The use of baby talk by mothers to their young infants is not just a sign of affection. A linguistic study at the University of Edinburgh has recently shown that this 'motherese' can actually help babies pick up new words faster than normal language. The researchers found that certain types of baby words are effective in helping babies quickly develop vocabularly, whilst other types of baby words have no influence whatsoever on their language learning.
Samples of speech from 47 mothers to their infants learning English were recorded for the study. The linguists looked for specific markers of baby talk such as diminutives as in words ending in 'y' like 'bunny', reduplication involving repeated syllables like 'choo choo', and onomatopoeia where a word resembles the sound that it describes like 'woof'. The results suggest that there is a difference between 'bunny', 'choo choo', and 'woof' words for babies.
Babies who heard a higher number of diminutive and reduplicated words learned new words quicker than babies who did not hear such words. Babies who heard more onomatopoeic words, in contrast, did not learn new vocabulary any quicker. These effects only seem to work for babies between 9 and 21 months old and disappear after this age. A key question remains whether such baby words work in other languages and for second language learners.
Hat tip: Medical Press | Image: Wikimedia Commons