Baby talk is controversial, you wouldn't think it would be, but it is.
Many who baby talk believe they're teaching their infant to crawl before they can walk,
linguistically speaking.
FIRST: I want to point out, there are different types of "baby talk," "motherese" or "parentese."
Sing-songy, swooping language is good.
Good baby talk involves actual words where some sounds are held and some syllables are
emphasized.
Analysis of babytalk found the average pitch of baby talk is high, and the rate of speech
is slow.
On the other hand, cutesy nonsense language is bad.
Saying "wubba woodle" might sound cute, but that isn't a word!
When you're talking to someone who can't understand you, do you purposefully make your words LESS
understandable?
NO!
Of course not!
So moving forward, we're ignoring nonsense language, and sticking to the swoopy and sing-songy
kind[1].
We know it helps grow early vocab when parents talk to their kids[2], but researchers believe
baby talk is a universally understandable form of language.
For a study in Psychological Science, researchers played recordings of English speakers using
baby talk for a non-industrial tribe in Ecuador[3].
The tribe who, don't speak English, could tell with 75-percent accuracy, whether the
tone was approving or disapproving[4] and with 73-percent accuracy if it was directed
at an adult or a baby.
Obviously, the swooping, sing-songing speech is somehow easier to comprehend.
And other studies have shown its presence ACROSS human culture, but it's not just us…
A study in Ethology found rhesus monkeys also use baby talk.
Researchers watched the rhesus interacting with infant and adult monkeys and found when
talking to infants they tended to use more excitement and a particular sound, called
the "girney" -- which, interestingly, other studies have connected to the pre-development
of speech evolution in macaques…
According to researchers from Emory University, WHAT is being said is less important than
the intonation of the speech.
They found though, that the monkeys used Motherese, another name for baby talk, only with OTHER
infants, and other mothers; not their own.
Which makes a lot of sense, as it may bring individual monkeys together, though not with
their OWN infants -- because they're with their own babies all the time, and the other
babies are novel.
They believe the practice of baby talk encourages a bond between the mothers; bringing them
together[5].
The thing is, all bets in baby talk are not off.
One baby talk hypothesis believed we were speaking more CLEARLY to our infants, but
a study from researchers in France and Japan explored if mothers were speaking more clearly
with baby talk and interestingly, they weren't.
This study, also in Psychological Science[6], says mothers speaking to their infants using
baby talk are speaking less clearly than they would to an adult!
But that's okay, the went on to hypothesize this is for expressing emotions or engaging
attention -- which is sort of supported in another place we use baby talk…
TO PETS.
Seriously, look at that face[a].
How can you NOT WANT TO JUST LUV ON DAT LITTLE FAACE.
And that's exactly what we do.
A study in Current Biology[7] says both children and dogs are more likely to respond when we
speak in a high-pitched voice -- not unlike baby talk.
When actors were video recorded looking in a direction and speaking in a high-pitched
tone, dogs and infants would follow their gaze!
So baby talk might be annoying to some, but though we're not sure WHY, there's some reason
that infants love it!
*babytalk* Why do you think that is?