Baby language is characterized by short sentences, a high-pitched voice and a lot of emphasis on vowels, making sentences sound more melodic. It seems that this way of talking – in scientific jargon infant-directed speech mentioned – is quite universal.
Researchers at Harvard University examined dozens of languages from around the world, from the most diverse language families – ranging from Indo-European and Sino-Tibetan languages to Hadza, a Tanzanian language spoken by only a handful of people. They hit everywhere similar patterns.
What is that childish language good for? Does your child become less smart and language skills if you talk in a ‘normal’ way? ‘It will probably turn out all right,’ says linguist Anne Baker of the University of Amsterdam.
Still, baby talk seems to be functional. Baker refers to The ManyBabies project, in which an international research team from 69 laboratories experimented with more than 2,000 babies. The little ones were spoken to in different pitches. Babies that infant-directed speech faced, turned out to pay more attention, the researchers found by following their gazes.
Pets and the elderly
‘It is plausible that young children learn the language faster if they are spoken to in ‘baby language’, says Baker. ‘The high pitch makes the speech stand out more. Because children listen more attentively, they pick up more from the context.’
‘Because of the melody, babies can easily distinguish the words from each other,’ adds psychologist Marijn van Dijk of the University of Groningen.
Language acquisition expert Paula Fikkert of Radboud University in Nijmegen shares that opinion. She points out that studies measuring brain activity, also suggest that infants follow infant-directed speech better. The researchers see no harm in talking to children in this way. Or to animals, because we also talk higher with our pets.
Small children probably benefit from baby talk, but we also speak to them that way because we find them endearing. We think our pets are cute too, so they deserve the same credit. ‘A high voice, especially in combination with diminutives, sounds lovely,’ says Fikkert. She thinks it may partly explain why so many people also talk to the elderly in a childish tone. And that is less nice.
Anyone who lives in a nursing home, or who visits it often, cannot miss it. “I volunteer at a nursing home,” says Baker. ‘How often do I hear people there sigh that they don’t like being addressed as a three-year-old.’
Patronizing
Van Dijk warns that there is usually no malicious intent involved. ‘Part of the phenomenon is because we naturally accommodate: we adapt our speech to our interlocutors. The elderly often have a somewhat higher voice.’ Over time, the vocal cords become thinner and the cartilage of the larynx becomes less flexible. ‘You also notice it when someone speaks with an accent. Then you start talking differently yourself.’
But it can come across as patronizing. Although an older person may be cognitively at their best, he or she is often perceived as less capable, touching and in need of help. ‘We continuously estimate, whether consciously or not, the cognitive abilities of the other person,’ says Van Dijk. ‘Prejudices play tricks on us when it comes to the elderly.’
When people suffer from dementia, it does help to speak slowly, in simple sentences. But according to the experts, a baby language is not helpful to an adult.
Another typical baby language thing: speaking in plural. “Are we having a nice bath today?” Children find ‘I’ and ‘you’ difficult concepts. ‘They change perspective,’ explains Fikkert. ‘If the other person suddenly becomes a speaker, then ‘I’ turns into ‘you’ and vice versa.’
‘The meaning of ‘we’, on the other hand, usually remains the same. But of course it is very strange to say to an adult person ‘Are we going to take a bath today?’, when he or she is clearly going to bathe alone. Do not do that.’