Everyone from mothers, fathers, siblings and even strangers use baby talk without even realizing they are doing it. It's rather cute and entertaining for a child. Want to learn how to baby talk? Just speak short sentences and repeat more!
It has a specific structure, pace and an amalgam of sentiment. According to NCBI, in contrast to how adults conversate, baby talk has more feelings and emotions, even if the words are not used in their original form. It is delivered in a pitch higher than normal, to grab the attention of the baby.
Exaggeration helps the babies in their language formation or development. When mothers make use of more vowels delivered in an exaggerated manner in baby talk, their offspring are capable of differentiating between sounds of speech. One thing to be kept in mind is that the baby is very different than the cutesy-wutsey way of communication.
When talking to our pets, people increase both our emotions and pitch but they don't exaggerate the vowels like they do with babies. So, they alter the components of their speech pitch to suit the wants of the listeners.
A child's behavior will clearly show parents when they should stop the baby talk. Parents have a special connection with their young ones making it easier for them to find the best time to stop baby talk. No, all the baby talk is not same; it varies from baby to baby or situation to situation.
Language difference also counts a lot, for example in Quiché Mayan baby talk, they do not make use of increased pitch as it is believed to be reserved for folks of higher rank. Likewise, the Cantonese baby talk does not incorporate vowel exaggeration but it does have extravagant tones, according to Research Gate.
