baby talk

baby talk
1. the speech of children learning to talk, marked by syntactic differences from adult speech and by phonetic modifications like lisping, lalling, omission and substitution of sounds, etc.
2. a style of speech used by adults in addressing children, pets, or sweethearts, and formed in imitation of the voice and pronunciation of children learning to talk: it is generally characterized in English by the addition of diminutive endings to words, the use of special words and pet names, and the systematic distortion of certain words, as dolly for doll, teensy-weensy, oo for you, twain for train, etc.
[1830-40]

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Universalium. 2010.

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Look at other dictionaries:

  • baby talk — n. playful, often nonsensical talk used to amuse or imitate a baby …   English World dictionary

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  • baby talk — n [U] sounds or words that babies use when they are learning to talk …   Dictionary of contemporary English

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  • baby talk — noun 1. an adult s imitation of the speech of a young child • Syn: ↑babytalk, ↑motherese • Hypernyms: ↑non standard speech 2. the developing speech of a young child • Syn: ↑babytalk …   Useful english dictionary

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  • baby-talk — see baby talk …   English dictionary

  • Baby talk (disambiguation) — Baby talk is a child oriented form of speech.Baby talk may also refer to:* Baby Talk (magazine), an American magazine targeted at new parents * Baby Talk (TV series), an American sitcom from 1991 …   Wikipedia

  • Baby Talk (TV series) — infobox television show name = Baby Talk caption = format = Comedy runtime = 30 min. creator = starring = Julia Duffy (Season 1) Mary Page Keller (Season 2) Tony Danza Paul Jessup Ryan Jessup George Clooney (Season 1) William Hickey (Season 1)… …   Wikipedia

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