Feb 9 - Parentese with Dezi the Dog

I find that the way I 'talk' to Dezi the dog - high pitched, exaggerating words, and 'patronizing tone' is known as Parentese.  It is proven to increase baby vocabulary significantly.  A CBC radio interview told me this yesterday. The Guardian article is perfect so HERE it is. It is as good as all the jokes I can find.  This is the opening excerpt: Name: Parentese. Age: Popular since the mid-80s. Sounds like: A bit like you’re being patronised. I don’t like being patronised. Oh yes you do. Yes you do. Yes you do, my little sweetheart. What on earth are you doing? I’m talking parentese to you. And by the look of it it’s working. Yes it is. Yes it is. OK, let’s track back a little. What is parentese? I’m glad you asked. It’s a method of communicating with babies that utilises vowel hyperarticulation, pitch modification, slow speech rate and simplified wording. That didn’t help. OK. You know the way you talk to a baby? It’s that. Goo goo ga ga? No, that’s baby talk - when you don’t use any words and just make strange, cutesy noises instead. Baby talk is useless. Talk baby talk to a baby and you are just going to end up with a baby who talks baby talk. But talk parentese to a baby and you are going to end up with a baby with a colossal vocabulary." The CBC reporter interviewed the University of Washington researcher referenced in the article.   Here are the instructions: "Over-enunciate in a high-pitched sing-song voice, repeating words with a happy tone. “Hellooooooo bayyyyybe, doooo youuuu want a baaaaaanaaaaanaaaa? Oooooh, niiiiiiiice baaaaaanaaaaanaaaa.” The font used here is Comic Sans MS -  I heard the originator of this font interviewed on the CBC a little earlier than the parentese story. I'll report on that wonderful interview tomorrow.  Our Valentine theme is accompanied today with railroad images of the layout of Sam Furukawa in Seattle. We visited it in 2006.  He's a dedicated railroad modeller who comes to all the conventions.  What a great view from his house.

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Dog Talk

This is Dezi, our Cavalier King Charles Spaniel.  Is she a little grumpy here?  I think so. It seems to look like she's saying: "Why are you bothering me with your camera?" or even "Stop that". So the experts tell me that: Canine body language is the sum of a dog's facial expressions and body postures that communicate their emotions and intentions to those around them. It’s up to us to learn how to interpret this language. What is your guess on Dezi's words? I found some fun and interesting things on dog talk. Here's a funny joke site: 33 Hilarious Things Dogs Would Say if They Could Talk: https://www.distractify.com/texts-from-dog-1197821597.html Here's the analytical article on dog language: http://thebark.com/content/do-dogs-understand-our-words