an adult's imitation of the speech of a young child

the developing speech of a young child

Baby talk, motherese, parentese, or child-directed speech (CDS) is a non-standard form of speech used by adults, particularly mothers, in talking to toddlers and infants. It is usually delivered with a "cooing" pattern of intonation which is different from normal adult speech: high in pitch, and with many glissando-like rises and falls in pitch which are exaggerated by comparison with normal speech. Parents will refer to the child and others by their name only (no he's, I's, or you's) so as not to confuse infants who have yet to form an identity independent from their parents.

One theory of the formation of pidgins that maintains that relates the formation of the pidgin to incorrect second language acquisition. In this explanation, the speakers of the substratum language learned the superstratum language incorrectly, thus forming the pidgin. This imperfect learning is assumed to be the result of restricted access to the superstratum language, which restricts the L2 imput. This theory was largely influenced by western stereotypes of speakers of pidgin languages, who were not considered sophisticated enough to learn the correct grammar of the language. Now considered a racist theory, it also has been shown to ignore the complexity of pidgin languages.