Baby talk
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Baby talk, motherese, parentese, caretaker, or child-directed speech (CDS) is a nonstandard form of speech used by adults, particularly mothers, in talking to children. It is usually delivered with a "cooing" pattern of inflection which is different from normal adult speech: high in pitch, and with many glissando-like rises and falls in pitch which are exaggerated by comparison with normal speech. Baby talk is also used by pet owners when talking to their pets, and between adults as a form of affectionate intimacy.
- "Baby talk" is a long-established and universally understood traditional term.
- "Motherese" is a term, more precise than "baby talk," which is very amenable to computer searches. The word motherese is disliked by child development professionals (and by critics of gender stereotyping) because all caregivers, not just mothers, use distinct speech patterns and vocabulary when talking to young children. Alternatives such as parentese have not caught on.
- Child-directed speech or CDS is the term preferred by researchers, psychologists, and child development professionals.
Researchers such as Rima Shore (1997) believe that baby talk is an important part of the emotional bonding process, and contributes to mental development. It plays a role in teaching the child the basic function and structure of language. Studies have shown that even replying to babble with meaningless babble aids language acquisition, because even though the babble itself conveys no logical meaning, the interaction teaches infants that speech is bidirectional communication. Some experts advise that parents should not talk to infants and young children solely in baby talk, but include some normal adult speech as well.
Other researchers have pointed out that "motherese" is not universal among the world's cultures, and that its role in "helping children learn grammar" has been overestimated. In some societies (such as certain Samoan tribes; see first reference) adults do not speak to their children at all until they have reached a certain age. In others, it is more usual to speak to children as one would speak to anyone else, with some vocabulary simplifications. Furthermore, even where baby-talk is used, it is full of complicated grammatical constructs, mispronounced or non-existent words, and tends to refer only to objects and events in the immediate vincinity. Baby-talk often has the parent repeating the child's utterances back to him/her, and since children employ a wide variety of phonological simplifications in learning to speak, this results in "classic" baby-words like "na-na" for "grandmother" or "din-din" for "dinner", where the child has seized on a stressed syllable of the input and then repeated it to make a word.
In any case, the child normally acquires the local language without difficulty, regardless of the degree or type of exposure to baby-talk.
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Vocabulary
The vocabulary of baby talk includes nonverbal sounds and slurred or simplified versions of ordinary words, but it also includes a vocabulary of its own. Some of these are handed down from parent to parent or invented by parents and are not known outside of a particular family, but others are more or less widespread.
A fair number of baby-talk and nursery words refer to bodily functions or private parts, partially because the words are easier to pronounce, partly to reduce adult discomfort when using them, and partly to give make it possible for children to discuss these topics without breaking adult taboos.
Some examples of widely-used baby talk words and phrases that are not in standard dictionaries include:
- beddy-bye (go to bed)
- binkie (pacifier)
- boo-boo (small painful bump or bruise)
- bubby (brother)
- didee (diaper)
- din-din (dinner)
- doo-doo (feces, defecation)
- ickle (little)
- icky (disgusting)
- jammies (pajamas)
- nana (grandmother)
- pee-pee (urination; or penis)
- oopsie-daisy (or whoopsie-daisy) (small accident or fall; from "upside-down?"; or to be slightly tossed up in the air & caught by an adult)
- sissy (sister)
- stinky (soiled with feces)
- tinkle (urination)
- wee-wee (urination)
- widdle (little)
- yucky (disgusting)
Examples
- 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 us 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?
References
Ochs, Elinor and Bambi Schieffelin. (1984). "Language acquisition and socialization: Three developmental stories." Culture Theory Eds. R. Shweder and R. LeVine. 276-320.
Shore, Rina. (1997). Rethinking the brain: New insights into early development. New York: Families and Work Institute
External link
- Ba-Ba-Ba. Baby Talk: Perfect! (http://www.nwrel.org/comm/monthly/babytalk.html) by Karen Blahapl:Mowa matczyna