Baby Talk – Why Do Couples Use It With One Another?
Imagine you’re strolling through a park and you overhear a middle-aged couple cooing over each other, doting over their “wittle sugar pwum” and “baby doll.”
“Ewwww,” you might reflexively think.
Baby talk is cute when grown-ups dote on babies. But when adults converse with each other? Not so much.
Yet in my work as a communication sciences and disorders researcher, I’ve come across studies showing that as many as two-thirds of couples use romantic baby talk.
It may sound strange and elicit cringes, but it’s no disorder.
So why do couples do it?
First, it’s important to understand what, exactly, I mean by “baby talk.” It’s not how babies talk to one another. It’s the exaggerated pitch, tempo and intonation that parents use when talking to their little ones – what linguists call “motherese” ...
