MBABY-TALK WORDS

Baby talk refers to the simple language forms used by young children, or the modified form of speech
often used by adults with young children. Also known as motherese or caregiver speech.

Some examples of widely-used baby talk words and phrases in English, many of which are not found
within standard dictionaries, include:

Baba (blanket or bottle)

Binkie (pacifier (dummy) or blanket)

Blankie (blanket)

Beddy bye (go to bed, sleeping, bedtime)

Blankie (blanket)

Boo boo (wound or bruise)

Bubby (brother)

Dada (dad, daddy)

Ddee (diaper)

Din-din (dinner)

Doedoes (In South African English, the equivalent of beddy-bye)

Num nums (food/dinner)

Ickle (little (chiefly British)

Icky (disgusting)

Jammies (pajamas)

Nana (grandmother)

Oopsie daisy (small accident)

Owie (wound or bruise)

Passie or paci (pacifier (dummy)

Pee-pee (urinate)

Poo-poo or doo-doo (defecation)

Potty (toilet)

Sissy (sister)

Sleepy-bye (go to bed, sleeping, bedtime)

Stinky (defecation)

Tummy (stomach)

Wawa (water)

Wee-wee (urination)

Widdle (urine (chiefly British)

Widdle (little (chiefly American)

Wuv (love)

Yucky (disgusting)

Yum-yum (meal time)

Mama (mother)

Uppie (wanting to be picked up)

Horsey (from horse)

Kitty (from cat or kitten)

Potty (originally from pot now equivalent to modern toilet)

Doggy (from dog)

The classification of types of non-child-directed baby talk:

1. deliberately patronizing or derogatory baby talk,

2. baby talk amongst close social ties,

3. pet-directed baby talk,

4. elderly-directed baby talk.

Baby talk by adolescents or adults is meant to imitate infant baby talk. The list of features:

1. Gliding, changing “l” and “r” to “w” mostly but also “y” sounds (“good wuck“). When it is an “l”
becoming a “w”, it’s called L-vocalization,

2. Stopping, changing fricative sounds like the “th” in “thinking” to “t” (“there you go tinkin“),

3. moving the place of articulation forward in the vocal tract (“hang out wiff us”),

4. Syllable simplification, like expanding a syllable with a coda to two coda-less syllables (so bed
becomes beddy). Simplifying somewhat, a syllable coda is the set of consonants after the vowel in a
syllable,

5. Lack of function words, like the lack of was in “Cuwz I never invited”.