Baby talk

Baby talk or child-directed speech (CDS) is a type of speech associated with an older person speaking to an infant, toddler or very young child. CDS is characterized by a "sing song" pattern of intonation that differentiates it from the more monotone style used with other adults e.g., CDS has higher and wider pitch, slower speech rate and shorter utterances.

It can display vowel hyperarticulation (an increase in distance in the formant space of the peripheral vowels e.g., [i], [u], and [a]) and words tend to be shortened and simplified. There is evidence that the exaggerated pitch modifications are similar to the affectionate speech style employed when people speak to their pets (pet-directed speech). However, the hyperarticulation of vowels appears to be related to the propensity for the infant to learn language, as it is not exaggerated in speech to infants with hearing loss or to pets. Consistent with this, infants before 6 months have been shown to abstract phonological features amodally across multiple consonants, suggesting early sensitivity to the phonological structure present in infant-directed speech.

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 parentese to the term motherese, because all caregivers 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.