baby talk

See also: babytalk

English

Alternative forms

• babytalk, baby-talk

Noun

baby talk (uncountable)

1. (linguistics) The form of speech used by adults in talking to very young children.

   Synonyms: babyese, child-directed speech, hypocorism, motherese, parentese

   Coordinate terms: childspeak; adultspeak

   Meronym: babble word

   • 1960, P[elham] G[renville] Wodehouse, chapter III, in Jeeves in the Offing, London: Herbert Jenkins, →OCLC:

     [...] while not a super-goof like some of the female goofs I'd met, she was quite goofy enough to be going on with. Her whole aspect was that of a girl who at the drop of a hat would start talking baby talk.

2. (linguistics) The pre-language, and subsequent developing language, used by small children, incorporating crying, cooing, and babbling in sequence before the acquisition of adult language capabilities.

   Coordinate terms: child language, childspeak

   Meronyms: babble word, goo goo ga ga

Related terms

• baby steps
• babytalk (verb)

 

Translations

form of speech used when talking to babies

• Basque: haur hizkera
• Danish: babysnak c
• Finnish: vauvakieli (fi)
• French: langage enfantin (fr) m, mamanais (fr) m
• German: Ammensprache (de) f, Babysprache (de) f
• Hungarian: gyermeknyelv (hu)
• Icelandic: barnamál (is) n, barnahjal n, gælumál n
• Spanish: maternés
• Ukrainian: сюсю́кання n (sjusjúkannja)

See also

• Category:English childish terms

Further reading

• baby talk on Wikipedia.Wikipedia