Baby talk works the same in all cultures, according to a recently published study. Despite language barriers, third parties can tell when a sentence is addressed to a baby.
When adults turn to a baby, their language changes. Sentences get shorter, pitch higher, vowels over-emphasized. It is instinctively assumed that this way the little ones will be better understood – and this is all over the world, as a current study shows. The article published on Monday in the journal “Nature Human Behaviour” describes baby talk, that is, the change in the structure and tonality of the described sentence, as a cross-cultural phenomenon.
The 40-person research team examined over 1,600 voice recordings from 410 people from 21 different cultures and six continents. The recordings came from Poland, Finland, Canada, New Zealand, China, Tanzania, Congo and the Andes region of South America. All of them were studied using computer-assisted analysis.
unique acoustic characteristics
It was investigated to what extent the recordings in which babies were spoken differed from those in which adults were treated. In this way, certain overarching features can be identified. Lengthening vowels, purer intonation and speaking in a higher pitch are three of them.
Furthermore, the test subjects (50,000 in number) for whom the recordings were played, regardless of their linguistic and cultural background, were essentially able to tell which of them were intended for babies and which were not. The variety of language spoken to babies is therefore homogeneous across cultures and languages, and is also recognizable by third parties, according to the study results. According to the magazine, the results would provide clues about psychological functions and the evolution of human communication. It cannot be ruled out that children’s conversation also has a universal function, regardless of the respective cultures. However, there is no evidence of this so far.
(evdin)