Article published in:
Language Description Informed by Theory
Edited by Rob Pensalfini, Myfany Turpin and Diana Guillemin
[Studies in Language Companion Series 147] 2014
► pp. 49–80

Phonological aspects of Arandic baby talk

Baby Talk (BT), also known as child-directed speech, is a non-standard form of speech used by adults when talking to infants. In Arandic languages BT involves the use of a small set of unique but widely known words, onomatopoeic-derived words, as well as phonological modifications to standard vocabulary. As in neighboring Warlpiri (Laughren 1984), Arandic BT contains a simplified phonology that conflates coronal contrasts and avoids rhotics and consonant clusters. Whilst standard Arandic words are mostly vowel-initial, this weak initial syllable is omitted in BT and the preferred CVCV(C) word structure is achieved through patterns of reduplication and truncation. The BT phonology becomes more complex with the perceived development of the child’s phonological competence, a case of fine-tuning over time.
Published online: 28 January 2014
https://doi.org/10.1075/slcs.147.04tur
References

References

Breen, Gavan.
2001. The wonders of Arandic phonology. In Forty Years On. Ken Hale and Australian Languages , Jane Simpson, David Nash, Mary Laughren, Peter Austin & Barry Alpher (eds), 45–69. Canberra: Pacific Linguistics Series.Google Scholar
Breen, Gavan. & Pensalfini, Rob.
1999. Arrernte: A language with no syllable onsets. Linguistic Inquiry 30:1–25. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Browman, Caroline P. & Goldstein, Louis.
1986. Towards an articulatory phonology. Phonology Yearbook 3: 219–252. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Butcher, Andrew R.
1995. The phonetics of neutralisation: The case of Australian coronals. In Studies in General and English Phonetics: Essays in Honour of J.D. O'Connor , Jack Windsor Lewis (ed.), 10–38. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Davies, Benjamin, Yuen, Ivan & Demuth, Katherine.
2011. The acquisition of English schwa. Paper presented at the Australian Linguistics Society 2011, Canberra.Google Scholar
Demuth, Katherine.
1986. Prompting routines in the language socialization of Basotho children. In Language Socialization Across Cultures [Social and Cultural Foundations of Language Series], Bambi Schieffelin & Elinor Ochs (eds), 51–79. Cambridge: CUP.Google Scholar
1996. The prosodic structure of early words. In Signal to Syntax: Bootstrapping from Speech to Grammar in Early Acquisition , James L. Morgan & Katherine Demuth (eds), 171–184. Mahwah NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.Google Scholar
2011. The acquisition of phonology. In The Handbook of Phonological Theory , John Goldsmith, Jason Riggle & Alan Yu (eds), 571–595. Malden MA: Blackwell. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Demuth, Katherine, Culbertson, Jennifer & Alter, Jennifer.
2006. Word-minimality, epenthesis, and coda licensing in the acquisition of English. Language and Speech 49: 137–174. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Ferguson, Charles A.
1964. Baby talk in six languages. American Anthropologist 66: 103–114 CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Fikkert, Paula.
1994. On the Acquisition of Prosodic Structure . Dordrecht: Holland Institute of Generative Linguistics.Google Scholar
Glass, Amee & Hackett, Dorothy.
2003. Ngaanyatjarra and Ngatjatjarra to English Dictionary . Alice Springs NT: IAD Press.Google Scholar
Green, Jenny.
1992. Alyawarr to English Dictionary . Alice Springs NT: IAD Press.Google Scholar
2005. Central Anmatyerr Picture Dictionary . Alice Springs NT: IAD Press.Google Scholar
2009. Between the Earth and the Air: Multimodality in Arandic Sand Stories. PhD dissertation, University of Melbourne.Google Scholar
2010. Central and Eastern Anmatyerr to English Dictionary . Alice Springs NT: IAD Press.Google Scholar
Hale, Ken.
1983. A lexicographic study of some Australian languages: Project description. In Papers in Australian Linguistics , No. 15: Australian Aboriginal Lexicography , A-66, Peter Austin (ed.), 71–107. Canberra: Pacific Linguistics.Google Scholar
Harvey, Mark.
2011. Prepalatals in Arandic. Australian Journal of Linguistics 31: 79–110. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Henderson, John.
1998. Topics in Eastern and Central Arrernte Grammar. PhD dissertation, University of Western Australia.Google Scholar
Henderson, John & Dobson, V.
1994. Eastern and Central Arrernte to English Dictionary . Alice Springs NT: Institute for Aboriginal Development Press.Google Scholar
Jones, Caroline & Meakins, Felicity.
2012. Janyarrp: Gurindji Child-Directed-Speech. Paper presented at theAustralian Languages Workshop, Moreton Bay Research Station, University of Queensland, March 11, 2012.Google Scholar
In submission. Janyarrp: Gurindji Child-Directed-Speech.
Kager, René.
1989. A Metrical Theory of Stress and Destressing in English and Dutch . Dordrecht: Foris.Google Scholar
Kendon, Adam.
1988. Sign Languages of Aboriginal Australia: Cultural, Semiotic and Communicative Perspectives . Cambridge: CUP.Google Scholar
Kehoe, Margaret & Lleó, Concita.
2003. A phonological analysis of schwa in German first language acquisition. Canadian Journal of Linguistics 48: 289–327. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Kent, Ray D.
1990. The biology of phonological development. In Phonological Development: Models, Research, Implications (eds), Charles A. Ferguson, Lise Menn, & C. Stoel-Gammon, 65–90. Timonium MD: York Press.Google Scholar
Koch, Harold.
1997. Pama-Nyungan reflexes in the Arandic languages. In Boundary Rider: Studies in Honour of Geoffrey N. O'Grady , Darrell Tryon & Michael Walsh (eds), 271–302. Canberra: Pacific Linguistics.Google Scholar
2004. The Arandic subgroup of Australian languages. In Australian Languages. Classification and Comparative Method [Current Issues in Linguistic Theory 249], Claire Bowern & Harold Koch (eds), 127–150. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Ko, Eon-Suk.
In press. Nonlinear development of speaking rate in child-directed speech. Lingua . Crossref
Laughren, Mary.
1984. Warlpiri baby talk. Australian Journal of Linguistics 4: 73–88. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Levelt, Claire.
2008. Phonology and phonetics in the development of schwa in Dutch child language. Lingua 118: 1344–1361. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
McCarthy, John & Prince, Alan.
1986. Prosodic morphology. Ms, University of Massachusetts, Amherst and Brandeis.Google Scholar
Pater, Joe & Werle, Adam.
2003. Direction of assimilation in child consonant harmony. Canadian Journal of Linguistics 48(3–4): 385–408. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Pensalfini, Rob.
1998. The development of (apparently) onsetless syllabification: A constraint-based approach. In Proceedings of the Chicago Linguistics Society 34.
Pye, Clifton.
1986. An ethnography of Mayan speech to children. Working Papers in Child Language 1: 30–58. The Child Language Program, University of Kansas.Google Scholar
Schieffelin, Bambi.
1990. The Give and Take of Everyday Life: Language Socialization of Kaluli Children . Cambridge: CUP.Google Scholar
Simpson, Jane, Nash, David, Laughren, Mary, Austin, Peter & Alpher, Barry
(eds). 2001. Forty Years On. Ken Hale and Australian languages . Canberra: Pacific Linguistics Series.Google Scholar
Smit, Ann B.
1993. Phonologic error distributions in the Iowa-Nebraska Articulation Norms project: Consonant singletons. Journal of Speech and Hearing Research 36: 533–547. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Song, Jae Yung, Demuth, Katherine & Morgan, James L.
2010. Effects of the acoustic properties of infant-directed speech on infant word recognition. Journal of the Acoustical Society of America 128: 352–363. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Turpin, Myfany & Green, Jenny.
2011. Trading in terms: Alternate registers and linguistic affiliation in Arandic languages. In Language and Social Identity in Indigenous Communities , Ilana Mushin, Brett Baker, Rod Gardner & Mark Harvey (eds.), 323–347. Canberre: Pacific Linguistics.Google Scholar
Turpin, Myfany & Ross, Alison.
2011. Kaytetye to English Dictionary . Alice Springs NT: IAD Press.Google Scholar
Van Oostendorp, Mark.
1998. Schwa in phonological theory. GLOT International 3: 3–8.Google Scholar
Wilkins, David.
1989. Mparntwe Arrernte (Aranda): Studies in the Structure and Semantics of Grammar. PhD dissertation, Australian National University.Google Scholar
Cited by

Cited by other publications

Demuth, Katherine
2019. Prosodic constraints on children’s use of grammatical morphemes. First Language 39:1 ► pp. 80 ff. Crossref logo
Disbray, Samantha & Gillian Wigglesworth
2019.  In The Palgrave Handbook of Minority Languages and Communities, ► pp. 357 ff. Crossref logo
Jones, Caroline & Felicity Meakins
2013. The phonological forms and perceived functions of janyarrp, the Gurindji ‘baby talk’ register. Lingua 134 ► pp. 170 ff. Crossref logo
Jones, Caroline, Mridula Sharma, Samantha Harkus, Catherine McMahon, Mele Taumoepeau, Katherine Demuth, Karen Mattock, Lee Rosas, Raelene Wing, Sulabha Pawar & Anne Hampshire
2018. A program to respond to otitis media in remote Australian Aboriginal communities: a qualitative investigation of parent perspectives. BMC Pediatrics 18:1 Crossref logo
Topintzi, Nina & Andrew Nevins
2017. Moraic onsets in Arrernte. Phonology 34:3 ► pp. 615 ff. Crossref logo

This list is based on CrossRef data as of 27 december 2020. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers. Any errors therein should be reported to them.