Babytalk (Part 3)

By Emmanuelle

LUCKY are those whose every triumph in life are well-preserved in a library of precious memories – baby’s first album, pictures or slides calendared and captioned; honor ribbons, medals, sashes and diplomas framed or laminated and displayed on walls; plaques and trophies dust-free and shiny on shelves; tapes or discs labeled and stacked on racks. Some proud parents would even go as far as have their children’s names, and their college degrees, blown-up in size and exhibited prominently at the facade of the house! Aligned and in order!

Their children’s most difficult intellectual achievements in life, though, largely remain unfilmed and unframed, cooed over only by family witnesses. These achievements had been noted though, and discussed and collated by scientific researchers and behaviorists.

And   what do you think is this most difficult intellectual achievement in life? Culminating fifteen years of education – elementary, high school, college? Post-graduate studies? Pulling your straps to get to the top -principal, supervisor, administrator, manager, director, chief executive? Making your mark in a field of your choice – arts and literature, science and technology, business or politics?

Na-ah. If we are to believe the research studies as contained in Language Acquisition: The State of the State of the Art by Gleitman & Warner, the baby’s acquisition of the structure and meaning of language is life’s most difficult intellectual achievement. 

But for the baby, it is not so difficult an achievement at all. In fact, it is so easy and so fun-filled every step of the way, beginning the day it recognized its first sound and the month it mumbled its first monosyllable. Actually, all babies of the world – no matter the race or culture – begin to talk at the same age and seemed to keep abreast with each other’s development! They do no wait until they are how many years old to begin to talk. As if by common universal consent, they begin to do it as early as the beginning six months.  

We take exception, of course, for those whose hearing, speaking and seeing facilities are impaired, although these kids tend to acquire and use signs in similar fashion.    

Some linguists believe that understanding the way babies acquire language can help them understand the origins of language as we know it, which they claim was developed only with the emergence of the modern-looking humans before or about 100,000 years ago who had the mouth and throat anatomy we have. But, this is a topic that will extend Babytalk to kingdom come. So we stop all intellectual discussions here. And go haywire!

Have you noticed that babies the world over begin to express themselves in telegraph form, using function words (nounlike or verblike) and leaving out the seemingly less important words?

It starts with da or de or ma or mam for milk or mama or sleep, sssss for kiss, ha is not necessarily a laugh but a request for a hug. And it goes on to shoes for shoes off or shoes on, let’s go take a walk. It points and says moon or bird instead of see the moon, see or listen to the bird.

Baby would also repeat your nonononono, but would do the deed just the same you might as well say a yes. And when you talk to it about your troubles unending while changing its diapers, it would go blahlahlahlahah, its tongue wagging left right between lips spewing out milky or cereal wetness.  

If it, baby or blah, doesn’t make sense to you, no one and nothing else will.

(Readers may reach columnist at jingmil@yahoo.com. For past columns, click http://sundaypunch.prepys.com/archives/category/opinion/feelings/
For reactions to this column, click “Send MESSAGES, OPINIONS, COMMENTS” on default page.)

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