Mispronounced.
This annoys me anyway, but I once had a boss who was in her 50s and without any irony or sense of error uttered these words about her grandson: "Our Leo has to go to HOSPICKAL cos he won't take his BOKKLE".

My face imploded.
(myriad, Thu 3 Mar 2011, 15:42, 29 replies)

So, your story is, 'someone I know who is a doting grandparent sometimes talks like a doting grandparent when discussing their grandchildren'?

( Amorous Badger NAKED BEA ARTHUR PHOTOS 4U, Thu 3 Mar 2011, 15:44, closed)

Yeah, how dare they.
(myriad, Thu 3 Mar 2011, 15:44, closed)

lol!

(TheColonel, Thu 3 Mar 2011, 15:46, closed)

i am with myriad on this one
She sounds like a top drawer cunt. By all means use baby language when you are talking to a baby but not your fucking colleagues/subordinates. she will be pinching your fucking cheeks next.
(OTT, Thu 3 Mar 2011, 15:52, closed)

I never once
used baby talk in addressing my kids, even as infants.

Adults should speak as adults and correct the kids' pronunciations as they get older so they don't sound like idiots.
( The Resident Loon Not a demographic. Do not measure., Thu 3 Mar 2011, 15:56, closed)

^

( emvee cruor deo cruoris, Thu 3 Mar 2011, 16:24, closed)

Though there is evidence that making baby *noises* before they can talk does help their language development (I didn't do it much, it made me feel a bit of a pillock).

I correct my kids' pronunciation all the time, but that's usually because I don't want them to sound too Australian (some Australian pronunciation is just plain lazy).

(ducks and runs for cover)
( SteamedCleaner, Thu 3 Mar 2011, 17:18, closed)

don't be too quick to dismiss baby talk
Repetitive single syllable utterances increase an infant's exposure to the sounds needed to create words. Infant phonics if you will. Shows small children that their mouth is good for something other than drooling. (No maddie jokes please)

I totally understand where you are coming from though. Many a time I have had to listen to an English teacher preaching about how, if you mutilate the English language in a suitably retarded Glaswegian fashion, it magically transforms into another language. Scots?!
(OTT, Thu 3 Mar 2011, 23:02, closed)

Not true.
A child will become a fluent speaker of their native language by the age of 5 even if you don't talk to them at all. Around them seems to be enough. No training is neccecary. Babies have awareness of the phonetic system of their language even at birth. Language acquisition is not based on imitation.
There's a tribe in Africa that routinely teaches children (with actual classes) to walk. Why? Well, "if we don't then maybe they won't learn," etc, etc. Same deal with baby talk.
( Zuowan, Sat 5 Mar 2011, 12:21, closed)

not true?
What part?

I agree that a child will learn a language without being spoken to directly but the end result will be very different. I am sure we could rely on children to figure a lot of things out for themselves but culturally most of us tend to give them w hand every now and then.
(OTT, Mon 7 Mar 2011, 20:05, closed)

^ This
with elocution lessons for good measure.
( @><|= w0nu!) or cunt to my friends, Fri 4 Mar 2011, 2:47, closed)

First line good, second line bad.
There's no need to "correct" anyone's pronunciation.
( Zuowan, Sat 5 Mar 2011, 12:16, closed)

Sure there is.
If your child is mispronouncing a word and is not corrected, they assume they are saying it right, and even once they realise their mistake, may continue using the wrong pronunciation as they are in the habit by then.
It bothers me endlessly when my son picks up americanisms and southernisms from TV, I couldn't just leave him talking about 'Mr. Tamble' or asking for a 'liddle bit' of something.
(Hairy Bob, Sun 6 Mar 2011, 22:04, closed)

I live in Leeds...
where a lot of people do this. I think it makes them all sound *very* closely related.
(sarcastic fringehead feet of clay, buns of steel, head of lettuce, Thu 3 Mar 2011, 15:53, closed)

Not too far off, it was in Yorkshire.

Unrelated to the topic, but a friend told me this in reply to the above baby talk, he works at the children's hospital and a woman rang up and just kept saying "Me babby badly". He had to ask someone else what she meant (he's not from the area) and it clicked that she just meant "My baby is unwell".
(myriad, Thu 3 Mar 2011, 15:57, closed)

Was it an ickle bockle?
If so, murder may have been justified
( emvee cruor deo cruoris, Thu 3 Mar 2011, 15:55, closed)

It may well have been, see also, pacifically (which she said alot too).
(myriad, Thu 3 Mar 2011, 15:57, closed)

...and skelington

( number5 has been fighting tramps and losing., Thu 3 Mar 2011, 17:06, closed)

Not forgetting...
that houses often have "chimley pots" and atomic energy is "nucular power".
( Snappyuk gets BIGGER with free sample., Thu 3 Mar 2011, 22:54, closed)

chimley?
Surely you mean chimbley, or is that another regional variation?
(OTT, Thu 3 Mar 2011, 23:06, closed)

Don't forget the 'sumbarine'

(oneinthepink is at your cervix m'lady, Fri 4 Mar 2011, 9:50, closed)

The B is silent
Like the P in Swimming Baths
( Snappyuk gets BIGGER with free sample., Fri 4 Mar 2011, 22:00, closed)

I arksed him what he was doing.
ARKSED
(Wagane, Sat 5 Mar 2011, 10:16, closed)

On Wennsday at the libary.

( number5 has been fighting tramps and losing., Sun 6 Mar 2011, 18:11, closed)

MACdonalds is my pet hate
Along with harass/harassment

oh and registry office, It's register office ffs!
(Kip, Tue 8 Mar 2011, 17:49, closed)

Someone in my office does that, drive me nuts, everything's ickle this and ickle that. Nobody over the age of 4 should get away with saying it.
(new_dawn, Sat 5 Mar 2011, 11:36, closed)

Was she from the North West?
You do realise that could be an accent/dialect and NOT mispronunciation, don't you?
( Wicca'd Witch needs ideas for a new sig on..., Thu 3 Mar 2011, 17:49, closed)

Nope, Sheffield, just lazy. I know a dialect when I hear one.
(myriad, Thu 3 Mar 2011, 19:04, closed)

Ta,
Duck.
( @><|= w0nu!) or cunt to my friends, Fri 4 Mar 2011, 2:42, closed)