Friday, July 08, 2005

Baby Talk

"Animals, in their generation, are wiser than the sons of men; but their wisdom is confined to a few particulars, and lies in a very narrow compass." ~Joseph Addison

I cannot claim to have a pet...but if I were to get one, I know that there is no way on God's green earth that I would be resorting to baby talk to my animal.

Pet lovers/owners that I have seen, both here and back home tend to do this with stunning consistency, and I've yet to understand why. Animals don't speak 'Human Speak'...they bark, meow, moo, or whatever language their species uses. You dumbing down your language isn't going to make them understand you any better...in fact it makes the communication worse. In my mind, it has the same effect of someone who doesn't speak English, being yelled at or shouted to in English. They still won't freakin understand you!

Besides, what is the whole usefulness of babytalk? Do babies really understand your mushy noises and coos? Or are you just connecting with your inner child? Please somebody explain this to me, cos I know when I was a baby, anyone babytalking to me, I probably thought was seriously retarded.

Ok, enough venting on that.

4 comments:

Julie said...

I read an article about baby talk ages ago...something about it helps language development, but I can't remember what. Pretty impressive, eh? :)
Thanks for stopping by!

Vixen said...

Hey animal lovers...didn't mean to diss y'all like that. Just don't do that baby talk around me and we'll be cool...ok?

Joycii said...

you dont like animals you dont like kids. have you ever stopped to think that maybe they dont like you either.
I have a dog and he understands that difference of baby talk and regular talk. Animals are alot smarter than alot of people give them credit for .... They are extremely loyal. Unlike some people.They wont cheat on you or talk about you behind your back .
Animals 1. Tosin 0 .

HypnoKitten said...

I spoke normal english to my cat (when she was still here) and she responded to certain words I would try and emphasize in a certain way like "you want OUT?" or "you want some FOOD?" and she knew her name. I guess thats not baby-talk, but I do know she was listening. But, you know, I'm also not going to go out in public and talk to my animal like it's a human, so you're pretty safe from me. :)