do not relate to animals, include vroom-vroom (car) and choo-choo (train).

Differences in pronunciation

Other transformations mimic the way infants mistake certain consonants which in English can include turning /l/ into /w/ as in wuv from love or widdo from little or in pronouncing /v/ as /b/ and /ð/ or /t/ as /d/ and /θ/ as /f/ or /s/. It is a way of imitating how a baby or young child speaks, because most babies, when they start talking, talk as though they have a speech impediment because they mistake certain consonants. This usually is outgrown by the age of five or six.

Still other transformations, but not in all languages, include elongated vowels, such as kitty and kiiiitty, (emphasized /i/) meaning the same thing. While this is understood by English speaking toddlers, it is not applicable with Dutch toddlers as they learn that elongated vowels reference different words.^[36]

Phonology

Infant directed speech includes features of higher pitch, exaggerated pitch changes, elongated vowels and long pauses between phonemes. This is done in order to allow infants time to process the information being conveyed to them. Rhythm is also heavily emphasized in this practice and is used closely with the emphasis of various syllables. Vowel space is also expanded in infant directed speech allowing for accurate phoneme discrimination. Words that are somewhat difficult in terms of the sounds that make them up, or phonologically difficult words, might be simplified.

Syntax

Infant directed speech features a unique syntax, usually having a simplified form. Caregivers utilizing infant directed speech often use short utterances rather than full sentence structures in order to convey meaning to their infants. These short units are often repeated so infants have practice in a particular concept. Infant directed speech allows for infants to detect syntactic boundaries. Further, infant directed speech makes linguistic patterns easier to discover than when adult directed speech is used. Infants begin to understand word order through infant directed speech which slowly expands into a deeper understanding of sentence structure as a whole.

Communicating with children can be difficult if the adult cannot maintain their attention, so the topic must be on things that interest them. Research has found that five topics tend to dominate the conversation: members of the family, animals, parts of the body, food, and clothing. Conversations with children are mostly about the present and the here-and-now, rather than topics pertaining to another time, past or future.

Characteristics

CDS is a clear and simplified way of communicating to younger children used not only by adults but also by older children. The vocabulary is limited, speech is slowed with a greater number of pauses, and the sentences are short and grammatically simplified and often repeated.^[30] Three types of modifications occur to adult directed speech in the production of infant directed speech. Firstly are linguistic modifications, including the simplification of speech units as well as emphasis on various phonemes. Secondly are modifications to attention getting strategies. Caregivers use visual movements of the face to more effectively gain and maintain the attention of their infants. Lastly, modifications are made to the interactions between parents and infants. Parents use infant directed speech not only to promote language development, but to create a bond and positive relationship between them and their infants.^[15]

The younger the child the more exaggerated CDS is. And because it is slow, simple and easier to understand, research has proven that infants prefer CDS over normal speech.^[37] Research shows that one of the most prominent characteristics of infant directed speech is the wider opening of the mouth present in those using infant directed speech versus adult directed speech. This occurs especially in vowels. Vocal pitch is also heightened during infant directed speech and research indicates vowels are spoken with the highest pitch when infant directed speech is used. The horizontal positioning of the lips in infant directed speech does not differ significantly from positioning used in adult directed speech. Instead, the only observed difference remains in vertical lip positioning. By making the opening of the lips larger, infants are more likely to focus on the face of the speaker. Research suggests that the larger the opening of the lips during infant directed speech, the better infants will understand the message being conveyed due to the additional visual cues available.^[12] Contrary to popular belief, the intensity of speech, however, does not differ from that used in adult directed speech.

Infant directed speech not only includes the characteristics of high pitched speech and elongated syllables, but also incorporates visual body movements that assist in conveying meaning of language to infants. One monumental visual aspect of infant directed speech is the movement of the lips. In addition, head movements are used to emphasize various syllables within language production. These visual cues provide infants the additional information needed to perform accurate speech discrimination during language development. Visual cues also allow infants to discriminate speech differences in environments in which they cannot rely on their hearing, such as in noisy environments. However, the auditory and visual aspects of infant directed speech do not exist independently. Infants rely equally on both methods of understanding and as development continues, infants strengthen the link between these two important categories.

It must be considered that although infant directed speech features marked characteristics, it may not only be these characteristics aiding in development of language for children. Due to the visual cues used by caregivers in this method of communication, infants are more highly motivated to engage in communication. Because infants are willing to participate in this process, caregivers are able to make significant progress through the use of infant directed speech.^[12]

It is often assumed that infants are interested in the properties of infant directed speech and play a passive role in this interaction. However, research indicates that infants are not only attracted to the practice itself but to people who engage in infant directed speech. Through this practice, infants are able to determine who positive and encouraging caregivers will be in their development. When infants use infant directed speech as a determinant of acceptable caregivers their cognitive development seems to thrive because they are being encouraged by adults who are invested in the development of the given infants.^[16]

Examples in literature

• The novelist Booth Tarkington, in Seventeen (1917), gives this example of baby talk, in this case, from a pet owner speaking to her dog:

...pressing her cheek to Flopit's, she changed her tone. "Izzum's ickle heart a-beatin' so floppity! Um's own mumsy make ums all right, um's p'eshus Flopit!"

• George Orwell, in Keep the Aspidistra Flying (1936), gives another example addressed to a pet dog:

"A Peke, the ickle angel pet, wiv his gweat big soulful eyes and his ickle black nosie — oh so ducky-duck!"

• Punch, April 23, 1919, in a humorous piece purporting to pose examination questions on "the interesting language known as Bablingo", quizzes the examinee on items such as "Wasums and didums, then? Was it a ickle birdie, then?" "Did he woz-a-woz, then; a Mum's own woz-man?" and "Did she try to hit her ickle bruzzer on his nosie-posie wiz a mug? Did she want to break him up into bitsy-witsies?"
• In her New Yorker review of A.A. Milne's The House at Pooh Corner (1928), Dorothy Parker, writing under the book reviewer pen name Constant Reader, purposefully mimics baby talk when dismissing the book's syrupy prose style: "It is that word 'hummy,' my darlings, that marks the first place in The House at Pooh Corner at which Tonstant Weader fwowed up."
• In Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (2003), J. K. Rowling gives this example of baby talk, from Bellatrix Lestrange to Harry Potter: "The little baby woke up fwightened and fort what it dweamed was twoo."

See also

• Babbling – sounds that babies make before they learn to talk
• Crib talk – toddlers talking to themselves
• Developmental psychology
• Elderspeak – the style of speech used by younger people when talking to older people
• Mama and papa – the early sounds or words commonly used by babies
• Girneys – sounds similar to baby talk that are used by some large monkeys

References

Further reading

• Evans, Chris ([1196–1200]) Use on British Channel 4 program TFI Friday. e.g. the ickle drum kit.

External links

• The Uses of Baby Talk by Naomi S. Baron of the ERIC Clearinghouse on Languages and Linguistics