- Some of the terms used for child speech and baby talk without distinction are baby language, nursery language or lingo, little language, French langage enfantin. Cf. also German Lallwort. The term Ammensprache is not particularly felicitous. In the Marathi speech community, at any rate, one does not immediately think of nurses talking to their charges in this connection. Indeed in some social surroundings nurses are apt to use 2nd and 3rd honorific plural with reference to their charges and this would seem to preclude any baby talk.
- This has been described by the author in his Ph.D. thesis at Cornell University, The Phonology and Morphology of Marathi (1958; available in microfilm through University Microfilms, Ann Arbor, Michigan). A sequel on syntax is in progress. The author is a native speaker of Marathi.
- In adult speech this applies to all instances of /ǝ a/ initially but neither in a monosyllable which is closed by a single nonsyllabic or an aspirate plosive nor in an open monosyllable nor yet in a penult with the word ending in /ǝ/: thus /ǝho, ǝkra, ǝng~ang, avǝḍ, ambǝṭ/all have familiar variants with /ă/ initially, but /ǝṭ, ǝstǝ, aṭh, a/ do not.
- As can be readily seen (i-iv) are all analogical levelings and child speech has many more such. Only those have been listed here as are imitated in baby talk. Similar observations apply to (v).
- To borrow the vivid phrase of Lev Jakubinskij (quoted by U. Weinreich, Languages in Contact, New York: Linguistic Circle of New York, 1953, p. 58).
- For further details, see my “Marathi kinship terms: a lexicographical study”, Trans, of the Ling. Circle of Delhi, 1959–60 (being Dr. Siddheshwar Varma Volume), Delhi: Linguistic Circle of Delhi, 1962, pp. 1–22. Morph boundaries have not been shown in this paragraph.
- Forms cited with a hyphen at the end are either verb stems or substantive bound stems taking quasi-derivative vocalic endings (bǝ#x1E47;ḍ- for instance appears as bǝṇḍ-u, bǝ#x1E47;ḍ-ya, bǝṇḍ-a (m. singular nominative)) or variable adjectives (taking -a m., -i f., -ǝ.ˋ n.).
- I must confess though that I cannot think of any items that are CS but not BT other than purely idiosyncratic ones.
- Cf. the similar use of kurr in Arabic baby talk (C. A. Ferguson, “Arabic baby talk,” in For Roman Jakobson, 's-Gravenhage: Mouton, 1956, 121–8, p. 124).
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