"Ba doo ba daa" - Are our toddlers really saying something and we can't understand them??

Hi Everyone,

I have a daughter who is now 17 months old. When she was around 1 year old, she started saying this phrase which made me laugh. She would say it with various inflections - sometimes it seemed as a question or sometimes a statement.

What I found interesting was that it wasn't long after, that she happened to say it when my then 2.5 year old nephew was around and he responded with pretty much the exact same phrase. I've since found out that another nephew of mine said the exact same phrase when he was a toddler too.

My brother mentioned to me that he once saw a documentary about baby language which involved a woman going around the world studying babies speech. He told me that what the woman found was that from cultures all around the world, babies were saying the same things at that age. She went to very remote places as part of this too.

Now, I don't know if it is just some part of their development and that it is all just sounds and co-incidence....But, having seen how my daughter uses it, i've often wondered if there is some universal baby language that us adults can't understand which disappears when they start learning their local language.

I've uploaded a snippet of a "chat" I had with my daughter to SoundCloud.

soundcloud.com...

Forgive my warblings in the recording! There are some bits in there that are just her babbling but you will hear what I mean.

Anyway, just thought i'd post this to see what you all thought.

Enjoy!

I believe that's the same as other primate species and even some other mammalian species( Good chance I might be wrong about this), It could be a very primitive form of speech that was used by our ancestors as some kind of universal language as many other species have(body language,odor and vocal communication)
Its possible that your child maybe trying to communicate to you and I think the reason that this primitive language disappears as they develop could be due to the fact that children learn language through contextual emulation of their parents/caretakers.
The more exposure to other languages, the more diverse languages one can learn at a young age.

a reply to: Cruff

I would not worry about it.

The babies are looking to take over the world, by clobbering the rest of us with stuffed animals and puke, until we surrender our resources, put babies on all national flags, and allow them to finally take over the space industry, like they were promised during the eighties....

I am so kidding by the way. If I ever babble like that in a thread and believe it, someone needs to send for a wet worker to sort the problem out. Either that or a head doctor, although I am all about comprehensive measures.

a reply to: Cruff

I don't doubt it for a second ... These babies are smart

Twins Talking to each other, a Funny Mission Impossible ♥ Babies Escape From Crib, Funny Teamwork (2min)

m.youtube.com...

Vid description : Together you can reach everything! - Twins bedtime: Will she get her pacifier back? Seems like Mission Impossible... What a crap! The baby pacifier falls out from crib! And the twins want the pacifier back! A great and funny teamwork of my baby twins.

a reply to: Cruff

OMG .. That is SO SO SO cute

LoLo what you guys are having a full on conversation !!!

a reply to: Layaly

Oh...those two are going to raise some hell when they are older.

The teamwork is strong with these two, as is the problem solving! Amazing!

a reply to: Cruff

There is a video online with a pair of very young twins in a kitchen that are without a doubt, having a conversation in which each of them understands the gobbledygook the other is saying, including with head gestures, hand gestures, body language.... not sure exactly how old they are but they are upright toddlers and that's about it. It is a conversation of length, though short. A back and forth between them repeatedly including laughter at what another says. This makes me think of an old Outer Limits or Twilight Zone episode, or some such type of show, with young children understanding 4th dimensional mechanics, possibly because they have yet to reach the age to believe some things are impossible. So, is there mental telepathy that goes away? Ever seen a baby that is watching you intently as though they did understand? Its freaky. They are sponges that absorb at that age but maybe there is something inherent that disappears over time. Of course, twins have that extra magic!

a reply to: Cruff

How enlightening! Wish I'd of heard of that when my boys were chattering away or fussing about something uh at that age and younger.

My oldest son and his wife had a sign language teacher work with his two daughters at what I thought was way too young...before they could walk! I was absolutely floored by how they picked it up and impliemted it in their daily life. It had a calming effect on them because they could actually communicate with their parents and didn't get frustrated when trying to get their needs and wants across to them.

a reply to: jaxnmarko

yup, I was thinking of the same one, cracks me up every time

a reply to: Layaly

those kids are not talking baby talk, they are just speaking german!

a reply to: Cruff

The most entertaining time is when two babies start arguing with each other. I would love to hear that translation !

a reply to: Cruff

In the UK "Baby Signing" is growing in popularity, the basis being that babies are capable of expressing themselves linguistically, but it is the control of air and sound, involved in spoken language that limits their ability to express themselves. Hand, and digital control come in much earlier.

There are a lot of studies going on at the moment, my local university is always advertising for babies and toddlers for speech and language development studies, and while imitation remains key to learning a spoken language, those spoken languages are built upon communication skills that develop incredibly rapidly. Some are purely primal. I haven't breastfed in over ten years, but a baby crying at a certain pitch will often cause a sensation that enables me to know what they want, even if I have no responsibility to provide it, my breasts understand it, not my person. So we are certainly hard wired with a number of signalling behaviours necessary for communicating with our care givers, as are all dependent young no matter the species or the level of developed knowledge.

That we all, developmentally, have the same range of sounds to first experiment with would imply that most children begin with combinations of the same sounds before adapting those to specific patterns around them. Hence, I should imagine, why it is such a hot topic of investigation.

All babies of every culture start with the same sounds. That's why the mother is called "Mama" in most languages, because it simply is the source of food "Mmm-Mmm". Even the R-sound, which is very different in most languages and even within the dialects of one language, start with the same sound, using their breath to let the palate vibrate.

Of course, they are trying to talk to us. But I would not expect too big secrets of the universe. When they start to point at things and say something like "Da!" then we know they would like to have a conversation about the blue ball or the white wall or that thing where the music comes out.

My daughter surprised me more with her understanding of the adult world. One day she repeated the word "tea" again and again. So I asked her, if she wanted to drink some tea. She kept on reapeating the word. When I looked at her she sat at the wall and pointed to two stripes which formed the letter "T". That really surprised me.

When she could speak the first words already and knew the names of some colors, she started to call everything "geener", what meant "green". It became a little boring, when she suddenly used that word for each and everything. One day I gave her a violette spoon and she again said "geener". "Ah, stop it", I said, "You know exactly that not everything is green!" She smiled and said "Violette." - It seemed it was kind of a running joke for her. And she exactly understood my words.

It is really miraculous, how quickly they learn a language. And they understand us far earlier than they can respond properly. So watch out what you talk about in their presence.

originally posted by: Anaana
a reply to: Cruff

In the UK "Baby Signing" is growing in popularity, the basis being that babies are capable of expressing themselves linguistically, but it is the control of air and sound, involved in spoken language that limits their ability to express themselves. Hand, and digital control come in much earlier.

There are a lot of studies going on at the moment, my local university is always advertising for babies and toddlers for speech and language development studies, and while imitation remains key to learning a spoken language, those spoken languages are built upon communication skills that develop incredibly rapidly. Some are purely primal. I haven't breastfed in over ten years, but a baby crying at a certain pitch will often cause a sensation that enables me to know what they want, even if I have no responsibility to provide it, my breasts understand it, not my person. So we are certainly hard wired with a number of signalling behaviours necessary for communicating with our care givers, as are all dependent young no matter the species or the level of developed knowledge.

That we all, developmentally, have the same range of sounds to first experiment with would imply that most children begin with combinations of the same sounds before adapting those to specific patterns around them. Hence, I should imagine, why it is such a hot topic of investigation.

This ^^^^

I've watched ten month old babies using sign language!
Babies are capable of knowing what they want, they just dont have enough motor control to form the words, but if you teach them how to sign they quickly tell you what they want. Babies who sign also learn to speak more quickly!

Thanks everyone for all the very interesting replies!

Those twin videos are especially entertaining haha!!

Haha maybe we should take our daughter to a uni for linguistic studies! That would be very interesting indeed.

As my wife comes from a Turkish Cypriot background, she talks to our daughter in Turkish a vast majority of the time. My mother in law who takes care of her a few days week talks entirely in Turkish to her.

So, our daughter speaks both English and Turkish which can get confusing for other people. Especially since mama in Turkish baby language means food! So when we are out and she keeps going "mama mama"...she doesn't want us, she wants some nom noms haha.

Typically when children make those noises around me they are saying, 'Please Mr. Mason, don't eat me, I'm not that tasty.'


Little liars.

a reply to: AugustusMasonicus

My wife and I have a theory that since we created our daughter and she has some of our dna...then really when it all comes down to it, there should be no reason why we can't just bite a bite a bit of her arms and thighs.

They are so soft and delicious haha!

originally posted by: Siddharta
All babies of every culture start with the same sounds. That's why the mother is called "Mama" in most languages, because it simply is the source of food "Mmm-Mmm". Even the R-sound, which is very different in most languages and even within the dialects of one language, start with the same sound, using their breath to let the palate vibrate.

I've been fiddling about with this all day, the "ma-ma" sound is really passive, "pa-pa" and "da-da" are more complex requiring...teeth, as fricatives and plosives do. I had forgotten that part of the equation, speech wise, but what is now confusing me is the Inuit languages, my username "Anaana" is Greenlandic for Mother, and as I have found some languages/cultures commonly denote "na-na", Inuit's included, as the early/building block for Mother rather than "ma-ma". "N" is an alveolar consonant, meaning it requires the tongue to be placed on the gums at the back of the primary teeth (teeth are not required though, just the gum ridge).

I suspect that there is a cultural/dietary explanation for this, it is a very different sound making mechanism, technically and delivery wise, much more active and affirmative, demanding even.

originally posted by: AugustusMasonicus

Typically when children make those noises around me they are saying, 'Please Mr. Mason, don't eat me, I'm not that tasty.'


Little liars.

A thought occured, regarding those rumours, perhaps it is simply a misunderstanding over names, confusing the work of Albert Pike with that of Albert Fish.

Clearly, these highly evolved toddlers are trying to 'warn' us, knowing that once they turn the equivalent human earth age of 2 they too will fall into a deep, dark, forgetful sleep like the rest of us.