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Meaning of "motherese" in the English dictionary

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DICTIONARY
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PRONUNCIATION OF MOTHERESE

motherese  [ˌmʌðəˈriːz] play
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GRAMMATICAL CATEGORY OF MOTHERESE

noun
adjective
verb
adverb
pronoun
preposition
conjunction
determiner
exclamation
Motherese is a noun.
A noun is a type of word the meaning of which determines reality. Nouns provide the names for all things: people, objects, sensations, feelings, etc.

WHAT DOES MOTHERESE MEAN IN ENGLISH?

Baby talk

Baby talk, also referred to as caretaker speech, infant-directed speech or child-directed speech and informally as "motherese", "parentese", "mommy talk", or "daddy talk" is a nonstandard form of speech used by adults in talking to toddlers and infants. It is usually delivered with a "cooing" pattern of intonation different from that of normal adult speech: high in pitch, with many glissando variations that are more pronounced than those of normal speech. It frequently displays hyperarticulation, a measure of clear speech defined by having large amounts of acoustic space between vowels as measured by formants. Baby talk is also characterized by the shortening and simplifying of words. Baby talk is similar to what is used by people when talking to their pets. When adults talk to each other using baby talk it is generally to either show affection by emulating the fondness shown by adults for children, or as a form of bullying or condescension as children are much less cognitively developed than adults implying the adult receiving speech delivered in baby talk is less intelligent than the adult talking to them.

Definition of motherese in the English dictionary

The definition of motherese in the dictionary is the simplified and repetitive type of speech, with exaggerated intonation and rhythm, often used by adults when speaking to babies.

WORDS THAT RHYME WITH MOTHERESE


Antares
ænˈtɛəriːz
Ares
ˈɛəriːz
Aries
ˈɛəriːz
breeze
briːz
brise
briːz
Canarese
ˌkænəˈriːz
Ceres
ˈsɪəriːz
cerise
səˈriːz
computerese
kəmˌpjuːtəˈriːz
crise
kriːz
dungarees
ˌdʌŋɡəˈriːz
freeze
friːz
grise
ɡriːz
heres
ˈhɪəriːz
imprese
ɪmˈpriːz
Kanarese
ˌkænəˈriːz
Madurese
ˌmædjʊəˈriːz
reprise
rɪˈpriːz
series
ˈsɪəriːz
Timorese
ˌtiːmɔːˈriːz

WORDS THAT BEGIN LIKE MOTHERESE

mother-naked
mother-of-pearl
mother-of-pearl moth
mother-of-thousands
mother-out-law
mother-to-be
Mother´s Day
mother´s help
motherboard
mothercraft
motherfucker
motherfucking
motherhood
motherhouse
mothering
Mothering Sunday
motherland
motherless
motherlessness
motherliness

WORDS THAT END LIKE MOTHERESE

Burmese
calabrese
cheese
Chinese
East Timorese
electrophorese
Japanese
Lebanese
Maltese
medrese
mese
Nepalese
obese
Portuguese
prese
Sudanese
Surinamese
these
Varese
Vietnamese

Synonyms and antonyms of motherese in the English dictionary of synonyms

SYNONYMS

Translation of «motherese» into 25 languages

TRANSLATOR
online translator

TRANSLATION OF MOTHERESE

Find out the translation of motherese to 25 languages with our English multilingual translator.
The translations of motherese from English to other languages presented in this section have been obtained through automatic statistical translation; where the essential translation unit is the word «motherese» in English.

Translator English - Chinese

motherese
1,325 millions of speakers

Translator English - Spanish

motherese
570 millions of speakers

English

motherese
510 millions of speakers

Translator English - Hindi

motherese
380 millions of speakers
ar

Translator English - Arabic

motherese
280 millions of speakers

Translator English - Russian

motherese
278 millions of speakers

Translator English - Portuguese

motherese
270 millions of speakers

Translator English - Bengali

motherese
260 millions of speakers

Translator English - French

mamanais
220 millions of speakers

Translator English - Malay

Ibu
190 millions of speakers

Translator English - German

motherese
180 millions of speakers

Translator English - Japanese

母親語
130 millions of speakers

Translator English - Korean

motherese
85 millions of speakers

Translator English - Javanese

Ibu
85 millions of speakers
vi

Translator English - Vietnamese

motherese
80 millions of speakers

Translator English - Tamil

motherese
75 millions of speakers

Translator English - Marathi

मॉथेरेसे
75 millions of speakers

Translator English - Turkish

motherese
70 millions of speakers

Translator English - Italian

motherese
65 millions of speakers

Translator English - Polish

motherese
50 millions of speakers

Translator English - Ukrainian

motherese
40 millions of speakers

Translator English - Romanian

motherese
30 millions of speakers
el

Translator English - Greek

motherese
15 millions of speakers
af

Translator English - Afrikaans

motherese
14 millions of speakers
sv

Translator English - Swedish

motherese
10 millions of speakers
no

Translator English - Norwegian

motherese
5 millions of speakers

Trends of use of motherese

TRENDS

TENDENCIES OF USE OF THE TERM «MOTHERESE»

The term «motherese» is normally little used and occupies the 146.815 position in our list of most widely used terms in the English dictionary.
0
100%
FREQUENCY
Little used
31
/100
The map shown above gives the frequency of use of the term «motherese» in the different countries.
Principal search tendencies and common uses of motherese
List of principal searches undertaken by users to access our English online dictionary and most widely used expressions with the word «motherese».

FREQUENCY OF USE OF THE TERM «MOTHERESE» OVER TIME

The graph expresses the annual evolution of the frequency of use of the word «motherese» during the past 500 years. Its implementation is based on analysing how often the term «motherese» appears in digitalised printed sources in English between the year 1500 and the present day.

Examples of use in the English literature, quotes and news about motherese

EXAMPLES

10 ENGLISH BOOKS RELATING TO «MOTHERESE»

Discover the use of motherese in the following bibliographical selection. Books relating to motherese and brief extracts from same to provide context of its use in English literature.
1
Language Experience and Early Language Development: From ...
The Emergence of Motherese The first findings to emerge from studies of adult speech to children were remarkably consistent. They showed that adult speech — or, more specifically, maternal speech, since it was this that was invariably the  ...
Margaret Harris, 2013
2
Multilingual Norms
Before Fernald's research, the idea that motherese served specific functions had already been suggested. One of the defining works on motherese is that of Ferguson (1964), who conducted one of the very first cross-linguistic studies of ...
Madalena Cruz-Ferreira, 2010
3
Social Interaction and the Development of Language and Cognition
45), where the motherese hypothesis is defined as "the hypothesis that the(se) SPECIAL properties of caretaker speech play a causal role in ... of whether a mother's speech LANGUAGE SPOKEN TO CHILDREN 25 The Motherese Hypothesis.
Alison Garton, 1995
4
HDEV 2
dults influence the language development of infants through the use of baby talk or “Motherese,” known more technically as child-directed speech or infant- directed speech. But “Motherese” is a limiting term, because grandparents, fathers, ...
Spencer Rathus, 2011
5
How Children Learn Language
speech with the intonation of motherese than to speech with more adult-like intonation.22 (As far as I know, the magnetic power of fatherese has not yet been investigated.) Does motherese help? Perhaps. As just noted, many of the features of ...
William O'Grady, 2005
6
Why the Wild Things Are: Animals in the Lives of Children
Much like “motherese,” the conversational form of speech mothers (and other humans) use toward babies, people speak to their pets in a higher-pitched, soft singsong, often ending an utterance with a rising inoection, as if posing a question, ...
Gail F. MELSON, L. Gail Melson, 2009
7
Child Language
'inspiring affection, tenderness and intimacy' and 'lacking verbal production, verbal comprehension and cognitive competence' in order to analyse motherese into two principal components - a communicative component (COMM) and an ...
Alison J. Elliot, 1981
8
Psycholinguistics: Critical Concepts in Psychology
Since motherese appears to be a major language input to young infants and since we have already demonstrated the saliency of supraseg- mental information in early auditory perception, it is of interest to determine whether young infants ...
Gerry T. M. Altmann, 2002
9
ADV IN CHILD DEVELOPMENT &BEHAVIOR
Let us consider how the issue of bidirectional effects applies to the literature on motherese. Ferguson (1976) has noted that simplifications, repetitions, and exaggerations occur in the speech of adults to any listener whose ability to ...
Hayne Waring Reese, Reese, Jonathan, Lewis Paeff Lipsitt, 1982
10
Plasticity of Development
For example, recent work in my laboratory shows that when given a choice among sounds, young infants prefer to listen to "Motherese," a highly melodic speech signal that adults use when addressing infants (Fernald 1985; Grieser and Kuhl ...
Steven E. Brauth, William S. Hall, Robert J. Dooling, 1991

10 NEWS ITEMS WHICH INCLUDE THE TERM «MOTHERESE»

Find out what the national and international press are talking about and how the term motherese is used in the context of the following news items.
1
Water Fights and Grown-Up Talk: How Dads Do It Differently
Men use less of the slow, singsong speech known as "motherese," instead talking to their little ones more like they would to other adults, the ... «Yahoo News UK, Jun 15»
2
15 Fascinating Facts About Fathers, According To Science, Because …
Scientists have even declared that mothers have mastered the art of “motherese,” or that tweak in pitch and pace that a mother uses when she talks to her young ... «Bustle, Jun 15»
3
Eight New Things Science Says About Being a Dad
You know, that high-pitched, sing-song voice that moms have mastered so well that it's sometimes referred to as “motherese.” Fathers just don't ... «Smithsonian, Jun 15»
4
Unlike moms, dads tend not to coo in squeaky voices
Scientists have studied infant- or child-directed speech (often called “motherese” or “parentese”) for decades. In American English, this type of ... «Science News, Jun 15»
5
The dark side of nursery rhymes
The distinctive sing-song metre, tonality and rhythm that characterises 'motherese' has a proven evolutionary value and is reflected in the very ... «AsiaOne, Jun 15»
6
Politicians must stop using language to strip refugees of their humanity
A form of "motherese" might have been the first language. In any case I am grateful for a wonderful life being a sort of valet or gardener of ... «WA today, Jun 15»
7
Study: More Dads do diapers, but not baby talk
VanDam and his team were looking for signs of what has been dubbed "motherese," the kind of sing-song baby talk long associated with ... «Detroit Free Press, May 15»
8
The Many Ways Baby Talk Gives Infant Brains a Boost
But infant-directed speech (aka “motherese” or “parentese”) isn't just child's play—it's a source of fascination for linguists who hope to ... «Smithsonian, May 15»
9
Moms More Likely Than Dads To Use 'Baby Talk' With Children: Study
Scientists at Washington State University said the soft baby talk, or “motherese,” helps promote bonding between mother and child, while the ... «International Business Times, May 15»
10
Modern Dads Do Diapers, but Not Baby Talk, and It's Not a Bad …
When mothers talk to their infants, they tend to use high-pitched tones and varied cadences otherwise known as “motherese.” It's a sing-song ... «Growing Your Baby, May 15»

REFERENCE
« EDUCALINGO. Motherese [online]. Available <https://educalingo.com/en/dic-en/motherese>. May 2024 ».
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