this post was submitted on 26 Jun 2023
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Dolphin moms use baby talk to call to their young, recordings show (apnews.com)
submitted 1 year ago by SirElliott@beehaw.org to c/science@beehaw.org
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[โ€“] SirElliott@beehaw.org 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I suspect (and seem to recall reading) that the exaggerated pronunciations and pitch changes of baby talk may help aid children in language acquisition. For some other social animals that heavily rely on vocalizations to communicate, like dolphins, perhaps they do so for a similar reason?

[โ€“] lvxferre@lemmy.ml 1 points 1 year ago

This is just conjecture, but:

It's possible that it helps [proto-]language acquisition, but I feel like babytalk might also directly help the adult speaker. I'm saying that because plenty people use a babytalk-like register to address pets, that won't benefit from it.

Perhaps the usage of babytalk reduces the cognitive burden associated with changing your behaviour to a way that is suitable for the presence of children nearby?