Universal #1871

Legacy number: 1871

 Number  1866
 Original  Every speech community seems to have a small lexicon of words used primarily with young children. The words of this special lexicon (i) fall into certain semantic areas (namely body parts, body functions, kin terms, food, animals, infant games), (ii) they include greater use of hypocoristic affixes, (iii) they are used more freely in different word class functions than the normal adult lexicon (esp. as parts of compound verbs with general purpose auxiliaries), and (iv) they tend to be phonologically simplified (simple canonical forms, esp. CVCV; substitution of marked sounds by less marked ones; special sounds; consonant and vowel harmony; reduplication).
 Standardized  Every speech community seems to have a small lexicon of words used primarily with young children. The words of this special lexicon (i) fall into certain semantic areas (namely body parts, body functions, kin terms, food, animals, infant games), (ii) they include greater use of hypocoristic affixes, (iii) they are used more freely in different word class functions than the normal adult lexicon (esp. as parts of compound verbs with general purpose auxiliaries), and (iv) they tend to be phonologically simplified (simple canonical forms, esp. CVCV; substitution of marked sounds by less marked ones; special sounds; consonant and vowel harmony; reduplication).
 Keywords  baby talk, hypocoristic, word class, complexity, markedness, consonant harmony, vowel harmony, reduplication
 Domain  phonology, syntax
 Type  unconditional
 Status  achronic
 Quality  statistical
 Basis  27 lgs, high in IE, low in African and Oceanic lgs: Bengali, Marathi (both Indic, IE), Dutch, English, German (all Germanic, IE), Greek (Greek, IE), Brazilian Portuguese, Romanian, Spanish (all Romance, IE), Serbo-Croatian (Slavic, IE), Latvian (Baltic, IE), Syrian Arabic, Neo-Aramaic, Maltese (all Semitic, Afro-Asiatic), Berber (Berber, Afro-Asiatic), Cocopa, Pomo (both Hokan), Comanche (Uto-Aztecan), Hidatsa (Siouan), Hungarian (Ugric, Uralic), Japanese (Japanese-Ryukyuan), Kannada (Havyaka) (Dravidian), Kipsigis (Nilotic, Nilo-Saharan), Luo (Eastern Sudanic, Nilo-Saharan), Nivkh (Isolate), Samoan (Oceanic, E. Malayo-Polynesian), Tzeltal (Mayan)
 Source  Ferguson 1978a: 210-211

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