Baby Talk: Difference between revisions
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In TV, film, and comics, babies and toddlers tend to communicate in a manner somewhat different to adults.
* Misuse of pronouns (e.g. ''me'' instead of ''I''), or [[Third Person Person|not using pronouns at all]]
* [[You No Take Candle|Lack words such as "a" and "the"]]
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* Big words becoming shorter, different words which sound similar
Adults may communicate this way if they are in the [[Cuteness Proximity]] babies, toddlers, kittens, and puppies create. Odds are, only one half of a conversation between a baby and an adult will be in
A variant is a sexy woman using such language to sound seductive ("Is Daddy feeling angwy? Maybe him need Baby to kiss it aww better"). This has not been used [[Forgotten Trope|in some time]] because it no longer sounds sexy.
Another variant is someone using baby talk to mock another character's perceived
Want to duplicate the effect more naturally? Study linguistics (''phonemes'', the sounds of language): You'll become aware of which sounds we make and how they're related. Soon you'll know to simplify words by repeating sounds (''doggy'' to ''goggy'') and you'll be able to eliminate whole sound categories by shifting to the nearest comparable sound (e.g., F to P: ''fan'' becomes ''pan''). Also helps when you're trying to emulate a stuffy nose (M to B, N to D: ''by doze is stuffed'') or other speech impediments.
And if you're concerned because your kid can't say ''th'' at five, don't be. Kids develop sounds at their own rate and don't need speech therapy unless there's a ''physical'' reason for the difficulty. And just because he can't ''say'' the words doesn't mean he can't understand
Not to be confused with [[Baby Language]], which gives pre-language babies the same treatment as [[Animal Talk]]. Close cousin of [[Hulk Speak]].
{{examples}}
== Anime and Manga ==
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* ''[[Elf Quest]]'s'' Preservers talk in a very irritating babyish way, but are ''possibly'' smarter than they sound (they could hardly be stupider).
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20120626082835/http://superdickery.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&catid=28%3Asuperdickery&id=85%3Asuperbabys-search-for-a-petq
* ''[[The Beano]]'': ''Dennis the Menace'''s sister Bea.
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* Foofy Wuggums, the [[The Woobie|lost]] [[Tastes Like Diabetes|teddy bear friend]] from the ''[[Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends]]'' TV movie ''Good Wilt Hunting.'' "My wittle giwl weft me hewe when she went to visit hew gwandma."
* In ''[[Marx Brothers|Horse Feathers]]'', a woman talks baby-talk in an attempt to seduce Professor Wagstaff (Groucho) into showing her the secret football signals, but it only annoys him.
{{quote|
* In ''[[How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days]]'', Andie uses baby talk as one of her methods of annoying Ben enough to break up with her.
* ''[[The Incredibles]]'': Baby Jack-Jack Parr
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* An episode of ''[[Sex and the City]]'' featured Samantha being completely repulsed by a grown man who uses baby talk while having sex with her. "Gah, it's like putting ketchup on prime rib. Stop, you're ruining it!"
* This gradualy happens to Lily in ''[[How I Met Your Mother|HIMYM]]'''s episode ''Not A Father's Day'', when she finds a baby sock:
{{quote|
'''Lily''': It's Jeremy's sock... I'm having a baby!
'''Robin''': But... but what about "Project Lily"?
'''Lily''': But... but sohck!!
'''Robin''': But what about Marshall working all the time?
'''Lily''': But xohck!!
'''Robin''': Ted and I gave you all these arguments and a sock is what decides it?
'''Lily''': Wittwe fixiehs ohn iht!! }}
* ''[[Sesame Street]]'s'' Cookie Monster's speech includes phrases like "Me want cookie!"
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* In ''[[30 Rock]]'' Jenna complains about another character using "sexy baby" talk, complaining that she invented it. Cut to her coming out with the incomprehensible noises babies use before they learn to speak.
* In the ''[[Community]]'' ''[[Glee]]'' parody episode/ChristmasEpisode "Regional Holiday Music", Annie, who is usually a very intelligent and competent person, sings a song to lure Jeff into the cult-like glee club, which was a parody of how [[Glee]] sexualizes young girls and the way Christmas songs treat women, (e.g. Santa Baby). Annie is wearing a [[Sexy Santa Dress]] and sings about wanting Jeff to teach her how to understand Christmas, with it, by the last verse, morphing into baby talk.
{{quote|
'''Jeff''': Look, eventually you hit a point of diminishing returns on the sexiness.
'''Annie''': What's a diminiwawawa? }}
* [[Star Trek: The Original Series]] had an example in ''Friday's Child'', which perplexes Spock:
{{quote|
'''Spock:''' "Oochie-coochie-coochie-coo," Captain?
'''Kirk:''' Old Earth language, Spock. Look it up when we get back to the ship. }}
== Literature ==
.
* At the end of ''[[Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (
** She also does it to taunt Neville Longbottom - {{spoiler|whose parents she tortured to insanity, likely in front of him, when he was a year old and probably speaking baby talk}}.
* ''[[Redwall]]'
* Satirized in ''[[A Series of Unfortunate Events]]''. Sunny Baudelaire is a surprisingly intelligent baby, but still only a baby, so she speaks in baby talk. People who know her well can apparently fully understand what she is saying, but every one of her baby talk words is translated into a well thought-out sentence for the convenience of the reader.
** And she speaks in nonsense words (translated into perfectly articulate English), which often reference something relevant to what she's actually saying, rather than the usual distorted English. Sunny's almost more of a [[Strange Syntax Speaker]], particularly in the later books.
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* Lola Pratt in ''Seventeen'' by Booth Tarkington.
* Anne of [[L. M. Montgomery]]'s ''[[Anne of Green Gables]]'' series, was firm in the idea that baby talk should never be spoken to her children; she had read a parenting book that said baby talk was an improper way for children to learn language. This goes right out the window the minute her son, Jem, is born, much to her husband Gilbert's amusement. When he calls her on it, she has this to say about the author of the parenting book:
{{quote|
** Their youngest daughter, Rilla, had a lisp as a child. In her book, "Rilla of Ingleside", she relates how hard she worked to get rid of it, and how embarassed she is that it still comes out when she is nervous. When her childhood friend Kenneth Ford {{spoiler|proposes to her}} at the end of the book, she answers with "Yesth".
* [[Dorothy Parker]], who wrote a book review column called "The Constant Reader" truly ''loathed'' A. A. Milne's work. In her review savaging ''[[Winnie the Pooh|The House at Pooh Corner]]'' she used baby talk:
{{quote|
* The "jellicle cats" in ''Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats'', later adapted into ''[[Cats]]'', were named for T. S. Eliot's niece attempting to say "dear little cat."
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* In one comic strip, ''[[Garfield]]'' encounters a woman who tries this on him. [[Deadpan Snarker|He doesn't react well]]:
{{quote|
** In a previous one, John is the culprit...
{{quote|
'''Garfield:''' Would funny-wooking man wike a milk bath? (He asks this while providing it)
'''Garfield:''' (to audience) Never be condescending to a cat. }}
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* <s>Wed</s> Red Skelton's character of Junior, "the mean widdle kid"...who actually dates back to Skelton's <s>wadio</s> radio show.
* Josh Blue has a variation on this. People talk to him like he's mentally challenged when he's just got cerebral palsy.
{{quote|
== Video Games ==
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* ''[[Rugrats]]''. Dil took it even further than the rest of the main characters, being the youngest.
* Subverted in one episode of ''[[The Simpsons]]'' where Marge lets Manjula hold Maggie.
{{quote|
'''Marge''': Maggie loves baby talk!
'''Manjula''': That was Hindi.
'''Marge''': Oh... }}
* ''[[Futurama]]'': "It's pwonounced cweam."
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