Parentese
The term parentese (alternatively baby talk) is applied to the language parents and other adults use when communicating to very young children, who haven't yet mastered their mother tongue.[1][2]
In the late 20th century child psychologists discouraged the use of "baby talk", thinking it could slow language acquisition.[1] More recently it has been recognized baby talk helps language acquisition.
The helpful aspects of baby talk include repetition, and lifting the voice to a higher register, similar to what the babies own vocal chords produce.[1]
References
[edit | edit source]- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2
Erica Brodosky (2026-08-17). "This Speech Quirk Is Nearly Universal". PBS Storied. Retrieved 2026-08-22 – via YouTube.
Baby talk (aka Infant Directed Speech) has gotten a lot of hate over the years, but recent studies may have put the controversy to beddy-bye.
- ↑
Oliver Whang (2022-07-24). "'Parentese' Is Truly a Lingua Franca, Global Study Finds: In an ambitious cross-cultural study, researchers found that adults around the world speak and sing to babies in similar ways". The New York Times. p. A1. ISSN 0362-4331. Archived from the original on 2022-07-24. Retrieved 2026-08-22.
Regardless of whether it helps to know it, researchers recently determined that this sing-songy baby talk — more technically known as “parentese” — seems to be nearly universal to humans around the world. In the most wide-ranging study of its kind, more than 40 scientists helped to gather and analyze 1,615 voice recordings from 410 parents on six continents, in 18 languages from diverse communities: rural and urban, isolated and cosmopolitan, internet savvy and off the grid, from hunter gatherers in Tanzania to urban dwellers in Beijing.