A new study published in the Nature: Human Behaviour journal has revealed that if there is a universal language out there, it's baby talk. In other words, all those seemingly meaningless sounds we make at babies are a lot more important than you might think.
Researchers analyzed more than 1,600 recordings of well over 400 people as part of the study. They ultimately found that when people interact with babies, they tend to change their speech patterns in ways that are nearly universal.
Dr. Samuel Mehr, an author of the study, explained, "Across all sites, people use a higher voice when speaking to infants than they do when speaking to adults. But the difference in pitch is much larger in some societies than others — some of the biggest differences were in New Zealand English, whereas other languages, like Hadza in Tanzania, had smaller effects."
Courtney Hilton, a second author, told the Harvard Gazette, "Our study provides the strongest test yet of whether there are acoustic regularities in infant-directed vocalizations across cultures."
You can find out more about the study in the video!
