Line #44 Main/BabyLanguage


1	->'''Craig:''' He's called Alfie.\
2	'''Baby Alfie:''' [''gurgles'']\
3	'''The Doctor:''' Yes, he likes that, "Alfie". Though personally, he prefers to be called "'''[[DeathbringerTheAdorable Stormageddon, Dark Lord of All]]'''".
4	-->-- ''Series/DoctorWho'', "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS32E12ClosingTime Closing Time]]"
5
6	Often in fiction, babies who can't talk yet are treated as having their own esoteric language, similar to AnimalTalk. Adults can't hope to understand this language without magic or phlebotinum, yet it's usually understood by all babies regardless of national origin. Usually, this will be the center of the plot for that particular story, although it may occasionally be used as a throwaway joke.
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8	Whether the babies have an intelligence to match their language varies greatly. In some works, it may just be a cutesy version of HulkSpeak. In others, the babies may in fact be [[ChildProdigy geniuses]], and unable to share their brilliance with the world -- [[LaserGuidedAmnesia what a shame they forget it as soon as they begin to actually communicate]]. In others, the children seem to be relatively intelligent, but with poor decision skills and naivety, making them less capable. This last one is usually the most successful, but any of these forms can result in awkwardness if not handled well.
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10	Creepily, this might have an element of TruthInTelevision. Studies show that babies actually understand far more words than they're actually able to speak because they're so uncoordinated. It's called passive vocabulary. So for the first few years of life, it's very similar to communicating with the more intelligent pet animals. However, there is no universal "baby language" that babies can use to communicate with each other.
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12	Not to be confused with BabyTalk, which is about adults speaking in a babylike way.
13
14	----
15	!!Examples
16
17	[[foldercontrol]]
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19	[[folder: Comic Books ]]
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21	* This was the premise behind Sheldon Mayer's classic comic series called ''Sugar and Spike'', that all babies, no matter what species, spoke a universal "baby language".
22	** Sugar and Spike appeared in one issue of the ''WesternAnimation/BatmanTheBraveAndTheBold'' spin-off comic (which appears determined to not only have dafter plots than the series, but even more obscure guest stars). Batman gets turned into a baby, and can instantly understand them.
23	** GLX SPTZL GLAAH!
24
25	[[/folder]]
26
27	[[folder: Comic Strips]]
28	* One ''ComicStrip/BabyBlues'' strip revealed that Hammie (at the time a toddler) could perfectly understand his younger sister Wren's baby talk, as well as speaking English. Zoe (a kindergartner) observed that she must have grown up too much as she couldn't make any sense of baby talk anymore.
29	* Babies in ''ComicStrip/JumpStart'' speak in AllLowercaseLetters as a TranslationConvention that represents this.
30	[[/folder]]
31
32	[[folder: Fan Fiction ]]
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34	* ''Great things'' by Creator/RoseOfPollux involves a little bit of this on the part of one of the Doctor's companions, whom he goes back to visit as an infant.
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36	[[/folder]]
37
38	[[folder: Films -- Animation]]
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40	* The entire premise of ''WesternAnimation/TheBossBaby''. In this film, babies even own their MegaCorp.
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42	[[/folder]]
43
44	[[folder: Films -- Live-Action]]
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46	* ''Film/BabyGeniuses'' has the babies speaking a coherent language that adults cannot understand, and writing in "Ancient [[{{Pun}} Babylonian]]" script that takes the form of a child's seemingly random scrawling. Its stated that when babies grow up past a certain point, they lose this intelligence and all knowledge of the language, and the villains of the first film are obsessed with (among other things) deciphering the language.
47	* ''Film/LookWhosTalking'' had some of this.
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49	[[/folder]]
50
51	[[folder: Literature ]]
52
53	* In P.L. Travers' original ''Literature/MaryPoppins'' stories, babies could talk to each other, and also to animals and inanimate objects. They are also aware that as they learn regular language, they will forget this one. (Except of course, for Mary Poppins herself, because she's Mary Poppins.)
54	* In ''Literature/ASeriesOfUnfortunateEvents'', toddler Sunny spoke in subtitled gibberish. Her speech was translated in the books.
55	* Apparently, in ''Literature/DiaryOfAWimpyKid,'' Manny knows several toddler slang terms. The only one we hear is "Ploopy," which Manny apparently considers quite offensive.
56	* Stone Telling from ''Literature/AlwaysComingHome'' notes that as they went back home from the Dayao city, her toddler daughter communicated with other toddlers in towns along the way far better than she herself did.
57	[[/folder]]
58
59	[[folder: Live Action TV ]]
60
61	* ''Series/DoctorWho'':
62	** "A Good Man Goes To War" reveals that the Doctor can apparently speak baby. His companion doesn't buy it, and he calmly retorts "I speak everything". With the translation circuits, this may actually be true.
63	** Proving that he can ''indeed'' speak baby is the episode "Closing Time", where the Doctor spends much of the episode translating a baby for his father, Craig.
64	--->'''Craig:''' He's called Alfie.\
65	'''Alfie:''' ''[babbling which can be heard in between the conversation]''\
66	'''The Doctor:''' Yes, he likes that; "Alfie". Though, personally, he prefers to be called "[[DeathbringerTheAdorable Stormageddon]], [[NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast Dark Lord Of All]]".\
67	'''Craig:''' Sorry, ''what?!''\
68	'''The Doctor:''' That's what he calls himself.\
69	'''Craig:''' How'd you know that?\
70	'''The Doctor:''' I speak Baby.\
71	...\
72	'''The Doctor:''' No! He's your dad! You can't just call him ''"Not Mum"''!\
73	'''Craig:''' Not Mum?!\
74	'''The Doctor:''' That's you. ''"Also Not Mum"''; that's me. And everybody else is...\
75	'''Alfie:''' ''[babbles]''\
76	'''The Doctor:''' ...''"Peasants"''. That's unfortunate.
77	** At the end of the episode that all changes. (Also, despite the Doctor's efforts to seem like he never appeared, Alfie's first actual spoken English word is Doctor.)
78	** Returns again in "The Girl Who Died", when the Twelfth Doctor translates a Viking baby's worries. Unlike the previous occasions, it's played for drama, not laughs.
79	* ''Series/BabyTalk1991'' was a TV series based on the movie ''Film/LookWhosTalking'', thus it had the same premise of babies speaking to each other Garfield style.
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81	[[/folder]]
82
83	[[folder: Webcomics ]]
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85	* In ''Webcomic/MotherlyScootaloo'', a ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic'' Tumblr comic, apparently Lightning Blitz fits this, as the [[http://motherlyscootaloo.tumblr.com/post/38132224316/askdiscordwhooves-and-now-for-a-quick-spoof Ask Discord Hooves]] crossover shows (this makes sense, since it's [[Series/DoctorWho the Doctor]] in pony form he's talking to).
86	* This is one of the hallmarks of ''Webcomic/{{Kurami}}''; the titular infant's "speech" consists solely of "gek gek" and variations thereof.
87	* Rowan from ''Webcomic/BoyAndDog'' speaks his own pre-verbal language called "Rowan", that animals understand too.
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89	[[/folder]]
90
91	[[folder: Web Original]]
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93	* A DiscussedTrope on the ''[[WebVideo/{{React}} Kids React]]'' video with the [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dgvuHCoXeEs Talking Twin Babies]]. Asked whether all babies speak a universal baby language, the kids give varied answers. The twins Megan and Shannon have no memory of being able to communicate with each other before they could talk.
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95	[[/folder]]
96
97	[[folder: Western Animation ]]
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99	* Kate from ''WesternAnimation/{{Arthur}}'' did this. However, she could also talk to Pal, the dog, implying that her Baby Language was on the same level as AnimalTalk.
100	* ''WesternAnimation/TheBossBabyBackInBusiness'', which is a {{sequel}} of the aforementioned '''The Boss Baby''.
101	* ''Franchise/{{Rugrats}}'':
102	** The [[WesternAnimation/Rugrats1991 original 1991 series]] is an interesting case in that three-year-olds like [[SpoiledBrat Angelica]] and [[TheRival Su]][[TheConfidant sie]] can talk with the baby characters as well as with the adults. There's also Dil, who's three months old and can't be understood by the babies except for when he says occasional words like "Mine" or "Poopy".
103	** [[WesternAnimation/Rugrats2021 The 2021 reboot]] has several changes from the original series, namely making Susie two years old and [[RelatedDifferentlyInTheAdaptation making Buster and Edwin, who were her older brothers in the original series, her cousins]]. The plot of "Baby Talk" involves Edwin having just turned five and being unable to understand Susie.
104	* Stewie on ''WesternAnimation/FamilyGuy'' may be an example, [[DependingOnTheWriter depending on how the writers feel that day.]] To the audience, Stewie can seemingly speak perfect English despite being only a year old, yet his parents, sister and most other adults are presumed to not understand him since they rarely respond to what he says, and when they do, it's in an indirect way, suggesting that they just guess what he means based on his mood. The only primary characters who are consistently shown to understand Stewie are Brian and Chris. Any minor or {{One Shot\|Character}} adult character that Stewie interacts with is usually shown to understand him as well. It gets lampshaded at one point where an angry Meg demands to know who was talking about her and everyone immediately blames Stewie, causing him to say "Oh, so now everyone understands me?" WordOfGod also says that everyone ''can'' understand Stewie, but choose to ignore him most of the time.
105	* [[InvokedTrope Invoked]] in-universe by Wilma and Betty in ''WesternAnimation/TheFlintstones'' when they discuss how Pebbles and Bam-Bam seem to speak to each other in BabyTalk.
106	* Throughout the ''WesternAnimation/TheLoudHouse'' episode, "[[Recap/TheLoudHouseS1E26StudyMuffinHomespun Homespun]]", Lincoln and his sisters worry about their run-down house being destroyed by a tornado during a warning, so they all share their favorite memories of the house to learn to appreciate what they have. When it's one-year-old Lily's turn to share her favorite memory, Luan serves as her translator.
107	* In the ''WesternAnimation/PBAndJOtter'' episode, "The Legend of Ponce de L'Otter", when the Otter kids need an idea on how to retrieve Ponce de L'Otter's lost telescope from the bottom of Lake Hoohaw, Baby Butter has an idea. However, because she can't really talk yet, her idea, which involves her using her diaper to absorb the water of the lake, is shown in an ImagineSpot. Unfortunately, because Peanut and Jelly are a few years older than her, they are unable to understand her.
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109
110	[[/folder]]
111
112	[[folder: Real Life ]]
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114	* As mentioned above, babies do acquire a huge amount of passive vocabulary. Some psychologists recommend teaching babies to use sign language beginning at about nine months.
115	* It's also been proven that babies worldwide make roughly the same sounds until around six months, when they begin to copy the sounds of the language(s) used around them.
116	* Babies also have a tendency to use words in idiosyncratic ways (eg: "mama" for "all women or people wearing skirts") or even make up words of their own. Obviously, these [[PersonalDictionary personal languages]] are eventually phased out and/or normalized over time.
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118	[[/folder]]

Context Main / BabyLanguage