Jacob Lund/Alamy
Last Word is Â鶹´«Ã½â€™s long-running series in which readers give scientific answers to each other’s questions, ranging from the minutiae of everyday life to absurd astronomical hypotheticals. To answer a question or ask a new one, email lastword@newscientist.com
Why do we speak to babies and pets in cute, silly voices, as opposed to our normal speaking voice?
Ros Groves
Watford, Hertfordshire, UK
Infant-directed speech (IDS), or “motherese” as it is also known, is the instinctive use of a higher-pitched voice when speaking to small infants and pets. It is far from silly, however, especially when used in communication with babies and small children.
It is characterised by a slower, more deliberate way of speaking, with strongly exaggerated melodic contours, wide contrasts of volume and long, drawn-out syllables that help to mark out the boundaries between individual words as well as drawing particular attention to nouns and verbs; the key words to communication.
Interestingly, medically safe experiments conducted on fetuses in the second and third trimesters of pregnancy have shown that at this stage of development, they begin to react with significantly more interest when exposed to IDS as opposed to the faster, lower and less-exaggerated pitches of adult-directed speech. This is shown through an increased heart rate and more head turns.
Babies are also more sensitive to higher-pitched sounds, finding them comforting and reassuring, which may well reflect the fact that it is the mother’s voice that predominates during our earliest developmental stages.
To answer this question – or ask a new one – email lastword@newscientist.com.
Questions should be scientific enquiries about everyday phenomena, and both questions and answers should be concise. We reserve the right to edit items for clarity and style. Please include a postal address, daytime telephone number and email address.
Â鶹´«Ã½ retains total editorial control over the published content and reserves all rights to reuse question and answer material that has been submitted by readers in any medium or in any format.
